The worst thing about new features is having to find an extra 250 words for an intro that maybe two people will actually read. Shall I revert to the cardinal sin of all writing endeavours by talking about the weather? What about Oasis? The lesser evil, very much debatable.
Yes, the summer has been a good one so far. Not least because it’s felt like one despite bucket hats and T-shirts paying homage to the Gallagher brothers visible on every other street corner in the U.K.. And while there will be a little bit more on that later this week (stay tuned… or not), for the third time, it’s been a pleasure compiling the newest releases in the world of the extended play.
While the previous two Out of Step features were predominately in the stratosphere of all things riffs, our third edition is a little more of an assortment, splicing together releases that may land in the orbits of both our Albums Quarterly and Weirdo Rippers columns. It’s just the way it’s worked out on this occasion, but it underlines what we’ve always tried to achieve: nowhere is too far.
With a swathe of new artists along with a veteran or two, these past two months have been another solid turnout for the EP and, as always, we hope there’s something new that makes your world a little brighter.
Alaskan Tapes: Songs from My Living Room
We All Speak In Poems
While somewhat late to the party on Alaskan Tapes’ latest cut, Songs from My Living Room (it was released in January), it underlines the truth of such endeavours from this end: too much music, very few hours…
The Toronto producer’s latest release comprises of a series of beautiful piano-led compositions where homespun warmth overrides the wintry field recordings that faintly reveal themselves below the mix.
Alaskan Tapes is one of the few experimentalists who has maintained the ability to reach wider audiences in comparison with his fellow DIY purveyors, and it’s due to his ability to continuously shift the needle with each release, covering endless amounts of new ground. And on Songs from My Living Room, he covers a little bit more.
Listen / Purchase from Bandcamp
Belk + Casing: Liminal Veil
Panurus Productions
Newcastle-based Panurus Productions is all about the extremities of art, and here they bring together two exponents that explore the underground’s most dilapidated corners.
Liminal Veil sees punk kindred spirits Belk and Casing lock horns for 10 minutes of gruesomeness. Recorded by none other than Wayne Adams, it kicks off with Belk dispensing the kind of bludgeoning punk metal designed for killing floors. Then there’s Casing, whose slow-grinding industrial sludge is likened to a movie scene where the protagonist is being hunted down by nefarious forces.
It’s what you’d expect from a label that continuously pushes the boundaries, finding rough diamonds in places most others don’t care to explore. And Belk and Casing are most certainly that.
Listen / Purchase from Bandcamp
Big Break: Exile on Exchange Street
Wrong Speed Records
I won’t lie, I do love a bit of northern, and Big Break returns to provide some of it on Exile on Exchange Street – the follow-up release to 2023’s Angel’s Piss (Christ, has it been that long?).
The Sheffield four-piece dispense four short, sharp doses of unadulterated chug-a-rolla that just lines-up everything in your head. Having a shit day? This makes it better, with shouty lo-fi spit fires with the embers of proto-punk warming nicely through the mix.
Those who like their Total Control, CIVIC and anything else that subtly nods to the mighty Radio Birdman… in the U.K., few do it better than Big Break and Exile on Exchange Street is the latest example.
Listen / Purchase from Bandcamp
Bimbo: Bimbo à Deux
Self-released
In many ways it feels like Throwing Muses’ year – Moonlight Concessions, one of the best albums they’ve written, all told. There’s plenty more gnarl to go around though, and Marquette, Michigan’s Bimbo are here to provide it.
Bimbo consists of Gretchen and Dawson McKenzie who release their second EP Bimbo à Deux, which follows last year’s Bimbology. As their titles suggest, it’s fun first here, but there’s a nice, twisted weirdness to the their clamour. Think of a grimy Jon Spencer Blues Explosion vibe mashed together with, you guessed it, Throwing Muses!
Bimbo à Deux isn’t pastiche though, and judging by the themes which dominate their songs, that much is certain. With no doubt more to come, we’ll be at the front of the queue waiting for it.
Listen / Purchase from Bandcamp
Burial: Coma Fields / Imaginary Festival
Hyperdub
Will Bevan has never been so literal in song titles than he is with Burial’s latest release. Continuing his decade-plus odyssey immersed in the long-form, Coma Fields / Imaginary Festival sees the London producer guiding us through new paths of his unique, foggy sound world.
And it’s a sound world of fragments and futurism where light swallows the darkness. A concept Bevan has focused on for years, but with constant refinements, his compositions grow deeper with emotional resonance as the years roll on.
On Coma Fields / Imaginary Festival, Bevan provides compositions of catharsis, washing over and taking you to a place that offers peace and respite, if only just for a little while.
Listen / Purchase from Bandcamp
Dark Scrotuum: Rotting Dream
Cruel Nature Records
Experimentalist, Dark Scrotuum, wins the prize for two things: the worst moniker and the most disturbing sound. The racket they make on Rotting Dream, everything its title suggests.
Rotting Dream is the definitive headphones listens. A surge of haemorrhaging noise that sparks senses you thought you never had, Dark Scrotuum rips apart noise and black metal like some rabbit beast succeeding in hunting its prey.
It’s brutal stuff, and while harsh noise can sometimes be reductive, it’s the quiet/ loud dynamics that make Rotting Dream stand out as the excellent outlier from such genres. It’s confrontational but not through sheer noise – its contrasts, hammering home the fact that it really is the hope that kills you.
Listen / Purchase from Bandcamp
Flower-Corsano Duo, Jonathan Raisin & Nick Branton @ House Show, Liverpool – 17/07/2025
Ex Agent: New Assumptions
Self-released
Undoubtedly, Bristol five-piece, Ex Agent, are a band that will be reaching more ears in the not-too-distant future. Their debut EP, New Assumptions, a hot house of ideas carefully picked from deep record collections.
While many claimed Black Country, New Road were something akin to saviours of post-rock and post-hardcore, honestly, I’m still yet to hear it. Ex Agent might be though, splicing together Slint and June of 44 homage with jazz inflections that don’t feel forced or cloaked in soulless London privilege. There’s emotional intensity here as if they actually mean it.
New Assumptions sees Ex Agent sinking their fangs in from the get-go, taking you on an exploration full of wonderful hooks and hairpin turns. The only logical thing to do is listen to this on a loop.
Listen / Purchase from Bandcamp
Mr. Industry: Dancing to My Own Internal Rhythm
Community Music
Clocking in at over 35 minutes, while Mr. Industry bill their first release as an EP, perhaps debatable on the front, it’s no harm no foul. (All told, it makes this latest edition of Out of Step stronger!)
On Dancing to My Own Internal Rhythm, the Melbourne four-piece add American flavour with a local brand of indie-rock. Taking their queues from fellow Melbournite’s, CIVIC, they stretch the sound out with a new vibrant energy, not dissimilar to Adelaide’s Twine.
There’s Sonic Youth homage, too. Like Sonic Nurse, this is alt-rock for snaking through the Great Ocean Road. Very confident songs indeed, and based on the strength of Dancing to My Own Internal Rhythm, this is a band that will be playing to bigger audiences across Australia sooner rather than later.
Listen / Purchase from Bandcamp
Pete Power: Pete Power
Kool Tone
Even in one’s local miluea, there are always gems to unearth, and from Merseyside, the latest is Pete Power who returns with his excellent self-titled EP.
Formerly of indie-rockers, Playhouse, Power continues to illuminate the spirit of the ’90s underground, mixing Sebadoh-inspired lo-fi with splendid melodies and large-hearted hooks that have you ferreting around your record collection for Big Star records.
From the first note, Power’s songs are vibrant, immediate, and sink deeper into the groove the more time spent with them. It’s one of the finest releases out of Liverpool this year, and, truth be told, I can’t see much else bettering it. Just listen for yourself.
Listen / Purchase from Bandcamp
Tharn: Seek
Crossfade Sounds
Originally hailing from London and now residing in Portland, Oregon, producer, Sam Ashton, unveils his new project, Tharn, with the first taster, Seek.
Also known for his work under the Fortresses moniker, the Tharn alias sees the producer going deep. Seek’s cover art, indicative of the soundscapes on offer here, with a brilliantly executed set of tracks that could have been conceived from the vaults of aModern Love session.
There are echoes of Kompakt, too. Those lush, gliding fogscapes that sink deep into the mind and take you to new places. The only issue with Seek? That there isn’t more of it, and I for one can’t wait for what comes next.
Listen / Purchase from Bandcamp
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[…] as Daniels has with Keep Your Eyes on the Road. 13 songs at 17 minutes, alongside Merseyside’s Pete Power, the Brooklyn-based songwriter has delivered some of the best representations of lo-fi this […]