The Leaf Label has a long history of releasing adventurous, original and gifted artists from around the world, but for the first time in their history, they've found a rock band fit for inclusion. Beautiful Seizure is the debut album from the young Chicago trio volcano!, and it’s an intense, exhilarating and immensely rewarding ride.

volcano! are creatively white-hot and ferociously innovative. What may at first sound chaotic and unplanned reveals itself on repeated listening as meticulously structured: rhythms gather, flicker, melt (down) and emerge as something different; splenetic episodes give way to passages of hymnal calm which in turn are shattered as language breaks down into strobe-like stuttering and is tugged back into line by Sam Scranton’s insistent drumming; silvery shards of controlled static ride high above everything. Melodies are stretched to and beyond breaking point, Aaron With’s guitar shifts between a ragged, feverish dissonance and bright spaciousness (‘La Lluvia’ is even lush…). There are no boundaries and no indulgences, nothing here that’s hackneyed or extraneous.

Beautiful Seizure is driven by a relentless exploratory intelligence, but it would be a mistake to consider volcano!’s music as purely cerebral. The lyrics would be fascinating on their own: anxious, humorous, angry and longing, made even more so by Aaron’s sinewy delivery that recalls Black Francis’ most ribald moments and Thom Yorke’s most commanding – sometimes violent, often vulnerable.

Comparisons could be made with the fervent dynamism of Deerhoof or Black Dice, and there’s an inquisitiveness in bass/electronics man Mark Cartwright’s real-life samples, but it’s their stunning live show marks volcano! out as a unique band carving their own auspicious path.

Beautiful Seizure was released in North America in late 2005, where volca.......
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Zmysłowo połamane melodie art-rockowego trio z Chicago.

ta płyat jest niemałym zaskoczeniem dla wszystkich, którzy znają wytwórnię Leaf, który uznawany był za czołowy angielski label z muzyką elektroniczną. Ale schematy czasem trzeba łamać, dlatego teraz po raz pierwszy w Leafie prawdziwie rockowy band. "Beautiful Seizure" to debiut młodej załogi z Chicago. Co w Vulcano brzmi pozornie chaotycznie i niezaplanowanie, ujawnia się po dokładniejszym przesłuchaniu jako bardzo dokładnie poukładane w przemyślne struktury.

Ale błędem byłoby widzieć w muzyce Vulcano tylko formę. Celem nie jest tu improwizacja czy destrukcja utworów. W tych ulotnych, pachnących Zappą kompozycjach i przesuniętych rytmach mieszają się najróżniejsze style, nastroje i noise, by mogła powstać zmysłowo-połamana ale jednak melodyjna całość.





The Leaf Label has a long history of releasing adventurous, original and gifted artists from around the world, but for the first time in their history, they've found a rock band fit for inclusion. Beautiful Seizure is the debut album from the young Chicago trio volcano!, and it’s an intense, exhilarating and immensely rewarding ride.



volcano! are creatively white-hot and ferociously innovative. What may at first sound chaotic and unplanned reveals itself on repeated listening as meticulously structured: rhythms gather, flicker, melt (down) and emerge as something different; splenetic episodes give way to passages of hymnal calm which in turn are shattered as language breaks down into strobe-like stuttering and is tugged back into line by Sam Scranton’s insistent drumming; silvery shards of controlled static ride high above everything. Melodies are stretched to and beyond breaking point, Aaron With’s guitar shifts between a ragged, feverish dissonance and bright spaciousness (‘La Lluvia’ is even lush…). There are no boundaries and no in.......
more