REVIEW: Elektragaaz — Your Own Private Cinema Part 1 (EP)
About ten to fifteen seconds into “We May Die But We Will Not Rust,” the opening salvo of Elektragaaz’s brand new extended play Your Own Private Cinema Part 1, a nervous beat is joined by an airy arrangement that provides us a little bit of light in the dark sonic tunnel that the band has us traveling down. It isn’t long before smoking riffage comes cascading from the skies above and pulls us into a vortex of rhythm that will swing as hard as a rollercoaster would before releasing us to the reflective calm of “Things Take a Turn.”
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At this point, the fast-paced energy evaporates instantly, and in its place, there is only a lone gritty and mournful melody. A gorgeous unspoken serenade penetrates the mix soon after, and it immediately becomes obvious to all who are listening that Your Own Private Cinema Part 1 isn’t your average eclectic rock EP, but instead, the start of a true magnum opus for this experimental outfit.
“Things Take a Turn” is a patient piece, unraveling little by little until it finally blossoms into a full-blown psychedelic jam. We’re adrift in outer space with Elektragaaz here, looking down at earth with wide eyes, feeling the mortality that the melodies are contemplating so plaintively, but it’s all just a primer for what’s about to come creeping out of the shadows in Your Own Private Cinema Part 1’s “Dancing a Little Tipsy with Shorty”. At first, it’s difficult to tell where “Things Take a Turn” ends and “Dancing a Little Tipsy with Shorty” begins, but as the worldly beat finds its footing against the backdrop of a surreal, almost synthetic harmony, we start to figure out where we’re at in the record. All of these songs feature such a smooth segue that one could probably be fooled into thinking that this was recorded in concert instead of within the four walls of a recording studio.
Elektragaaz fires up some more agility for the garage rocking “Lady Hannah Fights the Red Demon,” which saves Your Own Private Cinema Part 1 from becoming a total exhibition of experimental ideas. This is, without a question, my favorite song from the EP — it’s a little bit of electronica’s self-righteousness mixed with an outsider punk’s raw bombast and in a lot of ways it sums up the personality of the band (at least in this chapter of their unique campaign together).
“The Cheerful Dead” definitely finishes us off with all the sonic fireworks that fans of this group have come to demand from an Elektragaaz EP, and though it took me a couple of listens to come around on its spacey style, it’s become my second favorite track from this record after “Lady Hannah Fights the Red Demon.” Your Own Private Cinema Part 1 doesn’t change the world of pop music as we know it, and I doubt that it’s going to be the release to break Elektragaaz into the mainstream but make no mistake about it — this extended play is on par with some of the best records to make headlines in 2023, and I have a strong feeling that it’s just a hint of what they’ve got planned for us next.
Colin Jordan
