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Elder, Reflections of a Floating World: Building on the Moment

Elder-Reflections-of-a-Floating-World

It would be impossible and improper to separate Reflections of a Floating World from the context of its predecessor. 2015’s Lore (review here) was a bold statement of arrival by Massachusetts trio Elder, a no-doubter Album of the Year, and a marked stylistic leap from 2011’s Dead Roots Stirring (review here) into a bright-toned and progressive vision of heavy rock and roll that even the 2012 Spires Burn/Release EP (review here) did not fully foretell. It paid off the potential that guitarist/vocalist Nick DiSalvo, bassist Jack Donovan and drummer Matt Couto have shown since their 2008 self-titled debut (discussed here), and though the six-track/67-minute Reflections of a Floating World doesn’t represent the same kind of broad stylistic shift overall, it nonetheless pushes further along the richly individualized path they found their last time out and expands both the sonic palette and the lineup itself in key ways.

Like LoreReflections of a Floating World arrives with lush, beautiful cover art by Adrian Dexter on Armageddon Shop and Stickman Records, and like Lore, it was recorded by Justin Pizzoferrato at Sonelab in Easthampton, MA (feature here), so listeners shouldn’t necessarily be surprised at some commonalities between the two records, but in composing and piecing together these tracks, Elder also brought in keyboardist/guitarist Mike Risberg — a bandmate of DiSalvo‘s in the side-project Gold & Silver, who released their debut, Azurite & Malachite (review here), in 2014 — who’ll also tour with the band as a fourth member, as well as Mike Samos, who contributed lap steel guitar, electric mandolin, theremin and other sources of flourish to the textures of tracks like “Staving off Truth” and the penultimate atmospheric stretch, “Sonntag”; essentially a five-man jam edited into a lengthy interlude between the band’s more common, fluid part-barrage process of songcraft. The additional arrangement elements were something hinted at in Lore‘s title-track, but it’s on Reflections of a Floating World that these ideas are more completely brought to fruition, and Elder are a more complete and, frankly, a better band for refusing to do anything other than make the songs they want to make by any means necessary.

That alone could be taken as a sign of the maturity that in part defines the course of Reflections of a Floating World, but the album’s prevailing sensibility comes through in the graceful manner in which it moves from part to part, song to song, while building toward a cohesive whole that offers the listener a guided immersion few acts in the US or elsewhere can match. They begin with a half-hour opening salvo of three extended tracks in “Sanctuary” (11:41), “The Falling Veil” (11:40) and “Staving off Truth” (10:43) before digging even further into proggy textures with “Blind” (13:39), “Sonntag” (9:01) and closer “Thousand Hands” (10:01), and the consciousness of the flow they craft isn’t to be understated. “Sanctuary” starts with guitar establishing a full-toned riff joined in seconds by bass and crashing drums and in under 20 seconds an album that will do nothing if not take its time to say what it wants to say is quickly in motion. One does find that Elder have grown more patient in their execution, but also more clever. They tease payoffs and turn elsewhere in “Sanctuary” to buck expectation; a sign of compositional confidence and the knowledge that their audience will follow them on their winding paths, which, if past is prologue, they of course will.

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Turning through gentler breaks, heavy roll and a vast-sounding lead, “Sanctuary” hits the six-minute mark and moves into a psychedelic stretch it will build from twice-over, and its poise in doing so becomes an important factor in the album as a whole — something that the slow, soundscaping intro of “The Falling Veil” takes up immediately. If “Sanctuary” was the rocking opener, “The Falling Veil” is where Elder introduce more of Reflections of a Floating World‘s progressive elements, with Risberg making himself known on Mellotron as the song begins its post-midpoint instrumental push into the plotted known-unknown, finding there a winding dose of riffing that brings a sudden stop and move into the drifting intro to “Staving off Truth,” which further works to unite the heft and the scope of presentation thus far brought to bear, and I’d gladly argue, succeeds in that, representing a moment of balance for Reflections of a Floating World and emphasizing in a not-overblown manner the way in which Elder have continued to develop over the last two years, expanding rather than remaking, but committed as ever to their sonic and stylistic growth, shown as much in the lush depth of their mix as in the sweeping current that runs under all of it.

Performance is also a factor in this. As crisp as Reflections of a Floating World sounds with the spaciousness in Couto‘s drums, the resonant push of Donovan‘s bass, Risberg and Samos‘ contributions and DiSalvo‘s alternately airy and dense guitar work and more-confident-than-ever-before vocals — he features in the initial verses of “Blind” in a braver way than he ever has — the album is vital in spirit. It explores, but doesn’t linger, and while their live show has always been somewhat rawer than their studio offerings, it’s clear Elder are retooling that balance somewhat as they revamp their lineup and expand their overarching scope as they do in the second half of this record. “Blind” is the longest inclusion at just under 14 minutes and starts with blown-out drums before moving into organ-topped rhythmic and melodic sway, a long and engaging instrumental midsection providing the crux and a winding finish easing into “Sonntag” with a dead stop similar to “Sanctuary” and “The Falling Veil” earlier. “Sonntag” starts quietly but pulses and quickly introduces its improvised-seeming course, which unfolds patiently as a languid, almost Euro-style prog jam marked out by guitar noodling over a steady line of bass and drums.

If there’s a point of utter departure for Elder on Reflections of a Floating World, “Sonntag” would be it, and though it would be strange to call a track that’s nine minutes long an interlude, the effect is basically the same: A moment for the listener to catch their breath before they head into closer “Thousand Hands.” It just so happens that with Elder, that moment lasts longer and finds the band adventuring into sonic territory they’ve never before covered. Go figure. They fadeout the jam and cap “Sonntag” with a drone before the shimmering guitar line that starts “Thousand Hands” launches, reviving the earlier momentum but still affected by the peaceful context of the stretch before it. One would expect “Thousand Hands” to be the payoff for Reflections of a Floating World as a whole, and it indeed does hit that mark in its late crescendo, but it also effectively summarizes the progressive ideology that is truly at heart in the narrative of the album: Elder mature, established, quickly becoming one of the most important American heavy bands of their generation.

That’s the story here. And if the question coming into Reflections of a Floating World was just how Elder would emerge from the considerable shadow cast by Lore, the answer is they emerge shining. Their aesthetic movement has always been forward-directed, and though it seemed like they found the answer they were looking for with their previous record in terms of sound, they’ve apparently embarked on an entirely different subset of questions. As a fan, I still have no idea what Reflections of a Floating World might portend for Elder‘s future, and I’d no more suggest that their next record might build directly off this one than I would’ve suggested this one would build off the last, but one way or another, three-piece or four-piece, proggy meander or crushing riffs, Elder remain a special band whose sound has only become more their own over time, and Reflections of a Floating World is another Album of the Year candidate that finds them at the to-date height of their collective power.

Elder, Reflections of a Floating World (2017)

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3 Responses to “Elder, Reflections of a Floating World: Building on the Moment”

  1. Beav says:

    Cannot wait for the full album. Expert review, sir.

  2. Queef McGee says:

    Lets be honest here, Elder is the best heavy rock band out there right now. There’s no one else in the genre that even comes close. I mean, take a look at all the horrible doom bands that get featured here on a daily basis. Thank goodness for Power Trip and Elder for single-handedly keeping the genre alive

  3. Robb says:

    Can’t wait for this release. The featured track here is mind blowing and the review is spot on with how the band has evolved. Stickman record handled the preorders with professionalism. When you preorder, you get a confirmation email with tracking info and everything. Much better than Ripple , Smallstone , Heavy Psych , Riding Easy , ect.. These labels could learn a thing from Stickman.

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