Favorite album #7 of the 90s comes from a Canadian band that didn’t get its just due.  I thought that the early 90s were actually a cool time to be a music fan and there was a little bit of something for everyone, including a vast array of talented bands springing up in the rock/metal world that were a bit more alternative, some a bit more funky, and some quite a bit darker.  I Mother Earth ticked a number of those boxes; unfortunately, timing is often everything and with the band releasing debut album Dig during the height of grunge their brand of alternative/psychedelic hard rock was kicked to the curb as the labels were concentrating on finding the next Nirvana or Pearl Jam.  A major, major shame as Dig is an outstanding release with a wide, expansive sound; everything from Latin percussive rhythms, psychedelic/bluesy jamming, hard rock, funk, space rock, and all things in between.

I’ve pretty much gone into depth on this album via my first Under The Radar post (click HERE ) but there’s a few things I want to call out on this particular one, especially where this release fit in with the 90s as a whole- the musicality of this disc is what I missed from a good chunk of the decade.  There is so much free spirited, vast, brave, and challenging playing on this disc that takes elements from past artists of the previous three decades, mixed it all together, and still created something fresh and new.  This, to me, was a gigantic, progressive leap forward into a promising era of where music could go-  there is some killer playing going on here from the entire band, plus the tones and sonics on display via the mix were fantastic.  Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed a lot of the music of the era but what eventually was deemed as popular as the decade progressed had done a bit of a 180 degree turn away from where my interests lie.  Somewhere, experimental music of this design was shoved deep in those cobwebbed corners of the attic in favor of something much much different.

Ah man, what are ya gonna do…  I tell you what, here’s what you’re gonna do:  find this disc, go straight to track #8 “No One”, and TURN IT UP.  Dig the explosiveness of the percussive attack, the expansive guitar sounds, and the relentless and driven headbanging funk.  Next, to cool off that nasty sweat you’ve broken into, segue into the next track “Undone” and focus on the mellow psychedelia and groove on Edwin’s passive vocal and the bluesy tones of guitarist Jag Tanna.  As you get swept away in the lush, kaleidoscope of sound bop on over to track twelve and the spacey, monolithic build of “The Universe In You” and turn off the lights for the last four minutes of Floydian vibe, Hendrix bluesiness, Deep Purple heaviness, and Christian Tanna’s crashing Latin rhythms.  Oh yeah, and don’t forget to have the shuffle button on because you still have to bounce over to the massive crunch of “Rain Will Fall”, Doorsy raga/psych of “So Gently We Go”, the bouncy funk of “Not Quite Sonic”, and the rest.  And once you are done?  Start the disc from track one and play through again…  and again… and again…