‘VOLCANO’ follows Jungle’s previous album ‘Loving In Stereo’, which proved to be a landmark moment for the acclaimed UK duo. It achieved their highest domestic UK chart position to date debuting at #3, while also achieving their best ever album chart positions in key international territories such as Australia, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, Netherlands; and in the US it catapulted to #1 on the Billboard Dance Albums chart which led to major Arena shows as guests to Billie Eilish.

The free-spirited energy that runs right through ‘VOLCANO’ reflects how organically it came together. J and T had written most of the record on tour before starting the recording process while staying in an Airbnb in Los Angeles. It was later completed back home in London at their favourite location, Studio B at Metropolis Studios. This time around, the duo wanted to include a wider variety of voices within the album. In addition to Erick The Architect, they reunited with Bas (who previously featured on the ‘Loving In Stereo’ single ‘Romeo’) for ‘Pretty Little Thing’, as well as calling on talents in the shape of Roots Manuva, Channel Tres and JNR Williams.

STAFF COMMENTS

Maisy says: With a discography that has consistently pushed creative boundaries with the integration of visual art into their already artistic albums, Jungle presents an amazing fourth studio album, ‘Volcano’, as a testament to their enduring musical journey. A great sound built upon funk and soul, the duo has seamlessly woven contrasting segments of hip hop and disco throughout the album, profoundly amplified by the album’s essential collaborators like, Erik the Architect and Bas. Midway through, the single “Back on 74” makes a name for itself with its gorgeous vocals by Lydia Kitto. It brings the listeners to a place of nostalgia of young summer afternoons, which was the production duo’s aim of the story-telling album. Giving us a thirst for house and disco, this album effortlessly provides a feel-good soundtrack for any chosen activities, from reminiscing on those times of 70s soul (“Dominoes”) to shimmying to euphoric disco choruses!

TRACK LISTING

1. Us Against The World
2. Holding On
3. Candle Flame - Jungle, The Architect
4. Dominoes
5. I've Been In Love - Jungle Featuring Channel Tres
6. Back On 74
7. You Ain't No Celebrity - Jungle Featuring Roots Manuva
8. Coming Back
9. Don't Play - Jungle Featuring Mood Talk
10. Every Night
11. Problemz
12. Good At Breaking Hearts
13. Palm Trees
14. Pretty Little Thing - Jungle Featuring Bas

It doesn’t take too long with Volcano to realise that, while all the things that made the band special the first time around remain intact, a noticeable evolution has taken place. It’s there from the outset: the beefed-up beats of Certainty reveal an expanded sonic firmament, one in which bright synth hooks and insistent choruses circle around each other over chord sequences that strike just the right balance between nice and queasy. “If there’s a sense of scale,” says lead singer James Bagshaw, “It was really just a result of implementing a load of things that we didn’t know about the first time around.” Co-founding member and bassist Thomas Walmsley describes a record in which “we discovered a lot as we went along, and the excitement at having done so radiates

One thing you do notice is that it’s harder to spot the influences this time around. It would be disingenuous to evade the psych-pop tag, for sure, but mystical language has been supplanted by something a more direct – and while those influences are still there, it’s no longer possible to pick them out. They’ve been broken down and blended together – fossilised into a single source of creative fuel, so that what you can hear this time around, sounds like nothing so much as Temples. This is the sound of a band squaring up to their potential.

STAFF COMMENTS

Andy says: More synthy than their debut but crucially just as hyper-melodic, Temples bring the magic of a bygone era right into the present with huge aplomb. It's a beautiful thing.

TRACK LISTING

1. Certainty
2. All Join In
3. (I Wanna Be Your) Mirror
4. Oh The Saviour
5. Born Into The Sunset
6. How Would You Like To Go
7. Open Air
8. In My Pocket
9. Celebration
10. Mystery Of Pop
11. Roman God-Like Man
12. Strange Or Be Forgotten

'Nearly a year since their rapturous home demo 'Trust Me… I'm A Genius' started pricking the ears of tastemakers and industry alike, The Family Rain are pleased to announce details of their debut album, Under The Volcano, recorded over four weeks at Berlin's famed Hansa Studios with Jim Abbiss (Kasabian, Arctic Monkeys). It's ten tracks of primal rock ‘n roll. From barnstorming singles such as the track 'Feel Better (Frank)', the crunching 'Reason To Die', and high octane belter 'Pushing It' - which led the band's first EP earlier this year - the noise and intensity of this record could only be produced by three brothers who know each other inside out. Nagging melodies combine with heavy, metallic riffs to produce a searing rock record of intelligence and wit. The Family Rain have spent the past 12 months relentlessly touring the UK and Europe, winning over legions of new fans wherever they play. An firm favourite at Reading and Leeds Festival this year, the band recently wrapped up an extensive UK tour with Miles Kane and went on tour with Jake Bugg. "Three bearded brothers playing blues-infused rock, it's no wonder the comparisons with the Kings Of Leon are coming thick and fast." BBC Introducing.

TRACK LISTING

1. Carnival
2. Trust Me... I'm A Genius
3. Feel Better (FRANK)
4. Don't Waste Your Time On Me
5. Reason To Die
6. Binocular
7. On My Back
8. Pushing It
9. Together
10. All The Best

Featuring Grammy Award-winning artist Justin Vernon of Bon Iver on vocals.

‘Repave’ brings Volcano Choir into sharp focus. The glitch-laden, cautious presentation of the band’s previous work serves as points of both reference and departure across these eight songs, the product of growing conviction and trust, of a fully-operational rock band, gifted in shading and nuance, and rumbling with power.

‘Repave’ is the sound of confident musicians extending their reach to anthemic peaks and pulling back to reveal moments of real vulnerability, sure enough of themselves to let them stand on their own.

TRACK LISTING

Tiderays
Acetate
Comrade
Byegone
Alaskans
Dancepack
Keel
Almanac

Almost four years in the making, Chicago trio Volcano! have delivered the long-awaited follow-up to 2008’s celebrated Paperwork album. Their outstanding third offering, Piñata, is well worth the wait - by any measure it's their best yet.

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. It’s leaner and meaner than its predecessors, with the themes behind the songs drawn from more familiar sources. “They're mainly based on weird fantasies,” says frontman Aaron With. “Our goal was to tell stories with strange but universal sentiments.”

The fantasies that form the foundations for certain songs are hardly commonplace musings on love and life. ‘Child Star’ imagines its protagonist (re)born with all the skills and experience of a previous life, gaining competitive advantage over a helpless peer group. ‘St. Mary Of Nazareth’ takes the listener on a tour of a spaceship disguised as Catholic hospital, where the nurses are nuns, and the nuns are aliens. Lead single ‘Piñata’ is a petty vision of posthumous karmic retribution, while ‘Fighter’, the album’s dramatic centrepiece, is a violent revenge fantasy set to music. But while the songs can be complex conceptually, the incisive compositions ensure they effortlessly get under your skin.

More immediate than anything the trio has crafted before, it makes perfect sense that at the time of writing Piñata, volcano! were indulging themselves on radio hits alongside a steady diet of music from the outer reaches of the spectrum. Meanwhile the band has lost none of the playful, idiosyncratic elements that make them unique. “We kept the weird energy, the melodic tension, and the neurotic rhythm,” says With, “but we’ve made the framework a little more decipherable.” Not a second is wasted as volcano! gleefully take a baseball bat to musical convention in the name of great pop.

Aaron With (vocals, guitar), Sam Scranton (drums, percussion) and Mark Cartwright (synths, bass) formed volcano! in 2003, and have stockpiled critical acclaim since the beginning. Their debut album Beautiful Seizure (2005) was awarded 10/10 by Drowned in Sound and was dubbed the “soundtrack to the Bible” by Fader; Paperwork garnered four stars in Mojo and Uncut, and the video for ‘Africa Just Wants To Have Fun’ has notched up 200,000 views. The two albums have become cult favourites among those fortunate enough to hear them, and the sense of anticipation for Piñata is palpable.

TRACK LISTING

1. A1. Piñata
2. A2. So Many Lemons
3. A3. Child Star
4. A4. Platebreaker
5. A5. Danceman
6. B1. Fighter
7. B2. St. Mary Of Nazareth
8. B3. Supply And Demand
9. B4. Long Gone

A calculated hysterical melting pot of This Heat, Robert Wyatt, Faust and The Residents, of musique concrète and ethno-folk, all seen through a prism of theatrical improvisations and unhinged set pieces. Formed in 1995, and after several self-released tapes and CD-Rs, VTB so excited Nurse With Wound´s Steven Stapleton that he brought his United Dairies label out of cold storage to release their first album proper, ”The Inhazer Decline”, in 2000. Since then they´ve released music on such labels as Misra, Beta Lactam Ring, Textile, Digitalis, Pickled Egg, Alt Vinyl as well as their own imprints Volucan and Volfurten with the exceptional ”Classic Erasmus Fusion” from 2006 being a possible highlight.

On record VTB offer stark and stunning absurdities in the most bizarrely beautiful way. Recycling and recontextualising their material is an innate habit, and the variety of recording options they might chose (be it a highly equipped professional studio or a second hand dictaphone) allows their craft to be formed in a myriad of different ways. VTB have toured extensively throughout Europe and North America and in concert they are the duo of Daniel Padden and Aaron Moore. Third member, Clarence Manuelo, no longer performs live but his inimitable sounds and influence are still very much a part of a VTB performance. In their unique, often chaotic live shows, the adrenalin and invention drips from their earlobes as they thrust spectacular oddities in the faces of their audiences, always aided by their sublime multi-instrumentalism. Absurd humour and eclectic ways of producing sounds are characteristic of their live performances and their extensive knowledge of the traditions of experimental and folk music makes the band difficult to categorise. The band record everything they play and will often use these recordings as raw material for their albums. VTB have released a number of records since the start, often mixing studio, live and home recordings. Golden Rhythm/Ink Music is their first more or less ”proper” studio album since ”Amidst The Noise And Twigs” back in 2007.

Largely based on the sonic fault-line between Aaron Moore and Daniel Padden, it´s also the most focused and driven of VTB’s prolific output so far, showcasing the duo’s unique musicality and interplay, whilst retaining their trademark eccentricity and humour throughout. It presents “rock music” as seen through VTB’s skewed eye, featuring more of Padden and Moore’s drum/guitar combination than on previous albums. Taking the bizarre energy of their live duo performances into a studio environment, and combining it with VTB’s eclectic instrumentation and Clarence Manuelo’s singular audio-work, GR/IM shows VTB making their most vital work to date.

Volcano Choir is an assembly of Wisconsinites Jon Mueller, Chris Rosenau, Jim Schoenecker, Daniel Spack, Justin Vernon, and Thomas Wincek. You might find these old friends also frequenting records and stages under different monikers, Collections Of Colonies Of Bees and Bon Iver. The collaboration predates the meteoric rise of Justin Vernon's Bon Iver project, with original songwriting dating back to the summer of 2005, right around the time the Bees first toured with Vernon's previous band DeYarmond Edison.
While entirely a studio record, the collection doesn't suffer from the overburdens of a digital pile up or over-thinking. Rather it breathes and convulses in equal measure, radiating an inherent dynamism found only in the voluntary bondage of intimacy. With influences ranging from David Sylvian and Steve Reich to Mahalia Jackson and Tom Waits, it might be more accurate to say the group's influence is music itself. You can hear it in the care and real love generously applied to each moment of "Unmap". With the vibe of some intimate backwoods gospel, plus a spirit of patience and thoughtful repetition, the music of Volcano Choir is as dynamic as it is lovely.

Lime Headed Dog is Joel Cox's (ex Good Shoes) on going musical project and this, his first single, comes from the first of three already recorded albums that are planned for release. 'Joel Cox's personality crisis takes madness to a higher level... the Good Shoes bassist has gone all Tyler Durden on us and come out the other end with a serious case of ADD' – Dazed and Confused.

Paperwork is the second album by Chicago out-rock trio Volcano! Debut "Beautiful Seizure" was named as #2 Album of 2006 by Drowned in Sound readers, and attracted a 10/10 review on the DiS site. Fresh from a two year hiatus the band have a created a much more mature and direct record than their debut. The characteristically complex layering of sounds is still evident, but with greater focus and structure, and more danceable than ever before. "Paperwork" deals with workplace issues, loss of idealism and a coming of age story - frontman Aaron With is a man with something worth saying. The album will be packaged in a superbly designed digipak, up to the usual Leaf standards. Will appeal to fans of Dirty Projectors, Deerhoof, Why?, Liars, and Battles.

"Africa Just Wants To Have Fun" announces the return of Chicago trio Volcano! following a two-year hiatus. The lead single is taken from the band's second album, "Paperwork", set for release on September 1st. Debut album "Beautiful Seizure" was an underground hit in 2006, with Drowned In Sound readers voting it #2 Album Of The Year. "Africa Just Wants To Have Fun", like much of the new material, demonstrates a more playful, immediate side to the band, while clinging to the unpredictability and originality that defines their sound. The song is a razor-sharp satire of certain rock stars who purport to save the world with dubious, self-serving rhetoric. On the flip is "Performance Evaluation Shuffle (Slow Version)", a re-recording of the opening track on "Paperwork". This downbeat quasi-croon reflects a theme of disillusionment in the workplace that runs throughout the album.

This debut album by young Chicago trio Volcano! is an intense, exhilarating and immensely rewarding ride comparable to Deerhoof, Black Dice, and at times The Pixies and Sonic Youth. 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.

Sons Of Samuel Volcano is the brainchild of legend-in-the-making, Frank Cougar. Drawing on influences as disparate as William Burroughs, Jim Morrison, Frank Sinatra, and The Young Gods, Mr Cougar has already fashioned a name for himself on the Birmingham underground. All the original recordings of these tracks have now been destroyed, leaving Frank's original (first generation) analogue tapes as the only surviving memoir of this music - comprising eight tracks from the original Sons of Samuel Volcano, closing with the track "Endeavour", the greatest pop song never heard? Legend has it that this piece, recorded in a 48 track London studio, won Frank a four album deal with Sony over five years ago...or would have, if Frank had been willing to accept the emasculating terms they demanded.