4 out of 5

Label: VHF Records

Produced by: Pelt

Some things work for you, some don’t.

Dauphin Elegies is a pretty simplistic Pelt record.  Listeners of the group are familiar with their range, from freak outs to smoked-out jams to folk to etcetera.  DE flits along the drone territory – especially 30 minute centerpiece ‘Cast Out to Deep Waters’ – not really building, exactly, within a given track, but as with many of the group’s productions, there’s just enough – just enough – to make it into something more.  There’s emotion here; though maybe not deep, soul-searching stuff, but elements that feel like they drive the songs, and indeed the whole album – which is pieced together perfectly – as opposed to coming across as a sound experiment.  Again, this is fairly status quo for the group, but I dig how basic and yet developed Dauphin feels.  But again again, some things work for you, and some don’t.  While I think the creepy cymbal crashes of opener ‘Waning Crescent’ will appeal to various types, the discordant strings of followup ‘Fire Signs Along the Field’ might not, and then the wandering blast of (feedback?) and strings that is ‘Cast Out’ is obviously made for a certain listener.

‘Crescent’ is a pretty delightful way to open the disc, never really stepping off the path it beats within the first bundle of seconds of noise, but not settling into a true, unwavering drone.  It stutters; it keeps it creepy, and it knows, after ten minutes or whatever, when to leave.  When these same sounds make an appearance toward the end of the strings in ‘Fire,’ it feels like a revelation, and is a literal resurgence of a theme as suggested by the vague sea/space song titles.

‘Fire Signs’ is glorious noise from three dudes, “recorded with no overdubs or effects, no electricity among the instruments save for Patrick’s New Jupiter Machine,” whatever that means, but it’s the payoff to the (mostly) single and double instrument build-ups of the previous two tracks.  (mostly) because this is Pelt, and apparently a bass is playing somewhere, and probably a whole bunch of weird stuff I’m not picking up on.

‘Crown of Comets’ closes it out with a couple minutes of pretty twinkling.

Should you start your Pelt journey here?  No, of course not.  Get your tolerance up with earlier, noisier recordings.  But once you’re on the journey, Dauphin is a great continuance of the group’s exploration of the possibilities – and yes, the potential excitement – of drone music.