With lumbering Rage bass lines, stampeding mammoth-scale riffs and levitating guitar sonics, it takes a truly twisted genius to dream up this animalistic psych-rock. 

This is Elevant. 

And the genius behind it? Songwriter, guitarist, vocalist and boss of Elevant’s own label, Michael Edward. With multi-instrumentalists Tom Shand and Joe Hutchinson on drums and bass respectively in tow, the band originally began as a recording project in their home town of Liverpool.  Drawing on influences from hard rock to psychedelia, post punk to rock and roll, krautrock to blues, and whatever else had crossed their ears, these obsessive music fanatics decided to head into the studio to take a stab at making music that combined passions and influences. Inspired by the recording process of Steve Albini, the band emulated his approach to perform as tight-as-hell, one take cuts to capture the power, spontaneity and visceral thrill of a kick-ass live band in full flight.  Unsurprisingly, this only led to an insatiable itch to take their show out on the road. Now, with a autumn tour booked, Elevant is no longer just a recording project.

Whilst the desire to can an exhilarating live-sound on record has been the studio goal for many a band in the studio, Edward's meddling in the twisted arts of applying unconventional methods to his instruments sees them shoot for the breathtakingly ambitious echelons of the masters of sonic trickery like Thurston Moore (Sonic Youth) and Jonny Greenwood (Radiohead). On album opener Inhale/Exhale, Edward takes Moore's patented screwdriver-on-guitar melee and re-contextualizes it to forge a melody from the clash of tool on instrument. Experimentation is no less shy elsewhere. The pressure of relentless Krautrock rhythms, thunder-storm bass rumbles indebted to 90s grunge and lightning-clash riffs of 70s hard rock ensure that the album maintains an electrifying atmosphere throughout.  Lyrically, the band meditates on the pressures of modern life and its effects on individuals, addressing money, family, drug abuse and death with heartfelt honesty.

The record, self titled, was recorded, mixed and mastered over five days in April within the black walls of Western Recording Company in Liverpool by Kyle Western, and will be released on 04/09/2014.  The line-up of the band is now more fluid with members transiently coming and going, whilst Edward remains the nucleus (the Mark E, to The Fall if you will).
 

September Tour Dates

The Thirsty Scholar, Manchester, 11th September
The Lord Clyde, Newcastle, 13th September
The Fiddler’s Elbow, London, 17th September
The Continental, Preston, 19th September
The Hop, Sheffield, 20th September
The Eagle, Salford, 27th September