Shaman Elect
“Hugo Of Bath”
Mind The Ether
What a great song. Shaman Elect come on like Renaissance wrapped in modern mystic clothing, making beautiful and expressive music in this day where a good riff is all you need, and pseudo-gospel vocals are the norm. Shaman Elect instead take their time to tell stories with wonderful instrumentation. Tight grooves, crisp tones, emotive lyrics, waves of mood oriented improvisation. According to their bio:
Shaman Elect was born inside warehouses turned art studios in Brooklyn, NY. It started as a fusion of styles between Ethan Warshowsky (synths, vocals) and Fredy Garcia (guitar, vocals). Together, they began developing each other’s songs by combining elements of jazz, rock, and electronica. In early 2017, leading up to their first live performance, Mike Malkowski (drums, vocals) joined the group, contributing his inventive and dynamic drumming. Expressive singer, Sarah Warshowsky (lead vocals) became the group’s frontwoman.
Hugo went out to the town and held out a proposal
(they knew he had to go, they knew he had to go)
He said just give me a horse, an axe, and a saddle
(where do you think he’ll go, where do you think he’ll go)
Out there where the beasts can roam, where a man is not a man but a creature alone, is where he’ll go (where he’ll go), to find a piece of mind in his remaining time
He didn’t know his plan could fail, that ignorance is bliss until you miss the nail (no he didn’t know), that any little thing could go wrongOut there in his dreamy world, he tried to find a place where his mind could dwell
but all he could find, (all he could find), were blankets and blankets of snow
In the cold, his thoughts grew dark, and blinded by his doubts he lost sight of his mark and collapsed, (and collapsed), down into the rabbit hole
Woken up his sight was weak, but finally it hit him, and he could finally speak what he did know, (what he did know), it wasn’t what they taught him in Sunday school
We cannot succumb to despair, the antidote exists, and it is we who bear the breakthrough, (the breakthrough) that we all need to go on