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EARTHLING SOCIETY LISTEN TO THIS RELEASE VIA BANDCAMP BELOW
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LIMITED EDITION 500 ONLY TRANSLUCENT GREEN VINYL LP WITH DOWNLOAD CODE & 30 ONLY CASSETTE EDITION WITH RUSTIC ORANGE TAPE SHELLS. INITIAL MAIL ORDER VINYL COPIES ALSO CAME WITH AN A3 PROMO POSTER (SCROLL TO BOTTOM OF PAGE)
LP Tracklisting
B1. Journey Into Satchidananda (15:16)
ORDER VIA THE WEBSHOP OR BANDCAMP SITE (IF STILL AVAILABLE) Release Info:
Earthling Society are a
Kosmische quartet that in the main hail from of of the most un-Kosmische
areas of North West England, Fleetwood. A town so bleak you
literally can't drive through it; sticking out of the British Isles
like a crippled dick into the the murkiest part of the Irish sea.
Here, Earthling Society built their lo-fi studio in an old deserted
glass factory and since 2004 have recorded a number of albums under
the influence of mushrooms, cheap speed and cheaper beer - hoping
for a few minutes to transport themselves from the reality of where
they really live. Along they way they have hitched rides with Julian
Cope, Hawkwind, Damo Suzuki, Guru Guru and Blue Cheer.
ORDER VIA THE WEBSHOP OR BANDCAMP SITE (IF STILL AVAILABLE)
WATCH THE VIDEO FOR THE TITLE TRACK BELOW
REVIEWS
These days the
underground is awash with bands who hark back to the plethora of
obscure, druggy psychedelic bands of the 70s. These bands are
often united by a tendency to pass a combination of motorik
beats and echo-and-fuzz drenched guitar off as works of daring
ambition. It all functions well as head music, but can anyone
really get excited by it? This tendency is at best lazy, at its
worst strangely reactionary in its unimaginative aping of the
radical sounds of the past.
Although Earthling
Society occupy this scene in a superficial, stylistic sense,
they definitely bring something new to the table. A good
indication of this might be the cover art, which is
spectacularly lacking in taste and might lead you to expect some
kind of psychogeographical folk-metal rather than the
brain-bludgeoning space rock encased within, and a welcome
change from the washed-out visuals employed by most contemporary
psych acts.
Essentially the
music is heavy space rock played with a Commune sensibility; by
which I mean the no-holds-barred, egalitarian approach
engendered by bands such as Amon Duul II and Ash Ra Temple in
Krautrock's golden age and carried into the 21st century by the
likes of Hills and Goat. Despite this, there's a fearlessness
here; an audacity that allows Earthling Society to stretch
beyond the limitations usually imposed by rooting a bands style
in a vintage aesthetic. Their sound may have a base in the
churning repetitions and endless, everyone-soloing at-once
improvisations of seventies freak-rock collectives but they also
move into jazz, ambient, noise and stark neofolk in ways that
are both convincing and delightfully unexpected.
Opener 'Aiwass'
opens with all the relevant signifiers; tambura drones, hand
percussion, electronic oscillations and phased-out cod-raga
guitar phrases. However anyone expecting a bucolic psych-out in
the pharaoh's garden will be in for a surprise; shit gets real
at around the three minute mark as the drums set up a pounding
rhythm of tribal tom rolls, the guitar sets up an insistent
dirge-riff and the electronics coalesce into an overpowering
miasma of synth-squall. Everything's given pretty much equal
weighting in the mix, amounting to a murky psychedelic mush.
Although when
Earthling Society are in the midst of a wig-out it's all pretty
rollicking and enjoyable, it's often how the band chooses to
bookend these jams when the arrangements are at their most
intriguing. 'Tortuga' opens with gentle phased guitar and an
immersive synth wash that seems to inhabit the sonic boundary
between kosmische and New Age music, whilst ending with a creepy
synth preset/fairground ride loop that puts an unsettling finish
on the piece. Equally interesting is the ending of 'Aiwass',
which consists of two minutes of effect pedal-saturated,
stereo-panned atonal guitar-mangling and brings to mind both the
kamikaze fuzz assaults of Mainliner's Mellow Out and the
narcotic noise-splurges of Skullflower. The cover of 'Journey In
Satchidananda' sees a coda of twinkling chimes, rudimentary
synth bleeps and tremolo-picked oud. Or is it a mandolin
impersonating an oud? Whatever the answer, it's clear that on
England Have My Bones, this band are just as concerned with
creating surprising textural backdrops as monolithic rock-outs.
Arguably the albums
centerpiece, I approached Earthling Society's interpretation of
Alice Coltrane's work with some trepidation. How could a heavy
psych-rock band from Lancashire put any kind of useful spin on a
seemingly untouchable classic of spiritual jazz? It seems
however that Earthling Society's kosmische credentials are
readily transferable and the whole thing works surprisingly
well, with the rapturous and virtuosic spirituality of the
original inverted into a strutting display of space rock. Cecil
McBee's agile but anchoring bass riff is reborn as a
chorus-enhanced depth charge, whilst the Society's guitarist
Fred Laird condenses the most memorable parts of Pharaoh
Sanders' fluttering sax improvs into starsailing heavy metal
leads, adding his own bluesy flourishes and atonal effects. At
points the listener is allowed a few moments of respite, but the
band always comes back with an ever-thickening haze of
electronic noise and guitar fuzz, all propelled onwards by the
monotonous-yet-momentous rhythm section. Around the ten minute
mark the band dispenses with all pretenses of jazzy
improvisation and sets all controls to "intensify", and at this
point the piece begins to sound like 'The Great Gig In The Sky'
as played by My Bloody Valentine during their 'Holocaust'
section. This is a good thing. The pudding's been thoroughly
over-egged, and by Thor is it righteous.
The closing title
track is perhaps the album's strangest. Opening with a salvo of
keyboard noodling that brings to mind those videos of Sun Ra
playing keyboards behind his back, the track segues sharply into
a mournful neofolk outro of acoustic guitar and skronky
overblown flute, before reaching a denouement of dark, ambient
drones. After the surprises of this album, it seems fitting that
Earthling Society choose to end their album with a track
furthest away from their core sound and aesthetic; heavy psych
reaches its only conclusion, space rock comes full circle and
delves down into the cold, dark earth.
THE QUIETUS
This is full hippy in every good way. Hyperdrive hippy. Hippy in excelsis (not in Excel). Godz-driven, primal, ballistic-psychedelic, balls-to-the-wall, throttled/throttling. It’s the hippyish, proggy album that other people think they’ve made. There’s a massive meandering Alice Coltrane cover on here that sounds like it could be/should be terrible but works brilliantly. There’s devastating stoner stuff, a beautifully placed and ever-building soundworld which swirls and ebbs and pushes into you. There’s awkward movements in just the right places. This attempts to blow you away and achieves it in a way that most albums couldn’t even dream.
“a beautifully
placed and ever-building soundworld which swirls and ebbs”
I’d never heard
anything from Earthling Society before and assumed this was
going to be one of the those half-heard, half-liked albums that
occasionally squeezed its way out of shuffle and caught me
unawares in the middle of a walking binge, but this little
fellah (this MONSTER) grabbed me at first listen. It has
beautiful teeth. It’s hard to describe how this works so well:
there’s elements of the heavy psych of Gnod et al but feels
tighter, less inclined to shambles; there’s elements of the
better bits of Pink Floyd (circa Syd but without him, if you see
what I mean); there’s the occasional whiff of something far out
and jazzy (maybe something from Canterbury, via Miles Davis) but
it’s a little greater than those parts and I wouldn’t want it to
be unfairly damned. It’s a LOT greater than the gunk and guff
that normally associates itself with those kind of bands.
“the music is
essentially wrestling with other, potentially malevolent,
forces”
I guess THAT is what
I really love about this album; it’s unafraid to go full hippy
and yet keeps itself from all the usual trip/Trip ups and
doesn’t stop reminding itself that psychedelia isn’t about the
musicality per se but the acceptance that the music is
essentially wrestling with other, potentially malevolent,
forces, sprung direct from the dark heart of nature, of the
wood, of the Wud. This will make you snuffle for ‘shrooms again,
just to test it out. Maybe those prescription painkillers are
not quite out of date after all. You’ll want to test this out,
want to set it in opposition to your drugged self, want to try
it up against the big boys. Find an LSD mule (okay, they are
donkeys down here in the West) and some time (I have none to
give you) and get things going. Let me know how you get on. I
think I know, because listened to straight, in the warm light of
a beautiful morning, I get the feeling that this music would
wrestle with anything I could throw at it.
FREQ ZINE Fleetwood may not be known for it's rock and roll heritage apart from forming one half of a uber famous rock band but little did we know that bubbling under the surface was a vibrant underground scene and one of the fruits of that are Earthling Society. Having garnered acclaim from none other than out there psychonaut Julian Cope, Earthing Society have been ploughing away through numerous line up changes searching for that perfect sound. Casting their lot into a heavy psych/jazz crowd, England Have My Bones is the new release from the band and sets it's stall out as a sprawling meisterwork that aims to reach parts other albums don't reach. So far, so psych and what you do get is one hell of a dense psychedelic work
that takes repeated
listens to truly appreciate the full effect of what Earthling
Society are trying to do. It's not perfect and it does meander
in parts but when it hits that psych bone, oh my you better
watch out.
Consisting of four songs, 'Aiwass' is the first and throughout its eleven minutes serves as a swirling, dense, psychedelic introduction to the album. Almost impenetrable in parts, it creates a vortex of sound which builds...and builds...and builds. Typically psych and space rock, the clarity of the musicianship is excellent and keeps things interesting. 'Tortuga' takes things down a pace and is the only song here with vocals on it. It's probably the most accessible too and the submerged lyrics help drive the song to its conclusion. It's a slight psych masterpiece which can sit along bands such as Lucid Dream and The Oscillation for it's take on a sub-Spiritualized level. Brilliant as this is, nothing quite prepares you for the cover of Alice Coltrane's 'Journey Into Satchidananda' which out grows its jazz roots and take on a full on space rock experience. Firmly rooted in the bass and drum section which at times threatens to turn tribal, it's yet another dense piece and turns the original on it's head. It's a weird situation where free form jazz gets grounded in basic instrumentation but sounds even more out there. It all rests on the title track to see us out and after all the extreme psych it's time for a come down tune and this does the trick with it's slight guitar leading us slowly back down to earth. It may sound a bot trite but it does work and it's only after the album finishes that you start thinking about what you have actually just listened to. It's the equivalent of a breather after an intense trip. England Have My Bones is an intense piece of work and can stand tall amongst the current psych scene for trying something different. It's intense and very dense but give it time and it reveals myriad possibilities in the music. There is a strong jazz ethic throughout which leads to some rather interesting excursions and it is this that should set them apart from other deep psych acts.
ECHOES AND DUST
If the cover of Earthling Society’s newest and the title are any indications, England Have My Bones must be a paean from these self-described psychedelic pagans for their base in Fleetwood, ‘a town so bleak you literally can’t drive through it.’ I haven’t been, so I’ll take their label Riot Season’s word for it. One thing I do know is that it’s obviously not bereft of life. Earthling Society have produced a string of albums from their own studio in an abandoned glass factory that prove that something is very much alive in North West England. Aiwass, the lead in cut, makes that abundantly clear. It’s not what you would call life-affirming, especially when some strangulated vocal pleas kick in, but whoever the denizen is is looking for escape. And that’s exactly what Earthling Society has provided through their catalog. As Aiwass slowly simmers to a boil it feels like a cauldron in the corner of that factory that’s teeming with life. Their tribalistic and ritualistic underpinnings aren’t in short supply either as Aiwass builds to overflowing, providing a fire for the ghosts of the forsaken plant to cavort around. It’s prime Earthling Society; at once concerned with sparking space and psych rock expenditure and propelled by a focus that can often be overlooked by their borderline fractured character. As they do more often than not, Earthling Society can turn around and invert that relationship as they do on Tortuga, a dreamy trip through their hinterland that’s every bit as true to their character and mission as the cuts that push them to the fringes of their universe. Fred Laird’s distinct vocals take a bigger role here, giving more form to the hinted being/s from Aiwass without giving it all away. The ensuing circular escalation comes to a close with an odd-ball calliope-esque coda that, if you know anything about Earthling Society, more than likely hints at madness rather than a sense of humor, a brief embrace of the carousel spinning off-center. The intended centerpiece must be the freaked and buzzed-out cover of Alice Coltrane’s Journey Into Satchidananda. It’s exactly the kind of warped, extended workout that not only makes Earthling Society devotees fill their diaper, but the band themselves from the palpable grit-frenzied juice they pour into it. Not that Earthling Society can’t excel in the short-form—check their Brotherhood of the Cod for plenty of evidence—but the lengthy calisthenics of Journey Into Satchidananda is where they both burn and shine. They don’t give up the ghosts, or bury the bones, without burying the hatchet first on the closing title track. The briefest cut here, England Have My Bones, pours out like angry molten squall before abruptly handing over the reigns to, it has to be said, a bare-bones ride out that carries as much of their ethos as the outings with far more meat on them. England Have My Bones has the ingredients of a fringe-dwelling progressive psych and space opus, but more importantly it has all the markings, and proof, of one of Earthling Society’s best albums that makes them stand out from our general population down here. Every bit as much as their inspiring town that goes about ‘sticking out of the British Isles like a crippled dick into the murkiest part of the Irish sea.’ Granted, it sounds a hell of a lot better. SUNRISE OCEAN BENDER First of three albums featured in this missive which in terms of mid season polling are all proving strong contenders for the top spot in our end of year voting. Surely in need of no introductions in these pages Earthling Society have in recent years acquitted themselves as one of the nations finest purveyors of progressive psych whose musicality, vision and originality is perhaps only matched by those other bonged out beatniks Cranium Pie. Via the adored and highly thought of Riot Season imprint comes ‘England have my bones’ – an opus so out there and lost in its own moment that it should by rights elevate Earthling Society to psych’s topper-most table and with it set the bar level to which all progressive psyche releases coming in its wake should be measured several notches upwards. An absolute freak storm, if these dudes where Japanese then religious cults would be sprouting the record buying globe over. In short ’England have my bones’ is the most out there off your face experience you can have without resorting to chemical stimulants, a freakishly terra-forming and mind warping odyssey that trips out voyaging far beyond the audiac astral plateaus ventured by heavyweights the likes of Gnod, Floorian and primordial undermind. Its where vision, creativity and craft converge sublimely into a seamlessly fluid forked tongue pressed upon a palette vibrant in colour that sumptuously airbrushes the lines between psych, prog, wyrd folk and pop. The eleven minute colossus ‘Aiwass’ opens the set, a shape shifting snake dancing mirage of drone mysticism that literally morphs amid the deeply hypnotic trim of eastern accents and fuzzed our vapour trails to mushrooms and assume mass, definition and depth which for all its woozy and fried felicitations might well in the final analysis prove to be the Earthling ones most pop moment given that by scratching away at its pyrotechnical riffola and its shroom enhanced kookiness the blighter might be favourably seen in some quarters as a psychedelic head trip between the Paris Angels, Wonky Alice and World of Twist. Somewhere else lurks the seductive baroque dream weave that is ’Tortuga’ spiriting its way through your defences like some heaven sent sonic herald crafted from the parts of the chocolate watch band and ghost. ’England has my bones’ – the shortest thing here – is a head scrambling exercise in slowly returning back to normality following some mystical visit to magic mushroom land, after a frenzied freeform bout of Henry Cow-esque art jazz noodling much like the type of stuff bent out of shape by that frazzled dude Andy Pyne and kicked out with much welcome regularity on his foolproof project imprint, it then stops, goes silent and picks up the baton in the kind of hazy and ghost like woozy dreamland that admirers of the mighty Grails may well warm to. All said nothing quite prepares for their mind fracturing cover of Alice Coltrane’s ’journey into Satchidananda’ – a 15 minute trip to bonged out land – this is the place where your mind just disconnects from any notion of reality, absolutely gone, totally off radar and a truly zonked out and stoned beauty which aside touching base with blue cheer, acid mothers, the much missed green milk from the planet orange and more importantly the criminally underappreciated Walking Seeds is liable to melt turntables as well as minds, be warned some listening disciples might not make it back to base in one piece.
THE SUNDAY EXPERIENCE
A band from Fleetwood featuring Mick Fleetwood on drums – interesting. Earthling Society make brilliant space music, by which I don’t mean they sound like Hawkwind, but that the music is characterized by lots of circular drum patterns and synthesized whooshing noises and some of the songs go on for fifteen minutes. In short, the music which Mick Fleetwood’s new outfit make is excellent and pleasantly reminiscent of The Cosmic Dead in all their fuzzed-out glory. Occasional spectral vocals do little to temper the otherworldly atmosphere, bringing to mind that piece in Ulysses 31 where the computer says in that terrifying voice, “Ulysses, the way back to earth has been wiped from my memory banks.” All in all I was suspecting far less from Mick Fleetwood, as I’m not a big fan of the blues-rock inspired AOR gubbins he made throughout the 1970s and 80s, but well done to him for moving back to his hometown, reuniting with his old pals and composing these spiraling hymns to the intergalactic traveller in all of us. Recommended unreservedly.
COLLECTIVE ZINE How’s about some roaring pagan magick-music to wet your summertime whistle? Earthling Society’s long-delayed platter of lysergic love-cookies (four of them) comes dusted with the musical equivalent of popping candy. Of course, like all good med-heads, they’re into the classic Teutonic grooves of Can and Harmonia, the bone-dry racket of Texans the 13th Floor Elevators (and no doubt Golden Dawn), and the propulsive bluster of our very own Hawkwind. It’s a combination peddled to varying degrees of success by folks as diverse as The Black Angels to The Arch Drude, Wooden Shjips and The Cult Of Dom Keller to Brian Jonestown Massacre and Dead Meadow. It’s a potent strain of the herb we call ‘rock and roll’.
The tunes
themselves, as you’d likely expect, are monolithic sonic
collages of caterwauling feedback and hissing, sibilant
locked-in grooves. Earthling Society’s particular blend
leans more towards the galactic gallivanting of space
rock messiahs Hawkwind and Gong – second track Tortuga,
in particular, seems like it has been seeping into your
consciousness for aeons, a kind of sensory recollection
of a time you never knew you knew. The restrained,
hypnotic rhythm lays a deep and tantric groove down for
the hushed vocal and spiralling guitar line to flow out
of. It’s a thoroughly enthralling number that, at around
the six-minute mark, seemingly implodes in a cloud of
searing feedback that envelopes both the track and the
listener. It’s the ubiquitous ‘eureka’ moment that seals
the deal on an exploratory tune like this – it doesn’t
necessarily need an explosion of fuzz, but it certainly
helps you wig out to the fullest.
Crowley nuts
like yours truly know all about Aiwass – the track so
named is so engaging that it becomes completely
immersive. The track offers a complete cranial re-fit,
offering as it does a bombardment of subliminal and
overt ‘CHILL OUT’ messages that pop up in your mind like
soothing breezes on a burning summer’s day. It’s that
potent. Even the squalling feedback guitar solo
screeches never become too intrusive, rather they
display the light and shade your brain is already
feeling anyhow.
The main
attraction is the Alice Coltrane
homage/cover/reimagining/reboot Journey Into
Satchidananda. Alice Coltrane, if you’re that way
inclined, can soundtrack some of the most revelatory
moments of your sonic life. Personally, I find her
music, particular the album from which this track takes
its name (or vice versa, you catch my drift?), is one of
the most listenable, accessible experimental jazz
releases available. It’s an influence on everyone from
these dudes to Sunn O))), Wolf Eyes to Paul Weller (!)…
check it out. But first, check out Earthling Society’s
masterful, spectral envisioning of Alice’s magnum opus.
It’s both subtle and full-on, spaced-out and locked-in.
It’s the perfect dichotomy with which to listen to music
like this for the first time. Highly recommended. The
album closes – too soon, I might add – with the title
track, England Have My Bones. It opens with a
hyperactive, manic guitar screech and closes with an
icy-cold (literally ‘chilled’) vibe that conjures images
of DEEP space. Far out amongst the unknown kinda thing.
This is a
superb record for fans of ‘the genre’ and relaxing, soft
drugs and inner peace. I absolutely loved it – and if,
like me, you’re a fan of the bands I mentioned in way
back up the top there, there’s plenty for you to enjoy
here. Particularly check out the Alice cover, it’s a
fantastic achievement in honouring an icon’s legacy
without detracting from the unique vibe of the
innovative original composition.
THE SLEEPING
SHAMAN
Earthling
Society celebrates their tenth anniversary with yet
another winner,England Have My Bones, available in LP,
cassette and download editions on the Riot Season label.
The album
opens with Aiwass, which begins as an Eastern
influenced, mind-bendingly grooving stroll through the
Space-Psych bazaars of the ancients, with slowly weaving
drones, sitar-ish strings and ethnic percussion. The
music jams quietly yet intensely for a few minutes
before exploding into a Psychedelically volcanic burst
of densely rocking waves that pour into the listener
like a sonic hurricane, and ending with a 2 minute acid
guitar freakout. Tortuga follows and is a steady paced
but thunderous rocking Psychedelic groove tune that is
just as acid drenched as it is gently melodic. There’s a
lot happening on this song, with swirling acidic waves,
tenderly rolling drones, lots of freaky effects, vocals,
and a whimsical carnival-esque finale.
Earthling
Society reveal more of their influences with a killer
cover of Alice Coltrane’s Journey In Satchindananda, a
marvel of Psychedelic infused Jazz when it was released
in 1970. The band open their homage with the same
sitar-like drone as the original, but this is quickly
overcome by some seriously mind-fucked acid guitar. The
band maintains the same slow melodic riff, pace and
jazzy feel as Coltrane, but take it into heavy
Psychedelic Space Rock territory. The bass and drums
continually recall the original, but the guitar and
alien effects are busting out in space, stretching
Coltrane’s 7 minutes into a monstrous 15 minutes of
cosmically acidic, high intensity ROCK. This is my idea
of lovingly and creatively reinterpreting someone’s
music. Finally, the title track starts off as a keyboard
and machine shop freakout that’s like Sun Ra gone
Industrial, before quite startlingly shifting to a
sedately drifting bit of ethereal acoustic and sound
experimental Psych.
What keeps
Earthling Society consistently exciting is their ability
to do something different from one release to the next
while still sounding like Earthling Society, as well as
the inspiration they draw from the pioneering German
Krautrock bands, 60s Psychedelia, Jazz, the blanga of
Hawkwind, and more, without ever sounding retro and,
yes, still sounding like Earthling Society. These guys
are keeping Space Rock interesting, stimulating and
fresh.
AURAL
INNOVATIONS
“Good old
Riot Season…”, to paraphrase an old Yellow
Pagestelevision advert. “They’re not just there for the
bad things in life”. They are there, though, as a
relatively frequent, always reliable source of all
things noisy, heavy and ‘out there’, with a previous
release list that includes names like Hey Colossus, Shit
And Shine, Aufgehoben and Acid Mothers Temple.
England Have
My Bones is a new release from the label, and so I
bought it very recently. Earthling Society was a new
name to me before Riot Season began mentioning this
record being in the works some time ago and, based on
the record, yet another band to add to my “I’d better
get to owning their other releases” list. From Fleetwood
in Lancashire, they can be quite neatly summed up by a
list of the acts they’ve supported in the past: Julian
Cope, Damo Suzuki, White Hills, Hawkwind, Groundhogs and
Blue Cheer. That’s not to encircle them with nothing
more than a list of influences; on the basis of England
Have My Bones they’re rather more than that. It’s a
spiritually heavy-sounding album, but it’s not packed
full of riffs and volume. Those things are there, but
they’re packaged in a contemplative, psychedelic way
that’s takes a heavy blues guitar sound in Eastern,
hallucinogenic directions. The four tracks include a
heavier, guitar-ier version of Alice Coltrane’s ‘Journey
Into Satchidananda’.
The artwork
initially wrong-footed me into thinking that this would
be a more typical sludge-rock/doom kind of record: the
gothic script and black, ominous imagery wouldn’t be out
of place if it were wrapped around such a release. It’s
clever stuff, though; the image has a Northern English
feel – grubby power station towers belching out smoke,
and pylons silhouetted against grey skies. Its
reflection both horizontally and vertically not only
provides a convenient black strip for the band and album
name, but also notches up the sense of mystery in the
image. The rear of the sleeve is a lighter, ‘English
pastoral’ scene, depicting a field and a tree – although
they are drenched in thick fog. It also shows a sheela
na gig-esque folk image above the track names,
suggesting perhaps a connection with some arcane folk
beliefs. The sleeve design is by Andrew Smith, who runs
Riot Season. The package also included an A3 poster
promoting the record (the sort you’d see up in a record
shop), along with a few flyers for upcoming gigs
featuring Riot Season acts.
VINYL
DESTINATION BLOG
And so
Earthling Society, a criminally ignored bunch of freaks
stuck out on the edge of a murky foul-smelling estuary
way up North send me their latest offering to the
indifferent gods of not-so-popular taste. Lauded by
Julian Cope many moons ago Earthling Society have come
on in leaps and bounds since their scratchy beginnings
where ‘shroom-soaked trips way out into the cosmos were
sometimes undermined, although some would say enhanced
by poor production. That was certainly not a problem
with last year’s ZodiaK album, on 4Zero, and now Riot
Season Records have ensured that high production values
have been maintained.
England Have
My Bones is the second of a loosely linked trilogy of
albums from the long-running band. The first album of
this mighty triptych was last year’s ZodiaK, a
thoroughly stupendous Detroit-fuelled racket that got my
rock’n’roll bones a-stirring, I can tell ye! England…
takes its inspiration from leader Fred Laird’s other
obsession Deutschrock and takes us down the Autobahn in
the company of Guru Guru, Ash Ra Tempel, et al, watched
over by a freerock spirit that Mr Cope recognised all
those years ago.
We set out
to sail on the seas of Amboss, Aiwass summoning the
tribes to a gathering on the shoreline so that they may
venture forth to new lands. Aiwass is a shining
righteous mass of Ür Rock drawing the faithful to its
core, ending in a swirling cacophony of synapse altering
acid fried guitar. And then, Tortuga, with its
near-indecipherable echoed vox and swirling psychedelia
will hit a spot with fans of The Verve before they
dropped the indefinite article, with an added hint of
Terry Bickers’ marvellous pop-freakshow Levitation.
Connected by
molecule-thin but unimaginably strong tentacles of dark
matter reaching back through time to Alice Coltrane’s
sublime original is the band’s cover of Journey In
Satchidananda. To the Indian drone backing of a tambura
the cosmic to and fro between Alice’s harp and Pharoah
Sanders’ saxophone in this dedication to Miss Coltrane’s
yoga teacher is reflected on the other side of the
temporal shift by Neil Whitehead’s electronica box of
magick, leading to Fred’s guitar imaginings sparring
with looped effects and ethereal aural ephemera that
glid forever, all the while anchored by that familiar
16-ton bass line. Stretched like a rubber band between
parallel universes, this track lasts far too long, but
not nearly long enough. Not only that, but it was laid
down live, too! Fabulous stuff indeed!
The
concluding title track had the working title Nagasaki
Shadow, and you can see why from the scorched earth
drone-noise introduction which is akin to something
Kawabata Makoto might have had a nightmare about. The
piece eventually calms to a wistful industrial
melancholy as it floats off down the Manchester ship
canal amidst the detritus.
We await the
final instalment of this unholy Trinity of expanded
consciousness with anticipation and a fluttering heart.
THE
PROGRESSIVE ASPECT
Over the
past ten years I have watched the gradual evolution of
the band that is Earthling society, the band at the
current time consisting of Fred Laird - vocals and
guitar, Jon Blacow - percussion, Kim Allen - Bass and
Neil Whitehead - electronics. Their music has evolved
and grown during this time and this trend is continued
with this album, which is sadly, at the present time,
planned to be their last.
The release
will be on vinyl, of a tasty translucent green variety,
or download; no CDs for this particular album. The cover
artwork is deliciously dark and sombre.
The first of
the four tracks on this album is 'Aiwass' running for a
full eleven minutes starting out with gentle tanpura
drones and percussion, to which is gradually added some
superbly eloquent bass playing and electronic noodling.
At about a quarter way through the percussion becomes
heavier and some seriously fuzzed guitar eases into the
mix, the track continues to build as the (very
appropriately given the title) hushed and distorted
vocals come into play merging into the instruments. The
music culminates with some masterful screaming feedback
saturated guitar. This is a truly epic track of acid
drenched, psyched out, space rock magick; the next track
'Tortuga' eases the mood down a level, giving a perfect
opportunity for Fred Lairds sublime vocals to come to
the fore; the next track 'Journey Into Satchidananda' is
of particular interest being a live cover of Alice
Coltrane's jazz classic. The music on this track can
feel raw and wild and yet throughout the quality of
musicianship is impeccable, reigning it in and giving it
a direction that works to perfection in so many ways;
the final track, 'England have my bones' starts out
feral and dangerous before suddenly plunging into a
mellow contemplative sound that rounds off the album
perfectly.
This is a
truly excellent album with massive depth, that in parts
can have a gentle easy going sound and in others be
demanding, possibly for some listeners bordering on the
impenetrable. Whilst I was immediately drawn in by the
familiar Earthling society sound it took a number of
listens before I could truly say I was getting the
music, and still after many plays find new elements with
each listen.
This is
going to appeal to any lover of freaked out Kraut rock
and psychedelic space rock who likes depth to their
music and is prepared to give it the attention it so
rightly deserves. (Steve Judd)
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