Volcanic Tongue
Various Artists
Volcanic Tongue
Boomkat Product Review:
David Keenan and Heather Leigh's perennially influential Volcanic Tongue gets its flowers on this long overdue anthology that plucks 20 misunderstood outsider excursions from across the musical spectrum. Featuring tracks from JD Emmanuel, Christina Carter, Circuit Des Yeux, Vox Populi!, Ashtray Navigations and more.
From 2005 until 2015, music journo Keenan and "drone shredder" Leigh headed up Volcanic Tongue, a record shop, label and distro based in Glasgow that helped to make sense of the tidal wave of underground music that was suddenly enabled thanks to cheap duplication tech and affordable global shipping rates. Before streaming had completely taken hold, it was CDrs, tapes and reasonably priced short-run vinyl editions that provided the entry point into various local weirdo micro-movements, and Volcanic Tongue worked as a filter, only stocking gear that had been thoroughly scoured by Keenan and Leigh. Their focused, seasoned taste (and Keenan's emphatic blurbs) made their weekly newsletter a Cliff's Notes for any of us desperate to comprehend various interconnected underground waves and contextualize long-forgotten private-press reissues. Really, where else were you able to cop Grouper's first CDR, one of Andrew Chalk's hand-crafted LPs, a rare-as-hen's-teeth Emeralds split and a Sunburned Hand of the Man jam taped the previous weekend? It's hard to overstate their influence: the basement noise scene, New Weird America, the resurgence of kosmische music, the renewed interest in scuzzy outsider rock - none of it would have occurred in quite the same way without VT.
To coincide with the release of an anthology of Keenan's blurbs, London's Disciples imprint has pruned tracks from VT's "tip of the tongue" picks, the most essential releases from each newsletter. It fittingly opens with 'Mailshot Slot' from Stoke's Ashtray Navigations, Phil Todd's long-running group who released on American Tapes, Jewelled Antler, Siltbreeze, Qbico, basically barreling thru the VT network. The track's snipped from their genius 2006 double CDr 'A Monument To British Rock' and features none other than VT fave Alex Nielson on percussion, who rattles and scrapes over Todd and co's off-key harmonium drones and freewheeling fingerpicked guitars - there's a damn good reason why Keenan described the band as "a trashcan antidote to LaMonte Young". Rushing ahead to 2014, Elli & Bev's '31 Men' foreshadows the Melbourne scene's current potency with druggy, slo-mo keyboard moans, waltzing Bontempi loops and playful C86-adjacent back-and-forth, while Dundee's long defunct DIY outfit The Scrotum Poles and Illinois garage pop band The Bachs (whose lone album Keenan labels "the greatest 1960s private press side of all time") intro newcomers to VT's ability to pan solid gold from the dustiest yard sale box.
It wouldn't really be a true VT set without a track from Leigh's one-time Charalambides bandmate Christina Carter, and we're treated to the title track from her acid-blotted 2009 subscription CDr set 'Seals', while J.D. Emmanuel's breakout 'Wizards' LP, maybe the most notorious of VT's "tip of the tongue" selections, is repped by the levitational Pro-One meditation 'Attaining Peace'. 'Serenade to Sophia' gives us a timely reminder that before she was rustling up lushly orchestrated records for Thrill Jockey and Matador, Haley Fohr (aka Circuit Des Yeux) was taping ghosted lo-fi folk lullabies, and Vox Populi!'s timeless 'Gole Mariam' is proof that their 1987 album 'Half Dead Ganja Music' deserves its umpteen subsequent reissues.
But this is a Volcanic Tongue record, and the best bits lurk beneath the surface - we were poring thru every mailout and still managed to miss a few gems. Just peep 'Yama-keburi' from Overhang Party's Sachiko, a dilated all-voice masterpiece that matches up with Liz Harris's earliest diversions, and the crippling 'Grey Area II' from underrated LA-based psych/free improv duo Metal Rouge. A history lesson for anyone who missed VT first time around, it's one of the deepest comps we've heard in ages - it'll bring a tear to yr eye.
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Boomkat Product Review:
David Keenan and Heather Leigh's perennially influential Volcanic Tongue gets its flowers on this long overdue anthology that plucks 20 misunderstood outsider excursions from across the musical spectrum. Featuring tracks from JD Emmanuel, Christina Carter, Circuit Des Yeux, Vox Populi!, Ashtray Navigations and more.
From 2005 until 2015, music journo Keenan and "drone shredder" Leigh headed up Volcanic Tongue, a record shop, label and distro based in Glasgow that helped to make sense of the tidal wave of underground music that was suddenly enabled thanks to cheap duplication tech and affordable global shipping rates. Before streaming had completely taken hold, it was CDrs, tapes and reasonably priced short-run vinyl editions that provided the entry point into various local weirdo micro-movements, and Volcanic Tongue worked as a filter, only stocking gear that had been thoroughly scoured by Keenan and Leigh. Their focused, seasoned taste (and Keenan's emphatic blurbs) made their weekly newsletter a Cliff's Notes for any of us desperate to comprehend various interconnected underground waves and contextualize long-forgotten private-press reissues. Really, where else were you able to cop Grouper's first CDR, one of Andrew Chalk's hand-crafted LPs, a rare-as-hen's-teeth Emeralds split and a Sunburned Hand of the Man jam taped the previous weekend? It's hard to overstate their influence: the basement noise scene, New Weird America, the resurgence of kosmische music, the renewed interest in scuzzy outsider rock - none of it would have occurred in quite the same way without VT.
To coincide with the release of an anthology of Keenan's blurbs, London's Disciples imprint has pruned tracks from VT's "tip of the tongue" picks, the most essential releases from each newsletter. It fittingly opens with 'Mailshot Slot' from Stoke's Ashtray Navigations, Phil Todd's long-running group who released on American Tapes, Jewelled Antler, Siltbreeze, Qbico, basically barreling thru the VT network. The track's snipped from their genius 2006 double CDr 'A Monument To British Rock' and features none other than VT fave Alex Nielson on percussion, who rattles and scrapes over Todd and co's off-key harmonium drones and freewheeling fingerpicked guitars - there's a damn good reason why Keenan described the band as "a trashcan antidote to LaMonte Young". Rushing ahead to 2014, Elli & Bev's '31 Men' foreshadows the Melbourne scene's current potency with druggy, slo-mo keyboard moans, waltzing Bontempi loops and playful C86-adjacent back-and-forth, while Dundee's long defunct DIY outfit The Scrotum Poles and Illinois garage pop band The Bachs (whose lone album Keenan labels "the greatest 1960s private press side of all time") intro newcomers to VT's ability to pan solid gold from the dustiest yard sale box.
It wouldn't really be a true VT set without a track from Leigh's one-time Charalambides bandmate Christina Carter, and we're treated to the title track from her acid-blotted 2009 subscription CDr set 'Seals', while J.D. Emmanuel's breakout 'Wizards' LP, maybe the most notorious of VT's "tip of the tongue" selections, is repped by the levitational Pro-One meditation 'Attaining Peace'. 'Serenade to Sophia' gives us a timely reminder that before she was rustling up lushly orchestrated records for Thrill Jockey and Matador, Haley Fohr (aka Circuit Des Yeux) was taping ghosted lo-fi folk lullabies, and Vox Populi!'s timeless 'Gole Mariam' is proof that their 1987 album 'Half Dead Ganja Music' deserves its umpteen subsequent reissues.
But this is a Volcanic Tongue record, and the best bits lurk beneath the surface - we were poring thru every mailout and still managed to miss a few gems. Just peep 'Yama-keburi' from Overhang Party's Sachiko, a dilated all-voice masterpiece that matches up with Liz Harris's earliest diversions, and the crippling 'Grey Area II' from underrated LA-based psych/free improv duo Metal Rouge. A history lesson for anyone who missed VT first time around, it's one of the deepest comps we've heard in ages - it'll bring a tear to yr eye.
Boomkat Product Review:
David Keenan and Heather Leigh's perennially influential Volcanic Tongue gets its flowers on this long overdue anthology that plucks 20 misunderstood outsider excursions from across the musical spectrum. Featuring tracks from JD Emmanuel, Christina Carter, Circuit Des Yeux, Vox Populi!, Ashtray Navigations and more.
From 2005 until 2015, music journo Keenan and "drone shredder" Leigh headed up Volcanic Tongue, a record shop, label and distro based in Glasgow that helped to make sense of the tidal wave of underground music that was suddenly enabled thanks to cheap duplication tech and affordable global shipping rates. Before streaming had completely taken hold, it was CDrs, tapes and reasonably priced short-run vinyl editions that provided the entry point into various local weirdo micro-movements, and Volcanic Tongue worked as a filter, only stocking gear that had been thoroughly scoured by Keenan and Leigh. Their focused, seasoned taste (and Keenan's emphatic blurbs) made their weekly newsletter a Cliff's Notes for any of us desperate to comprehend various interconnected underground waves and contextualize long-forgotten private-press reissues. Really, where else were you able to cop Grouper's first CDR, one of Andrew Chalk's hand-crafted LPs, a rare-as-hen's-teeth Emeralds split and a Sunburned Hand of the Man jam taped the previous weekend? It's hard to overstate their influence: the basement noise scene, New Weird America, the resurgence of kosmische music, the renewed interest in scuzzy outsider rock - none of it would have occurred in quite the same way without VT.
To coincide with the release of an anthology of Keenan's blurbs, London's Disciples imprint has pruned tracks from VT's "tip of the tongue" picks, the most essential releases from each newsletter. It fittingly opens with 'Mailshot Slot' from Stoke's Ashtray Navigations, Phil Todd's long-running group who released on American Tapes, Jewelled Antler, Siltbreeze, Qbico, basically barreling thru the VT network. The track's snipped from their genius 2006 double CDr 'A Monument To British Rock' and features none other than VT fave Alex Nielson on percussion, who rattles and scrapes over Todd and co's off-key harmonium drones and freewheeling fingerpicked guitars - there's a damn good reason why Keenan described the band as "a trashcan antidote to LaMonte Young". Rushing ahead to 2014, Elli & Bev's '31 Men' foreshadows the Melbourne scene's current potency with druggy, slo-mo keyboard moans, waltzing Bontempi loops and playful C86-adjacent back-and-forth, while Dundee's long defunct DIY outfit The Scrotum Poles and Illinois garage pop band The Bachs (whose lone album Keenan labels "the greatest 1960s private press side of all time") intro newcomers to VT's ability to pan solid gold from the dustiest yard sale box.
It wouldn't really be a true VT set without a track from Leigh's one-time Charalambides bandmate Christina Carter, and we're treated to the title track from her acid-blotted 2009 subscription CDr set 'Seals', while J.D. Emmanuel's breakout 'Wizards' LP, maybe the most notorious of VT's "tip of the tongue" selections, is repped by the levitational Pro-One meditation 'Attaining Peace'. 'Serenade to Sophia' gives us a timely reminder that before she was rustling up lushly orchestrated records for Thrill Jockey and Matador, Haley Fohr (aka Circuit Des Yeux) was taping ghosted lo-fi folk lullabies, and Vox Populi!'s timeless 'Gole Mariam' is proof that their 1987 album 'Half Dead Ganja Music' deserves its umpteen subsequent reissues.
But this is a Volcanic Tongue record, and the best bits lurk beneath the surface - we were poring thru every mailout and still managed to miss a few gems. Just peep 'Yama-keburi' from Overhang Party's Sachiko, a dilated all-voice masterpiece that matches up with Liz Harris's earliest diversions, and the crippling 'Grey Area II' from underrated LA-based psych/free improv duo Metal Rouge. A history lesson for anyone who missed VT first time around, it's one of the deepest comps we've heard in ages - it'll bring a tear to yr eye.
Boomkat Product Review:
David Keenan and Heather Leigh's perennially influential Volcanic Tongue gets its flowers on this long overdue anthology that plucks 20 misunderstood outsider excursions from across the musical spectrum. Featuring tracks from JD Emmanuel, Christina Carter, Circuit Des Yeux, Vox Populi!, Ashtray Navigations and more.
From 2005 until 2015, music journo Keenan and "drone shredder" Leigh headed up Volcanic Tongue, a record shop, label and distro based in Glasgow that helped to make sense of the tidal wave of underground music that was suddenly enabled thanks to cheap duplication tech and affordable global shipping rates. Before streaming had completely taken hold, it was CDrs, tapes and reasonably priced short-run vinyl editions that provided the entry point into various local weirdo micro-movements, and Volcanic Tongue worked as a filter, only stocking gear that had been thoroughly scoured by Keenan and Leigh. Their focused, seasoned taste (and Keenan's emphatic blurbs) made their weekly newsletter a Cliff's Notes for any of us desperate to comprehend various interconnected underground waves and contextualize long-forgotten private-press reissues. Really, where else were you able to cop Grouper's first CDR, one of Andrew Chalk's hand-crafted LPs, a rare-as-hen's-teeth Emeralds split and a Sunburned Hand of the Man jam taped the previous weekend? It's hard to overstate their influence: the basement noise scene, New Weird America, the resurgence of kosmische music, the renewed interest in scuzzy outsider rock - none of it would have occurred in quite the same way without VT.
To coincide with the release of an anthology of Keenan's blurbs, London's Disciples imprint has pruned tracks from VT's "tip of the tongue" picks, the most essential releases from each newsletter. It fittingly opens with 'Mailshot Slot' from Stoke's Ashtray Navigations, Phil Todd's long-running group who released on American Tapes, Jewelled Antler, Siltbreeze, Qbico, basically barreling thru the VT network. The track's snipped from their genius 2006 double CDr 'A Monument To British Rock' and features none other than VT fave Alex Nielson on percussion, who rattles and scrapes over Todd and co's off-key harmonium drones and freewheeling fingerpicked guitars - there's a damn good reason why Keenan described the band as "a trashcan antidote to LaMonte Young". Rushing ahead to 2014, Elli & Bev's '31 Men' foreshadows the Melbourne scene's current potency with druggy, slo-mo keyboard moans, waltzing Bontempi loops and playful C86-adjacent back-and-forth, while Dundee's long defunct DIY outfit The Scrotum Poles and Illinois garage pop band The Bachs (whose lone album Keenan labels "the greatest 1960s private press side of all time") intro newcomers to VT's ability to pan solid gold from the dustiest yard sale box.
It wouldn't really be a true VT set without a track from Leigh's one-time Charalambides bandmate Christina Carter, and we're treated to the title track from her acid-blotted 2009 subscription CDr set 'Seals', while J.D. Emmanuel's breakout 'Wizards' LP, maybe the most notorious of VT's "tip of the tongue" selections, is repped by the levitational Pro-One meditation 'Attaining Peace'. 'Serenade to Sophia' gives us a timely reminder that before she was rustling up lushly orchestrated records for Thrill Jockey and Matador, Haley Fohr (aka Circuit Des Yeux) was taping ghosted lo-fi folk lullabies, and Vox Populi!'s timeless 'Gole Mariam' is proof that their 1987 album 'Half Dead Ganja Music' deserves its umpteen subsequent reissues.
But this is a Volcanic Tongue record, and the best bits lurk beneath the surface - we were poring thru every mailout and still managed to miss a few gems. Just peep 'Yama-keburi' from Overhang Party's Sachiko, a dilated all-voice masterpiece that matches up with Liz Harris's earliest diversions, and the crippling 'Grey Area II' from underrated LA-based psych/free improv duo Metal Rouge. A history lesson for anyone who missed VT first time around, it's one of the deepest comps we've heard in ages - it'll bring a tear to yr eye.
Printed inner sleeves with original notes on each artist by David Keenan, housed in a sleeve designed by Julian House.
Estimated Release Date: 28 March 2025
Please note that shipping dates for pre-orders are estimated and are subject to change
Boomkat Product Review:
David Keenan and Heather Leigh's perennially influential Volcanic Tongue gets its flowers on this long overdue anthology that plucks 20 misunderstood outsider excursions from across the musical spectrum. Featuring tracks from JD Emmanuel, Christina Carter, Circuit Des Yeux, Vox Populi!, Ashtray Navigations and more.
From 2005 until 2015, music journo Keenan and "drone shredder" Leigh headed up Volcanic Tongue, a record shop, label and distro based in Glasgow that helped to make sense of the tidal wave of underground music that was suddenly enabled thanks to cheap duplication tech and affordable global shipping rates. Before streaming had completely taken hold, it was CDrs, tapes and reasonably priced short-run vinyl editions that provided the entry point into various local weirdo micro-movements, and Volcanic Tongue worked as a filter, only stocking gear that had been thoroughly scoured by Keenan and Leigh. Their focused, seasoned taste (and Keenan's emphatic blurbs) made their weekly newsletter a Cliff's Notes for any of us desperate to comprehend various interconnected underground waves and contextualize long-forgotten private-press reissues. Really, where else were you able to cop Grouper's first CDR, one of Andrew Chalk's hand-crafted LPs, a rare-as-hen's-teeth Emeralds split and a Sunburned Hand of the Man jam taped the previous weekend? It's hard to overstate their influence: the basement noise scene, New Weird America, the resurgence of kosmische music, the renewed interest in scuzzy outsider rock - none of it would have occurred in quite the same way without VT.
To coincide with the release of an anthology of Keenan's blurbs, London's Disciples imprint has pruned tracks from VT's "tip of the tongue" picks, the most essential releases from each newsletter. It fittingly opens with 'Mailshot Slot' from Stoke's Ashtray Navigations, Phil Todd's long-running group who released on American Tapes, Jewelled Antler, Siltbreeze, Qbico, basically barreling thru the VT network. The track's snipped from their genius 2006 double CDr 'A Monument To British Rock' and features none other than VT fave Alex Nielson on percussion, who rattles and scrapes over Todd and co's off-key harmonium drones and freewheeling fingerpicked guitars - there's a damn good reason why Keenan described the band as "a trashcan antidote to LaMonte Young". Rushing ahead to 2014, Elli & Bev's '31 Men' foreshadows the Melbourne scene's current potency with druggy, slo-mo keyboard moans, waltzing Bontempi loops and playful C86-adjacent back-and-forth, while Dundee's long defunct DIY outfit The Scrotum Poles and Illinois garage pop band The Bachs (whose lone album Keenan labels "the greatest 1960s private press side of all time") intro newcomers to VT's ability to pan solid gold from the dustiest yard sale box.
It wouldn't really be a true VT set without a track from Leigh's one-time Charalambides bandmate Christina Carter, and we're treated to the title track from her acid-blotted 2009 subscription CDr set 'Seals', while J.D. Emmanuel's breakout 'Wizards' LP, maybe the most notorious of VT's "tip of the tongue" selections, is repped by the levitational Pro-One meditation 'Attaining Peace'. 'Serenade to Sophia' gives us a timely reminder that before she was rustling up lushly orchestrated records for Thrill Jockey and Matador, Haley Fohr (aka Circuit Des Yeux) was taping ghosted lo-fi folk lullabies, and Vox Populi!'s timeless 'Gole Mariam' is proof that their 1987 album 'Half Dead Ganja Music' deserves its umpteen subsequent reissues.
But this is a Volcanic Tongue record, and the best bits lurk beneath the surface - we were poring thru every mailout and still managed to miss a few gems. Just peep 'Yama-keburi' from Overhang Party's Sachiko, a dilated all-voice masterpiece that matches up with Liz Harris's earliest diversions, and the crippling 'Grey Area II' from underrated LA-based psych/free improv duo Metal Rouge. A history lesson for anyone who missed VT first time around, it's one of the deepest comps we've heard in ages - it'll bring a tear to yr eye.
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