So far, you’ve heard a sitar and some synthesizers in Elephant Stone’s newest album, ASHA. You have also heard a dilruba and a tabla played underneath the keys; can you pick them out? How often do you come across these instruments in your music? All three instruments are played by Elephant Stone’s front man, Rishi Dhir.
The dilruba is played with a bow on frets and can easily create a similar cadence to a human singing voice. Rishi Dhir takes the opportunity to blend his own soft indie-style vocals with the rich and meditative sound he plays on the instrument. It is closely related to the sitar which Dhir has selected as his main instrument. The song Norwegian Wood by The Beatles was their first song to feature a sitar, if you’re now imagining that song, add in some bright piano, psychedelic guitar, and take some mushrooms, and you’ve just listened to your first Elephant Stone song.
You have made it to the second half of this incredible album. The songs: I Got a Pill, Broken Arrow, A Beautiful Fate, Sleepwalking in Prague, and Spirit, Take Me Away all tell the final story of this album. I Got a Pill is a fast-flowing easy to listen to acoustic style ballad, if you’re familiar with the industrial band Filter, I Got a Pill reminds me heavily of their 1999 track, Take a Picture. I’m almost waiting for Richard Patrick to jump in, instead, filled with a bright piano. Broken Arrow leans into that indie rock sound, while A Beautiful Fate is a true psychedelic musical trip.
The final three songs will take your breath away with their instrumentals. I seem to be repeating myself but if you have never listened to psychedelic rock, you must – and start right here with ASHA. My favorite song in the second half is the 8th track, Sleepwalking in Prague. It is reminiscent to early Pink Floyd levels of psychedelia, under Syd Barrett, it even has a Dark Side of the Moon reference halfway through, quoting the final lyric spoken on that album with … “the sun is eclipsed by the moon.”
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Out of every Canadian release this year, ASHA is my favorite hands down. Have you given the album a listen yet?