in 1986 not content with all the other malarkey i was involved in

i release a book of poetry and an album of music by the name of earthed

earthed is an ambitious conceit and its a hodgepodge of styles

like i had the idea of doing this book/record thing

but i kept running out of real creative steam and

was sometimes doing it a bit by numbers

yet it does have good stuff too

firstly the book

well its called poetry but its really just a series of

only just slightly connected things

theres some flashes of brilliance and theres some real awkward tripe

some big ideas that i didn’t have the wherewithal then to execute

but always its ultra steve kilbey and all that you’d expect from him

circa 1986

yeah greek myths drugs music religion magic ancient history

all that stuff its dripping in it

and weird little vignettes and that kinda thing

its all mixed up

my life was a dream of pot and travel and music

it was like a living dream and some of that is transferred to the book

some of the book was taken from my previous book the crowd invisible

which only existed as a dozen or so copies photocopied and clipped together

so i nicked the best of that

and the rest i just wrote over a few months

later on in a second edition i added nineveh and the ephemeron

the former a series of poems revolving around the biblical city nineveh

the latter is about Erskine the magician in a series of prose poems

both are quite different from earthed and from each other too

however as i can’t write books and review them with any honesty

i don’t really know know how good  any of it is but at least its trying

trying too hard sometimes but it aint all just nothing

somethings coming through at least i hope so

the music contained on the earthed album is all over the shop

theres everything all of it instrumental

pianos howl sadly

cellos crunch

guitars scream in the surf

orchestras like a toy soldier band

grinding squirming basslines

its good its bad but its not that bad

theres shuddering drug like experiences

pristine little bits

noisy emotional things

some lovely sad melodies too

i did it all myself so there you go

the good and the bad that go along with one geezer

doing everything himself

eventually karmic hit released a version of earthed

with 8 extra tracks with me reading selected poems (gee)

i have a very limited number of these cds available

each one will include a new cd sized piece of art

and a (customized) signature

15 aust dollars including postage to SKP people

25 aust Dollars including postage for non SKP people

only about 25 or so left be quick if you like on the paypal

also coming within next 2 months earthed plus collected other poems

in updated book with a foreword by graham nunn

stay tuned !

love me

 

ADDENDA

mr d rundle had this to say on the matter of earthed

Steve

Read your comments on Earthed on the web (ps I’ve got about 5 different versions of it at least so I don’t need it again) –but can I just say you have way undersold it.

 

The first copy I got of this was an vinyl picked up second hand at rice’s book shop in newcastle – I was sort of just just becoming  a fan of the church, I’d bought and sold Heyday whilst at uni 3 or 4 times to and from the same shop (poor school student) . But it took me a long time (3or4 trade in’s) to realise how much I liked it and then eventually loved it!  After Heyday I’d gone through the back catalogue etc. Earthed came out  whilst I was at uni and I knew about it sort of wanted it but couldn’t get to sydney and didn’t have the pocket money for a new one but then it popped up at rice’s second hand like a gift from the gods probably not that long after it was released. At this stage I’d never seen the Church live (first time was the I think just pre release of starfish tour in Newcastle possibly 87 or 88 another story)

 

Anyway back to Earthed – this record sealed the deal for me – it made me a real fan of Steve Kilbey the musician not the rock star. The flow the sounds the instrumentation on that record just blows me away – it was like nothing else I’d heard before and nothing else I’d heard since. I was even more entrenched in how you played and recorded everything yourself in bedroom studio’s. It’s was so arty it’s what I call ‘Alternative’. It’s a journey from start to finish little excerpts that flow perfectly to the next song all sorts of weird subtle little noises – for me this album changed everything and I began collecting every thing you ever did from then on– began hanging out for the new stuff as soon as I could get it. Began annoying all my mates about how good a musician you were. Sold sealed and delivered that album is historically significant and an absolute masterpiece – it’s one of your best ever in my opinion and one of the most listened to – the only one’s I would have played more often is probably Priest and Remindlessness which are probably my all time favourite albums. I’ve loved everything you’ve ever done but earthed is definitely one of the special ones.

 

Regards

David Rundle