I remember when a KvltSite friend (Jayaprakash)heard Om for the first time last year without prior knowledge of Sleep's existence, he said the grooves reminded him a lot of early Pink Floyd. I frankly never saw it that way but here's a band that's doing something a lot more like he'd mentioned.

Queen Elephantine is a band having its origins in Hong Kong and now based in NYC, consisting of four teens making a name for themselves in their local scene. They also recently put out a split with the mighty Sons of Otis. I've not heard that yet, but after a few thorough listens of their self-released debut album Surya, they certainly deserve a record label to fund the production, help them put out a fully packaged album (this comes in a CD-R with a cool sleeve) and render them the distribution.

The sound is somewhat easy to describe if you're already familiar with what I said in the first paragraph. Queen Elephantine does extended psychedelic jams with unsophisticated repetitive grooves. They have this tanpura sound to go with their chanty vocal lines and the fuzzed out psychedelic jams. Warming up with a brooding 5 note doom groove over 5 minutes, the song 'Queen Elephantine' doesn't go all crazy with the jams yet. It all peaks on 'Ramesses II', the sixteen minute monster song that's pretty much the centerpiece of the album. I especially dig the bit that sounds like a dirged out Led Zep riff.

'Kabir' is all about this one long hypnotic riff and the way the rest of the band play around it for a good 6 minutes. 'Plasma Thaw' is the most Sleep-sounding song on the album with a monstrous doom riff and some wild drumming. After some trippy sounds that made the speakers jar, the band eventually get back to the thundering main riff and jamming some more before ending the song. The twenty six minute epic 'Bison' eventually draws the album to a close but not before intentionally rambling with help from a rock-steady riff, spacey sounds and noisy drones. This would be their most unique song on the album.

Good album, though the production needs some work. They're working on a new album and are still hunting for a label to put it out. In the mean time, you can get a copy of this CD-R for cheap or download their latest EP for free from their website. It sounds heavier and more evolved than Surya from the one listen I gave it, so go for it by all means.

Label: None/Self
Year of Release: 2007