a r t i s t : Earzumba
t i t l e : Simulando Un Refugio
d a t e : 2005
l a b e l : RRRecords
g e n r e : Avantgarde
r l s. d a t e : Nov/2007
t r a c k s : 11
b i t r a t e : VBRkbps
s i z e : 51,8 MB
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Like my Bat Mitzvah (and Seth CohenÆs), Simulando un Refugio
ends with ôThatÆs What Friends Are For.ö Burt Bacharach is
about as unexpected on an album by a founding member of
Reynols as he is natural at BÆnai Mitzvot. Beyond Reynols
being shorthand for another Burt (Reynolds), how did Bacharach
get here?
Before Burt arrives, Earzumba (Christian Dergarabedian) indeed
spends most of this project simulating a refuge. In the grainy
cover photo, a woman (post-Soviet Russian, perhaps?) in
incongruous, blindingly-white high heels stands with her back
to us in a birch forest. It reflects the tone of the album, a
tale of apparent peace told by an unreliable narrator.
Constructed as a continuous mix, Simulando un Refugio tells
the type of horrifying story that is certain to resolve in a
happy ending for its protagonists. The song titles suggest
what may be happening at each juncture, the characters lost,
enslaved, working, building, free, celebrating.
Dergarabedian uses a wide palette of sounds in assembling his
sonic pictures. Shimmering, minor-key theremin effects form
the basis of the album and create a panoramic effect, like the
pieces are seen through a zoom lens. Over this canvas, animals
continually growl and caw, and prisoners rattle chains that
morph into bells. The first half sounds generally sinister,
but the mood begins to lighten on ôWords in the Book,ö a
catchy guitar melody. The penultimate track, ôSimulating a
Refuge,ö seems to contain the voices of aliens offering
redemption.
The alien voices escalate, and then the party really gets
started, for ôCelebrating Together,ö Simulando un RefugioÆs
last track, is a screamingly scary, nightmare-carnivalesque
mashup of dozens of songs played over top of one another. The
particular combination of songs must contribute to the shade
produced, but one can imagine a genre of double-digit mashups,
a paint set all in different hues of brown. Here, the songs
weave in and out of each other so that the piece pulsates and
trembles. Snippets of unintelligible voices are reversed, like
the characters in the Red Room in Twin Peaks. At times they
are simultaneously present, a choir. The differences in length
provide a natural structure, a crescendo and decrescendo. The
threshold for recognition occurs when about four tracks
remain; showtunes disassociate themselves from the mix, then
the sounds of guitar and disco, then just Burt and his fake
oboe remain.
In the end, the cheese stands alone.
By Josie Clowney
enjoi!
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01-Fanaticos De Si Mismos [01:45]
02-Devotos Del Hi-Fi [02:04]
03-Esperando En Una Lagrima [05:00]
04-Con Sus Heroes Famosos [03:44]
05-Dicen Que Dijeron [03:02]
06-Abatidos Por La Abundancia [01:45]
07-Palabras En El Libro [02:29]
08-Ahora Sin Cuerpo [02:45]
09-Los Que Tiran Del Carro [01:04]
10-Simulando Un Refugio [08:38]
11-Celebran Iguales [04:18]
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36:34 min