Gradations of MorbidityQUEEN ELEPHANTINE
‘Kailash’
Named
after the mythical Himalayan peak on which ‘The Destroyer’ dwells in
the state of perpetual meditation, Kailash is the second full length
record from New York/Providence based Queen Elephantine, and going off
the perceptions of their recorded past it comes as quite a shock. Given
they’ve been involved in splits with bands like the Sons of Otis, one
would expect ‘Kailash’ to be a fuzzed out stoner/spacey riff driven
affair, when the opposite is in fact the case.
As a
whole piece of work ‘Kailash’ is actually quite a mellow, experimental
take on drone doom (although it’s difficult to say whether it’s even
that!). Take opening track Search For The Deathless State for example
which sets out the style for the rest of the album by using an
interesting mix of minimal, ritualistic, trance inducing guitar drone
over laid with interesting choral vocals and the odd spurt of mad
‘free’ percussion and creepy noises. As if that wasn’t stylistically
weird enough, they also manage to incorporate dreamy, Slint-esque
spoken word sections into the mix to their interesting ‘minimal drone’
formula. With that in mind it becomes clear that vocal-led minimalism
seems to have been a key feature in the writing of this album. The
culmination of this vocal use is The Vulture & The Creed which is
an interesting track that is based around vocal drone &
noise-scapes, reminding at times of Attila Csihar’s performances on
latter day sunn O))) releases interspersed with controlled, ambient,
yet noisy guitar work. While remaining minimal the writing on this
occasion never seems to lack interest and by the time the record
progresses through to the metallic, industrial swirl of Priest and the
Desert Sessions/QOTSA feel of Godblood the drift that is Khora comes in
calmly to wrap up the proceedings.
Kailash is one of those
‘mood’ records in the sense that; if you are in the mood for it then it
will engross you in a 70+ minute landscape of experimental drone and if
not then the repetitive nature of some of the structures and intra-song
style may become a little tiresome. Alas, this is an interesting album
with some nice ideas and is definitely one of the more interesting
drone based albums to come out in a while, even if it is more like
free-jazz-vocal-drift than your typical Earth tribute. But, maybe
that’s its selling point.
[7.5/10]
CHRIS NAUGHTON