Porridge Radio - The Machine Starts To Sing EP

Porridge Radio's 'The Machine Starts To Sing' EP arrives like a friend who shows up at your door unannounced but improves your whole evening. These four tracks, born from the sessions of their fourth album, pack the emotional wallop of a full-length record into a compact framework that leaves no moment wasted.

The title-track opens with Dana Margolin's voice - an instrument that could slice through steel or soothe a crying child, depending on the moment - as it weaves through an arrangement that builds like a cathedral made of matchsticks. Sam Yardley's drums mark time like a countdown to something inevitable, with each beat adding another brick to the wall of sound.

'OK' started life as a Margolin solo piece but blooms into something more expansive here. The full band treatment transforms what might have been a quiet confession into a shared moment of clarity, with Georgie Stott's keyboards adding layers of warmth that feel like sunshine breaking through grey skies.

'Don't Want To Dance' might be the most immediately gripping thing here, its seemingly buoyant rhythm carrying lyrics that explore survival with unflinching honesty. It's the sort of track that demands to be played at full volume, preferably while driving nowhere in particular.

The collection closes with 'I've Got A Feeling (Stay Lucky)', perhaps their most outwardly hopeful offering to date. Dom Monks' production, fresh from his work with Big Thief, captures every whisper and roar with the precision of a wildlife photographer, letting each moment develop naturally without losing its wild heart.

Despite the band calling it a day, this EP catches Porridge Radio in full flight - confident enough to stretch their wings but never straying too far from the raw truth that anchors their best work. These aren't leftover songs; they're hidden final chapters in a story that keeps getting better with each telling.