EPs of 2008...

I find categories with many competing possibilities particularly difficult by dint of the selection criteria: on one hand I don't want to appear biased but, on the other hand, that is exactly why I'm writing it!

This is the easiest category to deal with as there are relatively few contenders. Last year the selection process was pretty easy and this year it has not been too difficult either but there still are important differences: last year both artists/acts came from the UK and sung in English but this year that is not true!
The problem with doing this is that, having listened to the contenders for the category, what to listen to while writing that is not apt to influence the decision and is yet complementary? My answer, available on CD and well worth a listen, is Kiln House - Fleetwood Mac (1970, 12" vinyl, RSLP9004).

In 2008 one of the two doesn't come from the UK and one doesn't sing in English (on the EP)! At least you can't say that I've not chosen two that are in a similar genre, though that was not true last year either. Here they are, in no order:

• Sun Giant - Fleet Foxes
  

Released in the US in late 2007 and, following their signing to Bella Union, in the UK in early 2008, is this EP by Seattle all-male five-piece 'Fleet Foxes'. They made tight vocal harmonies cool again - even before the release of their eponymous début album later in 2008 - and they sing in English.

• Edrych Yn Llygaid Ceffyl Benthyg - Cate Le Bon

The long promised album, apparently to be entitled Pet Deaths, has still not appeared but in early summer 2008 this 5-track EP, released only on 10" vinyl and sung entirely in Welsh, more than made up for that! Some of the tracks are far more complex than those she has show-cased before.
I can't yet quite explain why I think this but the final track, O Bont i Bont, sounds like one of the very best modern French pop songs that has never actually been written!

Two incomparable but equally innovative and worthwhile EPs; demonstrating beyond doubt that the genre is still well and truly alive.

Asleep Again? What happened to Jem...

Finally Woken (ATO Records LLC/Sony BMG)

and 2004 seems so long ago.

I'm still not convinced that I'm sure what is going on here, as some major label murkiness seems to be involved, but the second album - title unknown to me - was originally due to be released in early 2007 but now "sometime in 2008" is the best I can find... If it ever appears then it is said that Lester Mendez (Shakira et al) is involved which is a good sign and I haven't found anything that indicates she has been dropped by her label.

I still stick by my guns and that is to say that I think Finally Woken sounds as good now as I thought it did then. I would, in fact, hazard a guess owing to its style and sound that was it released new in 2008 it would actually have fared even better than it did in 2004 as it combines cross-genre fascination with organic performance; both of which are fuelling the ascent of live music at the moment.
Her siblings, Georgia and Justin, are one third of indie-punk-hiphop/rap band Weapons and they released their eponymous debut album in September 2006 on their own label, Wicked Old Lady Records, and Jem joins them on track seven, The Thieves, but sadly I have yet to track a copy down.

That said, while looking into all this, I have discovered something else. While the album Pet Deaths seems to be a long time coming in the meantime another South Wales singer-songwriter, Cate Le Bon, is to release an EP on Cardiff label Peski Records on 21st April and only on 10" vinyl:

Edrych yn Llygaid Ceffyl Benthyg.
Sebon.co.uk - Peski009