Like Elephants 1

Swedish garage rockers The Movements stay true to the spirit of the genre without becoming a slave to its limits. Right from the onset of The Death of John Hall D.Y., the stereo mix kicks in and harmonies, vintage keyboard sounds, full-throated bass, and electric guitars come alive like it’s 2013—and 1966. This segues into the seven-minute “Boogin’,” which moves off a repetitive riff, with vocals again coursing through space and time until a raga-rock instrumental provides the perfect route to the climax. “Shady Wind” provides another quiet moment before the all-out rocker “Two Tongues” and the equally urgent “Great Deceiver.” What would be the album’s second side—marked by the 10-second non-song “Paus”—is equally intense, with songs that could battle the early Who. There’s no reliance on reverb or even silly phasing; just superior musicianship dedicating itself to the possibilities of a sound never fully exhausted back in the days when things changed with each season. Not since the U.K. garage revivalists The Prisoners and Irish psychedelicists The Steppes made music in the '80s has this sound been done so masterfully.