To confuse the Indiana-based trio named The Eternals for the Chicago-based trio with the same name would be downright hilarious. The former is a pasty southern gospel group while the latter specializes in making some of experimental hip-hop’s most intricate grooves. If either one’s fans confused a live gig and showed up for the wrong band, jaws would hit the floor.
But the real difference is that the three from Chicago are actually pushing the evolution of their genre – whatever it really is. Their new album, Heavy International, sophisticatedly combines just about every African/American sound of the last half century into a how-to for the future.
Heavy International is like the coolest history class you could imagine. Professors Eternals teach lessons in reggae, funk, dub, hip-hop, jazz, afrobeat, and soul in an electronic classroom with no walls. The first track, "This Mix Is So Bizarre" says it all. Sandpaper brass blares over a rumbling beat while singer Damon Locks wails into an affected mic and a swirling keyboard churns up the groove. "Crime" is eight minutes of funk-infused jazz, rich with background noises that progresses into smooth chaos. The album then immediately jumps into the electronic hip-hop "The Origin Of The Heatray" with its strange snake-charming and chant effects.
No matter what, you’ll hear sounds on this album that you’ve never heard before. Maybe never even thought possible. You might expect to hear "Scorpion" on three different continents. "M.O.A.B." is a magnetizing chill-house duet with a seductive dub stride. These, of course, follow eleven tracks that are the 2007 versions of the past few decades. Heavy International a place to find out about the past, present, and future at the same time.
The most important facet of The Eternals’ music is not that it merely takes from so many places, but actually helps to redefine them. While some people will always just picture Miles Davis when they think of jazz, most of us realize that genres are far deeper and that they take many forms as it grows over the years. Heavy International is inventive because it develops a variety of origins all at once. So many elements in Heavy International get stirred together, it’s sometimes hard pinpoint where influences end and freestyle takes over.
