Just like our latest AQ feature, the EPs have slowly but surely been piling up over the last couple of months.
It’s been said many times, but while the EP seems slightly neglected in the wider circles of music journalism both in print and online, with a younger generation increasingly showing their own neglect in the direction of the LP, the extended play could well be the sweet spot moving forward in the new music sphere.
Whether one agrees with that or not, it’s clear that EPs have become far more prominent throughout these particularly pages, with our second edition of Out of Step boasting another series of fine new releases.
Sometimes with new features it’s all about trial and error and thinking back several years to when we first pushed our first edition of Weirdo Rippers of the gates, OoS has that same feeling. Like all our bi-monthly features, we hope this one grows and reaches new audiences in a bid to expand our readership and, subsequently, our community.
And on the subject of new, it’s time to wrap your ears around some of the latest EPs that have landed in our orbit over the last two months.
Water Damage Interview: “I think about the albums as a continuous thread”
Added Dimensions: Uppers
Self-released
Added Dimensions is the brainchild of songwriter, Sarah Everton, and on Uppers, the project’s latest release that follows last year’s debut self-titled LP, the Richmond, Virginia band dispenses rip and tear alt-rock that purrs like an engine careering down the highway.
With chiming guitars pitted against fuzz-laden grooves, there’s everything from Sonic Youth reverence to the spiky post-punk of Drahla and even some slacker echoes of current Glasgow favourites, Dragged Up.
As their name suggests, though, Added Dimension offer their own tints and colours, and on Uppers, the band produces one of those sugar rushes that every record collection is bolstered by.
Bagdad: They Don’t Know
Rite Field Records
Every feature seems to unearth another prospect from Poland, and this one’s no different, this time coming in the way of Wrocław’s Bagdad, who release their debut EP, They Don’t Know.
The three-piece revel in the ’90s with everything from grunge, slacker, slowcore and PJ Harvey-inspired west country blues making for something that is like an electric chug that guides you through the day. The brogue of Cobain combined with the melodies of Malkmus on Somewhere, Nowhere, indicative of a band with solid record collections and lust to wear hearts on sleeves.
They Don’t Know may reach for the past, but with a younger generation slowly moving away from the LP, Bagdad provide a snapshot for curious ears to reach for the past; namely the glory of the ’90s underground.
Ora Cogan: Bury Me
Prism Tongue
Over the last 12 years, Nanaimo, BC based Ora Cogan has taken folk music to brooding places, and following her 2023 LP, Formless, Bury Me showcases the songwriter’s range with four songs that provide a clear picture of her career so far.
With appearances from cellist Lori Goldston (Nirvana), violinist Ester Thunander and harpist Elisa Thorn, there’s everything from psych (the title track), cinematic fantasy folk (Lucile), chiming nightscapes (The North) and rustic noise across uninhabited space (Hunting the Moon), making this a kind of dream-state release that you don’t want to end.
With a swathe of albums and EPs already under her belt, for those new to Cogan’s world, Bury Me is as good a place to start as any.
KAPUT Interview: “We tend to treat each song like a painting”
Docents: Shadowboxing
Ten Tremors
New York’s Docents got out of the gates quickly with their 2023 debut, Figure Study, and they continue to maraud down the home stretch with their latest release, the Shadowboxing EP.
If June of 44 decided morph into a punk band, then they could have ended up producing the kind of glorious racket that Docents do here. Frenetic post-hardcore with hairpin turns that send your mind into sensory overload.
Smashing together noise-rock and post-hardcore, Docents are the kind of band to take both genres forward, and while Figure Sturdy got them on the map, Shadowboxing will see them remain there.
Missouri Executive Order 44 / Unsurp Synapse: Split Seven Inch
The Ghost Is Clear Records
Ever wonder what “heavy Mormon bike helmet hardcore” sounds like? Me neither, but after listening to Kansas City, MO outfit Missouri Executive Order 44, they well and truly fit the bill.
Teaming up with hardcore legends, Usurp Synapse, both bands rhino charge into the maelstrom on this split release. MEO 44, conjuring up the kind of hard-nosed sonics that sound like David Yow being attacked by the members of Dillinger Escape Plan, while Usurp Synapse take hardcore from grimy basements to the comfort of one’s home for a bit of backyard circle pit action.
While hardcore may not be for everyone, at six tracks at just under 10 minutes, it’s the kind of electric jolt everyone needs from time to time, and together, Missouri Executive Order 44 and Unsurp Synapse provide it with no let up.
Moin: Belly Up
AD 93
Following last year’s mind-bending You Never End, Moin returns with an EP that covers more new ground in their quest to basically dismantle post-hardcore.
While Belly Up continues down a similar path to You Never Know, it’s arguably the more inventive of the two releases. Take I’m Really Flagging (or I Trusted You), a song of free-jazz freak-outs colliding with left-field samples; or X.U.Y. – dub-infused echoes on a bed of meandering post-hardcore that radiates with a deep hypnotic effect.
And that’s what Belly Up is. Psych catharsis where the end point is reached through the tall grass. Moin, continuing to break boundaries in the kind of batshit crazy ways as Lilacs & Champagne. AI has no chance of outgunning Moin, and Belly Up is the latest example of that.
Taxidermy: Let Go
Pink Cotton Candy Records
Following their debut EP Coin, Danish post-punks, Taxidermy, land an even bigger haymaker with their follow-up, Let Go.
This isn’t post-punk by numbers. Led by Osvald Reinhold, Taxidermy get inventive, occupying a similar space that their fellow countrymen Iceage made their own for the best part of a decade.
Whilst similar in approach, Taxidermy add their own flavours, and with quiet/ loud dynamics inspired by Slint (Impending, You Are Here Now), not only do they does Let Go see the band taking a huge leap from their debut, they inject new life into a genre that’s started to become worn down by pastiche. No such issue here.
Wishy: Planet Popstar
Winspear
As an ardent Indiana Pacers fan and perhaps the only Liverpool-based ’Cer, admittedly, the eyes light up when a band hails from there. Particularly when they’re good, and Wishy are just that.
Like Docents, the Indianapolis five-piece follow on from an excellent debut album (last year’s Triple Seven, which was lauded by all the usual suspects), and their Planet Popstar EP continues their ascent. Melding together a woodsy dream-pop aesthetic with shoegaze inflections, this is all summer swoon and clever songcraft that turns frowns upside down.
Wishy has all the momentum, and if they continue to write songs like the ones on Planet Popstar, their world will only grow bigger.
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4 replies on “Out of Step #2”
“Heavy Mormon bike helmet hardcore” yep I’ll haven’t some of that please brother.
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