It's going pretty well! It's a bit of slow going again, like the epic round, as you can imagine. Hopefully it won't be quite as slow as that one was, though, because listening to a set of songs that total 30 minutes is usually less draining than listening to a 30-minute song. At least it is for me.
I've just finished the last EP of my first run-through, so I've listened to all of them once. I'll begin the second listen tomorrow. I don't know if I'll ever post first impression quotes from this round, because any quote about the whole EP would be really obvious for most of them and any quote about a particular song would often not be that telling because it's just one song of several (or even many). But I will give a general description about my thoughts after one listen.
To briefly sing my own praises: I think it was really good that I did this EP round. I'm not sure if I'm the first one to do this in a roulette, so if I'm not, then whoever came up with it came up with a really good idea, and if I am, then I guess I came up with a really good idea. It's been really interesting to just see how everyone used the space allowed by the two rules I gave you (less than 30 minutes of music, no more than 15 minutes per band) to come up with different samplings of songs. Some people went with a particular mood or style of music and gave me an EP that consists mostly or entirely of that style, which is probably a more effective way of getting me to check out the particular style than just sending one song from one artist. Several EPs really focus in on particular styles of music that I wasn't that familiar with coming in, and I'm enjoying wading in to the examples they've provided to get to know that style. Others focused on a style that I already know in an attempt to get me into some artists in that style that I don't know. And then there are some that offer a wide stylistic variety that often seems to still work in the 30-minute playlist format.
All this to say that one listen in, I don't regret doing the EP round (like I thought I might). Scoring might be a little bit more of a challenge this time, and I realize that the stakes couldn't be higher here than at any other point in the roulette, but just in the interest of being a music listener who is trying to sample a number of different styles, I really like the way this round is turning out.
Second listen starts tomorrow!
I'll keep you all updated on this process, which hopefully won't take quite as long as the epic round did. And, also, I'll be making a "what I learned running this roulette" post in the not-to-distant future, so that will be coming as well.
Oh, one other little tease: Two artists were included on two different people's EPs. And one person sent both artists (in case that wasn't clear, it was like Person B sent an artist that Person A sent, and Person C sent a different artist that Person A also sent).