What more can we say about Old Earth? The brainchild of Todd Umhoefer, the project has won a place in our hearts with its driven and immediate esoteric mysticism, sounding quite unlike anything else out there right now.
As with previous releases, the latest offering from Old Earth, The Friends ∴ The Gods, is several smaller songs stitched into one long track, resulting in a shapeshifting beast that moves with its own instinctive dream logic. First segment ‘Stand Me When You Can’t’ is propelled by percussion and probing guitar, Umhoefer spinning his usual opaque but apposite lyrics, arcane wisdom tangled in shards of riddles like the mutterings of some old-time sage.
“O me, O the light
Oh unlock the way
Hold me to a line
Oh unlock the way
Ivy on a pine
Oh unlock the way”
Things are pulled taut on ‘Hunting the Chime’, the drums fading to a hush as tense guitar ticks and twitches, Umhoefer urging the listener “don’t come around and don’t let ’em find you there!” Things then whip up with energy, like on ‘A Life Worth Leaving’, which clenches its jaw for a slice of echoing and mean folk rock.
The instrumental ‘In THAT Dream, She Carried Me’ is driven along by acoustic guitar, before settling into ‘Who Cures the Shaman?’ Here Umhoefer’s voice rises from the hush with characteristically ambiguous words that nevertheless possess a strange magnetism, charged with some energy that’s not quite from our realm.
“We haven’t passed a hill for days
We pass the moments on the way
I hear your voice not what you say
and you hear me counting plans to stay”
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The Friends ∴ The Gods is yet another great addition to the Old Earth canon, so do yourself a favour and head to the Old Earth Bandcamp page to buy it.