Shaman Elephant
Wide Awake but Still Asleep

Behind the moniker of Shaman Elephant hides a Norwegian quartet with the love for psychedelia of the 60s and 70s, and they are releasing their second album. The first album called Crystals came in 2016 and this second album is called Wide Awake but Still Asleep, kind of my condition in life I think, but let’s not dwell on that. The artwork of this album kind of looks like the genre I guess, and it is not very original, but you shouldn’t judge the book by its cover.

The music is inspired by the psychedelic rock of the seventies and the sixties and infused with progressive rock. The band claimed to be going for making the melodies move like butterflies and the grooves to sting like killer bees, a pretty good description of what we are getting. We are also getting pretty good variation, some novelty and a relatively fresh sound as well as an adventurous album. The playing time is quite sensible as well, definitely not too long, I think that it is a very strong production.

With Wide Awake but Still Asleep Shaman Elephant has put together one hell of a follow up album, or so they claim in the press material and that isn’t an outrageous claim, at least not in my view. I think that this album is good, and it is adventurous, there are no weaker points and all tracks are of a high standard – there is a lot to like here. It is an album that manages to be both familiar and still give a fairly fresh impression, I think that it is a great album.

You should check this one out, Shaman Elephant manages to give us a fresh sounding, adventurous and exciting album that should appeal to anyone who likes their music more exciting than most other stuff being released nowadays. Check it out, perhaps it will wake you from your sleep.

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