Volcanic Tongue is the first comprehensive collection of music writings by Scottish author and critic David Keenan, a figure whose work has helped define how we talk about the post‑punk, noise and psychedelic underground of the last four decades. From his early fanzine days in the late 1980s, inspired by The Pastels and Glasgow/Airdrie DIY networks, through key stints at Melody Maker, NME, Uncut, Mojo, The New York Times and especially The Wire, Keenan has developed a style that treats records as portals and scenes as complex ecosystems rather than footnotes. This volume distils that long trajectory into a sprawling but coherent atlas of late‑20th‑century otherness in sound.

Named after and drawing energy from the record shop/mailorder operation he ran with Heather Leigh in Glasgow between 2005 and 2015, Volcanic Tongue brings together reviews, long essays and in‑depth interviews that map a dense constellation of artists and practices. Keenan’s conversations range from Nick Cave to members of Coil and Throbbing Gristle, from krautrock pioneers like Faust to English folk lodestar Shirley Collins, from Kevin Shields of My Bloody Valentine to Einstürzende Neubauten. Alongside these set‑piece dialogues sit discographical deep dives into the catalogues of Sonic Youth, John Fahey and others, as well as obsessive engagements with free jazz and personal touchstones such as Pere Ubu, Metal Box‑era Public Image Ltd, Sun Ra and John Martyn. Throughout, Keenan writes less as a neutral observer than as an involved participant, making a case for underground music as both a spiritual practice and a parallel history of the 20th century. The result is a book that functions as a love letter, a primer and a provocation, inviting readers to re‑hear the so‑called margins as the main story.