Queen Elephantine : Yatra
Nazwa zespołu
Queen Elephantine
Tytuł płyty
Yatra
Type
EP
Data wpisu
Kwiecień 2008
Wydawcy
E-Release
Gatunek muzycznyStoner Doom
Tylu użytkowników posiada ten album2
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Artykuł @ gletscherwolf
Review of “Queen Elephantine – Yatra”. Released: December 2008.
In the Summer of 2008, Hong-Kong based Indrayudh Shome, front-man and founding member of QE, temporarily resettled in New York City, USA for reasons of study. This brought along great changes for the band, which had started out back in 2006 as a Hong-Kong high school outfit, at that time the band members averaged 16 years of age!
Although aged only 18 at the time of his moving to the US, the band that Indrayudh had set up with his friend and classmate Daniel Quinn had already five releases to their name, including the full length album “Surya” and a split with renowned stoner doomers Sons of Otis.
Once arrived in the USA, Shome quickly teamed up with classmate Rajkishen Naryanan (Vocals), but recreating the band as a whole proved more difficult and costed time. During live gigs a whole number of musicians were tried out until finally with Brett Zweiman, Chriss Dialogue and Andrew Jude Riotto a full new line-up was established.
“Yatra” was the first production of the reformed Queen Elephantine on American soil. The release contains two numbers only, “Droning Earth’ and “Chariot in Solemn Procession”, but they are both of so robust duration, (20:34 and 13.31 minutes), that not a few bands would have felt un-ashamed to call it a full length production. But true to the honesty for which Shome is known, it was called just what it is “EP”
Line-up, production, sleeve design and release.
For sure such an earthquake in line-up causes initial problems and especially on the first track “Droning Earth” one can hear that there is still some miscommunication between the various instrumentalists. But such is not obvious at all on the second track. The one thing I am somewhat confused about is who exactly are the bass players on the respective tracks, as no information is included with the release. To me it seems quite clear that there is a different bass player on both of the tracks, with me personally by far preferring the one on “Chariot in Solemn Procession”. Anyway, I managed to figure out that that indeed is Brett Zweiman. The bass player on “Droning Earth” could be either Riotto of Faraz Usmani, (the latter being rather elusive, the only thing one can find about him is that he indeed played in QE during 2008)
One might expect that self-producing the album, just months after a complete reshuffle following Shome’s resettling in New York, would have caused insurmountable troubles. Well, nothing of the case, -which proves what a genius in music Shome already is at a very young age -: I would classify the production quality of the first track as satisfactory to good and that of the second one as good to very good. It might have a lot to do with the rather good musical climate of NYC, but from here on the band went on to their follow up, the full length “Kailash”, which shows absolutely excellent production.
Queen Elephantine’s core members are deeply connected with the Hindu culture of India, and that often shows in their music, which, although in its essentials is clearly stoner doom, contains lots of ethnical elements. So, do the sleeve designs, and Yatra is no exception on this, depicting a naked goddess Kali, who has just beheaded a man, she had clearly lured into his own undoing as a lover. Scary and stunning and certainly belonging to the somber doom-drone like music. Extra refinement is brought into the picture as the whole foreground scene gives a shimmering shadow in the background. Wonderfully done and in for just as high rating as the music of the album!
Yatra was originally available as a internet release only and as such is still downloadable from the bands official website. It is said that later it was also made available as CD-EP on Concrete Lo Fi Records. Although the existence of a sleeve design makes this highly likely, I cannot confirm it for sure here as I have so far not been able to trace it down. Anyway, true or not it changes very little about the self produced status of the release as Indrayudh has said in interviews: “Concrete Lo Fi Records? Oh, well, that is basically me”
The music
As Queen Elephantine is a rather new and still relatively unknown outfit, I feel obliged to spent a few words on their musical concept in general before continuing with reviewing the tracks.
From their beginning as 16 year old high school kids in Hong Kong, a little more than 4 years ago now, the idea behind the sound of the band has been crystal clear and very few changes have been made in it so far. Whereas most bands of such extreme youthfulness for quite some time contend themselves with covering songs of others, QE immediately managed to lay down a unique concept by themselves. As far as I know they have never recorded a single cover.
The musical concept is firmly rooted in the most slow-going forms of stoner doom, but elements of sludge and drone are firmly present in the majority of compositions. Add to this a strong layer of ethnical Hindu influence, which finds its expression in sitar-like guitar work and traditional percussion instruments, and you have the sound of QE
Basically their songs can be divided into two distinct categories. The first one is closer to standard stoner doom and bases itself strongly on drums and extended down tuned solo guitar work, with bass guitar more in the background. On these kind of tracks traditional percussion is absent, guitar is only moderately distorted and sludge and drone elements are clearly recognizable.. The second type of compositions are much more inaccessible, creating an outspoken ethnical atmosphere with tabla and sitar sound, (Although no sitar is actually involved, it is all the result of effect boxes on the guitar). Both types of songs are generally long to very long in duration and create a hypnotic effect by sustained repetition.
Vocals on both types of songs are usually clear and undistorted but often venture into wailing and lamenting, and more recently, narrative elements. I needed time to get used to the style of the new vocalist Naryanan. In the beginning I thought them placed to much in the foreground and sounding to much self-confident, almost arrogant in some parts. But, the more I listen to them the more I recognize the hypnotic qualities and by now have developed a real liking for them.
Track 1: Droning Earth.
This very lengthy composition was originally recorded for an issue in the “Droning Earth” compilation series and thus logically features drone-like and sludgy elements more prominently than most other QE songs.
The track is outspokenly monotonous over its entire length with endless variations on the same theme. Main elements in the composition are Shome’s downtuned, dragging, guitar solo’s on a thick background of drums. Instrumental and vocal parts are equally very slow and repeatent, but, the brightness of the vocals makes for that it doesn’t get boring anywhere during the more than 20 minutes.
This song is an extreme example of the first type of QE compositions, so much that it could not be considered misfiling if this song is classified as drone rather than stoner doom. The track gives drummer Chris Dialogue plenty of chance to prove that he is fully compatible with the sound of the band. Towards the end his presence becomes more and more prominent with the drumming getting thicker, noisier and angrier.
As usual with the “QE type 1 songs” the bass is quite hidden in the sound structure, leaving the front to the solo guitar. Vocals are extended, loud and dragging, descending into lamenting style at places but remaining clear and easy to understand everywhere. Beautiful long piece, but I must add that the type 2 songs of the band are more to my personal liking. To this could be added that, although not bad, the production sure leaves something to optimize
Track 2: Chariot in Solemn Procession.
One third shorter than the first one, this is a typical Queen Elephantine type 2 composition and for me the best they have ever recorded. It makes crystal clear that the band has things to offer that so far no other outfit has.
From beginning to end there is the strong covering layer of ethnicity and not a few at first would think that they are listening to genuine sitar sound instead of effected guitar. In the intro part to this is added laid back, minimalized drums, spiced with whiffs of traditional percussion
Where the song goes into its main part, immediately the bass becomes the backbone of the sound, and it is played in a beautiful way! This style of music seldom features very complex bass work, rather repetitive themes, but here it is not what is exactly done, but how Zweiman does it: Tender and merciful are words that come to my mind in first instance when describing it. It perfectly blends in with the ethnical character of the song.
Drums, although put quite prominent in the mixing have mainly a rhythm function here and the real sturdy elements come from intermittent, short distorted rhythm guitar licks, but most of all from dominant strong vocals, which alternately are put thick in the foreground and put behind the bass with less volume
As sure as the earth circles the sun the song proceeds toward a rather sudden end. A real beauty, certainly well within the top 100 best songs I have ever heard.
Conclusions
Even when for this production it is not difficult for an expert to point out that there are some smaller flaws in production, especially on the first track and also that the new line-up shows some minor problems still in harmonizing up with each other, given the situation, (New environment, totally new line-up, self-production etc.), I can only award it with a full score 20/20. More experienced, older outfits in a more stable situation I might have given a point less, but producing something of this standard could be considered a major achievement for any band.
In the meanwhile the band has already released a full length follow up, Kailash, which shows clearly that the teething troubles of the New York QE have been largely overcome and with a man so driven, gifted and so given to music as Indrayudh Shome in front, one can only expect great things to come from them in the future.
Is the move to the US definite and is Queen Elephantine now an American band? Well, no, with such strong Asian roots it could never quite become that. Apart from such, Indy is only in the US for his study and with statements from the band itself that co-founder Quinn in fact has not left the band definitely, but only “entrusted Shome with its continuation while in the USA”, we can expect that one day they will be back at base.
In the Summer of 2008, Hong-Kong based Indrayudh Shome, front-man and founding member of QE, temporarily resettled in New York City, USA for reasons of study. This brought along great changes for the band, which had started out back in 2006 as a Hong-Kong high school outfit, at that time the band members averaged 16 years of age!
Although aged only 18 at the time of his moving to the US, the band that Indrayudh had set up with his friend and classmate Daniel Quinn had already five releases to their name, including the full length album “Surya” and a split with renowned stoner doomers Sons of Otis.
Once arrived in the USA, Shome quickly teamed up with classmate Rajkishen Naryanan (Vocals), but recreating the band as a whole proved more difficult and costed time. During live gigs a whole number of musicians were tried out until finally with Brett Zweiman, Chriss Dialogue and Andrew Jude Riotto a full new line-up was established.
“Yatra” was the first production of the reformed Queen Elephantine on American soil. The release contains two numbers only, “Droning Earth’ and “Chariot in Solemn Procession”, but they are both of so robust duration, (20:34 and 13.31 minutes), that not a few bands would have felt un-ashamed to call it a full length production. But true to the honesty for which Shome is known, it was called just what it is “EP”
Line-up, production, sleeve design and release.
For sure such an earthquake in line-up causes initial problems and especially on the first track “Droning Earth” one can hear that there is still some miscommunication between the various instrumentalists. But such is not obvious at all on the second track. The one thing I am somewhat confused about is who exactly are the bass players on the respective tracks, as no information is included with the release. To me it seems quite clear that there is a different bass player on both of the tracks, with me personally by far preferring the one on “Chariot in Solemn Procession”. Anyway, I managed to figure out that that indeed is Brett Zweiman. The bass player on “Droning Earth” could be either Riotto of Faraz Usmani, (the latter being rather elusive, the only thing one can find about him is that he indeed played in QE during 2008)
One might expect that self-producing the album, just months after a complete reshuffle following Shome’s resettling in New York, would have caused insurmountable troubles. Well, nothing of the case, -which proves what a genius in music Shome already is at a very young age -: I would classify the production quality of the first track as satisfactory to good and that of the second one as good to very good. It might have a lot to do with the rather good musical climate of NYC, but from here on the band went on to their follow up, the full length “Kailash”, which shows absolutely excellent production.
Queen Elephantine’s core members are deeply connected with the Hindu culture of India, and that often shows in their music, which, although in its essentials is clearly stoner doom, contains lots of ethnical elements. So, do the sleeve designs, and Yatra is no exception on this, depicting a naked goddess Kali, who has just beheaded a man, she had clearly lured into his own undoing as a lover. Scary and stunning and certainly belonging to the somber doom-drone like music. Extra refinement is brought into the picture as the whole foreground scene gives a shimmering shadow in the background. Wonderfully done and in for just as high rating as the music of the album!
Yatra was originally available as a internet release only and as such is still downloadable from the bands official website. It is said that later it was also made available as CD-EP on Concrete Lo Fi Records. Although the existence of a sleeve design makes this highly likely, I cannot confirm it for sure here as I have so far not been able to trace it down. Anyway, true or not it changes very little about the self produced status of the release as Indrayudh has said in interviews: “Concrete Lo Fi Records? Oh, well, that is basically me”
The music
As Queen Elephantine is a rather new and still relatively unknown outfit, I feel obliged to spent a few words on their musical concept in general before continuing with reviewing the tracks.
From their beginning as 16 year old high school kids in Hong Kong, a little more than 4 years ago now, the idea behind the sound of the band has been crystal clear and very few changes have been made in it so far. Whereas most bands of such extreme youthfulness for quite some time contend themselves with covering songs of others, QE immediately managed to lay down a unique concept by themselves. As far as I know they have never recorded a single cover.
The musical concept is firmly rooted in the most slow-going forms of stoner doom, but elements of sludge and drone are firmly present in the majority of compositions. Add to this a strong layer of ethnical Hindu influence, which finds its expression in sitar-like guitar work and traditional percussion instruments, and you have the sound of QE
Basically their songs can be divided into two distinct categories. The first one is closer to standard stoner doom and bases itself strongly on drums and extended down tuned solo guitar work, with bass guitar more in the background. On these kind of tracks traditional percussion is absent, guitar is only moderately distorted and sludge and drone elements are clearly recognizable.. The second type of compositions are much more inaccessible, creating an outspoken ethnical atmosphere with tabla and sitar sound, (Although no sitar is actually involved, it is all the result of effect boxes on the guitar). Both types of songs are generally long to very long in duration and create a hypnotic effect by sustained repetition.
Vocals on both types of songs are usually clear and undistorted but often venture into wailing and lamenting, and more recently, narrative elements. I needed time to get used to the style of the new vocalist Naryanan. In the beginning I thought them placed to much in the foreground and sounding to much self-confident, almost arrogant in some parts. But, the more I listen to them the more I recognize the hypnotic qualities and by now have developed a real liking for them.
Track 1: Droning Earth.
This very lengthy composition was originally recorded for an issue in the “Droning Earth” compilation series and thus logically features drone-like and sludgy elements more prominently than most other QE songs.
The track is outspokenly monotonous over its entire length with endless variations on the same theme. Main elements in the composition are Shome’s downtuned, dragging, guitar solo’s on a thick background of drums. Instrumental and vocal parts are equally very slow and repeatent, but, the brightness of the vocals makes for that it doesn’t get boring anywhere during the more than 20 minutes.
This song is an extreme example of the first type of QE compositions, so much that it could not be considered misfiling if this song is classified as drone rather than stoner doom. The track gives drummer Chris Dialogue plenty of chance to prove that he is fully compatible with the sound of the band. Towards the end his presence becomes more and more prominent with the drumming getting thicker, noisier and angrier.
As usual with the “QE type 1 songs” the bass is quite hidden in the sound structure, leaving the front to the solo guitar. Vocals are extended, loud and dragging, descending into lamenting style at places but remaining clear and easy to understand everywhere. Beautiful long piece, but I must add that the type 2 songs of the band are more to my personal liking. To this could be added that, although not bad, the production sure leaves something to optimize
Track 2: Chariot in Solemn Procession.
One third shorter than the first one, this is a typical Queen Elephantine type 2 composition and for me the best they have ever recorded. It makes crystal clear that the band has things to offer that so far no other outfit has.
From beginning to end there is the strong covering layer of ethnicity and not a few at first would think that they are listening to genuine sitar sound instead of effected guitar. In the intro part to this is added laid back, minimalized drums, spiced with whiffs of traditional percussion
Where the song goes into its main part, immediately the bass becomes the backbone of the sound, and it is played in a beautiful way! This style of music seldom features very complex bass work, rather repetitive themes, but here it is not what is exactly done, but how Zweiman does it: Tender and merciful are words that come to my mind in first instance when describing it. It perfectly blends in with the ethnical character of the song.
Drums, although put quite prominent in the mixing have mainly a rhythm function here and the real sturdy elements come from intermittent, short distorted rhythm guitar licks, but most of all from dominant strong vocals, which alternately are put thick in the foreground and put behind the bass with less volume
As sure as the earth circles the sun the song proceeds toward a rather sudden end. A real beauty, certainly well within the top 100 best songs I have ever heard.
Conclusions
Even when for this production it is not difficult for an expert to point out that there are some smaller flaws in production, especially on the first track and also that the new line-up shows some minor problems still in harmonizing up with each other, given the situation, (New environment, totally new line-up, self-production etc.), I can only award it with a full score 20/20. More experienced, older outfits in a more stable situation I might have given a point less, but producing something of this standard could be considered a major achievement for any band.
In the meanwhile the band has already released a full length follow up, Kailash, which shows clearly that the teething troubles of the New York QE have been largely overcome and with a man so driven, gifted and so given to music as Indrayudh Shome in front, one can only expect great things to come from them in the future.
Is the move to the US definite and is Queen Elephantine now an American band? Well, no, with such strong Asian roots it could never quite become that. Apart from such, Indy is only in the US for his study and with statements from the band itself that co-founder Quinn in fact has not left the band definitely, but only “entrusted Shome with its continuation while in the USA”, we can expect that one day they will be back at base.
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