Top EPs of 2016

Death Cab for Yeezy

This is about as good as mashups get and is the best one I’ve heard in a long long time - combining Death Cab for Cutie with Kanye West - It’s something that sounds like it wouldn’t and shouldn’t work, but does so in a way that is hilarious and often truly amazing such as on “The New Workout Plan/Title and Registration”.  You can check out a couple of the tracks from this on the mix of tunes from these EPs via 8tracks.

Cheetah EP (Aphex Twin) 

Mid tempo grooving hypnotic techno which is more stripped down and chill than his previous few releases.  It’s a more throw-back feel that grows on you with it’s warmness in texture and depth of groove.  Check out this music video from it which is the first Aphex Twin has released in 17 years and is directed by a 12 year old.  

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Scent Opera (Nico Muhly & Valgeir Sigurðsson ) 

This 14 minute composition by Nico Muhly and Valgeir Sigurðsson is a multi-media piece (a olfactory & music collaboration - so with this bandcamp release you’re only getting the music part).  The smells go through a parable about industrialization - which I can not speak to as I have not seen the piece live / smelled the smells.  But the music of this is still worth while.  It’s a strange, very rhythmic, electro-acoustic composition that is worth checking out for any Nico Muhly fan.

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Interview 2016 (Death Grips)

Death Grips 23 minute “Interview 2016” is a hard hitting instrumental composition.  There is an audio version of this piece as well as a video/audio version.  The video/audio version is what was released first and is far more psychologically dissonant because of the video in the first 23 minutes purposefully not matching up with the audio in a way that sometimes tricks you into thinking that it is - and then throwing you in a Mullholand Dr. “No hay banda” moment, and then for nearly the last ten minutes of the video the audio is completely silent.  The audio is musically in a similar vein as their previous instrumental release “Fashion Week” - but half the length and much tighter.  Worth checking out for anyone who is a fan of the band and wants to hear the group in a more loose instrumental context as well as folks who are turned off from Death Grips typical relatively abrasive sound with MC Ride screaming and want to give the group a shot without that being a part of the sound.
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Untitled Unmastered (Kendrick Lamar)

EP vs LP is sometimes a fuzzy line.  There’s no set line in length that divides the two.  For example there are Grindcore LPs that are only a few minutes in length since all the songs are so short, but Autechre has EPs that are around 70 minutes long.  This record from Kendrick Lamar is technically a compilation album and is 35 minutes - and I feel like it could have gone in either camp…but I decided to put it in this list of EPs as it is clearly a very different thing that the LPs he has been releasing.   Kendrick makes it clear that the songs on this album are B-sides - from the title of the album and the track titles (or lack thereof) - it is a loose collection of odds and ends and a window into Kendrick working in the moment.  Lyrically it hits on a lot of the similar themes that were addressed in "To Pimp a Butterfly" such as racial tensions, money and how success can be blinding and lead to hedonism.   It is also musically/stylistically in the vein of “To Pimp a Butterfly” as most of these tracks were recorded in these sessions - but these tracks are not completely fleshed out, more messy, and more raw.  Some songs on here are actually better than some of the songs on TBAB (or at least would be if they were given the same studio treatment), but wouldn’t have fit on the album either for being too redundant or for throwing off the flow.  If you didn’t like or didn’t hear Kendrick’s last couple albums - this isn’t an album I’d recommend giving a listen to - go listen to those records instead (or if you didn’t like them…maybe try listening to them again).  Kendrick is perhaps the most important rapper in the game right now and this is a very different kind of project from him - so if you’ve already dug into his previous work and want an unfiltered look into his music (and his process) this is where it’s at.
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