It is available to purchase now priced at 10 UK pounds plus shipping. please contact VTB for ordering information.
below is the label's description of this release:
Editionof 500 numbered copies in a full color book bound cd case. This yearsees the eruption of the Volcano with a myriad of releases leaving thetown folk covered in a fine and mysterious silt of musical entropy. Thelimited release of 'Mountains' finds our boy’s spelunking thecreepiest of dream spawned caves, excavating crystalline fragmentsalong the way, which are then set in beautiful mental jewelryappropriate for any formal occasion. Arpeggiated blurs and disinterredvoices snap, crackle and pop as an unnamed rusted hulk is slowly pushedacross an ever morphing open landscape. More accurately still, it'slike that weird wind harp record from the 70's with a mid period NWWand Mauve Sideshow marching up opposite sides of the hill to claim thegiant harp. And that's just in the first 19 minutes!. Afterwards, thereis a slo-mo interlude battle between rarified VTB brand chamber musicand the sounds of...things. As promised, the denouement is a brief,dare I say, pretty little whisper of pizzicato and drone. So pretty andlittle, in fact, that it caught the attention of my otherwise weirdnessdeaf partner. A real symphony of the spheres that showcases thisVolcano's ability to blow its top and rain sweet tweeky kittens on thevalley below
and below is a review of the original release from mark barton @ losing today:
One of those very ultra limited releases that if youdon’t own a copy yet it’s safe to say you may have missedthe boat. Limited to only 200 copies, the packaging on this cute thingis worth the entrance fee alone and is typical of the delicateattention paid to every aspect of their releases that Beta-lactam ringrecords who self describe themselves as ‘the label dedicated toreleasing uncommon music with unique packaging in this age of massproduction’ make.
This particular copy is a limited pressing of 40 issued by the banddirect. The package includes a CD-R of various VTB oddities and offshoots that may or may not be in the pipeline, a plastic toy insect, anindividually signed piece of art work by Aaron plus the record itself,two elongated album length tracks pressed on 12 inches of seriouslyheavy duty vinyl.
‘Supreme and sublime, like no other temptress is the sweet goldencrest of my distant wave’ takes its place on side 1. Anunsettling patchwork of ominous melodic mutations, spiritual soundsfrom the other side, or so it seems, pour through to infect the macabrecanvas provided by the Volcanos, making you feel like your partaking ina boat ride with Death. As icy and as disconnected as anything byStockhausen, ‘Supreme and sublime’ appears alienated, aconfusion of half hinted ideas, the friction between natural devices(the sounds of birds) and the manipulated adds to the unfathomable pathwhich VTB furrow. The formation is all at once eerie, haunting andtense, likened to being the next victim in waiting in a Hitchcock movie.
Whereas their previous release ‘Five Hundred Boy Piano’ istangible psychedelia, ‘Supreme and sublime’ is more intenton creating atmospheres and devising the nightmares to go with them.,in many respects it’s a salute to the Radiophonic Workshop, theicy textures and sombre overlays transporting you back to the childhoodnights hiding behind the settee riddled with fear at the Daleks.
'Dragon or emperor' inhabiting the flip side is a lot more forgiving,still deep in tense atmospheric textures, the sound manipulationsutilise subtle Middle Eastern reference points. Sounding as though it'sbeen divided into sub plots, it still veils a sense of unease on thelistener, the drone cycles bear down ominously only to melt towards theclose with some dreamy pastoral acoustics. Supplemented by a soothingstring section, the pastoral ambience soon melts away to reveal asinisterish haunting spectacle beneath. Wickedly weird.
other forthcoming releases by volcano the bear and related are:
La STPO & VTB - split LP
Daniel Padden - pause for the jet LP
Textile Orchestra - CD
The One Ensemble Orchestra - other thunders
Songs Of Norway - despite the cloak CD reissue with bonus live material
and a release by Manuelo with vtb and many more others and i don't know anything about it really
thanks
volcano the bear
www.brainwashed.com/vtb
www.myspace.com/volcanothebear
