Daniel Padden has been a member
of the cult avant-rock band ‘Volcano The Bear’
since 1995, with several highly regarded
album releases on Nurse With Wound's United
Diaries label, Textile and Beta-Lactam Ring
Records. After moving to Glasgow he started
‘The One Ensemble Of Daniel Padden’ as an outlet for
his solo recordings with releases on Catsup
Plate, Secret Eye and Textile. When ‘The One
Ensemble’ slowly metamorphosed into a band of its
own, Padden started to record his solo output
under his birth name, with last year's "The Isaac
Storm" LP on the Ultra Exzema label being the first
seminal result.
Over the years Padden has developed a strong
fascination for obscure musics from all over the
world (re his recent "Epiphanies" article for The
Wire magazine): mouth organ love-songs from
Thailand, The Ramayana Monkey Chant from Bali,
khene pieces from Laos; so-called ‘world’ music from
Burundi to Bulgaria.
Combining these interests with his love for
British Folk and Art Rock (This Heat, Robert
Wyatt), Kraut Rock (Can, Faust), Free Jazz, the surreal
collage techniques of Nurse With Wound
and the odd humour of The Residents, he has
developed a totally unique and highly personal
musical vision without ever sounding
overambitious or directionless.
Gorgeous song-writing is seamlessly transformed into
pure fuzz or string drones, suddenly interrupted by
some improvised reeds or collapsing percussion,
all within the blink of an eye, and never losing its
natural flow.
"Pause for the Jet" is already an
auspicious aspirant for our "Record of the Year".
