Feel These Beautifully Intense Waves Of The New Album From Oakland’s Elle

Called alternatively Ellipsis or just …, the new album from the Oakland area intense screamo unit Elle quickly proves a noisy, emotional triumph. Every moment of this record feels highly developed — the most intense noisy parts get to shine right alongside the more gently proceeding but still definitively intense slower portions, and the diverse elements the band work with feel cohesively unified into a poignant message. In short — and this sense gets amplified via looking at the lyrics for this record, which are available on the band’s own Bandcamp — Ellipsis feels like a musical encapsulation of a human cry for connection. The intensity of this music places this cry squarely in a relatable, real-world context — and at the same time, carves out a place for the musicians and listeners to come together.

Sometimes, subtle just doesn’t cut it, and that’s where Elle come in. The band members have a rather illustrious history in the underground screamo scene, having performed (and still performing) in groups including Beau Navire, Loma Prieta, Sailboats, Monuments Collapse, and apparently more. As their background might suggest, overall Elle perform and on their new record really seem to at least almost perfect channeling some of the most brute force intensity that’s floating around out there into a more directly emotionally poignant, urgent creation. By breaking down some of the most traditional musical structrual boundaries and letting their music flow more intensely, the intensity itself gets closer to you as a listener and delivers chills while coursing through your soul.

That kind of process takes a lot of musical confidence, and the band deliver big time and have found themselves an audience to connect with. Really, just listening to this record sparks vivid mental imagery of the kind of physically intense, small venue shows many in this album’s vicinity are no doubt fond of where you can scream the lyrics right alongside the vocalist while the other band members passionately shred in the background — the music on Ellipsis is truly delivered that intensely.

If you happen to be in California, the band apparently have got a couple shows coming up this October to mark their record release. The album itself has been made available via the band themselves along with Dog Knights Productions and Zegema Beach Records.

5/5 Stars

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