Sky Swimming

Amelia Rivas and Christian Pinchbeck don't just sing about feverish, frayed and fractured romances - in the three years since forming Elephant, they've been living one. It's fitting that 'Sky Swimming', their debut full length release is a seductive, night time delight of an album. After all, it was in the twilight hours of a may morning three years ago that pontefract native Amelia Rivas and Bristolian Christian Pinchbeck met at a house party and in alcohol-soaked all-nighter sessions that 'Sky Swimming' was written. A fibrous collection of songs about relationships - their own included, which broke down during the making of the album - hazy memories, twisted dreams, the metaphysical bleeding in to the physical - 'Sky Swimming' - all trilling keyboards, swooping melodies, broken hip hop beats, looped strings and amelia's uniquely curvy vocals - that makes you want to clamp your headphones tighter on your ears, letting you swim in its every detail and emotion. Influenced by everything from Toro Y Moi to composer Angelo Badalamenti, Everything but the Girl to rap originators Arrested Development and Joe Meek's productions, it's an intensely varied listen.