Earthless - Sonic Prayer & Rhythms From A Cosmic Sky

Sonic Prayer (2005)

Jeśli myślicie, że duch Jimi Hendrixa umarł to jesteście w wielkim błędzie. Dowodem na to niech będą nagrania amerykańskiej grupy Earthless. Trio pochodzące z San Diego w Californii wskrzesza najlepsze tradycje gitarowego grania spod znaku stoner rocka i acid rocka. W ich muzyce usłyszeć można wpływy wielu wykonawców, Groundhogs (patrz: ich przeróbka Cherry Red), Hawkwind czy niemieckich grup krautrockowych. Sprawdza się też "teoria", że najoptymalniejszym składem jest trio. I proszę mi nie mówić o Monster Magnet, którzy - w świetle tego co prezentuje Earthless - jest jakimś komerycjnym koszmarkiem.

Isaiah Mitchell-AcidGuitar
Mike Eginton - Bass Spew
Mario Rubalcaba-Drum Bruising

Earthless is the brainchild of Mario Rubalcaba, Mike Eginton & Isaiah Mitchell. Rubalcaba a prolific drummer has worn the alias of Ruby Mars during his stint with Rocket From The Crypt, went on to bang away for the Hot Snakes, was the drummer for hardcore art-punks Clikatat Ikatowi and previously was in the Black Heart Procession… and prior to that? Mario was a member of Tony Alva’s Alva Team skateboarding crew. He now finds himself, along with bassist Mike Eginton and guitarist Isaiah Mitchell, knee deep in the near opposite direction of all things punk rock, ensconced in the world of jam, space and “cosmic nodding” a.k.a. Earthless.

The trio, based out of San Diego, met through mutual friends and a fondness for under the radar record collections. Mario explains how the band connected, “We discovered a mutual admiration for a lot of Japanese psychedelic hard rock bands, as well as primitive ‘60s garage music. After combing over each other’s record collections and lending out records, we came upon the idea of, ‘Let’s specifically start a Japanese - psychedelic - heavy - Kraut - rock - band.’ With the Japanese bands, it was always a really kind of heavy, blues, twisted take on Black Sabbath or Led Zeppelin. Isaiah is an awesome guitar player & Mike is an amazing bassist, playing with the both of them really sealed the deal. Magic happened in the room. Since then, we’ve followed that formula".

Sonic Prayer

Recently signed to Tee Pee Records, Earthless issues their debut album, Rhythms from A Cosmic Sky, this May. While Mario, Mike and Isaiah can be the most precise of musicians, the group also revels in adding a healthy amount of jam to the mix, as evidenced by the album’s two extended tracks “Godspeed” and “Sonic Prayer.” “ There’s a lot of improvisation, a lot of room to be spontaneous and wander off. We always have certain riffs that we know to go into. If the beat changes a little bit, and we give the…we call it the ‘cosmic eye’ or the ‘cosmic nod’ to go into this other part that we have, we just have these certain sections that we go into, and it always seems to work out.” The album’s third track is a cover of The Groundhogs’ “Cherry Red.”

Rhythms From A Cosmic Sky (2007)

Earthless’ sound is so far-reaching they’re already being asked to play with a wide sweep of artists including - Mastodon, Big Business, The Fucking Champs, Nebula and High on Fire. However, don’t expect to hear faithful renditions of either of their new album’s songs when the band plays live. “No brakes – just one, long continuous song to us. Even though some people that have seen us think, “That third song you played…” because it will shift into a different mood. But to us, it’s just one long song. It can range anywhere from 25 minutes to an hour and a half… just full-on, loud, sonic power. Some people might not be able to take it, and some people love it. We just hope that someone can get enjoyment out of it like we do [laughs]. We have a couple of different jams – probably four or five different ones, and sometimes we mix them up. We liked to keep it spontaneous and somehow mix up parts – if it works it works, if not, then better luck next time.”

Found on Electric Mud

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