Top 10 EPs of 2018 - Ricky Lai

Iglooghost - Clear Tamei

After two lists of negative energy, it’ll be nice to finally shed some light upon musical releases worthy of acclaim, however, I would like to begin feasting on some of the lesser-attended records that come out each year: the extended plays (EP). An EP is like an album’s younger sibling; usually shorter and often wishing for the same attention as its relative. Here are ten that I particularly appreciated.

Feel free to watch the video version of this list here.

#10: Ben Frost – Everything That You Love Will Be Eviscerated
(Mute)

Dark Ambient, Post-Industrial, Drone

Devastating in the frigid manner that defines Ben Frost's soul-crushing drone pieces; the winter excavation that pulls you into gnashing snowstorm weather on By the Throat; the upsetting and harrowing emptiness on Theory of Machines; the visceral and cathartic screeches that bulldoze through you on A U R O R A; this EP redeems Frost's name after the highly underwhelmingly flavourless and meandering 2017 release The Centre Cannot Hold with far more ferocious remixes of tracks from said album (even if many are by producers other than Frost himself), but also a few more original cuts that may perhaps be the first moments in Frost's catalog worthy of being described as genuinely beautiful, blissful. At the same time, it's a poignant beauty – you feel like you're being released, but only after excruciating periods of pain and agony. The implications of that are terrifying.

#9: Prep – Cold Fire

(Jeffrey)

Sophisti-Pop, Funk Pop

I am usually quite apprehensive going into releases that make their influences so clear from the get-go, however, Cold Fire feels both like an earnest tribute to the sophisti-pop of the past and an unmistakably modern release, slick and smart as it is. The London four-piece channel the funk-waved swagger of Kool & The Gang so brazenly like it’s the last day of the summer to have all the fun that you can while there’s still time. Easy-going, sure, but it’s great to hear a band that knows just what they need to do and rock it well.

#8: Dizzee Rascal – Don’t Gas Me

(Dirtee Stank)

UK Hip-Hop, Hip-House, Grime

I am convinced by this point that Dizzee Rascal can rap on just about anything. While this isn’t the first time that he’s done this particularly break-neck style (a special shout to the track featuring both C Cane and P Money), I like that he chose UK garage beats this time around, because it fillls my hip-house heart while Azealia Banks clears her basement.

#7: Lone – Ambivert Tools Vol. 3

(R&S)

Tech House, Hardcore Breaks

For a minute since the creative and fruit punch-esque laser-light show that was Galaxy Garden from 2012, I'd been awaiting a release from Matt Cutler that engulfed me as heartily. An EP with two tracks may not be as fulfilling as a full-length record, but I will take it eagerly as said songs are a tropical and radiant haven, each break-beat crispy and synthesisers rippling like raindrops on a puddle.

#6: Hatchie – Sugar & Spice

(Ivy League)

Dream Pop, Shoegaze

A crest of cuteness and every beaming sparkle of smite to follow. Singer-songwriter Hatchie writes songs like she’s absolutely lovestruck; fallen into a deep daydream like they do in the silly teenage comedy films. I wince at those scenes, thankfully, Hatchie’s blissful cadence and the abyssal sound design leave the songs on this EP totally convincing. Alright, Australia, you can have this one.

#5: Jenny Hval – The Long Sleep

(Sacred Bones)

Art Pop, Progressive Pop, Drone, Jazz

The wonder woman behind the nocturnal, haunting Apocalypse, Girl brings it to the skeletals of songwriting with a droning serenade, but not before an utterly gorgeous flirtation with avant-garde jazz that finds the music feeling truly awake. Only afterwards does ‘the long sleep’ begin; for how at peace with itself it sounds, everything from clicking castanets to Hval’s voice calling from beyond the walls of the dream, surrounded by what seems like the faint recordings of outside nature – at the very least what might emulate that atmosphere. It’s a meditation on art that is supported merely by its own existence, which I find to be meta as fuck, really.

#4: Nubya Garcia – When We Are

(Nyasha)

Spiritual Jazz, Avant-Garde Jazz

I was first made familiar with saxophonist Nubya Garcia’s work via the various artists compilation of nuanced jazz pieces We Out Here. Of all tracks offered here, I was most drawn towards “Once”, Garcia’s track, laced with a spring-loaded energy yet entirely cool-faced in its demeanour. It was strange, then, to further explore her current catalog and be faced with something that was comparatively driven by a steady rhythm, and above all, divinely transcendent. Garcia’s saxophone passages are intensely passionate and come the final few minutes of “Source”, feel like a beautiful escape.

The online stream of this performance comes with two extra tracks; remixes of the main two pieces and astoundingly they achieve this transcendence just as well, simply with a different instrumental approach.

#3: Shygirl – Cruel Practice

(Nuxxe)

Industrial Hip-Hop, UK Bass, Grime, Deconstructed Club

Via a brave and exhilarating new wave of producers willing to be inspired by contemporary club and dance styles of music in twisted ways to express their personal grievances, comes South-East London DJ Shygirl, whose Cruel Practice EP stands as one release that entirely impresses me. The first sound on this release, a repeating, siren-like violin screech that forms the base of the entire opening track, signals the urgent attitude of Blane Muise, triumphant for a narrator who comes close to describing the words, the people, the places that otherwise strike her with complete fear and paranoia, not for any other reason than to destroy them. As such, this is a cathartic EP. Following this is a magnetic potpourri of clattering 2-step beats, grimy bass-lines and of course, Muise’s whispered but assertive rapping. Although the anxious sound of Cruel Practice is ripe for a mucky underground club tucked away in an obscure street in the city, there’s such a venomous air and cadence that suggests another, much darker and grimmer location, that Muise wishes to go to.

#2: Petite Noir – La Maison Noir / The Black House

(Roya)

Art Pop, New Wave, Southern African Music

You may notice a recurring theme in my lists of which I will keenly gravitate towards artists and music that aim to be progressive in sound. Petite Noir – real name Yannick Ilunga – specialised in one of the best executed fusions of styles I’ve heard this year, bringing the spirit of his South African heritage with him into colourful and riotous pits of hip-hop, synthesiser pop, drone and post-punk to create stirring anthems that raise hands for liberation and the fierce breaking down of boundaries. A fitting call for something so eclectic.

#1: Sunareht – Sagas
(Paradoxe Club)

Bérite Club, Progressive Electronic

Stutters like sound sliced into fine ribbons. The mesmerising stammer of Sunareht’s inspiring EP was my first exposure to the developing Bérite Club scene, of which contemporary club styles (see: Baltimore Club, Grime, Afro-House, etc.) are taken to form a unique amalgamation defined usually by erratic percussion and looping. Sagas is a special thing to hear as it is one of many signposts for such an exciting new movement in electronic music, with four spectacular tracks that are totally fierce for their minimal composition. Its closing track, “Saga”, sealed the deal for me. This was beyond words – mainly as it didn’t need to use any to feel like triumphant progress.