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Elephant9 - Elephant9 with Reine Fiske: Atlantis CD (album) cover

ELEPHANT9 WITH REINE FISKE: ATLANTIS

Elephant9

 

Jazz Rock/Fusion

3.84 | 48 ratings

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Mellotron Storm
Prog Reviewer
4 stars 4.5 stars. Norway's own ELEPHANT9 are back trampling everything and everyone in their path. This time they've brought along Swedish guitar legend (in my world he is) Reine Fiske to add his psychedelic and fuzzed out guitar to the mix. I guess this was just in case we weren't all freaked out enough by their first two studio albums. Yes i'm holding up my white flag, please take me prisoner !

We get two songs before Reine arrives so lets look at them first. "Black Hole" is a 9 minute ride into chaos as the drums pound with relentless precision as the bass digs deep and the organ just flat out spreads it's nastiness all over God's green earth. Not for the faint of heart people. It's even haunting towards the end just in case your hair wasn't yet standing up straight. "The Riddler" is more about atmosphere until it kicks in hard before 1 1/2 minutes. My God ! It does settle back and yet this is far from being anything close to calm as they continue to storm the soundscape. Man the drumming is so impressive and the organ is simply nasty and anything but normal. "Atlantis" is calm to open with floating organ-like atmosphere and more. Things start to build 2 minutes in it would appear but then it settles back. Beautiful stuff here as Reine's guitar cries out. A change before 5 minutes as a steady beat takes over as the organ and guitar continue. The guitar is almost screaming 7 minutes in as Reine starts to rip it up. This continues to the end.

"A Foot In Both" has Reine on nylon- string guitar while the bass player strums a 12 string acoustic on this one.Guitar and keyboards lead early. Cool stuff and fairly laid back too. Drums after 3 1/2 minutes help out. Good song. "Psychedelic Backfire" is slow to build but there's something evil about to burst forth you just know it. Dark is the word after 2 minutes. It's like waves of dark psychedelia coming down on us again and again until a change 5 minutes in. Growly organ, a beat, bass and guitar then start to lead but there's still no light. Great ending too in this amazing track. "A Place In Neither" is brighter and more alive as drums and electric piano standout in this short 2 minute tune. "Freedom's Children" opens with some excellent guitar and organ as the drums pound. So good. It settles back after 2 1/2 minutes then kicks in again quickly. Great sound ! Check out Reine after 5 1/2 minutes. Nice. This is intense the rest of the way like a runaway train.

Man i'd love to see these guys in concert with Reine on stage with them. My kind of music !

Mellotron Storm | 4/5 |

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