[03.03] A few years ago, Earlimart was a much different band. The noisy rave-ups and full-throated male-female vocals of early singles such as "Heaven" had critics comparing them to X, Sonic Youth, and 20 Minute Loop. After the original lineup disbanded, founder Aaron Espinoza loaded up on canned goods and tranquilizers, shut himself into his secret lab, and only now has resurfaced.

Okay, so the lab isn't entirely secret—Espinoza converted Earlimart's Los Angeles-area studio, the Ship, into a community center of sorts, forming a collective with the members of Irving, Pine Marten and Panty Lions. As for Espinoza himself, his time in the lab was fruitful. He recorded The Avenues EP, all by his lonesome, and his production is opulent, layered, and paced like a champion racehorse. Each track segues into the next, pieced together with well-chosen pedal effects and sustained hums. The overdubs are plentiful but tasteful, and mixed to give each element its own discrete place in space.

Groundswelling strings and plodding piano kick off a circular pattern for the opener "Color Bars," with heavily processed kicks and snares that would make Dave Fridmann smile. A few minutes later, an instrumental waltz floats by with a similar piano part, but this time the plod is flanked by bird sounds, a martial snare, and a pair of samples—one is a gong that may or may not be lifted from "Hell's Bells," and the other a flourish that could be from Neil Finn's "Sinner." The mood through the EP's 13 minutes (yep, it's over before you realize it) is one of fog, foot-dragging and lethargy. But it's an exquisite, beautiful lethargy—a California canyon as shot through a hazy lens. "Susan's Husband's Gunshop" is the only track of the five to move from dirge to mid-tempo, but Espinoza's whispery vocals give even the faster-paced number a sad, slow sheen.

Espinoza employs that breathy, sedated sigh throughout the EP, making him sound like a happier Elliott Smith. This sigh, and his taste for major-to-minor melodies, contributes to my major complaint about EP—Earlimart sounds like it's trying to be Grandaddy. Replace those circular string arrangements with analog synths, and "Color Bars" is very close to "He's Simple, He's Dumb, He's the Pilot."

The Avenues EP is a teaser for the new Earlimart full-length, Everyone Down Here, which is slated to appear in late April. Ariana Murray, Earlimart's original bassist and other vocalist, has rejoined, which is encouraging. I hope that the return to a full lineup keeps Espinoza from indulging a Jason Lytle fixation. He's certainly gifted as a producer and arranger. Much as The Avenues EP is pretty, I miss the noisy throb that propelled the first Earlimart albums. Hopefully Everyone Down Here will be somewhere in between. —Kevin Seal