Sofia Kourtesis’s self-titled EP was one of my favorite releases of 2019, and she’s back with the “Sarita Colonia” EP this year, four new entertaining tracks. The songs on “Sarita Colonia” are inventive and dynamic and kinetic like the tunes on her self-titled EP, but these show a little more personality, maybe slightly more revealing in some ways. Mostly, I think, because of the vocal snippets that Kourtesis has embedded in a lot of these songs, playful, teasing, and unexpected. I love when an artist kind of digs a little more into themselves and their aesthetic—when they make the kind of music only they could make, or the kind of book only they could write, or the kind of film only they could direct, etc. i get the feeling that’s where Kourtesis is at, where she’s headed. I love the vibe of the title track, which has unstoppable, river-flowing energy, but I wanted to highlight “Akariku” because it’s so enjoyable. Simple chirps, claps, rushing vents, then a voice enters with some polite advice, the percussion starts in earnest, and a bigger voice starts singing. It all opens up as it moves further along, a sweet synth pulse, some chiming notes, a remark, “Mmm-hmm, yeah,” a woman’s voice setting the scene, and then, out of nowhere, a bright snippet of Marvin Gaye’s “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” threaded into the track. Beautiful. One of four fun tracks on a great EP.