Sound Check's Blog Posts Tagged 'EP' (29)

Metal has always had a fixation on the mystical and magical. From the occult and demonic fixation of doom metal to the D&D Monster Manual of power metal. The fierce low guitar, thundering drums, and classical technicality convey something larger than life, something more epic than ordinary reality. So it makes perfect sense that UK based Vodun would base their music around West African Vodun rituals and Loa (Haitian elemental spirits).…

There's something about a song that captures the feel of a house party. Many many have tried, but it's a tough balance. Too live and it feels amateurish. Too polished and it feels phony. But Young Fathers hit the right mix with their single “Deadline.” It's built around the most minimal of pieces, a distorted kick drum, a 4 note buzz-saw bassline, and an almost chanted melody. It's got the hand-made raw chaos of a Death Grips production, but with a kind of hypnotic vocal…

UK indie rapper Mikill Pane's main appeal has always been his endless cleverness and charm. He just seems like the kind of guy you'd like to get a beer with. Maybe go bowling. His lyrics are a tangled web of references, meta-references, and elaborate puns. They've always been deep from a writing perspective, but never exactly deep emotionally. On…

Oakland's Afro-indie-pop quartet Bells Atlas released their debut EP this week and it's a beautiful beautiful thing. The band combines minimal beats with lush textures and the multi-layered vocals of lead singer Sandra Lawson-Ndu. The three songs and two remixes on the EP show a young band in complete control of their sound. With influences ranging from chillwave to samba to indie rock to Afrobeat, the Bells Atlas EP sounds like almost nothing else on the planet. It's rare that…

New supergroup alert! TEN are Thomas Pridgen (The Memorials, ex-Mars Volta), Eric McFadden (P-Funk) and Norwood Fisher (Fishbone). They promise music of the rock, funk, punk variety".

"T.E.N. released a limited-edition EP on April 1st, 2013, (...) featuring songs from their recording session at Hyde Street Studios, which was the first day the…

I was 14 when I heard “Rebirth of Cool vol. 4” for the first time. I had just finished digesting the complete canon of Classic Rock. Zeppelin didn't thrill me anymore. Aerosmith never really did. I was dipping my toes into indie and punk, but hadn't quite found my way into that world (we didn't have the internet yet. I distinctly remember getting into an argument with someone that summer in which I took the position that “punk can't be dead, because The Dead Kennedys!” Not…

Jck Dvy made her name as the lead singer of synth-pop duo J*DaVeY. She's released her first solo record, a gritty lo-fi double EP fittingly titled L0-F!. The EP combines her innate pop sensibility with noisy overdriven guitars for something fresh. Stream the record below, and click here to check out the accompanying gorgeous full color eBook, which includes…

UK Powerpop/Rock band Komla have already established themselves as a badass live act. The 3 piece plays the kind of stripped down hook-laden guitar rock that never goes out of style. But they do it with a surprising amount of depth and soul. They've just dropped their debut EP, produced by Muse producer Paul Reeve, and it kills.…

I'm reminded of the Van Halen paradox from Bill and Ted. You need Eddie Van Halen to play guitar to have a hit record. But you need a hit record to get Van Halen to play guitar. But for RDGLDGRN having Dave Grohl play drums on their debut EP is less a hit-making move than it is the icing on the cake. Grohl's strength as a drummer has always been his ability to play virtuosic beats but still lay back and let someone else take the spotlight, be it Kurt Cobain, David Bowie, Josh…

Who said disco is dead? 21-year-old Brit sensation Lulu James' new jam "Closer" is full of modern electro drums and glittery melodies that will get you moving. But the bassline is deep and groovy just enough to rid you of your disco-cynicism. It may be too soon to call her a…

As long as humans have occupied the American landscape, its nearly endless variety been a source of inspiration for art. Endless plains exploding into giant snow-capped mountain ranges giving way to raging oceans on both sides. Earl Greyhound's Kamara Thomas gives voice to her lifetime obsession with the American landscape and mythos on the new “Earth Hero” by Kamara Thomas & The Ghost Gamblers.…

Jangly indiepop can be a dangerous proposition. There's a fine balance between personal weirdness (we used to call it quirk, but Zoe Deschanel ruined that word forever. Thanks a lot.) and traditional pop songwriting. The wrong balance can leave you sounding twee, phony, or just hopelessly unapproachable to anyone other than jangle purists. But there's little better than when someone nails that balance. Madame So's new EP “Sell-by Date” hits all the right notes. (Even the ones…

Good news for fans of hard rock/folk/blues band Earl Greyhound! (to the unconverted: I'm worried about you. Are you OK?) It's been two years since Earl Greyhound's 2nd full length Suspicious Package, but the intrepid trio are back. Sort of. They're re-releasing their first recordings from 2003 on vinyl. The 4 song EP Besides Seasides is out today and definitely worth picking…

It's been almost 2 months since Hurricane Sandy devastated the coastal areas of New York City, and there are still tens of thousands without power, heat, or adequate shelter. Some of the images that have come out of the hurricane are truly surreal, from stretches of Rockaway Park stripped of its trademark beaches to the pictures of a blacked out downtown Manhattan with only the Goldman Sachs building lit up (and if that's not a metaphor, I don't know what is...). Indie rapper…

Hip-hop producers have been sampling soul and blues tracks since day 1 so it's actually surprising how rarely blues returns the favor. On Charlie Red's new EP Religion, the duo of producer Cobaine Ivory and singer/songwriter Rocky Evans use the language of hip-hop to create some dirty, soulful blues.…

Equal parts driving/danceable and spacey/chill, Wishes and Thieves' latest Forest Fire EP is a perfect peace of dreamy indie pop. The band is anchored by a rhythm section that seems determined to steal Bloc Party's crown of superhuman tightness (because obviously art is a competition, right? Oh. Right.) Dreamy synths wash over the songs painting everything with the surreal colors of expired film. Lead singer Jolanda Porter presides over the band, simultaneously cool and…

With gas determined to hover around $4/gal (or if you're in New York or New Jersey post-Sandy, $infinity/gal...), it makes sense that bike culture is getting mainstreamed in a big way right now. Enter UK indie rapper Mikill Pane with his new EP Dirty Rider.

The title track is an ode to fixed gear bikes.…

In the days before my family had the internet (beyond the periodic 30 day free trial of AOL, of course), I spent many an afternoon obsessively tracking down and collecting the home recordings of Lou Barlow from Dinosaur Jr. and Sebadoh. I had nothing but rumor and recommendation from older friends about what recordings even existed, but I would trek from record store to record store hoping to stumble upon some basement gem by Folk Implosion or Sentridoh. I still never found the…

Hard rock is often (fairly) criticized for being a bit of a boys club. Enter Philadelphia-based Meredith Bell. With the pipes of a pop diva but the fury of Sevendust, her debut EP The Awakening demands attention.…

UK post-hardcore band This Part Is Us played their final show this past spring, but lead singer Arthur Walwin is back with his new solo project. His debut EP For One More Night is decidedly softer, but Walwin brings the same emotional intensity and range to this set. This is post-post-hardcore.…