What defines a collection of musicians as a “collective” as opposed to an orchestra or a band? At least in popular consciousness we think of collectives as being an open gathering of musical artists who can come or go at their leisure without feeling tied down.

Basically it’s like an open relationship, or a band for those with commitment issues. And generally the music falls somewhere between that produced by an orchestra and a standard rock band. The main thing that keeps a collective afloat however is a singular musical vision shared between the participants, something ETC. Collective don’t quite adhere to.

Their four-track ‘ETC.’ EP leans more towards the pop side of the spectrum than the classical and taking the collective ethos to its extreme, in that there is little to suggest these songs were composed by the same group of individuals. The opening track What To Do is by far the strongest on the record. Planted firmly in the neo-soul domain, it flirts with the sounds of Lianne La Havas and Laura Mvula, and features the strongest vocal performance of the EP by a long way. But the song doesn’t quite capture the pop sensibilities of La Havas nor the experimental nature of Mvula, instead coming across as a tentative yet note-worthy opening track; a lead in to something more pronounced.

However whatever train of thought the opening track is following is lost with Malaise, a mellow electronic waltz. The music itself is potent enough but the problem comes with the vocal performance – now a male singer – which is here edited into a weird artless overdub, which attempts to recreate the atmosphere of a Matt Berninger, but instead just sounds cheaply produced. Where, you start to wonder, is the female vocalist of the opening track? As the strongest element on the record thus far you await her reemergence on the edge of your seat. But alas, you are to be disappointed.

Third track We Are The Information Specialists starts off like an early Arctic Monkeys track and goes along well enough until its rather weak chorus – “We are the information specialists/we’re those people that you meet/we are the information specialists/we’re those people that you keep” – which comes across a little “self-preservation society”. Closing track While You Were Being Entertained picks things up creatively with a pleasant folky downbeat and some endearingly over-produced atmospherics. Despite its strengths however, the compulsion is to replay that opening track.

So as a listening experience the ‘ETC.’ EP is a mixed bag. But then this is the nature of the collective as a model of musical composition. Several songwriters coming together with a vast array of influences behind them are unlikely to throw up something with a consistent sound or quality. Still, even with the knowledge of how music gets made by ETC. (which their website states stands for Exit The Cult) the over-riding desire is to have somebody grab the whole thing roughly by the collar and drag it in some definite direction. What To Do proves there is not just potential here, but actual observable quality. If ETC. keeps on rolling it could do worse than to know its strengths and make good use of them.