Joe Volk Releases Primitive Energy

“Primitive Energetics” (sic) is the third solo album from Bristol-native and Berne-resident Joe Volk, together with his band Naiare. “Primitive Energetics” was released on Glitterhouse Records /Irascible on 24 April 2020 – and it is without the shadow of a doubt one of the most gripping albums that’s going to come out this year!

Joe Volk was the singer of both the extreme rock band Gonga as well as Crippled Black Phoenix when he was signed to Invada Records, the Bristol-based experimental label started by Portishead-founder Adrian Utley, as a solo artist. He left Gonga in 2007, and Crippled Black Phoenix five years later, re-emerging in 2016, now signed to Glitterhouse Records, with a second solo album, “Happenings and Killings”. On the tour in support of that album, Volk was accompanied by two Bernese musicians, drummer Thys Bucher and bassist Jürg Schmidhauser. Their blend of talents worked so well that Volk retained their services to work on the record that was to become “Primitive Energetics”. Other musicians involved in the recording were guitarist Thomas Fahrni, accordionist extraordinaire Mario Batkovic (another Invada artist, incidentally), percussionist Julian Sartorius, Matt Williams (BEAK), and Jim Barr (Portishead).

Joe Volk’s style is a singularly haunting blend of minor-chord, slow-motion rock that can be both profoundly quiet and righteously loud. Strange noises, quicksilver accordion riffs, a drum machine and odd turns of melody also play their role in this thrillingly idiosyncratic album.

Joe Volk
Glitterhouse Records
Irascible