Shrunken Elvis

An album on my radar for sometime, the trio consists of a perfect cross-section of RSTB faves. Finding the leylines between Sean Thompson’s county ramble, Spencer Cullum’s folk intimacy and the more experimental ends of Rich Ruth’s exploratory jazz, Shrunken Elvis is a dream swept up in cosmic tones and German progressive patter. The trio shies away from the lyrical in favor of an instrumental sweep that’s bucolic and bubbling. From the outset they lock into the loosest ends of ambient country, letting Cullum’s slide grease the speakers with it’s spectral tones. The lock-step simplicity of the band’s mechanical rhythms tie their tones to fellow stratospheric travelers Prairiewolf, meeting somewhere in the Borealis above to tangle their Western-jazz wares with their Mountain Time counterparts.

Much like that beloved (around here) outfit, the band doesn’t hold too hard to the rhythm stick, instead letting themselves float into the atmosphere on waves of perfectly percolated guitar courtesy of Thompson and iced synth textures from Ruth. The group holds aloft an ethos of “no goals, just ideas,” and, while that seems untethered in writing, in practice, the band’s ability to melt ‘80s ECM into the spiritual sides of jazz with a Krautrock hangover is sure to a have an instant appeal to readers around here. The iciness of Ashra’s Correlations comes instantly to mind, but the band bobs and weaves through Göttsching’s wonders with nods to Trips und Traume along the way. They dip into Alice’s ashram but never stay, feeling the urges pull them towards the eclectic journey of KLF’s Chill Out just as often. Knowing the players, the album seems perfectly in tune with what’s likely happening on their own turntables, but the ability to harness the edges of outre to their own ends is endlessly impressive. A meditative essential for 2025!

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