Rapid Fire Reviews: Extending My Plays
Time for a good old EP review. Aside from Clarence Clarity there hasn't been a ton of great EPs coming out recently but some artists I really enjoy have put their names beside short form projects and I'm excited to break them down.
Losing Light EP - The Antlers
Intimidated EP - Kaytranada
I love Kaytranada. His debut album is still a major highlight of electronica in the 2010's and I'm planning on talking about the follow up in a video at some point in the next few weeks. Even some of the one off singles and collaborations he's dropped in the past two years have really connected with me so I was really excited to jump into this EP which features H.E.R, Thundercat and Mach-Hommy of all people. The first track is a warm blend of R&B and house that is easy on the ears, thought I can't help but wish a more capable vocalist than H.E.R was handling the song but that's a mostly minor issue. The next track is a big improvement starting with a killer instrumental that hangs all kinds of spacey synth bloops and cool percussion in the background of this fuzzy beat I just can't get enough of. Thundercat's trademark vocals are still so satisfying and the whole song is just an blur of good vibes and rewarding details. The big surprise on the EP is Mach-Hommy who handles the final tracks and it sort of serves as a continuation of the Haitian themes he explored on his pretty good album earlier this year. Even though he doesn't seem like a rapper who would jump on a salon ready house beat he actually does a fantastic job rapping bilingually and not holding back any punches in the tracks thematic statement. Overall this is a good collection of songs with a refreshing variety across it's short runtime. Kaytranada's ability to craft a variety of sounds and blend his styles into that of his collaborators is still as strong as ever and all this really did was make me more excited for what he might do next. 7.5/10
I seem to still have a lot of love for The Antlers new album Green To Gold from earlier this year even if it seems to have mostly faded from the collective conscious of indie fans. This EP features a handful of reimagined versions of songs from that record including a few of my favorites and it kind of came out of nowhere, or at least I didn't hear anything about it until the day it dropped. The thesis of the EP seems to be to deliver distant and slowed down versions of an already very distant and slow developing album. These tracks generally dial the progressions back to a crawl and the shorter ones don't even make it through half of their source material. While this doesn't necessarily sound exciting in concept I found myself actually enjoying the shift. Anyone who has been around for a while knows that The Antlers are familiar with extracting emotions from long and quiet compositions so to some extent it feels like them returning to a more directly rootsy and folk inspired rendition of their sound during their peak. While I don't see myself necessarily replacing the original songs still in my rotation with these versions, I can also imagine a place of musical mind where these fit in much better and I think in the increasingly large fanbase of emotionally depraved indie and experimental fans they could definitely find a place in the desolation. 7/10
Peace and Offerings EP - Katy B
I was a defender of Katy during her underrated EDM meets pop crossover days so I feel beyond obligated to stick it out, even though it's clear that many others haven't. This EP is the furthest she's moved away from her original sound yet, diving fully into the world of smooth and sensual R&B music. The instrumentals here feature an array of warm and lustful sound palettes and I think they're generally the best thing about the record with some snappy percussion and a surprisingly classic sound. While I can't really find a whole lot to actively complain about other than things like the production on Floating, the change in sound just doesn't really land with me. The songwriting is extremely standard for the genre and while the vocals aren't necessarily impressive I wouldn't call them bad or debilitating for the EP. Most of these songs just go in one ear and out the other for me, a pleasant experience while on but pretty shallow in terms of committing them to memory. She wouldn't be the first artist to score a surprise crossover hit in the genre and i think she's plenty capable of a vocalist and songwriter to one day drop a great project in this style, but Peace and Offerings is just an okay start. 5/10
