Effervescent Elephants
From The End To The Beginning

LA RECENSIONE

The Effervescent Elephants were one of the best bands of the Italian neo-sixties scene of the '80s, certainly one of the few that could boast the term “psychedelic”. The name comes from the title of a Syd Barrett track ("Effervescing Elephant" from his second album) and is indicative of the group's programmatic intentions, whose sounds draw from the most inspired English and American psychedelia.

The Effervescent Elephants operated during a particularly vital moment of the underground music scene in Italy, in which many bands, simultaneously with what was happening in America and Scandinavia, decided to return to ‘60s-rooted sounds to react to the excessive coldness of the then-dominant new wave music.

It was a sort of retrospective full-immersion into garage-punk and psychedelic sounds, whose history is thoroughly recounted in the remarkable book by Roberto Calabrò "Eighties Colors" published by Coniglio Editore.

Most of the protagonists of that era were actually simple garage bands, among which we should at least mention the Turin-based Sick Rose and the Siena-based Pikes In Panic.

There were fewer who embraced the authentic “lysergic” creed, among which, besides the Effervescent Elephants, we must highlight No Strange (perhaps the most complete in terms of competence and range of influences, and about whom much has been spoken recently on DeBaser), the Birdmen Of Alkatraz, the Steeplejack (whom I have recently written about in this venue), the Liars, and the Leanan Sidhe.

Originating from Alice Castello, near Vercelli, some members of the group, including the leader Lodovico Ellena, had a solid background in listening to psychedelic and progressive music and had musical experiences in the '70s.

The Elephants debuted in 1986 with the EP "Radio Muezzin" and released their first album "Something To Say" in 1987 under the Electric Eye label owned by Claudio Sorge, a record producer and renowned music journalist who was then writing for Rockerilla.

Once that era came to an end, however, the interest of the public and critics shifted towards the new trend of the moment (specifically the emerging “grunge” movement), and silence fell on the neo-60s bands. Nonetheless, the Effervescent Elephants were fortunate enough to have a CD reissue thanks to the courageous Sanremo label Mellow, which reissued their entire official discography in 1997.

Fortunately, the commendable label from Brindisi, Psych-Out, preserved another CD of unreleased material by the Elephants ("From The End To The Beginning") that encompasses material recorded in a cellar during a “psychic” journey back in time and space from 1990 to the '80s.

The audio quality is not always impeccable, but the magic that emanates from this music remains intact, allowing us to enjoy psychedelic gems such as the garage-punk “Islamic” anthem "Radio Muezzin", a classic of the band irresistibly evoking oriental atmospheres. The “feeling” and raw, genuinely lysergic sound approach of the Effervescent Elephants shines in pieces like the evocative "It’s Raining", the highly acidic and oriental "Mistic Eyes" (featuring lyrics by Van Morrison), and the liquid and expansive "LSD", an authentic trip reminiscent of the atmospheres and space journeys of the early Pink Floyd.

Also splendid is "Three O’Clock", a track that would not have been out of place on an album like The Madcap Laughs by Syd Barrett.

The CD also contains forgotten fragments from the band's archives like "Muezzin Impro" and "Floyd Pink", which showcase, albeit in an incomplete form and with inferior sound quality, the artistic horizons of a group that has made dedication to psychedelia a way of life.

A band that surely deserves to be rescued from the oblivion of time and one that all lovers of psychedelic rarities should not miss.