Because I have been nominated as grunge girl extraordinaire by a colleague, I feel that it would be a good time to live up to that title.
Preface: I don't like Nirvana. I don't feel like defending myself with some well crafted musical explanation--my visceral reaction to them has always been negative and that's all I can say. But as with all genres, I find my own angle and there's usually couple bands out there that I enjoy, and that share structural similarities with bands I hate. Earth is my pseudo-Nirvana.
Earth is a Seattle based grunge band which involved multiple musicians who passed in and out of the group--but most notably Dylan Carlson, who put immense amounts of creative energy into the 1996 release Pentastar: In The Style of Demons, which is almost universally agreed upon as the pinnacle of Earth's releases. Dylan Carlson was famously a close friend of Kurt Cobain, and it was Carlson who purchased the shotgun that Cobain used when he committed suicide in 1994. Pentastar was released two years later.
Apart from having an interesting history--Pentastar is a fantastic musical composition. Vocals take a backseat to instrumentals. The album is full of different cultural elements--Southern rock and blues, Aztec folk music, and middle eastern influences. From the heavy, pulsating "Tallahassee" to the extremely minimalist "Sonar And Depth Charge", which completely does away with the guitar parts so heavily relied upon in the earlier parts of the album--Earth manages to be just the kind of genre skirting group I love. (And kudos to them for sticking around so long, 1991-2011. They just released Angels of Darkness, Demons Of Light I on Southern Lord last month.)
I tend to shun the whole "drone-sludge-stoner" (abbr: "droner"?) culture, but this album has always appealed to me. It's very clean, there's no bullshit about it. Carlson isn't a rockstar, and Earth is what drone should be--organic, genuine, and heavy. Whereas Sunn O))) seems to delight in frightening away newcomers and descending into their dark capes--Pentastar is an album you can put on and relax to. It's slow, leisurely, inviting.
(And yeah...after saying I shun stoner-rock culture, I'm going to say: this is a really great album to get stoned to.)
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