Short Reviews [Earthling Society - 2011 - "The Green Manalishi"]

Every few months vinyl enthusiasts with a dedicated affection for psychedelic music are served some treats by a small indie label called Fruits de Mer Records. Their forte is to release cover versions of well known and obscure psychedelic music from yesteryear on 7-inch vinyl singles, in a limited edition of a few hundred copies. EARTHLING SOCIETY has taken on this task with a certain amount of bravado. In style, they remind me of a blend of vintage Hawkwind and 80's Australian act The Lime Spiders: energetic rock with distinct psychedelic edges and space-inspired flurries. The Green Manalishi opens as a 70's-oriented psychedelic excursion however, but when the vocal parts are over and done with an elongated raunchy instrumental escapade follows that should please most fans of harder hitting, compact sounding psychedelic hard rock. While the cover of Australian band James Taylor Move's B-side And I Heard the Fire Sing kicks off into this territory at once, ending in a sound explosion, after which a nifty pastoral theme consisting of percussion, flute and sitar takes this number till the end. Those who find themselves intrigued by these descriptions better hope that there are a few copies left of this production from the label, as they do sell out rather quickly these days.

Olav M Bjornsen: July 21, 2011