Album Notes

Surya is a mirage in the Martian desert – both otherwordly and earthly, barren and dense, a wild tempest of feeling. These are loose, droning jams; all-encompassing, draining, oppressive and at once peaceful, like the subject of the album, Surya – the Sun. These are the bastard children of the Grateful Dead that listen to Swans and Earth and Velvet Underground and YOB.

“Best described as a sprawling psychedelic space jam, Surya is the full-length debut of Queen Elephantine and a crushingly impressive follow-up to recent split-albums with Sons of Otis and Elder. Queen Elephantine\'s formidable contributions to those records were weighty works themselves, but a mere sampling of what they could do on their own. Surya\'s five tracks stretch out to over an hour, as the band lives up to its name and presents a perfect soundtrack to the unwieldy march of a mystical elephant caravan across the celestial plains. They melt down the sounds of Black Sabbath, Sleep, Hawkwind, Pink Floyd, early Monster Magnet, and a variety of other influences into a cosmic swamp all their own, populated by droning numbers like the self-titled lead off track and lumbering epics such as the 16-and-a-half-minute \"Ramesses II,\" which rumbles along almost religiously with its chanted lyrics and smoky atmosphere...” (Stonerrock.com)

“A dense smoky fog of soothing distortion and repetitive progression, lysergic delight and a slow sludge of spiritual warmth and Middle Eastern organic goodness and hurry on sundown, see what tomorrow brings... Played just right, droned just right, spot on drums, spot on minimal bass rumble that opens the fifth track - a twenty seven minute brood called Bison. Spot on everything - highly recommended.” – Album of the Week (Organ Magazine)


‘Surya’ is a long, contemplative trip into the world of inner visions, a journey in which the devotional merges with the visionary to stake out a unique corner of the musical underground. -Hellride Music


More information (biography, discography, press highlights) at http://queenelephantine.clfrecords.com
Sound clips available at http://www.myspace.com/queenelephantine