Elephant Tree. Lowrider. Such an encounter on record falls under astrophysics. The realm of macro and the infinitely large. On a human scale, such a phenomenon occurs as often as a superblue moon (we’ve been talking about this collab since 2021), but in terms of intensity, it’s the equivalent of a supernova. To quote Crowbar, imagine the effect of two stoner planets colliding.
Yet this collaboration might never have seen the light of day. In early 2023, Elephant Tree frontman and guitarist Jack Townley was plunged into a coma for several weeks following an accident that could have cost him his life. “The Long Forever” is the name he gave to this interminable lethargy between altered consciousness and total insensibility. It’s easy to imagine the trauma. Both cathartic and inspiring, the story of his experience ultimately became the center of gravity of this complicity between the bands. Although both are part of the extended stoner scene, Elephant Tree and Lowrider do not share the same artistic approach. However, this trauma was the hyphen that gave its whole meaning to the split album which, for once, does not boil down to the mercantile assembly of two EPs to sell records.
For once, let’s start with the B-side with Elephant Tree. The Londoners continue to explore their “doomgaze” vibe between psychedelic doom and radiant shoegaze. Yet the whole thing sounds distant, stifled, like anesthetized. We’re tempted to check our stereo’s settings, so lo-fi is the sound. From the 10-minute stuck-in-limbo doom of “Fucked in the Head” emerges a sepulchral, nauseated atmosphere to which Elephant Tree has hardly accustomed us, least of all since the glimmering “Habits”. The pace picks up a little on the next track, “4 for 2”, albeit as dark as ever. The band emerges from its torpor, and the mood is almost warm compared to the previous track. It’s finally on the closing track “Long Forever” that we find the band we once knew: behind this deafeningly beautiful doomgaze lies a gentle melancholy leading to an emotional rollercoaster climax.
This is where we need to give more creative context. Imagine yourself trapped between dream and reality, with no real sense of passing time, still conscious but imprisoned in an inert body. You can sense (vaguely) but not interact with those around you. The sequence reproduced by Elephant Tree is the gradual shift from a vegetative state to a state of minimal consciousness, before slowly regaining one’s functions and senses. Lost in a sonic haze that slowly dissipates, we (finally) regain the ability to feel.
And when the body no longer responds, you escape with your mind. It’s a motionless voyage and the Lowrider spaceship achieves your stellar desires when the stars call. There’s nothing more compelling than a stoner rush to lift off from Earth’s gravity. Within two minutes and fifty-five seconds, Lowrider delivers the PERFECT hit single with “And The Horse You Ride In On”. Go ahead, put it back on repeat and try to find a single flaw here. It’s 2024, twenty years on, and the guys are still absolute masters of the scene.
What follows are wild rides through Saturn’s rings, long epic odysseys beyond Io and Ganymede, or low-level dives over lava craters (“Caldera”). We get to marvel at the beauty of the Trifid Nebula as we head straight for the galactic core, where starts all that had stopped (“Into The Grey”). And it’s once you’ve shed your carnal envelope and become one with the infinite that you reach the sensation of plenitude, a moment of grace when your body merges with the melody (“Into The Rift”).
Like two converging timelines, Elephant Tree and Lowrider unite to present this collaborative album, each presenting their first new material in four years. By gravitating around an event that could have been tragic, the two bands have seized the opportunity to redefine who they are and establish their (future) creative direction. For their adoring fans who can’t wait to find out what happens next, this is a new centerpiece in the extended Stoner Universe. History will remember that it was in catharsis, escape and creativity that they sealed their friendship. For posterity.
ARTIST: Elephant Tree / Lowrider
ALBUM: The Long Forever
RELEASED: 25 October 2024
LABEL: Blues Funeral Recordings
GENRE: Stoner rock
MORE: Bandcamp
Last modified: 25 October 2024
