So short (not quite nine minutes) this four-song set could easily fit on a 7". Maybe it will, but for now the "alternate" format is the trendy cassette. Hooky hails from Philadelphia, and Winter has wandered from Brazil to Los Angeles to New York.

Hooky & Winter Water Season EP (Julia's War Child Recordings)

The two of them sat down and wrote songs one day in 2024. I imagine the recording and editing took a bit longer, but probably not much. This is clearly a spur-of-the-moment affair, with clean digital production and ultra-gauzy vocals and sounds. How does that work? Like you can hear every thread in the fabric even as it stanches your wounds.

The songs pass so quickly, their abrupt beginnings and ends are obvious only on repeat listens. But those rare jarring instances only emphasize the ephemeral and immediate feel of these songs. They may share sounds (though "I like you" definitely treads a different trail, though it also repurposes the first track, "horseshoe"), but the breadth of ideas hiding in plain sight is astonishing.

Just let it roll. And then again. And a few times more. Very few short outings like this pack such an intense emotional punch. Maybe Hooky and Winter will never intersect again, but this collision is well worth immersion.

Jon Worley