The most characteristic trait of an Elephant Six recording is the eclectic and exotic instrumentation: along with the guitars and drums you can hear, for example, the flugelhorn, singing saw, wandering genie, and one-note piano on Neutral Milk Hotel's "In the Aeroplane over the Sea"; the euphonium, selemintan, and magnus organ on The Olivia Tremor Control's "Black Foliage"; the sitar, "magic robot voice," and Nepalese copper shawn on Elf Power's "When the Red King Comes"; and everything from sarangi to clarinet played by fully eighteen backup musicians on Beulah's "When Your Heartstrings Break". This is the ostensible nature of the "collective": instruments, players, and space are shared among many bands.
See also Indie rock.