Currently writing a feature about the life and times of Dylan Carlson and Earth, and I’ve been hitting some of those old Sub Pop records hard. Everyone always goes on about 2, which is basically Earth in their most distilled form, but an album I’m really now only discovering in earnest, despite having owned it for a few years now, is Phase 3: Thrones And Dominions, which veers between drone heaviness and some really beautiful ambient moments. It’s strange, isn’t it, how Earth’s most abstract albums are also their most celebrated.

While it’s hard to get around all the mythology - Kurt, heroin, guns - it’s fascinating to uncover how Earth’s music has always been built on firm conceptual groundings and an interest in exploring sound, not merely creating it. I recently interviewed Dylan and he talked about how the new stuff was all about uncovering the drone sounds inherent in country and blues. Hex and Hibernaculum are as good as anything. It’s great he’s still making music.