Everything you always wanted to know about ELEFANT’s album but were afraid to ask…

22 May 2018

Finally, the very-long-awaited lange debut Spielplatte ‘KONARK UND BONARK’ von
das verrückteste Belgische Lebenslied Orchester ELEFANT found its way to our troubled planet! These four misfits, dressed in a modern designed version of Stanley Kubrick‘s
outfit for his Clockwork Orange‘s gang of droogs have some serious shit out now. Just imagine Pink Floyd‘s ‘Dark Side Of The Moon‘ escapade produced by Ennio Morricone
while having a nightmarish LSD trip. Trust me, this is not Scheißmusik! This is the
optimum Armageddon soundtrack. Eine geistig gestörte Aha-Erlebnis! A sort of close encounters of the third kind, whatever that might be. Exactly! Only the band knows
what really fucked up their sick minds when creating this balls-shaking mumbo
jumbo. Only they know the secret to the song’s codes. Only they can clarify what
this mind-cracking ‘Konark und Bonark‘ bollocks is all about…

Ladies, gents and all wicked science-fiction fans, it’s Turn Up the Volume‘s pleasure to welcome, right here the Fürher dieser kranke Musikgruppe who will reveal all enigmas
of ELEFANT’s first baffling record, one by one. Spit it out, Wolfman…

The music…

.
The stories, track by track…

1/ Haven’t Heard Of Yet
“Some time ago I had nodes on my vocal chords. I had surgery and the following night I had to keep silent. That and a bottle gin was a bizarre experience, I wrote some five pages of drunken rant about having to shut up, which was love I haven’t heard of yet. I edited the lyrics and turned it into an a-capella song. In the studio we just jammed on it to what it is now.”

2/ Oh My Dog (Oh Mein Hund)
“When I heard that someone close to us was diagnosed with cancer,
it freaked me out and this popped out. Satie meets Black Sabbath.”

Ozzy, Elefant’s invisible fifth member…

3/ Schräg
“I wrote this fairly quickly watching TV. I started with a quote from Wolfgang
Borchert‘s “Der viele viele Schnee“, because I am such a well-read prick. It deals
with the sexy subject Death, that ugly thief that I meet more and more.”

4/ Landman
“This is the last one wrote I for the album. It ended up as an ode to our maecenas and sound engineer Dr. P. Landman. Some lyrics are easy to explain and some you just don’t know what they’re about. Landman is one I can’t figure out what it means. Schizophrenia dealing with your genetic past/psycho-shit/keep coming back smaller and smaller//////….”

5/ Credulity
“This is the hippie song, at least lyrically. It’s the new ‘We are the world‘.
Deliciously naive I wish I was myself.”

We were the world, we sounded like shit…

6/ Wie Scharf Ist Dein Messer?
“This song is the result of the alienating vibe and the eery repetitive sounds echoing
in Pre-Op Room. Racing thoughts, sweaty paws as you’re left in the hands of science,
its machinery and disciples. We live in an era where Man and Machine become more
and more intertwined, be it smartphones, bionic implants, robots, or A.I.”

7/ Groan Sweet Groan
“I like this song a lot, because its arrangements just happened. we jammed on it in the studio and this is take 1 shortened to what it is now. Lyrically it’s about the goons in power fucking it up for the rest of us minions.”

8/ Der Publizist
“For this one I tried to use the most dissonant sounds. combined with – according to our keyboardist Stijn – Das Ich-like vocals and lots of humour. This one has the Sherman filterbank all over it.”

9/ Lord Sleep
“What’s that face? Who are you? Where is this room I’m in? Who that face? Who that space, well I recall, I do recall, don’t I?” My grandmother lived her last years becoming more and more demented until she was totally gone. A painful thing to witness.”

Lord Sleep… in motion

10/ A 1000 Smells
“This one is for humanity: you’ve wandered far off…”

11/ 1929
“This is one of the oldest Elefant instrumentals and still a favourite.
It’s a beautiful, moody, almost happy and freaky piece.”

11/ Norsun Muisti
“Another hip dementia inspired song. I am trying to remember
all the things I was trying to forget. Now are you?”

Thank you Wolfman for being our guide!
Thank you ELEFANT for freaking us out…

ELEFANT: Facebook – Bandcamp

(Concert pics by Turn Up The Volume!)