New music review: Elephant Stone (Hidden Pony) | Montreal Gazette

Photo courtesy of Mauvaise Influence

With its self-titled sophomore release, Montreal?s Elephant Stone neatly sidestep the ?difficult second album? syndrome and deliver instead what is more like a mission statement.

Not that the group?s debut, The Seven Seas, released in 2009, was tentative. Stylistically varied, smartly arranged and melodically arresting, it grabbed enough acclaim to become a Polaris Prize nominee.

By comparison, the new disc is darker and denser, inviting attentive listens at serious volume to crack the surface. and once you really hear the harsh beauty at this album?s heart, it becomes clear that this is a stone-cold psychedelic marvel.

As usual, the group?s leader and songwriter, Rishi Dhir, walks the parallel paths of jangly pop and lava-lamp anarchy ? aided, in no small way, by guitarist Gabriel Lambert, who sometimes goes all Jorma Kaukonen with howling solos and peals of sonic texture, notably on the assertive opener Setting Sun, which could fit on a neo-psych Nuggets anthology.

Lambert?s greatest moment, and the album?s, comes on the almost nine-minute explosion The Sea of Your Mind, which tosses in everything but the kitchen sink: phased vocals, a sitar break by Dhir, a no-nonsense riff and swelling walls of roaring guitar. In your imagination, you can see the liquid lightshow projections behind the band asthey keep it going live past the half-hour mark.

A Silent Moment is the disc?s other standout track, with the vocals of classical singer Pandit Vinay Bhide sharing space with Dhir?s bass line time-traveling from somewhere around Revolver.

When psychedelic music first became part of the rock landscape, artists generally tempered their experimental ambitions with a nod to the Top 40 charts, and this album follows that time-worn pattern. The Be My Baby backbeat in Hold Onto Your Soul and the chiming catchiness of Love the Sinner, Hate the Sin are as representative of this strobe-light voyage as the backwards guitar that creates Heavy Moon?s hypnotic drone.

The spirit of `67 lives on in these tracks. But then, it never really went away, did it?

Rating: **** and 1/2

Podworthy: The Sea of Your Mind

Elephant Stone will be available Feb. 5. Elephant Stone performs Feb. 15 at 9:30 p.m. at Divan Orange, 4234 St. Laurent Blvd. Tickets cost $10, plus a $2 charge if purchased in advance. Go to http://indiemontreal.ca/elephant-stone-w-guests.

Here?s the video for Heavy Moon:

For something on the poppier side of the band?s repertoire, this is Love the Sinner, Hate the Sin:

Click here to check out the band?s Web site.

Elephant Stone performs Feb. 15 at 9:30 p.m. at Divan Orange, 4234 St. Laurent Blvd. Tickets cost $10, plus a $2 charge if purchased in advance. Go to http://indiemontreal.ca/elephant-stone-w-guests.

And last, but far from least, watch for our feature interview with Rishi Dhir on Jan. 29 in the Gazette?s print edition and at montrealgazette.com.

Bernard Perusse

Twitter: @bernieperusse

Source: http://blogs.montrealgazette.com/2013/01/26/new-music-review-elephant-stone-hidden-pony/

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