No Quarter
For metal fans, Earth represented an interested outsider take on thedoom and dirge of Black Sabbath and Nordic Metal. For noise andindustrial fans, Earth are simply using different tools to explore thesame territories as Merzbow or Lustmord. For a more recent and far morepretentious contingent of Wire readers and experimental musicenthusiasts, Earth is seen as a drone group, locating LaMonte Youngharmonics within the insular world of underground metal. This remixalbum, featuring reassemblies and interpolations of Earth by fellowmusicians, demonstrates these various different approaches to themusic. This disc is released at a time when Earth is making somethingof a comeback, with recent touring in Europe and the release of acouple of impressive live albums (070796LIVE and Living in the Gleam of an Unsheathed Sword). All of the remixers on Legacy of Dissolutionhave remained very respectful to the original material, simply adding afew subtle background elements, or gently nudging the mix this way orthat, rather than using Earth as raw material for entirely newcompositions. Mogwai adds backwards guitar and layers of piercingdigital chatter to "Teeth of Lions Rule the Divine," a punishingsub-bass frequency track from Earth 2, eliciting something moredynamic than the original's crushing minimalism, especially when thedroning Tony Conrad violin starts up. Merzbow collaborator RussellHaswell's take on "Tibetan Quaaludes" (subtitled "Waveset Sloth Mix"),places Earth in a digital gristle-izer, upping the noise quotient byseveral degrees, producing a churning, mud-splattered, slug-pacedexercise in audio interment. Jim O'Rourke's reassemblage of materialfrom Phase 3: Thrones and Dominions is probably my favoriteremix on the disc, gently nudging Earth's throbs and drones through hislaptop to create precise, hypnotic tones that collate over the lengthof the track. Autechre do something entirely unexpected with "CodaMaestoso in F(Flat) Minor" from Pentastar: In the Style of Demons;they leave the song almost entirely intact, only altering the levelsslightly and adding a backwards snare. Frankly, I'm relieved by thefact that Autechre decided not to do anything more ambitious with thetrack, as it was better left alone. Justin Broadrick of Godflesh addsfinishing production touches to "Harvey" that bring the track closer inspirit to the swirling, slowcore noise rock favored by My BloodyValentine and Slowdive. This will not be surprising to anyone who hasheard the Broadrick's recent debut as Jesu, which was unashamedlyderivative of the aforementioned artists. Finally, and perhaps mostsuperfluously, is Sunn O)))'s take on "Rule the Divine (MysteriaCaelestis Mugivi)." Since Sunn O))) is more-or-less an Earth tributeband, their contributions are predictably unnoticeable, though they doseemed to have focused more on the third-eye drones and less on theguitar grind. Legacy of Dissolution neatly cuts across all themodern approaches to abstract metal, and provided me with more than anhour of fascinating revisitations of hallowed Earth.samples:
- Teeth of Lions Rule the Divine (Mogwai Remix)
- Thrones and Dominions (Jim O'Rourke Remix)
- Harvey (Justin Broadrick Remix)
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