EP One
Release date
June 10, 2016
Label
Kscope
Recorded
2014
Length
18:54
Paul Draper’s debut solo EP, EP One, released on 10 June 2016 via Kscope Records, was Paul Draper’s return to music after a 12-year hiatus since Mansun’s 2004 collection Kleptomania. EP One features introspective lyrics on isolation and struggle blended with alternative rock, electronic, and orchestral elements. Self-produced by Draper at his home studio with guests like Porcupine Tree’s Steven Wilson on “No Ideas,” it was mixed by Paul “PDub” Walton and mastered by Frank Arkwright at Abbey Road, setting the stage for his 2017 album Spooky Action.
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About EP One
EP One, Paul Draper’s inaugural solo EP, was released on 10 June 2016 through Kscope Records, heralding his return as a frontman after Mansun’s turbulent 2003 breakup and the band’s final 2004 compilation Kleptomania. The opening track “Feeling My Heart Run Slow” sets a haunting, synth-driven tone with its melancholic introspection, followed by “No Ideas” (a collaboration with Porcupine Tree’s Steven Wilson), the brooding “The Silence is Deafening” with its electronic pulses and rock edges, and closing with “F.M.H.R.S.” (a remix of the opener by The Twilight Sad).
Upon release, EP One was warmly received for revitalising Draper’s career, with Prog Magazine lauding its “brooding intensity and melodic grace” and The Quietus highlighting how it “bridges Mansun’s prog leanings with personal catharsis.” It fuelled buzz for Spooky Action, earning Draper his first solo airplay on BBC Radio 6 Music.