Video Premiere: Elephant Gym – “Half” Live at Level
Posted: by The Editor
Photo by Puzzleman Leung
Elephant Gym is a band from Taiwan that plays music with the hallmarks of math rock, but to say they are “a math rock band” would be shortchanging them. The rhythms and time signatures are complex and constantly changing, their music is primarily instrumental, and everyone in the band absolutely plays the hell out of their instrument. However, things get much more difficult to categorize from there. The band incorporates more jazz and funk in their music than showy Don Caballero-style finger tapping. The music is bass rather than guitar driven, and keys do a lot of the heavy lifting. It’s easy to hear the influence of their classical training in the arrangements; their music moves with an effortless, liquid energy. They’re adventurous with their structures and textures, and their most recent album, Underwater, dives into a world with constantly shifting borders, anchored by the band’s singular vision.
This live session of “Half” is the perfect place to start if you’re new to the band: it’s one of the album’s most exploratory tunes, where beautiful piano parts and jazzy bass hold together a chaotic structure, creating a kinetic groove. The quickest route to falling is love with this band is through their exuberant performances: no one locks down such intricate instrumentation with more obvious joy than Elephant Gym. This fall, Elephant Gym will be touring the U.S. west coast with fellow funky math band from Japan, LITE. Full dates are below.
Underwater is out now and is available through Topshelf Records.
Upcoming Tour Dates:
October 28, 2019 – Vancouver, BC @ Biltmore Ballroom
October 29, 2019 – Seattle, WA @ Neumos
October 30, 2019 – Portland, OR @ Paris Theatre
November 1, 2019 – Berkeley, CA @ Cornerstone Berkeley
November 2, 2019 – Sacramento, CA @ Harlow’s Restaurant & Nightclub
November 3, 2019 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Roxy Theatre
November 4, 2019 – San Diego, CA @ The Irenic
November 6, 2019 – Phoenix, AZ @ The Rebel Lounge
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Keegan Bradford | @franziamom
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