1) Halo of Flies was a noise rock band from Minneapolis. Named after an Alice Cooper song, Halo of Flies was formed in 1986 by Tom Hazelmeyer, John Anglim and Tim Mac. Over the next 5 years they released a series of 7 inch singles and mini LP’s starting with a limited edition, hand numbered single called “Rubber Room”. These singles were released on Hazelmeyer’s label Amphetamine Reptile Records and were later compiled on a CD (Insect Music for Insect Minds) in 1991. Sales of Halo of Flies records was assisted by a manufacturing/distribution deal with the popular Minnesota label Twin Tone records. Influenced by early punks bands MC5 and The Stooges the band had a loud raw sound that was heavily guitar influenced garage rock. Halo of Flies stopped recording in the early 1990’s but Hazelmeyer kept Amphetamine Reptile Records in business for 20 years by releasing music by Boss Hog, Helmet, The Melvins, Cows, God Bullies, Helios Creed and Unsane. 2) Halo of Flies is a British post-industrial project formed in October 2004 by an artist and musician using the alias ‘Quietus’. The first demo, ‘Fertile Forests of the Imagination’ was released in extremely limited form on tape, CD-R and on the internet in May 2005. At this point Halo of Flies was eclectic to the point of having absolutely no fixed musical style or direction, however, following the release of ‘Fertile Forests…’ solidified the sound into a filmic mix of dark ambient, dub and industrial textures. This sound evolved over subsequent releases. Recently, Halo of Flies has dramatically switched direction, entering a period of musical output Quietus refers to as ‘Schlangenkraft’ (Serpent Power) as opposed to the previous ‘Blumenkraft’ (Flower power) albums. This is similiar to how Coil divided up their albums into sun music and moon music. The schlangenkraft period is heavily influenced by noise, martial industrial and power electronics, and involves the first significant uses of vocal work, with lyrics dealing with radical extreme left politics, sexual deviancy etc. Quietus has jokingly referred to this style as ‘peace electronics’. Halo of Flies has so far released four EP length and three album-length releases: Solar Symphony (EP) 2005|The Blasted Heath (LP) 2005|Huxley Orwell Overdrive (EP) 2006|World War Zero (LP) 2006|The Skeleton Army (EP) 2007|Emanations from Ry’Leh (LP) 2008|Wintermute (EP) 2009| |
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