Earthless

From the Ages (Tee Pee)

Instrumental comet Earthless got it right from conception – ride the riff until it becomes a black hole. San Diego triangle Isaiah Mitchell, Mike Eginton, and Rocket From the Crypt propulsionist Mario Rubalcaba hurtle third studio LP and first since 2007 into the void atop a gloriously earthen pachyderm crunch on four tracks, three of which could constitute their own sides of vinyl. Fourteen-minute starters “Violence of the Red Sea” and “Uluru Rock” contrast their velocities, the former’s mammoth rhythm tangled in Mitchell’s psychedelic lariat, while the latter’s frying desert ambience shreds no less fiendish, its drone and groan of ship tanker scrape as hair-raising as its immolating whirlpool. At five minutes, “Equus October” truncates abruptly before the half-hour title cut whips a Promethean riff equal to Edgar Winter’s “Frankenstein” into a roaring vortex. No survivors. (Sun., 10:15pm, Levitation Tent)

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This article appears in May 2 • 2014.

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San Francisco native Raoul Hernandez crossed the border into Texas on July 2, 1992, and began writing about music for the Chronicle that fall, debuting with an album review of Keith Richards’ Main Offender. By virtue of local show previews – first “Recommendeds,” now calendar picks – his writing’s appeared in almost every issue since 1993.