Earth: s/d, c/d?

http://www.earsplitcompound.com/site/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/EARTH-Angels_cover_web.jpg

EARTH have completed their highly anticipated upcoming full-length album, which has been a subject of much discussion over the past two years. Following the band's magnificent 2008-released The Bees Made Honey In The Lion's Skull opus, the next chapter in the ongoing EARTH legacy is ready for public consumption. To see release via Southern Lord Recordings in February 2011, the recently completed new album has been titled Angels Of Darkness, Demons Of Light 1, and promises to be a brand new entity within EARTH's already impressive and constantly progressing lineage.

Joining founding guitarist and band frontman Dylan Carlson and percussionist Adrienne Davies, the album lineup this time around also includes cellist Lori Goldston (Nirvana, David Byrne, Black Cat Orchestra, Laura Veirs) and Karl Blau (K Records, Laura Veirs, Microphones) on electric bass. Returning to Seattle's Avast Studios in April and July of 2010 to again work with producer Stuart Hallerman (Soundgarden, Mudhoney, Built To Spill, and Earth2), EARTH's newest masterpiece shows the band continuing to expand on the Americana themes represented on The Bees Made Honey In The Lion's Skull, and even their incredible 2005 album Hex (Or Printing The Infernal Method), taking their sound into broad new directions.

Citing inspiration from British folk-rock bands the Pentangle and Fairport Convention, as well as North African Tuareg band Tinariwen this time around, while still maintaining the thunderous, organic heaviness of previous EARTH releases, the material on Angels Of Darkness, Demons Of Light 1 is more fluid and melodically oriented in nature, relying on more textured patterns and a greater emphasis on improvisational songwriting tactics. This, as well as the inclusion of cello and other experimentations from the musicians involved, culminate into some unforgettable new hymns. The album was mastered by Mell Dettmer, who also remastered the recent re-release of EARTH's first recordings in the form of A Bureaucratic Desire For Extra Capsular Extraction, released by Southern Lord in late October.

Angels Of Darkness, Demons Of Light 1 Track Listing:
1. Old Black
2. Father Midnight
3. Descent To The Zenith
4. Hell’s Winter
5. Angels Of Darkness, Demons Of Light 1

Thanks for brightening my morning Ned!

:D
glad to see what I assume is a Neil Young reference there in the opening track's title?

Exactly what I was thinking!

other song titles are pretty lol (in a good way)

That description makes it sound amazing. If it's half as good as Bees that'll be enough for me.

wish i liked nu earth more. saw them early this year and was so so bored. cover art's great tho.

i liked the last album a lot.

me too! this one has a lot to live up to. does the "1" mean we can expect pt. two sometime soon afterward?

album cover loks like Skinner to me

http://theartofskinner.com/

Hooray! Great cover, good track names, looking forward to this!

wish i liked nu earth more.

Yeah, country Earth really doesn't do much for me at all.

dude c'mon it's a loooot more complex than "country earth"

the last albums tracks were far far superior live than on the actual record. Search out the brilliant live tour cds. There's a couple of them.

Radio Earth!!!!

couldn't be more excited for espers earth

I love new Earth, old Earth does nothing for me. Hex was the first one I heard and is still my favourite.

FUCKING ENGINE OF RUIN PPL

if you can find the live version of "engine of ruin" that came out on the Radio Earth EP, it's def worth a listen

new disc this year, apparently.

and European tour dates already announced, yay

http://www.npr.org/2011/01/30/133245988/first-listen-earth-angels-of-darkness-demons-of-light-1

p much have a hard time trying to figure what constitutes quality with drone. melodic drone? does that happen?

^like with everything else: quality derives from total commitment. If any of the players involved falters in concentration for a second, your soul will "hear" it and you will know.

i am not v pleased with this tbh

i mean i guess it adds depth to BEES but i didn't even really like BEES

i will only refer to that album as BEES

i dig it, esp. hell's winter

Having a hard time getting into this new one. I mean, sounds nice, but sounds like Earth doing Earth, and this is the first album of theirs I've felt that way about. Am I alone here?

i think it's fantastic & then somg. listen for the cello. play loud. immerse yrself

& then some* ugghhh

So, what's the verdict on II?

I really like it, but it is a little less immediate than the first part even.

I agree that it's less immediate than the first part (which totally blew me away to be fair).

Saw Earth last week (for the first time) and hearing stuff from II live has improved my opinion of it a lot.

I generally listen to this as background music, so it works well as that

I like the second part more than the first.

i love it. all the cello is a spooky touch

love Pt 2, and a bit surprised there's not more chatter on this one. full thoughts here. there was a Burning Ambulance interview too that i liked a lot, thanks Phil!

It's a lovely album.

I saw them live last Saturday and was (slightly) disappointed. Much too quiet - barely to be heard above the chatter of my neighbours. Somehow the lack of volume drained their energy.

They performed a mix of new album tracks and older songs. Carlson was visibly healthier than I've seen him, very chatty etc.

i like II ok as background music but i don't feel it ever *goes* anywhere or develops in an interesting way. also agree that it was a bit too quiet.

i gave it a good chance too, listened while i walked around MOMA. just seemed kinda blah and i have a pretty good appetite for droney/boring/aimless/sloppy music. maybe i just wanted it to be louder.

I think it's harder to appreciate in 2012 - but if you frame it in the context of when it was released, and into what kind of world, it's a pretty substantial work.

II still sounds great to me. that and extra-capsular extraction are all the earth i ever really need. agree that neither ever really "goes anywhere". they're entirely static, but in a good way. have always seen them as resembling meditation or even massage, prolonged baths in gorgeous, expansive, calorie-dense physical tone. i find it very easy to disengage from active listening and just sort of float around inside the sound, attuned but not attentive.

I'm hoping Earth will be the subjects of the cover story for the next Burning Ambulance print edition; John Fell Ryan from Excepter interviewed Dylan and Adrienne a month or so ago for that purpose. I figured he'd have the basis for an interesting conversation about long-form improv, being in a group with your SO (his wife is also in Excepter), stuff like that. Hoping to get the piece soon.

listening to Hex. it demands to be listened to. not many albums have that simple purity of requirement. it is not entirely pleasurable but it is necessary, like childbirth

How do we feel about drcarlsonalbion? I like everything I've heard so far, but not more than Earth. Anybody check out the soundtrack to the German western (???), Gold? Looks very interesting...

So this drcarlsonalbion crowdfunded film + soundtrack...soundtrack is good and in the vein of the other solo drcarlsonalbion stuff: slow, buzzy guitar riffs played with remarkable restraint and a beautiful tone. The film is...kinda silly and not great? Anyone else see it?

it demands to be watched. it is not entirely pleasurable but it is necessary, like childbirth

came here to more or less repeat what I said three years ago. every time I listen to Hex it slows time. great album to pull out every odd summer or so

Wrong thread? Hex? Are you talking about bark psychosis? That album does slow down time, indeed. It sucks the movement out of time. I am not sure but there are evenings where codename is the best album of all time. Even better than hex. But then in hindsight it does not hold up. It's such an album of the moment.

I presume he means the Earth record named 'Hex'? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hex;_Or_Printing_in_the_Infernal_Method

(That Bark Psychosis album is great too, though.)