Review: Elephant Stone new album Back Into the Dream

Start­ing with a base point of indie-psych, Cana­di­an out­fit Ele­phant Stone’s sound radi­ates out, mor­ph­ing along the way into oth­er gen­res. Rishi Dhir, the band’s front man, sitar and bass play­er plus pro­lif­ic song­writer, remains stead­fast­ly at the helm, con­tin­u­ing to steer their sound in mul­ti­ple direc­tions – not least of all the con­cept album,…

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Gourmet Gigs – favourite albums, EPs and singles of 2023

These are our favourite releas­es of 2023 – most­ly albums with a smat­ter­ing of EPs and sin­gles too, from folk to elec­tron­i­ca. The most mov­ing album of the year is the emo­tion­al Slow­dive release Every­thing is Alive. There are a few albums we did­n’t have time to include, one being False Lankum: those drone sounds…

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Elephant Stone at The Shacklewell Arms 2023

This was an evening fans had been antic­i­pat­ing for a few years – the return of Mon­tre­al psy­che­delia-lean­ing band Ele­phant Stone to UK shores. This, their only show here, took place at char­ac­ter­ful music venue The Shack­lewell Arms, mean­ing fans coun­try wide had no option but to trav­el to the Lon­don venue, a fact that…

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New single by Elephant Stone: La Fusée du Chagrin

New mate­r­i­al from Mon­tre­al psy­che­del­ic band Ele­phant Stone always gives my heart a lift. I was cap­ti­vat­ed when I first saw this band at The Lex­ing­ton at a psych night back in 2011, and a few nights lat­er at the much-missed Bull & Gate in Ken­tish Town. Rishi Dhir‘s sitar play­ing is mes­meris­ing and adds…

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Top albums, EPs and songs for 2020

Let’s go with the pos­i­tive. This year there has been a pletho­ra of amaz­ing new music from artists both well estab­lished and emerg­ing. For many peo­ple, lis­ten­ing to music has been a life­line to turn to in these trou­bled times. And with lock­down, some have been able to redis­cov­er the plea­sure of play­ing an album…

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Elephant Stone: powerful beauty of new album Hollow

Mon­tre­al psy­che­del­ic band Ele­phant Stone released their lat­est album Hol­low on Feb­ru­ary 14th. I first saw them at The Lex­ing­ton in 2011 and their stun­ning set remains etched on my mem­o­ry, the pow­er­ful and hyp­not­ic set clos­er Don’t You Know cement­ing an ongo­ing love for this band, and in par­tic­u­lar, Rishi Dhir’s thrilling sitar playing.…

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Best albums of 2019

These are the 2019 albums that I have on restric­t­ed-play mode, in case I over­do it. These are best played when you’re on your own. No dis­trac­tions and no play­ing them as mood music in the back­ground – who wants some ran­dom per­son to sud­den­ly start talk­ing to you just as you get to the…

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Eight favourite albums of 2015

Here are my top rec­om­mend­ed albums of 2015 in no par­tic­u­lar order. 1  Richard Haw­ley Hol­low Mead­ows A con­fi­dent col­lec­tion of beau­ti­ful tracks, Haw­ley’s voice at its most sub­lime­ly expres­sive. My favourite track is the non-bal­lad Which Way shall I go?, sexy with a touch of men­ace. Haw­ley’s per­for­mance at The Round­house a few weeks’ ago was one…

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Review: The See See – psychedelia with attitude at The Lexington

The See See were part of a swirly psy­che­delia night at The Lex­ing­ton on Pen­tonville Road two years ago, and they par­tic­u­lar­ly caught my atten­tion. (Also mem­o­rable were Cana­di­an band Ele­phant Stone whose music is enriched with Rishi Dhir’s mes­meris­ing sitar play­ing). Fast for­ward two years and we were back at The Lex­ing­ton last week for The…

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