EP Review – Page 2 – Stylus Magazine

August 8, 2023June 25, 2023

EP Review :: Softswitch :: Softswitch

by Rish Hanco

Softswitch—consisting of Suzy Keller on drums, Rob Hill on guitar, and Ryan McPherson on bass and vocals—takes you to the centre of a universe at once recognizable and surreal with their new self-titled EP. Mundane activity is set against a background of questionable perceptions of self and reality. “Memoriam,” the first track on the album, displays this uncertainty with lines like “Was she even real?” and “It was like a faded page somewhere in our cursive memory.”

July 25, 2023October 13, 2023

EP Review :: STELLAR :: Stages

Reviving the New Vintage Attitude

by Albert Akimov

STELLAR’s distinctive vintage aesthetic infuses a united message in its music and visuals, a message about the past and what it could have been. Released in 2021, their first single, “Call Me Goodbye,” is a touching, melancholy track about heartache, with shimmer acoustic guitars, harmonized, reverbed vocals, and winding solos. In the same vein, they released “Stranger,” which touches on topics like unrequited love and ends with a beautiful guitar solo. “Water” is their most recent single, which has a calming, meditative vibe and continues to express a dysfunctional partnership that, ultimately, does not work out.

June 13, 2023May 14, 2023

EP Review :: Tinge :: Big Deep Sigh

by Mykhailo Vil’yamson

In the song “Pennyroyal Tea,” Kurt Cobain once sang, “Give me a Leonard Cohen afterworld, so I can sigh eternally.” Not every artist possesses the ability to impel listeners to breathe deeply, but this is definitely the case with Tinge’s debut EP Big Deep Sigh. The project hearkens back to when Indie was more Punk than pretentious and when Emo was less of a post-goth fashion statement than an angst-ridden, authentic, and worthy successor to Grunge-era music.

June 6, 2023May 14, 2023

EP Review :: Noah Derksen :: Sanctity of Silence

photo of Noah colour edited to look aged.

by Paul Newsom

Winnipeg singer-songwriter Noah Derksen makes strikingly earnest music. It’s probably thanks to this fact that seeing his most recent album come up marked “Explicit” on streaming services feels momentarily surreal – if only for the presence of several pointed and beautiful breakup songs on the record.

February 2, 2023January 28, 2023

EP Review :: middleTimes :: middleTimes

middleTimes EP cover man in sandals shorts and t-shirt sit-in on a rock underneath trees and sun flare in upper right corner.

by Gabriel Fars

I think that this is the type of EP you would dismiss at first. The type that you need to learn how to love. Like those tracks that you always initally skip but then when you actually give it a listen you discover it’s the best song you’ve ever heard in your entire fucking life.

January 31, 2023January 28, 2023

EP Review :: Zoon :: Sterling Murmuration

by Myles Tiessen

“…this body of work is supposed to display the danger in isolating. While in this state, we set ourselves up to be in harm’s way by outside forces, but breaking out and embracing humility and community, you can finally transcend into a healthy trajectory.”

So writes Zoon’s Daniel Monkman in the press release for their surprise EP Sterling Murmuration.

January 13, 2023January 28, 2023

EP Review :: Annaxis :: CBT

by Jakob Sheppard

TRIGGER WARNING: THIS ARTICLE CONTAINS A DISCUSSION OF TOPICS INCLUDING ANOREXIA, MENTAL ILLNESS AND SELF HARM

I was fortunate enough to be able to ask Winnipeg’s Annaxis about her brand-new EP: CBT or “Cognitive Behavioural Therapy,” in which she brings her unique brand of dark pop with indie influences like Kate Bush, and Mitski, making the listening experience sombre yet beautiful at the same time.