Mastered and contributed to by Vox Dei's Kevin Barrans (therimin warrior), La Hoya Sunset's The Well-Groomed Employee EP is a songwriting project that seeps ambience and emotion, while still focusing on creating discernable and functional melodies. The Everett, Washington trio's voice and percussion layers are striking and artful, yet still accessible and rather soothing oftentimes. A sublime guitar carries most of the melody, but not in a pervasive manner -- more as a matter of fact -- and will explode into a wall of distortion when appropriate. There are loose comparisons to be made to Sunny Day, Vox Dei, Pedro, and Five Eight. (www.lahoyasunset.com)
