Album Review: Elegiac – Self Titled

Many years ago something called punk rock changed our lives forever. Opening minds and instilling a belief that the best music did not have to be mass produced, MOR dross pumped out from Radio 1 mid-afternoon.  Music was suddenly something you could produce and release yourself and, as a consequence, you could please yourself. It didn’t matter if 100 or 100 000 people liked it. Jump a couple of years and there was a move away from the drum/guitars/bass all played at breakneck speed as ‘post punk’ crept into our ears. Think back to albums such as The Pop Group’s ‘Y’, Cabaret Voltaire’s ‘Mix Up’, 23 Skidoo’s ‘Seven Songs’. Small numbers loved them on first listen. Many said “What the fuck is this?” but quickly changed their minds to “actually this is brilliant” when they really listened.

Elegiac is a ‘new’ collaboration between Wire’s Graham Lewis and poet Ted Milton (Blurt) who, together with soundscape artist Sam Burton, have produced an album that some will immediately love and that many will grow to love. Although we say ‘new’ collaboration Milton revealed that the album was complete in an interview with SomethingElse! back in 2017. So what do you get if you combine someone who has been responsible for ground-breaking releases such as Pink Flag with a prolific poet, avant-garde puppeteer and psych-funk saxophonist? The answer is an album full of ear-catching rhythms, unexpected, contorted brass and angsty, looping electronic sounds that scurry around your head occasionally making a sharp prick into your conscience. An album that is way off centre, strange, experimental and wonderful all at the same time. It’s an intense exploration into different soundscapes. Overlaying the beats are eerie, freakish tales of love (‘Vous Et Ici’)  and, on ‘So Far’, the various versions of wood that can be used to layer a boat. ‘The Swish’ is four and a half minutes of lumbering drum beats and agitating snippets of guitar. Almost an instrumental except for Milton’s ghostlike whispers of ‘Stay‘. ‘He Folds’ gives us over six minutes of intense experimental grooves with Milton chanting little more than “he folds”. But ‘He Folds’ is almost nine minutes long and it’s not until you crank the volume up to 100% that you realise there’s another two minutes of barely discernible sounds not unlike a constantly revolving wheel.

‘Elegiac’ can only be described as enthralling, vigorous, confident, seductive. It’s not for the background or for when your mates are round. It’s for a dark room, sitting still with no distractions and to be played loud. This album deserves to be really listened to and then, just like those classics from The Pop Group et-al it grows on you. Quickly. The hooks and grooves draw you in and then you can try and decide for yourself just what was going on in Milton’s head as he recited the overlying words. The press release states “It’s unlikely you’ll have heard anything quite like this before…” but if you were/are a fan of early Cabaret Voltaire, Cindytalk etc etc you’ll certainly ‘get’ Elegiac.

First listen = 2*. Give it time = 4*

Elegiac is released on March 26^th via Upp Records. It can be pre-ordered on bandcamp here.