Another bedroom recorder. Wait don't leave, give Elk a chance.
First you should take his newest offering, “Volleyball”, and put it somewhere safe – this is a precious stone, some rare samples spit shined and splayed out for a few proper head spins. You could cut it carefully and put it on a ring for your sweetheart if that's how you roll. Coincidentally (or is it), the track will appear on Let's Get Married, Elk's first full-length, out February 15 on his own Shape Up Records.
Elk (a.k.a. Justin Stein), tells the classic tale of living the bachelor Brooklyn life when lo and behold, the death of his computer forced a decision: rent or a new computer for bedroom recording? A new computer meant a move back to his home in Michigan, where he occupied his sister's room (grandma, ailing from Alzheimer's, got his), and recorded.
You should also try his earlier, dreamy, free EP, Honey Range, which provides an initial, jagged window into the once and future Brooklyn resident's earlier interests: long walks on the boardwalk during tsunamis (“Fellow”), string sections sampled in a shoebox (“Brooke”), secret choral gatherings in the Prospect Park woods to rouse the spirits of drowned witches (“Cliff Diving”), and another long, early morning visit to the boardwalk that heats up as the day does (“Big Splash”); that surf seems to get Elk's pop instinct on higher alert. You can see where “Vollyeball” came from with the help of the Honey Range EP, and you can also imagine the ark of where it will take Elk.
Excited to see what Elk has in store on the rest of Let's Get Married.
