325 Top Ten EPs

I seem to gravitate toward and appreciate the EP format more than full lengths.  As a general statement, I like material from groups on EPs the most, I think it hides their best deep cuts and gives more experimental freedom than working to keep a concept or theme for a full length album.  Here's my list of top ten (in no particular order) EPs that I've collected.  Starting it off with Future Sound of London who I knew from Papua New Guinea, and picked this EP up based on its creating title.  The music was nothing like what I expected and I much preferred this to the more straightforward techno I assumed they were lumped together with.  The whole EP is a fantastic 20 minute journey through several different styles and I love every minute of it.  It is because of this EP that I continue my exploration of everything FSOL releases, there are just so many hidden gems in their catalog.  Next is Daughter, who I came across by my wife around 2013 or so.  She said she loved their music while we were watching Marie Antoinette one evening (though they have nothing to do with that film).  I bought this 10" and thought it was so well done, and gave some umph to the indie folk sound.  Even though I hear this track everywhere from soundtracks to commercials to intermission music on NPR, I still love it.  The album version of this track seems to have lost some of the impact, it felt almost tamed down.  Then His Name Is Alive again, yes because they are just that great.  This is the best 12" from them, hands down.  Its the simple folk singalong style of this track that endears them most to me.  

Next is a two for one, as I felt like I won the lottery when I came across both of these groups.  First Derniere Volonte, and their French Miltant Pop sound came across like a lightning bolt.  Powerful and catchy, and adding the doomy neo-folk and experimentalism of Novy Svet created some real synergy here.  Novy Svet is my real win here, and I've spent a lot tracking down most of their catalog.  So diverse, so bizarre, and so wonderful.  They are something special.  

Volcano the Bear was so unique, like freak folk and lo-fi and free jazz, and hidden underneath a series of catchy melodies and shimmering beauty.  Honestly, I dialed in the playlist entry here, which though its a great song, I recall rushing through this and not pulling out "Yak Folks Y'Are" which was my entry point to their wonderfully wacky world.  Up next is Stereolab and Nurse With Wound collaborating on the krautrock homage across two EPs.  This was my first real exposure to Stereolab, aside from hearing them on MTV occasionally.  Nurse With Would certainly plied their alchemy with the source material, and the results are just mind melting.  I could've picked any of the collaborations from Crumb Duck or Trippin with the Birds, as they are all equally amazing.

The first time I heard the Twilight Sad I was blown away.  This track in particular comes through like a jet engine over headphones.  The singer's thick accent, the nostalgic lyrics, the crushing wall of noise from the band.  This was certainly too good to last, and they've mellowed in recent years (in my opinion).  Then there is the collaboration of Dalek and Techno Animal, where adding lyrics to this track on their remix made it so much more than it was on its own.  I'd already been a devotee to the JK Broadrick club and was diving in deep on every side project he had, when I came across the deep and esoteric lryics of Dalek that really captured my attention.  I of course grabbed up all the Dalek albums I could fine ("Absence" could have easily made the top LPs list). 

The last two tracks are in stark contrast of each other.  First is Isis (the band) which sadly had to clarify their name posthumously because of the changing political landscape.   Still, they earned their genre defining place in post-metal lore.  From their sludgy blackened beginnings to the sheer bliss of their post-metal endings and every step in-between, they've been in constant play on my turntable.  I do regret that I missed seeing Jesu open for them on a tour in the early 2000's.  Wish I'd gone to that one.  The Red Sea EP was the first I came across back in the day, and I think it was the recognizable David Lynch samples that kept my attention and then the music came and crushed me like a tsunami.  Ending it all with Autechre, because this EP was constantly by my side for high school and college, and many years afterwards.  Its diverse, dark, unparalleled in its day and showed that Autechre was a standout from their peers.  

00:00  Future Sound of London - Smokin Japanese Babe (Far-Out Son of Lung and Ramblings of a Madman)

05:26  Daughter - Youth (The Wild Youth)

09:32  His Name Is Alive - We Hold The Land in Great Esteem (The Dirt Eaters)

13:25  Derniere Volonte + Novy Svet - Mon Mercenaire (split 7")

17:55  Volcano The Bear - My Favourite Lungs (My Favourite Lungs)

24:33  Stereolab + Nurse With Wound - Exploding Head Movie (Crumb Duck)

29:18  The Twilight Sad - But When She Left, Gone was the Glow (s/t EP)

33:11  Dalek + Techno Animal - Classical Homicide (Remix) (Classical Homicide / Megaton)

37:24  Isis (the band) - Red Sea (Red Sea)

44:29  Autechre - Bcdtmx (Basscadet)

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photo credit: I love novelty named beers