It was released on October 10, 1995, through Warner Bros., and is often considered their most experimental album,[3] mixing elements from such varied styles as death metal, jazz, Arabic music, musique concrète, easy listening, klezmer, and tango.

The album's title refers to the name of the yacht of the same name featured in the James Bond film Thunderball, meaning "flying saucer" in Italian.

[4] Disco Volante would be founding member Theo Lengyel's final album with the band, leaving shortly after the tour due to "artistic differences".

"[6] Regarding the writing process of the album, bassist Trevor Dunn wrote on his website: Trey was listening to his own collection of weird stuff as well—exotica, electro-acoustic, noise, middle eastern, techno.

Although much of the album's lyrics are limited ("Carry Stress in the Jaw", "Phlegmatics"), in non-English languages ("Desert Search for Techno Allah", "Violenza Domestica"), or constructed from nonsense words ("Ma Meeshka Mow Skwoz", "Chemical Marriage"), the lyrical content of Disco Volante is, as on their eponymous debut album, both dark and comedic.

Lyrical themes include social isolation ("Everyone I Went to High School With Is Dead"), bruxism[7] ("Carry Stress in the Jaw"), child abuse ("After School Special"), domestic violence ("Violenza Domestica"), the "gradual decline of the human body due to social interactions"[7] ("Phlegmatics"), masturbation ("Backstrokin'"), and martyrdom ("Merry Go Bye Bye").

Disco Volante spawned a number of officially unreleased demos (circulated on internet peer-to-peer sharing networks): "Ma Meeshka Mow Skwoz",[8] "Coldsore"[9] and "Spy".

[10] "Coldsore", one of woodwind player and keyboardist Clinton McKinnon's first compositions for the band, would be adapted into the "Love on the Event Horizon" section of "The Bends".