Elfin Saddle
Gigantic Mother/ Wounded Child
(Kill Devil Hills)
Elfin Saddle’s Sappyfest set stopped the crowd in action and drew wide-eyed listeners to sit on the ground in front of the stage intently. A Montreal-based two-piece who freely rotate instruments, they relate stories and myths in both English and Japanese. The contrast between Jordan Mackenzie’s soulful, old-man-style vocals and Emi Honda’s wispy, Japanese singing balances the record nicely. Though the accordion/saws/drums/banjo combo might come off as pretentious to some audiences, this album feels skilled and accessible enough to not completely write off to the annals of weird music-cum-performance-art.
–Laura Kenins
categories: Canadian artist
This article appears in Sep 4-10, 2008.
