Volcano!

Beautiful Seizure is the debut album from Chicago trio volcano!, and it's an intense, exhilarating and immensely rewarding ride. 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. There are no boundaries and no indulgences, nothing here that's hackneyed or extraneous.

Volcano!: Pinata (Black) [Vinyl LP + CD]

Volcano!: Pinata (Clear) [Vinyl LP + CD]

Listening to volcano! is a journey through highs and lows, through confusion and clarity. Like much of their work, 'Apple Or A Gun' (the first single from their groundbreaking debut album Beautiful Seizure), refuses to be pigeonholed, or indeed easily comprehended on first listen. But it will repay your attention a hundredfold. With dramatic stylistic shifts and a typically ambitious arrangement, the song veers from delicate to possessed in the blink of an eye. Lucid but anarchic, never allowing the listener a moment to relax. Yet despite the apparent chaos, melody is never sacrificed. The single is backed with a recording of a live favourite that will only ever appear on this release: 'I've Been Loving You Since Desert Storm'.

The second album from Chicago trio volcano! - Aaron With (guitar, vocals), Sam Scranton (drums, percussion), and Mark Cartwright (electronics, bass). Everything about Paperwork is leaner and more considered than before, often beginning with simple pop structures and tearing them apart. The ragged, feverish dissonance and bright spaciousness of Aaron's guitar has much in common with peers like Deerhoof or Dirty Projectors, but this time, more attention is focused on the beats and rhythms.

The Chicago trio's outstanding third album, Piñata is the sound of volcano! past distilled into a most potent formula for the present: unsparingly concise, stickily melodic, lyrically stronger and stranger, darkly humorous, ferociously driven, fabulously inventive. Clocking in at just over 40 minutes, the album has an aggressive energy that's as exciting as it is unpredictable.

Volcano!: Africa Just Wants to Have Fun [Vinyl 7"]