Earth - Primitive And Deadly

Fuck! What happened here? Earth are definitely not messing about on their new record - the heaviest thing the band have done in over a decade. I can get behind this! Since their reformation / regrouping, Earth have been all about calm, serene, bright and wavering tones; colossal monuments of clean guitar work and uplifting instrumental soundscapes - almost like the shoegazing equivalent of their early drone days. But this is something else entirely. Someone finally decided to turn Earth's amps up, and I couldn't be happier with that decision.

The Bees Made Honey... is one of my favourite things ever, and I loved the first part of Angels Of Darkness Demons Of Light, with it's dusty, haunting, almost western sound. The second part of that double album was much, much more sparse, and I must admit I lost interest a bit, with Earth's already stripped back sound being reeled in even further (I gotta say though, the bass playing was pretty funky). 

I'm not sure if I'm entirely sold on the inclusion of guest vocalists (Rabia Shaheen Qazi and sometimes-QOTSA collaborator Mark Lanegan) but the reappearance of distortion in Earth's work has made a world of difference for me. It's not as if it is overpowering in any way, or like it even detracts from the subtleties going on around the guitar, it's just that everything sounds much more alive and vital - something that can do no harm for a band as far into their career as Earth. 

Enter a shimmering, mesmerising desert of sonic absolution.

Stebmo - Stebmo

I had the shock of my life when I saw a tweed jacket wearing Steve Moore perform as Stebmo in 2009, supporting Earth in The Croft, Bristol. What the hell was I watching? To be fair, who knew? And whilst that jazzy-jam of distorted electric piano and drums doesn't sound anything like the Stebmo record, it was entirely responsible for my purchase of it. It took me a while to get around the idea of whether I liked Stebmo or not, but in the end I threw caution to the wind and bought the album. Way to push the boat out!

Like the live show, the Stebmo record is primarily piano and organ driven, although there is a veritable smorgasbord of other instruments and performers chipping in over the whole record. One minute it's elevator music, the next an up-beat jaunt that would be the perfect soundtrack for walking through a big city, and then onto slower, more rousing and thought provoking pieces. This record has it all! I don't really know how to class this album, and I guess if it doesn't class easily then I shouldn't try to, although Discogs has it listed as Avant-garde jazz. Hmm. Out on Invada Records (the Bristol-based one) and as far as I can tell, all the copies are clear vinyl. Also, since this cunt stole my fucking Cattle Decapitation 7" in a bogus trade, the Stebmo record is now by far the clearest clear record I own. That shit is like fucking glass. Check it out below the video link!

 

This (incorrectly titled) video mashes up two tracks off the record; the upbeat and cheesy "Blind Ross" comes first, followed by the much more somber and brooding "Dark Circles". I picked this vid because it shows two different sides to this fantastic record in one link. 

Earth - Pentastar: In the Style of Demons

For me, Pentastar is the essential first listen album for Earth. It combines the dizzying drones from the first few records with the unusual penchant for traditional song structures that would pave the way for the band's later, more clean and folky shoegazer efforts. This is the last Earth record to fully embrace the wonders of the fuzz, and for this reason alone it must be worshipped!  What I have here is the excellent value 2006 repress on Sub Pop Records.

It is hard to review this album without defaulting focus on the now classic intro and outro riff ("Coda Maestoso in F (Flat) Minor" to be more specific), which in all honesty and hindsight, can pretty much sum up the sound of Pentastar. The fact that Earth still play this monolith live - a somewhat more chilled and clean version, though - at shows doesn't help my case. It can easily put you back into this era and you end up associating the whole bloody thing with those two tracks and that one poxy riff! Doh!

But, armed with the power to see passed that hypnotizing riff and one can appreciate that there are lots of excellent songs here to rival any band with a leaning towards the fuzz, from the depths of the doom genre right through to something altogether more Kyuss. Acid King in particular come to mind whilst listening to "Tallahassee", a crunching, laid back number of epic proportions. Opener (not counting the intro riff) "High Command" has all of the head-nodding goodness, whilst "Peace in Mississippi" brings the funk and "Sonar and Depth Charge" mixes everything up a bit by stripping right down for over seven minutes of haunting piano.

Check out the link below for a bit of the great "Codo Maestoso", and then buy this album!