ELEPHANT STONE – THE THREE POISONS

7/10

ELEPHANT STONE - THE THREE POISONS

Frontman Rishi Dhir, drummer Miles Dupire, and guitarist Gabriel Lampert are Montreal’s Elephant Stone who return with their third album ‘The Three Poisons’ a blend of retro pop, indie and traditional Indian music. The inspiration for this album came when Rishi Dhir received a call from his brother in law saying he had found a box of vinyl and would he like to take his pick before he offloaded the rest to his local record store.

Rishi said, “What I found in that box was beyond anything I could have imagined. Yes, there was Echo’s “Songs to Learn & Sing”, but there was also a 12” single release of The Happy Mondays “Step On” and “Kinky Afro”, Spaceman 3 “Recurring”, The Stone Roses “Waterfall” and “One Love”, New Order’s house masterpiece “Technique”, Ride’s “Today Forever”, and the list went on. I was dumbfounded as to why someone would abandon such treasure. Were they starting off the New Year by purging themselves of their material possessions? Payback from a wounded lover? Divine intervention? Whatever it was, I lucked out and began reacquainting myself with Shaun, Rowetta, J Spaceman, Sonic Boom, Ian, Bernard, Hooky, et al.”

After some heavy listening the result is a heavy groovier collection of psychedelic sonic gems.
Opening track the energetic ‘Motherless Child-Loves Not For War’ begins with their trademark sitar and crazy drumming. ‘Knock you From YR mountain’ with its bouncing bass over a funky drumbeat, “Yeah Yeah Yeah coming up your mountain”, is the first obvious Manchester influence with Malika Tirolien on backing vocals.

More Rowetta inspired vocal gymnastics add to a great ending to ‘All is Burning’. ‘Child of Nature’ is a highlight, an amazing track with sitar, a big riff and bouncing bass throughout, which leads into the throbbing bass and cool riff on ‘Living For Something’. Album track ‘Three Poisons’ channels ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’ with a fast banging drum beat before ‘Between The Lines’ brings the album to a relaxed close.
Its hard to believe that a band so far away from the UK, sound more authentic with this brand of retro rock than say, Beady Eye.
The Three Poisons’ is a fantastic record and highly recommended, I dread to think what it would have sounded like if there had been some Nickelback records in the box.

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Xsnoize Author
Mark Millar is the founder of XS Noize and looks after the daily running of the website as well as hosting interviews for the weekly XS Noize Podcast. Mark's favourite album is Achtung Baby by U2.

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