The first time I saw Earth play, I wasn’t so much disappointed as I was underwhelmed. My introduction to Dylan Carlson was through his earlier solo recordings, his hour long symphonies of feedback that sounded like stabs at a punk version of La Mont Young’s work.
I felt so excited upon discovering the Sunn Amps and Smashed Guitars record. The first track of white noise and burrowing noise, wrapped itself around my brain. I remember lying on my bed shaking with excitement, closing my eyes and forgetting everything for its duration. In some ways it seemed really simple. Something that was condemned to never being able to reach the sacred, so it didn’t try. It sounded like a declaration of desperation and failure and futility. It knew something that other music was too dumb to realize.
But within this simplicity there was something really complex. When you shut everything else and get lost inside the drone, then you realise so many important, minute things are happening independent of each other, all at once. You recognize new patterns, constantly changing and different each time you listen. There was something calming about that level of chaos.
I’d pretty much given up hope of ever seeing Earth play live. The dark, sometimes grizzly rumours about Dylan Carlson that seemed to pop up occasionally on message boards and forums suggested that this was a man that had spent too long looking into dark places, to ever make a full recovery.
So when it was announced that Stephen O’Malley would be releasing a brand new Earth album via his Southern Lord record label, it seemed like a wish come true. The album – Hex (Or Printing in the Infernal Method) – was a departure from the Earth that I knew and loved. Fair enough. Change or die. The songs were good. Less distortion, more instrumentation, a strange, gothic country influence. I listened to it on Christmas Day 2005 through my headphones and got heavily into its bleak mood. It still stands as a great album.
It was when I saw the album performed live that I was left cold. There are a number of reasons why Dylan’s newly assembled band didn’t quite cut it for me when I saw them play in February 2006. Perhaps the main reason, was way out of their hands – they played before an on fire Sunn O))). Perhaps wanting to celebrate the fact that he had got Carlson back into a studio and out of hiding, Stephen O’Malley had decided to take his own Doom titans on the road with Earth for a joint headline tour.
When Sunn O))) have a good night, then there are few bands that I can think of that can stand up to their sonic onslaught. They were amazing. And Earth, who played a muted set of just over half an hour, with their new cleaned up sound, seemed, well, almost irrelevant. There was also the feeling while I watched the band play that something hadn’t quite yet clicked. They looked like a new band, still finding their natural flow, the new musicians constantly looking towards Carlson for nods and leads.
For the next few months I forgot that I’d seen Earth play at all. I kept telling people about the Sunn O))) show, however.
On Monday night though, I got to see the Earth I wanted to see. They played Birmingham as part of their 2008 European tour, in support of their new album The Bees Made Honey in the Lion’s Skull.
Within the first few minutes I knew that I was watching something very special indeed. The band looked more relaxed and the new songs – definitely built on the same starting blocks as Hex – but with something new and more gripping – sounded far more realised than those I had heard last time I stood in this same venue almost exactly two years ago.
The most surprising thing was that these new Earth compositions were – uplifting, which is something I never imagined I would be writing about a new Earth album.
Perhaps the main difference was that it now felt like I was watching a real band as opposed to Dylan Carlson plus a few friends there to make up the numbers and help out. Steve Moore’s piano parts were particularly impressive, helping to move the Earth sound into areas previously unvisited.
As they shook hands and talked at the merchandise table after the show, they looked like a happy band.
I feel lucky to have been there.
I felt so excited upon discovering the Sunn Amps and Smashed Guitars record. The first track of white noise and burrowing noise, wrapped itself around my brain. I remember lying on my bed shaking with excitement, closing my eyes and forgetting everything for its duration. In some ways it seemed really simple. Something that was condemned to never being able to reach the sacred, so it didn’t try. It sounded like a declaration of desperation and failure and futility. It knew something that other music was too dumb to realize.
But within this simplicity there was something really complex. When you shut everything else and get lost inside the drone, then you realise so many important, minute things are happening independent of each other, all at once. You recognize new patterns, constantly changing and different each time you listen. There was something calming about that level of chaos.
I’d pretty much given up hope of ever seeing Earth play live. The dark, sometimes grizzly rumours about Dylan Carlson that seemed to pop up occasionally on message boards and forums suggested that this was a man that had spent too long looking into dark places, to ever make a full recovery.
So when it was announced that Stephen O’Malley would be releasing a brand new Earth album via his Southern Lord record label, it seemed like a wish come true. The album – Hex (Or Printing in the Infernal Method) – was a departure from the Earth that I knew and loved. Fair enough. Change or die. The songs were good. Less distortion, more instrumentation, a strange, gothic country influence. I listened to it on Christmas Day 2005 through my headphones and got heavily into its bleak mood. It still stands as a great album.
It was when I saw the album performed live that I was left cold. There are a number of reasons why Dylan’s newly assembled band didn’t quite cut it for me when I saw them play in February 2006. Perhaps the main reason, was way out of their hands – they played before an on fire Sunn O))). Perhaps wanting to celebrate the fact that he had got Carlson back into a studio and out of hiding, Stephen O’Malley had decided to take his own Doom titans on the road with Earth for a joint headline tour.
When Sunn O))) have a good night, then there are few bands that I can think of that can stand up to their sonic onslaught. They were amazing. And Earth, who played a muted set of just over half an hour, with their new cleaned up sound, seemed, well, almost irrelevant. There was also the feeling while I watched the band play that something hadn’t quite yet clicked. They looked like a new band, still finding their natural flow, the new musicians constantly looking towards Carlson for nods and leads.
For the next few months I forgot that I’d seen Earth play at all. I kept telling people about the Sunn O))) show, however.
On Monday night though, I got to see the Earth I wanted to see. They played Birmingham as part of their 2008 European tour, in support of their new album The Bees Made Honey in the Lion’s Skull.
Within the first few minutes I knew that I was watching something very special indeed. The band looked more relaxed and the new songs – definitely built on the same starting blocks as Hex – but with something new and more gripping – sounded far more realised than those I had heard last time I stood in this same venue almost exactly two years ago.
The most surprising thing was that these new Earth compositions were – uplifting, which is something I never imagined I would be writing about a new Earth album.
Perhaps the main difference was that it now felt like I was watching a real band as opposed to Dylan Carlson plus a few friends there to make up the numbers and help out. Steve Moore’s piano parts were particularly impressive, helping to move the Earth sound into areas previously unvisited.
As they shook hands and talked at the merchandise table after the show, they looked like a happy band.
I feel lucky to have been there.
TM
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