Massive cauldrons of boiling drone goodness emanate from the stockpile that is the recent 2xCD-R from FUCKIN' MATTHEW BOWER's Hototogisu. Issued on lovely pink CD-Rs with graphics silkscreened in red, the nearly-two hour set is the perfect way to hypnotize yourself into a methodone haze. "Swoon Scream" and "Heavy Blossom" act as one album, though the overall length makes them difficult to take in at once. Unless you feel like melting your skull.

Matthew Bower and Marcia Bassett (from Double Leopards) are the masterminds behind Hototogisu. Everything they do is thick and murky. They load these tracks down with distortion and explore the lowest frequencies they can with their guitars. The heavily phased aspects are an attempt to travel directly up your spine and into your cerebrum. Walls of feedback rain from the sky, drenching all of those with their heads in this mass of sound. It's as all-encompassing as any record I've heard this year, and that is impressive.

Fans of Sunroof!, Double Leopards, etc. will surely want to get their hands on this set. There is always a lot of music similar to this floating around, but there is very little as good as this. FUCKIN' MATTHEW BOWER indeed. 8/10 -- Brad Rose (25 May, 2005)