Over the last 12 months I've reviewed 34 E.P.'s, and the spread of genres has been pretty broad. There are 15 Irish E.P.'s below, which (and it's been just as hard as with the other end of year lists) are listed in order. Again as I mentioned in my Best Irish Singles list yesterday (which is here!), only releases which were submitted for review are included, and more importantly, I'd like to thank all of the bands and solo acts who shared their music with me in 2018, without y'all I'd probably have a knitting blog or something.
15) Elaine Malone - Land
"Although she may not feel it herself, Malone's choice of topic is brave and she handles it with great care, but doesn't let anyone off the hook in her sometimes scathing lyrics. As a whole of its parts, Land is an excellently crafted piece of story-telling through music, a story we would rather we never had to hear, but one she should be most proud of telling."
14) Tooka - Tooka
"Tooka have compiled three tracks here that compliment each other in a very caring and harmonious manner, I enjoyed the fact that they stuck to their vision of the type of mood they wanted to create and didn't deviate from that path, leaving us with a continuous mellow strain of sound from start to finish, what's also exciting is that they've left themselves a huge amount of room to shoot off on various experimental tangents here, the first small splashes of colour on a willing canvas."
13) RUNAH - Ghosts
"Each of RUNAH's four tracks on her new EP Ghosts begin with the sounds of the outside world; rainfall, the sea, birds signing and the crackling of fire, interestingly all ancient sounds older than human-kind itself. The title-track's opening guitar progression sets the mystical and haunting mood of the EP in motion, her vocal acting as a conduit in order to establish a channel of communication between the environment and the listener.
If 'Ghosts' was the summoning, 'Calling' is the subsequent incantation that pulls us under RUNAH's spell and carries us by the hand through the dark forest of her world. I love the use of real-life sounds, such as the treading on crisp leaves, distant avian calls and the rush of water, in a time where we are disconnected in so many different ways, it's a timely reminder of what truly matters."
12) Jane Willow - Onward Still
"Jane Willow's self-titled opener for Onward Still immediately springs forth with the warmest of traits you would expect from classic late 60's and 70's folk music. At it's very beginning, Love's 'Alone Again Or' from Forever Changes throws its shade from her acoustic guitar, and in a previous review I had felt a strong connection to Joni Mitchell's Court & Spark. The cello and lightly brushed percussion adding additional layers of warmth in their own right...on Onward Still Willow is honest with us, it comes from a genuine place, this is about the music, and how we feel listening to it, and it takes a gifted song-writer to let their craft alone carry their message in such a wonderfully enjoyable way."
11) Ghetto Amaretto - Oll Korrect
"Dance-pop space-station"
"Oll Korrect could be summarised as two day-to-day experimental electronic artists having a lot of fun with thick brush swipes of pop music, stopping to consider their next stroke, and then lathering it on, but not too thick, absorbing, different and bursting with care-free energy. (*plays 'Uncanny Valley' again*)."
10) Aural Air - The Torpor of Minds
*Released in December last year, Aural Air's The Torpor of Minds was reviewed after the 2017 Best Irish EP's list, and was too good not to make this list!
"The Torpor of Minds closes with 'Edinburgh' another delightful moment to lose yourself in, alongside 'The Heir of Indignation', this song flitted into my head for months after hearing it for the first time, those breaks between eruptive emotion and fading falling stars hurtling to the ground are at work again. A rawness and vulnerability streak across Aural Air's debut EP, but it's not the rawness of starting out or finding your way, it's a sense of working your way through the sounds of the music with a careful, delicate and loving treading. Her star may or may not rise to where it deserves to be in 2018, but it's going to happen sooner rather than later."
Cork's Femmepop (aka Margaret O'Sullivan)
9) Femmepop - CYM
"CYM closes with 'Suck it Up', this reminds me more of continental punk new-wave from the mid 70's to mid 80's, like French coldwave four-piece Charles de Goal, or Lille's Guerre Froide, with a bit of Kraftwerk in your side-dish. It's a wonderful conclusion to an impressively diverse collection of electronic songs, over a long period of time Femmepop has been arriving at this point through graft, passion, and a desire to blow apart the boundaries of her own musical horizons."
8) The Elephant Room - Music on the Bones
"Although the band have rightly managed to release 4 singles from this collection of 8 songs (including the excellent 'Brisco'), I think they probably have one more in the tank with closing track 'Well Wishers' which is a pretty ringing endorsement considering most bands might struggle to find 4 from an entire LP. That live show jack in the box I mentioned earlier rearing its head in the final minute of the song which goes from melodious jangles to skulking distorted whammy-bar outbursts.
Music On The Bones is more a mini-album than an EP, and I think it's important that we weren't restricted to the standard four tracks as the full breadth of ideas and opportunity to sink sufficiently into The Elephant Room's world may have been lost. This is a companion piece to your summer and beyond."
7) Classic Yellow - Ophelia
"Ophelia wraps up with 'Ghosts' and we return to the expansive free-form guitar-rock of its opener, this is trippy AF. I'm arguing with myself, do I hear a studio version of a lo-fi Tame Impala track, or something else? I think it's something else, and that something else is Classic Yellow. What's evident across the entirety of the EP is that the band don't do formulaic, they don't sick to convention and follow the verse-chorus-verse, 'it should sound like this here' rules, they let it ride, and it sounds just wonderful. I hate being parochial, but I'm a little bit proud these guys are from Dublin (you should also listen to their debut Double A-Side 'His Master's Voice' / 'Cheese From Wisconsin')"
Deep Sky Objects - Desire (major heavy rotation of this song by Remy in 2018)
6) Deep Sky Objects - Deep Sky Objects
"I'm a big fan of first-listen winning, which is what I got from all of the tracks on Deep Sky Objects' debut self-titled EP when listened to straight through for the first time. I like all of their aforementioned influences, and something that is always pleasurable is when those bands only mildly ripple through, but enough so that you can get stuck into a set of tracks straight away...'Desire' is where it's at for me, like Beck and his two turntables and a microphone. Hard rock opening and smash and grab percussion, this is a song I need to see live, and I think Kevin O'Brien could be one of the most personable vocalists I've heard in an Irish band in an age, I love this guys voice. You can't play nasty bass and drums without a face-melter coming up at some point, and so it does on 2:11, zinger."
5) TOUCAN - TOUCAN
"'Gold' shows another side, a contrast that could lead part of the way to where TOUCAN may journey next. I enjoyed the solemnity here, the duo traverse more into alt-pop territory, there's a striking tenderness and feeling to the chorus and as the track gathers momentum it reaches grandiose and powerful heights that leave a notable mark. TOUCAN have certainly etched out a corner for themselves in a very busy local music scene, and this EP will undoubtedly give added impetus to the traction gained from the debut single, expect to see them everywhere over the next 12 months and beyond."
4) Sinéad Murphy - The Golden Book
"Taking its title from a book that Sinead Murphy began writing lyrics in in her early teens, The Golden Book is an intimate invite to share in memories both hopeful and sad which Murphy has put into song. Opener 'Final Night' is firmly cast in old world American folk with a country hue, with warm delicate harmonies Murphy guides us down a sleepy stream with sunlight twinkling on its surface...delving into soulful territory, it has a contemporary feel, but also on its high moments nods its head to the likes of Carole King's Tapestry. In some ways The Golden Book is a heavy listen emotionally, but this trait is what makes it a memorable and distinguished listen, accentuated by fine musicianship and vocals."
3) Pine The Pilcrow - Only Ghosts
"Latest single 'Only Ghosts' is devastating, its darkness still managing to be filled with a terrifying beauty, its sadness a necessity in order to feel human again. It is here that Pine the Pilcrow establish themselves, in my opinion, as the most accomplished modern folk act in the country. Their musicianship, delivery of feeling, and quality of song-writing is at the top level. From the first ghostly warble from singer Hannah Ryan, to the sheer delicateness of the piano and cello, where it feels like the bow is hesitant and almost afraid to bother the strings, you are sucked down the whirlpool willingly. Every band with a longevity has that moment, a first piece of magic that seems to have come from beyond their collective creativity and turned into something sentient and independent in itself, 'Only Ghosts' is Pine the Pilcrow's moment."
(I don't have a list of Irish music videos for the year but the below is my favourite!)
2) Auxiliary Phoenix - Power Cosmic
"In my book, there is always so much intrigue and pleasure in abundance to be found in every release by Auxiliary Phoenix aka James Strain, who never stands still. On latest EP Power Cosmic we are customarily overwhelmed on the first listen, there is so much going on, bouncing off the walls and in turn our ear drums.
On my first scooch through Power Cosmic fourth track 'Neptune Horizon' really stood out for me, the bending sitar and acid jazz groove combining like something out of Alice Coltrane's back catalogue, or George Harrison's deepest, darkest nightmares.
Power Cosmic is such a layered collection of tracks and concepts that one or two listens would never suffice, littered with subtleties in sound and method there is so much to be uncovered. That said, there is an immediately gratifying experience to be had on your first whirl of the latest offering from Auxiliary Phoenix, it's a mesmeric voyage through everything you love about the past, but wanted to hear reimagined today, and no better individual to tie both together."
REMY's Irish EP of the Year for 2018 - This Is Doubt by Ghostking is Dead
Ghostking Is Dead (aka Matt Corrigan)
"This Is Doubt, the latest EP from Ghostking Is Dead was released earlier this week, and before we get stuck into a track by track view, I must share from the get go that it's easily one of the best Irish EP's to be released this year. I shall explain why, and where the feels come from.
A week or two ago we reviewed the lead single, 'Tokyo', from the EP and had this to say; "There's a very soothing delicacy on 'Tokyo', with Ghostking Is Dead in contemplative mood courtesy of his spoken-word intro. As is his wont, it's not long before he throws soulful pop vocals into the mix alongside some seriously chill electronic sounds. The single also confirms what we have learned from previous singles such as the excellent 'Lucky Warrior' and 'Fool', Ghostking Is Dead doesn't do limitations, and is very comfortable at strafing across a multitude of styles and sounds with uncanny ease.
Finally from his bag of tricks 'How Did I Get Here?' gets yanked out, a new genre is born, cabaret-funk. In sequence, the list of artists it reminds me of, Nina Simone, Black Grape, George Harrison, The Specials, Connan Mockasin and Portishead. At this point I don't really have much left to say, other than to quote Jim Carrey's character Chip Douglas in The Cable Guy, "Cherish him, every hair on his head".
