E.A.R. Continuum (Space Age) cd 16.98
Aah, in case you'd thought the highly prolific Sonic Boom AKA Experimental Audio Research AKA E.A.R. had perhaps finally fallen silent, along come eight more tracks from his camp. In case you're an equipment geek like me and were wondering with what his tickle trunk runneth over this time around, it's the sounds of a Fenix mod synth, EMS synthi AKS, a Serge mod system... oh, and a vocoder, some thumb pianos and a custom human voice synthesizer. The outcome of this batch of sonic experimentation? The usual distant droning atmospheres and whirring mechanisms for which E.A.R. is more than well-known.
RealAudio clip: "Shimmer"

EA 11'00 (Drone Records) 7" 6.50
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Drone Records -- run by Stefan Knappe of Troum and Maeror Tri -- exclusively produces seven inches mostly by emerging artists who specialize in expressive drone work (hence the label name). While there is something to be said for Drone's dedication to unknown artists, the work that comes from the ongoing series tends to be some of the best work from each of the artists' respective catalogues. This definitely includes more familiar names such as Reynols (with their infamous '10,000 Chicken Symphony'), Francisco Lopez, Spear, and Osso Exotico; but also lesser known artists such as Klood and Tarkatak. Drone tends to make small runs of these singles (usually about 250 copies and with handmade covers) and they always go fast.
EA is a Polish artist who only has a couple of cd-r releases under his belt, but has succeeded in developing a very nice amorphous version of late '80s Zoviet France, albeit without Robin Storey's trademarked looping structures. "11'00" is a delicate strain of manipulated feedback that complements a battery of distant gongs, extended guitar tones, and reverberated textural scrapings. Nice.

EAGLES OF DEATH METAL Death By Sexy... (Downtown Recordings / Rekords Rekords) cd 13.98
They're back, those glammy poppy trashy rock n' rollers misleadingly named the Eagles Of Death Metal. This is the band in which Queens Of The Stone Age leader Josh Homme kicks out the jams with tongue jammed firmly in cheek, a glittering disco ball spinning in his head. It's total T-Rex worship, complete with silly stupid lyrics and the metallic crunch of as few chords as necessary. Needless to say, irony-wary Andee really hates this band. He didn't like their first record and he doesn't like this one either. Maybe it's because he was disappointed that they absolutely don't sound at all like the Eagles OR like death metal, or like any combination thereof (which is what he was hoping for, apparently). Or maybe he's just too sexy for 'em. Either way, he's an Eagles Of Death Metal hater, and not the only one here. Right now Andee's singing "I'm so ironic" in a ridiculous falsetto in an attempt to mock this band, while Christine argues that if they sound like T-Rex, it's 'cause they used the "T-Rex" setting in GarageBand. Ouch. HOWEVER, Allan says screw 'em -- rock n' roll is supposed to be FUN and dumb sometimes, and Eagles Of Death Metal do it up right in that regard. Good times, a la the equally glammy Boyjazz, and also Electronicat, who are also in their own ways wanna-be (and why not?) T-Rex, The Sweet, Cheap Tricksters too. Sure can't argue that this album is a serious, intellectually stimulating piece of art, no. But as far as catchy, bubblegum hard rock goes, Death By Sexy definitely offers up a sugary dose. C'mon, don't be a sourpuss, go ahead and party on with these bubblicious dudes.
MPEG Stream: "I Want You So Hard (Boys Bad News)"
MPEG Stream: "Cherry Cola"

EAGLES OF DEATH METAL Peace Love Death Metal (Ant Acid Audio) cd 16.98

EAR Beyond The Pale (Big Cat) cd 12.98
Sonic Boom of Spacemen 3, Kevin Martin of GOD, Eddie Prevost of A.M.M. (not A.A.M., as his record-label produced one-sheet claims -- sheesh!), and Kevin Shields of My Bloody Valentine.

EARDRUM Dead Beat EP (Leaf) 12" 7.98

EARGOGGLE, LUKE Audio Warriors (Bunker) cd 16.98
I (Allan) initially picked up this disc 'cause I thought that Luke Eargoggle was responsible for one of my favorite tracks on Powerslaves (the electro Iron Maiden covers cd we made record of the week not too long ago): "Die With Your Boots On". I was mistaken, that song was actually performed by Maxx Klaxxon, whereas Mr. Eargoggle did a version of "Mother Russia" (not one of my fave Maiden tunes, but his electro version wasn't bad). Anyway, as it turns out I'm real glad I took a chance on this album, 'cause it turned out to be quite the jam -- so I figured I'd order a few for the store as well. Chock full of fat crunchy beats and squelchy bass lines, it's a great example of what I like about the purposefully '80s retro genre of electro, unlike a lot of other types of techno/dance music: simply put, it's funky. One of the best tracks on here is entitled "Stiff White Funk" and while no one will argue with that self-assessment, the funk is still the funk, stiff and white it may be. Actually, that particular track is awesome simply 'cause of how nervously hectic it is. It's a minefield of distorted synth explosions and sci-fi-noir fx. Very cool, along with the rest of Audio Warriors.
MPEG Stream: "The Swedish Code "
MPEG Stream: "Stiff White Funk "

EARL 16 Cyber Roots (e park) cd 15.98
Roots reggae hits the dancefloor and ouch my tummy hurts. I'm sure this will soon be playing non stop at a cafe near you. I can't see sitting through it again here though.
RealAudio clip: "Feel the Fire"

EARL 16 Cyber Roots (e park) lp 13.98
Roots reggae hits the dancefloor and ouch my tummy hurts. I'm sure this will soon be playing non stop at a cafe near you. I can't see sitting through it again here though.

EARL SHILTON Two Rooms (Full Of Insects) (Invisible Spies) cd 11.98
BACK IN STOCK ONCE AGAIN!!! This all time AQ fave and former record of the week continues to be super difficult to restock for some reason. But it's here once again, and any one who has yet to discover this disc, for chrissakes, pick it up. Definite contender for our lifetime top ten!! Also, there's a new Earl Shilton expected in the next little while so be prepared! Here's what we had to say about Earl Shilton when it was Record of the Week a long time back:
We somehow knew this was an Aquarius Record of the Week the minute we first laid eyes on it. Well, okay, maybe that's not entirely true. But it had the potential, that much we knew for sure, just from the cover: a huge double bass drumkit, set up in the middle of the forest with the name 'Earl' scrawled on one of the bass drums. A very evocative image, combining our love of heavy rock (the kit), with my personal thing for drums (the kit again) and our love of all things forest-y: nature sounds, field recordings, animal sounds and all that. My mind was reeling. Was it a drummer just playing solos out in the woods? Was it some sort of Jewelled Antler style rock band / field recording hybrid? Or something else entirely? Stranger yet, the song titles were all in German while the label was British. Intriguing. Better give it a listen... Well, the first track revealed very little. A weird minimal rhythmic workout composed entirely of backwards drums and cymbals. Thhwwp....thhhwwwwip...sssssssp.... Very cool, but was that the gist of it? After a minute or so of that, the record exploded into something entirely unexpected -- a crushing metal riff, with weird syncopated drumming, a sort of chunky Pantera / Prong meets the Fucking Champs vibe, with whispered vocals. Then it shifted gears again and entered into a super melodic Carcass-style death metal breakdown with howled black metal vocals before it shifted back to the machine-like opening riff. And then I knew for sure. Record of the Week!
Only later, with some Internet research, did we figure out what the heck was going on. The dedication on the inside to UK death metal crusties Bolt Thrower should have been our first clue, as it turns out that Earl Shilton is a pseudonym for Alex Thomas, former drummer for those very same metalheads. For some unknown reason, Earl Shilton is the name he has assumed for this project "of crushing death metal brutality and total corpse raping necro-blast carnage" as his website puts it. Indeed!
Furthermore, that website tells us that on tour, the band features a quite young, brother and sister rhythm section! Live, Earl steps from behind the kit to handle the guitars and vocals, while the brother plays bass, and the 16 year old sister mans the drums!!! Fuck yeah! This is getting more Record of the Week by the minute, we're thinking! And the music is well worthy too, lest we forget -- Two Rooms (Full Of Insects) is a blasting, hyper complex, super varied blast of metallic mayhem. From motorik, ultra-precise technical riffery, to stop/start math-metal complexity, from grooving, galloping death metal fury, to screeching blasting black metal, from eighties Earache style thrash to modern metallic fury, with all sorts of tripped out breakdowns, fucked up production and some really really weird parts, like the breakdown a little more than halfway through the album where everything drops out except for a simple, quietly played hypnotic tom tom rhythm, joined by backwards, super creepy Orcish vocals, and the hissing backwards drumming that started the record, before the whole thing bursts back into motion, in an explosion of grandioise Maiden-ish metal. Whew, so good. And while it may not be the best (or truest) metal record on this list, it certainly is the weirdest. And the coolest. And certainly the one most suited to being Record of the Week!
MPEG Stream: "Infrarot / European Kanone"
MPEG Stream: "Zwei Raume (Voller Insekten)"
MPEG Stream: "Schlachthaus Rock"
MPEG Stream: "Tu Es.../Entscheidungskampf"

EARLE, STACEY Simple Gearle (Gearle/E-Squared) cd 15.98
Quaint old timey twang, warm and intimate from Steve Earle's sister. Not only does she kinda look like Mary from local darlings Virgina Dare, but this album will appeal to fans of V. Dare as well as Freakwater.

EARLE, STEVE The Revolution Starts Now (Artemis) cd 16.98
Continuing his album-a-year pace, outspoken roots rebel Steve Earle is showing no signs of letting up. On this studio follow-up to 2002's Jerusalem (he also had a live one called Just An American Boy released in 2003), he's sounding his most youthful and invigorated in years. With his steely-eyed focus and weathered, sandpaper-y voice (akin to Americana rock contemporaries Paul Westerberg, Howe Gelb, and younger'un Ryan Adams), Earle has unleashed an equally politically charged companion piece to his aforementioned Jerusalem (his response to the events and aftermath of September 11th). Many music writers have already pointed this out, and we fully concur that the album's lone weak point is "Condi Condi" a tongue in cheek ode to Condoleeza Rice.
MPEG Stream: "Rich Man's War"
MPEG Stream: "F The CC"

EARLES & JENSEN Present... Just Farr A Laugh (Matador) 2cd 14.98
For this review, we recruited AQ pal Cliff Hengst, artist and co-editor of "Good Times: Bad Trips":
I love me some good prank phone calls. A great prank call can be the most devastatingly funny thing ever - it's just you and the caller, and of course, the poor sap at the other end (who never seems to get the clue to just hang up). Of the many prank-call cds we've listened to, this one stands out as among the most brilliant and repeatedly played. It's perfect for those long road trips to stave off the urges to cause injury to your traveling companions. Reissued as a double cd with 25 extra pranks (the original, released in 2002 was fine enough), it's packed with some of the most memorable and pathetic characters you've ever heard. The middle-aged and recently divorced Barbara, who loves the "stanky blues" of Bonnie Raitt, trying to join a band to spite her ex-husband; Barbara's ex-husband in turn calling the same poor dude warning him about his ex-wife and her "buffet of psycho-tropic drugs"; Bedroom ETA , a "quiet storm" band that involves a hilariously sung Jermaine Stewart song; and of course, Bleachy, a fat black sad-sack who harangues army recruiting offices, worker's comp centers and fast food chains with his miserably petty requests and complaints - so awesome! It's really no use reading a review of something like this; you miss the timing, the phrasing, all those embarrassing awkward pauses, and out of left-field cultural references. So listen to the clips. An original and hilarious collection that you will listen to again and again and will make you "shit your pants". Comes with a prank-by-prank analysis booklet by Andrew Earles and Jeffrey Jensen. Shattering.
MPEG Stream: "Barbara: A Realistic Portrait"
MPEG Stream: "Bleachy and the .99 cent Bufords"
MPEG Stream: "Bedroom ETA: A Jermaine Stewart Cover Band"
MPEG Stream: "Tim Butler: An old flatmate of David J's"
MPEG Stream: "Kurt Loder Has Lost His Mind"
MPEG Stream: "Bleachy Wants To Watch Murder She Wrote"

EARLIES, THE The Enemy Chorus (Secretly Canadian) cd 14.98
Whoa The Earlies' new album has thrown us for a loop! The Enemy Chorus is the band's first album proper -- their previous releases having been eps and a 2005 compilation cd of said eps titled These Were The Earlies. It's a glorious expanse of elaborate orchestral rock/pop layers infused with an earthy twang. This half Texan half British band is crafting music on an ambitiously stratospheric scale that brings to mind Radiohead or Flaming Lips, but which is also darkly grooving along the lines of TV On The Radio. Vocal comparisons alternate between the alienated throaty emotiveness of Peter Gabriel, the smooth drowsiness of The Doves' Jimi Goodwin and the weathered duskiness of Mark Lanegan. Moodily hypnotic and very cool!
MPEG Stream: "No Love In Your Heart"
MPEG Stream: "Enemy Chorus"

EARLIES, THE These Were... (Secretly Canadian) cd 14.98
Finally available domestically... better late than never. This debut album -- actually a remarkably cohesive collection of early EPs from 2002 onwards by this band of Brits and Texans -- caused quite a stir when it was released last year. The British music press surely peed themselves over it. While we don't think you'll be needing any additional absorbency in your pants, we will agree that this is pretty darn great. It perches itself quite comfortably in the midst of the last couple of albums from a couple of old AQ faves Mercury Rev and Flaming Lips -- both vocally and compositionally. Gloriously dreamy, slightly spaced-out orchestral pop with mellow brass, reedy woodwinds, perfectly placed chimes and an ample dollop of Beatles and Brian Wilson/Beach Boys influences melting down on top. Swooon!
MPEG Stream: "Wayward Song"
MPEG Stream: "Slowman's Dream"

EARLIMART Treble & Tremble (Palm) cd 13.98

EARLY MAN Closing In (Matador) cd 14.98
These guys hit us last year with a three-song ace to the face taster of their very VERY heavy metal music, and we've been waiting to get hurt with more ever since. Now is the time. That utterly ass-kicking demo (released as a cdep on Monitor) led to this NYC based duo getting signed to Matador, who have just released their debut full-length album. It's already in our mental list of top ten metal discs of the year and we recommend these eleven songs (including one, "Death Is The Answer", reprised from that ep) to everybody and everybody with a headbanging bone in their body. But of course, the fact that these guys, despite totally looking the part of long-haired heshers (and, more importantly, sounding like it), are on an indie rock label and used to have indie scene notable Dave Pajo (Slint/Tortoise/Aerial M) holding down the bass position, might cause some metal purists to question their cred. Not to mention that this disc was produced by Matt Sweeney (of Chavez and more recently Superwolf with Will Oldham fame) and he threw some of his own six string action on there. But whatever. Suspect poserdom all you want, but the fact remains, this band rules. These songs are just so darn heavy and aggressive and catchy, with real vocals, sing-along refrains, and plenty of energetic, killer riffs. Can't argue with the riffs. Simply classic stuff.
Our pal Josh holds that music is never really "about" anything, other than music itself, referencing and commenting upon prior musical forms and examples (he should know, having been the guitarist for The Fucking Champs, who've always been very upfront about admitting and celebrating the influences they synthesized into their own distinctive sound). This notion certainly seems to apply to the music of Early Man, big time. And perhaps it could act as a defense against those who will accuse Early Man of sounding too much like certain other bands. Which it can't be denied that they do -- Early Man makes it easy to spot their influences, as was already made plain by that ep release last year. You'd have to be deaf, or I guess really old, not to hear the Metallica and the Black Sabbath in there. But hey, what's wrong with that? Metallica's NWOBHM influences (a la "Am I Evil") have also trickled down to Early Man for sure. So, if you dig the Sabs and the 'tallicatz and the NWOBHM (don't you??), you should definitely give Early Man a listen. Likewise if you're into such current bands as Wolf, High On Fire, The Champs, and Sheavy who keep the '70s and '80s metal spirit alive. Packaged in a digipak, with a nice stencil included so you can more easily spraypaint Early Man graffitti all over your neighborhood.
MPEG Stream: "Four Walls"
MPEG Stream: "Like A Goddamn Rat"

EARLY MAN Closing In (Matador) lp 11.98
These guys hit us last year with a three-song ace to the face taster of their very VERY heavy metal music, and we've been waiting to get hurt with more ever since. Now is the time. That utterly ass-kicking demo (released as a cdep on Monitor) led to this NYC based duo getting signed to Matador, who have just released their debut full-length album. It's already in our mental list of top ten metal discs of the year and we recommend these eleven songs (including one, "Death Is The Answer", reprised from that ep) to everybody and everybody with a headbanging bone in their body. But of course, the fact that these guys, despite totally looking the part of long-haired heshers (and, more importantly, sounding like it), are on an indie rock label and used to have indie scene notable Dave Pajo (Slint/Tortoise/Aerial M) holding down the bass position, might cause some metal purists to question their cred. Not to mention that this disc was produced by Matt Sweeney (of Chavez and more recently Superwolf with Will Oldham fame) and he threw some of his own six string action on there. But whatever. Suspect poserdom all you want, but the fact remains, this band rules. These songs are just so darn heavy and aggressive and catchy, with real vocals, sing-along refrains, and plenty of energetic, killer riffs. Can't argue with the riffs. Simply classic stuff.
Our pal Josh holds that music is never really "about" anything, other than music itself, referencing and commenting upon prior musical forms and examples (he should know, having been the guitarist for The Fucking Champs, who've always been very upfront about admitting and celebrating the influences they synthesized into their own distinctive sound). This notion certainly seems to apply to the music of Early Man, big time. And perhaps it could act as a defense against those who will accuse Early Man of sounding too much like certain other bands. Which it can't be denied that they do -- Early Man makes it easy to spot their influences, as was already made plain by that ep release last year. You'd have to be deaf, or I guess really old, not to hear the Metallica and the Black Sabbath in there. But hey, what's wrong with that? Metallica's NWOBHM influences (a la "Am I Evil") have also trickled down to Early Man for sure. So, if you dig the Sabs and the 'tallicatz and the NWOBHM (don't you??), you should definitely give Early Man a listen. Likewise if you're into such current bands as Wolf, High On Fire, The Champs, and Sheavy who keep the '70s and '80s metal spirit alive. Packaged in a digipak, with a nice stencil included so you can more easily spraypaint Early Man graffitti all over your neighborhood.
MPEG Stream: "Four Walls"
MPEG Stream: "Like A Goddamn Rat"

EARLY MAN s/t (Monitor) cd 10.98
We listed this hip NYC metal band's three-song, self-released demo cd a few months ago, now here it is again as an "offical" release on Monitor Records, with the exact same three songs but better packaging (i.e. in a jewel case with cover art!). Seems like Early Man are doin' pretty good -- they also just got signed to Matador (!) with a full-length debut coming up soon! So, what's the fuss all about? Refresh yr memory with our prior review of these tracks:
It seems like everybody likes metal nowadays. Somehow it got to be hip and cool again. Who should we blame -- Stoner rock? The Fucking Champs? Black metal? 30-something dudes getting nostalgic? The Osbournes? The Metallica Drummer? Dave Grohl? Aquarius Records? (naw) Or maybe the fact that metal can be damn good music?!? So now that indie rockers aren't afraid of metal anymore, the world is ready for a band like NYC's Early Man, a trio which currently includes none other than David Pajo of Slint/Aerial M/Tortoise fame on bass (though we're not entirely sure if he's on this recording, as the solid core of the band is the guitarist and drummer, with bassists coming and going). Dave Pajo or no, though, Early Man should be of interest anyway for their metallic mastery. There's three songs here on this 17-minute ep release. First track, the shortest and punchiest (appropriately since it's called "Fight!"), rips along like vintage Metallica, with the singer doing semi-Hetfield vox with suitably dumb but cool lyrics. But on the next two tracks, he sounds a lot more like Ozzy which makes sense as these are Sabbath styled epics (circa Sabotage, "Symptom Of The Universe" -- actually on the third song dude is actually pretty much singing the vocal line from "Symptom..."). And there's healthy doses of the NWOBHM here too. Yup it's retro and derivative sometimes but that's OK, so too fer instance were Sleep (which some of this surely reminds us of), and besides a killer riff's a killer riff and you can't argue with sheer metal might can you? There's no extraneous soloing just riffs riffs riffs. Wait, no soloing? Maybe they are ironic poseurs. I just hope they're for real. Their website (nicely done) definitely has a bit of hipster 'tude...but in the live photos of them, they look metal even if the audience doesn't. For fans of High On Fire, The Fucking Champs, and of course all ye goode olden metal. We want to hear more!
MPEG Stream: "Death Is The Answer"

EARLY MAN s/t (self-released) cd ep 10.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
It seems like everybody likes metal nowadays. Somehow it got to be hip and cool again. Who should we blame -- Stoner rock? The Fucking Champs? Black metal? 30-something dudes getting nostalgic? The Osbournes? The Metallica Drummer? Dave Grohl? Aquarius Records? (naw) Or maybe the fact that metal can be damn good music?!? So now that indie rockers aren't afraid of metal anymore, the world is ready for a band like NYC's Early Man, a trio which currently includes none other than David Pajo of Slint/Aerial M/Tortoise fame on bass (though we're not entirely sure if he's on this recording, as the solid core of the band is the guitarist and drummer, with bassists coming and going). Dave Pajo or no, though, Early Man should be of interest anyway for their metallic mastery. There's three songs here on this limited edition, no-frills (no packaging, really) 17-minute ep release. First track, the shortest and punchiest (appropriately since it's called "Fight!"), rips along like vintage Metallica, with the singer doing semi-Hetfield vox with suitably dumb but cool lyrics. But on the next two tracks, he sounds a lot more like Ozzy which makes sense as these are Sabbath styled epics (circa Sabotage, "Symptom Of The Universe" -- actually on the third song dude is actually pretty much singing the vocal line from "Symptom..."). And there's healthy doses of the NWOBHM here too. Yup it's retro and derivative sometimes but that's OK, so too fer instance were Sleep (which some of this surely reminds us of), and besides a killer riff's a killer riff and you can't argue with sheer metal might can you? There's no extraneous soloing just riffs riffs riffs. Wait, no soloing? Maybe they are ironic poseurs. I just hope they're for real. Their website (nicely done) definitely has a bit of hipster 'tude...but in the live photos of them, they look metal even if the audience doesn't. For fans of High On Fire, The Fucking Champs, and of course all ye goode olden metal. We want to hear more!
MPEG Stream: "Death Is The Answer"

EARLY YEARS, THE s/t (Beggars Banquet) 2cd 13.98
In rapid succession this new British band The Early Years tear more than a few pages out of the mighty textbooks of Neu!, CAN, Bauhaus, Jesus And Mary Chain, Spiritualized, Slowdive, Coldplay and The Doves -- meaning their sound draws hungrily from the krautrock, post-punk, psych/space-rock, shoegazer and more modern Brit rock of yesteryear. Each taken on its own would probably suggest an unforgivable derivativeness -- and occasionally guilty charges do definitely apply here -- but somehow this U.K. band have melted it all together into their own shimmering sound which is clearly nostalgia-stirring yet quite engaging in its own right. Much like their current Beggars Banquet labelmates Film School, this music that they're making is, if not sparkling with originality, at least quite an enjoyable, exceptionally well executed incarnation of their musical forefathers and heroes. Yup, we have to admit we're total suckers for it!
MPEG Stream: "So Far Gone"
MPEG Stream: "Brown Hearts"

EARLY YEARS, THE s/t (Beggars Banquet) lp 11.98
In rapid succession this new British band The Early Years tear more than a few pages out of the mighty textbooks of Neu!, CAN, Bauhaus, Jesus And Mary Chain, Spiritualized, Slowdive, Coldplay and The Doves -- meaning their sound draws hungrily from the krautrock, post-punk, psych/space-rock, shoegazer and more modern Brit rock of yesteryear. Each taken on its own would probably suggest an unforgivable derivativeness -- and occasionally guilty charges do definitely apply here -- but somehow this U.K. band have melted it all together into their own shimmering sound which is clearly nostalgia-stirring yet quite engaging in its own right. Much like their current Beggars Banquet labelmates Film School, this music that they're making is, if not sparkling with originality, at least quite an enjoyable, exceptionally well executed incarnation of their musical forefathers and heroes. Yup, we have to admit we're total suckers for it!
MPEG Stream: "So Far Gone"
MPEG Stream: "Brown Hearts"

EARTH 070796LIVE (Autofact) cd 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We obviously don't need to say much to convince all the Earth / Sunn 0))) / doom-dirge-drone obsessives out there that this disc is ESSENTIAL. Most of them are willing to shell out $50 or $100 or even more for limited vinyl releases by any band even tangentially related to Sunn 0))) or Earth, anyway. But for those of you who are new to the Earth phenomenon, as long as you already own their ALL TIME CLASSIC album Earth 2, you might also want to check this disc out (and the OTHER, NEW Earth cd reviewed elsewhere on this list!). 070796LIVE collects the WAY out of print, one sided live lp from a few years back, the equally WAY out of print tour only split 12" with KK Null, an unreleased live recording on WNYU, and a remix by James Plotkin (O.L.D. / Khanate / Phantomsmasher, etc.) In terms of eBay value alone this disc is worth at least $100 if not more!!! But so what? More importantly it's another essential slab of crushing, mesmerising, slow motion drone-metal! The first two tracks are "070796" (from the live lp) and the live radio recording "Dissolution III (Oversaturated Intervallic Collisions)". These tracks are classic Earth, stumbling, droning, rambling, and endlessly heavy. The funny thing with Earth though, is sometimes they sound like they must be taking the piss. A couple scraggly haired dudes, wacked out of their minds, tuning and fumbling for twenty minutes, sometimes sitting there in a stupor, letting the feeding-back guitar do all the work, sometimes plucking and scraping and manipulating the sound into rumbling sheets of drone and skree. But sometimes, that fumbling becomes absolutely divine, which is, we suppose, the magic of Earth. The ultimate outsider drone outfit. Who somehow manage, with the same amps and guitars and effects as the rest of us, to simply stumble into dronerock nirvana! The third track, from the KK Null split tour 12", features the current incarnation of Earth with Adrienne Davies on drums. Bookended by that classic stationary Earth feedback-drone, this track eventually morphs into an actual song, with a fuzzed out, minor key riff, and simple hypnotic drumming, falling sonically somewhere between moody post rock and midtempo Burzumic black metal. Throbbing and loping, and totally mesmerizing. The last track, the Plotkin remix, takes the live track and stretches it into thick ropy drones, with the original track's constituent parts blurred into indistinct smears of fuzz and rumble, a slowly shifting glacial crush, with occasional squalls of buzzy white noise and electronic filligree. Really really nice. And of course as we now know, the rumour we had been hearing, about a BRAND NEW Earth record has proven to be the truth, with the release of Living In The Gleam Of An Unsheathed Sword (read all about it elsewhere on this list), which IS a new record, but features live tracks recorded in 2002. And while one of the tracks here is inexplicably duplicated on the new cd, both discs are well worth the price, with 070796LIVE including three tracks essentially unavailable anywhere else, and Living In The Gleam containing an epic one hour track only available on that cd.
MPEG Stream: "Dexamyl"
MPEG Stream: "070796 (Reconstruction By James Plotkin)"

EARTH 10 1990 (ANJA) lp 12.98
THIS LP IS COMPLETELY OUT OF PRINT AND WE WILL NEVER HAVE IT AGAIN BUT WE THOUGHT WE'D LEAVE IT IN THE CATALOG FOR POSTERITY'S SAKE. PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
This is the shit. Earth were the masters of the downtuned slow motion dirge, boasting both Joe Preston of the Thrones and Kurt Cobain as one time members. Their second record, 'Earth 2' (which we also carry) is an absolute classic and essential for lovers of doom, metal, sludge, or any sort of heaviness.
This lp collects an alternate version of their first album as well as the two ultra rare '16 rpm' 7"s. It is clear vinyl, housed in a breathtaking hand screened clear sleeve, and limited to 360, of which we only got 20. So don't dawdle or you'll be kicking yourself later.
Crushing and glacial tar pit metal. Like your Melvins records at 6 rpm. Like listening to Black Sabbath on a walkman with dying batteries at the bottom of a swimming pool. Like the last 10 seconds of your life, played out in slow motion, as tons of 'rock' crushes you to death.
You must buy this.
Totally fucking essential if you already like Earth, but definitely for fans of the Melvins, Corrupted, Esoteric, Skepticism and the like.

EARTH 2 (Special Low Frequency Version) (Sub Pop) cd 10.98
(For some reason we never listed this before, so rather than just adding it quietly to the website we thought we'd put it on our email, timely since we're also listing the reissue of Earth's "Sunn Amps..." cd.)
Earth. The band that launched a thousand drones. The band that started it all. The heaviest band ever (maybe). Earth was the singular vision of only-permanent-member Dylan Carlson, the long haired guy pictured on the back cover wearing the Morbid Angel longsleeve (whom you might remember from the Kurt & Courtney movie). For 1993's Earth 2, Dylan's guitar was joined by the bass of Dave Harwell, who is pictured holding a cup of coffee on the back cover (and who would go on to disappear completely).
All you kids who thrive on an unhealthy diet of the Corrupted, Boris (who even borrowed the Earth 2 tagline "Special Low Frequency Version" for the Southern Lord version of their "Absolutego" album), the Melvins, Thrones, and sludge like that, as well as you avant-art rockers who enjoy 'dronology' and stuff like Mirror and Jonathan Coleclough and even those of you who sit at home in front of your dream machines and wallow in the historical drones of Angus Maclise and Tony Conrad, need look no further than Earth 2 to experience the drone the way it was meant to be heard: huge downtuned guitars playing riffs so slow that each one lasts forever, LOW END that slides and lurches like a blackened glacier of fuzz and hiss, slow motion notes stretched so far that they become a single note washing over you like a sticky wave of tar and molasses, melodies that are indistinguishable because the notes are pulled so far apart they threaten to come apart completely. When we tell someone that a record is heavy, Earth 2 is the barometer by which all other supposedly 'heavy' music is measured. Even recent AQ faves Sunn 0))) are an Earth tribute band (they will even say as much) named for Earth's amp of choice. There are very few records that are 'classics', that stand the test of time, that remain as vital now, as when they originally came out, ten, twenty, or even thirty years earlier, that have influenced so many bands so much, or that have been unequalled, even with so many people trying so hard to be the heaviest or most extreme. The drug addled, accidental brilliance that is Earth 2, to this day remains a complete and utter classic.
MPEG Stream: "Seven Angels"
MPEG Stream: "Teeth Of Lions Rule The Divine"
MPEG Stream: "Like Gold And Faceted"

EARTH 2 (Special Low Frequency Version) (Sub Pop) 2lp 12.98
Finally, all of the legendary and long out of print Earth records are available again on vinyl (including the classic Phase 3: Thrones And Dominions also just reissued on cd)!!! It was only a matter of time really with the recent explosion of deathdoomdronesludge mania, SUNNO))), Corrupted, Boris and of course Earth, the forefathers and undisputed masters of all things slow and sludgey.
Earth. The band that launched a thousand drones. The band that started it all. The heaviest band ever (maybe). Earth was the singular vision of only-permanent-member Dylan Carlson, the long haired guy pictured on the back cover wearing the Morbid Angel longsleeve (whom you might remember from the Kurt & Courtney movie). For 1993's Earth 2, Dylan's guitar was joined by the bass of Dave Harwell, who is pictured holding a cup of coffee on the back cover (and who would go on to disappear completely).
All you kids who thrive on an unhealthy diet of the Corrupted, Boris (who even borrowed the Earth 2 tagline "Special Low Frequency Version" for the Southern Lord version of their Absolutego album), the Melvins, Thrones, and sludge like that, as well as you avant-art rockers who enjoy 'dronology' and stuff like Mirror and Jonathan Coleclough and even those of you who sit at home in front of your dream machines and wallow in the historical drones of Angus Maclise and Tony Conrad, need look no further than Earth 2 to experience the drone the way it was meant to be heard: huge downtuned guitars playing riffs so slow that each one lasts forever, LOW END that slides and lurches like a blackened glacier of fuzz and hiss, slow motion notes stretched so far that they become a single note washing over you like a sticky wave of tar and molasses, melodies that are indistinguishable because the notes are pulled so far apart they threaten to come apart completely. When we tell someone that a record is heavy, Earth 2 is the barometer by which all other supposedly 'heavy' music is measured. Even recent AQ faves Sunn 0))) began life as an Earth tribute band (they will even say as much) named for Earth's amp of choice. There are very few records that are 'classics', that stand the test of time, that remain as vital now, as when they originally came out, ten, twenty, or even thirty years earlier, that have influenced so many bands so much, or that have been unequalled, even with so many people trying so hard to be the heaviest or most extreme. The drug addled, accidental brilliance that is Earth 2, to this day remains a complete and utter classic.
MPEG Stream: "Seven Angels"
MPEG Stream: "Teeth Of Lions Rule The Divine"
MPEG Stream: "Like Gold And Faceted"

EARTH 2 : Special Low Quantity Version (Autofact) 3lp 53.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Super limited triple lp version of this all time classic. And we mean VERY LIMITED. As in we only have 1 copies. SUPER EXPENSIVE, but the only way to get this on vinyl at this point. In plain white sleeves, sealed with a sticker, with an insert. Supposed to be numbered but our copies aren't. Sleeves are not in perfect condition as these were dragged around Europe by Earth on their 2003 European tour with KK Null, originally the only place you could buy this sucker! Her's our review of the cd version:
Earth. The band that launched a thousand drones. The band that started it all. The heaviest band ever (maybe). Earth was the singular vision of only-permanent-member Dylan Carlson, the long haired guy pictured on the back cover wearing the Morbid Angel longsleeve (whom you might remember from the Kurt & Courtney movie). For 1993's Earth 2, Dylan's guitar was joined by the bass of Dave Harwell, who is pictured holding a cup of coffee on the back cover (and who would go on to disappear completely).
All you kids who thrive on an unhealthy diet of the Corrupted, Boris (who even borrowed the Earth 2 tagline "Special Low Frequency Version" for the Southern Lord version of their "Absolutego" album), the Melvins, Thrones, and sludge like that, as well as you avant-art rockers who enjoy 'dronology' and stuff like Mirror and Jonathan Coleclough and even those of you who sit at home in front of your dream machines and wallow in the historical drones of Angus Maclise and Tony Conrad, need look no further than Earth 2 to experience the drone the way it was meant to be heard: huge downtuned guitars playing riffs so slow that each one lasts forever, LOW END that slides and lurches like a blackened glacier of fuzz and hiss, slow motion notes stretched so far that they become a single note washing over you like a sticky wave of tar and molasses, melodies that are indistinguishable because the notes are pulled so far apart they threaten to come apart completely. When we tell someone that a record is heavy, Earth 2 is the barometer by which all other supposedly 'heavy' music is measured. Even recent AQ faves Sunn 0))) are an Earth tribute band (they will even say as much) named for Earth's amp of choice. There are very few records that are 'classics', that stand the test of time, that remain as vital now, as when they originally came out, ten, twenty, or even thirty years earlier, that have influenced so many bands so much, or that have been unequalled, even with so many people trying so hard to be the heaviest or most extreme. The drug addled, accidental brilliance that is Earth 2, to this day remains a complete and utter classic.
MPEG Stream: "Seven Angels"
MPEG Stream: "Teeth Of Lions Rule The Divine"
MPEG Stream: "Like Gold And Faceted"

EARTH Divine And Bright (Autofact) 7" 7.50
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Do we even need to discuss this? You know you need it. Especially all you Sunn 0))) obsessives. You did realize after all that Sunn was basically an Earth tribute band? Well, here's another chance to go straight to the source. Super limited, on all different colors of vinyl, in a beautiful full color sleeve. Side A is a demo of the track "Divine And Bright" from 1990, which had previously been released on a rare bootleg 7" and later compiled on the reissue of Sunn Amps And Smashed Guitars. This is not Earth at their slowest and droniest, but instead a rocking dirge, mesmerizing and gorgeous, heavy and spacy, with Kurt Cobain on vocals. So great. Kinda sounds like Nirvana at 16rpm. The B side is the same track, re-recorded in 2003 live in Seattle featuring Earth mainman Dylan Carlson and new drummer Adrienne Davies. Missing some of the gut wrenching drug addled angst of Side A but still pretty great. As we said before VERY LIMITED. We have a bunch but they won't last long, so therefore only one per customer.

EARTH Extra - Capsular Extraction (Sub Pop) cd ep 9.98
Kind of a holy grail for those who didn't pick up the long-out-of-print original version of this when it was first released, the 1991 debut cd by the Pacific Northwest's late great drone/doom masters Earth. Originals sell for big $$$ on eBay. And those who DO have one consider it an old friend. Now (now being 2002!) Sub Pop has finally got their act together (prodded by the pleas of many an Earth fan, including Allan here at AQ, who takes full credit, so you can thank him) and have reissued it at last -- this time in a jewel case instead of the mere cardboard sleeve of the original version (another triumph for Allan). The artwork is the same, though: the medical-text inspired "Postgraduate Seminars: Eye Surgery - Concepts and Problems" graphics. There's no extra tracks or anything, but the original three tracks ("A Bureaucratic Desire For Revenge Parts 1 & 2", "Ouroboros Is Broken") are more than enough: 32 minutes of downtuned dirge, metallic slow-motion sludge riffery that goes to extremes of low, slow heaviness that even the mighty Melvins never achieved. The lengthier, airier follow-up "Earth 2" might be Earth's masterpiece, but "Extra-Capsular" was their devastating opening act, sounding like the grand, ominous martial music meant to accompany an invasion by malevolent Underearth Dwellers. I remember when I first got this, most of my friends thought it was the most retarded record ever. Now they know better. Well, actually, they probably don't, but WE know. So recommended.
Earth on this disc consisted of mastermind Dylan Carlson (guitar/vocals) plus Dave Harwell (bass) and Joe Preston (bass/percussion). Joe of course later went on to fame and fortune in the Melvins, and later, his one man band Thrones.
Oh, and this is the Earth record that one Kurt Cobain plays on as well, which I know confused and dismayed a lot of frat/jock guys back in the day!
RealAudio clip: "Ouroboros Is Broken"

EARTH Extra - Capsular Extraction (Sub Pop) lp 9.98
Finally, all of the legendary and long out of print Earth records are available again on vinyl (including the classic Phase 3: Thrones And Dominions also just reissued on cd)!!! It was only a matter of time really with the recent explosion of deathdoomdronesludge mania, SUNNO))), Corrupted, Boris and of course Earth, the forefathers and undisputed masters of all things slow and sludgey.
Extra - Capsular Extraction is definitely an all time sludge / doom holy grail, having spent the majority of the last almost 20 years out of print. But the cd was reissued a little while back and now the vinyl is back in print too! Originally released in 1991, Extra - Capsular Extraction was the debut cd by Pacific Northwest drone/doom masters Earth, who were thought by most folks to be defunct before resurfacing recently with a new lineup and a new twangier sound and an amazing record in the form of the breathtaking Hex.
So, Extra - Capsular Extraction! Needless to say we all love this record, it's Allan and Jason's favorite Earth record for sure, Andee's third, maybe even second (behind '2' and sometimes 'Phase 3'), but we are so psyched for this to be available again, especially on vinyl.
The artwork is the same: the medical-text inspired "Postgraduate Seminars: Eye Surgery - Concepts and Problems" graphics. There's no extra tracks or anything, but the original three tracks ("A Bureaucratic Desire For Revenge Parts 1 & 2", "Ouroboros Is Broken") are more than enough: 32 minutes of downtuned dirge, metallic slow-motion sludge riffery that goes to extremes of low, slow heaviness that even the mighty Melvins never achieved. The lengthier, airier follow-up "Earth 2" might be Earth's masterpiece, but "Extra-Capsular" was their devastating opening act, sounding like the grand, ominous martial music meant to accompany an invasion by malevolent Underearth Dwellers. I remember when I first got this, most of my friends thought it was the most retarded record ever. Now they know better. Well, actually, they probably don't, but WE know. So recommended.
Earth on this disc consisted of mastermind Dylan Carlson (guitar/vocals) plus Dave Harwell (bass) and Joe Preston (bass/percussion). Joe of course later went on to fame and fortune in the Melvins, and later, his one man band Thrones.
Oh, and this is the Earth record that one Kurt Cobain plays on as well, which I know confused and dismayed a lot of frat/jock guys back in the day!
MPEG Stream: "Ouroboros Is Broken"

EARTH Hex; Or Printing In The Infernal Method (Southern Lord) cd 14.98
It's all been leading up to this. In the early nineties, when most of us heard Earth for the first time, our minds were totally blown. What was that massive slab of fuzzy sludge doing on Sub Pop? Why didn't it sound like Soundgarden or Mudhoney or Tad? It didn't take long before we stopped asking questions like that and began wondering where the hell were all the other bands that sounded like Earth. Well, it took 10 years, but now that whole downtuned slow motion sludge thing is an actual genre. With more and more new bands popping up every day. All honoring the mighty sludge that was Earth. But those of you who were into Earth the first time around, might remember the band changing directions pretty dramatically, adding a drummer, and playing actual songs, even doing a Hendrix cover at one point, the Earth of old having mutated into a groovy sort of stoner post rock, propulsive swinging riffs, relentless chugging guitars, all wrapped in a druggy spacy swirl. Back then we were all a bit bummed out, as Earth became, well, more normal, at least to our ears. It was as close to selling out as Earth were liable to get.
Back to the present day. Recordings started popping up here and there, along with rumors of actual Earth shows, limited 7"s and tour only 12"s, all filling us with an impossible anticipation. Earth was back. But if they were back, why were all the recordings from live shows and all several years old? It made sense, the sound of the new Earth practically picked up right where they left off, stretched out, spaced out, druggy post rock with simple drumming and wavering distorted riffs, not heavy per se, but dark and dreamy and mesmerizing. But none of that could have prepared us for the desolate, sun baked, slow crawl, shuffle and twang beauty of long-awaited new studio album Hex. Definitely hewing closer to Earth's more recent post rockisms, Hex is warm and expansive, slow building and contemplative, with simple drums, heavily reverbed, not distorted, guitars, occasional lapsteel, the whole thing unfurling into a haunting twang, a ghost town desert lullaby, a Cormac McCarthy novel in song, tumbleweeds, miles of scrub and windblown landscapes, old dead trees, plenty of space for the cymbals to sizzle and each riff to drift into black clouded skies. Drone / doom / dirge / sludge purists (if there can be such a thing) may well be a bit disappointed, or at the very least confused. And Earth's history / reputation for black hole heaviness might be an albatross at this point as this new sound falls squarely within the territory of groups like Low, Codeine, Friends Of Dean Martinez, Calexico, Scenic, Torrez, Sixteen Horsepower, even Mazzy Star or Godspeed You Black Emperor. But ultimately none of that has anything to do with the fact that Hex is just simply beautiful. A dark and mysterious and truly haunting record. Huge swells of instrumental tension dissipate into warm washes of drift and shimmer, melodies are slowly uncoiling snakes, waking drowsily and slithering off sun baked rocks, every note and every drum beat, every slippery lapsteel swoop, every stretch of near silence, are all draped lazily over broken fences, fallen power lines, rusted out tractors, fallow fields. Dark clouds drift above, across a steel grey sky, sending small shadowy shapes scurrying across the landscape like mysterious creatures, the breeze is warm and smells of death and desolation. Every one is lost and alone, out of money, out of time, just waiting around to die. The mood is bleak, but the sound of Hex is so so beautiful. Somehow hopeful and full of joy, but the sort of joy that comes from being powerless and close to despair, and simply choosing joy over misery, finding happiness the way animals in the desert seek out moisture. The heart of Hex is heavy, the sound appropriately heavy as well, but in a way few conventionally heavy records can manage. A brooding, storm about to break, dam about to burst, soul about to loose itself from its earthly moorings and escape to a better place kind of heavy. The sound of the desert, and the human spirit, of death, of sadness and horror, of loneliness, of abandonment, of hearts breaking, lovers lost and drifting apart, of life. The sound of laying in the dry dirt, the breeze stretched across you like a moth eaten old blanket, eyes closed, the sun sending all sorts of shapes spinning behind your closed eyelids, memories becoming fuzzy and drifting away, your whole body and soul wrapped in a warm darkness, the world fading into nowhere, you fading into nothing.
MPEG Stream: "Lens Of Unrectified Night"
MPEG Stream: "An Inquest Concerning Teeth"
MPEG Stream: "Raiford (The Felon Wind)"

EARTH Hex; Or Printing In The Infernal Method (Southern Lord) 2lp 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
It's all been leading up to this. In the early nineties, when most of us heard Earth for the first time, our minds were totally blown. What was that massive slab of fuzzy sludge doing on Sub Pop? Why didn't is sound like Soundgarden or Mudhoney or Tad? It didn't take long before we stopped asking questions like that and began wondering where the hell were all the other bands that sounded like Earth. Well, it took 10 years, but now that whole downtuned slow motion sludge thing is an actual genre. With more and more new bands popping up every day. All honoring the mighty sludge that was Earth. But those of you who were into Earth the first time around, might remember the band changing directions pretty dramatically, adding a drummer, and playing actual songs, even doing a Hendrix cover at one point, the Earth of old having mutated into a groovy sort of stoner post rock, propulsive swinging riffs, relentless chugging guitars, all wrapped in a druggy spacy swirl. Back then we were all a bit bummed out, as Earth became, well, more normal, at least to our ears. It was as close to selling out as Earth were liable to get. Back to the present day. Recordings started popping up here and there, along with rumors of actual Earth shows, limited 7"s and tour only 12"s, all filling us with an impossible anticipation. Earth was back. But if they were back, why were all the recordings from live shows and all several years old? It made sense, the sound of the new Earth practically picked up right where they left off, stretched out, spaced out, druggy post rock with simple drumming and wavering distorted riffs, not heavy per se, but dark and dreamy and mesmerizing. But none of that could have prepared us for the desolate, sun baked, slow crawl, shuffle and twang beauty of Hex. Definitely hewing closer to Earth's more recent post rockisms, Hex is warm and expansive, slow building and contemplative, with simple drums, heavily reverbed, not distorted, guitars, occasional lapsteel, the whole thing unfurling into a haunting twang, a ghost town desert lullaby, a Cormac McCarthy novel in song, tumbleweeds, miles of scrub and windblown landscapes, old dead trees, plenty of space for the cymbals to sizzle and each riff to drift into black clouded skies. Drone / doom / dirge / sludge purists (if there can be such a thing) may well be a bit disappointed, or at the very least confused. And Earth's history / reputation for black hole heaviness might be an albatross at this point as this new sound falls squarely within the territory of groups like Low, Codeine, Friends Of Dean Martinez, Calexico, Scenic, Torrez, Sixteen Horsepower, even Mazzy Star or Godspeed You Black Emperor. But ultimately none of that has anything to do with the fact that Hex is just simply beautiful. A dark and mysterious and truly haunting record. Huge swells of instrumental tension dissipate into warm washes of drift and shimmer, melodies are slowly uncoiling snakes, waking drowsily and slithering off sun baked rocks, every note and every drum beat, every slippery lapsteel swoop, every stretch of near silence, are all draped lazily over broken fences, fallen power lines, rusted out tractors, fallow fields. Dark clouds drift above, across a steel grey sky, sending small shadowy shapes scurrying across the landscape like mysterious creatures, the breeze is warm and smells of death and desolation. Every one is lost and alone, out of money, out of time, just waiting around to die. The mood is bleak, but the sound of Hex is so so beautiful. Somehow hopeful and full of joy, but the sort of joy that comes from being powerless and close to despair, and simply choosing joy over misery, finding happiness the way animals in the desert seek out moisture. The heart of Hex is heavy, the sound appropriately heavy as well, but in a way few conventionally heavy records can manage. A brooding, storm about to break, dam about to burst, soul about to loose itself from its earthly moorings and escape to a better place kind of heavy. The sound of the desert, and the human spirit, of death, of sadness and horror, of loneliness, of abandonment, of hearts breaking, lovers lost and drifting apart, of life. The sound of laying in the dry dirt, the breeze stretched across you like a moth eaten old blanket, eyes closed, the sun sending all sorts of shapes spinning behind your closed eyelids, memories becoming fuzzy and drifting away, your whole body and soul wrapped in a warm darkness, the world fading into nowhere, you fading into nothing.
THE VINYL HAS SUPER DELUXE PACKAGING, DIFFERENT ARTWORK AND AN EXTRA TRACK NOT ON THE CD!! The colored vinyl copies are gone. It's all black vinyl from now on.
MPEG Stream: "Lens Of Unrectified Night"
MPEG Stream: "An Inquest Concerning Teeth"
MPEG Stream: "Raiford (The Felon Wind)"

EARTH Hex; Or Printing In The Infernal Method (Double Picture Disc) (Southern Lord) 2 x picture disc lp 23.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We got so few of these it's almost pointless to list them, but a few of you who are quick on the draw will be the proud owners of one of our favorite gloomy drige-y twangy records of the last year, on DOUBLE PICTURE DISC VINYL. Comes in a cool, fold out thick plastic shaped sleeve, hard to explain but first time we've ever seen it. And as we said before, we only got about a dozen of these (though we ordered several times that number!), so prepare to be disappointed. Sorry...
It's all been leading up to this. In the early nineties, when most of us heard Earth for the first time, our minds were totally blown. What was that massive slab of fuzzy sludge doing on Sub Pop? Why didn't is sound like Soundgarden or Mudhoney or Tad? It didn't take long before we stopped asking questions like that and began wondering where the hell were all the other bands that sounded like Earth. Well, it took 10 years, but now that whole downtuned slow motion sludge thing is an actual genre. With more and more new bands popping up every day. All honoring the mighty sludge that was Earth. But those of you who were into Earth the first time around, might remember the band changing directions pretty dramatically, adding a drummer, and playing actual songs, even doing a Hendrix cover at one point, the Earth of old having mutated into a groovy sort of stoner post rock, propulsive swinging riffs, relentless chugging guitars, all wrapped in a druggy spacy swirl. Back then we were all a bit bummed out, as Earth became, well, more normal, at least to our ears. It was as close to selling out as Earth were liable to get. Back to the present day. Recordings started popping up here and there, along with rumors of actual Earth shows, limited 7"s and tour only 12"s, all filling us with an impossible anticipation. Earth was back. But if they were back, why were all the recordings from live shows and all several years old? It made sense, the sound of the new Earth practically picked up right where they left off, stretched out, spaced out, druggy post rock with simple drumming and wavering distorted riffs, not heavy per se, but dark and dreamy and mesmerizing. But none of that could have prepared us for the desolate, sun baked, slow crawl, shuffle and twang beauty of Hex. Definitely hewing closer to Earth's more recent post rockisms, Hex is warm and expansive, slow building and contemplative, with simple drums, heavily reverbed, not distorted, guitars, occasional lapsteel, the whole thing unfurling into a haunting twang, a ghost town desert lullaby, a Cormac McCarthy novel in song, tumbleweeds, miles of scrub and windblown landscapes, old dead trees, plenty of space for the cymbals to sizzle and each riff to drift into black clouded skies. Drone / doom / dirge / sludge purists (if there can be such a thing) may well be a bit disappointed, or at the very least confused. And Earth's history / reputation for black hole heaviness might be an albatross at this point as this new sound falls squarely within the territory of groups like Low, Codeine, Friends Of Dean Martinez, Calexico, Scenic, Torrez, Sixteen Horsepower, even Mazzy Star or Godspeed You Black Emperor. But ultimately none of that has anything to do with the fact that Hex is just simply beautiful. A dark and mysterious and truly haunting record. Huge swells of instrumental tension dissipate into warm washes of drift and shimmer, melodies are slowly uncoiling snakes, waking drowsily and slithering off sun baked rocks, every note and every drum beat, every slippery lapsteel swoop, every stretch of near silence, are all draped lazily over broken fences, fallen power lines, rusted out tractors, fallow fields. Dark clouds drift above, across a steel grey sky, sending small shadowy shapes scurrying across the landscape like mysterious creatures, the breeze is warm and smells of death and desolation. Every one is lost and alone, out of money, out of time, just waiting around to die. The mood is bleak, but the sound of Hex is so so beautiful. Somehow hopeful and full of joy, but the sort of joy that comes from being powerless and close to despair, and simply choosing joy over misery, finding happiness the way animals in the desert seek out moisture. The heart of Hex is heavy, the sound appropriately heavy as well, but in a way few conventionally heavy records can manage. A brooding, storm about to break, dam about to burst, soul about to loose itself from its earthly moorings and escape to a better place kind of heavy. The sound of the desert, and the human spirit, of death, of sadness and horror, of loneliness, of abandonment, of hearts breaking, lovers lost and drifting apart, of life. The sound of laying in the dry dirt, the breeze stretched across you like a moth eaten old blanket, eyes closed, the sun sending all sorts of shapes spinning behind your closed eyelids, memories becoming fuzzy and drifting away, your whole body and soul wrapped in a warm darkness, the world fading into nowhere, you fading into nothing.
MPEG Stream: "Lens Of Unrectified Night"
MPEG Stream: "An Inquest Concerning Teeth"
MPEG Stream: "Raiford (The Felon Wind)"

EARTH Hibernaculum (Southern Lord) lp 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
NOW ON VINYL!!
Holy crap, a new Earth album! Since the full-scale return (and reinvention) of Dylan Carlson's Earth project with last year's highly regarded studio album Hex; Or Printing In The Infernal Method (a Record Of The Week here at Aquarius when it came out) and subsequent tour, fans of the slow and low have had plenty to be happy about. That album took the extreme drone-metal Earth invented in the early '90s (a sound appropriated by SUNNO))) some years later) and turned it into a bleak n' desolate hybrid of post-rock and country-western! Spacious desert drone dirge with lap steel, something like Low meets Calexico meets the old Earth. Most Earth fans, ourselves included, had to give Hex a spin or two just to be sure we were hearing things right. But then, we all knew we were hearing it right and right it was. Such a great album.
What manner of follow up then is this new Hibernaculum? Well, some of it is gonna sound familiar...yet different. Since Earth's approach has morphed so much over the years, Dylan and co. have decided to revisit and re-record some old Earth compositions in the style of Hex, the way they've been playing 'em on tour, like when we saw them here in SF last year. Not a bad idea at all! You get to hear 'em do the classic "Ouroboros Is Broken" from their 1991 debut Extra-Capsular Extraction, "Coda Maesoso In F (Flat) Minor" from their final Sub Pop album, 1996's Pentastar: In The Style Of Demons, and the obscure "Miami Morning Coming Down" from a 1997 compilation on the Ash label called Scatter. These tunes all get the Hex treatment and wind up as windswept and lovely as you'd expect. There's also a fourth track, a new mix of the 16+ minute "A Plague Of Angels" which originally appeared last year on a very limited edition split vinyl release with SUNNO))). All of these pieces are simply gorgeous. Minimalist, Morricone-cinematic, twangfuzzdrone. Glacial twilight shimmer, velvet-hammer heavy. Droning deep and dark but uplifting as well. Weirdly we realize that Earth now sounds more like Bohren & Der Club Of Gore than Bohren & Der Club Of Gore ever sounded like Earth, if you know what we mean. And their instrumentation is a lot more like Bohren's now, including Hammond B-3, piano, upright bass, and trombone among other things (not the typical doom arsenal).
In the recent Earth documentary, "Within The Drone" (available with the cd version of Hibernaculum), Earth mainman Dylan Carlson, discusses LaMonte Young and suchlike inspirations, but he's got no pretentious theories of "the drone" to espouse, though he does opine interestingly that for him, the more complex music becomes the closer it is to noise. So a simple sound, slowly repeated -- a drone -- is much more to his liking. Aha. Hmm. But it's clear from the sounds on Hibernaculum that simple does not mean "easy". Supreme precision and feel is needed. To play music this slow, they've got to be good -- and they are.
MPEG Stream: "Ouroboros Is Broken"
MPEG Stream: "A Plague Of Angels"

EARTH Hibernaculum (Southern Lord) cd + dvd 17.98
Holy crap, a new Earth album! Since the full-scale return (and reinvention) of Dylan Carlson's Earth project with last year's highly regarded studio album Hex; Or Printing In The Infernal Method (a Record Of The Week here at Aquarius when it came out) and subsequent tour, fans of the slow and low have had plenty to be happy about. That album took the extreme drone-metal Earth invented in the early '90s (a sound appropriated by SUNNO))) some years later) and turned it into a bleak n' desolate hybrid of post-rock and country-western! Spacious desert drone dirge with lap steel, something like Low meets Calexico meets the old Earth. Most Earth fans, ourselves included, had to give Hex a spin or two just to be sure we were hearing things right. But then, we all knew we were hearing it right and right it was. Such a great album.
What manner of follow up then is this new Hibernaculum? Well, some of it is gonna sound familiar...yet different. Since Earth's approach has morphed so much over the years, Dylan and co. have decided to revisit and re-record some old Earth compositions in the style of Hex, the way they've been playing 'em on tour, like when we saw them here in SF last year. Not a bad idea at all! You get to hear 'em do the classic "Ouroboros Is Broken" from their 1991 debut Extra-Capsular Extraction, "Coda Maesoso In F (Flat) Minor" from their final Sub Pop album, 1996's Pentastar: In The Style Of Demons, and the obscure "Miami Morning Coming Down" from a 1997 compilation on the Ash label called Scatter. These tunes all get the Hex treatment and wind up as windswept and lovely as you'd expect. There's also a fourth track, a new mix of the 16+ minute "A Plague Of Angels" which originally appeared last year on a very limited edition split vinyl release with SUNNO))). All of these pieces are simply gorgeous. Minimalist, Morricone-cinematic, twangfuzzdrone. Glacial twilight shimmer, velvet-hammer heavy. Droning deep and dark but uplifting as well. Weirdly we realize that Earth now sounds more like Bohren & Der Club Of Gore than Bohren & Der Club Of Gore ever sounded like Earth, if you know what we mean. And their instrumentation is a lot more like Bohren's now, including Hammond B-3, piano, upright bass, and trombone among other things (not the typical doom arsenal).
And, as they say, that's not all -- this comes with a dvd disc as well! A documentary film by graphic artist Seldon Hunt entitled "Within The Drone", shot on tour with Earth and SUNNO))) in Europe in 2006. Lots of live performance footage, intermixed with scenes from the road, and interviews with Dylan Carlson, who proves to be charmingly laid-back, plain spoken and (yes) down to earth. He talks about LaMonte Young and suchlike inspirations, but he's got no pretentious theories of "the drone" to espouse, though he does opine interestingly that for him, the more complex music becomes the closer it is to noise. So a simple sound, slowly repeated -- a drone -- is much more to his liking. Aha. Hmm. But it's clear from watching the scenes of Earth in action though that simple does not mean "easy". Supreme precision and feel is needed. To play music this slow, they've got to be good -- and they are.
MPEG Stream: "Ouroboros Is Broken"
MPEG Stream: "A Plague Of Angels"

EARTH Hibernaculum (Southern Lord) picture disc 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Not ones to be left out on the whole "you haven't really owned a record until you've bought it in three different formats" thing, Earth re-release their kick-ass last album, now as a picture disc, Packaged in the same sleeve as the original, but inside, surprise, a gorgeous eye-popping picture disc. LIMITED TO 500 COPIES, and knowing how these things go, it's either now, or eBay later...
Here's our review of the record when it first came out:
Holy crap, a new Earth album! Since the full-scale return (and reinvention) of Dylan Carlson's Earth project with last year's highly regarded studio album Hex; Or Printing In The Infernal Method (a Record Of The Week here at Aquarius when it came out) and subsequent tour, fans of the slow and low have had plenty to be happy about. That album took the extreme drone-metal Earth invented in the early '90s (a sound appropriated by SUNNO))) some years later) and turned it into a bleak n' desolate hybrid of post-rock and country-western! Spacious desert drone dirge with lap steel, something like Low meets Calexico meets the old Earth. Most Earth fans, ourselves included, had to give Hex a spin or two just to be sure we were hearing things right. But then, we all knew we were hearing it right and right it was. Such a great album.
What manner of follow up then is this new Hibernaculum? Well, some of it is gonna sound familiar...yet different. Since Earth's approach has morphed so much over the years, Dylan and co. have decided to revisit and re-record some old Earth compositions in the style of Hex, the way they've been playing 'em on tour, like when we saw them here in SF last year. Not a bad idea at all! You get to hear 'em do the classic "Ouroboros Is Broken" from their 1991 debut Extra-Capsular Extraction, "Coda Maesoso In F (Flat) Minor" from their final Sub Pop album, 1996's Pentastar: In The Style Of Demons, and the obscure "Miami Morning Coming Down" from a 1997 compilation on the Ash label called Scatter. These tunes all get the Hex treatment and wind up as windswept and lovely as you'd expect. There's also a fourth track, a new mix of the 16+ minute "A Plague Of Angels" which originally appeared last year on a very limited edition split vinyl release with SUNNO))). All of these pieces are simply gorgeous. Minimalist, Morricone-cinematic, twangfuzzdrone. Glacial twilight shimmer, velvet-hammer heavy. Droning deep and dark but uplifting as well. Weirdly we realize that Earth now sounds more like Bohren & Der Club Of Gore than Bohren & Der Club Of Gore ever sounded like Earth, if you know what we mean. And their instrumentation is a lot more like Bohren's now, including Hammond B-3, piano, upright bass, and trombone among other things (not the typical doom arsenal).
In the recent Earth documentary, "Within The Drone" (available with the cd version of Hibernaculum), Earth mainman Dylan Carlson, discusses LaMonte Young and suchlike inspirations, but he's got no pretentious theories of "the drone" to espouse, though he does opine interestingly that for him, the more complex music becomes the closer it is to noise. So a simple sound, slowly repeated -- a drone -- is much more to his liking. Aha. Hmm. But it's clear from the sounds on Hibernaculum that simple does not mean "easy". Supreme precision and feel is needed. To play music this slow, they've got to be good -- and they are.
MPEG Stream: "Ouroboros Is Broken"
MPEG Stream: "A Plague Of Angels"

EARTH Legacy Of Dissolution (No Quarter) cd 14.98
It's been an Earth kinda year so far, eh? Once considered a going-beyond-the-Melvins joke, notable mainly for the early involvement of one Kurt Cobain, Earth's status has grown and grown over the years. They've got to be much more popular now than when their first few Sub Pop albums came out in the early '90s. Back then, only a few folks -- that'd probably be me, you, and those guys who later formed SUNNO))) -- were into Earth, and understood the immense genius of their slo-motion, drone-heavy ambient doom riffage. Now, we sell more copies of Earth 2 every week than Aquarius probably sold the year it came out (well, that might be a slight exaggeration, but we do sell a heck of a lot of Earth 2, considering). And SUNNO))), Boris and all the rest of 'em owe a lot to Earth's Dylan Carlson and his various cohorts.
So far, 2004-2005 has seen the release of two new (though, live) Earth albums and a 7". And now this. You know you've made it when the remix album comes out! Handpicked by Carlson himself, the remixers here are an interesting lot: Mogwai, Russell Haswell, Jim O'Rourke, Autechre, Justin Broadrick, and surprise surprise SUNNO)))! Now, on one hand that's an exciting line-up, sure, while on the other, it'd might be even more interesting to hear those blokes remix something like Brittany Spears, right? For subversion's sake anyway. But they're all Earth fans, and Earth is fans of them, and we're pretty sure Earth fans are gonna like what they've done here. And even if you think that the presence of SUNNO))) is a little...redundant, or that Jim O'Rourke, cool as he is, need never trouble himself with yet another remix, overall no complaints! We like how Mogwai has introduced what sound like avant-classical violin into "Teeth Of Lions Rule The Divine", we found Russell Haswell's Merzbow-ization of the almost Champs-y "Tibetan Quaaludes" enjoyable, and SUNNO)))'s sixteen-minute "Rule The Divine (Mysteria Caelestis Mugivi)" sounds the most Earth-like of all these remixes, which might be to be expected, dontcha think?
Interestingly, no one remixed anything from the first Earth album Extra-Capsular Extraction, while two mixes are from the same Earth 2 track, and three of the remixers (Haswell, O'Rourke, and Broadrick) picked songs from the out of print Phase 3: Thrones And Dominions. Autechre went even further afield and chose a song from Earth's fourth and last (also out of print) studio album, Pentastar: In The Style Of Demons. Hmmm. While I would have liked to hear something from Extra-Capsular, perhaps the presence of all those Phase 3 derived tracks will convince Sub Pop to reissue that album!
Some of the remixes, like Haswell's, feature obvious fuckery, whereas others, like Broadrick's more trebley, buzzier "Harvey" almost need to be played back-to-back with the original to tell which is the remix and which is the real Earth. Though, that "Harvey" sounds like it could also easily be a track by Broadrick's awesome new Jesu project as well! All in all, SUNNO))) excepted, this is generally a bit less riffy and "doomy" than the Earth originals, concentrating instead on Earth's drone-washed trance elements. Almost makes sense that the cd booklet art looks kinda looks like a Pop Ambient cd! Now, it doesn't usually take much of a recommendation from us to convince AQ customers to buy anything Earth-related, but we did like this, a lot!
MPEG Stream: AUTECHRE "Coda Maestoso In F (flat) Minor"
MPEG Stream: JUSTIN BROADRICK "Harvey"

EARTH Legacy Of Dissolution (Southern Lord) 2lp 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
NOW AVAILABLE ON LP!! Two slabs of gorgeous swirled green opaque vinyl, housed in a nice think gatefold sleeve, with beautiful cover art from Mr. Stephen O'Malley. And as with most things like this VERY VERY LIMITED! Here's what we had to say about the cd version:
It's been an Earth kinda year so far, eh? Once considered a going-beyond-the-Melvins joke, notable mainly for the early involvement of one Kurt Cobain, Earth's status has grown and grown over the years. They've got to be much more popular now than when their first few Sub Pop albums came out in the early '90s. Back then, only a few folks -- that'd probably be me, you, and those guys who later formed SUNNO))) -- were into Earth, and understood the immense genius of their slo-motion, drone-heavy ambient doom riffage. Now, we sell more copies of Earth 2 every week than Aquarius probably sold the year it came out (well, that might be a slight exaggeration, but we do sell a heck of a lot of Earth 2, considering). And SUNNO))), Boris and all the rest of 'em owe a lot to Earth's Dylan Carlson and his various cohorts.
So far, 2004-2005 has seen the release of two new (though, live) Earth albums and a 7". And now this. You know you've made it when the remix album comes out! Handpicked by Carlson himself, the remixers here are an interesting lot: Mogwai, Russell Haswell, Jim O'Rourke, Autechre, Justin Broadrick, and surprise surprise SUNNO)))! Now, on one hand that's an exciting line-up, sure, while on the other, it'd might be even more interesting to hear those blokes remix something like Brittany Spears, right? For subversion's sake anyway. But they're all Earth fans, and Earth is fans of them, and we're pretty sure Earth fans are gonna like what they've done here. And even if you think that the presence of SUNNO))) is a little...redundant, or that Jim O'Rourke, cool as he is, need never trouble himself with yet another remix, overall no complaints! We like how Mogwai has introduced what sound like avant-classical violin into "Teeth Of Lions Rule The Divine", we found Russell Haswell's Merzbow-ization of the almost Champs-y "Tibetan Quaaludes" enjoyable, and SUNNO)))'s sixteen-minute "Rule The Divine (Mysteria Caelestis Mugivi)" sounds the most Earth-like of all these remixes, which might be to be expected, dontcha think?
Interestingly, no one remixed anything from the first Earth album Extra-Capsular Extraction, while two mixes are from the same Earth 2 track, and three of the remixers (Haswell, O'Rourke, and Broadrick) picked songs from the out of print Phase 3: Thrones And Dominions. Autechre went even further afield and chose a song from Earth's fourth and last (also out of print) studio album, Pentastar: In The Style Of Demons. Hmmm. While I would have liked to hear something from Extra-Capsular, perhaps the presence of all those Phase 3 derived tracks will convince Sub Pop to reissue that album!
Some of the remixes, like Haswell's, feature obvious fuckery, whereas others, like Broadrick's more trebley, buzzier "Harvey" almost need to be played back-to-back with the original to tell which is the remix and which is the real Earth. Though, that "Harvey" sounds like it could also easily be a track by Broadrick's awesome new Jesu project as well! All in all, SUNNO))) excepted, this is generally a bit less riffy and "doomy" than the Earth originals, concentrating instead on Earth's drone-washed trance elements. Almost makes sense that the cd booklet art looks kinda looks like a Pop Ambient cd! Now, it doesn't usually take much of a recommendation from us to convince AQ customers to buy anything Earth-related, but we did like this, a lot!
MPEG Stream: AUTECHRE "Coda Maestoso In F (flat) Minor"
MPEG Stream: JUSTIN BROADRICK "Harvey"

EARTH Live 070796 lp 12.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
More sludge trickles down from heaven, giving all you Earth fanatics another reason to live. This is a one sided, live lp, recorded at the Hyperstrings Festival in Vienna in July of 1996. Anyone who bought one of those limited clear vinyl 12"s from a few months back, obviously needs one of these. Crushing tarpit sludge from the masters of all that is slow and heavy. Former Earth-lings include Joe Preston of the Melvins and the Thrones and Kurt Kobain! This is their first 'official' release since their last (Pentastar) on Sub Pop. This is VERY LIMITED. Not sure how long we'll have these.

EARTH Living In The Gleam Of An Unsheathed Sword aka Dissolution III (Megablade / Troubleman Unlimited) cd 13.98
That's right. Another new Earth record. Holy crap! Our drone doom dreams come true! But with Earth, it's not as simple as just releasing a new record. Or records. Or even new. Let us explain. Elsewhere on this list you'll find our review of the Earth 070796LIVE cd released sometime last year on Autofact records, which collected two super rare vinyl Earth records (the one-sided live lp, and the tour split with KK Null) as well as two bonus tracks -- a James Plotkin remix, and a recording of Earth mainman Dylan Carlson playing live on the radio. Earth had been hauling this disc around with them for the last year on tour (yep, they've been touring, mostly in Europe) but we were only able to track 'em down and get copies for the store last week. So already the Earth obsessed among us were in heaven, when what do ya know? ANOTHER Earth record comes out. Featuring supposedly BRAND NEW RECORDINGS. And they are brand new, sort of. Initially we were going to have to recommend this disc ONLY for total Earth obsessives, since there are only two tracks, both live, and one of them is actually *already* on that 070796LIVE disc. D'oh! Rip off we were thinking. If you get Live, then you'd be buying this disc for just one track. Thankfully though, that one track is a doozy -- an hour long! Album-length in itself, a sprawling doom dirge, recorded live in 2002. (2002!? How hard is it to get this band into a studio? Pretty goddamn hard it seems, since all of their releases since the Sub Pop days have been live recordings.) So while this is a NEW record, it's not an especially recent recording. But what the hell. We'll take our Earth where we can get it. The first track, the one that is duplicated on the Live cd, is a fourteen minute, solo guitar buzz / dirge / scrape that sounds really damaged, stumbling and clumsy, and definitely messed up. The hour-long second track features drummer Adrienne Davies, who seems to be a permanent member of Earth now, and whose spare, hard hitting style perfectly compliments Carlson's new riffier songwriting. Gone are the glacial fuzzy dirges that inspired Sunn 0))) to become Earth 2 (too) and in their place, is a massive fuzzed out riffy doom metal / post rock groove, super repetitive and totally hypnotic. Much more reminiscent of Earth's under-rated, more song-oriented final Sub Pop album Pentastar: In The Style Of Demons. Definitely still doomy and drone-y and drug-addled and head nodding, but dare we say, more rocking!
You might as well just go ahead and do it. You know you're gonna. Buy BOTH of the new Earth cds. You sort of have to. No more trawling eBay or scouring used record stores. If we had to make the call, we'd say the Live album on Autofact is perhaps more essential, but if you're anything like us, you for sure need both. And while at first we thought that'd be like getting one and a half cds for the price of two, the fact that the track unique to this release is an hour in length really dismantles that objection.
MPEG Stream: "Living In The Gleam Of An Unsheathed Sword"

EARTH Living In The Gleam Of An Unsheathed Sword aka Dissolution III (Megablade / Troubleman Unlimited) lp 10.98
Finally in stock on vinyl! But like most of these things, probably not for long... We listed the cd version a while back, alongside another (also live) Earth cd, 070796LIVE. Here's a precis of what we had to say about Living In The Gleam Of An Unsheathed Sword then:
There are only two tracks here, both live, and you might have one of them already since it also appears on that 070796LIVE disc. Thankfully though, the track that's exclusive to this record is a doozy -- an hour long! Album-length in itself, a sprawling doom dirge, recorded live in 2002. So while this is a NEW record, it's not an especially recent recording. But what the hell. We'll take our Earth where we can get it. The first track, the one that is duplicated on the Live cd, is a fourteen minute, solo guitar buzz / dirge / scrape that sounds really damaged, stumbling and clumsy, and definitely messed up. The hour-long second track features drummer Adrienne Davies, who seems to be a permanent member of Earth now, and whose spare, hard hitting style perfectly compliments Carlson's new riffier songwriting. Gone are the glacial fuzzy dirges that inspired Sunn 0))) to become Earth 2 (too) and in their place, is a massive fuzzed out riffy doom metal / post rock groove, super repetitive and totally hypnotic. Much more reminiscent of Earth's under-rated, more song-oriented final Sub Pop album Pentastar: In The Style Of Demons. Definitely still doomy and drone-y and drug-addled and head nodding, but dare we say, more rocking!
Now, since this is a single LP and not a double, we're pretty sure that the hour-long track from the cd version must have been edited down to fit on here! But we haven't cracked one open yet to find out. And since most collector-types buying this won't be opening theirs either, we're not gonna bother. Collectors might also be curious to know that the first pressing of black vinyl was limited to 750 copies, but the ones we have might be a second pressing, dunno if they're limited. Well of course they are, but does it matter?
MPEG Stream: "Living In The Gleam Of An Unsheathed Sword"

EARTH Pentastar: In The Style Of Demons (Sub Pop) cd 12.98
Y'know, we've never ever listed this Earth album before. It's the last one they recorded for Sub Pop, back in 1996, and until pretty recently seemed likely to be this seminal sludge-drone band's swansong. One that wasn't even all that well-regarded at the time when it came out, either. (Not that any of Earth's albums were all that popular back in the day -- they're definitely much more appreciated now!) And so perhaps it's time to re-evaluate Pentastar: In The Style Of Demons.
Especially since we just sold a ton of the recent Earth remixes album on both cd and vinyl, and chances are a few of you'll also want/need this, seeing as how one of those remixes (Autechre's) was of a song from this here record. Silly to have the remix but not the original, eh? Plus we figure a lot of you Earth fans might have overlooked this one, or simply thought it was out of print or something.
Back in '96, Pentastar was kinda regarded as Earth's "sell-out" album, the one where Earth mainman Dylan Carlson got himself a real band and attempted to make some honest to goodness rock n' roll music, with, y'know, vocals and melodies and songs and everything. They even do a Hendrix cover! But of course being Earth this was still (kinda) super heavy and (mostly) droned-out. Let's take a closer look, track-by-track...
"Introduction" certainly sounds like Earth of olde, a doomful commencement to the proceedings that could just as easily be the work of Boris. But then track two, "High Command", is more like some sort of slowed-down psych-grunge with the haunted by the ghosts of the Velvet Underground. A real nod scene, sure, but not exactly the Earth we knew and loved. Listening to it now, though, it's not bad at all. Sounds a bit like Steel Pole Bathtub. Then there's "Crooked Axis For String Quartet" that takes us into spaced-out krautrock territory... not heavy, but nice! The blown-out rumble of "Tallahassee" returns us to the realm of heaviness but again rocks more than Earth is or was "supposed" to. That's then followed by the rather lovely interlude of "Charioteer (Temple Song)", before the heavy Hendrix worship of Earth's take on Jimi's "Peace In Mississippi" stomps into view. Seems pretty cool now. The experimental side of Earth then surfaces with a seven-minute minimalist piece for *piano* entitled "Sonar And Depth Charge". The many moods of Dylan Carlson, eh? Lastly, the album closes with the epic instrumental "Coda Maestoso In F (flat) Minor" that finds what we might term Earth-y riffage (same as the "Introduction") graced with an honest-to-God heavy metal style melodic guitar solo!!
We can understand how some folks (some of us!) were disappointed when this album first came out. The extremity of old Earth was tamed. A lot of this was at least twice as fast and/or half as heavy as we'd expected (or wanted) from them. But giving it another chance and taking it on its own terms, this is a fine album of stoner rock indeed, sounding not unliked AQ faves Los Natas at times. Or the "heavy rocks" side of Boris. Or the Melvins, who of course have made fucking with their fans expectations a big part of their career. And if we'd heard this *before* hearing Earth's previous albums, we'd probably have loved it right away! Indeed, if you got into this album first (as assuredly some folks did) and then went back to Earth 2 or Extra-Capsular Extraction, whew! that would be a interesting/confounding experience.
We're now convinced that the underrated Pentastar does indeed proudly belong in any Earth fan's collection! ...Now someone needs to start a letter writing campaign to get Sub Pop to bring Phase 3: Thrones And Dominions back into print (from which three of that remix album's tracks were taken)!
MPEG Stream: "Introduction"
MPEG Stream: "High Command"
MPEG Stream: "Crooked Axis For String Quartet"

EARTH Pentastar: In The Style Of Demons (Sub Pop) lp 10.98
Finally, all of the legendary and long out of print Earth records are available again on vinyl (including the classic Phase 3: Thrones And Dominions also just reissued on cd)!!! It was only a matter of time really with the recent explosion of deathdoomdronesludge mania, SUNNO))), Corrupted, Boris and of course Earth, the forefathers and undisputed masters of all things slow and sludgey.
Y'know, we had never ever listed this Earth album until it was re-issued on cd a little while back, and now it's here on vinyl for the first time in ages. It's the last one they recorded for Sub Pop, way back in 1996, and until pretty recently seemed likely to be this seminal sludge-drone band's swansong. One that wasn't even all that well-regarded at the time when it came out, either. (Not that any of Earth's albums were all that popular back in the day -- they're definitely much more appreciated now!) And so perhaps it's time to re-evaluate Pentastar: In The Style Of Demons. Especially since we've been selling a ton of the recent Earth remixes album on both cd and vinyl, and chances are a few of you'll also want/need this, seeing as how one of those remixes (Autechre's) was of a song from this here record. Silly to have the remix but not the original, eh? Plus we figure a lot of you Earth fans might have overlooked this one, or simply thought it was out of print or something.
Back in '96, Pentastar was kinda regarded as Earth's "sell-out" album, the one where Earth mainman Dylan Carlson got himself a real band and attempted to make some honest to goodness rock n' roll music, with, y'know, vocals and melodies and songs and everything. They even do a Hendrix cover! But of course being Earth this was still (kinda) super heavy and (mostly) droned-out. Let's take a closer look, track-by-track...
"Introduction" certainly sounds like Earth of olde, a doomful commencement to the proceedings that could just as easily be the work of Boris. But then