REVIEW: SHAMAN ELEPHANT – CRYSTALS (2016)

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What you see is what you get, kinda

The feeling of being born too late is one that is familiar to this reviewer. That feeling you get when you realise you missed out on everything you love, when you realise that you never saw Phil Lynott front Thin Lizzy, Bon Scott died when you were four – which by the way is the same year that Iron Maiden released their debut record.

Furthermore you missed out on Bruce Springsteen’s first tour of the UK, and to really put the tin hat on it, the only things you have lived through that could vaguely be called “movements” were Grunge and Nu Metal.

Yeah it’s a tough one, to be honest.

It’s a predicament that leaves you, essentially with two choices. You could punch your dad in the face for not meeting your mum earlier. That one is probably out, but you can always do what Shaman Elephant did and right that wrong by forming a band that sounds like it should be have been around in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

To be fair, that does “Crystals” something of disservice. Because the Norwegians (formed out of the same Bergen based scene that spawned the wonderful “Tiebreaker”) aren’t some bunch of clowns that don’t have an original thought of their own, and they are capable of some balls out rock n roll moments “IAB” being one such, and a thrilling piece of visceral music it is too. It’s just that for the most part of this sprawling and downright wonderful six tracker, SE sound like that they’d rather be in a Hammock in the sun in the midst of an acid trip ( ok this last bit might do them another disservice, but crikey it sounds blissed out).

If the name doesn’t give it away, then the cover might, and if you are still unsure, then about 20 seconds of the psychedelic title track will leave you in absolutely no doubt which ball park we are in.

All fuzzed up and with plenty of places to go, the getting on for an hour here is shot through with a class. “Shaman In The Woods” which not only features some stuff about “photons in flight” also has the key line that sums all this up: “What you see is what you get,” sings Eirik Sejersted Vognstølen, “but you might not get what you see.”

Not all of this is drug induced and hallucinogenic, its just that “Crystals” is best when it is. There’s an instrumental “Tusco”, then “The Jazz” isn’t actually jazzy at all, its actually pretty heavy, then pretty proggy, then just superb for a bit – all inside 10 minutes.

You always suspected that this was the type of album that would save the best for last, and it does. “Stoned Conceptions” does rather give its secrets away in the title, but it is still a 12-minute journey through everything that’s cool from The Doors, Pink Floyd, Led Zep and everything else in between. Twists, turns, thrills and spills a go-go, it is a fabulous song.

Indeed the only way to sum up “Crystals” is this: it is so hazy that you can get the munchies through your headphones just by listening to the damn thing. Which you should do. As soon as you can.

Rating 9/10

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