SUNROOF!

Krautrock • United Kingdom

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Sunroof! biography
Sunroof! is a pseudonym of prolific British musician Matthew Bower, performing since the early 1980s and best known for his heavy psych/krautrock band Skullflower. Bower began recording under the alter ego in late 1996 after Skullflower's initial disbandment, which is essentially the continuation of his long-running solo noise project Total, from which he was forced to change names due to a cease-and-desist from the Diddy-affiliated pop-soul group.

Through Bower's trademark medium of industrial-inspired krautrock and psychedelia, Sunroof! is a different side of Bower's aggressive electric guitar experiments, the instrument-of-choice which called to him in his youth through inspirations such as Hawkwind, Yes' "Siberian Khatru," David Bowie's "Rebel Rebel" and the instrumental opening of Pink Floyd's "Shine On You Crazy Diamond (I-V)." Sunroof! imagines an alternative reality in which Fripp & Eno's (No Pussyfooting) was remixed by Richard Pinhas, fused together with the kaleidoscopic noise of Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music and produced by Harmonia and Cluster (circa II). As with Skullflower, Sunroof!'s aim is all-encompassing euphoric drone to invoke the sensation of "standing under a waterfall," but more lush and playful than Bower's flagship band, achieving trebly free folk and raga-like textures through processed guitar, keyboards and percussion both live and programmed. As Bower explained to The Wire's David Keenan, "Sunroof! was supposed to be like Total minus the painful tones and more ensemble based. Wider, happier and brighter, like Neu! and Harmonia... I wanted it to feel like drowning in a sea of nectar, to push something poppy somewhere else with this maximalist overload sound, yet all made up of sweetness."

Sunroof!'s sonic fingerprint is a dead-ringer for fellow British contemporaries Vibracathedral Orchestra, Astral Social Club and Ashtray Navigations, with whom the project has collaborated along with John Moloney and Marc Orleans from Sunburned Hand of the Man, C. Spencer Yeh of Burning Star Core, American free folk duo the Skaters (James Ferraro and Spencer Clark) and avant-prog maverick Richard Youngs (with whom Bower recorded the 1995 LP Site/Realm, an important influence on the kraut-drone of the so-called "Leeds sound"). Sunroof!'s seventeen albums were issued across various labels, some through Bower's own Rural Electrification Program and his most critically popular - like 2001's Bliss, 2003's Cloudz and 2005's Silver Bear...Sunroof! is a pseudonym of prolific British musician Matthew Bower, performing since the early 1980s and best known for his heavy psych/krautrock band Skullflower. Bower began recording under the alter ego in late 1996 after Skullflower's initial disbandment, which is essentially the continuation of his long-running solo noise project Total, from which he was forced to change names due to a cease-and-desist from the Diddy-affiliated pop-soul group.

Through Bower's trademark medium of industrial-inspired krautrock and psychedelia, Sunroof! is a different side of Bower's aggressive electric guitar experiments, the instrument-of-choice which called to him in his youth through inspirations such as Hawkwind, Yes' "Siberian Khatru," David Bowie's "Rebel Rebel" and the instrumental opening of Pink Floyd's "Shine On You Crazy Diamond (I-V)." Sunroof! imagines an alternative reality in which Fripp & Eno's (No Pussyfooting) was remixed by Richard Pinhas, fused together with the kaleidoscopic noise of Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music and produced by Harmonia and Cluster (circa II). As with Skullflower, Sunroof!'s aim is all-encompassing euphoric drone to invoke the sensation of "standing under a waterfall," but more lush and playful than Bower's flagship band, achieving trebly free folk and raga-like textures through processed guitar, keyboards and percussion both live and programmed. As Bower explained to The Wire's David Keenan, "Sunroof! was supposed to be like Total minus the painful tones and more ensemble based. Wider, happier and brighter, like Neu! and Harmonia... I wanted it to feel like drowning in a sea of nectar, to push something poppy somewhere else with this maximalist overload sound, yet all made up of sweetness."

Sunroof!'s sonic fingerprint is a dead-ringer for fellow British contemporaries Vibracathedral Orchestra, Astral Social Club and Ashtray Navigations, with whom the project has collaborated along with John Moloney and Marc Orleans from Sunburned Hand of the Man, C. Spencer Yeh of Burning Star Core, American free folk duo the Skaters (James Ferraro and Spencer Clark) and avant-prog maverick Richard Youngs (with whom Bower recorded the 1995 LP Site/Realm, an important influence on the kraut-drone of the so-called "Leeds sound"). Sunroof!'s seventeen albums were issued across various labels, some through Bower's own Rural Electrification Program and his most critically popular - like 2001's Bliss, 2003's Cloudz and 2005's Silver Bear Mist - via VHF Records. Deconstructing rock music until all that's left is "the sound without the song," Bower purposefully edits his pieces with jarring track transitions a la The Faust Tapes, a technique shared by fellow pioneer Neil Campbell and his Vibracathedral Orchestra, of which Bower was a touring member. Sunroof!'s releases from the mid to late 2000s moved away from melodicism into the black metal-influenced harsh noise assaults that bled through from Skullflower and the Hototogisu, the project with his then-partner Marcia Bassett (of Double Leopards and GHQ).

Bower put the project on the backburner after 2008's self-released album Sufi Hate Crime / Zen Atrocity, but has resurrected the moniker for an occasional single in the years since, as well as under the guises Chrome Sunroof and Black Sun Roof; the latter - inspired by Pink Floyd's "Welcome to the Machine" and Coil's Musick to Play in the Dark - is conducted with current partner Samantha Davies, and aesthetically reflective of his descent into cryptofascism.

- Gordy, February 2025read more

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SUNROOF! discography

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SUNROOF! top albums (CD, LP, MC, SACD, DVD-A, Digital Media Download)

0.00 \| 0 ratings Rough Mixes / Live 1997	4.00 \| 1 ratings Slipstream 1999	5.00 \| 1 ratings Rainbow Electric Sabbath 2005	0.00 \| 0 ratings Silver Bear Mist 2005
4.00 \| 1 ratings Sufi Hate Crime / Zen Atrocity 2008	0.00 \| 0 ratings Black Sun Roof: 4 Black Suns & a Sinister Rainbow 2013

SUNROOF! Live Albums (CD, LP, MC, SACD, DVD-A, Digital Media Download)

SUNROOF! Videos (DVD, Blu-ray, VHS etc)

SUNROOF! Boxset & Compilations (CD, LP, MC, SACD, DVD-A, Digital Media Download)

SUNROOF! Official Singles, EPs, Fan Club & Promo (CD, EP/LP, MC, Digital Media Download)

0.00 | 0 ratings

Black Sun Roof: 3012
2012

0.00 | 0 ratings

Black Sun Roof: Voltigeurs / Black Sunroof / Skullflower
2015

3.00 | 1 ratings

Black Sun Roof: Pangolin at the Gates of Dawn
2020

3.00 | 1 ratings

Chrome Sunroof: Void Singularity
2020

SUNROOF! Reviews

Showing last 10 reviews only

Thanks to gordy for the artist addition.

0.00 \| 0 ratings Rough Mixes / Live 1997	4.00 \| 1 ratings Slipstream 1999	5.00 \| 1 ratings Rainbow Electric Sabbath 2005	0.00 \| 0 ratings Silver Bear Mist 2005
4.00 \| 1 ratings Sufi Hate Crime / Zen Atrocity 2008	0.00 \| 0 ratings Black Sun Roof: 4 Black Suns & a Sinister Rainbow 2013