Top 10 Best EPs of 2010

Every year, it seems, the number of end of the year lists grows; all across the blogosphere you can find music fans offering their thoughts on the best and worst albums from the preceding twelve (or, increasingly, eleven) months. Also increasing on a yearly basis are the number of EPs released. We think that format, short though it may be, deserves its time in the sun.

Once upon a time, an EP (Extended Player) was defined either as a release consisting of four or fewer songs, or as one containing under twenty-five minutes of music. That definition is a relic, though; only two entries on our list abide by that rule. Instead, the EP has come to represent a different type of release – distinguished from its long-playing counterpart not simply in length but also in content. More and more, artists are using EPs to explore new sonic territory, push boundaries, pursue collaborations, and toy with variations on old standards.

Some EPs—like the Dreamland EP and An Iris Cassette—consist of long, continuous tracks. Others, from artists like Die Antwoord and Zola Jesus, serve as introductions to rising stars. Still more EPs find established artists pushing at the edges of the box they’ve been placed in, none more than Sufjan Steven’s All Delighted People EP.

Half of the EPs that got the most love from us this past year came from artists who released full-lengths in the same time period. The rest served as stop-gaps, filling the hole in our heart that yearned for new Dirty Projectors. There were hundreds of shorties released in 2010, as the format continues to experience a resurgence in popularity and importance, and we tried to listen to as many as possible. Check out the bite-sized releases we spun the most below, and tell us about any we might have missed.

The Best Day - To All My Friends, Blood Makes the Blade Holy - The Atmosphere EP’s by DJ OP8

Conceived as a vinyl insert for a tour photography book, To All My Friends, Blood Makes The Blade Holy is everything we have come to expect from an Atmosphere EP. There’s a huge history of intertestamental EPs by Slug and Ant, most notably the myriad of Sad Clown disks released while on tour, and this double dose is a wonderful follow up to 2008’s Lemons. It continues the distanced storytelling from that album, but does include Slug’s hallmarked tragicomic detail. Most notable is on “The Number None,” where a girl who stalls at third base makes a play for home with a best friend. Love it or deride it as your dad’s hip-hop, Atmosphere continues to bring grown man music to the masses. If you consider yourself a friend of Slug and Ant, you’ll find a toast raised, baby bottle clinking against whisky, an acknowledgement that “I used to be a typical winner/Living off the gratuity from deliverin your dinner/Cause as a kid I didn’t consider/That I would get the opportunity to be a full-time spitter.” Yes, this sure is grown man, guidance councilor rap and I’m still taking notes. 
- Ian Doreian

Freddie Gibbs – Oil Money f. Chuck Inglish, Chip Tha Ripper by diptnyc

Freddie Gibbs’ ascension past blog prospect is a testament to good taste and hard work. By standing on the shoulders of giants - namely Thug Life-era 2pac, MC Eiht and Scarface - Gibbs has found a way to not only revitalize gangsta rap, but announce himself as the rightful heir to the throne. To him, the streets are what they always have been: a place where dreams go to die and money is supposed to be taken. At times, his tales of dope and domination can be text book, but thankfully they are guided by a flow that is so raw and technically unrepentant that you would rather give him a mean head nod than a sharp critique. In all honesty, if he keeps making songs as good “National Anthem (Fuck The World),” I think the dragon named G-Unit might be down for good. Win-win.
- Colin McLaughlin

Fish Paste - Die Antwoord by AurelLaGazelle

This is, laak, the Best EP I’ve Ever Heard. The Zef-siders thrive in the shorter format, taking just enough of your fokken time to discuss the finer details of Ninja-hood, invoke the religious authority of Eddie Murphy, clarify what your mother smells like and point out that they do not, in fact, need you. There’s not enough Yolandi Visser – the brains of the operation – but even burdened with an entirely pointless remix, 5 is still few enough for the ravenous synth drops to wear out the satin seat of your Dark Side boxers.
- Andrew Iliff

Zola Jesus - Night by souterraintransmissions

In the time since we fell for Zola Jesus and her shadowed The Spoils, Nika Roza Danilova earned a double major in French and philosophy, moved to LA from WI, and turned 21. She also produced two EPs that individually could have earned slots on our best of list. Taken collectively, the progression from Stridulum to Valusia reveals an artist who is carefully crafting her music with no intention of falling back into old habits. Perhaps it comes from working with Xiu Xiu (tour support and playing in Former Ghosts), or perhaps it’s from recording with a producer for the first time that has Zola Jesus exploring a continued complexity. As noticed from cover art, the two discs thematically and sonically develop from darkness into gloaming. The screams and echoed vocals on Stridulum’s “Night” give way to raw piano on “Light Stick,” the closing song on Valusia. Regardless of your tastes, similar to how Danilova described the cover art of Stridulum, I find that the two EPs “[feel] extremely satisfying, but at the same time completely terrifying. The sensation of having all of your orifices being covered up by syrup is really intense, but so worth it.” Amen.
- Ian Doreian

All Tiny Creatures - An Iris (Feat Justin Vernon) by AMIM

Side A of All Tiny Creatures’ two-track, 28-minute gem begins like you’ve walked into a room mid-conversation.  Suddenly, there’s a pulse, momentum, an understated drive from out of the thin air.  Built around the group’s single “An Iris” and featuring vocals from melophobe favorite Justin Vernon of Bon Iver, Side A ebbs and flows in wisps and blocks.  Sometimes it’s more obviously structured, sometimes it devolves into a seemingly endless vamp, but throughout the track we are treated to an eminently listenable work that can be enjoyed as a centerpiece to a conversation or background to another task.

Side B takes us to a related elsewhere.  The melodic line harkens back to an early Konami game, something similar to the Top Gun theme played through an old NES.  Stretched guitar lines and synthesized arpeggiation are probably responsible here, and the sound is at once nostalgic and futuristic.  Side B sits atop the track “Cargo Maps,” in which the earlier arpeggios alter slightly to chime, bubble, and creak their way through another wildly enjoyable piece.  There’s something industrial—or production line-y—to the track, with one element added to another and then altered and improved upon as we wind our way to the track’s gentle end.  A gradual, ambient soundscape perfectly closes out the EP.
- Ari Sommer

Moonface - Marimba And Shit-Drums - sample by Nerve

Best known for his work with Wolf Parade and Sunset Rubdown, Spencer Krug is one of the most brilliant songwriters we have. His musical constructions, particularly when unleashed outside of the context of 4/4 rhythms and steady drumbeats, push the art of music to its weird and quirky borders. Nowhere does he do that better than on his Moonface project. The Dreamland EP is an experiment in experimentation, subtitled about as honestly as you’ll find; marimbas and shit drums are indeed the building blocks for Krug on the twenty minute long continuous track that makes up this release. A hammered marimba line is joined by another - just a split-second out of step; the two competing lines pump away like racehorses struggling to keep pace with one another. Almost imperceptibly, the dueling marimbas inch towards one another, until a single staccato line plunks away. Layers of Krug’s voice carry the melody, as the marimba-induced trance is punctured by drum machines. The juxtaposition of crystal clear bells and synthetic drums is poignant without trying to be, and Krug does just what he sings at the end of the track, echoing the phrase, “I am making missing sounds with my mouth. Earlier, the lyrics ring even truer: “I ventured into a dreamland…”
- Chris Barth

03 Bruk Out (Buraka Som Sistema Mix) by acid stag

Hyperactive and thumping, the Lazers Never Die EP continues Diplo and Switch’s dominance over mainstream electro-dubstep-dancehall-reggae, or whatever fill-in-the-blank genre under which you want to file this music. If you’re less concerned with labels—and you should be, in the increasingly amalgamated world proffered by Wesley Pentz and co—go ahead and file it under awesome. And while you’re at it, scratch the Diplo and Switch thing and just call it Major Lazer; if Lazers Never Die confirms anything, it’s Diplo’s statement that this project has evolved beyond its original conception. On this five-track EP, different stars steal the spotlight on each tune. M.I.A. kicks it off with a track that bests nearly every song on her 2010 long player, Maya. Thom Yorke closes it with a blessed out remix of “Jump Up” that manages to meld spastic shouting with soothing synths. The album’s zenith, though, comes on a less high-profile contribution—a frenetic and addictive remix of “Bruk Out” by kuduro specialists Buraka Som Sistema. No matter what flavor of hype you’re looking for, there’s a good chance you’ll find it here; you’d be hard pressed to find a more diverse but consistent half hour of music from the past twelve months.
- Chris Barth

The Tallest Man On Earth-Little River by Talking Stuff

This reassuringly titled album is a five-track haunter.  Featuring Kristian Matsson’s pleasantly pinched, at-the-break vocals and a simply amplified acoustic guitar, each song is a descriptive, emotional freeze-frame.  Natural imagery recurs throughout: Track 1: clouds, cliffs, and the Little River of the title; Track 2: “you’re the light over me,” and the EP’s title features here as well; Track 3: “In the forest, someone’s whispering to a tree now”; Track 4: “Sometimes I’m just a tangle in this trampled wheat”; Track 5: “Grew up playing in the valley so wild, that’s why you’re so beautiful now.” And much, much more.  Taken together, Matsson brings us on an autumn’s walk, a spring’s stroll, soundtracked with songs of regret and longing, songs of yearning, songs of quiet happiness and understanding.  Through and through, it’s a treat for the ears that rewards repeated listenings a whole season long.
- Ari Sommer

On and Ever Onward by grantith

Returning to this little treasure several months after first falling for it, I finally surrendered to the melodramatic narrative: from the deft, disorienting verisimilitude of “Ocean” - the best depiction of continental-shelf depth that three women’s voices can possibly convey - to the steadily building anticipation of Bjork’s entrance as Mother Whale (probably the only time you’ll hear that term used as a compliment this year), to the tragic love affair duet between Longstreth and Godmundsdottir that concludes this little pocket musical.

So what if it’s sentimental? It’s a perfect EP - any longer and it would risk becoming tiresome, but long enough to let the two animating oddballs stretch themselves, and each other. It would be too much to hope for anything further from such a fortuitous pairing, unless it be a sonata for humpback and balafon, but the fit is a good one - that tense vocal crunch between Amber and Angel (could those names get any better?) recalls nothing in “pop” music so much as the rigorous formalism of Bjork’s own Medulla, while Longstreth’s loosey-goosey vocal stylings (a music-crit friend describes his voice as moving like a knuckleball) is sweet match for Bjork’s willful, foot-stampingly impetuous voice. Whale saving: still earnestly kitsch, but perfectly soundtracked.
- Andrew Iliff

The Owl And The Tanager by elafini

For most of the year, a dark cloud covered the land of Sufjan Stevens. It began with him abandoning the 50 States project (a “joke,” he said), grew thicker with every passing BQE review, and seemed poised to burst after he acted like his creative candle had burned out during interviews. Fans were skittish until Sufjan finally decided to put an end to this madness by dropping a gem of an EP, literally out of nowhere. 

What resides in its 59 hardly-an-EP-like minutes is a man straddling the line between his former self and what he wants to become. The rolling banjos and succinct architecture of Illinois are replaced by a wandering spirit, as concerned with the long and dynamic movements of classical music ("All Delighted People") as free-form guitar freakouts ("Djohariah"). Even his lyrics have changed, mirroring the shift in style: delicate when necessary, but often heady and abstract.

Here, Sufjan gives us change, not comfort food, not a breakdown, but the beginnings of a breakthrough that finds its full realization on The Age of Adz. Some find it obtuse, but for others, including myself, it is a triumph; a shot in the dark that manages to hit its mark. Few know how to summon beauty like Sufjan; and somehow with this EP, he discovers the secrets to raising it from places where it shouldn’t be, in sentences that shouldn’t have meaning to anyone outside of himself, and I’ll gladly sit through a little complexity to get to that.
- Colin McLaughlin

0 comments thus far ...

leave us a comment:

name

email (we will never publish this)

url

comment

remember my personal information

notify me of follow-up comments

melophobe sponsors

Connect To melophobe

1. melophobe
2. concert reviews
3. fifty-word reviews
4. articles
5. links
6.