EP Round-Up: The Garden, Flying Lotus & Frost Children/Haru Nemuri

2024 is wrapping up and as I start working on year-end content we need to do a few quick round-ups to make sure we're prepared. I've reviewed a few dozen EPs so far this year and I plan on counting down the 10 best in a few weeks. But first, we need to take a look at a few projects with a very strong chance of landing somewhere on the list. Let's do it.

Six Desperate Ballads EP - The Garden

After being pretty mixed on California weirdo-punk duo The Garden for a while, I was quite fond of their last record. Combined with some solid entries into their solo projects and the ever-expanding Garden-adjacent universe and I had no reason to think this EP wouldn't be a riot. Even as I was a little mixed on the lead single "Filthy Rabbit Hole" I've warmed up on it especially with how propulsive of a start it is for this EP. I also loved the other single, the short but incredibly memorable "Ballad" which serves as the EPs wonderful closer. 

In between there are highlights to be found. "Man Of The People" hits on the band's signature combo of frenetic pacing with bright soaring instrumentation making for a shimmering and unpredictable punky opus played out in just a few minutes. While I'm not quite as fond of the chillier "The Nightmare" I do think it does a great job at showing off the ways the band can work without their signature sun-kissed chaos. I'm a lot less fond of the sloppiness shown off on a song like "Hell Hole" which is brooding and indulgent and sounds deliberately messy but in a way that just kind of makes it hard to listen to. It reminds me of some of the more purposefully jagged stuff earlier in The Garden's career that helped me take so long to get into them properly. 

Six Desperate Ballads does feel like a bit of a slip back into some of The Garden's messier instincts with their ability to channel them into good songs hitting mixed notes. While a couple of tracks here remind me of why the band is truly unique, others show off what a lack of structure can do to disrupt the best parts of their style. The resulting mixed bag is worth hearing for its highlights, but I don't see it winning over many new fans. 6/10

Spirit Box EP - Flying Lotus

In the 5 years since Flying Lotus' last studio album the only non-soundtrack material we've gotten from him is an admittedly solid and underrated collaborative EP with Smoke DZA last year. So fittingly he would take a random weekday to surprise drop his new EP Spirit Box. It was teased by a pair of singles that I'm a little bit split on. The album closes with the utterly excellent "Ingo Swann" which feels like a vintage Flying Lotus instrumental that I haven't been able to turn off since I first heard it. Those same psychedelic dance vibes creep into the opening track "Ajhussi" which after a quiet start eventually gets the record's groovy poise underway. 

"Garmonbozia" is a song I've gone back and forth on after initially liking tt. FlyLo himself sings the vocals and while he does well not to stray too far from his comfort zone what results is an incredibly reserved sound. Some of the wandering synth lines are certainly playful but the track never really feels like it develops into anything beyond its core. "Let Me Cook" features Dawn Richard, who seems to be popping up everywhere this year. Even in a performance whose lyrical pitfalls are abundant she still sounds impressively smooth and spins a decent hook into something more memorable than it has any right to be. 

This is a pretty solid outing from Flying Lotus all things considered. While it may lack some of the extremely high-reaching moments of prior projects closer to his heyday, there's still a lot of life and flavor to these instrumentals. It's easy to imagine how much better the EP could have been if a few of these tracks hit their full potential, but for the most part it's a solid set regardless and there's no good reason to hold that against it. 7/10

Soul Kiss EP - Frost Children & Haru Nemuri

Last year after being darlings of the hyperpop underground for ages, Frost Children finally made something I really liked with their gentler second album of 2023 Hearth Room. So far in 2024 they followed it up with a great single in "Shake It Like A" alongside Danny Brown and a memorable contribution to Porter Robinson's new album. Now they're teaming up with Haru Nemuri, whose music I've loved on and off for years in an unexpected but extremely promising crossover. The potential was on display with the lead single "Daijoubou Desu" which may not contain the catchiest refrains I've ever heard from either artist but the bassline is irresistible and the wild composition of the song feels like being held hostage in the best way. 

The best banger of the deep cuts is "Supernatural" which features an absolutely grinding beat and completely irresistible vocals from Haru that have been stuck in my head for weeks. The way it transforms into an entirely new-sounding song in the second half is awesome I can't so anything but dance for the entire time this is on. The album also ends on a surprise with "Get Well Soon" a surprisingly sentimental shift which some dreary shoegazey walls of backing guitars. As much of a change of pace as it is from the start the EP gets off to, both artists feel equally well-equipped to handle it. 

Soul Kiss may go down as a relatively inessential piece in the catalog of both Frost Children and Haru Nemuri, but for a short side project it packs a surprising amount of both punch and variety into these songs. The blending of styles between everyone involved goes almost shockingly well and what results is a series of tracks that reminds me why, at their best, both Frost Children and Haru Nemuri are capable of being great artists. 7.5/10