And so Screaming Maldini end 2010 as they started it: with an EP. Technically their third release in the space of nine months - I don’t know about you, but I’m counting the four songs they unveiled in June as another collection - it finds them taking even bigger steps towards carving out their own niche.

The focus, this time around, is not entirely on immediate pop songs (the title track has that one covered on its own, thanks very much); instead, among the four new songs, we have quite the odd assortment of styles.

There is an instrumental that could probably slot in quite well on the soundtrack of a classic Disney film (‘Re: Sledging’). There is an arrangement of this - yes, seriously: only a band like this could do such a thing and pull it off. There and gone in a minute and twenty seconds, ‘As Dew In Aprille’ is as wonderfully strange yet glorious as anything they’ve written themselves.

From there, we’re taken straight into closing track ‘The Dreamer’. This one is perhaps not so new (having been around for the best part of a year as part of this rather wonderful compilation), but slots in perfectly as part of the EP, its cinematic, orchestral sound and steady rhythms combining to end things on the quite the high note. 

Rising from the ashes of Situationists, Screaming Maldini have since gone on to mark themselves out as noteworthy for the year ahead. Maybe that long-awaited debut album doesn’t seem so far off after all? If it’s anything as diverse and consistent as the material to go before it, we are in for a treat. [GO’M]

8.8

Screaming Maldini - As Dew In Aprille by Music Fan’s Mic