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Earthsuit
Kaleidoscope Superior (2000)
Judging solely from their debut album, it is somewhat debatable whether New Orleans' Earthsuit are someone's cunning plan to provide a Christian alternative to the secular flavour of the month (circa the turn of the millenium), or an actual creative force. Kaleidoscope Superior is a somewhat uncomfortable conglomeration of reggae, synthpop, funk and Lord knows what else. Keyboardist Paul Meany's occasional rap spotlights recall Rage Against The Machine, while 'Wheel' even comes across as a tribute to the Talking Heads' funk era, with the guitar solo echoing the melody of 'Crosseyed And Painless' and the chorus echoing the lyrics of 'Slippery People'. The grab bag of styles is a little hit and miss, but relatively entertaining and fast moving. Unfortunately, Earthsuit suffer from the Straitjacketedly Warm And Fuzzy Christian Music Syndrome; they are far more effective when creating catchy pop tunes such as 'Whitehorse' and 'Do You Enjoy The Distortion?' than when they are concocting abrasiveness in 'Wheel' and 'Against The Grain'. Everything does comes together in the single and lead off track 'One Time', where Earthsuit channel their funky instincts, pop sensibilities and aggressive aspirations in a manner that the rest of Kaleidoscope Superior fails to capture adequately. I've seen Earthsuit play live three times and 'Schizophreniac' and 'Osmosis Land' in particular, were far more punchy and effective in a live setting, capturing an anthemic nature that was obviously intended. Earthsuit's New Zealand debut was the first time they had played before a large crowd, and Meany got carried away with some unsightly pelvic thrusts (Jon of Lower Hutt opines that the keyboardist offers a lot of funk, but introduces a dirty way of playing the keyboard). To their credit, Earthsuit's lyrics make an effort to be thoughtful and innovative, offering a somewhat mystical perspective of God, although they're sometimes truncated incomprehensibly: "You're like boa constriction/don't lube the friction". Earthsuit's sophomore project will reveal more about their true calibre, but standing alone Kaleidoscope Superior is an entertaining but somewhat frustrating debut.
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