I Mother Earth
Dig

THE REVIEW

Santana, 20 years later.

If I had to describe I Mother Earth with a newspaper headline, I would use these words. But we know that headlines rarely fully describe reality, distorting it with their logic bent towards synthesis. It's better to continue, then.

They are four (the Tanna brothers on drums and guitar, Bruce Gordon on bass, some guy named Edwin singing) and they come from Toronto, Canada. For this debut, they even enlisted Mike Clink, who previously produced Guns n' Roses, Megadeth, and Motley Crue.

The more important thing is the release year of "Dig": 1993. Right in the middle of the grunge era, but not just that. Indie, crossover, the debut of Tool, the craziness of seeing the Butthole Surfers at the top of the charts, produced by John Paul! In this fertile ground, I Mother Earth moves, convinced though that the best of the '70s is at the beginning, not the end. Often crossing into the '60s. And if Santana is the main source they draw from (the one of the first two phenomenal albums), there are also references to hard psychedelia, as in "Undone" and "The Universe In You", long jams that would have pleased both Jane's Addiction and God Machine.

There are also punk-funk stabs (no, not Talking Heads), "Production" and "Basketball": the school is that of the Red Hot Chili Peppers (Mother's Milk-era), the speed is the same as a Federer first serve. And if the central core almost always remains a very expanded grunge, around it gravitates several electrons: not total crossover, but almost. Whispering, they tell us they want to do art rock.

"Dig", ultimately, is a successful album, a product of the times that were, missing a couple of tracks to be called a classic or a masterpiece. The same unpleasant feeling arises when analyzing the career of I Mother Earth, who always seem a penny short of a dollar.

A pity, but I advise seeing the glass half full. Or rather, listening to it.

RATING 8