Mine Da Gap participated in the 2025 RPM Challenge in February, recording an EP titled Christmas Extended Play. This release is now available exclusively on Bandcamp.
The five tracks on the EP are part of a work in progress with more songs expected in the future. No date has been set for this uncompleted release, and Christmas Extended Play will not be distributed to streaming services. “Recording in Progress” is scheduled for a wider single release later in the year.
Despite the title, Christmas Extended Play is not a seasonal release and has no holiday content. If anything, the title invites listeners to impose as much of a holiday spirit onto the music. Alternately, it could be the holiday release for when you’ve had enough Christmas music.
“No Exit” by Eponymous 4 returns to streaming services on May 30, 2025 with new mixes and sharing top billing with “Blood Money.”
This three-track maxi single was originally released in 2015 as part of a multi-month campaign preceding the release of Retrograde Songs, a compilation of b-side tracks. “No Exit” was the fifth of six singles.
The three songs on this release are steeped in influences from the 1980s, from Honolulu band Oriental Love Ring to Duran Duran and Information Society. “Blood Money” even throws in a bit of Shiina Ringo into the mix.
Service Pack Three releases a new single on April 25, marking the first original song from the electronic music project of Greg Bueno.
“If I My Luck Ran Out” is actually a rock song that would have fit well in the Eponymous 4 catalog. But none of the instruments on the track are live — they all use sample libraries.
In a further twist, the singers featured on the single are also vocal synthesizers. The actual voices powering the synthesizers probably don’t even know the song exists.
Music technology has come a long way since Eponymous 4 debuted in 2008. This track would not have been possible back then.
“The One to Make You Whole” returns to streaming services on March 28, 2025 with new mixes.
Similar to “Silver Sting,” this three-track maxi single was originally released in 2015 as part of a multi-month campaign preceding the release of Retrograde Songs, a compilation of b-side tracks. “The One to Make You Whole” was the third of six singles.
A new single, “Scene 1 on Modes 4 and 6”, arrives Feb. 28, 2025 on Bandcamp and streaming services.
Using the modes of limited transposition described by composer Olivier Messiaen, this new track seeks the familiar in harmonic terrain rarely explored outside classical music circles. It should sound just a little weird.
“Silver Sting” by Eponymous 4 returns to streaming services on Jan. 31, 2025 with new mixes.
The three-track maxi single was originally released in 2015 as part of a multi-month campaign preceding the release of Retrograde Songs, a compilation of b-side tracks. Eponymous 4 had released only albums and EPs up to that point, but the tracks on Retrograde Songs didn’t feel cohesive enough to justify being called an album.
“Silver Sting” was the second of six singles released in 2015, with Retrograde Songs following later that year.
Does this mean we might see a reissue of Retrograde Songs in the future? It does indeed.
Penzias and Wilson releases their debut EP titled Low Modes on October 25, 2024.
The seven-track EP centers around the A-flat major scale and the modes derived from each note in the scale. “Sonata Agita” starts things off on G Locrian, a mode often described as dark and unstable. The hip-hop beats and electronic dance bass try to offset that inherent instability.
“Tantalus Sunset” follows, turning the often bright D-Flat Lydian into something more contemplative. Other tracks seek new facets of a mode’s reputation. “Wildfire Sunset” skirts the more exotic tendencies of C Phrygian, and “Rescue the Fly,” which starts on F Aeolian (a.k.a. F minor), doesn’t stay there for long.
The “low” in Low Modes refers to solfege systems where the note A-flat is represented by the syllable “lo”. In other systems, the title of this EP could have been called Le Modes.
But why center an entire set of songs around A-flat? The first track completed for Low Modes was “Rescue the Fly,” which started out as a solo piano piece before being arranged for string quartet on the Empty Ensemble album 「弦楽四重奏曲其の一」 (Gengaku Shijuusou Kyoku Sono Ichi). The track was essentially a token pop song among a suite of short classical pieces, so it made sense to turn it into an actual pop song. The rest of the EP took shape around that single track.
Low Modes will be released on streaming service and on Bandcamp for high-fidelity downloads.
Two singles from the 「新曲モラトリアム」 (Shinkyoku Moratoirum) albums have been reissued with new mixes on Bandcamp. Digital releases follow in July and September 2024.
“Be My Last” arrives on streaming services July 26, with “Hurt So Bad” arriving September 27.
Both songs have been remixed and remastered for inclusion on a forthcoming Eponymous 4 compilation scheduled for release in 2025.
Service Pack Three continues the enigmatics makeover with a reissue of “enigmatics IV”, scheduled for release in August 2024.
In addition to updated mixes, Service Pack Three revamps the title track and the b-side “Acid Vogue.”
“Acid Vogue” was an attempt to make acid house music without actually listening to any acid house. Service Pack Three turns the track into the quasi-industrial track it was meant to be.
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