Volcano the Bear create an English take on free psych improv (think Sunburned Hand of the Man, No-neck Blues Band) combining influences from the English underground (Robert Wyatt, This Heat, Nurse With Wound) with the rhythms of Can, the trickery of Faust and a Residents-like surrealist tendency.

VtB have, in the words of The Wire, "produced some of the finest, wildest British music of the last 10 years on record and on stage...".

VTB live is the duo of Daniel Padden and Aaron Moore -- Padden also from his contrasting project The One Ensemble, whilst Moore has also of late been touring in his band with NNCK's Dave Nuss, Amolvacy, and has just completed 4 performances in New York as part of Boredoms for their Boadrum9 shows.

'A calculatedly hysterical melting pot of This Heat, Robert Wyatt, Faust and' Albert Ayler, seen through a prism of occasionally theatrical improvisations and unhinged set pieces, 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.' - No-Fi
> www.brainwashed.com/vtb
> www.myspace.com/volcanothebear

(gagarin, strange lights, tripel)

Based in Cambridge, UM has written at least 2000 songs as well as playing across Europe, including tours with Felix Kubin. 'like a one-man boombox version of The Residents ... like a quiet idea-storm: a procession of thoughts, camera-angles, memories, rambles, rumbles, micro-anthems, marching songs, drinking games, broken raps, Pop-monologues, miniatures, chamberwerks, salon songs, an orchestra of shed.' kidshirt.blogspot.com 'Junk shop electronica from a one man mind mental, there's some seriously barmy, disjointed vibes bouncing around in these bendy but catchy grooves. John Callahan, early Baby Bird, Wevie Stonder, Felix Kubin & Manchester's wonderful Superqueens are handy reference points.' Norman Records
> www.umbusiness.co.uk
> www.myspace.com/peteum