It’s kind of hard to self-diagnose yourself with S.A.D. when the weather has been magically mild (and also unsettling, but let’s not get ideological). It’s a meteorological foil for people like me, who dig an excuse to hole up and be deliberately melancholy come February. Still, and I’m blaming the chameleonic climes here, I’ve somehow calibrated an innate moodiness that makes allowance for a minimum of social function, which dissipates immediately upon walking through my front door. This has most noticeably tampered with my focus and, well, an ability to care about stuff I normally care about.
For a while I’d been waiting on Prodigy’s first post-bid, full-length, 3, but when it dropped last week I avoided downloading due to the 27-title tracklist. The actual run time (58 minutes) is acceptable, but just thinking about processing all of those transitions, those micro-treatises that demand my respect, feels overwhelming in my current, delicate state. I’m sure I’ll get around to it after I’m done squeezing my temples.
In the meantime, temporally economical EPs have saved me from becoming a (temporary) sonic ascetic. Originally fashioned as a value-adding single, today’s “Extended Play” can also function as a sanctioned yet truncated sampler: a teaser record, a placeholder, or a more cohesive, thematic artist statement.
Over the past few months, the Standard has highlighted a few solid EP releases: Ango’s Another City Now, Danny Brown and Black Milk’s Black Brown, J0T5 by Jokers of the Scene, and Burial’s Kindred. Here are three new-ish EPs for the seasonally affected.
Hodgy has to be, I’ve long maintained, Odd Future’s best rapper. Straddling the gag-reflexive punchlines that typify the crew with mature, ’90s-rap indebted missives, Hodgy positions himself as one of the least gimmicky artists in the bunch. This new EP (nine tracks, 22 minutes long) moves him one step further in that super-lyrical direction, with the added bonus of flamboyant, name-y production. Juicy J threads a Bobby Womack sample with triple hi-hats for “Bullshittin,’” a nice, minimal tone-setter for Hodgy’s hook-free, bar-barreling. Alchemist does his usual haunting, esoteric-sample thing, while Flying Lotus laces Hodgy with jazzy, explorative bass knocks. It’s a smooth, low-key listen that’s rewarding for both new and old heads.
Miguel — Art Dealer Chic, Vol. 1
This is the first in a trilogy of EPs from one of R&B’s best and most underappreciated young voices, Miguel. “Sure Thing“ his chart-topping single from 2010’s All I Want Is You, is one of those songs made for 30 minute stretches of lost time where you just keep hitting repeat. Art Dealer Chic, Vol. 1 (three songs, nine minutes) is kind of a corny title, but it makes sense when Miguel reveals he isn’t just a caramel-voiced wonder: he also painted the album’s cover art himself. Lead single “Adorn” has a blown-out bassline and vocal tics that mimic falling droplets of water. This isn’t the genre-suffocating, wastrel wallowing of the Weeknd and other buzzy “indie R&B” acts: Miguel’s big-voiced and full of love, while managing to toe the aural boundaries of modern soul. http://www.mixpakrecords.com/blog/2012/02/mixpak-fm-poirier/
I’ve spent the past month jealously fielding drunken text messages from a Trini friend as she feted, wined, and limed her way through Carnival. Nothing — like what? Family Day?–can compare to nationally-sanctioned revelry, so I’ve mostly been listening to Poirier’s four-track, 13 minute-long Soca Road EP (and a release accompanying mix) running sprints on the treadmill. Poirier’s a Montreal-based multi-tempo specialist, but he’s been stuck (happily) in 160BPM territory for a while now. I’m glad. Not just because soca is the musical backbone of any self-respecting Brampton Girl, but because songs like “Who Got Di Riddim” are experimental but way less self-conscious about it.
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Anupa Mistry writes about music for Toronto Standard. You can follow her on Twitter at @_anupa.
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