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Earth 2: Special Low Frequency Version
Studio album by Earth
Released	February 5, 1993
Recorded	August 1992, at Avast Studios, Seattle, Washington
Genre	Drone metal
Length	73:01
Label	Sub Pop
Producer	Earth, Stuart Hallerman
Earth chronology
Extra-Capsular Extraction (1991) Earth 2: Special Low Frequency Version (1993) Phase 3: Thrones and Dominions (1995)

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic
Select

Earth 2: Special Low Frequency Version is the debut studio album by the American rock band Earth, released on February 5, 1993 on Sub Pop. Produced by Earth and Stuart Hallerman, it was highly influential in the development of drone music, especially the drone metal subgenre. In his book Gimme Indie Rock: 500 Essential American Underground Rock Albums 1981–1986, music journalist Andrew Earles wrote "If any of the early Earth albums perfected the marriage of Eno's ambient works and the almighty doom metal riff, this was it."

Background

At the time of Earth's formation, bandleader Dylan Carlson was conceptually influenced by minimalist composers such as La Monte Young as well the rock bands King Crimson and Slayer. As a child, Carlson was a fan of classic rock groups such as AC/DC, noting that "when I would hear a song and there’d be a cool riff or a cool part of the song I was always like, 'Oh, what would it be like if they stayed on that instead of moving on to the next part?' Then I read about minimalism and stuff like that. I was like, 'Oh, what if we take a Slayer-style riff and play it for 20 minutes at half speed?' I guess you could say that was my one good idea." The font used on the cover and the title, Special low frequency, are a nod to Environment II (see Environments (album series))

The recent advent of compact discs allowed for playing times up to 74 minutes, which encouraged the group to "fill up an entire CD with one song in three parts." However, recording tape only allowed for 30 minutes max at the time, so that the band needed to "sort of splice it or fade it in and fade up, stuff like that" to achieve the longer recording. The group were signed to grunge label Sub Pop, but Carlson explained that "what we did was not grunge and not part of that whole thing. A lot of people I think that bought the records saying Sub Pop expecting something were disappointed." He noted that "luckily I wore a Morbid Angel t-shirt on the back of the album and so metal fans were sort of the first to really embrace what we were doing."

Critical reception

Celebrated as a "milestone" by Terrorizer's Dayal Patterson, he described it as "a three-track, 75 minute deluge of feedback and distorted guitars that marked the blueprint for what lead singer/guitarist Dylan Carlson at the time coined 'ambient metal'". AllMusic's John Bush called the album a "glacial, monolithic exercise" which "virtually created the drone and ambient metal subgenres." Critic Ned Raggett of Allmusic gave the album a positive review, stating: "If Carlson and his bassist du jour, in this case Dave Harwell, weren't quite Sub Pop's answer to the ranges of UK guitar extremism from the likes of Godflesh, Main, and Skullflower, Earth still came pretty darn close to it, creating a record even the Melvins would find weird." He added: "Earth 2 dedicates itself to the proposition that there's no such thing as too loud, trudging, or doom-laden." while describing the closing track as "ambient music completely and totally suffused with threat and fuzz."

Alan Licht, in his third list of minimalist classics, wrote "Unlike a lot of more recent noise underground stuff, which (to me) is relatively factorable, this is technically boggling drone music—the sustain is achieved not just with distortion but through overdubbing, and there's clean guitars in there too—even on headphones it's hard to tell what the fuck they're really doing. On this album, Earth set up a drone and place a few choice metal riffs against it over the course of forty minutes, at which point they just let the drone chord ring for another half hour... Hard to remember how completely unfashionable this was in the heyday of grunge".

Track listing

Personnel

• Dylan Carlson – guitar
• Dave Harwell – bass guitar
• Joe Burns – percussion on "Like Gold and Faceted"

References

1. ^ Raggett, Ned. "Earth 2". Allmusic. Retrieved March 24, 2013.
2. Perry, Andrew (April 1993). "Earth: Earth 2". Select: 74. Archived from the original on July 31, 2023. Retrieved September 7, 2024.
3. "More than Words". Spin. 27 (4): 54. May 2011. ISSN 0886-3032.
4. Earles, Andrew (September 15, 2014). Gimme Indie Rock: 500 Essential American Underground Rock Albums 1981–1996. Yoyageur Press. p. 96.
5. ^ Bächer, Hanna. "Dylan Carlson Interview". Red Bull Music Academy. Retrieved December 8, 2020.
6. Patterson, Dayal (November 2005). "A Spell in the Wilderness". Terrorizer (137): 18–19.
7. Fordham, Tom (November 20, 2023). "HEAVY MUSIC HISTORY: Earth 2: Special Low Frequency Version – Earth". Distorted Sound Magazine. Retrieved January 9, 2024.
8. "Alan Licht's Minimal Top Ten / The Next Ten / Minimalism Top Ten III – Root Blog".

External links

• Official website

• 1993 debut albums
• Earth (American band) albums
• Sub Pop albums