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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