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Class 6(66)

Earth: Earth 2

25/02/11  ||  Khlysty

Introduction

Y’know, before Earth and especially before this particular record, drone was something to be found only in experimental or religious music. Fuck, drone was just an idea in the minds of composers like LaMonte Young or Karlheinz Stockhausen. Before Earth, drones in rock were just side notes in songs – mood effects or some such shit. But after this record, drone became a part of the vocabulary of heavosity and a gajillion of bands use it as a main ingredient of their music. So, all you droneheads (yeah, you two guys in the back…), pay attention here, for there are things to be learned and secrets to be unveiled.

Now, Earth began their career as another rock band of the American Northwest, with a penchant for drugs, violent behavior and a love for all things ‘70s hard rock. Their first official recording, an E.P. called “Extra-capsular Extraction” raised a few eyebrows when it came out, because, although it seemed like, y’know, “rock”, it was pretty alien, following strange patterns in songwriting and execution: repetition, down-tunedfulness, slowness, sparse mantra-like vocals, bizarre percussions, a constant buzzing and crackling from the amps. Yep, it was crazy enough to deter anyone but the most hardened noiseniks to appreciate it.

Well, seems that Dylan Carlson, the mastermind of Earth, decided that all this was pretty tame, so he kicked outta the band Joe Preston who handled percussion duties and asserted that the best way for the band to express itself would be to take a couple of Sabbath-inspired riffs and stretch them into drum-less, vocal-less eternity, using the power of the amplifier as the sole means of expression. The result was “Earth 2 – Special Low-frequency Version”, that came out in 1993 and today is considered as the first “proper” drone doom record. That fact that it came out on Sub Pop, the label that trademarked the “Seattle sound” is even more baffling as this shit has virtually nothing to do with said sound. Oh, well, life is full of surprises, ain’t it, now?

Songwriting

0 – 10. Yep, that’s how it goes. It’s not easy to rate the songwriting in a record that clocks at 70 minutes, contains only three tracks and these three tracks are endless, extremely slow and drawn-out repetitions of one or two “riffs”, clearly derived from the stone age of doom metal and stretched out beyond even the logical breaking point. To some people – myself included – this approach towards music is genius. To the other 99,999999% of the listening audience, this is pure aural torture. You’re free to take whichever side you like. Anyway, I really think that the songwriting is of no real importance here; what matters here is patience, distortion and the power of the duo’s amplifiers. All other elements are just superfluous…

Production

9. With such music, things could get hairy production-wise. So I consider it a feat that with such bottom-heavy sounds, there seems to be a certain clarity, or, at least not total muck. You can hear everything, which is good – or bad, depending whether you like music that bends space and time or not. A certain murk in the production, obviously due to the fact that such music had never been recorded before, adds a bit of bizarre charm to the whole proceedings.

Guitars

10. The absolute, as far as down-tuned, distorted, fuzzed-out, feedback-crazed, sustained, slow and low and heavy guitar is concerned. The riffs retain a small bit of coherence, even when they are pulled apart by time and feedback howls, and there’s a certain sense of flow. But, hey, all this is forest for the trees shit: you don’t listen to this for dexterity and riff-magicks and flow; you listen to this ‘cause you’re a fucked-up dope-fiend and, for that, the guitar work is perfect.

Vocals

-. NO FUCKIN’ VOCALS ALLOWED HERE!!! VERBOTEN!!!

Bass

9. Dave “The Alien” Harwell does a simple job and he does it perfectly: he follows the guitar and adds to the bottom-end and the general dementia of the record. Good job, man!

Drums

-. Drums are also strictly VERBOTEN in here…

Lyrics

-. Zero points – there are no lyrics. 10 points, though, for the track titles: “Seven Angels”, “Teeth Of Lions Rule The Divine” and “Like Gold and Faceted”. Trés cool…

Cover art

10. Blue sky, a slice of earth, some people or something. Fuck, this is a drone record, man, so the cover is as expansive as the contents of the record.

Logo

3. No logo, just the name of the band in a simple font.

Booklet

7. Pills, teeth, other shit and funny “blurbs” about the record’s effect on individuals on the back.

Overall and ending rant

This is the record that started it all, as far as drone is concerned. Everything droney that you hear today owes to Earth and to this fucker of a mindfuck of a record. Afterward, Earth failed for a long time to produce something noteworthy, but even if they had ceased to exist after “2”, they would have been a great influence for many a band and a great addition to the annals of seriously fucked-up music. This is a classic and it rightfully deserves its place to the heart and collection of anyone who says he likes his heavy music really “out there, somewhere”…

8,5

  • Tracklist
  • 01. Seven angels
  • 02. Teeth of lions rule the divine
  • 03. Like gold and faceted

Class 6(66) -reviews

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