Once every few years the axis of the Earth rotates at
exactly the right degree, the planets align, something magical is conjured up
in the Californian desert and the Earthlings? appear.
Dave Catching, Pete Stahl, Molly McGuire, Adam Maples,
Matthias Schneeberger and Julian Goldwhite take you out into the night and sit
you round a small fire that slowly burns away as you lie back and watch the
millions and millions of stars that cross the night sky and blow your mind. So here we have it, new Earthlings? material.....
The Clapper slowly glides in from the distance as every
instrument entwines to create what is the riff that sticks in your head for the
rest of the day. The bass slowly reverberates, joined with the ever so slight
drum beat and deep space like keyboards before the guitars pick their way in
sync with Pete’s ever so distinctive vocals that are as warm as they are
powerful.
The guitars kick in for the first time with the keyboards
and The Clapper sounds huge, as though a burst of light has flared up and
turned the darkness in to a deep shade of purple or orange. The harmonies of
Pete and Molly and maybe more starts here and becomes more and more haunting as
well as mystical as the song evolves. As the song quietens off again, an
atmosphere is created where you feel you can almost reach out and touch it.
As they tell you to “listen closely you can hear it
disappear” you can feel everything and everyone vanish into that moment in
time, the dust catches the wind and the moment has passed.
On side B, Off My Nut starts with a load of voice samples
which makes me think of the last time I saw Pete/Dave perform as Earthlings? in
Manchester. From there onwards the next couple of minutes turn into the band
doing their own unique twist on something between a Wild West and Folk Rock
good time song. Again, the harmonies flow and the endless little samples fall
into place.
Hopefully there is more to come after this 7” as I can hands
down say that The Clapper is one of the best songs Earthlings? have written and
released. It is also housed in some cool Bad Otis artwork.
Released via Last Hurrah Records, the limited 500 run is
split between 5 desert related colours.
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