Due to the unexpected death of a great friend, I have been in “4M” mode: Medicatin’ Myself Mostly with Miles.” Another Davis, Lockjaw, has been providing more traditional relief (the blues stomping out the blues), but new music hasn’t been able to elbow in and make much impact. 79rs Gang, a team-up by 7th and 9th Ward Mardi Gras Indian chiefs, released their second straight great album, both available on Sinking City. The first, Fire on the Bayou, was as stripped-down as a mess of Indian chants has ever gotten; the new one, Expect the Unexpected, is as impure as one has ever dared. Little Simz and Sunwatchers purt-near knocked me out with punch-packing EPs, the former gaining more confidence and edge with each new song, the latter barely able to contain their joyous in-all-directions energy. Despite seeming to have blown his voice out, Steve Earle delivered his best songs in years, the product of a more ambitious previous project, I believe. Les Amazones d’Afrique and the Saharan cellphone-foisting legions of Sahel Sounds offered two intriguingly varied and effective sets…and that about does it for fresh musical crank-turning in my world. Where are The Drive-By Truckers and Jason Isbell, you may be asking? I do not like those albums. Lady Gaga? Something tells me I need her pronto, but I’ve yet to get to it. Maybe next month if the whole circus hasn’t imploded.
Below are my Still-Warm 100, followed by 15 issuances of music recorded in earlier years. Bolded items correspond to the above album covers; they are new to the list. Also, someone lost the top slot, but she’s doin’ alright.
- Gil Scott-Heron and Makaya McCraven: We’re New Again–A Reimagining
- Fiona Apple: Fetch the Bolt Cutters
- Run The Jewels: RTJ 4
- Kesha: High Road
- Princess Nokia: Everything is Beautiful
- Various Artists: New Improvised Music from Buenos Aires
- Body Count: Carnivore
- Anna Högberg Attack: lena
- Irreversible Entanglements: Who Sent You
- The Good Ones: RWANDA, you should be loved (it’s late ‘19, actually)
- Cornershop: England is a Garden
- The Third Mind: The Third Mind
- Hamell on Trial: The Pandemic Songs
- KeiyaA: Forever, Ya Girl
- Shabaka and The Ancestors: We Are Sent Here By History
- Mark Lomax II: The 400 Years Suite
- Steve Earle: Ghosts of West Virginia
- Princess Nokia: Everything Sucks
- Lido Pimienta: Miss Colombia
- 79rs Gang: Expect the Unexpected
- James Brandon Lewis and Chad Taylor: Live in Willisau
- Moses Sumney: grae
- Serengeti & Kenny Segal: AJAI
- Jeff Parker: Suite for Max Brown
- Grimes: Miss Anthropocene
- Mr. Wrong: Create a Place
- Little Simz: Drop 6 (EP)
- Jinx Lennon: Border Schizo Fffolk Songs for the F****d
- Gard Nilssen’s Supersonic Orchestra: If You Listen Carefully, The Music is Yours
- Swamp Dogg: Sorry You Couldn’t Make It
- Tyler Keith: The Last Drag
- Chicago Underground: Good Days
- Les Amazones d’Afrique: Amazones Power
- K Michelle: All Monsters are Human
- Fat Tony and Taydex: Wake Up
- Danny Barnes: Man on Fire
- Various Artists: Sahel Sounds Sampler 2
- The Howling Hex: Knuckleball Express
- Bad Bunny: YHLQMDLG
- U. S. Girls: Heavy Light
- The Necks: Three
- fra fra: Funeral Songs
- Constantinople & Ablaye Cissoko: Traversees
- Dua Lipa: Future Nostalgia
- Rod Wave: Pray 4 Love
- Azu Tiwaline: Draw Me a Silence, Pts. 1 & 2
- Sunflowers: Endless Voyage
- McPhee, Rempis, Reid, Lopez, and Nilssen-Love: Of Things Beyond Thule, Volume 2
- X: Alphabetland
- Sabir Mateen, et al: Survival Situation
- Ndudozo Makhathini: Modes of Communication—Letters from the Underworlds
- Mythic Sunshine: Changing Shapes–Live at Roadburn
- Joe Ely: Love in the Midst of Mayhem
- Sunwatchers: Brave Rats (EP)
- Denzel Curry & Kenny Beats: UNLOCKED
- GuiltyBeatz: Different (EP)
- El Alfa: El Androide
- Alkibar Junior: Music from Saharan WhatsApp, Volume 4 (EP)
- Kefaya + Elaha Soroor: Songs of Our Mothers
- Jennifer Curtis & Tyshawn Sorey: Invisible Ritual
- Elysia Crampton: ORCORARA 2010
- Sunwatchers: Oh Yeah?
- Shopping: All for Nothing
- Katie Shorr: Open Book
- The Neptune Power Federation: Memoirs of a Rat Queen
- Kehlani: It Was Good Until It Wasn’t
- MONO: Before The Past
- Chubby & The Gang: Speed Kills
- Rina Sayawama: SAYAWAMA
- STRFKR: Future Past Life
- Matthew Shipp: The Piano Equation
- Darragh Morgan and John Tilbury: For John Cage (composer: Morton Feldman)
- Westside Gunn: Pray for Paris
- Yves Tumor: Heaven to a Tortured Mind
- Waxahatchie: Saint Cloud
- Snotty Nose Rez Kids: Born Deadly (EP)
- Evan Parker and Paul Lytton: collective calls (revisited) (jubilee)
- Fire! Orchestra: Actions for Free Jazz Orchestra
- Majid Bekkas: Magic Spirit Quartet
- Jan St. Werner and Mark E. Smith: Molocular Mediation
- Lyra Pramuk: Fountain
- Shabazz Palaces: The Don of Diamonds
- Megan Thee Stallion: Suga
- Childish Gambino: 3.15.20
- Ohad Talmor Newsreel: Long Forms
- Etran de L’Air: Music from Saharan WhatsApp, Volume 1 (EP)
- Tamikrest: Tamotait
- Luís Lopes Humanization 4Tet: Believe, believe
- Dramarama: Color TV
- Colin Stetson: Color Out of Space (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
- Tomeka Reid and Alexander Hawkins: Shards and Constellations
- Wayne Phoenix: Soaring Wayne Phoenix Story The Earth
- Thundercat: It is What it Is
- Amaria Hamadahler: Music from Saharan Whats App 5
- Oumou Diabate et Kara Show Koumba Frifri: Music from Saharan WhatsApp, Volume 2 (EP)
- Pink Siifu & yungmorpheus: Bag Talk
- Jays Electronica and -Z: A Written Testimony
- Meredith Monk: Memory Game
- Luke Combs: What You See Is What You Get
- Jeich Ould Badou: Music from Saharan WhatsApp 03
- Pink Siifu: NEGRO
- Moor Mother: CLEPSYDRA
REISSUED AND NEWLY ISSUED OLDER MUSIC
- Ranil: Stay Safe and Sound!
- Lee Scratch Perry with Seskain Molenga and Kalo Kawongolo: Roots from the Congo (reissue)
- Milton Nascimento: Maria Maria (reissue)
- Jon Hassell: Vernal Equinox (reissue)
- Various Artists: Stone Crush—Memphis Modern Soul 1977-1987
- Observer All Stars & King Tubby: Dubbing with the Observer (reissue)
- Bryan Ferry: Live at the Royal Albert Hall, 1974
- Fela Kuti: Perambulator
- No Trend: Too Many Humans/Teen Love (reissue)
- Pharoah Sanders: Live in Paris 1975
- Nina Simone: Fodder on My Wings
- Yabby You & The Aggrovators: King Tubby’s Prophecies of Dub (reissue)
- Various Artists: Léve Léve – Sao Tomé & Principe Sounds ‘70s-‘80s
- Various Artists: Soul Jazz Records Presents Black Riot—Early Jungle, Rave, and Hardcore
- Various Artists: Jamaican All-Stars (Studio One)