Back in 1999–2000, W. Cullen Hart, he of Olivia Tremor Control and Circulatory System, and Andrew Rieger, who’s noted as a founding member of Elf Power, were roommates. They also recorded together during that period, and the new 10-inch EP “Leap Through Poisoned Air” brings the collaboration to light a quarter century later. It’s a succinct batch of songs, loose but cohesive and unsurprisingly infused with psychedelia. That Hart passed away in November 2024 deepens the release’s poignancy. It’s available May 30 through the label Orange Twin.
Collaborations that arise through friendship and with the ease of close proximity tend toward the likeable but often lack the interactive spark that signifies the endeavor as being truly worthwhile. That it took 25 years for “Leap Through Poisoned Air” to emerge can lead to suspicions over its quality, which are compounded by Hart’s recent passing.
It only takes a few spins to absorb the pair’s creative energies on a release that can be spun numerous times in quick succession due to its sheer brevity. The desire for more is really the main complaint this set inspires, and that pang doesn’t negatively impact what is here, as there’s no creeping sense of the insubstantial.
Another positive is the avoidance of the equational simplicity of Olivia Trmor Control + Elf Power = “Leap Through Poisoned Air.” Although psychedelia permeates all four of the set’s tracks, there is a bedroom quality to the whole that wanders nearer to Lou Barlow’s work (in said bedroom mode) than to the Elephant 6. However, an important distinction is that Hart and Rieger’s work here, if sonically modest, isn’t lo-fi. They likely didn’t record in a bedroom at all.
Opening cut “Treasures in the Magic Hole” is a ragged serving of trippy swirly thump and grind, while “Through Poisonous Air” detours into drugged-up folkie terrain. Featuring a sweet gnawing guitar line, “Three Seeds” is the album’s boldest psych statement, and then “The Breathing Universe” drifts in with a hint of The Beatles for the close. Overall, “Leap Through Poisoned Air” drops a tidy reminder of the vitality at the core of the Elephant 6 experience.
GRADED ON A CURVE:
A-
