Total

by Steve Huey
 
London's Total was the largely solo side project of Skullflower and Sunroof! leader Matthew Bower, who generally used it as a vehicle for his multi-instrumental talents and as a free-form, ambient counterpoint to the scabrous noise assault of his other ventures. Oddly, Total actually predated Skullflower by five years, having grown out of Bower's previous band, Pure, in 1982. Although they didn't record much, Total's mid-'80s lineup included several musicians -- among them guitarist Stefan Jaworzyn and bassist Alex Binnie -- who would later form the early core of Skullflower. Their early era was chronicled on the cassette-only release 84-87, on Anomalous Records. When Skullflower became Bower's primary band project in 1987, he kept the Total name for his solo work, but didn't do much with it until 1993, when he issued the entirely solo Beyond the Rim on Majora Records. Featuring Bower on guitar, piano, bass, found sounds, and other instruments, it set the tone for much of Total's catalog, including the double-LP follow-up, Here, Time Is Space. Freek's 1994 release Sky Blue Void, however, was a much noisier outing featuring several of Bower's Skullflower cohorts -- reed player John Godbert, keyboardist Simon Wickham-Smith, and guitarist Russell Smith; Bower himself even played the vacuum cleaner on one track.As Skullflower moved in a quieter, more ambient direction, Bower's Total releases grew increasingly noisier and more abrasive. 1995 brought a flood of material: Glassy Warhead, on the Pure label; Tanzmusik der Renaissance, on Freek; and the high-volume chaos of Exploded Star Sad Servant, on Self Abuse. 1996's vinyl-only Clear Factory marked a one-off return to Majora, while 1997's Buffin' the Celestial Muffin appeared on Bower's own Rural Electrification Program label, and featured another round of Skullflower guests. That year brought two more releases in the rare (even for Total) To Fall Like Cherry Blossoms, on American Tapes, and Kaspar Hauser, for Metonymic. 1998's Eternity's Beautiful Frontispiece, on VHF, was one of the most widely available Total releases, featuring guest spots from Godbert and violinist Neil Campbell (also of Vibracathedral Orchestra).Total's name brought about an unlikely crossing of paths with Sean &Puffy& Combs, who was pushing a female hip-hop trio of the same name in the late '90s. They successfully won rights to the moniker, and Bower -- already possessed of several other creative outlets -- retired Total in favor of his main project, Sunroof!. VHF offered one further archival release in the CD-R Solid Objects Thrown at Goblins, which was issued in 2000 and ed a live performance of four years prior that also featured John Godbert.