Sunn Amps and Smashed Guitars

This beautifully done edition by No Quarter contains a devastating live performance in London from '95 (originally released in a limited run of 500 by Blast First Records) and an unreleased demo from '90 with guest vocals from Kelly Canary and some guy credited as Curt Cobain. These are long gone now, hopefully they will come back so you can get your hands on a copy. In the meantime...

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In The Style Of Demons

Pentastar:In The Style Of Demons was Earth's fourth and last studio album before a nine year hiatus. This record was critically reviled upon its release, but like any Earth recording, it's a soothing analgesic. Where the earlier Earth albums may have been highly potent opioids, Pentastar: In The Style Of Demons is more of a Dextropropoxyphene high, a bit less intense, more "musical." There is significant anecdotal evidence from patients that Pentastar: In The Style Of Demons is effective, but a third of patients suffering chronic pain report relief from that pain when treated with placebo.

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Thrones And Dominions

Earth's third album called Phase 3:Thrones and Dominions from 1995. Gone is Dave Harwell. This incarnation was mainly the work of Dylan Carlson. Perhaps Earth's most overlooked release, it is also one of the most unsettling. Bad trips.

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special low frequency post

Earth's second album from 1993. The cover image really says it all. The hugeness and oppressive crush of the sky over a strip of insignificant land. A few horses and a tent, but those are details, and details are simply not welcome here.

((((((((((((((((((((O))))))))))))))))))))

These matters will their annihilation into a structure. The structure congeals.

I'm sure that anyone reading this has some album or song that immediately floods them with vivid nostalgia. Upon hearing the opening few seconds of the record one is brought back to a very specific time and place. "Extra-Capsular Extraction," the first album by Seattle drone pioneers, Earth, holds many memories for me. It is 1991 and grunge and Sub Pop are king, but most of these flannel-wrapped ass candles fail to hold my interest. Hey, what's this? It's a record on Sub Pop without an exciting Charles Peterson photo of a not-so-exciting band playing live. Get a load of that cover, will you? That double-pupiled eye, the simple, sterile layout, and the small print across the top that reads "Postgraduate Seminars:Eye Surgery-Concepts and Problems PRODUCED BY EARTH AND THE EXCERPTA MEDICA." More appropriated medical texts adorn the back cover, making the whole package and aesthetic very similar to another record that caught my attention the same year: Carcass' "Necroticism Descanting The Insalubrious." My housemates and I would do whip-its to the crushing sound of Earth's gravitational pull and when I listen to this today, my lips still get cold. This "postgraduate seminar" consists of three droning monoliths, and there is even a guest appearance by a young guy named Kurt Cobain who had some kind of band in the '90s. I don't know.

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