The Best EPs of 2023

The extended play has historically been something of a wild card. Maybe it’s an artist’s first impression to drum up some buzz in the short-form en route to their debut full-length. In other instances, bands use the medium as a creative crossroad between releases and transitional phases with their styles. In the world of hardcore, EPs can very easily be almost as long as their peers’ full-lengths. In experimental and dance worlds where churning out momentum is second nature, they rule as the frequency of choice.

Whatever the case, they’re standouts in their own right well worth your listening attention, as each year’s list can often predicts trends to come. If you’re exhausted by the new wave of shoegaze, you’re out of luck, for instance. It’s also impossible to place an hierarchy behind them because of how many varying degrees there are as to what exactly makes an “EP,” but if these pages had to, crushed, Lifeguard, and Scowl get the metaphorical gold, silver and bronze medals. These are the Best EPs of 2023.

Channel Tres – Real Cultural Shit [RCA Records]

There’s always been an effortless finesse in the way Channel Tres builds bridges between confident rhymes on being self-made, Blackness, and all-night parties over multicolor techno beats and funky drips for daytime cruising and late night hedonism co-helmed by constant studio hand in Godmode Music creator Nick Sylvester, but on Real Cultural Shit, his first release since signing with RCA Records, the whole creative concept comes together crystal clear without flaw. Most impressive is how the slow build as an artist has only enhanced the freakishly white hot temperature in what Tres brings to floor –- a rave, a mindset in swagger, and a fashion statement — collecting a series of singles he began releasing over the past year plus fresh cuts where even the challenges of a pandemic only made for another speedbump for the Compton house artist to jump over. And he only keeps jumping higher.

Cruel – Common Rituals [Fire Talk]

From the sleek and articulate post-punk of bands like Deeper and Stuck, the art rock vacuum from the voids of FACs, to young rock firebrands Horsegirl and Lifeguard, there is a lot to love about what has been coming out of Chicago’s current indie scene these days. Cruel just might be turning up the heat in it a few notches on their debut extended play, Common Rituals. Of the aforementioned, the quartet run (fast, at that) alongside the busy-and-bombastic of the latter two, though their revivalism of indie rock for the better is one doused in kerosene, lit ablaze, and stays burning across its four tracks. Guitarist and vocalist Schrieber’s forefront presence is inescapable throughout, constantly shouting into your face from a blown-out mic with laments against the grinding daily malaise.

crushed – extra life [Funeral Party Records]

crushed is the Los Angeles duo featuring Shaun Durkan of psychedelic shoegazers Weekend and Bre Morrell of Temple of Angels. On extra life, their debut extended play, they meet all your oxytocin needs. With so many tropes within today’s dream-pop folds evaporating into the same air, the six-track first impression from the pair stands out as a refined elixir collecting syrupy textures honed from a ‘90s lovelorn alternative dial with anti-gravity guitar pop and a chic trip-hop effervescence. Alongside its modern heartbeat dazing through lyrical bedroom eyes, extra life makes for the kind of soundtrack to many a romantic memory, past, present, and those which haven’t even happened yet, going beyond time’s linearity to capture a peak feeling at its best moment even if it has faded away.

Entry – Exit Interview [Convulse Records]

Exit Interview is touted as a release with songs that “don’t have an ounce of fat” — all true considering the six tracks that make up the latest EP from the Los Angeles four-piece — led by the extreme vocals of Sara Gregory alongside Touché Amoré guitarist Clayton Stevens as well as bassist Sean Sakamoto and drummer Chris Dwyer — clocks in at less than eight minutes in length. Gregory’s vocals are straight up nasty like a scourge throughout and because of that energy aimed at the elite’s self-serving power moves, she burns holes right through them. Entry covers a lot of ground in short order, and with the scene experiencing a fever pitch in interest from more ears, it’s refreshing to hear something getting to the guts of it all with an ugly, fast, and heavy visceral display without any flashiness or genre-pushing ascribed to the narrative.

Jlin – Paradigm [Planet Mu Records]

When introducing Jlin’s latest extended play, Perspective, its bio read, “The only apt tag for her now is ‘composer.’ Let’s be clear — she’s not EDM, IDM, electronic, footwork or post-footwork. She’s simply Jlin.” That uncanny nature in her art emerges to the ear here like an instrumental mold being formed by a higher power, and although embryonic in the way the Indiana-based experimental musician renders sound, her creation — born in collaboration with the rhythmic ensemble, Third Coast Percussion — is made all the more visceral in its facets of organically-composed molecular sounds intricately spooling their DNA over earthly quakes and an underlying circuitry. Movement is always on its its periphery, and it’s as if a new being is designed from Jlin with a vision only she could, merging the abstract with what is human.

Lifeguard – Dressed In Trenches [Matador Records]

At the epicenter of Chicago’s underground scene, fledgling indie rock trio Lifeguard have found themselves in it at the right time with the right support system, with drummer Isaac Lowenstein’s sister, Penelope, having experienced her own breakthrough success recently as part of their scene peers Horsegirl, and bassist and vocalist Asher Case’s dad, Brian, being the leader of experimental rockers FACS. All three of those bands are bonded by their penchant for weird, loud guitar rock with an acknowledgement of the history creating it, but in the case of Lifeguard, their second EP and first for Matador, Dressed In Trenches, profess a quick-coming confidence in bolder lines defined within their sound with clearer grasp on its visceral nature, maximizing the spark that catches attention like fire, and turns pops of noisemaking into an ignited artform.

O. – SLICE [Speedy Wunderground]

Of the few positives from those years in lockdown, it has given this world some weird, acerbic art for the better. O., the London-based duo of baritone saxophonist Joseph Henwood and drummer Tash Keary, are a product of those times in forming a very chaotic style of experimental noise-jazz from their isolation bubble, jamming brass and percussion that barrel energy into all commotions in a circular semblance on their debut EP, SLICE. Working with the unboxable London label of producer Dan Carey, Speedy Wunderground, SLICE hears Henwood and Keary amplifying their energy through louder bouts of manic instrumentation, often reflective of the circumstances of our world, where the pair collect chaos into a dance that ultimately becomes unsustainable to contain.

One Step Close – Songs for the Willow [Run for Cover Records]

Songs for the Willow batters through what One Step Closer has been wrestling with on an emotional level since setting the existential of life to fury on their 2021 breakthrough debut, This Place You Know. With their lives no longer being confined to the crowded thoughts of living in familiar surroundings, the Wilkes-Barre melodic hardcore band are now peering further out at a wider scale of their place in their expanding world, with frontman and guitarist Ryan Savitsky doing his damnedest to grip onto the rear view. Producer Jon Markson (Drug Church, Soul Blind) and engineer constant Erik Chesek blow out that bigger, scarier view from the driver’s seat, giving One Step Closer both the greater gravity and speed needed to keep moving forward while solidifying the moment into their sound.

Scowl – Psychic Dance Routine [Flatspot Records]

Where the Santa Cruz band’s 2021 debut full-length, How Flowers Grow, and its subsequent stylistic crossover appeal made many within the scene brace themselves for the possibility that behind frontperson dynamo Kat Moss’ superpower ability to teeter the pit and bigger festival stages in both growl and anthem meant they’d be going full-on pop mode, its follow-up, the five-song extended play, Psychic Dance Routine, digs deeper into their roots where it counts without relinquishing their alt-rock star dreams. There’s melodically coarse pop jams beefed up by producer Will Yip, recalling the balancing act ambitions of the Breeders and L7. Still, tracks like “Wired” and the no-minced-words closer, “Sold Out”, prove Scowl haven’t abandoned that unhinged sound and fury which has made them one of the best live acts in modern hardcore while sticking to their instincts.

Shady Bug – What’s the Use? [Exploding In Sound Records]

Transitional phases can be agonizing, but for Shady Bug, they make the tumultuous times sound like a breeze on the St. Louis band’s latest EP, What’s the Use?. As has informed the creative process across much music being released today, its arrival comes on the heels of one of the one of the worst runs in mankind’s current millennial history, but on a more personal level, the breakups, life stress, and band reconfigurations that helped the trio of vocalist Hannah Rainey, guitarist Ripple, and bassist Chris Chartrand shed their skin and become something new and evolved in a dazed, warped form of noise-pop to matches that one big question mark for minds inquiring on existential purpose.

Spiral XP – It’s Been A While [Danger Collective Records]

Spiral XP are exploding how loud pop music can be on their second extended play, It’s Been A While. The creative brainchild of vocalist and guitarist Max Keyes, the Seattle band’s sound levels up on this go in its deep exploration of earworming hooks, mining the glimmering textures of rock music, yet transcending any firm definition of what comes out of the other end of it. Yeah, there’s hints of shoegaze here, but they aren’t exactly subscribing to the notion of being all in on it anywhere like they are with their emotions bursting out from all sides of it.

Spirit of the Beehive – i’m so lucky [Saddle Creek]

A breakthrough and a breakup succinctly summarizes how Spirit of the Beehive got from point A in releasing their most beguiling yet universally acclaimed listen to date with their 2021 sophomore effort, ENTERTAINMENT, DEATH, to nearly being on the verge of collapse as a band before deciding to make an astounding collage from relational mess at point B with their latest, an extended play, i’m so lucky. The dissolution of co-vocalists Zack Schwartz and Rivka Ravede’s decade-long romantic relationship leading into its recording is an enticing detail to focus on, but the Philly experimental indie rock trio have never really been known to be an experience of focus even before then. It’s promising for tomorrow to hear how across the four-song EP, the Philly trio craft an effort more concentrated on reassembling sounds once shattered through its canvas.

thanks for coming – What is My Capacity to Love? [Danger Collective Records]

Rachel Brown is arguably one of the most idiosyncratic artists within the modern indie landscape as one half of the avant-pop duo Water From Your Eyes alongside Nate Amos, though Brown has always maintained their creative wheels prolifically spinning beyond where the band’s shapes evolve over the years through their solo vehicle, thanks for coming. With What is My Capacity to Love, the project’s latest EP, they’re properly establishing their singular writ by approaching defined lines boldly and applying structure to life’s internal monologues. It’s a brain scramble of self-reflective emotion that audibly sounds like the words of a crossword puzzle beginning to assemble themselves before your ears as Brown tactfully transmits their mind vibrations through straight-forward bedroom-pop frames.

Tripper – People Die Every Day [Self-released]

Though Baltimore’s current hardcore hotbed may be more known as a temperature check for pushing the scene’s boundaries further than ever off the map, Tripper don’t forget that the turning point came when the full throttle gears of Trapped Under Ice launched it into being so that bands like Turnstile and Angel Du$t could float through the air. The four-piece of vocalist Alex Szydelska, guitarist Bryan Moon, bassist Austin Reed, and drummer Michael Habif are reminders of the path more feral and heavier, complimenting the energy of neighboring molotovs, Jivebomb and Gel, in that regard, on their debut EP, People Die Every Day, where the band buries impassioned melodicism deep into its surface — fighting against pressure and tapping into survival mode instincts — to above six feet underground.

Wishy – Paradise [Winspear]

Wishy may technically be a new band, but they’ve members who’ve put in their time in past lives, with co-vocalists and guitarists in Kevin Krauter being the former bassist of Hoops and Nina Pitchkites being a stalwart in the Indianapolis scene. Joined by guitarist Dimitri Morris, bassist Mitch Collins, and drummer Connor Host, the collective’s first act together on their debut EP, Paradise, is one of those rare instances where an artist already sounds fully-formed and yet multi-dimensional enough to further the potential of what may come. Divided between Krauter and Pitchkites’ leads, tracks like “Too True” are fizzled in power-pop perfection that recalls early Yuck while the Pitchkites-led “Donut” and “Spinning” bend toward ecstatic noise-pop and luminescent dream-pop, feelings aptly vibrating through its warm currents.