It’s fair to say that “Elephant Graveyard” is as much about soundscaping as it is about song. It blends a languid, textural psychedelia with a shoegaze delivery to build an ornate wall of sound rather than the more conventional hook and rhythm. That’s not to say that hook and rhythm aren’t present here, but, like the voice-as-instrument vocals, they are buried under the overall grand sonic design, rather than standing out front and centre.
This blurring and blending of sounds is just one of the tricks that it pulls off. Another is the later-stage change of pace: not so much a middle-eight or guitar break, more a tangential interlude through which Train Conductor explores a funkier, groovier avenue before returning to the crunchy, stalking, almost-angular sound of before.
It feels like a solitaire puzzle of sonic possibilities, something that, through the slow, occasional, and deliberate movement of elements within the boundaries of the song’s musical potential, evolves and changes at will, wonderfully kaleidoscopic and effortlessly cool.
Genres? Who needs them? Well, clearly not Train Conductor. As “Elephant Graveyard” proves, genres, sounds, styles, and the like are mere playthings, notions, and developments that you pass through, things to be merged and melded, molded, and melted together in the name of creating a singular and unique sound. And this single is nothing if not that!
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