Time to start making our next list of the year’s best EPs. 2025 is already off to a fantastic start on that front thanks to Loraine James.

The electronic producer has kicked off January with New Year’s Substitution 3, a new four-song collection comprising collabs with four fascinating artists. ML Buch, the Danish master of hyperreal guitar pop, is featured on closing track “December Blues // -_-,” and the project opens with “Yet To Know The Meaning Of Forever” featuring Coby Sey, the gifted London singer known for his work with experimental titans Tirzah and Mica Levi. In between come tracks with Berlin-based Kenyan ambient star KMRU (recently spotted on our list of 2024’s best experimental releases) and Scottish alternative electronic upstart KAVARI. Together, the songs conjure a coherent mood and aesthetic — sort of a drowsy melancholia conveyed through glitchy electronics and moody keyboard clouds. It’s an exceptional collection of music created in a short burst of inspiration.

James has been releasing New Year’s Substitution EPs every four years or so. Previous installments in the series dropped in December 2015 and January 2020 and have remained exclusive to Bandcamp. Each one was created in about a week with a slate of smartly curated collaborators. The Bandcamp page indicates James worked on New Year’s Substitution 3 over five days last week, from Dec. 26-30. She writes, “thank you to Coby, KMRU, ML Buch & KAVARI for doing this in such a short space of time.”

I concur; we’re lucky they took the time to create this. Stream the full EP below.