Great Forgotten Albums # 348:

ELF POWER – VAINLY CLUTCHING AT PHANTOM LIMBS
(Arena Rock Recording Company / Elephant 6, 1995)

So my recent trawl of Neutral Milk Hotel rarities inevitably sent me on a wider trek through the mountains of Elephant 6-affiliated demos, leading inevitably back to this singular work.

Elf Power, let it be said from the start, are not a band whose professionally recorded work I have ever wholeheartedly embraced. They certainly have their moments when the better aspects of their sound and song-writing come together (“Will My Feet Still Carry Me Home” and the very Neutral Milky “Jane” from 2000’s ‘A Dream In Sound’ spring to mind), but these aside, I fear that the group’s combination of ultra-twee wizardy type fantasy imagery, Disneyfied over-production and second-rate grasps at the Rev/FLips awe grail are likely to win them two enemies for every friend. I haven’t heard their last few records though, and catching them live at All Tomorrow’s Parties last year they seemed to fulfil the role of a capable but slightly underwhelming power-pop combo, so who knows.

But anyway, back to good ol’ Athens, Georgia 1994ish, and the album at hand here – essentially comprising the home-recorded demos of Elf Power leader Andrew Reiger with other future band members helping out - is a different kettle of fish entirely. Perhaps a rusty, hand-decorated hobo’s kettle full of dark, unsavoury deep-sea specimens that any right-thinking fisherman would leave be… or something.

I first heard the title track (take a listen below) played on John Peel way back when (not as far back as 1995 I should state – probably more like 2000ish – why he randomly played it five years after release I’ve got no idea), and as an easily impressed youth in search of musical weirdness, it appealed to me instantly. The very fact that there were people out there somewhere rejoicing under the name of ‘Elf Power’ and laying down fuzzy, whispered renditions of creepy, unnerving songs called things like ‘Vainly Clutching At Phantom Limbs’ alone gave me a spine-chill moment of joy and cultural recognition, and having no idea of this band’s provenance or of the scene to which they belonged, this song sounded like something from another planet. And indeed it still does. There is something profoundly WEIRD going on here. Who in the hell would make a record like THIS, I wondered: A goth band on a tight budget? Morbid high school kids? Indie-pop librarians suffering from a bad case of full-moon madness? The multi-tracked masterwork of some guy who lives alone above a convenience store carving wood-cuts of Lovecraftian gods? – all seemed likely possibilities. The fact that poor radio reception and my fading memory gave the impression that the lead vocals and heavy breathing backing track were female gave the whole thing even more mysterioso appeal.

So, a little bit later and I’m celebrating getting my first ever student loan cheque through the post by ordering a few CDs on import from the US, and hey, what’s this on the mail order list? ‘Elf Power – Vainly Clutching At Phantom Limbs’… how could I not take the plunge?

So, the album arrives, and oh man, aesthetically-speaking it does not disappoint! Mysterioso to the nth degree! As you can see above, the front cover looks like the kind of creative effort by a precocious 4 year old that would likely instigate a quick visit to the parents by social services, whilst the inner sleeve features an awesome black & white photo of a Satanic wedding ceremony, complete with robed priest, naked celebrants marking the perimeter of the pentagram etc. Track titles, baffling ‘notes’ and minimal recording info are provided via difficult-to-read, photocopied manual type-writer text, and promise songs such as “When The Serpents Approach” and “Arachnid Dungeon Attack”. Wow.

Musically, the album might not be quite the immediate outsider masterpiece needed to live up to such perfect packaging, but it’s a creepy and intriguing bunch of 4-track adventures, with a unique atmosphere and enough great songs that make it a keeper. First of all, there are a few instrumental tracks which seem to be intended to soundtrack nefarious (and largely serpent-related) goings-on in one of Reiger’s demented fantasy kingdoms, an idea which the band explored further on 1997’s ridiculous concept album, “When The Red King Rises”. These tracks are quite compelling, despite the appalling recording quality, with cello, guitar feedback, ethnic percussion and distant echoed flute rising through the murk, eerily winding their way through some solid melodic ideas in a generally pleasing manner, somehow managing to convey a lot more charm than the band subsequently mustered when recording this sort of stuff under ‘proper’ circumstances.

The bulk of the album through consists of fuzzy, ingenious geeky pop songs that will prove instantly comforting to partisans of the loose-knit ‘90s lo-fi fraternity, with that winning combination of great tunes, eccentric subject matter and self-depreciating humour managing to overcome technological constraints and wobbly musicianship almost every time. What really sets the songs Reiger presents here apart though is the sense of wilful darkness and horror movie perversity that pervades even the more light-hearted material. It’s curious that Elf Power so quickly set a course for saccharine, cartoon psyche-pop and forced cheeriness on their future releases, because these early songs are lonely, freaked out and ever so slightly fucked, and are all the better for it in my estimation.

Several of the best songs deal with missing limbs (how many non-metal albums can you say that about?), whilst others, such as “When The Serpents Approach”, chronicle the experiences of miners in Reiger’s fantasy kingdom being menaced by demonic, underground snakes (ditto). “All Your Experiments” is an initially chirpy number about being abducted by aliens, recalling the Flaming Lips’ goofier material circa “Clouds Taste Metallic”, until you consider the hollered chorus line of “..you can do all of your experiments, if you promise not to bring me back!” “Loverboy’s Demise” meanwhile finds our protagonist morbidly despondent after a disappointing concert by his heroes, the Canadian soft-rock band Loverboy (“..and I didn’t even try to catch the guitar picks..”). “Finally Free” and “Circular Malevolence” reveal themselves as straight-forward hate songs directed at.. well, who can say. A couple of enjoyably off the wall cover versions (The Dwarves ‘Drugstore’ and Robyn Hitchcock’s ‘Surgery’) round things off.

History, should it mention such things at all, will likely recall that the American lo-fi boom of the 1990s allowed unconventional artists such as Sebadoh, Guided By Voices and The Mountain Goats to rise to prominence on their own terms, their DIY recording and distribution techniques fostering a sense of intimacy and personal connection with their audiences, and allowing their music to pack an emotional punch which would otherwise have been lost. But whilst these guys might well have dealt effectively with personal experience and literate, dramatic wordplay in their songs, let history also record that it was Elf Power who, however briefly, brought the consideration of important issues such as phantom limbs and arachnid dungeon attacks to the table.

Mp3s >

Elf Power – Vainly Clutching At Phantom Limbs
Elf Power – Temporary Arm
Elf Power – When The Serpents Approach