The Flowers Of Hell - Keshakhtaran + Odes LP
Toronto-London collective The Flowers Of Hell have released their sixth album 'Keshakhtaran' (their first in six years), as well as the first vinyl pressing of their Lou Reed-endorsed 2012 cult classic ‘Odes’ album, now available directly from Rolling Heads, from other select UK stores, and on import.
'Keshaktaran' was previewed by ‘Foray Through Keshakhtaran’. This 42-minute space-inspired release involves 20 artists, including Rishi Dhir (Elephant Stone, Brian Jonestown Massacre, The Black Angels, Beck) and avant-accordion legend Angel Corpus Christi (Suicide, Spiritualized, Dean Wareham).
“So beautiful and great. Exquisite” ~ Lou Reed on Sirius/BBC6
“I never thought anyone could cover a Joy Division song and do it proper justice but The Flowers Of Hell prove me wrong big time!” ~ Tim Holmes (Death In Vegas)
"He [Lou Reed] didn’t have to play so many tracks and he didn’t have to dive so deep into the album, but he did – after all, this is Lou Reed and he could have done anything he wanted on his final show, but he chose to focus on this 'Odes' album. Enough said" ~ The Spill Magazine
“They take orchestral pop to the next level” ~ Rolling Stone
“Stirringly evocative” ~ NME
“They balance stately chamber pop with noise” ~ Pitchfork
The 'Odes' release features a deluxe die-cut sleeve with180-gram red vinyl. It was originally available as a Record Store Day UK exclusive via Space Age Recordings (home to Spacemen 3, Spectrum, The Telescopes, Acid Mothers Temple and The Silver Apples).
Lou Reed began the final episode of his BBC6 / Sirius-XM New York Shuffle radio show in 2012 premiering three tracks from this album, declariing this “an amazing, amazing album” and calling it “so beautiful and great” and “exquisite”, amongst other compliments.
The Flowers Of Hell mastermind Greg Jarvis notes, “Lou Reed’s praise meant more to us than a Grammy ever would," says "It also meant all the time I spent in my youth smoking weed while listening to The Velvet Underground wasn’t a waste – it was research!”
Honouring their favourite artists through orchestral-pop covers of Bob Dylan, Klaatu, Stereolab, Laurie Anderson, The Velvet Underground, Siouxsie & the Banshees and Neutral Milk Hotel, this album features Neil ‘Hamilton’ Wilkinson (Sea Power) and Abi Fry (Bat For Lashes, Sea Power), Prague underground legend Ivo Pospíšil and the Plastic People Of The Universe. Recorded in Toronto, 'Odes' was co-produced with Grammy winning engineer Peter J. Moore (Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, Joe Strummer), who also remastered this for vinyl.
The band also shared audio-visual renditions of Joy Division’s 'Atmosphere' and 'Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft', made famous by Toronto prog-rockers Klaatu (at that time, thought to be The Beatles working under a pseudonym) and later on, The Carpenters. Penned in the early 1970s, this song was inspired by the 1950s International Flying Saucer Society effort to unite their members across the planet with a time and date to telekinetically communicate a specific message to alien lifeforms beyond Earth in hopes they might pick up on this. ‘Calling Occupants’ is now the official anthem of World Contact Day.
Founded in London in 2005, playing Sonic Cathedral and AC30 club, The Flowers Of Hell have traversed the edges of indie and orchestral music with works rooted in the audio-visual synesthesia of Greg Jarvis. Despite relative obscurity, they’ve also been championed by Spacemen 3’s Pete Kember a.k.a. Sonic Boom, My Bloody Valentine's Kevin Shields and members of The Legendary Pink Dots, Death In Vegas, The Wedding Present, The Fugs and The Plastic People Of The Universe, not to mention NASA’s mission control team and the Tate Gallery.
The deluxe vinyl edition of the 'Odes' album can be ordered from Rolling Heads. Both this record and 'Keshaktaran' are available across digital platforms, including Apple Music, Spotify and Bandcamp. The vinyl LP (with bonus CD insert featuring a reworking by Sonic Boom a.k.a. Pete Kember) will be released in late 2022, but can already be pre-ordered.
