Artist's View: Ethan Lee McCarthy
November 17, 2023
Since I started Slowpoke I have been thinking about ways to incorporate other voices - specifically those of artists - into my newsletters. What I have come up with is what you are looking at today. As always, I want to present recommendations for music to check out, but this new idea involves going a bit deeper and finding out more about the person making the recommendations.
For my first foray into this format, I have chosen Ethan Lee McCarthy to help me highlight some new music - alongside baring his soul. He is my friend, so I feel comfortable with him - enough so that if I stumble with this new idea I know he won’t mind too much. At the bottom of this newsletter, you can click to listen to a conversation that Ethan and I had about his art and career. Although being my friend and confidante is a very important role, he is also a musician, a visual artist, a community builder, a booking agent and a promoter. A man with many hats.
If you like heavy music, you may well already be familiar with some of his output via projects such as Primitive Man and Vermin Womb. Perhaps you’ve had a chance to engage with his solo work that he releases under Many Blessings and Spiritual Poison. Spiritual Poison has a new album dropping today, so consider this your sign to go and check out Incorporeal.
In my experience, the different facets of Ethan’s creativity are reflected across his artistic output - both audio and visual. As Dylan Walker (Full of Hell) - a friend and collaborator of Ethan’s - says, “His work crosses mediums and accomplishes the difficult task of maintaining an identifiable aesthetic. I think it takes a special gift to be able to express the same message or vibe across different mediums like that.” Dylan does concede though that that vibe is “usually oppressively sad and dismal.”
The most prominent of Ethan’s projects is Primitive Man - a three piece band where he is joined by Joe Linden on drums and Jon Campos on bass. Now in their eleventh year as a band, Primitive Man has allowed the intrepid trio to travel all over the world with their crushing blend of sludge and noise - picking up notable fans along the way. “Primitive Man flattens me with its unforgiving and absolute brutality,” Justin Broadrick (Godflesh, Jesu etc) told me. Elsewhere Ethan is one third of Vermin Womb, and 100% of psychedelic/ambient project Spiritual Poison, and its uglier, more aggressive sister, Many Blessings. Evidently, his ideas cannot be contained within just one vessel, nor within one singular genre.
Ethan is also a visual artist, often working in black and white (when colour is used, it pops with a macabre quality), crafting an ominous portfolio of disembodied souls, delirious nightmare visions, and the occasional scathing social commentary. He has put his artistic touch on artwork for bands such as Body Void, Knoll, Fister and more - as well as his own projects. His eye for detail is finely tuned, and he has been known to labour to a degree over and above what’s expected of him to finesse a project just so.
Although he is well known for his monstrously bleak output, Ethan also has a softness and vulnerability to him that makes him a reliable shoulder to lean on for fellow artists. Alongside his own creative pursuits, Ethan works for booking agency, Heavy Talent, ensuring that other underground artists reach their audiences. We talk in the audio segment below about the gulf between art and business and how it effects his outlook, but it’s safe to say that Ethan’s passionate and art-first approach has endeared him to many other musicians over the years.
The burden of someone who carries their emotions so close to the surface is that they’re prone to spilling out at even a gentle bump or minor laceration. We talk in the audio below about the benefits and drawbacks of this, but one obvious plus point is that it clearly aids connection with other artists. Fellow sonic adventurer Lane Shi describes him, somewhat poetically, as “a giant who walks on sand, as heavy as the most magnificent rock on earth, as light as the most illuminating feather passing us by.”
Given his specific position within the world of heavy music, I was curious about which music releases had resonated with him recently. Here’s what he chose…
Khanate - To Be Cruel (Sacred Bones)
As I wrote about some weeks back, Khanate dropped a surprise album after many, many years of silence. “Khanate is such an important band to me and I just never thought that they would do another record,” Ethan says of their out-of-the-blue return, “I haven’t had a feeling like that in such a long time about a band, since I discovered them, they’ve been my band. I bought every CD they put out, with special packaging… I don’t know, I don’t know that I’ll ever feel that way again.”
Despite his excitement and the influence it’s had on his own work (“a top five influence for me!”) he admits he didn’t immediately listen to the new album, opting to wait until he could listen in alone, in the comfort of his own home “It’s the opposite of music that you’d want to listen to with someone else there.”
For the uninitiated, Khanate’s MO is slow, torturous droning doom. It’s an acquired taste, but one that has resonated intensely with fans of disgustingly heavy music. Ethan says: “For me, first I absorb it as a piece of art, then it holds an emotional place for me… and then you don’t put it on again unless you’re feeling a real specific way.”
Listen here.
Corrupted - Mushikeras (Self release?)
Another surprise release, another disgustingly heavy song, another new favourite of Ethan’s. Mysterious Japanese doom band Corrupted dropped a new album recently - one track, 28 minutes long - featuring an ominous, ambient, jazz type intro that segues seamlessly into a harrowing, hefty slab of sludge. Stylistically very different to Khanate, Corrupted also specialise in taking their sweet time - and delivering an almighty blow once they truly arrive.
Ethan says: “I feel like Khanate is just so filthy in how it feels, and Corrupted is the saddest moment of your entire life - so I got what I wanted from both releases! They’re perfect pieces of music. I hope I can write something as good one day.” Listen here.
Slowdive - everything is alive (Dead Oceans)
“Sick fuckin’ record!” Ethan says of the new Slowdive - their first in a little over six years. Although his enthusiasm is evident, he agonises about describing the sound of the new album, hesitant to compare them to another band (eventually - reluctantly - arriving at Blonde Redhead). This still sounds very much like a Slowdive record, just made by musicians that have had a little of their youthful optimism and warmest fuzzy feelings knocked out of them along the way.
Listen here.
Drab Majesty - An Object In Motion (Dais Records)
Slowdive’s Rachel Goswell provides the perfect segue to talk about the new Drab Majesty album, as she features on the opening track. Confessing that their previous release (2019’s Modern Mirror) didn’t quite land with him, repeated listens of An Object In Motion actually made him appreciate its predecessor more. “This is just so good, I’m excited to see what Drab Majesty becomes. I think they’re going to write some sick shit in the years to come. I just can’t wait. I hope there’s another record coming, this just didn’t feel like enough!”
For now, we have these four tracks, one of which - the 15 minute long album closer, Yield To Force - gives the clearest indication that Drab Majesty are walking their own path, finding their own expansive, mind-bending way through the dark pop world.
If you’d like to hear more from Ethan then hit play on the audio section below where we discuss Ethan’s approach to creating, the decade-long slog of achievement, the pitfalls of being an emotional artist, and more!
Thank you - as ever for being here! And thank you to Ethan for being so open with me and supportive of my newsletter.
~Becky
Photos of Ethan are by Nicola Huffstickler.
SO MUCH LOVE TO ETHAN ♥️