After Yvette Young released her jaw-dropping acoustic math rock EP in early 2014, we’ve all been waiting for developments with her actual band, covet. After a crowdfunding campaign putting the album available for pre-order on bandcamp, the Currents EP is finally, after some delay, released.

Does it live up to the hype? Yes and no. It all has to do with what you expected of this. I anticipated something more or less like her personal Acoustics EP: intricate and technical guitar play, soft and melodious vocals and chill songs, but all supported by a band of talented and like-minded musicians. Well, they got most of it! The only thing really missing here is the vocals. Currents is an instrumental EP, with few and far apart instances of some back vocals: “ahh” and “ohh” from the back seat to add a little texture.

Other than the missing lead singer, all the pieces fit together quite nicely. Somebody on bandcamp wrote that it’s somewhere between CHON, Animals as Leaders, and Gordian Knot, which I can but agree with! I didn’t notice the Gordian Knot similarities at first, but now that they are pointed at to me, they’re pretty obvious! On the record, Yvette is, as usual, tapping the shit out of her guitar; it’s both impressive and simply good! The rest of the band acts more or less as support, and stay out of the spotlight for most of the time. The title track is more bass-driven, but still it’s nothing spectacular; however, it’s fitting to the atmosphere of the song and the rest of the EP so I can appreciate it for that.

Here is a video of “Charybdis”, played in studio:

In conclusion, Currents is a very good and relaxed EP. The biggest letdown is that it feels like an instrumental version of what the actual EP might have been.