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Blessed
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“It may sound cheesy,” says Rishi Dhir, leader of local band Elephant Stone, “but I’d heard that seven Canadian troops were killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan, and I kept thinking how stupid and ridiculous that was. Musically, I’d been obsessed with [the 1976 Bollywood film theme] ‘Kabhi Kabhie.’ It’s my favourite melody, so I nicked it and put it to a Teenage Fanclub guitar thing.” Bombay cinema and British Invasion jangle, a pacifist conscience and bonus bon mots borrowed from lauded Bengali poet/songwriter/philosopher Rabindranath Tagore, composer of the Indian national anthem—the elements found in “Bombs Bomb Away,” the first track on Elephant Stone’s debut album, The Seven Seas, are indicative of the band’s entirely unforced fusion of East and West, equally factors in Dhir’s development. “I try to write Bollywood songs,” says the former bassist in Montreal mod-and-onward outfit the High Dials, “but they keep coming out as ’60s-style pop songs—which is kinda cool. The whole thing about Bollywood is fusing different musical styles and keeping it in a pop-song format.” At first blush, namesake nod to Hindu deity Ganesh aside, Elephant Stone owes its largest debt to the thread of gentle, euphoric U.K. pop-rock, from the Beatles through the Stone Roses. Amid the layers of lush guitar and organ, though, one hears frequent strains of the sitar, an instrument trotted out for admittedly gimmicky cameos in the High Dials. “I don’t think Indian classical music has much influence on my songwriting at all, I can’t do that,” Dhir confesses, so sprawling ragas aren’t on the menu. With “The Straight Line” and the second half of closing track “Don’t You Know,” however, Dhir openly takes after the early-’70s fusion funk of Ananda Shankar, nephew of sitar hero Ravi—a groovy backbeat, rock ’n’ roll bite, mind-bending Moog sounds and of course the delirious drone of the sitar. Whatever the particular permutation, the record sounds uniformly great. “I had the best musicians,” Dhir boasts, noting his ace band, visits from local luminaries and the active contributions of producer and Besnard Laker Jace Lasek. “It was the most enjoyable record I’ve ever made.” CD LAUNCH WITH KEVIN KANE AND |
