Volcano The Bear - "Classic Erasmus Fusion" 2XLP - Beta-Lactam Ring Records
Volcano The Bear – “Classic Erasmus Fusion” MP3/download/sample
Volcano The Bear – “Sharp as the Queens Teeth” MP3/download/sample
[PREVIEW the rest of Classic Erasmus Fusion HERE]
“Boards of floral tributes stand between the lands of two right hands while sailors play piano for the black white children’s tribute band skirts we lift one at a time revealing puzzled love sublime like fubber bands we twang and bing attempting equal balanced minds did you ever feel like Jesus king of the moon. It’s powder that will be your saviour not His power … ” — liner notes, Volcano The Bear‘s Classic Erasmus Fusion
I’ll get right down to it. Classic Erasmus Fusion is a textbook mind-bender, a brain with a few synapses missing.
It contains among the best abstract, avant guard beyond-art rock I’ve yet to hear, and also squanders its momentum just when you think the Leicester, England, combo, consisting of Aaron Moore (drums, trumpet, vocals), Nick Mott (saxophone, guitar, vocals), Clarence Manuelo (tapes, electronics) and Daniel Padden (keyboards, guitar, clarinet, vocals), can’t lose.
I’m a sucker for this kind of thing. I’m reminded of:
- Stephen Stapleton‘s Nurse With Wound, most specifically;
- Current 93/David Tibet
- Au, the Portland, Ore., band formed in the ashes of Aagoo also-rans Luc;
- Smegma‘s sound-found freak-outs;
- The ashen-grey audio clouds of Avarus;
- Fantomas circa Delerium Cordova;
- Book Of Shadows (from what I’ve heard so far);
- Jackie-O Motherfucker (motherfucker);
- Slaraffenland‘s chant-o-matic compositions;
- And, finally, Graveyards, the nutso Wolf Eyes-related super-noisenik explosion …
Those are some giant, floppy, clown-sized shoes to fill, and Volcano The Bear obviously have giant feet.
It speaks to their character that, even over the course of two seemingly 800-gram LPs, VtB never double up on any one quadrant of the death-drone/noise/out-jazz/freak-fuck-folk/psych/improv rainbow, instead reaching — sometimes, as mentioned, overreaching — for the tallest heights and the lowest lows, depending on the tune.
Also drawing my particular interest — no pun intended — is the gorgeous gatefold artwork. Beta-Lactam Ring Records is know for its innovative designs, but this is the next level of the next-level, a feast for the eyes that conjures a fairytale-esque world that sooooo only for grown-ups … like I thought the new Alice in Wonderland would be, come to think of it …
Feast yr eyes on it yrself; it’s holy (like holy FUCK and holy SHiT).
Tracks
CD1:
1. Classic Erasmus Fusion (Manuelo, Moore, Mott, Padden)
2. Did You Ever Feel Like Jesus? (Moore, Mott, Padden)
3. The Merry Potter (Manuelo, Moore, Mott, Padden)
4. Ong Pâté (Moore, Mott)
5. Russian Milk (Moore, Padden)
6. Baroque Sensation (Manuelo, Moore)
7. Sharp as the Queens Teeth (Moore, Mott)
8. Hey Judo (Manuelo, Moore, Mott, Padden)
9. Baltic Minor (Manuelo, Moore, Mott, Padden)
10. Lifetime (Moore, Mott)
11. Classic Autumn Fusion (Manuelo, Moore, Mott, Padden)
CD2:
1. Hail the New Mephisto (Manuelo, Moore, Mott, Padden)
2. The Last Song of Norway (Manuelo, Moore, Mott, Padden)
3. Shadowfishing (Manuelo, Moore, Mott)
4. My Favourite Tongues (Moore, Mott)
5. Erasmus, the Queens Dentist (Manuelo, Moore, Mott, Padden)
6. See Me Now (Manuelo, Moore, Mott, Padden)
