Stunned no. 2

Ear & Throat — Viaje (Stunned no. 2) — out of stock —

Is reality a hallucination caused by lack of psychedelica? Ear & Throat dares to answer this question and many more. Like, how many different styles and environments can a single guy effortlessly evoke on his solo record? The answer to that is simple just minutes into David Almeida's journey Viaje, given the Stunned Records treatment here after our three years of hometaping and cdr trading with David. Ever since his first ventures into the Los Angeles noise/metal/hardcore scene nearly 15 years ago, Ear & Throat has been refining his own unique style literally in reclusion. Touchstones of krautrock, early dub, field recording, organ, classical minimalism, and traditional Asian and Indian forms all contribute to the ultimately heady and heavy blend. Early in 2007, David and his wife Erin embarked on a 6-month Winnebago tour to Vancouver BC and back. Viaje is an accumulation of sound either recorded shortly prior to leaving, or on the road itself. With a setup one-third the size of his home studio, David was able to capture whole new connections with wildlife, seasons, and plants on his mobile taping adventure. Most pieces roll out layers of fuzzed/flanged organ drone over which hypnotic hand-percussion rhythms and musty analog tape spools somehow gain footing for perfect opium den groovin. Its a place you don't want to leave soon: smoke-soaked, never rushed, always swirling in blissed-out stasis. Despite being back home in the smoggy bosom of L.A. County, Ear & Throat fully intends to continue traveling to new lands, summoning the fantasies out of the Everyday straight into his 4-track. Limited edition 25 cdrs in secret-script heavy cottonpaper slipsleeves.
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review:

"Ear & Throat’s ‘Viaje’ slightly-surpasses an hour of mellow listening in the lazy minimalism of a trans-generational Terry Riley. As found in the recent work of White Rainbow, Riley’s mid-period excursions into mysticism with keyboard retention are recalled in the “Thank Yous” of the opening track, a shining piece of crackling warmth, breathy synth jabs, and a dark-hued anti-melody of Orientalist flute and strings, throbbing listlessly beneath the swells of electronic static. Emerging from this prelude, “Sandstorm” begins with a proper keyboard riff which weaves in a simple pattern from front to back, a grab-bag of hand percussion toys plodding along beside in weak deference to the bold fidelity of the electronic device. The excitable “Madavee” uses overblown colors to obscure the programming of its Middle Eastern dance, a fluted melody staggering about in a fevered daze. Like Riley’s ‘Persian Surgery Dervishes’, “Bedframe” mixes high-toned drone elements – deep, weaving basslines, fine-grained gain, chirpy shaker tempos – with markedly-improvised organ leads, implying sobriety with its clean frequency and reserved parameters. Nearing the end of the disc, twin tracks “Percolate” and “Feeding Babies” evoke that beloved reference of Labradford, with their dim, half-awake subtlety, a whirring tension of sustained organ notes, and most notably, the centrality of guitar in each. The first uses the slackness of strings to prattle early morning condensation over psychedelic keyboard runs, an ambiguous downer to the second’s melancholy return to bed: clearing the air of the synthesized doom, the organ plays a surefooted song of dull-bright contrast, with just the minor accompaniment of distorted fuzz for effect and refusal of a dawning Nü Age." — Animal Psi