Elf Power - When the Red King Comes (Remastered) (1997/2024)

Elf Power's legendary 1997 album remixed, remastered and reissued on limited edition red vinyl.

As the Elephant 6 catalog continues to expand, it becomes increasingly obvious that many of the label's bands are concerned not merely with creating fresh and exciting music but rather entire mythologies, crafting obscure concept records exploring the intricacies of strange pocket universes. Existing in the musical gray area between Olivia Tremor Control and Neutral Milk Hotel – both of whose members make cameos here – Elf Power's superb When the Red King Comes is a heady journey to a psychedelic utopia, a travelogue with such destinations as "The Secret Ocean," "The Separating Fault," and "The Silver Lake." As imagined primarily by singer/songwriter Andrew Rieger, the album is a odyssey "Into the Everlasting Time," and true to its word, it seems to exist outside of any obvious era – the fuzzy, lo-fi production is an Elephant 6 hallmark, but the unique instrumentation (electric horns, pump organs, even Nepalese percussion) and cryptic, stream-of-consciousness wordplay suggest something altogether different; perhaps most telling is When the Red King Comes' cover, a crazed map suggesting something out of a J.R.R. Tolkien fever dream.

Andrew Rieger - guitars, vocals, flute, zanzitophone, keyboards, bass, percussion
Laura Carter - keyboards, vocals, Moog synthesizer, zanzitophone, loops
Bryan Helium - bass, vocals, guitar, sitar, keyboards
Aaron Wegelin - drums, vocals, percussion
David Barbe - singing
Kevin Barnes - singing, sitar
John Fernandes: singing, violin, clarinet, loops
W. Cullen Hart - guitorgan
Julian Koster - singing, keyboards, magic robot voice
Jeff Mangum - singing
Josh McKay - Nepalese copper shawm
Dave Wrathgeber - singing

Tracklist
01 - Step Through the Portal (2024 Remaster)
02 - Into the Everlasting Time (2024 Remaster)
03 - The Frightened Singers (2024 Remaster)
04 - The Secret Ocean (2024 Remaster)
05 - The Arrow Flies Close (2024 Remaster)
06 - Icy Hands Will Never Melt Away (2024 Remaster)
07 - When the Red King Comes (2024 Remaster)
08 - The Separating Fault (2024 Remaster)
09 - Spectators (2024 Remaster)
10 - Introducing Cosmic Space (2024 Remaster)
11 - The Bengal Parade (2024 Remaster)
12 - Needles in the Camel's Eyes (2024 Remaster)
13 - The Silver Lake (2024 Remaster)
14 - It's Been a Million Years (2024 Remaster)