LP of the Day: Mother Earth, 'The People Tree,' 1993, Acid Jazz Records

Flashes of synth, flourishes of Hammond B-3 organ, bursts of wah-wah inflected guitars, shimmering male/female vocal harmonies, filled with phat funky bass lines, and spacey grooves all around! This is Mother Earth!

Not to be confused with the blues/psychedelic rock of 1960s/70s band Mother Earth, or the modern 90s rock of Canadians I Mother Earth, this Mother Earth emerged in the early 1990s from the fertile U.K. acid jazz scene, which infused modern beats and elements of electronica with a late 60s/early 70s funk, psychedelic, and soul-jazz sensibility. A similar sound was also emerging on the other side of the Pond, most notably from artists such as Lenny Kravitz, albeit with a more rock-oriented foundation.

I first came across Mother Earth and their LP, ‘The People Tree,’ in the fall of 1993 while browsing a Tower Records in Niigata City, Japan. As I spent 3 years in Japan in the early 90s, it was partially through this particular Tower Records that I retained a connection to what was going on in the outside music world, namely, in the U.S. and the U.K. I first experienced grunge in the aisles of that same Tower Records, and I remember hearing a particular tune over the Tower P.A. sometime in 1992 that sounded like I imagined Nirvana might sound if I actually knew what Nirvana sounded like. And indeed, I later realized that I had heard ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ for the first time over the P.A. that fateful day. I digress!

Anywhoo, back to the fall of ’93. Wandering through the new releases section of the store, I was taken by the simple but evocative CD cover of this ‘People Tree’ LP. Maybe it was my autumnal mood kicking in, as fall is my favorite season and fall in Niigata is a particularly beautiful time that kind of reminded me of my childhood in New England. The album cover was a photograph of the band perched under a tree, surrounded by forest-like greenery that was not particularly lush, more of a dried out green-brown flora that suggested to me that fall was in the air. A pre-Instagram filmy haze pervaded the shot, and the 4 band members were decked out in retro garb that evoked an earlier time, perhaps somewhere around 1968-1972.  The words ‘Acid Jazz’ framed the bottom of the tree trunk.

I was sold. I picked up the CD on spec much like one might buy a bottle of wine based upon the design and copy on the label. As a vinyl record junkie and collector, believe me, if I bought every record on spec based upon the album art, I would be broke-ass. Hold on…wait…errr…let me just say, ‘Don’t try this at home!’ 

I played the shit outta that disc over the next year or so! My friend Taro, who owned a certain legendary and somewhat notorious little loungy nightlife spot called Soul Love, was a fellow People Tree admirer, and we spent many nights there listening to the various tracks on the LP, which he had actually snagged on VINYL!

So, 20 years later, where are they now? Well, Tower Records, for one, has long since closed its doors, a prominent casualty of the collapse of the music industry as we once knew it. Taro, I hear he closed down Soul Love sometime in the 2000s, I wonder if we'll meet again someday, perhaps back in Niigata? As for Mother Earth, they cut 3 LPs from the early to mid-90s (not including a live one), developed a modest following in Europe and Asia (relatively ‘Big in Japan,’ or at least, Tokyo and Osaka, I suspect), and then disbanded in 1996. I believe they reunited in the 2^nd half of the 2000s, and if you search YouTube, their new millennium incarnation has several live cuts of previously released material from the aforementioned 3 albums up there.

I’ve chosen the entire LP ‘The People Tree,’ rather than a more customary Track of the Day, as the focus of this post. Sure I have my favorite cuts. Depending upon my mood, there are many. But what’s more evocative to me is a listen to the entire LP, the way it takes me back to a place and space in time, whether that be my childhood and adolescence in New England, my time in Japan, a more esoteric, abstract nostalgia to an even earlier time prior to my birth, or if I’m simply immersed in music such as this which inspires me vocally, lyrically, and instrumentally as a musician and music lover. The flow and vibe and groove of the album are infectious. Its moodiness is rooted in a bright and upbeat, yet sentimental and introspective dynamic that should be completely antithetical, yet isn’t.

My fave tracks vary by each listen, but based upon my latest revisitation of this gem, I’d say they are:

Apple Green

Institution Man

Jesse

The People Tree

Saturation 70

Stardust Bubblegum

Time of the Future

And the epic ‘Trip Down Brian Lane,’ which closes out the LP