Welcome to 7-Inch Roundup (named so because of 7 inch vinyl records, the size for smaller albums), a new occasional series I’ll do where I take two eps and/or two albums too short to do full reviews on and review them together in one double review. This week, we’re tackling 2 Indie EPsthat kinda flew under the radar this year. Both feature guitars and… not much else.
To start, let’s cover the slightly less gushy of the two, “Catching Chickens” by Nourished By Time, an up and coming new Indie RnB artist from Baltimore, whose 2023 album “Erotic Probiotic 2” might just take the award for most underrated album that year. Nourished By Time, real name Marcus Brown, is fantastic at catching these warm spring vibes, mixing Alternative RnB with dashes of Hypnagogic Pop, Bedroom Pop, Synthpop, and even just a little bit of Jangle Pop. It all gives his music a breezy, warm and carefree feeling that makes it impossible to hold any ill will to anything on earth. His debut record fully capitalized on it, making it a complete standout, in a year of standouts. This year to hold us over until his next album he’s dropped a short and sweet five track EP of sunny and gorgeous RnB bops.
Catching Chickens is the purest definition of all killer no filler with none of the 5 tracks wasting any space. The first beautiful piano notes of “Hell Of A Ride” play wonderfully aside the synths, and Brown’s deep, rich, yet impassioned and electric vocals. It’s a great way to set up the scene and set up a more natural futuristic sound for later releases. This is followed by the track “Hand On Me” with its peppy energetic drum beat and solid driving synth melody. This track alongside the later “Had Ya Called” show Brown’s impeccable ability to craft a solid nostalgic 90s RnB and synthpop vibe while keeping it cutting edge and up to date with modern indie sensibilities and sounds, giving the tracks a timeless and wondrously engaging sound throughout.
The other 2 tracks, “Poison-Soaked” and “Romance In Me” are slower and more contemplative numbers, with these powerful and pounding drums and godly guitars. “Poison-Soaked” is a little more chaotic and dark sounding, with haunting choral vocals in the back half and dissonantly angelic sounds that give it a beautifully nightmarish sound. “Romance In Me” on the other hand is just a shirt rending wail of passion that closes the EP out fantastically. I wouldn’t say the material here quite reaches the pure intoxicating highs of “Erotic Probiotic 2” ; it’s still a fantastic collection of RnB bops that gives me lots of hope for future releases in Brown’s discography.
Only 5 tracks doesnt give me much to talk about though, so let’s move onto the other subject for today, Twice Around The Sun by Ugly (UK). Ugly is a UK based indie folk outfit that I had never heard of before catching wind of this new EP here through a few music review publications such as NME and TheNeedleDrop and Its Classification as “Progressive Folk” along with the very pretty cover art for the EP struck my interest enough to get me to listen to the record, and good lord am I glad I did.
From the very beginning of the EP with the seven minute opener “The Wheel” the band immediately shows so much creativity, ambition, and promise. Playing this Yes meets Fleet Foxes progressive folk odyssey with some of the most beautiful and exciting instrumentation and pace I’ve heard all year, especially as it all climaxes and reaches its peak in energy and power by the end with the bellows of “I will lay the wreath around you” feeling like this cathartic release of pure energy that makes me feel in another world every time I listen to it. This is followed up with the breather of “Sha” a slow contemplative almost Big Thief like track, filled with beautiful subtlety and these vocals that give me lovely memories of early Courtney Barnett. This once again progresses nicely into a wide and rich instrumental palette to compliment the rising vocals and emotions creating a lovely bridge between “The Wheel” and track three “Icy Windy Sky.” Said track three is a fantastic slice of pure prog rock with some dramatic and animated vocals over a driving and powerful acoustic instrumental and maybe the best chorus of the year that’s stuck in my head far after I’m done listening. The track also runs nicely in phases from the soaring adventurous first part to the more tribal and primal second half making the entire track feel like a journey from start to end.
Moving to the second half of the EP now we have the especially ambitious and progressive “Shepherds Carol” with the shiny and twinkly progressive folk backing making way for a track very reminiscent of early Of Montreal with its twee folk pop leanings and infectious vocals, it’s a track that feels just like spring. You might be noticing how I’m basically just comparing this record to the work of a lot of other artists I know and like, which might be an issue to some. I wouldn’t say Ugly is specifically breaking new ground with their sound but they live damn hard by the adage “If you can’t do something new, you better do it right” and by christ do they do it very right across this record. Another example is the track “Hands Of Man” which is basically a bit of Microphones mixed with the Windmill scene bands like Black Country New Road and Squid, that creates a nicely somber and sober tone through the song and its musings on time and human nature. I like how it provides downtime between the energetic and progressive tunes so far in order to lay into the even subtler and more beautiful closer “I’m Happy You’re Here” which is the strangest track on the EP. Clocking in at a respectable 8 minutes it’s easily the most traditional prog track on the album. Starting with a quiet and subtle intro with strange and somewhat off putting talky vocals that clash against the rhythm and melody in a way that oddly works super well for me and reminds me nicely of Black Midi’s softer moments. As the track goes on that strange intro shifts from talk vocals to a slowly enriching and beautiful wave of overwhelming instrumentation as the vocals get even more powerful before dying out completely and returning to a soft folk middle. Before it flourishes and blooms into a beautiful jazz infused outro with a vocal chorus that’s so beautiful and powerful that it frankly brings a tear to my eye each time I listen to it. It’s overwhelming, it’s powerful, and it’s beautiful in ways I can barely describe, especially as the jazzy sax and vocals play us out into this gorgeous guitar part at the end.
Frankly it’s reviewing projects like these two that remind me why I’m even bothering with these reviews. To share how beautiful and impressive these projects are, and how exciting the future of Indie music is, no matter how bogged down the mainstream stuff gets. Please, I implore you to listen to these records if you haven’t already. It’ll hopefully make your day just a little better, and even if it doesn’t, you probably weren’t gonna use that time for anything important anyways, so I consider it a win-win.
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