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ELLE TEA
Fate Is At My Side

Self-released (2023)
Rating: 9/10

Now here is a gem of a release you should all be jumping on. I know very little about Elle Tea (except the fact it’s a band of Italian design) and I almost don’t want to, just so I can keep the mystery alive.

This is wonderful hard rock that’s so rich and fluid and yet obscure that it could have easily been issued anywhere between 1979 and 1983. Fate Is At My Side is wonderfully melodic, warm and atmospheric in spite of being stripped-back vintage rock. From the off with the title track there is a simplicity and ease; the guitar sound is almost nonchalantly cool in its motion and the accompanying vocals are as equally casual, yet clear and effective.

The influence from the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal era is evident, but this release has its own magic within its comforting layers. The steady gallop of ‘An Awaited Sign’, the slow burning suspense of ‘Part Of The Devil’ and right through to the sublime ‘The Wanderer’… how can a record feel so barren yet majestic?

Fate Is At My Side is a record that teases with its structures (‘Burning Soul’) and yet jabs like an unbeaten fluid lightweight boxer who doesn’t require arrogance due to such knowing. ‘Riding In The Dust’ is Elle Tea at its busiest, almost tapping into a “stoner rock” vibe amidst those late 70s zips, while ‘Voice Of Time’ is somehow contemporary US rock in its joy but also cosmically 60s.

I’m a reviewer that’s so often loathe to give an album a 10/10 rating and so I won’t here, but Fate Is At My Side is a gorgeously mesmeric record that feels so natural in its construction that one cannot help but scratch their head in bemusement at its splendour.

Neil Arnold

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