Blogarhythms

During the period of my life when I thought arguing about things (music, religion, etc) on the internet was actually a worthwhile passtime I argued with a lot of suckers strangers with colorful names about a wide variety of topics. Something I recall arguing about on more than one occasion was what exactly constituted an EP release. Trying to explain to people the qualities unique to the single’s bigger brother and the LP’s smaller cousin isn’t the sort of thing I think of as a fun or productive activity any more. But “extended play” singles are still popular and frequent additions to my music collection.

Two of the freshest such additions to my digital stacks come courtesy of Baltimore-via-New York experimental quartet Animal Collective and London, England-based Electronica trio Metronomy, previous Blogarhythms featurees all.

Following up last Summer’s full-length Strawberry Jam, whose lead single “Peacebone” won my “song of the year” award last year, Animal Collective’s Water Curses exemplifies the concept of the EP as a mini-album. The title track — an exercise in maniacal whimsy and surreal but sentimental lyricism be-decked in a clatter of percussion, mechanical sounds, acoustic guitar strumming, sheets of spacey electronic noise and wildly careening vocal melodies — gives “Peacebone” a run for it’s money and sounds like The Muppets covering Gene Wilder’s psychadelic freakery from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory in the process. “Cobwebs,” my second favorite tune on the EP, mellows things out with honey-dipped vocal harmonies reminiscent of the Beach Boys floating over a minimal toy drum-machine-driven track that evokes dusk on a sweltering, sun-drenched day in a big city where hippie-style peace and love rule the streets.

Animal Collective “Water Curses”

Meanwhile, Metronomy’s Heart Rate Rapid, which is both a follow-up to the previously featured EP “Radio Ladio” and a pre-cursor to their forthcoming LP Nights Out, works the opposite spectrum of the EP divide, that of the beefed-up single. A true single, it features four different versions of the title track and a Casio-flavored Techno/House instrumental called “Matthias Gathering.” The O.G. mix of “Heart Rate Rapid” — a New Wave/Disco-Punk hybrid with a thudding drum-beat, robotic synths, a bassline that bounces like a super-ball, and freaky chants, which owes a sizable debt to the sound of the groundbreaking Post-Punk/New Wave/Synthpop group Devo — is my main pick. But the “Love Letter to Metronomy” version from London-based Electro-Funk/Pop artist Primary1 — a cover version that turns the tune into a smoothed out retro Electro/R&B jam in the mold of Chromeo and Calvin Harris –comes close to trumping the original.

Metronomy “Heart Rate Rapid”

The Water Curses EP from Animal Collective and Domino Records won’t hit stores in it’s entirety until May 6th. The title track is available as a digital download at retailers around the internets now. Metronomy’s Heart Rate Rapid EP on the other hand is in stores now on the Because Music recording label.

- El Keter