Posted in Questionnaire on March 23rd, 2021 by JJ Koczan
The Obelisk Questionnaire is a series of open questions intended to give the answerer an opportunity to explore these ideas and stories from their life as deeply as they choose. Answers can be short or long, and that reveals something in itself, but the most important factor is honesty.
Based on the Proust Questionnaire, the goal over time is to show a diverse range of perspectives as those who take part bring their own points of view to answering the same questions. To see all The Obelisk Questionnaire posts, click here.
Thank you for reading and thanks to all who participate.
The Obelisk Questionnaire: Alessio Caravelli of Black Elephant
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How do you define what you do and how did you come to do it?
We have a blues approach, developing with psychedelia and a rock impact on stage.
Describe your first musical memory.
My cousin’s concert in the ’90s, with a Pink Floyd tribute band.
Describe your best musical memory to date.
Playing at Pietrasonica Festival. It was memorable.
When was a time when a firmly held belief was tested?
During this pandemic.
Where do you feel artistic progression leads?
It leads me to the essential, less frills.
How do you define success?
Redemption from a not always happy life.
What is something you have seen that you wish you hadn’t?
A lot of live clubs closing forever.
Describe something you haven’t created yet that you’d like to create.
An album of cover songs that inspired me, and a movie soundtrack.
What do you believe is the most essential function of art?
Communication.
Something non-musical that you’re looking forward to?
[Click play above to stream ‘Yayoi Kusama’ from Black Elephant’s Seven Swords. Album is out Aug. 21 on Small Stone Records and Kozmik Artifactz.]
The priority is set quickly on Black Elephant‘s Seven Swords, and it’s the vibe. With zero pretense about their intention, the Savona, Italy, four-piece unfurl their fourth long-player and second for Small Stone with the patient, gradual build-up of opening cut “Berta’s Flame,” clearly in no rush to get anywhere, quiet but definitely in motion, and subtly establishing both the tonal weight and the spacious atmospheres in which the rest of what follows will inhabit. There’s a theme to Seven Swords, which indeed boasts seven tracks over a wholly manageable 33 minutes — something about samurai; they could well be following the plot of the 2005 movie of the same name starring Donnie Yen for all I know — but the album as a whole is less about a narrative arc than an instrumental one. Led by the warm-toned fuzz of guitarists Alessio Caravelli and Massimiliano Giacosa, with Marcello Destefanis on bass and Simone Brunzu drumming, Black Elephant are not shy about playing to genre.
But if they’re preaching to the converted, they’re doing so because they themselves are the converted and they’re doing so with character and a sense of dynamic that, like the breadth of the mix as a whole, is established early. Hypnosis would seem to be the name of the game as “Berta’s Flame” rolls through its instrumental 6:48, but it’s not entirely ambient, and in its louder sections, it gives a glimpse of some of Seven Swords‘ more rocking moments to come, whether that’s the straightforward fuzzblast of “Yayoi Kusama” or the nothing-if-not-self-aware “Red Sun and Blues Sun” later on. Still, the wash of guitar that takes hold in “The Last March of Yokozuna,” fleshed out with effects and far-back drumming, makes clear Black Elephant‘s intention to showcase tone as a major factor in the album’s overarching personality. Fortunately, their tones, and the varied uses to which they’re put, live up to that task.
As noted, Seven Swords is Black Elephant‘s second full-length through Small Stone, and it follows 2018’s Cosmic Blues (review here) not without some sense of departure but a consistency of overarching purpose. That is, it’s mostly the theme that’s changed, but there is growth demonstrated over the course of the record as well. On the whole, Seven Swords feels more exploratory than its predecessor. It’s jammier, has a broader reach, and when it coheres around a verse/chorus riff, as on “Yayoi Kusama” — which in addition to being the third track is the first to feature vocals — the effect is striking. After “Berta’s Flame” and “The Last March of Yokozuna,” that first verse is almost a surprise the first time through the record, and that works much to Black Elephant‘s benefit, as their ability to adjust the balance of their approach continues to serve them throughout the rest of what follows. From such classic riff-rockery, they move into the centerpiece “Mihara,” which closes out the vinyl edition’s side A and boasts a reverb-soaked forward guitar lick at the outset that gracefully rolls into a steady groove of the sort in which “Berta’s Flame” traffics before it unveils its largesse.
A sense of threat of the same thing happening looms somewhat over “Mihara,” but it’s hardly a negative, and before they get there, a whispered verse and a stretch of dreamy lead guitar cap the first two minutes of the track. When the fuzz hits, it lands heavy, but the lead guitar continues to float overhead, lending atmospherics to the underlying weight, and reminding of breadth as a factor in what Black Elephant are doing throughout the songs, which flow together with deceptive ease, loud parts moving into quiet, jams solidifying, liquefying; backs and forths that sound easier than they are because they’re executed so smoothly. Drums end “Mihara” on tom roundabouts and finish cold, but the sense of side A as a united work remains prevalent, and the band’s firmness of purpose in that regard would seem to be emblematic of their experience over the decade they’ve spent together.
Side B is the shorter of the two halves by about three minutes, but there’s still plenty of work to be done, as “Red Sun and Blues Sun” indicates. It’s the shortest inclusion at just 2:41 — the longest is closer “Govinda” at 8:48 — but the title’s nod to Kyuss isn’t happenstance, but rather further evidence of the band’s self-awareness since, indeed, it’s a Kyuss-style riff that follows the guitar count-in at the beginning of the track. With tambourine adding to the rhythm and the two guitars intertwining, though, Black Elephant make their mark on the brief instrumental, branching out in the midsection before resuming the push and finishing together in time to reference “Faeries Wear Boots” at the start of “Seppuku.” That dogwhistle, bound to perk up the ears of much of the band’s listenership, is likewise put to more individualized use, as the basis for a bluesy riff accompanied by distorted vocals early but soon giving way to mid-paced fuzzy roll that builds through one of Seven Swords‘ stronger hooks.
It serves as something of a landmark for side B, pulling back from the desert idolatry of “Red Sun and Blues Sun” and preceding the immediate psychedelic impression made by the opening guitar on “Govinda.” The finale is a stretch and meant to be one, but it does not pick sides, rather summarizing the course the rest of the album has followed, almost condensing its shifts into its own run between more serene and more driven progressions. It is ultimately the jammy side that wins out over the bulk of the song — almost inevitably — though as Black Elephant hit into the final moments of “Govinda,” they embrace a last fuzzy measure on the way to a return of the open-feeling guitar that launched. That’s a pointed conclusion just the same, highlighting the consciousness at work behind Black Elephant‘s craft and the tricky nature of a record that’s so likely to put its audience in a trance without losing itself in the process. Whatever theme they’re working under, that would seem to be Black Elephant‘s greatest strength, and it makes the manner in which their work unfolds all the more engrossing.
Posted in Whathaveyou on June 18th, 2020 by JJ Koczan
I’m pretty sure I wrote the bio below for Black Elephant‘s upcoming album, Seven Swords. Or if not, I at least gave it a good once-over from what they had before. Either way, I’ve had the chance to sit with the release for a while now, and while there are no-doubter familiar aspects to it in the warm fuzzy tones and charged riffs, there is a subtlety to the blend between patient instrumentalism and all-go forward thrust that is more outwardly dynamic than the band might first let on. That is to say, you should definitely go ahead and stream opening track “Berta’s Flame” at the bottom of this post. It’s not like you’ll regret doing so. But keep in mind as you do that the song isn’t necessarily telling you the whole story of the record.
Also, that story seems to have something to do with sumo wrestling. I’m still not quite sure what. But hey, riffs.
The PR wire has words:
BLACK ELEPHANT: Psychedelic Fuzz Rock Alchemists To Release Seven Swords August 21st Via Small Stone; New Track Streaming + Preorders Available
The planets have aligned, and space itself has opened up to grace us with the heavy roll of BLACK ELEPHANT’s Seven Swords, set for release this August via Small Stone Records.
The Italian fuzzmongers mark ten years of cooperative corporeal existence in 2020 and last checked in from their native Savona in Summer 2018 with the aptly titled Cosmic Blues. Two years and an entire lifetime later, they’re back with another collection of classic-minded heavy groovers, picking the best the ’70s, ’90s, and ’10s had to offer in riffery and melding spacey blowouts with desert-hued hooks.
Seven Swords is the second LP BLACK ELEPHANT has issued in league with Detroit-based imprint Small Stone Records, and whether it’s the scorching leads of “Yayoi Kusama” or the conscious wink-and-nod of “Red Sun And Blues Sun” a short time later — just ahead of the bluesy “Seppuku” and the near-nine-minute stretch of closer “Govinda” — the four-piece bring their finest work to-date in an efficient seven-track, thorty-three-minute stretch, building not only on what they accomplished on Cosmic Blues, but also what their prior two full-lengths — 2014’s Bifolchi Inside and 2012’s Spaghetti Cowboys — were building toward. This is a band coming into their own, wasting neither their time nor yours in the process.
Seven Swords was recorded and mixed by Giulio Farinelli at Green Fog Studio in Genoa, mastered by Farinelli at Everybody On The Shore Studio in Milan, Italy, and mastered by Chris Goosman at Baseline Audio Labs in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Fuzz pedals preach on, the sky cracks, and the riffs themselves seem to lock bellies in sumo battles, so what the hell? The world’s ending anyway. You might as well have some fun with it. BLACK ELEPHANT’s Seven Swords will be released on August 21st on CD and digitally via Small Stone as well as limited edition vinyl via Kozmik Artifactz.
For preorders and to sample opening track, “Berta’s Flame,” visit the Small Stone Bandcamp page at THIS LOCATION.
Seven Swords Track Listing: 1. Berta’s Flame 2. The Last March Of Yokozuna 3. Yayoi Kusama 4. Mihara 5. Red Sun And Blues Sun 6. Seppuku 7. Govinda
