All Night Lotus Party

The Volcano Suns' second album, All Night Lotus Party, continues the aggressive post-punk assault of their brilliant debut, The Bright Orange Years, with slightly more finesse, as former Mission of Burma drummer Peter Prescott shares creative input with guitarist Jon Williams and bassist Jeff Weigand. Album opener "White Elephant" begins things on an anthemic note with a number of surprises lurking soon after, including the rockabilly-inspired "Cans," the reflective "Room With a View," and the moody textures of the vaguely funky "Dot On the Map" and "Village Idiot," and the manic panic of "Ride the Cog." For a trio, the band's instrumental flourishes are unusually rich, attributable in part to the group's penchant for turning dissonant tones into rhythmic tension. The re-mastered and expanded edition includes eleven bonus cuts that show off an even looser side of the group with covers of the Beatles' "Polythene Pam," the Amboy Dukes' "Journey to the Center of the Mind," Spinal Tap's "Jazz Odyssey" and Leonard Nimoy's "Ballad of Bilbo Baggins" filling out the live recordings and outtakes.