The Flowers of Hell – O

The Flowers of Hell aren’t a band in the typical sense, their assemblage more akin to that of an orchestra. Greg Jarvis assembles a revolving line-up of talent around him, a congregation to which members of Broken Social Scene, Guided By Voices and Spiritualised have all previously belonged. Past releases have advanced an impressive synthesis of post-rock and neo-classical sounds, embellished with traces of shoegaze and an unorthodox compositional style.

O is something less conventional still: a single forty-five minute improvisation in which repetition of any sort is avoided. Its tongue-in-cheek working title was apparently Business Suicide, and it undoubtedly has a snow-drops chance in Hades of shaking free from its niche, so loosely arranged that it threatens to collapse for lack of structure. An accompanying DVD showcases Jarvis and co to better effect, with footage shot in less avant-garde days, before highfalutin artistic ideals endangered their enjoyableness. [Chris Buckle]