If we’re lucky, this is a thing we’ll see much more of in 2021. Band, going to a place, playing music. In the case of oft-traveled drone experimentalists Queen Elephantine, it’s to Mount Moriah Cemetery on the Southwestern edge of Philadelphia, and what they’re doing there is improvising a 26-minute piece titled “Kali Puja” in reference to the Hindu festival of the same name happening around when the video was recorded last November. As one might expect given the scope of Queen Elephantine‘s work, it dives deep into meditative heavy psychedelia is due fashion from the band that offered their latest LP, Gorgon (review here), in 2019 through Argonauta Records and Atypeek Music, and brought a series of EP releases to bear in the Pandemic Year in lieu, of course, of live shows.
Led as always by founding guitarist/sometimes vocalist Indrayudh Shome, Queen Elephantine here operate as a four-piece in organic fashion and they get a solid groove going over which Shome and fellow guitarist Brett Zweiman space out respectively with leads, urgent angularity and various exploratory effects runs. It’s jazz, straight-up, but with the influences it’s working under, still duly heavy in the drums and able to affect an atmosphere in the outdoor setting. The video weaves in footage of Kali, and while I don’t know if the band’s permits were necessarily in order, the music certainly is, even if the ‘order’ is working in its own number system. That’s nothing new for Queen Elephantine, and frankly, anyone who’s ever listened to the band before should expect nothing less.
“Kali Puja” and another jam recorded the same day will be released on cassette through Misophonia Records this summer, and Queen Elephantine also have a collaborative work with Russian throat-singing outfit Phurpa that will be out May 4 through 4iB Records in Singapore, and on tape through Misophonia and DL on Atypeek Music.
Enjoy the clip and the journey:
Queen Elephantine, “Kali Puja” Live at Mount Moriah Cemetery, Nov. 2020
After closing 2019 on a high note with the release of the album Gorgon on Argonauta Records and a supporting tour, all plans for 2020, including a European tour, were brought to a halt by the pandemic, and practice was suspended.
In November 2020, after more than six months apart, QUEEN ELEPHANTINE assembled at Philadelphia’s historic Mount Moriah Cemetery to perform a live free improvisation for the spirits on the auspicious day of Kali Puja.
This and another cut from the session will be given a limited edition cassette release on Misophonia Records (UK) this summer.
Posted in Whathaveyou on August 5th, 2020 by JJ Koczan
No doubt calling the series ‘Drones Against Lethargy’ would’ve been too obvious for the likes of Queen Elephantine, but Tribute to Atrophos makes the point just the same as a title, and with the advent of Vol. III out now, they’re certainly living up to the standard they set in terms of not being apathetic. The improvisation-based experimentalist troupe continue to mine the out-of-normal and return to ground with a style that is as much drone as it is aural spiritualism and still somehow heavy regardless of whatever volume it happens to be operating with at any given time. Music of presence, for lack of a better way to say it. Their recordings are almost always raw, and this one is too, but the effect of making you wish you were in that room is palpable, and for me, that’s what it’s always been about with them. They remain undervalued.
The PR wire brought words:
Psychedelic Doom Drone Rituals: QUEEN ELEPHANTINE Third Installment Tribute To Atrophos Online Vol. III of New EP Series Online
Queen Elephantine returns with three new EP’s in a digital series titled Tribute To Atrophos. The illustrious psychedelic avantgarde collective was formed in Hong Kong in 2006 by Indian musician Indrayudh Shome and wandered through many cities before finding its current home base in Philadelphia, USA.
The post-apocalyptic global sound of Queen Elephantine is both heavy and transcendent, informed by everything from doom, drone, noise, krautrock, free jazz, and spiritual and subversive sounds from all over the world.
Besides several studio albums, the band has released a number of splits, including with Sons of Otis and Elder, and have recently finished a collaborative album with the Russian ritualists Phurpa.
In observance and tribute to this period of global atrophy, they present a collection of improvisations recorded in the months following the release of their last LP Gorgon in November 2019 on Argonauta Records and Atypeek Music.
Posted in Reviews on December 11th, 2019 by JJ Koczan
As a creative unit, Queen Elephantine seem to take particular delight in contrasting ritual and experimentalism. Nomadic in geography and decreasingly so but still somewhat amorphous in contributors around founder/guitarist/vocalist Indrayudh Shome and drummer-of-long-standing Nathanael Totushek — though percussionist/vocalist Matthew Becker, Tanpura player/sometimes guitarist Srinivas Reddy, and vocalists Ian Sims and Samer Ghadry (who’ve also handled percussion and guitar, respectively, in the past) have become something of a steady presence — the group which in its latest incarnation is based at least on Shome‘s part in Philadelphia also includes bassist Camden Healy and returning guitarist Brett Zweiman, as well as synth from former Elder drummer Matt Couto, present Gorgon on Argonauta Records and Atypeek Music. It is the sixth Queen Elephantine full-length and arrives following Kala (review here), which was their label debut on Argonauta in 2016. With it come four extended tracks that hearken to the contrast noted in the outset: “Mars” (13:02), “Unbirth” (9:59), “To See Eyes” (10:12) and “Mercury” (10:14). It is by no means the band’s first consort with mythology and extended forms, and after 2013’s Scarab (review here) saw them discover a more dronely, meditative course, Kala pushed further just as Gorgon does once again.
So how can a band be both reliable and unpredictable? Easy: they’re reliably unpredictable. You never really know going into a Queen Elephantine record what you’re going to get, but you can rest assured it’s not going to sound like anything else, and sure enough, Gorgon doesn’t. Even as, with multiple singers at play throughout much of it, adding to the overarching droned-out feel, Gorgon is perhaps Queen Elephantine‘s most Swansian outing up to this point in their career, it’s also singly their own, basking in an identity that comes through Shome‘s own lo-fi production (Billy Anderson mastered) and willful abandonment of traditional verse/chorus structure in favor of songcraft as an outward linear journey, an absolute going that doesn’t so much actively try to return as to follow a drifting and sometimes tidal-feeling pattern, surging and receding, ebbing and flowing, building, crashing, rolling out again. Even in their most straightforward early work, Queen Elephantine have never been a particularly accessible band. Their material is always challenging, and reliable in being more concerned with its own expression and journey than with a given listener’s ability to keep up or with placating an audience.
That very much remains true on Gorgon, as “Mars,” which is both opener and longest track (immediate points) opens with waves of drone and the eventual arrival of a chanting vocal pattern that will return throughout much of the album as it unfolds. These wails become an essential part of the record’s character, and one assumes it’s Shome, Sims and Ghadry together singing out. On “Mars,” they’re surrounded by winding lead guitar, live-sounding drums and at least two layers of synth/drone, so there’s no shortage of things happening, yet with the rawness of production there’s still something minimal about the proceedings that would seem to have carried over from pieces of Kala and more particularly Scarab before Gorgon. The rhythmic guitar of “Unbirth” seems to join the percussive march happening and is willfully, almost defiantly, repetitive — also a significant source of the Swans comparison above — but builds to as close to a wash as I’ve ever heard from Queen Elephantine, psychedelic and immersive with the forward rush of synthesizer and the fragmentation of that guitar line, which morphs and readjusts itself into a different plod, all the more resolved with resurgent vocals overtop. But it’s with “To See Eyes” that the more minimalist feel comes through, and particularly in the second half, which isn’t by any means leaving empty space, but in the setup for a guitar freakout to come, departs for a minute or two into a vast dronescape that is little short of breathtaking.
And when the guitar kicks back in after the seven-minute mark, well, you’ll know it when you hear it. Noise ensues, and what construction there was — and I don’t doubt there was some, even if it was steadfast in its refusal to follow familiar patterns — is pulled apart. I haven’t had the benefit of a lyric sheet to guess at themes or anything like that — often the chants seem more intended to add to the overarching atmosphere than to deliver a pointed message, but perhaps that’s my own misinterpretation — but there are no words as “To See Eyes” bleeds directly into “Mercury” anyhow, the nodding finisher picking up with a more active and plodding progression, guitar and synth adding to the liquefied feel of the outward processional. A noisy solo takes hold and a clear verse emerges from it after three minutes in as patterns are established in the ethereal, which can only mean that departure isn’t far off. Sure enough, Queen Elephantine are soon embroiled in the greater reaches of Sonic Elsewhere, though there’s something particularly grungey about the guitar tone as they go. In psychedelic ritual fashion, they once again pull the track apart at the seams, but this time reemerge from the noise with a verse and final build to a crescendo paying off Gorgon as a whole before giving over to a last burst of feedback.
Isn’t it time to start calling Queen Elephantine jazz? Are we there yet? Much as the gorgons turned those who gazed upon them into stone — the most famous, of course, being Medusa — Gorgon‘s own conversation with immortals would seem to have more to do with Alice Coltrane than Ancient Greece, at least from a sonic standpoint. It’s easy enough to get why they’re underappreciated. True experimentalists often are by a wider audience. But in terms of style and forward-thinking expressive and ambient weight, Queen Elephantine stand apart now and have for some time from those who one might otherwise consider their peers, and as they exist between worlds of the heavy underground and the avant garde, it seems all the more apparent how laudable and unbending their commitment to their own continued growth is. Is it indulgent? Oh yeah. Most definitely. Gorgon isn’t easy listening by any stretch, and even at a manageable 43 minutes, it can feel grueling in the reaches of “Unbirth” or the near-violent deconstruction of “To See Eyes,” but it’s not meant to be easy — on you as a listener or on them as artists. It is meant to exist in that perpetual contradiction between ritual and experiment, taking the familiar and reshaping it into something almost unrecognizable. I wouldn’t dare to predict Queen Elephantine‘s future, where they might go from here in sound or otherwise, but that ethic is at their core, and it seems only fair to expect it to stay there for as long as they’re a band. So be it.
Posted in Whathaveyou on October 28th, 2019 by JJ Koczan
The new Queen Elephantine album, Gorgon, is out Nov. 8 through Argonauta Records and Atypeek Music, and the night before, they’ll begin a Northeastern run to support the release, playing Philly and Baltimore and Richmond before turning back north to Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut and Rhode Island, closing out in scenic Montclair, New Jersey. The Connecticut show is particularly notable since I think it’s their first time there and they’ll share the stage with local largesse-bringers Sea of Bones which, well, if you ever had a mind to have your entire being swallowed by tone at a gig, that might just be the night to make it happen. Also nifty that Matt Couto of Elder and Kind is sitting in on percussion (he also plays synth on the record, so there’s that) for the run alongside founding guitarist/vocalist Indrayudh Shome and a seemingly expansive cast of cohorts.
An entirely underrated band whose work genuinely deserves more attention than it’s ever gotten to this point. They should tour more, but hey, maybe this is a start.
They posted the dates on thee social medias as follows:
In two weeks we hit the road to celebrate the release of our new album GORGON, which drops November 8th on Argonauta Records and Atypeek Music.
We’re playing with amazing artists throughout including Brian Chase of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs doing a solo “Drums & Drones” set in Brooklyn, our cosmic friends darsombra, the ten-ton thunder of Sea of Bones, Azonic (mems of Khanate and Blind Idiot God), Baltimore heavies BLACK LUNG, noise rockers tile and Hex Machine, and in Providence the dirt royalty of The Hammer Party, and the otherworldly drone violence of Rectrix (Pippi Zornoza) and Gyna Bootleg (Steph Nieves).
The core lineup will be Indrayudh Shome (guitar/vocal), Nathanael Totushek (drums), Camden Healy (bass), Brett Zweiman (synth), Matthew Couto (percussion), with appearances from Samer Ghadry, Ian Sims, Matthew Becker, Derek Fukumori, and Srinivas Reddy.
NOVEMBER 2019 7 – Philadelphia PA (Century) 8 – Baltimore MD (The Crown) 9 – Richmond VA (Wonderland) 10 – Harrisburg PA (JB Lovedraft’s) 14 – Brooklyn NY (Sunnyvale) 15 – Hamden CT (The Cellar on Treadwell) 16 – Providence RI (AS220) 17 – Montclair NJ (The Meatlocker)
Posted in Whathaveyou on September 27th, 2019 by JJ Koczan
Nov. 8 is the release date for the new Queen Elephantine album, Gorgon, and if you perchance think that isn’t information vital to your day, you should get yourself a handle on the streaming track from the thing, called “Mars,” that you can hear at the bottom of this post. Now based in Philly as much as they’ve ever been based anywhere, the experimentalist troupe led by guitarist/vocalist Indrayudh Shome dig well into their jazz-meets-drone-doom ritualizing in full force and by force I mean the slow momentum of lava over landscape.
I haven’t heard it, but given their history I’d not at all count on any one song to represent the entirety of a Queen Elephantine record, even if the central methodology stays the same across the span, which of course isn’t guaranteed either. Doesn’t feel like too much of a leap to say “Mars” bodes well for the general sound of what might surround it, however. I’ve made more daring speculations in my time, and the band have for sure earned some trust over the years.
They’re on the road in November around the release. Info and dates follow:
Experimental Psych Doom rockers QUEEN ELEPHANTINE Unleash Album Details + First Single!
Gorgon coming this November on Argonauta Records!
The avant-garde post-apocalyptic rock unit Queen Elephantine have revealed the first details about their forthcoming, sixth studio album, titled Gorgon. Set for a release on November 8th via Argonauta Records, Gorgon’s dissonant riffs will pull you down a river of unearthly atmospheres, guided by the incantations of sardonic fakirs, unravelling their final sermon before the cosmos combusts. High recommended for fans of acts alike Swans, OM, Circle or Earth, this is a trip through hypnotic molasses grooves – drawn from psychedelia, doom, drone, noise rock as well as free jazz and sacred music from around the world. Formed in 2006 in Hong Kong and currently based in Philadelphia, USA, Queen Elephantine is a nebulous worship of heavy mood and time, who already left their big stamp in the current heavy and psych rock scene. Queen Elephantine have released five albums to date as well as splits with Elder or Sons of Otis.
Today the experimental music collective has shared the cover artwork, tracklist and a first track taken from Gorgon with us. Listen to Mars right HERE!
[ Artwork by Tsem Rinpoche & Nathanael Totushek ]
Gorgon Tracklisting: 1. Mars 2. Unbirth 3. To See Eyes 4. Mercury
Gorgon was produced and mixed by guitarist and vocalist Indrayudh Shome, and mastered by Billy Anderson. In support of their new album, with an LP and CD pre-sale coming soon on Argonauta Records and digital album release with Atypeek Music, Queen Elephantine will embark on a US Northeast Tour this Fall, make sure to catch their mesmerizing live shows at the following dates:
11/7 – Philadelphia PA – Century 11/8 – Baltimore MD – The Crown 11/ 9 – Richmond VA – Wonderland 11/10 – Harrisburg PA – JB Lovedraft’s 11/14 – Brooklyn NY – Sunnyvale 11/15 – New Haven CT – The Cellar on Treadwell 11/16 – Providence RI – AS220 11/17 – Montclair NJ – The Meat Locker
Album Line-Up: Indrayudh Shome: Guitar, Vocals Nathanael Totushek: Drums Camden Healy: Bass Brett Zweiman: Divine Mosquito Guitar Samer Ghadry and Ian Sims: Vocals Matthew Becker: Vocals, Percussion Matthew Couto: Synthesizers Srinivas Reddy: Tanpura
Posted in Whathaveyou on March 14th, 2019 by JJ Koczan
Somehow it’s all the more appropriate that as Queen Elephantine constantly seem to be on a search in terms of sound and have for the last decade-plus set about an exploration of aesthetic expression, band founder Indrayudh Shome is likewise restless in terms of geography. Any given release might find him somewhere on the East Coast of the US, or in Hong Kong, or Calcutta, or wherever else his apparently wandering spirit might take him. Currently? Philadelphia. Which makes sense if you think about it.
Queen Elephantine have a run of tour dates set for next month stretching out across the Northeast in the company of Shadow Witch and It’s Not Night: It’s Space, among others, and whether they’re playing basements or art galleries, the band’s psychedelic drone remains underrated for its reach and overall quality. They’re previewing a track from the upcoming album, Gorgon, that you can stream at the bottom of this post, and if you’ve got a minute, it’s a like an exit sign for your conscious mind. Tune in, trance out.
Gorgon will be their second album for Argonauta behind 2016’s Kala (review here) and their sixth overall. Here’s looking forward.
From the PR wire:
QUEEN ELEPHANTINE ANNOUNCE NORTH AMERICAN TOUR DATES!
New album coming in the Fall of 2019 with Argonauta Records!
Formed in 2006 in Hong Kong and currently based in Philadelphia, USA, QUEEN ELEPHANTINE is the nebulous worship of a heavy mood and time. The shapeshifting post-apocalyptic rock band draws from psychedelia, doom, drone, and noise rock as well as free jazz and sacred music from around the world. QUEEN ELEPHANTINE has released five albums as well as splits with Elder, Sons of Otis, and one forthcoming with Phurpa, to date. Following their latest and critically acclaimed 2016-album, KALA, the Fall of 2019 will see the band release their sixth album, again with powerhouse label Argonauta Records.
QUEEN ELEPHANTINE describe their new record GORGON as a trip through hypnotic molasses grooves. Dissonant riffs will pull you down a river of unearthly atmospheres, guided by the incantations of sardonic fakirs, unravelling their final sermon before the cosmos combusts!
In support of their upcoming release and to let the songs grow on stage, QUEEN ELEPHANTINE will debut GORGON live on their upcoming NORTHEAST USA TOUR to kick off this APRIL, and which will held 10 shows between Virginia and New Hampshire, including selected dates with It’s Not Night: It’s Space and Shadow Witch!
Says the band: “It has been a period of meditation for the band, with many personal transitions for us. We’re thrilled to return, to present the new record and play these songs live on our first tour since our run with Oxbow over a year ago.”
Make sure to catch QUEEN ELEPHANTINE live at the following dates this Spring, with many more news and dates to follow soon:
April 12 – Washington, DC. Slash Run April 13 – Richmond, VA. Wonderland April 17 – Brooklyn, NY. The Kingsland* April 18 – Northampton, MA. Sierra Grill April 19 – Providence, RI. Alchemy April 20 – Portsmouth, NH. WSCA Radio* April 21 – Boston, MA. TrendyShitTown April 25 – Baltimore, MD. The Depot April 26 – Philadelphia, PA. Mothership** April 27 – Kingston, NY. The Anchor** * with Shadow Witch ** with It’s Not Night: It’s Space
Posted in Whathaveyou on September 7th, 2016 by JJ Koczan
Last I heard, Queen Elephantine were still located in Providence, Rhode Island. The info below about preorders for their new album, Kala (review here), being available lists them as having relocated to New York. Entirely possible. Guitarist/founder Indrayudh Shome has been as restless geographically as he has creatively over the years. Hong Kong, New York, Rhode Island. He could basically turn up anywhere and find a host of cohorts with which to express Queen Elephantine‘s always complex and ritualized drone-doom.
Kala has an Oct. 21 release date and some considerable backing from Argonauta Records, Cimmerian Share Recordings, Tartarus Records and Atypeek Music — each imprint releasing it on a different format. If you’ve ever heard the band’s as-yet underrated experimentalism, it’s little wonder so many parties would want to be involved.
From the PR wire:
QUEEN ELEPHANTINE announce new album ‘Kala’ on multiple labels
Release Date – October 21st, 2016
Record Label – Cimmerian Shade Recordings (LP) / Argonauta Records (CD) / Tartarus Records (Cassette) / Atypeek Music (Digital)
Queen Elephantine, the exotic-flavoured doom/ambient band once operating out of Hong Kong (who have since moved to New York), are back with a brand new full length called Kala. They’ve always kept innovating and the new album is even more entrancing, atmospheric and mind-bending. They’ve honed their skills to offer music that’s near unparalleled – the delicate cacophony of the numerous instruments (spaced out, never overcrowding), the suspenseful atmosphere, the ever-lingering sense of intrigue, it’s all there, and better than ever before. Kala taps into your subconscious, creates swirling colourful patterns, a hypnotic effect that doesn’t wear off easily like a rare non-harmful drug. Succumb to the creeping, psychedelic madness that’s Queen Elephantine.
Mastered by Billy Anderson (Neurosis, Swans, Sleep, Eyehategod, High on Fire)
Artwork has been made by Adrian Dexter
Line up: Indrayudh Shome – Guitar Ian Sims – Drumset Mat Becker – Bass Srinivas Reddy – Guitar Derek Fukumori – Percussion Samer Ghadry – Guitar, Synth Nathanael Totushek – Drumset + Percussion on 2,4,6 Nick DiSalvo – Mellotron on 1, 2, 3 Michael Scott Isley – Percussion on 2,4 Danny Quinn – Surgeon Pepper
Track list: 1. Quartered 2. Quartz 3. Ox 4. Onyx 5. Deep Blue 6. Throne of the Void in the Hundred Petal Lotus
Posted in Whathaveyou on May 18th, 2016 by JJ Koczan
A little while ago, Indrayudh Shome dropped me a line and asked if I might know of any good labels to get behind the latest Queen Elephantine album, Kala (review here). It should say something about the kind of enthusiasm the band’s creative breadth inspires that Shome‘s search resulted in not one but four separate regional and format homes for Kala, which is their fifth outing. They are: a domestic US LP release from Cimmerian Shade, a CD through Italy’s Argonauta Records, a tape through Tartarus and download through Atypeek Music. Kudos to Queen Elephantine for getting the album out there and then really getting the album out there.
If you’re in the Providence area, they share the stage June 4 with Doomriders and Churchburn at AS220. Not trying to tell you your business, just letting you know.
Announcement comes courtesy of Argonauta:
ARGONAUTA RECORDS new signing: QUEEN ELEPHANTINE
Providence based cosmonauts QUEEN ELEPHANTINE inked a deal with ARGONAUTA Records for a worldwide CD release of their fifth opus “kala” next fall.
With a fluid lineup and various experiments in approach over the course of their four albums, Queen Elephantine is a nebulous worship of heavy mood and time. The group formed in 2006 in Hong Kong but has always been a shapeshifter. At the end of 2007 it moved base to New York and is currently based in Providence.
The fifth album “kala” will be released October 21st, 2016 and will see a partnership between different labels for each format:
CD – Argonauta Records (Italy) LP – Cimmerian Shade Records (US) Cassette – Tartarus Records (Netherlands) Digital – Atypeek Music (France)
Recorded by I. Sims, Mixed by Indrayudh Shome. Mastered by Billy Anderson. Art by Adrian Dexter.
1. Quartered 2. Quartz 3. Ox 4. Onyx 5. Deep Blue 6. Throne of the Void in the Hundred Petal Lotus
indrayudh shome: guitar ian sims: drumset mat becker: bass srinivas reddy: guitar derek fukumori: percussion samer ghadry: guitar, synth nathanael totushek: drumset + percussion on 2,4,6 nick disalvo: mellotron on 1,2, 3 michael scott isley: percussion on 2,4
