Elephant Sessions – “Is This a Vibe”

SXSW 2023 – OEB Score 7, Popularity Index 6

Pairs well with…Wolfstone, Shooglenifty,  Scott Wood Band 

While not well-known in the States, Elephant Session celebrated their 10th year as a band in 2022. The band plays “gaelictronica,” a fusion of traditional Scottish fiddle music, electronica, and other modern instruments. It’s purely instrumental, no vocals of any kind, but it’s anything but boring. Their latest album, For the Night, melds their trademark fiddling with heavy bass and a drum backline, but it’s the sweeping synths and funk riffs that have had their fans trance-dancing late into the night at their post-pandemic concerts. The title track is very dynamic but my favorite, and the band’s choice for the SXSW Spotify playlist, is “This is a Vibe,” a chilled out, melodic earworm. This album’s range also adds a welcome complexity. For example, the song “After Hours” blends tribal percussion and trace of disco beats with the prevailing fiddle and synth lines. 

Elephant Sessions succeeds first because of the talent of the band members, Euan Smillie (fiddle), Alasdair Taylor (mandolin), Seth Tinsley (bass, synth) and Greg Barry (drums, samples), and second, from their commitment to creative musicianship that is open to surprising inspirations. For example, “After Hours” was grew out of their mutual fascination with the base line in Dua Lipa’s “Don’t Start Now.”  For all these reasons, an Elephant Sessions set should deliver a toe-tapping introduction to their unique genre of Highlander folk funk. (David Zlotnick).