I’m sorry to say that I’d never heard of Elson (or, for that matter, ENGINE – of which he is part) before we got a request to review ‘Wandering’ his second single. This seemed, as I took my first listen, really unfortunate because this single is a lovely thing.
The thing is that musically it kinda – and I hope you forgive me for this – wanders through a variety of sounds. It’s not a forcing together of these but a seamless building thing. It starts, somewhat misleadingly to be honest, sounding like a Nick Drake song, before building to something of a psychedelic soft rock thing with these incredibly stomping sections, although to be honest it just keeps changing, evolving.
It reminds me of so many things that a list would be so long as to be entirely useless – however some sort of sounds like list is almost obligatory, so here goes.
Dukes of the Stratosphere, The Beatles, Sid Barnett (kind of in places), Robyn Hitchcock, a whole host of 70s’ singer/writers, World Party, Tears for Fears – look I could go on but I won’t, it would be almost pointless. The thing is that however original an artist is, if you really listen hard enough you’ll hear something of other artists in their music. That’s a given, what’s important is how the whole sounds.
And the whole, the song taken as as whole, is just the most incredible journey, a journey through sound, it takes you this way, it takes you off on a tangent, it takes a 180 degree direction change and drags you off in that direction, and then it kinda leaves you in a calm beautiful place as it comes to a lovely end. Sonically what’s happening reflects the words.
The playing on this is outstanding, Elson’s vocals are a thing of joy, the production is spot-on. And it does that thing I love which is that the more you listen the more you hear, these sounds suddenly pop out at you and you think ‘didn’t hear that before, oh that’s lovely’. And it’s full of surprises, it doesn’t always take the route you think it’s going to take. The end, for example, took my breath away, it just doesn’t do what you think it’s going to do.
‘Wandering’ is beautiful, it’s a meandering beautiful song that just gradually and gently lodges itself deep in your head. It’s the sound of a songwriter who believes that music should follow mood, that sticking rigidly to one sound through a song is not the best way of putting a mood across. A songwriter who knows how to make the various musical moods work together – this song is arranged people, it’s put together, the elements are just right.
I have spent this review trying not to gush, trying not to go completely over the top, but I can restrain myself no longer. I love this, it’s wonderful, it’s a thing of beauty. I have listened to this over and over again because I just can’t bear for it not to there, I have become totally addicted to it.
I don’t care what sort of music you say you like, and what sort of music you say you wouldn’t listen to, you need to hear this.
The info
Elson’s second single marks the latest exciting signpost on a long and winding road of musical discovery for James, appropriately for someone who grew up on Merseyside after being born down south. Formative years in Liverpool were where the musical heritage and passion of the people left an indelible mark on the young Elson. Living in the city heavily influenced his outlook on art and music and it continues to do so to this day.
The next stage of his journey took him east across the Pennines to Leeds to study music, attracted by the chance to sample another city with a vibrant cultural life and once his studies were complete, James stayed on to develop his musical career.
He’s well known to audiences in the city and beyond as one half of ENGINE, a band that started out as a psychedelic rock outfit but eventually morphed into an electronic production duo.
It was the release of a well received EP, ‘Cucumber Water., that brought ENGINE to the attention of Leeds’ promoters Odd Job and they were so impressed they moved quickly to get the band onto the line-up of one their gigs. The relationship was maintained, plans to work together were knocked about and it was Odd Job who subsequently gave Elson his first solo gig in November, a support slot in a sellout event featuring another act hailing from Merseyside, The Tea Street Band. The next step was to collaborate on the release of some of the songs James has been working on as a side project over the last few years.
As promoters, Odd Job have strong connections with Wales, having brought a number of Welsh language bands over to play in Leeds and these contacts have helped secure a distribution deal with Cardiff-based PYST. PYST have established a great track record in helping acts from Wales get their music out to a global audience, Elson will be the first English based act to benefit from their assistance.
James draws his influences from artists such as Sparklehorse, George Harrison, Gene Clark, Big Star and Harry Nilsson, so from Nilsson we get Elson.
Band members:
James Elson
Live band members:
James Elson (vox, guitar) member of Elson, ENGINE, BIG, Phil Madeley
Dominic Freeman (keys) member of ENGINE, Variable Lag
Cameron Taylor (bass) member of The Reeds
George Genn (drums) member of Sympathiser, Phil Madeley
Links:
facebook: https://www.facebook.com/elsonband
twitter: https://twitter.com/Elson7James
instagram: https://www.instagram.com/elson.music/
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/track/4Yhqgiu1MC2hcnVhRjLRsP
Apple Music: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/silent-observer/1447412738?i=1447412740
