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MUSIC REVIEW
Let's Get Married
ALBUM | ELK

BY STEWART MASON
Brooklyn hipster heads back home for inspiration.

Any reasonably smart person with an iPod's worth of decent tunes and some editing software can stitch together a passable mashup album. The trick is in being able to merge wide-ranging influences into an original work. There are certainly familiar elements in Elk's full-length debut. After an opening section that sounds like an English morris dance tune as remixed by '80s superproducers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, the title track suddenly erupts into a barely-disguised Philip Glass loop. (Some of the minimalist composer's clarinet-and-vocal work underpins closing track "Crush" as well.) "Volleyball" and the last half of the 10-minute centerpiece epic "Rollerbladin'" are built on large chunks of West African and Afro-Cuban beats that producer/songwriter Justin Stein certainly didn't lay down himself in his parents' suburban Michigan home, where he'd temporarily moved to finish the album when faced with the choice of paying Brooklyn rents or buying a new computer. Finally and most unexpectedly, after five minutes of languid synth washes, "Summer Magic" utterly transforms itself with the help of Malcolm Ross's hypnotic guitar riff from Aztec Camera's 1984 single "All I Need Is Everything." But what makes Let's Get Married intriguing is not the source material, but the subtly effective ways Stein manipulates it into evocative, impressionistic songs that balance between electronic pop and experimental soundscapes. Too quirky and esoteric for the dance floor and too clever and engaging for the chillout room, Let's Get Married makes an odd but effective after-midnight headphones album. - Critical Mob

should say, before much else, that the man behind Elk, Justin Stein, chose buying a computer to make records over paying his Brooklyn rent and moved back to Michigan as a result–becoming a literal bedroom producer as a result. It was there that he made his debut LP Let’s Get Married which is due out February 15 on his own Shape Up Records. I’ve had the pleasure of hearing it and I fully recommend it. It combines a lot of different influences, from shoegaze to electronic pop and even a Phillip Glass sample that are all filtered through an umbrella tropicalia sound. If you’re feeling crimped up by winter, this album will either help or make you really want to be on a beach.

“Volleyball” is the first release from Let’s Get Married and it’s a fast, fun track. It also gives you a good idea for how dynamic the sounds on the album are.

- Middle Class White Noise

Most people who are familiar with Elk by now have probably heard the story of how he opted for a new computer over paying his rent, which brought him back to his parents’ Michigan home. And because of this, here we have Let’s Get Married, the follow up to his EP Honey Range. Like Elk’s music, it is a story worth repeating.


It would be easily believed if Justin Stein came up with his moniker, Elk, originally as Elf, and he changed his mind at the last letter. Immediately into his debut album, Let’s Get Married, Elk brings us skipping into an ethereal world of loops and lilty melodies. The first and title track serves as an introduction for what’s to come. It begins like the end of a fairytale, then abruptly showers synthesizers over the song’s closing. Elk’s ghostly singing fits right in, whether or not the lyrics are discernable. The second song, “Sarah,” feels like a prequel to the title track in its tone and theme. One might expect the direction of this album to get lost by this point, as there is much going on, and the dreamlike feel calls for confusion. Yet “Sarah” is a breath before the soft chaos of “Volleyball.” And let’s be clear, this is a controlled chaos. There’s so much going on in the background, but it doesn’t interfere with the tropic-like chanting, primary instrumentation.

What keeps this album from being truly epic is the disengagement from track to track. It would’ve been beautiful for the songs to flow together, based on the feel and experimentation. Many will liken Elk to Animal Collective—and that’s okay—but it should be noted that it isn’t a copy of Animal Collective’s music. Elk has a different signature. Take the song “Rollerbladin’” for instance. Exceeding ten minutes in length, one can expect the candy-chiming melody which loops over and over to take a change. The change it eventually takes is unexpected. It essentially becomes a different song, as horns blasts in during the second half of the song. Whether this is disconcerting depends on if one has been enjoying the record up this point. Yet at over ten minutes, “Rollerbladin’” only goes into two directions. This can get repetitive.

It is on the next track, “Summer Magic,” where the length of the song transitions brilliantly. The long start lulls listeners into a daydream state, then picks up seamlessly with some guitar and effects washing over the singing. There’s what seems to be some door slamming and echoey voices added in for good measure. Only seven songs deep, Let’s Get Married doesn’t get old, nor does it really leave one wanting more. The focus and attention to detail is what will entice many listens. It’s an album that could continually unfold upon forming a relationship with it. - Heave Media

Elk – Let’s Get Married
Shape Up: 2011
Bedroom pop projects are– obviously– a different listen than a polished, full-on studio album. Not only in terms of technological limitations, as those have become less and less with the advent of affordable high quality recording equipment, but in terms of scope. The goals of a bedroom project are inherently smaller scale than your big ass productions. Sometimes, that personability results in good things; take a listen to Toro y Moi’s latest album, which wouldn’t have been nearly as engaging if too many other hands were involved. Other times, though, the entire album comes off as feeling too insular, and outside listeners have nothing to grab a hold of. Despite some interesting musical ideas and a hodgepodge of influences, Let’s Get Married, the debut long player from Justin Stein’s Elk moniker, falls in the latter category.
There may be good songs on Let’s Get Married, it’s just that I can’t tell. Everything on Let’s Get Married is buried under an omniscient haze, a haze that feels less like the result of the lo-fi recording process (Stein reportedly decided on purchasing a computer to compose music on rather than paying his Brooklyn rent, moving back to his parents’ house in Michigan and living/working in his sister’s bedroom) and more an intentional musical choice. This distance gives Let’s Get Married a dream-like quality, which is increased by the minimalist instrumentation and wide open spaces of songs like “Sarah” and The first half of “Summer Magic”. But this puts up a high and heavy wall between the listener and pretty much anything else– song structure, melody, hell, even emotion.

The seven songs on Let’s Get Married are arranged almost identically. There’s a primary melody, which comes either from a repeating sample or a looping, instrumental riff, that attempts to ground these songs in the here and now. Then Stein’s voice, pushed back in the mix and often layered with reverb, drifts in and out in half-snippets of indecipherable lyrics and oohs. Everything else seems to be random atmospherics; ethereal synth pads that do little to pull these tracks from their uncomfortable limbo between ambient and bedroom pop.

Don’t get me wrong, there are some inventive musical ideas going on here. The opening title track begins with a weird but engaging sample that sounds like it came from a twee Robin Hood soundtrack, and Stein adds some pounding drums and a bouncing vocal thing to it, but unfortunately it’s gone after a minute. Ditto the middle section of ten-minute centerpiece “Rollerbladin’”, which unexpectedly shifts into a bad-ass tropical disco movement at the five-minute mark. It’s a great moment, but one that it’s sadly rendered less effective due to what surrounds it.

If you take the time to unpack the dense atmospherics on these tracks, there is quite a bit packed in here. Influences from shoegaze to loop-based electro-pop to disco to Animal Collective are all noticeable after multiple listens. But despite Stein’s talent for condensing his vast array of favorites into his own style, the fact is that there’s little on the surface of these tracks to demand or even request that type of listening. The 38 minutes of Let’s Get Married pass by without ever leaving an impact. - Potholes In My Blog

Let’s Get Married by Elk
LABEL: Shape Up Records

Let’s Get Married is the brainchild of bedroom producer, Elk. Behind the pseudonym is Brooklyn resident Justin Stein. Following the success of his 2009 EP, Honey Ranger, Stein’s latest piece is an eccentric endeavor (understatement of the year) that checks off nearly every genre at one point or another.

Let’s Get Married contains an enigmatic aura that constantly swirls and alters itself into a collection of throbbing electronics. The album opens with the title track, a song that sounds like it’s about to burst into a Irish Riverdancing sequence, but instead turns into a pulsating reverberation of the Animal Collective variety; furthermore, “Let’s Get Married” introduces a communal—somewhat tribal—theme that Stein oft-excels in. Listeners will feel like foreigners watching in on some bizarre ritual. Stein creates the sort of unconventional sound that’s just too hard to resist, no matter how badly you’d like to not listen to it.

Elk’s ‘flaws’ are also his strengths. The juxtaposition of chill wave inspired sound with Latin rhythms found in Merengue (“Rollerbladin”) may not seem like the most appealing of collocations, but damn, it’s catchy. The transitions aren’t necessarily the smoothest in Let’s Get Married, but they’re unbelievably charming. The bedroom scene in the music world is exploding to unfathomable sizes, so Justin Stein’s work is indicative of a DIY revolution that’s creating alluring, exciting music every day.

An aspect of Let’s Get Married that may get underappreciated is Stein’s limited, but sincere lyricism. In the title track, Stein voices an unrequited affection, “I just want you.” Throughout the album, there are a number of moments of intimacy. Stein’s approach to producing and songwriting is a sweeping effort. Through the use of bedroom recording, Stein makes the most with the least.

With its chanting, heavy percussion, and likable repetition, Let’s Get Married is playful and serious in its demeanor; it’s a contradiction of sound and ideas melding into one radical, exhaustive effort. One that’ll surely stick in listeners’ heads.


REVIEWED BY ADRIAN ROJAS
ADRIAN’S FAVORITE TRACKS: “Let’s Get Married” • “Rollerbladin” • “Moonjellies”
Read more from Adrian on his blog, On the Importance of Being Rash - Groovemine

Elk, a.k.a. Justin Stein, premieres the title track from his new album, Let’s Get Married, today on ALARM. The new record is a follow-up to Elk’s 2009 debut EP, Honey Range, which you can listen to on his Bandcamp page.

Making Let’s Get Married was not without its difficulties; after spending most of his money to replace a broken computer, Stein was forced to move in with his parents and finish the record in his sister’s old bedroom. Drawing inspiration from old tapes and CDs (Janet Jackson, Redman) and films (Empire Records, School Daze, and Fright Night), Elk’s new record is a bedroom recording in the truest sense of the term.

As “Let’s Get Married” indicates, Elk samples generously — yes, that’s Philip Glass — and transforms the familiar tracks with his own unique shoegaze and baroque-pop sensibilities.
- Alarm Magazine

While recording his debut album Let's Get Married (available now as a digital download and on vinyl from Shape Up Records), Brooklyn-based musician/producer Elk (aka Justin Stein) ended up having to temporarily move back into his parents' home in Michigan. He completed the album in his sister's old bedroom, his grandmother having taken over his own. There, he created the seven tracks of Let's Get Married, a fascinating blend of Afro-Latin grooves, sophisticated 1980s Britpop and spooky electronics that's already one of 2011's most compelling debut albums. In an exclusive for Critical Mob, Justin explains his daily routine while making the album and names the 10 songs he listened to the most while making it.

Justin Stein (Elk): Basically, while I was recording I did almost the same thing every day. Woke up, went downstairs to the kitchen, made breakfast and brought it up to my room. Then I'd check my email and surf the interwebs while I was eating breakfast. Then I would basically work on music from about 10 a.m. to about 7 p.m. I took a break for lunch as well, and I'd usually shoot the shit with my dad for like 20 minutes when he got home at about 4:30. Around 7, I'd go out to my deck and grill dinner and listen to music. I pretty much listened to the same group of songs almost every day. Sometimes some of my bros would come over while I was grilling. The sun was usually starting to come down around this time so Prefab Sprout got a lot of play, more than anything else by far. Then after dinner I'd put on a movie and fall asleep.

Every Tuesday, one of my best friends from childhood would come pick me up and we would go to this Mexican restaurant (the only one in our town) called Border Cantina. We'd been going there since we were kids. We'd sit out on the patio, get sloppy drunk and eat quesadillas. They also had a killer jukebox that played some really great shit. Chicago's "Old Days" and Fleetwood Mac's "Hold Me" were two of the best. Whenever a song came on that I didn't know but I was stoked about , I would ask the waitress. She never knew and would have to go to the back to find out, and always seemed kind of annoyed. After we were done we would hop in my friend's car and blare music. My buddy would always ask me to send him music for the car. Only about 5% of what I sent him would make it into the car.

These are the Top Ten Songs That I Jammed Most While Making Let's Get Married.

- Critical Mob

Elk, aka Justin Stein, is clearly a man who is lost in music. When asked to choose between replacing his broken computer or paying the rent on his Brooklyn pad, he chose the former so he could carry on forging his reputation as a bedroom producer to look out for. The downside to this was it meant moving back to his parents’ house in Michigan where he would be forced to occupy his sister’s old bedroom as his ill grandmother now had his old room.

This strange quirk of fate would be crucial to the development of this, the first full-length release from Elk after the acclaimed EP Honey Range. While in Michigan, Justin made extensive raids on his sister’s record collection and VHS library. He immersed himself in the sounds and sights of his sibling’s teenage years which entailed repeated listens of Prefab Sprout and Rhythm Nation-era Janet Jackson. Let’s Get Married turns out to be an incredibly eclectic opus that weaves together electronic, psychedelic, shoegaze and even tropicalia. Threading the whole shebang together is a distinct 1980s atmosphere that pervades almost everything. It could - nay should - have been an awful mess with such a hotch potch of styles. In fact, it defies the odds to become not just good music, but bloody good music.

The second track, 'Sarah', with its repeated lyrics, harmonies, hand claps and repetitive synthesisers is not unlike listening to the Beach Boys on a particularly strong dose of pharmaceuticals. In fact, it is not a million miles away from the material of Animal Collective and is strong enough to stand up in such a comparison. As a confirmed fan of Animal Collective, this is a big compliment from me.

"Volleyball," has a superb African-inspired melody as its driving force. It is ably accompanied by layer upon layer of samples to continue the head trip of this album in fine style. The fourth track, 'Rollerbladin,' is probably my favourite on the album. It is ten minutes of absolute mayhem with the first half devoted to delivering a purely 1980s-inspired melody that is so evocative you can almost taste the fizzy Soda Stream. After that it suddenly morphs into an utterly irresistible, tropicalia-style piece that has you subconsciously reaching for the factor 30 sunblock because of its sunny disposition.

Proceedings are calmed somewhat with Summer Magic which is a dreamlike lullaby that would not have been out of place on the surreal cult television series Twin Peaks which, I strongly suspect, was among the video collection of Justin’s sister. Like with 'Rollerbladin,’ Justin segues in what sounds like a completely different song in the last third to liven things up once again.

Let’s Get Married is only seven tracks long but, during its course, it sends the listener on a musical journey that is absolutely vast. The ideas and ingenuity crammed into Let’s Get Married can only be applauded. Mr Stein’s decision to swallow his pride and move back in with his folks so that he could buy a computer should also be applauded. Had he not done this, we would not have Let’s Get Married in its current form and that, would be a crime.
Read more at http://hangout.altsounds.com/reviews/125803-elk-married-album.html#R87vlXmz2T4blzEf.99 - Alt Sounds

Elk, aka Justin Stein, is clearly a man who is lost in music. When asked to choose between replacing his broken computer or paying the rent on his Brooklyn pad, he chose the former so he could carry on forging his reputation as a bedroom producer to look out for. The downside to this was it meant moving back to his parents’ house in Michigan where he would be forced to occupy his sister’s old bedroom as his ill grandmother now had his old room.

This strange quirk of fate would be crucial to the development of this, the first full-length release from Elk after the acclaimed EP Honey Range. While in Michigan, Justin made extensive raids on his sister’s record collection and VHS library. He immersed himself in the sounds and sights of his sibling’s teenage years which entailed repeated listens of Prefab Sprout and Rhythm Nation-era Janet Jackson. Let’s Get Married turns out to be an incredibly eclectic opus that weaves together electronic, psychedelic, shoegaze and even tropicalia. Threading the whole shebang together is a distinct 1980s atmosphere that pervades almost everything. It could - nay should - have been an awful mess with such a hotch potch of styles. In fact, it defies the odds to become not just good music, but bloody good music.

The second track, 'Sarah', with its repeated lyrics, harmonies, hand claps and repetitive synthesisers is not unlike listening to the Beach Boys on a particularly strong dose of pharmaceuticals. In fact, it is not a million miles away from the material of Animal Collective and is strong enough to stand up in such a comparison. As a confirmed fan of Animal Collective, this is a big compliment from me.

"Volleyball," has a superb African-inspired melody as its driving force. It is ably accompanied by layer upon layer of samples to continue the head trip of this album in fine style. The fourth track, 'Rollerbladin,' is probably my favourite on the album. It is ten minutes of absolute mayhem with the first half devoted to delivering a purely 1980s-inspired melody that is so evocative you can almost taste the fizzy Soda Stream. After that it suddenly morphs into an utterly irresistible, tropicalia-style piece that has you subconsciously reaching for the factor 30 sunblock because of its sunny disposition.

Proceedings are calmed somewhat with Summer Magic which is a dreamlike lullaby that would not have been out of place on the surreal cult television series Twin Peaks which, I strongly suspect, was among the video collection of Justin’s sister. Like with 'Rollerbladin,’ Justin segues in what sounds like a completely different song in the last third to liven things up once again.

Let’s Get Married is only seven tracks long but, during its course, it sends the listener on a musical journey that is absolutely vast. The ideas and ingenuity crammed into Let’s Get Married can only be applauded. Mr Stein’s decision to swallow his pride and move back in with his folks so that he could buy a computer should also be applauded. Had he not done this, we would not have Let’s Get Married in its current form and that, would be a crime.
Read more at http://hangout.altsounds.com/reviews/125803-elk-married-album.html#R87vlXmz2T4blzEf.99 - hangout.altsounds.com

Daily Downloads (Scott Miller, A Sunny Day in Glasgow, and more)

Every day, Daily Downloads offers 10 free and legal mp3 downloads, plus free and legal live sets from around the internet.

Today's free and legal mp3 downloads:

Bikini: "American Mourning" [mp3] from RIPJDS (out November 23rd on CD)
search for more Bikini posts at Largehearted Boy

Birds of Avalon: "Invasion" [mp3] from Birds of Avalon (out January 11th)
search for more Birds of Avalon posts at Largehearted Boy

Brass Bed: "God Saves the Thieves" [mp3] from Melt White
search for more Brass Bed posts at Largehearted Boy

Eksi Ekso: "Kills of the Flood Tide" [mp3] from Brown Shark, Red Lion (out March 15th)
search for more Eksi Ekso posts at Largehearted Boy

Elk: "Volleyball" [mp3] from Let's Get Married (out February 15th)
search for more Elk posts at Largehearted Boy

Indiefolker: "The Eyes, The Beard, The Nose, The Stomach, The Lungs" [mp3] from Monsters In The Christmas Album (out December 1st)
search for more Indiefolker posts at Largehearted Boy

Joshua English: "Nickel In" [mp3] from Lay Bare Your Bones (out December 7th)
search for more Joshua English posts at Largehearted Boy

Poly Styrene: "Black Christmas" [mp3]
search for more Poly Styrene posts at Largehearted Boy

Radical Face: "The Deserter's Song" [mp3] from Touch the Sky
search for more Radical Face posts at Largehearted Boy

Scott Miller: "Joyful, Joyful" [mp3] from Christmas Gift EP
search for more Scott Miller posts at Largehearted Boy
- Large Hearted Boy

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.

Elk, "Volleyball"

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. - Impose Magazine

Brookyln via Michigan sample-lover Elk adds some literal arcade dynamics to one of our favourite janglers from Ducktails' poppiest album yet. Elk adds more layers to the song, bringing ultra spacious tiled-room ambience, reverberant vocal mumblings, and someone's conversation leaking in. Elsewhere (on his just-released debut album) he mixes "electronic pop, Philip Glass samples, tropicalia, shoegaze, and flashes of the cerebral," but this one's pure afternoon bliss, subtly building on the Duck's refracted pastorilia. (via Rose Quartz) - Altered Zones

Sometimes, musicians are faced with a tough choice between pursuing their art and eating. Justin Stein, who goes by the handle Elk, was faced with exactly that choice when the Brooklyn bedroom pop musician had to decide whether he should replace the computer he used in music mashing or pay the rent. As it would turn out, creating sounds won the battle as Stein hightailed it back to his parent’s house back in Michigan with a new computer in hand. However, he was forced to take over his sister’s bedroom as his old room had a new occupant: a grandmother suffering from Alzheimer’s. The end product of what must have been a very uncomfortable living situation is Elk’s very first full-length album, Let’s Get Married, which is being self-released on cassette and as a digital download (with vinyl copies to follow in March). It’s an initially off-putting record, one that recalls latter day Animal Collective on pixie dust, in that it is built up largely of continuous loops that, at times, go on and on and on and on and on and on and on and (are you bored of this sentence yet?) on and on and on and on.

Two of the seven tracks here eclipse the eight-minute mark, which is just one indicator of a certain formlessness and lack of focus to the album. In fact, Let’s Get Married is more of a mood piece as there’s a droning quality to this record that you’re either going to love to bits or mercilessly hate. I’m going to err somewhere in the middle and offer that the album has its hidden rewards, from the folksy “Moonjellies” to the Talking Heads-like, Tropicana-flavoured, world beat infused rhythms of “Volleyball” to the Beach Boys-esque harmonies of closer “Crush”. Granted, the record’s a little too all over the map at times – fragments of songs collide within songs and the transitions aren’t seamless – but one has to admire Elk’s stubbornness at pursuing his dreams of crafting experimental pop in conditions that must have been less than ideal. It might not congeal as one would hope, but Let’s Get Married is an interesting experiment and conjures up the sort of arms-length intimacy you get by listening to a far-away stations on your bedroom clock radio late at night as their signals fade in and out. Adventurous listeners won’t regret this musician’s choice to forgo a roof over his head of his own to create a brave new sonic soundscape, but, let’s be frank, Let’s Get Married is an acquired taste. - Popmatters