For over a decade, the Leicester quartet Volcano the Bear have been confounding eager listeners with a bewildering concoction, equal parts madcap eccentricity and well-crafted melody. Ostensibly, Volcano the Bear play folk music, though in looking at the term from a strict point of view, it's hard to imagine the culture or customs that might have spawned this folk form. Imaginary people or no, Volcano the Bear are progenitors of the contemporary folk that exists outside of the genre's usual cultural significance; and while it may not be unique that Volcano the Bear make filk music unattached to a particular people or region, that's not to say that the band's music doesn't stand out from the pack. Always a diverse and unpredictable bunch, the quartet released Classic Erasmus Fusion, which many regard as a career highlight, on Beta-Lactam in 2006, and Amidst the Noise and Twigs, pairs the label and artist again, for the fifth time, on another batch of musical oddities.
Amidst the Noise and Twigs features Volcano the Bear's usual hodgepodge of sounds and styles, though the group's penchant for bizarre sound collage largely wins out; "Before We Came to This Religion" and "Burnt Seer," are the only tracks that conform more entirely to traditional song form, and even then, there's a leap of faith involved. The music of Volcano the Bear is of a dichotomy that's become more prevalent in music, though no one's done in it quite the same way. The group work often with organic sound, making acoustic instruments a prevalent voice in the mix. But, concurrently, the quintet forge a decidedly alien sound, warping the music via shifts in tempo, disjointed layering, and unexpected bursts of discordant sound. Melodies and rhythms often push stridently through, but not without competition; in "The Three Twins," a simple and repetitive line of piano is a focal point, but it's forced through a gauntlet of sound, from complimentary vocals, softly chanted, to a baby crying, and slightly off-kilter chopstick percussion, before emerging as the backbone for a segment of straightforward sound, complete with conventional drums and vocals. Of course, the track isn't permitted to finish in such a manner, and the strings that are merely an accent earlier in the track grow more abstract and insistent, the vocals shift into a ghostly chorus, and the melange slowly takes over the piano before bringing the disc to a close.
While it's their improvisation and folk-concrète, perhaps, for which Volcano the Bear are best known, the tidbits of more strightforward songcraft mark many of the best moments on Amidst the Noise and Twigs. Like unexpected clearings in a dense forest, they offer a welcome shift in atmosphere, another twisting turn down the path of Volcano the Bear.
