Walk the Nile

Personnel: Ståle Storlokken (keyboards); Nikolai Hængsle Eilertsen (electric bass); Torstein Lofthus (drums).Elephant9 is a jazz-rock power trio featuring keyboardist Ståle Storlokken of Supersilent, National Bank bassist Nikolai Eilertsen, and Shining drummer Torstein Lofthus. Though Storlokken plays Hammond organ on much of the disc, this is no Jimmy Smith or Big John Patton-style exercise in bluesy grooves; these three are decidedly more influenced by '70s rock, as the solos routinely head into territory previously explored by Deep Purple's Jon Lord and Keith Emerson (of Emerson, Lake & Palmer infamy). Lofthus' drumming crosses Ronald Shannon Jackson's avalanche-like polyrhythms with the crushing metal power of Slayer's Dave Lombardo (no stranger to rhythmic intricacy himself), while bassist Eilertsen holds the groove down and drives the band forward in a way that's at-times reminiscent of Yes' Chris Squire, and also the Moody Blues' John Lodge. It's not all headlong assault-pro