Aquarius Records Album of the week
EARL SHILTON
Two Rooms (Full Of Insects) (Invisible Spies)
FINALLY BACK IN STOCK!!! This all time AQ fave and former record of the week has been super difficult to restock for some reason. But it's here now, so don't miss out again!! Here's what we had to say about Earl Shilton when it was indeed Record of the Week:
We somehow knew this was an Aquarius Record of the Week the minute we first laid eyes on it. Well, okay, maybe that's not entirely true. But it had the potential, that much we knew for sure, just from the cover: a huge double bass drumkit, set up in the middle of the forest with the name 'Earl' scrawled on one of the bass drums. A very evocative image, combining our love of heavy rock (the kit), with my personal thing for drums (the kit again) and our love of all things forest-y: nature sounds, field recordings, animal sounds and all that. My mind was reeling. Was it a drummer just playing solos out in the woods? Was it some sort of Jewelled Antler style rock band / field recording hybrid? Or something else entirely? Stranger yet, the song titles were all in German while the label was British. Intriguing. Better give it a listen... Well, the first track revealed very little. A weird minimal rhythmic workout composed entirely of backwards drums and cymbals. Thhwwp....thhhwwwwip...sssssssp.... Very cool, but was that the gist of it? After a minute or so of that, the record exploded into something entirely unexpected -- a crushing metal riff, with weird syncopated drumming, a sort of chunky Pantera / Prong meets the Fucking Champs vibe, with whispered vocals. Then it shifted gears again and entered into a super melodic Carcass-style death metal breakdown with howled black metal vocals before it shifted back to the machine-like opening riff. And then I knew for sure. Record of the Week!
Only later, with some Internet research, did we figure out what the heck was going on. The dedication on the inside to UK death metal crusties Bolt Thrower should have been our first clue, as it turns out that Earl Shilton is a pseudonym for Alex Thomas, former drummer for those very same metalheads. For some unknown reason, Earl Shilton is the name he has assumed for this project "of crushing death metal brutality and total corpse raping necro-blast carnage" as his website puts it. Indeed!
Furthermore, that website tells us that on tour, the band features a quite young, brother and sister rhythm section! Live, Earl steps from behind the kit to handle the guitars and vocals, while the brother plays bass, and the 16 year old sister mans the drums!!! Fuck yeah! This is getting more Record of the Week by the minute, we're thinking! And the music is well worthy too, lest we forget --
"Two Rooms (Full Of Insects)" is a blasting, hyper complex, super varied blast of metallic mayhem. From motorik, ultra-precise technical riffery, to stop/start math-metal complexity, from grooving, galloping death metal fury, to screeching blasting black metal, from eighties Earache style thrash to modern metallic fury, with all sorts of tripped out breakdowns, fucked up production and some really really weird parts, like the breakdown a little more than halfway through the album where everything drops out except for a simple, quietly played hypnotic tom tom rhythm, joined by backwards, super creepy Orcish vocals, and the hissing backwards drumming that started the record, before the whole thing bursts back into motion, in an explosion of grandioise Maiden-ish metal. Whew, so good. And while it may not be the best (or truest) metal record on this list, it certainly is the weirdest. And the coolest. And certainly the one most suited to being Record of the Week!
http://www.aquariusrecords.org/cat/e.html
Vice Magazine Best album of the month
This is one of the best metal records we've received hare at VICE for Christ-only-knows how long. Earl Shilton is really just Alex, who used to play drums in Bolt Thrower, and on Two Rooms he deftly traipses through speed, death, black, sludge, prog, pop, Viking symphonic, and abstract heavy metal. And yes, usually when someone leaps sub-genres so much, it is artsy and annoying. With Earl Shilton however, it displays virtuosity and total mastery of the steed of metaldom. We are literally gagging to see the Earl Shilton live show, which includes Alex's little brother on bass and his 16-year-old sister on drums! That is going to be fucking killer. ERIK LAVOIE. 10 out of 10.
Robotfist
TWO ROOMS (FULL OF INSECTS)
Earl Shilton
Invisible Spies
MEANWHILE, Toah Dynamic's drummer Earl Shilton (not his real name) is here with his first solo effort - a statement of similar musical cross-pollination in a death metal style! Having played with Bolt Thrower and Groop Dogdrill, Earl Shilton now uses
Two Rooms (Full Of Insects) as a platform for his own brand of angular piledriver riffing and bleak musical voyaging.
Whilst European Kanone and Nur Arbeit Und Kein Spa( set the tone for this album, with their crushing heavy black riffs played and looped again and again. Added to this, however, is Earl's razor sharp drumming and odd tempo changes, with elastic guitar lines and shapes creating a musical textbook that references more than just black metallers such as Nile and The Electro Hippies. Schlachthaus Rock, with its arpeggio counter-riffs and busy drumming, is more akin to the post rock defined by Rodan, whilst Entschuldigen Sie Das Ganze Blut's fast/slow contractions and taut visceral harmonies come across like black metal, sure, had it been invented by a classically trained Fugazi.
Meanwhile, Tu Es has a swinging percussive feel more associated with bossa or Brazilian tropicalia, whilst Zwei Rame comes across like a mix of Slayer covering Autechre with an avant-garde No Wave troupe. Rtsel, however, is the result of trying to cross breed Tortoise's Millions Now Living Will Never Die masterpiece with a speed guitar assault. More over - it works: assaulting your senses into engaging rather than submitting. Kicks for the head rather than to it.
Closing track, the eleven and a half-minute, Entscheidungskampf, is a black mappa mundi that's reminiscent of more than just Deicide. Riffs worthy of soundtracking a tooth extraction, minor soundscapes, eerie melodies, cheesy rock chord progressions, free jazz, classical organ and acoustic guitar all work their way into one mightily tempestuous, rollercoaster vision. A Fanfare For The Common Man for music addicts.
Whilst easier to get a grip on than Toah Dynamic, Two Rooms (Full Of Insects) is a similarly wide-referencing musical journey. No, it's not something you could whistle at the bus stop (Mozart wouldn't be able to) but it is a collection that's intriguing, layered and beguiling, bearing repeated listens whilst also providing visceral thrills. Again, you're left wondering quite what it is that Earl Shilton actually listens to...
http://www.robotfist.com/protofist/030408/030408_34.html
Washington City Paper 2003 top ten
The years best, in alphabetical order by artist:
Two Rooms (Full of Insects), Earl Shilton. Sick of being exBolt Thrower man Alex Thomas, the Brit drummer rechristened himself after a Leicestershire village and recorded the entirety of this ever-shifting, mostly instrumental gem of revisionist thrash all by himself. Sans Thomas indecipherable growl, Two Rooms would be perfect for occasional headbangers: Without the genre trappings, this is nothing but one killer riff after another.
http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/special/arts2003/print.html
Anglo plugging (Press Release)
Rocker - Alter Ego
Officially the biggest record and most loony record around. Now including the full remix package. Eric Prydz, Erol Alkan, Blackstrobe, Plastic Man with a killer grime remix, Alter Ego's own dub version and a superb rock remix by Invisible Spies wonder kid Earl Shilton. It's this summer's biggest dancefloor record, since being picked up by Skint Records at the beginning of the summer it's gone into orbit. Alter Ego's 'Rocker' first appeared at the beginning of the year in very limited quantities and has rapidly become one of the year's anthems. The record to emerge out of this year's Sonar Festival and Glastonbury, where it was played everywhere. 2manyDJs, Jeff Mills, Audio Bullys, Weatherall, Black Strobe, Mylo and Tiga have been on the record all year. After taking Ibiza by storm where the likes of Eric Morillo, P Diddy, Tim Deluxe, Darren Emerson and Pete Tong were hammering it. Even Richard Ashcroft is a fan. A diverse gang if ever there was one but it goes to show the broad appeal of this record. Rocker has been ripping up radio shows such as Annie Mac, Pete Tong (essential new tune), Jo Wiley, Steve Lamaq, Mary Ann Hobbs and Zane Lowe on Radio 1. Indeed Zane will be using 'Rocker' as the sound-bed for his forthcoming radio show TV advertisements on the BBC. James Hyman and Eddy Temple Morris at XFM have been on it for months Skint have been harassed by the biggest in the business when it came to the remixes of this mighty tune. Eric Prydz follows up his massive UK number 1 single with what is surely a contender for remix of the year. Trashy superstar Erol Alkan's epic re-edit is a brutal sonic assault and has already been destroying dancefloors everywhere it goes. Rephlex's rising star Plastic Man lays down a killer Grime re-rub, while Blackstrobe's awesome remix that featured on the tune's original release makes a welcome return. Not to miss out on the action Alter Ego give us their own special dub version. Before heavy metal drummer Earl Shilton who has worked with the likes of Bolt Thrower and Badly Drawn Boy rounds proceedings off with a thrashing rock re-take. Something quite literally for everyone. There will be a fantastic promo to accompany the release. More news on that soon. Bring on the synths and take cover!! Tracklisting: Rocker (Original) Rocker (Eric Prydz mix) 3. Rocker (Erol Alkans Deaf Disco Re-edit) Rocker (Plastic Man Remix) Rocker (Alter Ego Dub) Rocker (Earl Shilton Rock Remix)
Press release posted on 29/10/04 ANGLO PLUGGING
http://www.angloplugging.co.uk/viewPressRelease.cfm?pressReleaseID=913