When I set out to write less about more I decided to pick on the single as the ideal target, but nowadays it seems the EP is a resurgent format. The relatively low cost of including a couple of extra tracks in a download-only release is doubtlessly attractive for bands who have lots to showcase, or perhaps just got lucky and have four great tracks recorded at the right time. However it poses it's own issues around quality control, and it's certain there are plenty of EPs around which would have made better singles. The urge to push more and more music out into the world to be heard is both understandable and sometimes commercially necessary, with the EP effectively replacing the 'demo cassette' of my youth, where bands would at least try to ensure there was at least enough material to give promoters some idea what they did on stage. So in the spirit of less about more, here are a few EPs which have appeared in the last few weeks in my inbox or wherever and which I find myself returning to regularly. It's also notable that an EP is often just about the perfect length to accompany my daily commute, which is always going to be a winner for me...

Plastic Animals - A Dark Spring EP

It's strange how sometimes one assumes that a band probably isn't going to be for you - maybe it's the name, or the track record of the person who recommends it for making suggestions which chime with your taste? In any case Edinburgh-based Plastic Animals have been tipped by so many people from so many different directions, I felt almost compelled to listen to this recently released EP. It starts rather bravely perhaps, with an lengthy instrumental introduction. It's brave because reckoning on the ridiculously restricted attention span of the average listener - myself included of course - coupled to the confines of the EP format, giving this much time to something which doesn't showcase the entire band sound is fairly unprecedented. But it's a delicate, engaging opening which swoops and crests like an "Albatross" for the 21st century - and on balance it hooked me in rather than switching me off, so perhaps the gamble paid off. A change of pace into "Green Light" which skitters and jangles around an impossibly catchy melody. The following "Gold Medallists" is a slow-burning indie-rock ballad, all Beach Boys harmonies and swoons of spine-tingling regret in the lead vocal. This EP is going to get some people all worked up about influences, but for me this scores extra points by taking cues from the Cocteau Twins and The Chameleons rather than much easier targets from the 1990s. "It Fell Apart" is a little more spirited with some genuinely fine, sparkling flange-heavy guitar playing and maybe a touch of the Sarah Records house-style deadpan in the vocals. It works itself up into a crunchy, chugging ending with layers of guitar tumbling in. In a seemingly growing world of drearily worthy and pompous indie-by-numbers acts, this is an honest, somewhat downbeat but perfectly executed gem.

Plastic Animals - It Fell Apart

Plastic Animals "A Dark Spring" EP is available from Bandcamp either as a download or a CD.

Pet - What You Building?

I'm not even sure quite where this came to my attention - through a chance email or a podcast perhaps - but I've found myself both intrigued and confounded by this rather odd record over the past week or two. I've also got very little information about Pet except that they're based in Edinburgh or thereabouts. The lead track here is "What You Building?" with its squeaky guitar strings, empty echo and cascades of keyboard. The lazy, soporific lyric oozes over the track while the simple melody and the question which gives the song its title repeat seemingly endlessly. It's a strangely hazy, occasionally rather sparse and frankly quite odd track. I'm not sure if this release properly merits the distinction of being referred to as an EP, since it's a slender three track effort on which "What You Building?" appears twice - the second time as an oddly dislocated but interesting remix entitled "What You Rebuilding?". But "Magnetic" is an entirely different proposition. Drenched in reverb, the urgent drum beat drives a curious low fidelity pop song firmly in the mould of Wire. Then it rather unexpectedly explodes into a tangle of feedback, overdriven angry guitars and oddly infectious harmonies. I genuinely can't make a huge amount of sense of this song, or indeed this EP, and I know shamefully little about the band too. But, I know I like this a lot and that I find myself listening to it with alarming frequency just now.

Pet - Magnetic "What You Building?" is available as a free download from Pet's Bandcamp.

The Atolls EP

This rather mysterious duo hail from Glendora, California - but they seem to be casting their media net far and wide, and I've noted their name cropping up in a number of places. Indeed, their origins aren't geographically far from the magnetic pull of the Inland Empire which consumed so much of my listening time a decade or two back in fact. However, this is a very different proposition - a set of four varied, carefully constructed but almost entirely brooding songs built around the unusual voice of Daniel Martin. Given Martin's sometimes mournful, pained intonations, it's no surprise that this is all pretty serious stuff with rather dark and self-immolating lyrics which are sadly somewhat contrived at points. But the overall effect is mostly pleasing nonetheless as "Low Tide" washes in with hints of Codeine style slow menace, before wandering off into messier, noisier territory with the tone set by the observation that "people drown in less than a foot of water". Cheerful it isn't, and the pleasant jangling pop of "Tangles" strikes a slightly more upbeat, anthemic tone musically if not lyrically. But like it or not, the eye and ear are instantly drawn to "Older Nazi Boyfriend" it's an absurdly silly title for a ridiculously great tune. Dirty, rough-edged pop-punk grinds and clatters along merrily, changing up and down the musical gears with evident glee. Shorn of the seriousness, Martin's voice becomes a punky yelp, which also fits surprisingly well. More like this would have tempered the gloominess of the whole package, and I can't help thinking might have been more fun for The Atolls to play. This is dark, sometimes too clever but pretty damn slick stuff which hints at an interesting future - especially if "Older Nazi Boyfriend" has some like-minded siblings in The Atolls repertoire.

The Atolls - Older Nazi Boyfriends

The Atolls self-titled EP is available at Bandcamp either as a free download or a physical CD.