Departments

your greedbag

Your greedbag basket is empty.

volcano! - Beautiful Seizure

Beautiful Seizure

by volcano!

Release date: 17 Oct 2005

Available Formats No. of tracks Price Buy
Download Album (flac) 12 tracks £5.99
Download Album (mp3) 12 tracks £4.99
CD Album 12 tracks £6.99
Download individual tracks per track from £0.79

volcano! - Beautiful Seizure

The Leaf Label has a long history of releasing adventurous, original and gifted artists from around the world, but for the first time in our history, we'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.

volcano's Myspace page


Reviews:

“What volcano! have achieved, in simple terms, is to create the most forward-looking, genre-eschewing, sense-battering album I’ve honestly ever heard” Drowned In Sound 10/10

“volcano!’s febrile explosions and switchbacks are a vocabulary of their own, and Leaf have made a promising pick”
The Wire

“Full of unpredictable, volatile compositions that sweep varying styles and moods together like dry leaves before setting them ablaze…out of [Beautiful Seizure] comes a stunning and consistently melodic middle ground that never teases or withholds anything, always sputtering towards catharsis without losing grip of the listener's hand… Arresting”
Pitchfork 7.4/10

“Its exploration of sounds seems to know no boundaries, synthesizing disparate elements of experimental noise tinkering, catchy pop hooks and head-scratching rhythm changes”
Portland Tribune

“This trio stands almost alone in a barely tilled (left) field. The perfect balance between precise order and apparent chaos”
Time Out

“volcano!’s innovation is so powerful, it feels confrontational. Beautiful Seizure conveys an aura of both impending miracle and plague, and, in its enormity, sounds like the soundtrack to the bible: the thorns/floods/manna-from-the-sky/brimstone type of stuff, not the whole proselytisation business… though the name volcano! might ring hyperbolic, in composing music determined to uproot and spew destruction upon all encroaching flora and fauna, the band lives up to its moniker, exclamation mark and all” Fader


Tracklisting:

volcano! - Beautiful Seizure (BAY 54CD)

Download Album

1.
listen
volcano! - Kalamazoo 1m 14s
2.
listen
volcano! - Easy Does It 6m 49s
3.
listen
volcano! - Fire Fire 5m 27s
4.
listen
volcano! - $40,000 Plus Interest 6m 50s
5.
listen
volcano! - Larchmontt's Arrival 1m 16s
6.
listen
volcano! - La Lluvia 2m 45s
7.
listen
volcano! - Red and White Bells 9m 35s
8.
listen
volcano! - Apple or a Gun 5m 5s
9.
listen
volcano! - Frozen In Escape 4m 55s
10.
listen
volcano! - Before the Suburbs 1m 18s
11.
listen
volcano! - Hello Explosion 4m 12s
12.
listen
volcano! - Pulling My Face In and Out of Distortion, I Blink Too Much 6m 53s
volcano! - Beautiful Seizure (BAY 54CD)

CD Album

1.
listen
volcano! - Kalamazoo
2.
listen
volcano! - Easy Does It
3.
listen
volcano! - Fire Fire
4.
listen
volcano! - $40,000 Plus Interest
5.
listen
volcano! - Larchmontt's Arrival
6.
listen
volcano! - La Lluvia
7.
listen
volcano! - Red and White Bells
8.
listen
volcano! - Apple or a Gun
9.
listen
volcano! - Frozen In Escape
10.
listen
volcano! - Before the Suburbs
11.
listen
volcano! - Hello Explosion
12.
listen
volcano! - Pulling My Face In and Out of Distortion, I Blink Too Much

We now have mp3 samples available for you lovely folk! Click the play button next to each track title to listen to its preview.

If you do not already have a mp3 player, visit the FAQ page for player tips.