Eternals
Eternals
[DeSoto]
Rating: 8.4
It's been twenty-five years since George Clinton asked us to give up
the funk. But the fact that even Mr. Funkadelic himself couldn't
track down the funk these days is testament to the funk's elusive
nature. Indeed, trying to track down the funk can be not only difficult,
but dangerous as well; it's been known to lead to a variety of maladies,
including bad hair and cocaine addiction. Take Rick James: a prime
example of what happens when an unprepared individual attempts to
tame the funk.
So, it's a good thing the Eternals haven't tried to track down the
funk. If they did, the funk may be lost forever, depriving future
generations of hours of mindless ass-shaking. On their self-titled
debut LP, these guys manage to pull out the kind of syrupy, deep
grooves that could trap anything, even the wily funk, like quicksand.
Furthermore, I'm not sure if the funk could make it past the Eternals
without being severely warped and mangled. Catchy and keen as the funk
may be, it is fairly predictable, relying on a few tried and true (in
some cases, trite and true) rhythmic techniques, most of which involve
bass and drums, or heavily wah'd guitars. So, instead of repackaging
the old style, the Eternals created some of the thickest, deepest, and
most beautifully fucked-up grooves imaginable as their new funk
prototype.
Insane keyboards and samplers grind like dentist drills under the
powerful baritone tremolo and fractured sing-speaking of frontman
Damon Locks. But given the nature of his voice, and the similarly
dramatic and concise bent of his lyrics, it's often hard to say
whether or not his delivery is intended to be taken so seriously.
The real beauty of this record is the way the Eternals seamlessly
combine so many diverse elements into such a stylistically unique
mix. Traces of dub, rock, jazz, reggae, and, yes, the funk, are all
present, but thankfully lack the cartoonish exaggerations
implemented by other recent bands as a way to garner acclaim.
Instead of accomplishing this with a few samples, distorted guitars,
a horn section, and a twinge of wah, the Eternals combine the melodic
and rhythmic sensibilities of these genres to create a perfectly
integrated sound, and then flavor it with their own warped sense of
song structure.
If there's any criticism that can be levied against the Eternals, it's
the fact that, while their music is definitely diverse, the songs on
this album tend not to stray far from mid-tempo. But when a band has
come so close to perfecting a given style, would it really be all that
advantageous for them to try something radically different? Never
forget what happened to Sunny Day Real Estate when they tried to
become Rush.
Yes, a lot has happened to the funk in the past 25 years, as evidenced
by the fact that the closest thing to a funk band you'll see on MTV
these days is the Red Hot Chili Peppers. A sharp contrast to the
Eternals, who eschew the trappings of traditional funk to create the
rich, organic grooves the genre could only have dreamed of achieving
in 1975.
-Matt LeMay