Eat Static - Back To Earth

[abasio]

Eat Static

Back To Earth

Interchill Records

22 Jun 2008

Downtempo Breakbeat

 

 

Tracklist

 

1 Tuned Mass Damper (5:56)

2 Pharaoh (5:38)

3 Lo-Ride Sloucher (6:39)

4 Flippity Flippity (5:23)

5 Epoch Calypso (5:58)

6 Holy Stone (8:10)

7 Pearl Of Wisdom (7:09)

8 Up Periscope (8:08)

9 Dune Rider (6:40)

10 Valley Of The Moon (7:02)

11 The Wreckage (6:56)

 

With this album I went through 3 stages. First I was surprised but quite happy. The style was not what I was expecting but it was quite fun. Secondly I was disappointed as the tracks seemed a little shallow and I got bored quickly. Thirdly though, I saw past the shallow waters into a deep ocean and started to appreciate it more. Some of the tracks here are still on the shallow pop side but some of them have a lot going on in them.

 

1. Tuned Mass Damper

We start off very promisingly enough with a very sci-fi sounding track. Lots of alien glitch, light trippy breakbeats and background ambience with quite a cinematic feel creates a decent, trippy track. Nothing mind blowing at first but with a lot going on and a lot of changes in the track it grows on you.

 

2. Pharaoh

A much grander feel to this track. Initially this was one of my least favourite tracks as I found that the melody was too strong in a style I didn't really like, it sounds in my ears like a film set in 1920's Egypt. This too grew on me as I started to picture the scene of a bustling market place and when I started to notice the little sci-fi sounds I could picture alien infiltrators and the high pitched sounds started sounding like discreet alien communications. Much better than I first expected. A surprising grower.

 

3. Lo-Ride Sloucher

This is probably the most instantly gratifying as it's closer to what was expected but also remains one of my favourites. It has a really spacey atmosphere, big beats and tons of psychedelic glitchy goodness. It starts of light and floaty but becomes hard, sharp and a little sinister. Finally it manages to blend the two while bringing in an utterly twisted fucked up alien sounding vocal which I'd really like to hear more of.

 

4. Flippity Flippity

This sounds like it was a track made for the Hi-Fi Companions album. It has a cheesy jazzy lounge feel to it. There is subtle spacey noises in the background making it a worthwhile track to listen to. I picture another scene of alien infiltration, this time in a New York cellar club with a lounge atmosphere and alien women entertaining the guests who are blissfully unaware of the alieness or if they are, don't find it out of the ordinary. Unfortunately this track is too much lounge and not enough spacey goodness and the 1950's dumb blonde girl sample is unwelcome.

 

5. Epoch Calypso

Another completely different sound. This sounds like a carnival in some hot summer beach resort. It kind of reminds me of Shpongle's Dorset Perception with its ultra bright happy feeling but with an underlying layer of subtle ambience. A little spacey but more floaty and it struggles to get heard as the carnival sound is too strong. A lot of melody, a lot of percussion all blended together to make an enjoyable listening experience but the touch of a twisted melody is too brief and I wish they had done more twisting of the beats and melodies to make this more my taste.

 

6. Holy Stone

Another track that sounds more Eat Static than the rest. The dark alien atmosphere created by dark full synth lines, spacey background drones that seem to cleverly change into dark chants, almost. What I like is the very simple melody that is repeated over and over during the middle of the track. It goes on without changing for a while, entrancing so that when it does change it seems deep and meaningful. The vocals are what break the trance, soft subtle unintelligible chants joined by a short repetitive bassline. The melody comes in again in the final section sounding of a weird but very enjoyable track. Like an alien ceremonial gathering on a distant planet, although the very human sample almost ruins it. Almost.

 

7. Pearl Of Wisdom

A track I was unsure of at first. Initially it seemed a bit too thin but on closer inspection it has a very nice ambient intro then delicious beats kick in and subtle but enjoyable space glitch perforates the background. I especially like the way the beats kick in with a smooth shuffle then kick. Not an instant knock out but a grower for sure.

 

8. Up Periscope

This starts with a sample from a conversation in a submarine. The little high pitch sounds kind of sound like falling electronic water and there is a cold desolate feel to the background drones. The beats and the bassline initially take in a randomly opposite direction but the drones fights the mood back to a darker feel. There is a lot of quite random almost dark sounds but it never gets unbearable. What we get is a chaotic track that never really goes anywhere but just kind of mills about in a big industrial vessel at the bottom of the ocean. I like it, it appeals to the glitch ambient lover in me with more energy but I can see a lot of people not liking this.

 

9. Dune Rider

We start with the wind blowing over what sounds like a desert. The beats kick in with quite an Arabian feel, a feeling that is added to by the melodic synth lines but detracted by the melody that sounds like it's played on a guitar. The conflicting styles play together nicely but I'm disappointed by the lack of depth in the track following the great windy sounds at the start. There is muttered conversation like people gathered to see a drag race but that's about it. It is nice enough but it doesn't have enough to keep me interested after repeated listens. I can almost imagine this as background music at an Arabian Disneyland attraction.

 

10. Valley Of The Moon

A nice melody right from the start actually manages to sound like moonlight. The little light glittering sounds make me imagine beams of moonlight coming through the clouds on an otherwise cloudy night. Not particularly spacey or sci-fi but more like terrestrial nighttime. The muttered vocals sound like some secret gathering and the flute like sounds make me imagine fairies and imps and terrestrial fantasy rather than extra-terrestrial beings. I love the twisted samples near the end. It really adds something to the music.

 

11. The Wreckage

A sample talking about UFOs is more in keeping with expectations but the track in General is more loungey like Hi-Fi Companions style. A little Jazzy but not too much. Enough atmosphere and nice relaxed beats but after the initial sample the extra-terrestrialness is minimal. Some nice background but as the album title suggests it's more Earth bound.

 

 

I have mixed feelings about this album. Although I think the music is good, some of it is a little to shallow like it is trying to appeal to a wider audience to like it rather than a smaller one loving it. Overall I think that this album is pretty good but could have been much better. At times I get the feeling that the concept of the album is Earth scenes with subtle alien infiltration but more often than not the alien infiltration is too subtle to be worthwhile. I would love to hear this concept delivered a little more convincingly making sure the sci-fi sounds are underlying but still more perceptible to the listener. The variety in this album is great but it doesn't feel enough like a journey. However I have found myself listening to this a lot which is the true acid test for music. As I said, mixed feelings.

[McKennaDMT]

I love the Pharaoh track. Made me want to watch the movie Stargate again.

[Yard Hippie]

Looking forward to seeing Eat Static live tonight in Leeds but doubt they'll be playing anything downbeat, which I guess I feel a little dissapointed at. In any case I need to buy this album next time I have some money coming in. Have bought far too much music this month already

[Yard Hippie]

In any case I need to buy this album next time I have some money coming in. Have bought far too much music this month already

Well like I said I went and saw them and they had a CD vendor... so I bought it anyway Playing it now and loving the grooves.

[Jon Cocco]

Eat Static - Back To Earth

2008

 

 

Tracklist

 

1 Tuned Mass Damper (5:56)

2 Pharaoh (5:38)

3 Lo-Ride Sloucher (6:39)

4 Flippity Flippity (5:23)

5 Epoch Calypso (5:58)

6 Holy Stone (8:10)

7 Pearl Of Wisdom (7:09)

8 Up Periscope (8:08)

9 Dune Rider (6:40)

10 Valley Of The Moon (7:02)

11 The Wreckage (6:56)

 

 

I agree with much of what Abasio said.

 

The Pharaoh track is interesting; it's gripping, great!

 

Overall I found their previous De-Classified album more satisfying, fun to listen to. It would be awesome if they produced an album with a grander feel, with more tracks on the level of Pharaoh. This album makes the same mistake that the Juno Reactor - God's and Monsters album made earlier on in the year. It tries to be too many things all at once; it tries to have a track for almost everyone into Electronica. In doing so, I only like several tracks. However by general consensus, most people seem to agree that Pharaoh is great. So I hope their next album is amazing. Because this isn't a bad album but it's not up to Abduction and De-Classified either. While some tracks are pretty good, others don't sound like Eat Static's general style, but an ethnic influenced Shpongle to some degree. This group must include more super songs if they want to grab more buyers, especially in this world wide economy recession (call it what you want to) that we're in right now. That said, this isn't a bad release. There's some good/great work on it. Hopefully the next album is more grand and edgy (intense, adventurous, and comes out further ahead than this decent to fairly good release).

 

 

Favorite tracks: 2, 3, 7, 8

 

 

B-

 

 

 

Samples

 

http://www.saikosounds.com/english/display...ase.asp?id=7402

[LLB]

1. Tuned Mass Damper => Twisted techno/ambient experimental production with unpolished tones & weird, mad samples as you could expect from Eat Static, cold nightie feeling here.

 

2. Pharaoh => Is about a very Oriental tune nicely rhythmic, with an orchestral alchemy according to me.

 

3. Lo-Ride Sloucher => Complex & weirdest tune of the album, notably with a special chopped up fx all along on the sounds.

 

4. Flippity Flippity => Blue Note spirit (Jazzy stuff here).

 

5. Epoch Calypso => Do you want smoking cigarillo Cubano, drinking brown rhum, taking sun, enjoying some rhythmo latino, contemplating old cars from 50's for very few money ? It's possible with Eat Static Airlines & the fly Epoch Calypso.

 

6. Holy Stone => This one is more on the dubby side but remains very Eat Static sounding, which means crazy, distorted, very diversified but always musically coherent & furthermore melodic.

 

7. Pearl Of Wisdom => A sunset on a deserted beach, warm climate, with fresh air is surfing on your skin. Nevertheless some moment benefits from audacious & rough tones which strongly contrasts with the soft sunny overall perception, like something wanted to get you outside this idyllic coma.

 

8. Up, Periscope => Based on a very catchy loop, the title also describes perfectly the idea of the track. Get ready for some submarine explorations through mysterious misty seas, no worry the sonar is active & effective. So it's up to the captain not to steer in circle...

 

9. Dune Rider => Oriental tune with a progressive building, the rhythmic aspect takes a preponderant part here contrarily to most of the album.

 

10. Valley Of The Moon => Could be compared to the tale of a summer night on a flying carpet over a yellow illuminated old civilization.

 

11. The Wreckage =>It's like a siren song bewitching you through the abyss of chill soundscapes.

 

 

 

If you're expecting from Eat Static – Back to Earth from one hand something genuine, melodic, eclectic for a chill production and on the other hand the usual trademarks from the band (a musical mix between experimentation & raving spirit); you'll be completely charmed by this first down-tempo album by this pioneer psytrance band.

 

Highlights:4,5,7,8,11

 

Recommended.

[grimoire]

amazing spatial sounding albumfrom these masters in music making! Indeed they present a lot of different styles, but they all fit nicely together and make for an interesting ambient journey

[Lemmiwinks]

like most people said here before me, these guys practically try to make a different style of music (and not necessarily electronica...) with each track. The good news is that this is varied enough for anyone to find a favorite track. The bad news is that you will probably just concentrate on 2-3 tracks you like and skip the rest which is not really a good recipe to a classic album IMO.

 

Most people aparently like Pharaoh, but personally I hate it! OK, I like to have some oriental influences in my tracks (after all they didn't use to call this music goa for nothing ), but when the tracks turns out sounding like the kind of stuff you'd hear blasting out of a market shop in an Arabic country I give it a pass... On the other hand Dune Rider also has some massive arabic influences but is more on the electronic side of things.

 

My personal favorite is Epoch Calypso. Granted, it sounds as if the Eat Static crew were hanging round in the studio, gave Shpongle's Dorset Perception a listen and thought "hey, we can do this shit too!". So yeah it's kindof cheezy with all those latin influences and all but it brings a big smile to my face when I listen to it

 

7/10

[Yard Hippie]

like most people said here before me, these guys practically try to make a different style of music (and not necessarily electronica...) with each track. The good news is that this is varied enough for anyone to find a favorite track. The bad news is that you will probably just concentrate on 2-3 tracks you like and skip the rest which is not really a good recipe to a classic album IMO.

 

Most people aparently like Pharaoh, but personally I hate it! OK, I like to have some oriental influences in my tracks (after all they didn't use to call this music goa for nothing ), but when the tracks turns out sounding like the kind of stuff you'd hear blasting out of a market shop in an Arabic country I give it a pass... On the other hand Dune Rider also has some massive arabic influences but is more on the electronic side of things.

 

My personal favorite is Epoch Calypso. Granted, it sounds as if the Eat Static crew were hanging round in the studio, gave Shpongle's Dorset Perception a listen and thought "hey, we can do this shit too!". So yeah it's kindof cheezy with all those latin influences and all but it brings a big smile to my face when I listen to it

 

7/10

It's funny but you're absolutely right. I hate epoch calypso but love pharoh I think you've basically hit the nail on the head anyhow; when I first bought this album I just couldn't decide whether I liked it or not, and even now it's certainly the weakest ES album I feel I've listened to BUT there are tracks on there that I very much enjoy...

 

Flippity Flippity also deserves a mention since it made me curious enough to try out 'Swingers in Paradise' which I cannot help but adore.

[5meohd]

man o man are we all different entities.... I feel that not only is this eat static most brilliant work.. but it is so powerful and so skillfully designed that it transcends the fact that making music on a computer is in all reality just a smidge easier than physically playing the instruments... I dont know if its because they really do alot of "acoustic" recording or if its just because the millions of little samples that are so perfectly placed for me... I can listen to this anytime anywhere and just become baffled at how bad I suck at making music.............. true most good albums do this.. but when I listen to LOTS of ambient/style records I can just imagine the few more steps i need to take in my productions.. or think like "yeah maybe in a year i can do this" ya know? but with back to earth I'm just left in confusion of the complexity............ which is def. my bag baby!!

[murphythecat]

I never lovedeat static, and this is not better or worst, just i dont know, well produced, but no fuckin soul, there no soul in eat static, its well done, but damn, thats it, its well done

...next!

no soul, no soul how can there be no soul? youll see when listening to eat static! but abduction was pretty exciting and In the nude! but still, i never listen to those album, but i can say that abduction was seriously bad ass compared to this even worst release

[Yard Hippie]

I never lovedeat static, and this is not better or worst, just i dont know, well produced, but no fuckin soul, there no soul in eat static, its well done, but damn, thats it, its well done

...next!

no soul, no soul how can there be no soul? youll see when listening to eat static! but abduction was pretty exciting and In the nude! but still, i never listen to those album, but i can say that abduction was seriously bad ass compared to this even worst release

Were you not asking for ES reccomendations a week or so ago? I mean sure, this is definately their weakest album for a lot of people but to say they don't have soul is going a bit far dontchathink? Abduction was great like you said, but so was Implant and De-classified and Prepare your Spirit and to me these guys are in a league of their own. Implant especially is just bursting with soul. Each to their own I suppose.

[abasio]

Were you not asking for ES reccomendations a week or so ago? I mean sure, this is definately their weakest album for a lot of people but to say they don't have soul is going a bit far dontchathink? Abduction was great like you said, but so was Implant and De-classified and Prepare your Spirit and to me these guys are in a league of their own. Implant especially is just bursting with soul. Each to their own I suppose.

Yes YES yes YES

[murphythecat]

Were you not asking for ES reccomendations a week or so ago? I mean sure, this is definately their weakest album for a lot of people but to say they don't have soul is going a bit far dontchathink? Abduction was great like you said, but so was Implant and De-classified and Prepare your Spirit and to me these guys are in a league of their own. Implant especially is just bursting with soul. Each to their own I suppose.

I agree, there are on their own, amazing at time, but still, i really feel there something missing, and i feel like if its soul, it never moves me, eat static is in the head, not in the heart haha sound feminish, but IMHO its true, cause its so tightly produced, but why i never feel to go listen to them? cause i know there on their own, but still, i almost never listen a whole album from eat static, and i dowloaded the recommendation, well 2 albums that i had never heard, and its good, but still missing something, but you know, this is how i feel and only what i feel.