▄▄ [ INFORMATION ] ▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄
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█ ARTIST: Elfin Saddle █
█ TITLE: Devastates █
█ LABEL: Constellation █
█ GENRE: Avantgarde █
█ BITRATE: 231kbps avg █
█ PLAYTIME: 0h 43min total █
█ RELEASE DATE: 2012-00-00 █
█ RIP DATE: 2012-03-04 █
█ URL: █
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▄▄ [ TRACKLIST ] ▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄
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█ 01. The Changing Wind 7:35 █
█ 02. Koboho 3:47 █
█ 03. Boats 4:58 █
█ 04. The Power & The Wake 5:30 █
█ 05. Chaos Hand 4:05 █
█ 06. Invocation 5:06 █
█ 07. In A Blanket Of Leaves 6:53 █
█ 08. The Wind Come Carry 5:18 █
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▄▄ [ NOTES ] ▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄
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█ Description █
█ █
█ Elfin Saddle deepens its compositional and conceptual agenda on █
█ Devastates, the band's third full-length album and its most urgent, █
█ ornate and impassioned work to date. █
█ █
█ The Montreal group, led by multi-instrumentalists Emi Honda and Jordan █
█ McKenzie (who also share vocal duties), has always shown a profound █
█ engagement with issues of environmental sustainability and the emotional █
█ impact of economic/political ideologies that continually foreclose on █
█ the possibility of genuine, progressive renewal and redirection. The █
█ band's music-making û and the parallel art practice on display in Honda █
█ and McKenzie's installation and video work û investigates the tensions █
█ between nature and technology on multiple levels. With Devastates, this █
█ is explicit in the lyrical narrative of the album as a whole and █
█ implicit in the band's use of found and re-purposed objects to create █
█ its soundworld. █
█ █
█ The new album weds an operetta-style song cycle to an organic, junkshop █
█ aesthetic to great effect, forging a unique hybrid folk music that █
█ weaves Honda's trilling vocals (often singing in Japanese) and █
█ McKenzie's woodsy, unaffected baritone with threads of clattering █
█ steam-engine percussion, ukulele, accordion, glockenspiel and pump █
█ organ. The addition of Kristina Koropecki's cello alongside █
█ long-standing third member Nathan Gage (Shapes & Sizes) on upright bass █
█ allows for a doubly melodic/rhythmic low-end. █
█ █
█ Recorded in a small abandoned chapel in rural Quebec, Devastates is █
█ intimate and humbly epic, anchored by a DIY aesthetic and fuelled by the █
█ desire to say something both critical and hopeful about our common █
█ earthly trajectory. This is profoundly un-escapist and engaged folk █
█ music that avoids the obvious trappings of folk traditions, grounding █
█ the listener in a sonic and narrative terrain that stakes out a highly █
█ original and distinctive definition of protest song. █
█ █
█ Thanks for listening. █
█ █
█ Release date: 6 March 2012 █
█ █
█ Packaging notes █
█ Devastates is framed by the beautiful and subtly disturbing artwork of █
█ McKenzie, with its front cover conflagration of mutant birds serving as █
█ the perfect visual analogue for the album's themes. The 180gLP format is █
█ lavishly packaged with a full colour liner notes insert and a █
█ screenprinted art poster, both printed on archival paper. █
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