Stairs to Korea – Small Fractures EP

Stairs to Korea’s Small Fractures EP first charmed me, and then surprised me. After enough listens to Will Vaughan’s debut EP, I feel both in equal measure. Superficial visits to this 7” release reveal a sprightly collection of brightly-coloured indie pop, full of quirk and cheek and just enough charm and wit to keep me coming back. Repeat listens reveal new depths and new areas to enjoy, and, eventually, the slow but significant revelation that Vaughan has crammed enough hooks and invention for a whole record into just four tracks.

Small Fractures collects the three singles Vaughan has released under the Stairs to Korea moniker over the past two years, and adds ‘Guy Fawkes’, a staple of his live set in that time. It’s composed and arranged with an obvious DIY-aesthetic, but there is no surprise there: though this EP is the first to be released via Vaughan’s own ‘now… no NOW! Records’, he has put out his singles so far on British-DIY powerhouse Brainlove, the home of Napolean IIIrd – to whose live shows Vaughan frequently contributes – and Andy Regan’s Pagan Wanderer Lu, probably Vaughan’s closest contemporary musical comparison.

It is important to note here that DIY should not be confused with lo-fi. While the two can, and frequently do, correlate, it would be churlish to describe Small Fractures as a lo-fi record. It’s produced with a slickness and a gloss that defies its homespun origins, and which is nicely representative of the effort Vaughan puts into crafting his releases. Since the September 2009 release of his debut single, Small Fractures opener ‘Boy, Bear It in Mind’, Vaughan has recorded and released a mere three further songs. One suspects that this is symptomatic of a perfectionist: there is so much going on here, each song is so tightly constructed and layered, that it’s hardly surprising that Vaughan’s work-rate should be slow.

As I touched on in the introduction, this is a set that reveals itself over time. Its slow-burning nature in that sense is one of the joys of the thing, few four-track EPs I’ve listened to have lent themselves so well to repeated listens as this one. Indeed, it is arguable that this format is the best way for Vaughan to release music: In rattling through four tracks in fourteen minutes, any one of which could no doubt be someone’s favourite, Vaughan does not allow any let-up, or any chance for boredom to sink in. With hook-laden, sunshine-drenched pop music as pure as this, there is a great joy to be taken in its concentrated form, and with such pains taken over the arrangement and composition of each track, the chance to appreciate each track on its own basis, and not as part of a lengthy LP, is one I took with relish.