Earth
Extra-Capsular Extraction

There was a time when anything released under the Sub Pop label was received as a masterpiece. Especially with the explosion of Nirvana in 1991, all the groups or people part of Mr. Cobain's entourage got a glimpse of fame. Even for Earth, some commercial impact was hypothesized. Then "Extra-Capsular Extraction" was listened to, and everyone understood that this band would never leave the land of the cult. The reason is very simple: their sound was claustrophobic and anesthetized by drugs, especially heroin.

The sound is so cavernous and dark that an album like "Lysol" by Melvins seems more commercial. The mention of this last group is not accidental, given that Earth draws from a certain sludge rock dear to Buzzo & Co. In "Extra-Capsular Extraction" there are no sung parts, the drums are played very minimally by bassist Joe Preston (a cult figure in the alternative world, later bassist for the Melvins for a few years), other bass lines are performed in a distorted way by Dave Harwell, and the guitar is played by Dylan Carlson. Carlson, as many will know, made history as the friend who procured the suicide weapon for Cobain, as well as being one of the closest and most toxic friends of the Nirvana singer.

Back to the album: three movements, 33 minutes long, some backing vocals by Carlson and Kurt Kobain (as he signed himself for this record), no melody, no indication regarding the breakdown of verse, chorus, bridge, zero contact with the music of the time except for the mad desire to experiment and ignore what MTV was promoting.

Few people in the early '90s managed to see an entire Earth concert. Usually, the audience left horrified after ten minutes. Give it a chance on record, you won't regret it.