the Eternals

In some ways, the Eternals are a band operating in the wrong era. Their multi-genre stew-- full of funk, dub, jazz, hip-hop, and post-punk-- always takes me back to the late 1990s. That was a time when many cutting-edge bands were so obsessed with rhythms from outside rock's mainstream, their classic forms and brand-new mutations, that it was hard to even sell them in some quarters as "rock." At the time, this rhythmic-centric synthesis seemed to some of us like the genre's future, but the moment, unfortunately, passed quickly. Few current indie bands are paying tribute to Sun Ra or King Tubby, blending various strains of Afro-Caribbean rhythm culture and cutting the mix with rock's bite.

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Of course, the Eternals aren't some post-rock analog to the current wave of lo-fi 90s nostalgia. They come directly out of the tradition, and over the course of four albums released in the last decade, they've kept its stylistically promiscuous vibe alive. But in any era, even one crowded with likeminded bands, they would be unique. Mostly that's down to vocalist Damon Locks and his wild changeups. Many of those late-90s bands peddled instrumentals. The rest had singers who (being way charitable here) seriously lacked for charisma. That's not a charge you could ever seriously aim at Locks, whose fearless vocal acrobatics, sometimes straining against his skill set, are what set him apart from most indie singers, then or now.

Punk sneer, cosmic P-Funk rapping, cracked crooning, wizened reggae mysticism: Locks rarely sings the same way twice on Approaching the Energy Field. His dub-style chatting and "mystic space voice" chanting have more hair-raising conviction than his more conventional (and technically just-okay) singing, just as the Eternals' music gets better the more it strays from homages to familiar genres and into weird combinations. But as on the previous albums, its Locks' abundance of personality and weird way with a hook that elevates the Eternals beyond an experiment in making new rhythms out of old, a band with both a deep love of post-funk history and the chops to scramble that history into new shapes. [Pitchfork, March 2011]