REVIEWS:
Post your comments about I Mother Earth
COMMENTS
Hey Nick,
I was wondering if you could get around to reviewing I Mother Earth's 1999 release Blue Green Orange, as well as their 2003 follow-up The Quicksilver Meat Dream.
As a fan of theirs, I must say that their albums aren't of the predictable, 3 minute radio-friendly pop hits variety, which I appreciate because I'm excited knowing that I'm going to experience rock music that's distinctive and doesn't cater to the latest trend (eg. garage rock of the Strokes or White Stripes).
Equally incredible to me is the depth of evolution they've shown over the course of four albums. They don't make sequels to previous albums, so each one is fresh.
As for your reviews of their earlier release Dig, I must disagree. While I don't regard the album as a masterpiece by any means, I do a lot of it incredible, especially for a debut album. The last 25 minutes grew on me with a few listens. Admittedly, they don't live up to the greatness of the first 8 songs, but they're decent in their own right. What actually lessens the impact is the bland vocals by singer Edwin (a point you didn't mention). He simply doesn't have the range to do justice to the songs and adds nothing with his phrasing.
The instrumentals in tracks 9-12 are superb, though - particularly the jazzy guitar solo that builds into explosive Hendrix-like power in the middle section of "The Universe In You." A sign of things to come.
The promise evident in Dig was I feel shown beautifully on 1996's Scenery and Fish. Again, I have to take issue with your assessment of the second half, because here I find a lot of varied moods and impressive songwriting. You write that "Shortcut To Moncton" has a reasonably pleasant pace when it's not hitting you with dull mellow jamming in the middle, for one." I thought the same thing about that mid-section when I first heard it. It doesn't seem to be going anywhere. Again, the song took several attempts before I could really "get" into it. Now, I realize the point of those seemingly unnecessary guitar licks is in keeping with the journey theme of the song. I love how it develops into the heavier portion of the song, with an amazing solo by Mr. Jag Tanna once again, and great drum support, until the crash of symbols and sustained guitar note bring back the lighter atmosphere of the earlier section, all the way to the final refrain. Again, not the type of song to be listened to once. Far more rewarding in the long term, however.
Your line "Pisser" and "Songburst & Delirium", meanwhile, just fall back on what sounds like generic grunge to me" strikes me as particularly strange, as I don't hear anything grunge about them at all. One thing those two songs certainly don't strike me as is generic. If anything, the songwriting is entirely distinctive. From the opening unsettling blending of symbols and distorted guitar in "Pisser" to it's funky bass lines that, with energetic drumming, set the pace, it's entirely it's own animal. Ditto "Songburst and Delirium" with it's dark, ominous opening to the kick-ass leading bass line and jazzy guitar licks that permeate the verses (in place of a main guitar riff). I think I know what you're talking about when you say: "Raspberry" and "Sense Of Henry" are prime Gish and Siamese Dream-era Smashing Pumpkins ripoffs, from the vocal intonations to the guitar tone." The one flaw I have with these 2 songs again has to do with the weak delivery (improved since the debut, but still lacking in power). Listen to the inspired guitar solo in "Sense of Henry", and tell me if you hear any Pumpkins influence. The overdubs and bass show no connection to anything Pumpkins, either. I think it might be a minor thing that reminds you of the Smashing Pumpkins, but I wouldn't in any way call those 2 songs ripoffs, because the overall arrangements are unique - the middle and end of "Raspberry", for example.
Pardon the rather lengthly defense of those previous albums - I feel pretty strongly about both. But those two don't begin to come close to the experience of their next two.
In 1997, Edwin departed, but having never written any music or lyrics (penned by drummer Chris Tanna), his absence didn't hurt the band at all. Instead, the band, with current singer Brian Byrne, developed their sound even more, with some other influences coming to the forefront.
The release of Blue Green Orange (1999) showed the band's willingness to experiment and expand instead of a complete reliance on previous influences. Finally, I Mother Earth were armed with a singer who could give songs the emotional potency lacking in Edwin's delivery. As a result, tracks like "Gargatuan" and "Good For Sule" (featuring Geddy Lee on bass) really soar. Funk rockers still appear, such as the opener "Love Your Starfish" and "Summertime in the Void", both brimming with energy, but the group finds time to explore other moods with some highlights being the slowly unfolding "Autumn on Drugs", which perfectly fits its title, a cold, spacey atmosphere that suggest a drug-like state, but which, after a beautifully effective guitar solo, builds into a morose conclusion where the guitar, bass, and drums slowly fade out in the mix, while a haunting piano riff takes prominence. Brilliant. Then there's the sublime effect of the final song "My Beautiful Deep End" and its dream-like mood that's completely absorbing, becoming more agitated as it progresses, with the drums finally climaxing and bringing the piece to an unsettling coda. This represents an essential album that must be heard a few times. New sounds and overdubs can be heard and appreciated with more than one spin.
The excellence of Blue Green Orange gave no indication of the next direction, where the band left it's lively percussive element to write darker material, with Rush, Pink Floyd, and the progressive rock influence coming to the forefront. The Quicksilver Meat Dream stands thus far as the band's magnum opus. In place of percussion, the band opted for a scattering of sound effects, some of which are hard to describe. Sounds that could possibly be an electronic cricket chirping, underwater effects mixed with the drums, and even a spoken word reading from Charles Bukowski that is highly disturbing. Despite the dark feel of certain portions of the record, it's not oppressively gloomy, allowing for lighter, uplifting moments to provide relief. In songs like "Soft Bomb Salad", the contrast between dark and light tones is intriguing.
It is the musicianship that is stunning, however. The arrangements are more epic than before, with different time signatures and strucutres. If the vocals suffered, the entire album would suffer tremendously.
The vocals, however, are the greatest in IME's career. Singer Brian Byrne shows his development (after a solid, though sometimes rough start on BGO). The range required by the diverse melodies and the shifts in tempo and speed are all fufilled, but what really comes through is the sheer emotion. In songs like "God Rocket (into the heart of Las Vegas)", the climatic vocal yearnings are palpable, concluding with two exquisite overdubbed guitars, while Byrne laments "once every mile from home". He brings considerable power to other unique compositions such as "Soft Bomb Salad" and "Passenger" (a stripped down arrangment, with understated guitar and electronically mixed drums). Then there's epic masterworks "Hell and Malfunction" (where segues amazingly from quiet, minor key foreboding to heavy prog soundscapes), and "Meat Dreams", which bring out different aspects of Byrne's abilities.
The latter begins slowly with a repeated guitar line, then the hushed vocals follow soon after. When the huge, booming drums kick in, the song really gets going. It's seperated into four different sections, each stunning with it's instrumentals and the energy combined takes repeated viewings to really appreciate (the layers in the background are fascinating in their own right). This is an album of many highlights, with not one bad or even mediocre song among the bunch. Even the singles "Like The Sun" and "No Coma" aren't lesser throwaways, with enough touches to make them stand out, as well as Byrne's great vocal stylings. I won't even spoil any of the prog-funker "Juicy", the middle section of which is mind-blowing in its intensity and would make Eddie Van Halen blush with pride. Simply a phenomenal achievement in all respects, The Quicksilver Meat Dream is certainly cold and elusive at first, but like previous releases from the band, growns on the listener. I Mother Earth is a band that does its own thing, with no regard for making a quick buck.
(reviewed by Nick Karn)
Rarely has a debut album from a band been more frustrating for me than this one, and the same kinds of problems even plague the next one to a lesser extent. On one hand, this album (and band, really) has quite an intriguing sound, which is elaborated on in the next review. Plus there's a great amount of funk-ish energy inherited from such tight early 90's predecessors as Jane's Addiction (with a really, really solid Santana-esque rhythmic base). They also display a fine sense of epic character on a couple songs, a great pop sense on others, and a really awful sense of editing skills. Argh, I think it's no secret that many 90's bands should just be prohibited from releasing more than 45 minutes of music at a time, because it's difficult for them to even fill a normal length album of material, especially on a debut. What makes them think that painfully extending some of them and monotonously repeating everything they said before near the end makes up for that shortcoming?
But still, there's some great material here that even eclipses a lot of the highs from the more consistent Scenery And Fish. Even the opening mantra "The Mothers", as hard as they try to make the shortest song here by far sound almost like an afterthought of the album, comes across as just an all around nice piece of music. The catchy rockers are even better, though - the fast funky groove of "Rain Will Fall" is complemented by a fast burst of verse melody complexity and a near unforgettable chorus, the way the music stops and starts back up with vocal yells throughout the verses on the more grungy "Levitate" is a great hook (nice main riff too!), and "Not Quite Sonic" is just about the peak of the more poppy influence on here, and probably the whole album too, as that strange, but extremely infectious, melody will no doubt get you singing.
The other rocking songs are slightly less high quality, like "Production" (which is probably the fastest song on here, and just about the most progressively played one in terms of tricky start-stop time signature changes) and "No One" (which is essentially just like the more energetic stuff on here, except it has a great guitar part running through it, and a catchy chant of 'no one leaves the caravan', so it automatically rules), but they're still great compared to a lot of the rambling, slow epic side here. The only good representative of this category is "So Gently We Go", basically the band's bluesy take on the structure of The Doors' epic "The End", but it has a distinct enough melody of its' own, and it only lasts 7 minutes instead of 11-1/2, coming full circle nicely, so it's decent.
The other slow epics are where all the really boring stuff on the album comes - I simply cannot remember a thing about the last two tracks (the slow Jane's Addiction ripoff "And The Experience" and the near worthless, melodyless closing 8 minute epic "The Universe In You"), and the lifeless, organ-tinged rambling ballad "Undone" only has a mildly interesting melody but no structure at all. Throw in other routine filler like the monotonous rocker "Basketball", which doesn't even come close to living up to its' idiosyncratic title, and the last, what, 25 minutes of the album can more or less be thrown in the garbage with no problem at all. Even the just okay 'Chili Peppers play the blues' verses crossed with a traditional IME chorus of "Lost My America" is no great shakes either. All I can say is shut this off after track 7 or 8 and you'll be fine, but when actually rating the album, I can't do such a blasphemous thing, so I can't give these 67 minutes any higher than a middling 6, as much as I really want to.
Post your comments / reviews for this album
(reviewed by Nick Karn)
Wow, this band is really good at coming up with stupid album titles. And what's with these song names? "Sense Of Henry"? "Songburst & Delirium"? In all seriousness, though, Scenery And Fish is a good continuation of the interesting sound I Mother Earth cooked up before, featuring a bit of blues influence mixed with pure grunge guitars (courtesy of axeman Jagori Tanna), a bit of Santana-like rhythms, off the wall lyrics, and a slight hint of progressive rock. It also doesn't hurt that singer Edwin, whose last name will not be revealed on the basis of mysteriousness, is quite a good personality-filled vocalist. He's a rather weird lyricist, though, as is evident right away on the interesting funk of "Like A Girl", featuring a neat odd time signature filled middle section and a catchy as heck chorus featuring the immortal lines 'I'm inclined to blame my mother for dressing me like a girl / I don't know, maybe that's kind of weird'.
Besides that song and the amusing intro track "Hello Dave!", the remainder of the first half is thoroughly enjoyable in its' own right. "One More Astronaut" features an almost "Weird Al" Yankovic vocal tone, which is a great contrast between the hard-hitting guitars and spacey lyrics, and along with the minor pop masterpiece "Another Sunday", you have two tracks of pure ear candy. "Three Days Old" is also an interesting combination of quiet bluesy guitars in the verses that slowly build up to the punkish fury of the chorus, and "Used To Be Alright" is a fine reflective ballad that's almost as hook-filled as the other tracks on the side. However, the biggest flaw of this album is that it starts to run out of steam during the second half - the nearly 8 minute "Shortcut To Monclon" has a reasonably pleasant pace when it's not hitting you with dull mellow jamming in the middle, for one.
"Pisser" and "Songburst & Delirium", meanwhile, just fall back on what sounds like generic grunge to me, and "Raspberry" and "Sense Of Henry" are prime Gish and Siamese Dream-era Smashing Pumpkins ripoffs, from the vocal intonations to the guitar tone. Thankfully, though, the album manages to end on a really good note with the closing "Earth, Sky & C.", where the Santana influence is most apparent, especially in its' excellent fast-paced rhythms and jamming. While this half of the album is certainly flawed, generic and boring through long stretches (just like the last one, in fact, though not as severe), I still say there enough excellent moments during the whole album (mostly in the first half) to justify a solid 7, and with editing of this 63 minute opus, it could have easily been a full point higher. Here's even more of a lesson in how the programming feature on your CD player can be useful.
Post your comments / reviews for this album
COMMENTS
[email protected] (Andrew McQuillan)
IME has a knack for making albums that lose steam after the first half. I like the first half of this album but most of the longer songs are unmemorable. This is similar to the case of their first album, Dig, where the singles are good but the rest is nothing really. Or maybe I just haven't listened to them enough. As for their last album, I've never heard it and don't plan to because the singles that were on Muchmusic and radio sucked shit and it didn't help that they lost Edwin. Hell, some of Edwin's solo stuff is pretty generic compared to old IME.
Index | Main band/artist reviews page