Maybe some of us have become a little jaded about EPs in recent years. It’s understandable. When so many more artists these days are using them more so as promotional content opportunities to bump new tour dates by throwing a couple of forgettable non-album tracks, demos, or remixes together, or really stretching the definition of the term by passing two new songs off as an extended play (when it’s really a maxi single!,) you can understand why the format has become so easy to gloss over.

2024 put some respect back onto the acronym, however. Bolstered by releases filled with freshness and substance, we heard very intriguing new moves coming our way from established artists, those who’ve already given us solid first impressions and now look to evolving, as well as some highly promising first looks at artists whose debut full-lengths will surely be ones to watch. This is to say: don’t sleep on the short-form. These are the Best EPs of 2024.

Agriculture – Living Is Easy [The Flenser]

Agriculture built a sky-scaling ladder into their form of black metal in the “ecstatic” nature with their 2022 EP, The Circle Chant, and last year’s breakthrough eponymous debut full-length. You hope even a purist will know better than to wince at the notion of having to spark any conversations surrounding transcendentalism within the scene, but to anyone still skeptical of authenticity behind their art, the Los Angeles four-piece’s latest extended play, Living is Easy, is proof they’re not only creating it on their own terms, but consumed by it just as well. Loosely based off four virtues from Buddha’s lives here on earth, the four-song extended play unfolds in allegory on community and how it can elevate us into a higher plane of spiritual being. The familiar amalgamations of Agriculture merging blackgaze into a euphoric psyche heard their sound charging into displays of unapologetic wistfulness channeling fuzzed out ’90s indie rock and at its most sparse, an almost-hymnal Low-like presentation honoring light ruminating out from darkness. Agriculture live many lives in just these 16-minutes, but it’s more than plenty to nourish the inner self while also predicting a continued evolution in their creative form.

BIB – BIBLICAL [Quality Control HQ]

BIB are of the ilk of hardcore punk where trying to outline any words hurling out of vocalist Nathan Ma may be an impossible fete. It doesn’t mean that through the Omaha band’s ugly, gnashing march into the existential void that they aren’t attempting to sound as huge as a black hole doing it. BIBLICAL hears Ma alongside guitarist Jonathan Cobb, guitarist and bassist Brock Stephens, and drummer Bill Liebermann stepping into the studio with heavy scene studio pro Arhtur Rizk (Power Trip, Trapped Under Ice) in what churns out to be their most cohesive statement efforts yet across their catalog of demos, EPs, and their 2020 full-length, DELUX. The hooks are grimier yet stick to the walls as Ma’s snarls echo onto them, and the violent electricity cuts through any white noise standing between it. That alone may help piece together BIBLICAL‘s lyrical intent in never letting impending death get in the way of living at max today, but most explicitly, their surroundings of being on the outskirts of trad hardcore and punk hotbeds organically spawn a feral kind of nature where rules get invented by your own will.

GEL – Persona [Blue Grape Music]

While it’s admirable when bands have ambitions to stretch the limits of the genre’s sound beyond the norms of the pit, sometimes expanding the pit is just as much of an atlas fete. GEL have certainly proven themselves capable of that since breaking ground with last year’s debut album, Only Constant, in how they’ve handled their ascent in front of larger and larger audiences. The Jersey band’s latest EP, Persona, further elevates their intensely sociopolitical crowdkills on the heatmap beyond just a hardcore reach, but through and through, they maintain the ethos of everything they stand for — just with more muscular limbs that feel fully jacked and pop a vein or few in the art of the subtle hook, readying them for what awaits on stages that will hopefully only get deservedly larger. Nothing has changed about their intents either. They’re still scathing billionaire scum, bad faith politics, and fighting for the marginalized as we speed into the void. It’s just that now, it’s in screaming in a violently bold font you can’t ignore.

dazy – IT’S ONLY A SECRET (if you repeat it) / I GET LOST (when i try to get found) [Lame-O Records]

“What would it sound like if you crammed together Beck and Blur? What if you combine the Chemical Brothers with Bob Mould?,” were the questions rolling through dazy mastermind James Goodson’s head when he wrote “IT’S ONLY A SECRET (if you repeat it)”, the title track and one of the knockouts from his doubling of EPs released in short order this year. Packing IT’S ONLY A SECRET (if you repeat it) and I GET LOST (when i try to get found) all together, the combined six tracks from your favorite hardcore band’s favorite punk songwriter does all of those mashups justice. Since breaking through on 2022’s debut effort, OUTOFBODY, Goodson has refined dazy’s power-pop surge by smoothing over static in favor of extra wavy acoustic power chords, radiation vibes in rippling keys, and baggy drumbeats that dare to wonder what Madchester-gone-hardcore might sound like. It’s another flawless execution, and punctuated by guest spots from the shout raps of one Deedee of kindred scene adjacencies, MSPAINT, as well as the vocal honey of Mimi Gallagher of the indie punk bands Eight and NONA, dazy continues to push its feel good freakouts over the edge, now with more polish.

Greg Mendez – First Time / Alone [Dead Oceans]

Last year’s self-titled, self-released debut album from Greg Mendez was an underrated success story across DIY spaces (specifically, the Philly DIY scene which Mendez has richly contributed to over the years.) His latest EP and his Dead Oceans debut, First Time / Alone, is the perfect place to begin even if you’re catching up. For those already initiated, the listen peels back a few layers on an artist you’ve already begun to know and warm up to, as the 8-minute long extended play strips his band work back to just he, the rampant thoughts of someone whose had too much time to think over the course of the past four months post-wrist surgery, an acoustic guitar, the occasional glow of an electric organ, and some company kindling to ward off the loneliness from his bandmate and wife, Veronica (though, you’d maybe not guess that last part given Mendez’s way with words concerning solitude throughout most of the songs’ subject matters.) It’s a short but necessary reminder that the simplicity of earnest melancholia laid bare in well-crafted melody will find its way to the right people, whether it’s their first time or not as well.

ira glass – compound turbulence flexing for the heat [Angel Tapes / Fire Talk]

The audacity to name yourself after one of NPR’s most wholesomely beloved voices and slices of American life, but also, yes, that audacity indeed. As ira glass, the Chicago DIY rock scene outfit have been disrespecting of any and all boundaries in their crackling post-hardcore, feedback-driving post-punk, and feral noise amalgamation on their early demo releases. compound turbulence flexing for the heat, their debut EP for Fire Talk Records’ Angel Tapes imprint, formally ignites it all while cleaning up some of the unkempt corners, but there’s only so much that can be tethered in an otherwise catalytic energy that carries on the Albini torch of ugly, unbridled noisemaking proudly (that it was recorded at Electric Audio fully realizes that fever dream fully.) Vocalist Lise Ivanova loses herself while projecting obtuse aggressions, and discord is made all the artful with errant brass throwing itself into the blister. The impact is messy, but with no regard to guideliness, ira glass’ turbulence makes for an interesting trip.

Kareem Rahma’s Tiny Gun – No Worries If Not [Self-released]

When you listen to a rock band from New York City, you sure as fuck want them to sound like a rock band from New York City. Kareem Rahma’s Tiny Gun knows it. Perhaps it’s because its five members collect themselves from various stages of their scene’s millennial history, including that of YVETTE, Motion Studies, Darlings, and Mr. Dream alo vocalist Kareem Rahma, a.k.a. that dude who has his talents in everything, from content creation to comedy with his respective shows, Subway Takes and Keep the Meter Running. Their debut EP, No Worries If Not, has plenty of sardonic jabs in it, but its reverence to the city’s rock and post-punk vanguard is every part of the bit in the most earnest way as well. Imagine a place where those hedonistic massive nights of lored loft parties, dive bars and DIY spaces soundtracked by Television, LCD Soundsystem, and the Hold Steady coexisted in the same timeline, and the capitalistic death grip of Vice never killed their spirit. Something about them feels familiar without sounding intentionally reductive, yet unassuming that it’ll somehow save the scene.

Kassie Krut – Kassie Krut [Fire Talk]

Kassie Krut began coming to life even before Palm was laid to rest, with the latter’s now-former members Kasra Kurt and Eve Alpert beginning to connect the disconnects in frayed electronic pop through a string of singles tracing back to 2020. Matt Anderegg of Body Meat and Mothers would then join them in 2022, a curious mark marker on the timeline, given it coincided with the Philly experimental art-rockers’ peak release in their final album, the colorful mind-twist Nicks and Grazes. Perhaps they had brought that band’s sound as far as it could go, which makes the challenge of dismantling sonic spaces on Kassie Krut’s self-titled debut EP a natural yet distinctly inverse progression from its remnants. As with “Reckless, the solid six-song listen’s feral opening track and statement of purpose in purveying a new form of freakiness, Kassie Krut is at its core a bright, disorienting pop experience built around minimalistic synth beats exploding club-bursting feedback messily through asymmetrical patterns. What transmits is an extended play that is instantaneously promising first proper taste of a singular sound coming into being, touching on DIY noise-pop, dub, industrial techno, and electro-punk influences yet arriving at a point of no concrete comparison with today’s sonic field.

Moses Sumney – Sophcore [Tuntum]

On 2020’s acclaimed Græ, Moses Sumney doubled down on experimental ambitions in a capacity that sounded serious and ornate in crafting proper art in the songwriting form. Four years have raced by with few movements on the Sumney front beyond his occasional dalliances with Hollywood, but his return on the extended play, Sophcore, sounds like he’s used that time to evolve into a natural reactionary state where he’s comfortable allowing carnal instincts take the reigns. Here, Sumney gives himself permission to seek out the soul through flesh in a contemporary cool vessel that uses his past life’s smoothest materials and hits them up raw against a horny luster of R&B-pop elixir. The sex is a juxtaposition that feels right just the same. “I used to be such a simp / So simple / Now that I’m poppin’ and fine / No pimple,” he rhymes nefariously into every groove of the highlight “I’m Better (I’m Bad)”, only to cozy right on up to commitment in “Vintage” classic, “Ready to ride / Ready for ball and chain / If I get that old thing back / Promise I won’t complain”. No matter his avenue of loving, he sounds comfortable in the glow of this new skin.

Punitive Damage – Hate Training [Convulse Records]

It’s been a minute since we’ve heard any righteous fury coming our way out of Punitive Damage, the Pac Northwest extreme hardcore band who at one moment shared some membership with Regional Justice Center, but ultimately stuck out in their own blaze to put out one of 2022’s best heavy albums with their debut full-length, This Is the Blackout. I like that each band is now on their own distinct narratives these days, with Punitive Damage’s being a timely conflagration to unleash back onto the world with their latest EP, Hate Training. Look around this world, and you’ll see apathy to bloodshed with no real attempts to stop it. Vocalist Jerkova calls it what it is. “I watch the shit spill both sides out of your mouth / Twisted, snarling maw at the suffering you make,” she snarls on “Baptism of Fire”. To all those plaster saints who think they’re being tactful playing both sides or privileged enough to take the apathetic route, Punitive Damage are an intent to destroy any human callousness through their regimen of revulsion toward them.

PUREST FORM – PUREST FORM [Self-released]

On the 30th birthday weekend of Nine Inch Nails’ damaged, mass industrial-alternative classic, The Downward Spiral, PUREST FORM’s self-titled debut EP entered our existential plane from futuristic sound particles not dissimilar than what Trent Reznor created, and spawning their own degree of masochism. The Los Angeles trio — whose membership already ripples throughout the scene in bands like Fury, Object of Affection, Choking on Ash, and Pocketknife — are using their varying background experiences in grindcore, metal, and electronic music to set fire to sound with the world as their accelerant. You don’t need to be dense to see how there’s plenty of it around as it is, and if the apocalypse is right around the corner, then PUREST FORM take full advantage of the optics of it in all its broken and self-destructive nature. Three songs. Seven minutes. There’s just enough substance here to ignite a dark techno thrash dance to rage to as humankind spirals down.

Show Me the Body – CORPUS II EP I / CORPUS II EP II [CORPUS]

Show Me the Body have certainly made some very cool friends by being in a seemingly endless tour mode this past year. In 2024, they did opener duties for Knocked Loose’s epic summertime run alongside SPEED and Loathe, and their fall headlining trek saw the experimental hardcore punks bringing an eccentric mix from the heavy underground alongside them in the likes of High Vis, Special Interest, BIB, and ZeeloperZ. They’re taking all of that energy and feeding it into their art as they continue create and lean into CORPUS’ collaborative community ethos, evidenced by their self-releasing of two EPs as part of their CORPUS series. It’s a predictably eclectic crowd, with its first part featuring Zulu, B L A C K I E, King Yosef, Starker, and YL and Spellling, Regional Justice Center, Destiny, VCR, Corbin, and Nick Hakim alongside aforementioned tourmates Special Interest and High Vis on part two. Each of the pairings match fire for fire that make for some of the year’s most intriguingly complimentary collaborations, but more importantly, evidence that art is stronger when you’re building a support system for each other’s ideas.

Still Ruins – Still Ruins [Smoking Room / Cercle Social Records]

Time is on the side of Still Ruins, and they’ve used every moment of it to their advantage. The Oakland band, which began to take shape a decade ago, is a curious case of slowly but surely which goes against the state of today’s fast-tracked creative approach, in releasing their first effort this year with their eponymous self-titled extended play on Smoking Room, putting them in very good company along the likes of Hotline TNT and They Are Gutting a Body of Water. It’s telling how patience has been to their benefit. Led by the haunted balladeering of vocalist Frankie Soto alongside Jose Medina and Cyrus VandenBerghe, the trio have carefully crafted and crystallized a form of dreamy pop-rock echoing ’80s new wave, synthy pop and R&B through the frame of memories that feel within an arm’s length reach. There isn’t a blemish to be found on the surface of any of it, and the emotions run deep into its veins.

Tanukichan – Circles [Carpark Records]

You easily could argue that the acclaim for Tanukichan has been long overdue yet right on time, with last year’s sophomore effort, GIZMO, feeding its sticky fever dreams into more ears following tours supporting Alex G and Alvvays as well as subheadlining the west coast version of Nothing’s shoegaze and dream-pop fest, Slide Away. She belongs on those bigger stages, and with her latest EP, Circles, she’s very much getting there in vivid technicolor. Recollecting memories of youth and the ebbs and flows of life’s journey through a stream of conscious haze, her sounds is enriched alongside her newest collaborator, producer Franco Reid, giving the dreamy pop-rock vehicle of Hannah van Loon bigger wheels to it as she searches for her place in the world in hi-def-resonating thought bubbles. Next stop, her biggest moves yet…

Wisp – Pandora [Interscope Records]

Like Julie, the TikTok ascent of the young, enigmatic shoegaze artist Wisp managed to score a major label deal with a major label without more than a few singles but a ton of viral buzz behind her name. Pandora, the first proper release by the moniker of San Francisco-based songwriter Natalie R. Lu, torchbears a cohesive understanding of segueing the current’s alternative-pop aesthetic into the next wave’s discovered immersion into lush, swaying, prettied up distortion crashing into dreamy, pop bluffs. Guitars, as if made of liquid chrome, wave heavily along the path in denser matter, and while Wisp’s vocals are slowly but surely making their way to the surface, they intentionally never allow themselves to reach it, complimentary to her desperately longing melancholia. This is to say that she may be the first definitive example of an artist from a generation raised on Deftones, Phoebe Bridgers, and Whirr to put their inspos all together on the same sonic plane.