Earlimart - 'Everyone Down Here' (Palm Pictures)
4/5
By: Toby L
Twelve tracks weighing in at a modest thirty-two minutes, but not at all does it feel as if anything is missing.
But then, you suspect, head-honcho of Earlimart - Aaron Espinoza - probably knows a thing or two about quality-control. Having formed one of California's foremost underground studio-spaces, The Ship (from which 'The Ship Collective' is formed, consisting of various Grandaddy members, Jason Lytle and Jim Fairchild of which collaborate extensively on this release) and his own musical-guise which forms the basis of this third record, Espinoza is even rated by high local flyers such as The Breeders and Elliot Smith... And with good cause.
'Everyone Down Here' is a concise series of fully-realised ideas, and bleeping, spiralling sound-bites, awash with dreamy Californian sea-breeze and a musical-aptitude far extensive beyond its collated spinning-time.
Aaron is obviously a stickler - every track is packed with rich innovation and calming astuteness, and layered with a lo-fi production that masterfully captures all and loses nothing. The one repetitious factor that gels the array of material so fervently is actually Espinoza's stoned, whispered vocal, something that provides much magic and intrigue to such brooding psychedelia-pop as the cyclic sleepiness of 'We're So Happy...' or the perky buoyancy to the up-tempo surf-rock of 'Burning The Cow'.
Lyrically, the work is ridden with subtlety and unassuming humour ('We Drink On The Job'), whilst thick dashings of piano-led contemplativeness ('The Movies'), and punky alertness and raging ferocity provides a diligent smattering of contextual peaks and perks of the full-length ('Lost At Sea'). Otherwise, there are curious blips and burps of peculiarity, as contained within a nameless (non-)instrumental (track five) and Webb Brothers-evoking steeliness within 'Hospital'. No matter the plight, Earlimart undertake their dreary blues out on a series of instruments and win every time.
The encounter may be brief, but when an artistic point can be fulfilled in as tightly and satisfyingly a space as 'Everyone Down Here', then, with baited breath, we await his next offering with deservedly high anticipation - and only beg that it'll last even longer.
Artists in this article: Earlimart
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