Elfin Saddle - Ringing For The Begin Again (Constellation)
4/5
By: Matt Cole
I read an article recently the upshot of which was that the death of the album began with the compact cassette. The argument went to the heart of the listening experience itself, reasoning that with vinyl you were more likely to sit and listen to an entire album, giving it your full attention much like you would a film or a good book. But with the advent of portable technology, music for the masses has become wallpaper, pretty noise to soundtrack whatever else we're doing at the time.
Ringing For The Begin Again by Elfin Saddle forces you to stop what you're doing and bloody well listen. The overall experience fills your attention to the point that if you tried to get on with daily life as it played in the background you'd probably have a fatal accident.
I am not a lover of folk music. I find it precious and pretentious at worst, insipid at best. From the opening whining strings of 'The Bringer', alarm bells started ringing and I was concerned this was the beginning of another finger in the ear "aye-diddly-aye" opus.
However as with most of the songs on Ringing For The Begin Again, what starts out as one thing inevitably evolves and transforms into something very different over the course of its duration. Traditional Japanese poems woven into cyclical soundscapes resemble Akira Kurosawa as scored by Johnny Greenwood.
'Hammer Song' sounds like a working song sung by insane Amish barn builders and features the most surprising use of a tuba I think I've ever heard. Having said that any use of a tuba outside of a Military Marching Band is surprising isn't it?
Created by "partners in life and art" Canadian Jordan McKenzie and Japanese Emi Honda, Elfin Saddle comes across as much an experiment in painting pictures via sound as they do a band. Disturbing album closer 'The Ocean' see-saws along on a tide of squeeze-box, cello and scraping sounds so evocative of a squally sea that you're almost left nauseous, until waves of cymbals come crashing in and carry you off.
What's surprising about all this is that Ringing For The Begin Again deftly avoids pretension purely because it's so much fun to listen to. Just don't try playing it while driving, you'll probably cause a pile-up.
Artists in this article: Elfin Saddle
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