2011 in Music - EPs and mini albums

Several people have mentioned that, along with vinyl, the EP is enjoying a welcome and long overdue return in all formats and for reasons that are entirely practical.  It provides a way for artists to release a connected piece of work whether that be on vinyl or download, rather than just odd tracks, and for whatever reason.  It can be a new artist with only a small collecton of completed material or an established artist with a collection of material that in some way does not sit well with the bulk of their output.  Whatever the reasons for this revival are it has been a good year and I'm going to start on a year-high. When I discovered this my 2011 in music changed. Very few people can do that.

 
The next one is equally different and difficult to classify but I'm going to continue with this, which comes from an artist that few had heard of at the start of 2011 and myself included. It is difficult to describe its genre - tenebrous, intellectual, indie-dance does it for me.

Its creator is Estonian writer-singer-DJ Maria Minerva. Were it not for this EP (vinyl & download) and my self-imposed rules concerning these lists (see previous post) her 2011 album 'Caberet Cixous' might just have been included. I chose this specifically because of its tight and distinct focus.

  

  
There will only be three items in this post - the connecting theme being they are neither depressing nor euphoric - and that is what sets them aside. 

What they mean to me, and what I feel about these songs, is like looking in a quite special mirror: one that changes like the sky and can reflect things that otherwise I cannot see.

New Music 2011 - Clara Engel - Madagascar EP

The chain of events that led to me purchasing this pretty much sums up everything that I like about music and writing a blog all rolled into one. Three days ago I knew nothing - not even the existence - of this artist.  By yesterday evening I was listening to physical music by the same... something that only the combination of the digital age, independent artists, labels and stores and snail-mail-on-speed could achieve.

Clara Engel is a singer-songwriter from Toronto, Canada and a very prolific one so my research since Wednesday attests.  The Madagascar EP is however her first physical release and it is, even for purists and I am not one of them, a 'proper' EP - three tracks on vinyl, in this case of the 12" 45 rpm variety and only in this format.  It is released by new label Vox Humana Records as VHR01. It is available from Rough Trade Records, always a dependable source for new music.
  
Now to the music.  I don't tend to write about music that I don't like and this is certainly no exception. Many of the UK-based comments on Clara Engel's music compare her to Anna Calvi, indeed the Rough Trade website and sticker on the cover did so. That is unfair, if a little understandable. Yes, they both write, sing and play guitar big time but actually Anna Calvi is the newcomer here if already better known in the UK; we can do parochial just as well as anyone else and I don't think lumping both artists together does either of them a favour.
Take a listen to this EP or indeed any of the other downloads available from www.claraengel.bandcamp.com and make up your own mind. There is plenty as her next album will be her eighth or ninth! The three tracks on the EP come from two albums; 'Blind Me' and 'Madagascar' from 'Secret Beasts' and 'Accompanied by Dreams' from 'The Bethlehem Tapes'.  There is a new album in the making, so long as she can get the funding together to make it happen. Another track from 'Secret Beasts' is 'Lick My Fins', which is available as a free, legal download.

You owe it to yourself to listen to new music. If it turns out that you don't like it then that is just fine but at least you will know and so it will influence your future forays in to the unknown.  What I want to do is take it out (on vinyl) and find people to play it to...