Talk about erupting on the music scene: Last year, prominent members of various San Diego psychedelic-rock bands joined together to form Volcano -- a supergroup of sorts that has amassed quite the word-of-mouth around town -- and found themselves on the 2018 Roadburn Festival lineup in the Netherlands for one of their first-ever live performances. Not too shabby, right?
Well, apparently that was just the beginning: The band -- comprised of bassist Billy Ellsworth (Radio Moscow, Loom), guitarist Zachary Oakley (Joy), vocalist/keyboardist Gabe Messer (Harsh Toke), drummer Matt Oakley, and percussionist Ake Arndt (of the visual arts collective Operation Mindblow) -- have announced the Feb. 15 release of their debut full-length album titled "The Island" (via Tee Pee and Kommune Records) and premiered its title track via Popmatters. Listen to it here.
Influenced by Afrobeat, Krautrock, psychedelia and jam bands alike, Volcano mixes complex rhythms and mesmerizing instrumentation for a truly unique -- and extremely danceable -- sound. There’s also more to the music than meets the ears: The six tracks on Volcano’s forthcoming studio effort soundtrack the story/concept of a crew of sailors that run across the titular landmass, unaware of the dangers it holds within.
"'The Island' was the tune that helped us realize the overall tone of the record," Zachary Oakley explained in a recent press release. He described Messer's initial vision for the album's concept as made up of "heat-of-the-moment, semi-complete short stories about the island and its native people's struggles against gods, invaders, and nature's unruly and dark governing forces… each tune its own self-contained chapter."
Volcano also premiered the official music video for another track, "Naked Prey," via the Obelisk and it's killer. Ahoy matey: The vinyl version of “The Island” is now available for pre-order via TeePeeRecords.com.
