The wonderful and truly weird world of Volcano the Bear. I've been a fan and collector for many years and have never found any other group quite like them. Generally lumped in with avant garde, freak folk, or free jazz, I really think they are something totally different. The music is chaotic and controlled, naive and skilled, beautiful and abrasive, all things at once.
I first came across them through Brainwashed.com, and specifically a review citing Steven Stapleton as a fan - he even released one of their early albums on United Dairies. Then came the flood of CDrs of live performances and small run vinyl editions from the likes of Beta Lactam Ring Records. I was lucky enough to score several of those editions. While never officially disbanding, around 2015 they released the 5LP set "Commencing" which collected all the odds and ends and unused material and this kind of felt like the end in my opinion. Their artwork is always entertaining, I get a lot of questions on the "Yak Folks Y'are" LP that I usually leave on display in my bookshelf.
Here is the first of two mixes of what I consider their best work.
00:00 Oslo Top
01:32 Expert
05:53 Reahs Mort
09:26 Planetary Bethlehem
10:56 The Sting of Haste
12:48 Uh-Oom
14:02 My Favourite Tongues
16:41 New Seeker (Alternate Version)
23:20 Millipede for the little boy
26:05 Baltic Minor
27:07 Chasm Dave
31:52 Dawn and My Hips are Fuel
36:16 Wooden Sailus
38:08 Vienna
45:02 Giant Angles
45:54 Worse With Noun
50:59 The Merry Potter
55:57 Digging for Opera
63:33 Before I Was After'd
69:14 The Colour of My Find
75:24 Go Fetch The Water Anthony
photo credit: https://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=6574
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