Volcanic Tongue: A Time Travelling Evangelist’s Guide To Late 20th Century Underground Music – Book Review

Volcanic Tongue – A Time Travelling Evangelist’s Guide To Late 20th Century Underground Music by David Keenan

Published by White Rabbit 6th March 2025

“… Yet the basic tenets of making rock music – the beauty and power that comes from jamming on the group mind; the primal earth rhythms; the expectant anything could happen buzz of the amps; the sense of utopian striving that always comes from playing as a collective – still seem to me the foundation upon which all truly life-affirming music is made” – David Keenan, Volcanic Tongue

Well said that man! The author nicely evokes the range and ambition of this excellent book. Evangelical is the right word for the enthusiasm and knowledge that inform the writing in spreading the word about the many different kinds of music considered here, along the way invoking the timeless Other England seen by visionaries like William Blake and his descendants. It’s hard to know where to start in praising this massively stimulating collection of David Keenan’s musical writings. Going by the amount of music I’ve ordered while reading, it’ll soon overtake the Seventies Reggae book in generating Discogs biz. I’ve learnt a lot about established personal faves like Sonic Youth & PIL, at last, felt I’ve got some understanding of the previously hermetic Industrial scene, and been introduced to many new sounds and concepts.

David Keenan started his own Pastels-inspired ‘zine in 1988. This collection brings together writings from The Wire, Uncut, Mojo, Melody Maker, NME and more. It’s worth noting that he and his partner ran the Volcanic Tongue record shop in Glasgow from 2005-2015 – this man lives music! The collection is dedicated to Lou Reed, which certainly makes sense If that isn’t enough he’s also written “England’s Hidden Reverse – A Secret History of the Esoteric Underground”, focussing particularly on Psychic TV, Coil, Nurse With Wound and Current 93, all of them major players in the broader concepts of Volcanic Tongue. He’s also written several novels, two of which are concerned with music and underground scenes – “Industry of Magic and Light” (hippies, hallucinogens and light shows in small-town Scotland) and This is Memorial Device” (mythical post-punk group). The range of music covered here is fantastic – classic outsider sounds like Pere Ubu, the 13th Floor Elevators, Faust, Captain Beefheart, Sun Ra, in-depth looks at French and Japanese psychedelia and so much more. I was delighted to find a mention of my old mate “English psychedelic poet Brian Barritt” in the Kosmische Music chapter – serious research indeed.

This, for me, is where the book really scores. Many of the articles feature prolonged in-depth conversations between author and artist, which go way beyond the usual interview structures –“tell me about your next album, how was it in the USA” and so on. The chapters describing Faust’s rural isolation and full-on recording of everything in the house really catch the original experimental/no-limits vibe of psychedelia, and the desire to get free of US and Brit rock/blues influences. I’d never really got the deal with Einsturzende Neubaten, but they make a whole lot more sense after reading Blixa Bargeld’s description of the Berlin scene they came out of. There are equally revealing discussions with Shirley Collins (radical folk roots vs Folk nostalgia), Nick Cave, Derrick Bailey and Mayo Thompson, for example.

There are a series of articles and interviews that really join the dots linking the whole Throbbing Gristle – Psychick TV – Coil – Nurse With Wound – Carter Tutti nexus, which can come across as cliquey and self-enclosed, but David Keenan brings it all together, linking occult influences to dance floor beats by exploring the ideas and personalities involved. Again, the extended discussions with key participants are key – the section on the (Extended) Throbbing Gristle interpretation of Nico’s “Desertshore” album is fascinating. I’ve only scraped the surface of the range of musical and subcultural activity covered in this book. It reminds me of Rob Young’s majestic “Electric Eden”, the first mainstream book to bring together everything from the free festival scene, the Wicker Man, and the aforementioned Psychic TV, taking in Cecil Sharp and Vaughan Williams along the way.

My only beef is the lack of an index in a book over 350 pages long and covering such a range of material. Whether you’re already into the music here or looking to try something different, Volcanic Tongue is a great read guaranteed to send you off down many a cool rabbit hole.

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All words by Den Browne, you can read more on his author profile here:

• Source: NEWHD MEDIA