Playground magazine

The time has come to take stock of the other format, along with full-length works, that PlayGround’s record critics review: the EP. Here we have a countdown of the ten titles from the month of May that seemed the most complete, nourishing, and interesting.

The young Bristol producer known as Vessel has brought out his second EP for Left Blank, finding the space to bring together ethereal dub and arrhythmic house. The sounds of a distant rave broadcast through the fog.

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After a year and a half of silence, Girl Unit completes a double EP with plenty of cuts –as many as six– that are detached from dubstep and oriented towards a sort of gummy techno that pays homage to old-school electro-funk.

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From beatmaker to unorthodox pop musician. In this EP, Bullion completes the transformation from electronic alchemy and strange beats to sort of deformed, extravagant songs, surprising in their oddness and quality.

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The duo AlunaGeorge bring us their first dose of sugary R&B with an indie alibi for the Tri Angle label: sexy beats, in their prime, and Aluna Francis’s voice, having taken a page from Aaliyah’s book. Catchy and with plenty of class.

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Amanda Brown culminates her collaborative project with Octo Octa in a record with five songs (and a remix) that reclaims the more naïf, virginal state of early-90s house-pop. Rave music for good-hearted hipsters.

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