volcano the bear
five hundred boy piano
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Tracks:
Recorded by VTB and Kev Reverb, except for "i am the mould" recorded by VTB and Jim Bishop "...spontaneous composition, avant-garde free folk, archaic chantings
REVIEWS "...Is it just me or are the Volcano The Bear boys beginning to make some semblage of sense these days? In fact change that to, becoming more playful. It could however be due a saturation of a high intake of E-numbers in my dietary intake that is making my head mushy, causing a sludging of my thought processes to make what was once very illogical become highly logical. Does that make sense? I won't bother waiting for an answer to that as I assume the answer is a resounding no. But then we are here to review a release by, let's face it now, the most eccentric band in the UK, or the world for that matter. Volcano The Bear you get the impression are toying with us, their output has always confounded. Their branded mix of oddly constructed psychedelia has often bordered on the absurd, to approach their releases is to do so with an open mind forearmed with the knowledge that you'll never view music in the same way again. To think that they breathe the same air is equally shocking/enlightening (delete as best suits). Let's get this straight from the start, Five Hundred Boy Piano is still awkwardly indigestible, not as wholesomely scary as previous adventures, in fact on this six movement display there is a deep sense of organized chaos that comes to fruition. Deliberate or accidental you decide. VTB may not be your common or garden S Club 7 wannabes, but there is at play an unworldly texture to their ambition. Their style is borne of fragments as wide ranging as art rock encompassing the demented elements of Henry Cow: a restoration of avantgardism, like an unhinged Residents and a very real sense of eccentric English psychedelia that surpasses the acid madcap shrills of it's greatest usurper, Syd Barret. beneath the oddball direction, VTB instill an almost comic element to Five Hundred Boy Piano that almost hints at a darkened abstract Monty Python at work. Hairy Queen opens the set, likening the sound to Viv Stanshall in full flight amid a scene from The Wicker Man, casually unorthodox and medieval in texture. Seeker begins with an eerie drone ambient style melody that could easily befit the Oggum label, before engaging in a dizzying mix of meditational blasts, see-saw manipulations, ravaged improvised jazz segments, twisted eastern flavours and sea shanty delights. The Tallest People In The World is a triptych of sorts, Being which makes up the first segment with its fluid sounds and chilling Druid-like chanting makes for disconcerting listening while Peanut Puppet could almost act as a soundtrack for some obscure cartoon from Poland. Throughout Tic/Toc you're made to feel you are presiding over some kind of ritualistic ceremony overseen by Stockhausen. Scorching and frantically dissected half-chords, uneven rhythms and an abuse of goofiness manifest itself within the title track, their ability to flitter from any suggested style to the next at such unexpected pace recalling mechanics applied by the Japanese futuro-electro-techno crew. I Am The Mould probably offers the most stimulation in as far as the accepted notion of music goes, slowly dragging in texture, given a mystical charm by the use of middle-eastern themes and some wide-screen style piano segments, quite soothing if truth be told. hard to live with, but even harder to live without..."
"...The second full-length studio album from this English quartet is both their most vocal and most structured release to date, focusing moreso on songcraft and development than ever before. Fear not, however, as there's still a large amount of improvisational influences and playful fuckery on nearly everything, including sounds of the bathtub, cellular phones, and kitchen utensils alongside the intentionally misplayed standard rock instruments, classical and jazz wind instruments, strings, accordion, and numerous percussion tools. If there's one thing smoking pot teaches you, it's how to become a craftsman (how to make the best bong out of a melon etc.) and I have always considered Volcano The Bear to be a crafty group of lads. Over the few releases they've had, it's clearly visible how the lot is increasingly harnessing that craftsmanship into a more organized, bridled chaos. Once again, the group recorded with Kev Reverb - once described as "a 10 foot tall cowboy with sunglasses, dressed all in black and possessing a voice like the voice of doom" - who runs an appropriately named Memphis Studio out of Leicester, UK. The album contains punch-drunk surrealistic singalongs like the opener, Hairy Queen and parts of Seeker as well as lengthy drawn-out mostly instrumental everything-and-the-kitchen-sink pieces like the title track, with suggestive hints of travelling minstrels in the album's closer, I Am The Mould. If I could recommend any album to acquire and memorize only to bring to your schools art class only to play and sing along with and confuse the fuck out of those "artistes," this would be it. Five Hundred Boy Piano is their second release for Steven Stapleton's United Dairies label, and features artwork from each of the members as well as Stapleton himself..."
"...Volcano The Bear's previous recordings borrowed from a spectrum of influences that included Faust, Nurse With Wound, This Heat, Can, and Robert Wyatt. Putting together such an array of oddness was no easy task, and VTB managed to do it with an earnestness that was more than impressive. On Five Hundred Boy Piano, VTB move forward, pushing beyond their great influences. with completely skewed English choirboy vocal chants and primitive folk meanderings, Five Hundred Boy Piano explores a terrain with landmarks of surrealism and folk traditions. VTB also venture into areas of free improvisation, hinting at the most expressive moments of the Art Ensemble Of Chicago's repertoire. Distinctly further "out" than previous recordings, the album is still blissfully strange, but has a cohesive energy. This album elevates VTB to the level of their influences. This is, without a doubt, one of the most challenging musical adventures heard by these ears in a long, long time..."
"...The second full length by this Leicester-UK quartet for the United Dairies label. The appeal of this group to someone like Steven Stapleton has never been up for question; they work the perfect combination of music (sprawling edited improvs that flow from faucets Faust through folk) and non-music (creaking clacking found sounds, reverb-coated glossolalia). The six tracks herein cover a disparate sonic turf... the epic of the cd, The Tallest People In The World alone works austere oscillating resonance patterns fully before flowing into full-on Camberwell Now territories (maritime themes, low Haywardesque nasal monotones in octave unison), then into a version of Several Species of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together in a Cave and Grooving with a Pict played back at its recorded speed (-gallic ranting, +pagan chant). bravo. clearly showing an innate knack for pushing the limits of 4-track-hacksmanship into something truly zombie, far out there in it. Surreal..."
"...Positioned somewhere between a medieval ensemble and a group of madmen messing about in a school music room, VTB produce a sound that can only be described as unique. The really surprising thing about VTB is that they hail from Leicester and not from Norway. who'd have thought it?"
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![[five hundred boy piano]](images/rel-500boypiano.jpg)
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