Flowers of Hell Release 45-Minute Trans-Atlantic Space-Rock Song as New Album

Posted on Nov 24th 2010 10:05AM by Jason MacNeil
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Optical Sounds

As the founder of Toronto/London space rock outfit the Flowers of Hell, Greg Jarvis knows his band won't saturate radio airwaves anytime soon. But with experimental groups like Mogwai and Explosions In the Sky making a living by pushing rock's boundaries, that might actually be a good thing.

"One of the unique things about music is that it's one of the few art forms that enfolds over time," Jarvis tells Spinner. "So we were thinking, 'Why don't we do something with this whole time quality of music that nobody seems to?' It's a bit shocking to me that everybody works in terms of three-minute songs -- some bands do 20-minute songs, but nobody seems to approach a 40-minute song."

At least they didn't until Jarvis' band released their new album 'O,' a record consisting of a 45-minute title track.

"With the Flowers of Hell it's not about commercial stuff at all," he continues, "it's really just about the music. We're not thinking about the listeners when we're writing, composing and recording -- it's making the records that we like to hear ourselves."

Watch the Flowers of Hell Live at the Music Gallery in Toronto

The epic opener (and, uh, closer) naturally ebbs and flows by mixing classical with rock. However, where some sections sound like they're about to explode, Jarvis and his band tend to ease off slightly. "I think the biggest challenge was not doing a drone," he says. "In most cases, it was a question of everybody coming up with new bits so there are not repeated riffs, so it very much captures all the fluidity and immensity of improvisation within the solidness of a fixed song structure."

After testing out a home demo, and then performing it live, Jarvis -- who has synaesthesia (a blending of the senses where sounds appear as shapes or colours) -- says the band then went in to record with engineer Jon Drew (F---ed Up, Tokyo Police Club), laying down the song-slash-album in one take.

"We all knew we wanted to do it in one take, and obviously as a group of nine people recording that's immense pressure on each individual," Jarvis says. "You don't want to be the one who screwed up 35 minutes in after everybody has been playing their hearts, souls and guts out for the one take. The violinist went out beforehand and let out three primal screams, and one had to go relieve their bowels before the recording started."

'O' also comes as a CD/DVD with a stereo mix on the CD portion while the DVD contains a 5.1 surround-sound mix, and a live performance shot at Toronto's Music Gallery, in addition to other live footage, including 'Sympathy for Vengeance' performed when the band opened for My Bloody Valentine.

Watch An Excerpt for the Flowers of Hell's 'Sympathy for Vengeance'

"It was kind of weird for me because the [MBV guitarist] Kevin Shields I knew was from the scene and from bands in London," Jarvis says. "He would never play, he was just this guy who was always backstage. Then I saw My Bloody Valentine the week before we played with them, and I was like, 'Oh, I get it now: Kevin Shields -- I get what the fuss is about.'"

As for the future, the trans-Atlantic group won't tour behind 'O' as Jarvis sees the band as being "more into the Brian Wilson thing, trying to push music forward."

"Our attention isn't about trying to go on stage and be worshiped or adored, and making a buck from that," he says. "Putting time into trying to build up a following through live shows to us would be antithetical to our mission, which is to build a crosspoint between classical and pop music."