Author: philovereem

Music monomaniac, retired English teacher, resident of Columbia, Missouri, former correspondent for ANOREXIC TEENAGE SEX GODS, READY TO SNAP, HITLIST, SUGARBUZZ, THE WAYBACK MACHINE, ROCK THERAPY, and THE FIRST CHURCH OF HOLY ROCK AND ROLL, co-lead singer of the non-legendary Wayne Coomers and the Original Sins of Fayetteville, Arkansas.

June, Spoon, Moon…GOONS: My Favorite Albums of 2025, January 1st to June 1st, for Chasing Them Away

Is there balm in Gilead? Hell to the yeah, folks! It might last only 30-75 minutes, but that’s 30-75 minutes not staring into the abyss! Just for example, May gave us four of the best rap albums of 2025, from Canada (the so-on-a-roll-he-must-be-unconscious Buck 65), South Africa (Yugen Blakrok–remember her bar on the Black Panther soundtrack?), and the good ol’ States (billy woods & Aesop Rock); two African compilations that remind us that revolutions can be successful (if complicated); a live excavation that demonstrates what a group of likeminded individuals (The Pan African Peoples Orchestra) can do in their own ‘hood under the guidance of a dedicated leader (Horace Tapscott) to keep hope alive (seriously); the return of Christer Bothen with the band Cosmic Ear; and a transcendently eccentric throwback r&b record that proves that, while the bros squeezed the weird out of Austin, tryin’ that shit on Memphis would be a whole other story (MonoNeon). Also, please attend to 101-year-old Sun Ra Arkestra mainstay Marshall Allen’s live-from-home (aka Philly) album, which is a more proper celebration of his passage into centenarianism than his respectable but sometimes faint solo album. Please sample some of what I’m talking about via the cumulative Spitify playlist I have included at the very bottom. Tits up, people!

Aesop Rock: Black Hole Superette (Rhymesayers) ****
Ale Hop & Titi Bakorta: Mapambazuko (Nyege Nyege Tapes) *****
Marshall Allen’s Ghost Horizons: Live in Philadelphia, Volume 1 (Otherly Love Records) ****
The Ancients: The Ancients (Eremite)
Ichiko Aoba: Luminescent Creatures (Psychic Hotline)
Artemis: Arboresque (Blue Note) ****
Backxwash: Only Dust Remains (Ugly Hag)****
Bad Bunny: DeBI TiRAR MaS FOToS (Rimas Entertainment)****
Julien Baker & Torres: Send a Prayer My Way (Matador) ****
billy woods: GOLLIWOG (x) (Backwoodz Studios)
The Bitter Ends: The Bitter Ends (Trouble in River City)
Black Milk & Fat Ray: Food from the Gods (Computer Ugly / Fat Beats)
Blacks’ Myths Meets Pat Thomas: The Mythstory School (self-released) ***
Yugen Blakrok: The Illusion Of Being (I.O.T. Records) ***
Booker T & The Plasmic Bleeds: Ode To BC/LY… And Eye Know BO…. da Prez (Mahakala Music)
Benjamin Booker: Lower (Fire Next Time)
Johnny Bragg: Let Me Dream On (Org Music) ***
Brother Ali & Ant: Satisfied Soul (Mello Music)
Buck 65: Keep Moving (self-released)
clipping: Dead Channel Sky (Sub Pop)
Cosmic Ear: TRACES (We Jazz) *****
Sylvie Courvoisier & Mary Halvorson: Bone Bells (Pyroclastic)
Christopher Dammann Sextet: Christopher Dammann Sextet (Out of Your Head)
Deepstaria Enigmatica: The Eternal Now Is the Heart of a New Tomorrow (ESP-Disk)
The Delines: Mr. Luck & Ms. Doom (Jealous Butcher)****
DJ Dadaman & Moscow Dollar: Ka Gaza (Nyege Nyege Tapes)
DJ Shaun-D: From Bubbling to Dutch House (Nyege Nyege Tapes)
doseone & Steel Tipped Dove: All Portrait, No Chorus (BackwoodzStudios) ****
Ex-Void: In Love Again (Tapete Records)
Craig Finn: Always Been (Tamaric / Thirty Tigers)***
FKA twigs: Eusexua (Young Recordings Limited)
Robert Forster: Strawberries (Tapete) *****
Satoko Fujii GEN: Altitude 1100 Meters (Libra)
Satoko Fujii Trio: Dream a Dream (Libra)****
Satoko Fuji / This is It!: Message (Libra)
Keiji Haino and Natsuki Tamura: what happened there? (Libra)
Galactic and Irma Thomas: Audience with the Queen (Tchoup-Zilla)
Hamell on Trial: Harp (for Harry) (Saustex)
The Hemphill Stringtet: Plays the Music of Julius Hemphill (Out of Your Head Records)
Patterson Hood: Exploding Trees & Airplane Screams (ATO)***
William Hooker: Jubilation (Org Music)*****
William Hooker: A Time Within: Live at the New York Jazz Museum, January 14, 1977 (The Control Group / Valley of Search) ***
Horsegirl: Phonetics On and On (Matador)
HHY & The Kampala Unit: Turbo Meltdown (Nyege Nyege Tapes)****
Michael Gregory Jackson: Frequency Equilibrium Koan (moved-by-sound)
Jeong – Bisio Duo (featuring Joe McPhee): Morning Bells Whistle Bright (ESP-Disk) ****
Anthony Joseph: Rowing Up the River to Get Our Names Back (Heavenly Sweetness)****
JPEG Mafia: I Lay Down My Life for You (Director’s Cut) (self-released)*****
Kelela: In the Blue Light (Warp)***
KINGDOM MOLOGI: Kembo (Nyege Nyege Tapes) ***
Lady Gaga: Mayhem (Interscope)
Steve Lehman: The Music of Anthony Braxton (Pi Recordings)*****
Jinx Lennon: The Hate Agents Leer at the Last Agents of Hope (Septic Tiger)***
James Brandon Lewis: Apple Cores (Anti-)
Jeffrey Lewis: The Even More Freewheelin’ Jeffrey Lewis (Don Giovanni)
LOLO: LOLO (Black Sweat)
Rocio Gimenez Lopez: La Forma Del Sueno (Blue Art)****
K. Curtis Lyle, Jaap Blonk, Damon Smith, Alex Cunningham: A Radio of the Body
Jako Maron: Mahavelouz (Nyege Nyege Tapes)****
Mazinga: Chinese Democracy Manifest—Greatest Hits, Vol. 2 (Rubber Wolf)
The Mekons: Horror (Fire)***
Mean Mistreater: Do or Die (self-released)
Mac Miller: Baloonerism (Warner Records)
Billy Mohler: The Eternal (Contagious)
MonoNeon: You Had Your Chance…Bad Attitude! (Color Red) ****
Matthew Muneses and Riza Printup: Pag-Ibko, Volume 1 (Irabbagast Records)
David Murray Quartet: The Birdsong Project Presents Birdly Serenade (Verve)
Natural Information Society and Bitchin’ Bahas: Totality (Drag City)
NOBRO: Set Your Pussy Free (Dine Alone) ***
Isabelle Olivier: Impressions (Rewound Echoes)
The Onions: Return to Paradise (Hitt Records)
Bill Orcutt Guitar Quartet: Hauslive 4 (Palilalia)***
Organic Pulse Ensemble: Ad Hoc (Ultraaani Records)*****
Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra Led by Horace Tapscott: Live at Widney High December 26th, 1971 (The Village)***
Ivo Perelmamn and Matthew Shipp: Armageddon Flower (TAO Forms)
Pitch, Rhythm, and Consciousness: Sextet (Reva Records)
Marek Pospieszalski Octet & Zoh Amba: NOW! (Project financed by a scholarship from the Minister of Culture and National Heritage “Młoda Polska” & Katowice City of Music UNESCO)
Les Rallizes Denudes: Blind Baby Has Its Mother’s Eyes (Life Goes On)
R.A.P. Ferreira: Outstanding Understanding (Ruby Yacht)
Adam Rudolph, Dave Liebman, Billy Hart: Beingness (Meta)
Bobby Rush and Kenny Wayne Shepherd: Young Fashioned Ways (Deep Rush / RAM Records) ***
Sverre Sæbo Quintet: If, However, You Have Not Lost Your Self Control (SauaJazz)
SAULT: 10 (Sault Global)***
Serengeti: mixtape 2 (serengetiraps / self-released)
Serengeti: Palookaville (serengetiraps / self-released) 
The Sex Pistols: Live in the U.S.A. South East Music Hall, Atlanta, January 5th, 1978 (UME)
The Sharp Pins: Radio DDR (K / Perennial Death)****
Luke Stewart / Silt Remembrance Ensemble: The Order (Cuneiform)***
Ray Suhy / Lewis Porter Quartet: What Happens Next (Sunnyside) ***
SUMAC and Moor Mother: The Film (Thrill Jockey)
John Surman:Flashpoint and Undercurrents(Cuneiform Records) ***
Masahiko Tagashi: Session in Paris, Volume 1—Song of the Soil (with Don Cherry and Charlie Haden) (We Want Sounds)
Taj Mahal and Keb’ Mo’: Room on the Porch (Concord Jazz)
Taj Mahal & Keb’ Mo’: Room on the Porch for Everyone (UMG EP) 
Ebo Taylor, Adrain Younge, and Ali Shaheed Muhammad: Jazz Is Dead 22 (Jazz is Dead)
Trio Glossia: Trio Glossia (Sonic Transmissions)****
The Tubs: Cotton Crown (self-released)
Kali Uchis: Sincerely (Capitol) ***
Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory: Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory (Jagjaguwar)
Various Artists: African Jazz Invites O.K. Jazz (Planet Ilunga) ***
Various Artists: Prisoners’ Day Compilation (Majazz Project / Palestinian Sound Archive) ***
Various Artists: Roots Rocking Zimbabwe– The Modern Sound of Harare’ Townships 1975-1980 (Analog Africa) ****
Various Artists:Sweet Rebels—The Golden Era of Algerian Pop-Rai (We Want Sounds) ***
The War & Treaty: Plus One (Mercury Nashville)
Alfred White: The Definitive Alfred White (Music Makers Recordings)
Wheelhouse: House and Home (Aerophonic)
Simon Willson: Bet (Endectomorph Records)
Jeong Lim Yang: Synchronicity (Fully Altered Media) 

The Young Mothers: Better If You Let It (Sonic Transmissions)****
Hiroshi Yoshimura: Flora (Temporal Drift) ***

SAMPLE THIS STUFF ON SPOTIFY

33 1/3: My Favorite Albums of the Year So Far (January 1st to April 30th)

Whew! It has been a month.

My in-person musical highlights of April were witnessing the L.A. born-and-bred/St. Louis Black Artists Group-associated poet K. Curtis Lyle perform his long and stunning The Collected Poem for Blind Lemon Jefferson, driven by Damon Smith beating the fuck out of his doghouse bass and creating surprising sounds that perfectly punctuated the work, as well as marveling at Jeffrey Lewis magically taking control of St. Louis’ marvelous dive The Sinkhole like the greatest music teacher alive. I’ve included Lyle’s latest work below, even though it was a late-2024 release–so it goes with the slow. Big thanks to the humble, smiling genius Matt Crook and Dismal Niche for their continued imagination and effort to bring underheard sounds to Columbia, Missouri.

Regarding the rest of the new items on my cumulative list of 2025 records I’ve so far been captivated by?

  1. No, I am not on the Nyege Nyege Tapes or Satoko Fujii payrolls, nor do I get review copies from Nyege Nyege Tapes (I demand them from Libra Records jk). Both forces have truly been on a creative roll and bring life and rhythm to my house with each new release.
  2. The Delines, Patterson Hood, and Craig Finn chipped away at the thickening personal ice block separating me from enjoying most of the “Americana” genre.
  3. If you get a chance to see Jeffrey Lewis, take it. You get excellent songs, impish charm, songs for the hear-and-now…and Lewis-illustrated history lessons.
  4. If you are so fed-up you need some in-your-face music, may I direct you to the new Sumac-Moor Mother team-up? Or would you prefer some Backxwash? Or maybe clipping? All three acts are at their finest on these releases.
  5. I believe Argentinian jazz pianist Rocio Gimenez Lopez is one of the least well-known terrific musicians in the world. Her new album of interpretations of jazz classics is sublime. Please give her a shot.
  6. I have pushed the freak-folk/psychedelic-doom/quiet-REAAAAALLLLY fucking loud-quiet Japanese band Les Rallizes Denudes several times here before. Check out the below RSD reissue for maybe the best way into their work.
  7. There are now several Bill Orcutt Guitar Quartet albums out there, many featuring interpretations of the exact same songs in different live settings and also featuring ace Ava Mendoza. You need at least one: you can get the studio version, but I would also take your pick of the live versions, as they all go into different sonic territory. Fans of Quine, 75 Dollar Bill, even Mdou Moctar have no reason to ignore me.
  8. When you hear the NOLA team-up of Galactic and Irma Thomas, you will not believe Irma’s 84. This isn’t their first collab; when they lock in they sound made for each other. And while I’m talking soul, you may have given up on SAULT (not sure why you would have, but they are not exactly stingy with their output, and might have created in you some aural calluses), but please give 10 a chance: it carries a timely, easeful late great-period Sly vibe.
  9. That’s right: Ed Hamell and Jinx Lennon have new records out. Get your rabble roused and your heart emboldened.
  10. The Bitchin’ Bajas’ Cooper Crain: Columbia, Missouri’s Smithton Middle School’s most creative graduate. He wasn’t on my team during his tenure there, but I was made aware of him of my students who were in his orbit.

TO THE LIST: Items in bold are new; I’ve added a track from each album (when available) to an ongoing accompanying Spitify playlist; anything with an asterisk I especially enjoyed; anything fully italicized is an excavation from bygone days; yes, I’m eventually going to put them in order from most enjoyable to simply enjoyable–but not yet.

Ale Hop & Titi Bakorta:  Mapambazuko (Nyege Nyege Tapes)*****

Marshall Allen’s Ghost Horizons: Live in Philadelphia, Volume 1 (Otherly Love Records—out on May 23 but be on the serious look-out!) ***

The Ancients: The Ancients (Eremite)

Ichiko Aoba: Luminescent Creatures (Psychic Hotline)

Artemis: Arboresque (Blue Note) ****

Backxwash: Only Dust Remains (Ugly Hag)****

Bad Bunny: DeBI TiRAR MaS FOToS (Rimas Entertainment)****

Black Milk & Fat Ray: Food from the Gods (Computer Ugly / Fat Beats)

Blacks’ Myths Meets Pat Thomas: The Mythstory School (self-released) ***

Booker T & The Plasmic Bleeds: Ode To BC/LY… And Eye Know BO…. da Prez (Mahakala Music)

Benjamin Booker: Lower (Fire Next Time)

Johnny Bragg: Let Me Dream On (Org Music) ***

Brother Ali & Ant: Satisfied Soul (Mello Music)

Sylvie Courvoisier & Mary Halvorson: Bone Bells (Pyroclastic)

clipping: Dead Channel Sky (Sub Pop)

Christopher Dammann Sextet: Christopher Dammann Sextet (Out of Your Head)

Deepstaria Enigmatica: The Eternal Now Is the Heart of a New Tomorrow (ESP-Disk)

The Delines: Mr. Luck & Ms. Doom (Jealous Butcher)****

DJ Dadaman & Moscow Dollar: Ka Gaza (Nyege Nyege Tapes)

doseone & Steel Tipped Dove: All Portrait, No Chorus (BackwoodzStudios) ****

Ex-Void: In Love Again (Tapete Records)

Craig Finn: Always Been (Tamaric / Thirty Tigers)***

FKA twigs: Eusexua (Young Recordings Limited)

Satoko Fujii GEN: Altitude 1100 Meters (Libra)

Satoko Fujii Trio: Dream a Dream (Libra)****

Satoko Fuji / This is It!: Message (Libra)

Keiji Haino and Natsuki Tamura: what happened there? (Libra)

Galactic and Irma Thomas: Audience with the Queen (Tchoup-Zilla)

Hamell on Trial: Harp (for Harry) (Saustex)

The Hemphill Stringtet: Plays the Music of Julius Hemphill (Out of Your Head Records) Note: release date = April 4, 2025****

Patterson Hood: Exploding Trees & Airplane Screams (ATO)***

William Hooker: Jubilation (Org Music)*****

William Hooker: A Time Within: Live at the New York Jazz Museum, January 14, 1977 (The Control Group / Valley of Search) ***

Horsegirl: Phonetics On and On (Matador)

HHY & The Kampala Unit: Turbo Meltdown (Nyege Nyege Tapes)****

Michael Gregory Jackson: Frequency Equilibrium Koan (moved-by-sound)

Jeong – Bisio Duo (featuring Joe McPhee): Morning Bells Whistle Bright (ESP-Disk) ****

Anthony Joseph: Rowing Up the River to Get Our Names Back (Heavenly Sweetness)****

JPEG Mafia: I Lay Down My Life for You (Director’s Cut) (self-released)*****

Kelela: In the Blue Light (Warp)***

KINGDOM MOLOGI: Kembo (Nyege Nyege Tapes) ***

Lady Gaga: Mayhem (Interscope)

Steve Lehman: The Music of Anthony Braxton (Pi Recordings)*****

Jinx Lennon: The Hate Agents Leer at the Last Agents of Hope (Septic Tiger)

James Brandon Lewis: Apple Cores (Anti-)

Jeffrey Lewis: The Even More Freewheelin’ Jeffrey Lewis (Don Giovanni)

LOLO: LOLO (Black Sweat)

Rocio Gimenez Lopez: La Forma Del Sueno (Blue Art)****

K. Curtis Lyle, Jaap Blonk, Damon Smith, Alex Cunningham: A Radio of the Body

Mazinga: Chinese Democracy Manifest—Greatest Hits, Vol. 2 (Rubber Wolf)

The Mekons: Horror (Fire)***

Mean Mistreater: Do or Die (self-released)

Mac Miller: Baloonerism (Warner Records)

Jako Maron: Mahavelouz (Nyege Nyege Tapes)****

Billy Mohler: The Eternal (Contagious)

Matthew Muneses and Riza Printup: Pag-Ibko, Volume 1 (Irabbagast Records)

David Murray Quartet: The Birdsong Project Presents Birdly Serenade (Verve)

Natural Information Society and Bitchin’ Bahas: Totality (Drag City)

NOBRO: Set Your Pussy Free (Dine Alone) ***

Isabelle Olivier: Impressions (Rewound Echoes)

The Onions: Return to Paradise (Hitt Records)

Bill Orcutt Guitar Quartet: Hauslive 4 (Palilalia)***

Organic Pulse Ensemble: Ad Hoc (Ultraaani Records)*****

Pitch, Rhythm, and Consciousness: Sextet (Reva Records)

Marek Pospieszalski Octet & Zoh Amba (see below): NOW! (Project financed by a scholarship from the Minister of Culture and National Heritage “Młoda Polska” & Katowice City of Music UNESCO) Note: release date = November 29, 2024

Les Rallizes Denudes: Blind Baby Has Its Mother’s Eyes (Life Goes On)

R.A.P. Ferreira: Outstanding Understanding (Ruby Yacht)

Bobby Rush and Kenny Wayne Shepherd: Young Fashioned Ways (Deep Rush / RAM Records) ***

SAULT: 10 (Sault Global)***

Serengeti: mixtape 2 (serengetiraps / self-released)

Serengeti: Palookaville (serengetiraps / self-released) Note: release date = December 25, 2024

The Sex Pistols: Live in the U.S.A. South East Music Hall, Atlanta, January 5th, 1978 (UME)

The Sharp Pins: Radio DDR (K / Perennial Death)****

Luke Stewart / Silt Remembrance Ensemble: The Order (Cuneiform)***

Ray Suhy / Lewis Porter Quartet: What Happens Next(Sunnyside) ***

SUMAC and Moor Mother: The Film (Thrill Jockey)

John Surman: Flashpoint and Undercurrents (Cuneiform Records) ***

Masahiko Tagashi: Session in Paris, Volume 1—Song of the Soil (with Don Cherry and Charlie Haden) (We Want Sounds)

Taj Mahal & Keb’ Mo’: Room on the Porch for Everyone (UMG EP) (Note: a related full album releases in May that contains NONE of these excellent songs)

Ebo Taylor, Adrain Younge, and Ali Shaheed Muhammad: Jazz Is Dead 22 (Jazz is Dead)

Trio Glossia: Trio Glossia (Sonic Transmissions)****

The Tubs: Cotton Crown (self-released)

Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory: Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory (Jagjaguwar)

Various Artists: Prisoners’ Day Compilation (Majazz Project / Palestinian Sound Archive)***

Various Artists: Sweet Rebels—The Golden Era of Algerian Pop-Rai (We Want Sounds) ***

The War & Treaty: Plus One (Mercury Nashville)

Alfred White: The Definitive Alfred White (Music Makers Recordings)

Simon Willson: Bet (Endectomorph Records)

Jeong Lim Yang: Synchronicity (Fully Altered Media) The Young Mothers: Better If You Let It (Sonic Transmissions)****

SAMPLE THIS SHIT!

Long on Sounds, Short on Ides: The Living to Listen List, Marching Forward into The 2025ire

THE LIST (January 1 – April 1, 2025)

Bolded = New to the list

***Neaty ‘n’ Spiffy / ****Eyebrow-Raising / *****Do-Ya-RIGHT

Ale Hop & Titi Bakorta:  Mapambazuko (Nyege Nyege Tapes)*****

Marshall Allen’s Ghost Horizons: Live in Philadelphia, Volume 1 (Otherly Love Records—out on May 23 but be on the serious look-out!) ***

The Ancients: The Ancients (Eremite)

Ichiko Aoba: Luminescent Creatures (Psychic Hotline)

Artemis: Arboresque (Blue Note) ****

Bad Bunny: DeBI TiRAR MaS FOToS (Rimas Entertainment)****

Black Milk & Fat Ray: Food from the Gods(Computer Ugly / Fat Beats)

Blacks’ Myths Meets Pat Thomas: The Mythstory School (self-released) ***

Booker T & The Plasmic Bleeds: Ode To BC/LY… And Eye Know BO…. da Prez (Mahakala Music)

Benjamin Booker: Lower (Fire Next Time)

Johnny Bragg: Let Me Dream On (Org Music) ***

Brother Ali & Ant: Satisfied Soul (Mello Music)

Sylvie Courvoisier & Mary Halvorson: Bone Bells (Pyroclastic)

Deepstaria Enigmatica: The Eternal Now Is the Heart of a New Tomorrow (ESP-Disk)

doseone & Steel Tipped Dove: All Portrait, No Chorus (BackwoodzStudios) ****

Ex-Void: In Love Again (Tapete Records)

FKA twigs: Eusexua (Young Recordings Limited)

Satoko Fujii GEN: Altitude 1100 Meters (Libra)

Satoko Fujii Trio: Dream a Dream (Libra)****

Keiji Haino and Natsuki Tamura: what happened there? (Libra)

Jeong – Bisio Duo (featuring Joe McPhee): Morning Bells Whistle Bright (ESP-Disk) ****

The Hemphill Stringtet: Plays the Music of Julius Hemphill (Out of Your Head Records) Note: release date = April 4, 2025****

William Hooker: Jubilation (Org Music)*****

William Hooker: A Time Within: Live at the New York Jazz Museum, January 14, 1977 (The Control Group / Valley of Search) ***

Horsegirl: Phonetics On and On (Matador)

Michael Gregory Jackson: Frequency Equilibrium Koan (moved-by-sound)

Anthony Joseph: Rowing Up the River to Get Our Names Back (Heavenly Sweetness)****

JPEG Mafia: I Lay Down My Life for You (Director’s Cut) (self-released)*****

Kelela: In the Blue Light (Warp)***

KINGDOM MOLOGI: Kembo (Nyege Nyege Tapes) ***

Lady Gaga: Mayhem (Interscope)

Steve Lehman: The Music of Anthony Braxton (Pi Recordings)*****

James Brandon Lewis: Apple Cores (Anti-)

LOLO: LOLO (Black Sweat)

Mazinga: Chinese Democracy Manifest—Greatest Hits, Vol. 2 (Rubber Wolf)

Mean Mistreater: Do or Die (self-released)

Mac Miller: Baloonerism (Warner Records)

Jako Maron: Mahavelouz (Nyege Nyege Tapes)****

Matthew Muneses and Riza Printup: Pag-Ibko, Volume 1 (Irabbagast Records)

NOBRO: Set Your Pussy Free (Dine Alone) ***

Isabelle Olivier: Impressions (Rewound Echoes)

Organic Pulse Ensemble: Ad Hoc (Ultraaani Records)*****

Pitch, Rhythm, and Consciousness: Sextet (Reva Records)

Marek Pospieszalski Octet & Zoh Amba (see below): NOW! (Project financed by a scholarship from the Minister of Culture and National Heritage “Młoda Polska” & Katowice City of Music UNESCO) Note: release date = November 29, 2024

R.A.P. Ferreira: Outstanding Understanding (Ruby Yacht)

Bobby Rush and Kenny Wayne Shepherd: Young Fashioned Ways (Deep Rush / RAM Records) ***

Serengeti: mixtape 2 (serengetiraps / self-released)

Serengeti: Palookaville (serengetiraps / self-released) Note: release date = December 25, 2024

The Sex Pistols: Live in the U.S.A. South East Music Hall, Atlanta, January 5th, 1978 (UME)

Ray Suhy / Lewis Porter Quartet: What Happens Next (Sunnyside) ***

John Surman: Flashpoint and Undercurrents (Cuneiform Records) ***

Masahiko Tagashi: Session in Paris, Volume 1—Song of the Soil (with Don Cherry and Charlie Haden) (We Want Sounds)

Taj Mahal & Keb’ Mo’: Room on the Porch for Everyone (UMG EP) (Note: a related full album releases in May that contains NONE of these excellent songs)

Ebo Taylor, Adrain Younge, and Ali Shaheed Muhammad: Jazz Is Dead 22 (Jazz is Dead)

Trio Glossia: Trio Glossia (Sonic Transmissions)****

Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory: Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory(Jagjaguwar)

Various Artists: Sweet Rebels—The Golden Era of Algerian Pop-Rai (We Want Sounds) ***

The War & Treaty: Plus One (Mercury Nashville)

Jesse Welles: Middle (Jesse Welles Music)

Alfred White: The Definitive Alfred White (Music Makers Recordings)

Simon Willson: Bet (Endectomorph Records)

Jeong Lim Yang: Synchronicity (Fully Altered Media)

The Young Mothers: Better If You Let It (Sonic Transmissions)****

Amerikkkan Top 40: Some New (and Relatively New) Albums That May Help Get You Through the Morning News If You Can Stand to Read It

Hi! I’m early with my 2025 blog update, but I ain’t buying anything Friday anyway (I hope it isn’t Bandcamp Friday). If you happen to be a new reader, what I try to do at the end of each month is highlight the new albums–or recently excavated older works–that I’ve truly enjoyed, that have kept me sane, that have moved me, that have challenged me, etc. etc. etc. A thing about me: I’m the kind of person who always tries to order something different on the menu every time he goes to a restaurant, and I’m even more that way with music. I love a lot of it, I don’t think in genres, I am fascinated as much by pure sound and mood as I am by conventionally structured songs and lyrics, and I see myself as a scout, a finder, a tout (albeit a somewhat inexpressive one, as I’d rather you sample some of this stuff than me try to tell you why it is so attractive to me zzzzzzzzzz). Maybe you should start with the album covers, the album titles, the label names–and recently I’ve been including a boo-hiss Spotify playlist that includes tracks from each work (if possible–I get review copies ahead of time, which I will try to note and which aren’t yet represented in “the stream”–and not everything is on Spotify, in case you didn’t know). Finally, IRL (I’ve always wanted to use that!), I am an English teacher of 41 years’ vintage (a lightly sweet grape Boone’s Farm ’84), and because of my love for reading and teaching novels, I prefer albums to singles–I want to experience an act’s whole world, not just a moment where maybe they got hit by lightning inspiration or just got lucky.

Each month I’ll add to the previous month’s existing list, and bold-face those entries so you know they’re new. Some items may disappear if they fade for me or I just glitch. I’m starting by listing them alphabetically until order of love begins to establish itself, which it hasn’t quite, yet. This month, FOUR asterisks (****) will indicate a few discs I’m really enchanted by, and FIVE asterisks a few discs I’m really really enchanted by. Eventually, too, I’ll separate the list into really new stuff and those excavations I mentioned.

I hope you find something below that makes your day and creates the illusion that we aren’t necessarily facing a barbarian takeover. Take a chance, why doncha?

THE LIST (January 1 – February 26, 2025)

Ale Hop & Titi Bakorta: Mapambazuko (Nyege Nyege Tapes)*****

The Ancients: The Ancients (Eremite)

Bad Bunny: DeBI TiRAR MaS FOToS (Rimas Entertainment)****

Black Milk & Fat Ray: Food from the Gods (Computer Ugly / Fat Beats)

Booker T & The Plasmic Bleeds: Ode To BC/LY… And Eye Know BO…. da Prez (Mahakala Music)

Benjamin Booker: Lower(Fire Next Time)

Brother Ali & Ant: Satisfied Soul (Mello Music)

Sylvie Courvoisier & Mary Halvorson: Bone Bells (Pyroclastic) Note: release date = March 14, 2025

doseone & Steel Tipped Dove: All Portrait, No Chorus (BackwoodzStudios) ****

Ex-Void: In Love Again(Tapete Records)

FKA twigs: Eusexua (Young Recordings Limited)

Satoko Fujii GEN: Altitude 1100 Meters (Libra)

Satoko Fujii Trio: Dream a Dream (Libra)****

Keiji Haino and Natsuki Tamura: what happened there? (Libra)

The Hemphill Stringtet: Plays the Music of Julius Hemphill (Out of Your Head Records) Note: release date = April 4, 2025****

William Hooker: Jubilation (Org Music)*****

Horsegirl: Phonetics On and On (Matador)

Michael Gregory Jackson: Frequency Equilibrium Koan (moved-by-sound)

Anthony Joseph: Rowing Up the River to Get Our Names Back (Heavenly Sweetness)****

JPEG Mafia: I Lay Down My Life for You (Director’s Cut) (self-released)*****

Kelela: In the Blue Light (Warp)***

Steve Lehman: The Music of Anthony Braxton (Pi Recordings)*****

James Brandon Lewis: Apple Cores (Anti-)

LOLO: LOLO (Black Sweat)

Mean Mistreater: Do or Die (self-released)

Mac Miller: Baloonerism (Warner Records)

Jako Maron: Mahavelouz (Nyege Nyege Tapes)****

Isabelle Olivier: Impressions (Rewound Echoes)

Marek Pospieszalski Octet & Zoh Amba (see below): NOW! (Project financed by a scholarship from the Minister of Culture and National Heritage “Młoda Polska” & Katowice City of Music UNESCO) Note: release date = November 29, 2024

R.A.P. Ferreira: Outstanding Understanding (Ruby Yacht)

Serengeti: Palookaville (serengetiraps / self-released) Note: release date = December 25, 2024

Ebo Taylor, Adrain Younge, and Ali Shaheed Muhammad: Jazz Is Dead 22 (Jazz is Dead)

Trio Glossia: Trio Glossia (Sonic Transmissions)****

Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory: Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory (Jagjaguwar)

The War & Treaty: Plus One (Mercury Nashville)

Jesse Welles: Middle (Jesse Welles Music)

Alfred White: The Definitive Alfred White (Music Makers Recordings)

Simon Willson: Bet (Endectomorph Records)

Jeong Lim Yang: Synchronicity (Fully Altered Media)

The Young Mothers: Better If You Let It (Sonic Transmissions)****

Fetching Recordings from January 2025–For Month 1, Not Too Skimpy!

I am restless. As a teacher, I cannot teach the same lesson twice the same way (nor should anyone, but maybe I’m wrong). Last year, I tried to write more about the albums I loved on this blog but ended up very unsatisfied, plus it was a pain when it came to assembling a complete year-end list. So…I think this year, I’ll go back to my cumulative listing and let y’all follow the links and divine from those whether the records are worthy of your time…unless you just trust me. I wouldn’t. I am going to stick with closing with a Spotify playlist sampler, though I hate Spotify and, since I receive some review copies, songs from those might not yet be available–especially on this one.

New Releases:

Ale Hop & Titi Bakorta: Mapambazuko (Nyege Nyege Tapes)

Bad Bunny: DeBI TiRAR MaS FOToS (Rimas Entertainment)

Booker T* & The Plasmic Bleeds: Ode To BC/LY… And Eye Know BO…. da Prez (Mahakala Music)

Benjamin Booker: Lower (Fire Next Time)

doseone & Steel Tipped Dove: All Portrait, No Chorus (BackwoodzStudios)

Ex-Void: In Love Again (Tapete Records)

Satoko Fujii GEN: Altitude 1100 Meters (Libra)*

Keiji Haino and Natsuki Tamura: what happened there? (Libra)

LOLO: LOLO (Black Sweat)

Mac Miller: Baloonerism (Warner Records)

Marek Pospieszalski Octet & Zoh Amba (see below): NOW! (Project financed by a scholarship from the Minister of Culture and National Heritage “Młoda Polska” & Katowice City of Music UNESCO) Note: release date = November 29, 2024

Serengeti: Palookaville (serengetiraps / self-released) Note: release date = December 25, 2024

Omar Thomas: Griot Songs (Omar Thomas Music)

Simon Willson: Bet (Endectomorph Records) @

Jeong Lim Yang: Synchronicity (Fully Altered Media)

@Features Neta Raanan, a terrific young saxophonist whose debut last year was SHARP.

*Fujii can’t stop, won’t stop–first album out of considerably over 100 (!!) with a string section.

*A terrific free jazz tenor last heard from about 40+ years ago who’s resurfaced.

Old Stuff I Happily Listened To:

Zoh Amba: Every album she’s released and appeared on. We saw her play live and it was a chicken-skin experience! Blazing and dynamically moody free jazz plus surprise acoustic guitar versions of new songs that both rended and expanded one’s heart. Check out the way she finishes out Myriam Gendron’s track on the playlist below!

Bob Dylan’s folk stuff: I was subbing the other day shortly after A Complete Unknown was released and I’d seen it—it sent be back to my favorites of his early period, especially the first album (what writer recently said he was electric from the first, because the electricity was in the way he sang those songs?) and “Only a Pawn in Their Game,” which I’ve always loved and repeat played to the point it was worming my ear all day)—and I casually sidled up to a table of 10th grade “advanced placement” dudes. Me: “Hey, have you guys heard of Bob Dylan?” Them (in tandem): “He’s dead, right?” I have some issues with the movie but it was entertaining and has a reason for being.

Culture and Burning Spear in the schools: Sometimes if I’m subbing for an old English-teaching comrade, they’ll let me write my own lesson and teach. A recent job was for a guy who teaches classical ideas and world religions and his students are currently studying Judaism; he asked if I could talk about Rastafarian reggae’s connections with Judaism and play some examples. They didn’t know dick about Rastafarianism or reggae, so it was a good call. We studied The Melodians’ “Rivers of Babylon,” sections of Culture’s Two Sevens Clash and aspects of Burning Spear’s Marcus Garvey. I also pushed Safiya Sinclair’s memoir of wrasslin’ to liberate herself from the clutches of her Rasta dad, How to Say Babylon. I’ve listened to reggae every day since.

Sinead O’Connor: Nicole and I watched the SNL Music special ?Love put together (apparently he was ordered by Lorne to exclude any evidence of The Replacements’ TRANSCENDENT appearance, the petty bastard) and got chills revisiting Sinead’s appearance. Listened to her all of the next day (yesterday, as it were) and kept getting chills, though I found myself wondering how much more she could have accomplished without the after-effects of the backlash (as Al Franken said, “She was kind of right,” though I’d say “She was right.”).

Black Female Gospel Warriors All Day on January 20th. Folks? Put the whole of the armour on.

Infinite Jest is Long, Too: Living to Listen’s Favorite 180 Albums of 2024

This year, I abandoned my usual practice of scratching out a casual intro and, month by month, building a cumulative list of my favorite new releases. I had begun to feel the itch of guilt (and envy) that fellow music fanatics were really writing about the records, so, in 2024, I tried to do that instead, while (most of the time) confining myself to a single sentence per record (again, like Jim Hart or the band [ahmed], I like to go long). I felt more satisfied–but in the end it made compiling my year-end list a real pain in the patootie pie. I think I’ll go back to gradually compiling a list in 2025, especially since those sentences seldom were anything to brag about.

Anyway, the biggest surprise to me, reflecting on my list, is that an Americana artist topped it–I’ve tired of that genre and maybe it’s related to the state of the nation–another was in my Top 20, and one, an album that regular calmed me, was just outside of that group. I played Corb Lund’s El Viejo more than any new album of the year: witty, specific, lyrically and musically unified, with deluxe-version cuts that fit right in. “Gambles” might be the theme, and not just with cash. Second, Bill Orcutt, an imaginative and frequently coruscating plectrist to whom I’d never given much of an ear, placed two albums in my top 20. Third, I really wanted these selections to be ’24 only, but I could not deny my fellow former southwest Missouri kid Chappell Roan–she dazzled, she was gloriously a lot, and I am sure someone else will open their gate to her, too. She’s earned it.

This was also, in many ways, The Year of Sun Ra–two intriguing tributes, one strong album from his eternal posthumous Arkestra, and a scad of intriguing reissues, one of them a pipe organ fantasia that successfully and inexplicably melded the Phantom of the Opera, Garth Hudson, James Booker, and Ellingtonia. It’s called Excelsior Mill and it’s a true trip. Maybe it was The Year of Sun Ra because many of us are longing for space right now.

Props to Red Hot Org for being on it in 2024.

Rough translation of numerical order to grades, if you like that: 1=A+ (that’s right, MFs); 2-20 =A; 21-50 =A-; 51-150 =B+ (grade inflation alert, but fuck–listen to them!). Excavations: 1-10 =A; 11-30=A- (I do not fuck with B+ or lower excavations.)

And so:

Living to Listen’s Favorite Albums of 2024:

BRAND-SPANKIN’ NEW in ‘24

1. Corb Lund: El Viejo (Deluxe Edition) (New West)

2. Hurray for the Riff Raff: The Past is Still Alive (Nonesuch)

3. Chappell Roan: The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess (Atlantic) (’23 vintage but ’24 IMPACT)

4. Doechii: Alligator Bites Never Heal (Top Dawg Entertainment / Capitol)

5. Darius Jones: Legend of e’Boi (The Hypervigilant Eye) (AUM Fidelity)

6. Ka: The Thief Next to Jesus (self-released)

7. Mdou Moctar: Funeral for Justice. (Matador)

8. [ahmed]: Giant Beauty (Fönstret)

9. Bill Orcutt Guitar Quartet: Four Guitars Live (Palilalia)

10. Jeff Parker: The Way Out of Easy (International Anthem)

11. Kendrick Lamar: GNX (pgLang/Interscope)

12. QOW Trio: The Hold Up (Ubuntu)

13. Isaiah Collier & The Chosen Few: The World is on Fire (Division 81)

14. Snotty Nose Rez Kids: Red Future (Savage Mob)

15. Swamp Dogg: Blackgrass—From West Virginia to 125th Street (Oh Boy! Records)

16. X: Smoke & Fiction (Fat Possum)

17. Tucker Zimmerman: Dance of Love (4AD)

18. Charli xcx: Brat and it’s completely different but also still brat  (Atlantic)

19. Jlin: Akoma (Planet Mu)

20. Bill Orcutt: How to Rescue Things (Palilalia)

21. Kasey Musgraves: Deeper Well (Interscope / MCA Nashville)

22. Moses Sumney: Sophcore (self-released EP)

23. Red Kross: Red Kross (In the Red)

24. AALY Trio: Sustain (Silkheart)

25. Various Artists: Transa (Red Hot Org)

26. Frank London/The Elders: Spirit Stronger Than Blood (ESP-Disk

27. Beyonce: Cowboy Carter (Parkwood Entertainment)

28. Ingebrigt Haker Flaten & (Exit) Knarr: Breezy (Sonic Transmissions)

29. Brandon Seabrook: Object of Unknown Function (Pyroclastic)

30. Ohad Talmor / Chris Tordini / Eric McPherson: Back to the Land (Intakt)

31. Amyl & The Sniffers: Cartoon Darkness (Rough Trade)

32. PYPY: Sacred Times (Goner)

33. Alan Braufman: Infinite Love Infinite Tears (Valley of Search)

34. LL Cool J: The FORCE (LL Cool J Records)

35. Deerlady, Mali Obomsawin, Magdalena Abreggo: Greatest Hits (Gotta Groove)

36. Allen Lowe & The Constant Sorrow Orchestra: Louis Armstrong’s America (Constant Sorrow)

37. Adeem The Artist: ANNIVERSARY (Thirty Tigers /Four Quarters)

38. MC Lyte: 1 of 1 (My Block Inc.)

39. Heems & Lapgan: Lafandar (Veena Sounds / Mass Appeal India)

40. Tyler, The Creator: CHROMAKOPIA (Columbia)

41. Amaro Freitas: Y’Y (Psychic Hotline)

42. Big Freedia & The Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra: Live at the Orpheum Theater (Queen Diva)

43. Al-Quasar: Uncovered (We Want Sounds)

44. Mannequin Pussy: I Got Heaven (Epitaph)

45. Javon Jackson & Nikki Giovanni, Javon & Nikki Go to the Movies (Solid Jackson/Palmetto)

46. Adrienne Lenker: Bright Future (4AD)

47. Church Chords: elvis, he was Schlager (Otherly Love)

48. Kali Uchis: Orquideas (Geffen)

49. Kenny Segal & K-the-I???: Genuine Dexterity (Backwoodz Studios)

50. Ann Savoy: Another Heart (Smithsonian Folkways)

51. R.A.P. Ferreira: Outstanding Understanding (Ruby Yacht)

52. Noah Haidu: Standards II (Sunnyside)

53. David Murray: Francesca (Intakt)

54. Patricia Brennan Septet: Breaking Stretch (Pyroclastic)

55. The Messthetics: The Messthetics and James Brandon Lewis (Impulse)

56. Pet Shop Boys: Nonetheless (Parlophone)

57. E L U C I D: Revelator (Fat Possum)

58. Dennis Gonzalez Legacy Band: Live at the Texas Theater (Astral Spirits)

59. Drakeo the Ruler: The Undisputed Truth (Stinc Team)

60. Awon & Phoniks: Golden Era 2 (Don’t Sleep)

61. Taliba Safiya: Black Magic (Deep Water EP)

62. SAULT: Acts of Faith (self-released)

63. Tashi Dorji: We Will Be Wherever The Fires are Lit (Drag City)

64. Fay Victor: Herbie Nichols SUNG: Life Is Funny That Way (Tao Forms)

65. Kelly Lee Owens: Dreamstate (dh2)

66. Paper Jays: Paper Jays (ESP-Disk)

67. Dwight Yoakam: Brighter Days (Via/Thirty Tigers)

68. Takkak Takkak: Takkak Takkak (Nyege Nyege Tapes)

69. [ahmed]: Wood Blues (Fönstret)

70. Rapsody: Please Don’t Cry (We Each Other / Jamla Records

71. Neta Raanan: Unforeseen Blossom (Giant Step Arts)

72. Acceleration Due to Gravity: Jonesville (Hot Cup)

73. Friends & Neighbors: Circles (Clean Feed)

74. Satoko Fujii Trio: Jet Black (Libra)

75. Anna Kiviniemi Trio: Eir (We Jazz)

76. Abdullah Ibrahim: 3 (Gearbox)

77. Malcria: Fantasias Histericas (Iron Lung)

78. Burnt Sugar: The Reconstru​-​Ducted Repatriation Road​-​Rage ReMiXeS [of “Angels Over Oakanda’] (self-released)

79. Legendary Singing Stars: Good Old Way (Music Maker Foundation)

80. Molly Lewis: On the Lips (Jagjaguwar)

81. Split System: Volume 2 (Legless)

82. Florian Arbenz: Conversation #11 / #12 (Hammer)

83. Citric Du: Zen and the Arcade of Beating Your Ass (Feel It Records)

84. Jorga Mesfin: The Kindest One (Muzikawa)

85. Joan Diaz Trio (Introducing Silvia Perez): We Sing Bill Evans (Fresh Sound Records)

86. Ethnic Heritage Ensemble: Open Me, A Higher Consciousness of Sound and Spirit (Spiritmuse)

87. Moor Mother: The Great Bail-Out (Deluxe Edition) (Anti-)

88. Ivo Perelman/Chad Fowler/Reggie Workman/Andrew Cyrille: Embracing the Unknown (Mahakala Music)

89. _thesmoothcat & Wino Willy: Ready, Set (Sinking City)

90. That Mexican OT: Texas Technician (Manifest / Good Talk / Good Money Global / Capitol)

91. D. Clinton Thompson: Donnie’s Mood (Borrowed Records)

92. Tierra Whack: World Wide Whack (Interscope)

93. Willis, Carper, Leigh: Wonder Women of Country (Bismeaux EP)

94. Cedric Burnside: Hill Country Love (Mascot / Provogue)

95. James Carter: UN (J.M.I. Recordings)

96. Matt Lavelle and the 12 Houses: The Crop Circles Suite, Part 1 (Mahakala Music)

97. Meshell Ndegeocello (and Friends): Red Hot & Ra – The Magic City (Red Hot Org)

98. Tomeka Reid Quartet: 3 + 3 (Cuneiform)

99. Reyna Tropical: Reyna Tropical (Psychic Hotline)

100. Bob Vylan: Humble as the Sun (Ghost Theater)

101. Les Amazones d’Afrique: Musow Dance (Real World)

102. Flagboy Giz: The Culture (Injun Money)

103. Ibibio Sound Machine: Pull the Rope (Merge)

104. Vijay Iyer, Linda May Han Oh, and Tyshawn Sorey: Compassion (ECM)

105. Matt Wilson’s Good Trouble: Matt Wilson’s Good Trouble (Palmetto)

106. Joe McPhee (with Ken Vandermark): Musings of a Bahamanian Son (Catalytic Sound)

107. Arooj Aftab: Night Reign (Verve)

108. Kronos Quartet and Friends: Outer Spaceways Incorporated (Red Hot Org)

109. Willie Nelson: The Border (Sony Music)

110. Nestor: Teenage Rebel (Napalm Records/Handels GmbH)

111. Sexyy Red: In Sexyy We Trust (Rebel/Gamma)

112. Staples Jr. Singers: Searching (Luaka Bop)

113. Tri-County Liquidators: Shining Through (Hitt Records / Big Cartel EP)

114. Fox Green: Light Over Darkness (self-released)

115. Janel Leppin: Ensemble Volcanic Ash—To March is to Love (Cuneiform)

116. Charles McPherson: Reverence (Smoke Sessions)

117. Roberto Ottaviano: Lacy in the Sky with Diamonds (Clean Feed)

118. Rempis / Adasiewicz / Abrams / Damon: Propulsion (Aerophonic Records)

119. EARTHGANG & Spillage Village: Perfect Fantasy (SinceThe80s/Dreamville)

120. claire rousay: The Bloody Lady (Thrill Jockey)

121. Melissa Carper: Borned in Ya (Mae Music / Thirty Tigers)

122. Shelby Lynne: Consequences of the Crown (Monument)

123. Nicole Mitchell and Ballake Sissoko: Bamako * Chicago Sound System (FPE)

124. Ryuichi Sakamoto: Opus (Milan)

125. Cecily Wilborn: Kuntry Gurl Playlist (self-released)

126. Kathryn Williams & Withered Hand: Willson Williams (One Little Independent Records)

127. BASIC: This is Basic (No Quarter)

128. Man/Woman/Chainsaw: Eazy Peazy (Fat Possum EP)

129. Kris Davis: Run the Gauntlet (Pyroclastic)

130. Ghost Dubs: Damaged (PRESSURE)

131. Etran de L’Air: 100% Sahara Guitar (Sahel Sounds)

132. Fastbacks: For WHAT Reason? (No Threes)

133. Eels: Being Dead (Bayonet)

134. GALVEZTON: Some Kind of Love (A Tribute to the Velvet Underground) (La Izquierda)

135. Patrick Shiroishi: Glass House (Otherly Love)

136. Flagboy Giz and The Wild Tchoupitoulas: Live from the French Quarter Fest (Injun Money)

137. Joe Fonda: Eyes on the Horizon (Long Song)

138. Day Dream: Duke & Strays (Corner Store Jazz)

139. Mickey Guyton: House on Fire (Capitol Records Nashville)

140. High Vis: Guided Tour (Dais)

141. Judas Priest: Invisible Shield (Deluxe Edition) (Sony)

142. Messiah in Glytch: Geisha in the Machine (FPE EP)

143. more ease & kaho matsui: computer & recording works for girls (Full Spectrum)

144. Mount Eerie: Night Palace (self-released)

145. Walter Smith III: three of us are from Houston and Reuben is not (Blue Note)

146. Jazz Sabbath: The 1968 Tapes (Blacklake)

147. Kenneth Jimenez: Sonnet to Silence (We Jazz)

148. Ava Mendoza: The Circular Train (Palilalia)

149. Oaagaada: Music of Ogaadaa (We Jazz)

150. Sun Ra Arkestra: Lights on a Satellite (IN+OUT)

EXCAVATIONS & REISSUES

1. Sonny Rollins: Freedom Weaver–The 1959 European Tour Recordings (Resonance)

2. Unholy Modal Rounders: Unholier Than Thou 7/7/77 (Don Giovanni)

3. Various Artists: Love Hides All Faults—Deep Gospel Soul Selected by Jumbo (Elusive Vinyl / Pyramid Records)

4. Sun Ra: Excelsior Mill (Sundazed/Modern Harmonic)

5. Phil Haynes: 4 Horns or What?—The Complete American Recordings (Corner Store Jazz)

6. Alice Coltrane: The 1971 Carnegie Hall Concert (Impulse!)

7. Black Artists Group: For Peace & Liberty, in Paris, December 1972 (We Want Sound)

8. McCoy Tyner, Joe Henderson, Henry Grimes, Jack DeJohnette: Forces of Nature–Live at Slugs’ (Blue Note)

9. Christer Bothén (featuring Bolon Bata): Trancedance [40th Anniversary Edition] (1984, Black Truffle) 

10. Franco Luambo Mkaidi: Presents Les Editions Populaires (Planet Ilunga)

11. Rail Band: Rail Band(Mississippi Records)

12. Sun Ra: At the Showcase Live in Chicago 1976-1977 (Elemental Music)

13. Sun Ra and his Arkestra: Lights on a Satellite—Live on the Left Bank (Resonance)

14. Art Tatum: Jewels In the Treasure Box (Resonance)

15. Creation Rebel: High Above Harlesden 1978-2023 (On-U Sound)

16. Various Artists: Congo Funk! Sound Madness From The Shores Of The Mighty Congo River (Analog Africa)

17. Bill Evans: Bill Evans in Norway (Elemental)

18. Mal Waldron & Steve Lacy: The Mighty Warriors Live in Antwerp (Elemental Music)

19. Charles Gayle / Milford Graves / William Parker: WEBO (Black Editions)

20. Raphael Roginski: Plays John Coltrane and Langston Hughes (Unsound)

21. Juma Sultan’s Aboriginal Music Society: Father of Origin (Eremite)

22. Emily Remler: Cookin’ at Queens (Resonance)

23. Sister Rosetta Tharpe: Live in France—The 1966 Limoges Concert (Elemental)

24. Various Artists: Super Disco Pirata—De Tepito Para El Mundo 1965-1980 (Analog Africa)

25. Arthur Blythe Quartet: Live! From Rivbea Studios, Volume 2 (No Business)

26. High Rise: Disturbance Trip (La Musica)

27. Various Artists: Even the Forest Hums—Ukrainian Sonic Archives 1971-1996 (Light in the Attic)

28. Phil Ranelin & Wendell Harrison: Tribe 2000 (Org Music)

29. Bessie Jones, John Davis, the Georgia South Sea Island Singers with Mississippi Fred McDowell and Ed Young: The Complete “Friends of Old-Time Music” Concert (Smithsonian)

30. Love Child: Never Meant to Be (12XU)

Annnnd…I made this playlist for my freshman comp students and maybe you won’t mind it! They were allowed to collaborate (as are you!), which accounts for things not on the list:

No!vember ’24: A Spare Commentary on the Best New (and Newly Discovered) Music I Heard

I’ve got a cold Huey Piano Smith could write another song about, my new block-style teaching assignment is intense (but I like it), and I’ve been traveling throughout the month, so I’m scrambling to get this out on the first. You don’t want to hear me yammer anyway, even if I got to witness both Hailu Mergia and Nicole Mitchell live since last time. Thus:

Albums below in bold font strike me as possible Top Tenners in their respective categories.

NEW WORKS I DUG (in alphabetical order)

  1. Isaiah Collier & The Chosen Few: The World is on Fire (Division 81)—Collier and band are in a serious Trane mode, and the media clips make it sound like the record was made in 2020–but isn’t it really still, and might it possibly eternally stay, 2020?
  2. Jazz Sabbath: The 1968 Tapes (Blacklake)—Yes: early Sabbath jazzed impressively and with a wry sense of humor.
  3. Kenneth Jimenez: Sonnet to Silence (We Jazz)—It’s a musical sonnet to silence, not of silence, and bassist Jimenez’s quartet’s noise is splendid.
  4. Ava Mendoza: The Circular Train (Palilalia)—Is this a Year of the Guitar?
  5. Kendrick Lamar: GNX (pgLang/Interscope)—Sounds great to me, I guess because the music I’m loving most is his cadences and the production is brightly…defiant.
  6. Oaagaada: Music of Ogaadaa (We Jazz)—Finnish free quartet augmented by shruti box and log drum and generating serious energy that’s just contained enough for a dabbler.
  7. Kelly Lee Owens: Dreamstate (dh2)—My friend Kevin suggested this to somebody else when I was in a low mood, I stole the suggestion, and quickly added her to (a bit lesser light, but not by much) Jessie Ware as a mood shifter.
  8. Jeff Parker ETA IVtet: The Way Out of Easy (International Anthem)—Is this a Year of the Guitar?
  9. Paper Jays: Paper Jays (ESP-Disk)—Rhode Island instro-combo combines the spaciness of very early Meat Puppets with the weird, itchy vibe of Penguin Café and a touch of…the Middle East?
  10. Pascal & Baya Rays: Sonic Joy (Ultraani)—Freaky and fun Finnish funk.
  11. claire rousay: The Bloody Lady (Viernulvier)—Ambient master writes a mysterious score for Viktor Kubal’s 1980 film The Bloody Lady doesn’t require you to watch the film to be hypnotized.
  12. Various Artists: TRANSA (Red Hot Org)—Eight “chapters,” 46 songs, a dazzling array of performers (Larraji, Tweedy, Julien Baker, Sumney + ANOHNI, JLin + Moor Mother), consistent quality, surprising musical coherence, and good reason to worry made it easy for me to listen to this beginning to end.
  13. Wussy: Cincinnati Ohio (Shake It)—I really like the lyrics, I’m not too sure about the music, and I can’t hear Lisa well enough.
  14. Charli xcx: Brat and it’s completely different but also still brat (Atlantic)—This irresistibly trashy brat dragged me kicking and screaming and grinning ear to ear through this version.
  15. Dwight Yoakam: Brighter Days (Via/Thirty Tigers)—Dude really cannot make a bad album (always reminds me of Tom Petty that way) and this one (despite a very corny and terrible song and thanks to my favorite-ever cover of “Keep On the Sunny Side”) is no exception: sings great, surrounds himself with a crack band, and writes solidly—and, weirdly, often BRIGHTLY.
  16. Tucker Zimmerman: Dance of Love (4AD)—I was telling a friend the other day that, for a reason I can’t pin down that has to do with the way things are, I am tired of Americana even when it’s good…but I have a feeling I’m (and possibly you’re) gonna need this one, knocked out by a resurfaced legend who has his finger on the pulse o’things, Big Thief behind him, and his arms around a few friends.

EXCELLENT EXCAVATIONS

  1. Black Artists Group: For Peace & Liberty, in Paris, December 1972 (We Want Sound)—Too few recordings are available from a St. Louis, Missouri, gang of players who would later help fire up the NYC loft jazz movement, and this has never before been released.
  2. Emily Remler: Cookin’ at Queens (Resonance)—This short-lived, Wes Montgomery-influenced guitarist had already raised the eyebrows of her fellow players and was poised for bigger things when she stepped on a narcotic rainbow; she is flying on these live recordings.
  3. B. B. King: B. B. King in France (Elemental)—The most famous of the several “King”s of the blues is in exceptional form on this unearthed ‘70s set.
  4. Sister Rosetta Tharpe: Live in France—The 1966 Limoges Concert (Elemental)—Her guitar is shorter on beautifully ugly noise than on other available live recordings, but otherwise, 51 and just seven years from passing on, she’s all the way on.
  5. Various Artists: Super Disco Pirata—De Tepito Para El Mundo 1965-1980 (Analog Africa)—Don’t we all need even more cumbia (and related contagious rhythms) in our lives right now?

Check the shit out aurally–though I wish I had a better option than Squatify.

Not Quite Apocalypse, Yet: OCTOBER ’24–Best Stuff I Heard

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The post title is all I’m saying about the obvious.

If you haven’t had a chance to do so through other portals, you should check out the rock and roll high school story I’d never gotten around to writing since it happened on March 30, 2005: the Hood-Cooley-Isbell Drive-By Truckers playing an unplugged concert at the high school where I was working (I’d only asked their people if one of those guys could talk to our rock and roll club). I have a Substack on top of this (why?), and there you will find Part 1 and Part 2 of the tale. You’ll get a kick out of it, I think.

This seemed a sluggish month for music (I was personally and professionally too busy to be sluggish myself), but then it came on at the tail end. In fact, it’s still coming on as I type this and try to catch up with some last-second drops.

Yep–still trying (and only succeeding via ridiculously adhered clauses) to write one-sentence reviews. I’ve got multiple jobs, people! And I like to read and play with cats when I’m home!

Note: Speaking of work, my popular music-infused Stephens College freshman composition class is reading the great music writer Ann Powers’ alternate history of American pop, Good Booty (please read it and her new and intriguing Joni Mitchell bio Traveling Traveling Traveling yourself), and I talked Ann into an interview for my students’ edification. If you’re interested in hearing it–she ranges widely and always eloquently–click this link (it was a Zoom interview, and since my students could not participate due to the class’ on-line asynchronous nature, I had to record it for them).

OCTOBER 2024 NEW RECORDINGS I HEARD (alphabetically ordered)

BOLDED = Damn good!

Amy & The Sniffers: Cartoon Darkness (Rough Trade) – The Internet seems to be underwhelmed by this record, but I respect punk pizzazz, and this has it–along with humor, shit-smearing, joy, and self-effacement.

The Belair Lip Bombs: Lush Life (Third Man) – For some reason (maybe it’s that I’ve never seen Johnny Depp and Jack White in the same photo), I don’t trust Third Man, but I read “power pop” in one review, and…yeah, maybe.

Church Chords: elvis, he was Schlager (Otherly Love) – Dark horse indie-rock / experimental AOTY candidate, from a label to keep your eye on, featuring wry vocals and sweet-memory-tickling musical stylings fired by these guitarists: Jeff Parker, Nels Cline, and Brandon Seabrook, the latter of whom often drags Dock Boggs into the 21st century.

Day Dream: Duke & Strays (Corner Store Jazz) – Last post I bemoaned my late discovery of the master drummer Phil Haynes, so, though I asked myself if I needed to hear another Ellington/Strayhorn tribute with predictable song choices, I tried it, and its sideways and intriguing interpretations, performed live, dazzled me–very much due to Haynes’ playing.

EELS: Being Dead (Bayonet) – Listened to out of obligation, repeat-played out of fixation, this “joyous and unexpected trip helmed by two true-blue freak bitch besties holed up in a lil’ house in the heart of Austin, Texas” (see Bandcamp) proves indie rock is far from dead.

Flagboy Giz and The Wild Tchoupitoulas: Live from the French Quarter Fest (Injun Money) – I will always investigate Mardi Gras Indians action, I’m thrilled to hear these chants “bounce”d, I’m glad Flagboy’s name is pronounced with a hard “g”…now, if someone will tell me where to get a hard copy (downloads are hard enough to find).

Joe Fonda: Eyes on the Horizon (Long Song) – Master jazz bassist (Fonda) and indefatigable pianist (Satoko Fujii) pay tribute to eminence grise of free improv trumpet, Wadada Leo Smith–who’s on trumpet.

Phillip Golub: Abiding Memory (Endectomorph) – Alternating lightly dancing drum rhythms with moments of composed tension that don’t disrupt the album’s flow, Golub’s writing does justice to the title.

Mickey Guyton: House on Fire (Capitol Records Nashville) – Of course it would have been hard for Guyton to top Remember My Name, which featured about a decade’s worth of songwriting, and there’s always the sophomore slump to consider, but honestly, though it doesn’t have the occasional quiet bite of its predecessor, this one satisfies–pleasurable artistic solidity.

Rich Halley 4: Dusk and Dawn (Pine Eagle) – A time-tested quartet led by a Julius Hemphill-inspired, very underheard saxophonist is worth your time–the expressive balance achieved by the group and the sensitive production make this a treat for the mind’s ear.

High Vis: Guided Tour (Dais) – Sadly, I’d not heard of this London group, because I’m always hunting for living punk rock, and, though I need to listen backwards through their work, along with Amyl & The Sniffers (see above) this album made me really happy and really amped.

Judas Priest: Invisible Shield (Deluxe Edition) (Sony) – This truly enjoyable and deeply admirable album’s inclusion is dedicated to my late brother-from-another-mother Mike Rayhill (The Jimbobs, The Luvhandles, The Balls), who would have loved it (and, to be clear, I do, too–thanks, Chuck Eddy).

Messiah in Glytch: Geisha in the Machine (FPE EP) – I had heard nothing about this explosive, confrontational, complex little record, but the MC’s handle and the album title intrigued me, and FPE takes chances on challenging artists–and MIG is one: highly recommended to hip hop heads needing some socio-political bars, boom-bap, and in-your-face flow.

more ease & kaho matsui: computer & recording works for girls (Full Spectrum) – I dig that title, and it’s more delightful–and calming–than the title portends.

Mount Eerie: Night Palace (self-released) – I’ll be honest: I signed up for the Bandcamp listening party for this album yesterday, had not closely listened to Phil Elverum since he traced his family tragedy on A Crow Looked at Me, and was prepping for an interview (see above) while participating in said party…but the many musical moments and lyrical snatches that caught me up short make this sound like a Top-Tenner

PYPY: Sacred Times (Goner) – I shall quote my best friend of 45 years, my former bandmate, my first and best tutor in punk rock, and former webmaster of The Rawk and current overseer of the Facebook group of the same name, Mark Anthony: “This is kicking my ass today! Stuck somewhere between Pylon and Romeo Void with a healthy dose of skronk and early 80’s techno?”

Walter Smith III: three of us are from Houston and Reuben is not (Blue Note) – A first-class mainstream jazz session by saxophonist Smith, aided and abetted by the always thoughtful, fluent, and interesting Jason Moran on piano.

Tyler, The Creator: CHROMAKOPIA (Columbia) – I have half-followed Tyler since his Odd Fellows days, but at some point–often several points–during each release, he’s put me off–until this one, another record with punk pizzazz (both instrumental and verbal) that doesn’t even need its excellent guest spots to be really good and that drew this comment from my former student, DC resident, and Creator adept Erin Datcher: “He’s wearing the mask on the cover to signal that he’s telling the truth this time.”

2024-RELEASED EXCAVATIONS OF OLD BUSINESS

Arthur Blythe Quartet: Live! From Rivbea Studios, Volume 2 (No Business) – Black Arthur blowing in a loft on fire.

Andrew Hill Sextet Plus 10: A Beautiful Day Revisited (Palmetto) – This very welcome reissue from the fearsome pianist and composer originally earned its title, and now does even more, thanks to Palmetto’s touch.

Charlie Parker: Bird in Kansas City (Verve) – With a few of one foot’s toes in the past and the other’s whole stepping into the future, and thanks to guitarist Efferge Ware’s chopping, Freddie Green-influenced guitar on the closing tracks, Parker is captured here sounding like a 1939 Basie escapee–as fully Kansas City-bred as he ever sounded.

Phil Ranelin & Wendell Harrison: Tribe 2000 (Org Music) – As good a place as any to catch up with an excellent and often-steaming Detroit jazz duo–and scene.

Various Artists: Even the Forest Hums—Ukrainian Sonic Archives 1971-1996 (Light in the Attic) – Beyond keeping the people of Ukraine on your mind, this wide-ranging and surprisingly pop-sounding compilation (LITA advertises it as “folk, rock, jazz, and electronic”) invites you into the country’s music, both pre- and post-Soviet collapse.

Apples of My Ear (in Stereo) , 75% of the Way Through This Year of Our Horde

After several years of just keeping cumulative, priority-ordered lists of my favorite new and excavated recordings here, and feeling guilty that I usually wasn’t writing (or saying) much, I decided in January to take a new approach, which I’ve enjoyed–but it’s been hell on my long-term memory. I feel I’m sure to have left something I loved out of the lists below, even after arduously scrolling through past posts. Maybe I’ll go back to listing in 2025 if I haven’t flexed my passport. On the positive side, I’ve abjured the priority ordering in favor of alphabetical, since I’d begun to suspect my Top 10s and 20s of the past had become somewhat calcified by June or July; saving the priority ordering for the end of the year forces me to have to re-evaluate records a little more carefully. On the other hand, who but I really cares?

Thusly, firstly:

MY 30 VERY FAVORITE NEW RECORDS FROM 2024 SO FAR

(Alphabetical…BUT * = Potential Top 10er; $ = Vying for #1)

  1. Acceleration Due to Gravity: Jonesville (Hot Cup)
  2. Adeem The Artist: ANNIVERSARY (Thirty Tigers /Four Quarters) 
  3. Big Freedia & The Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra: Live at the Orpheum Theater (Queen Diva)
  4. Alan Braufman: Infinite Love Tears (The Control Group / Valley of Search)
  5. Patricia Brennan: Breaking Stretch (Pyroclastic) 
  6. Buck 65, doseone, Jel: North American Adonis (Handsmade)
  7. Ingebrigt Haker Flaten & (Exit) Knarr: Breezy (Sonic Transmissions)*
  8. Fox Green: Light Over Darkness (self-released)
  9. Amaro Freitas: Y’Y (Psychic Hotline)
  10. Satoko Fujii Trio: Jet Black (Libra)
  11.  Hurray for the Riff Raff: The Past is Still Alive (Nonesuch)*$
  12.  Jlin: Akoma (Planet Mu)*
  13.  Darius Jones: Legend of e’Boi (The Hypervigilant Eye) (AUM Fidelity)*
  14.  Ka: The Thief Next to Jesus (self-released)*
  15.  El Khat: Mute (Glitterbeat)
  16.  Corb Lund: El Viejo (New West)*$
  17.  Mdou Moctar: Funeral for Justice (Matador)
  18.  Bill Orcutt Guitar Quartet: Four Guitars Live (Palilalia)*
  19.  QOW Trio: The Hold Up (Ubuntu)
  20.  Ren: Sick Boi (renmakesmusic.com) 
  21.  Ryuichi Sakamoto: Opus (Milan) 
  22.  SAULT: Acts of Faith (self-released)
  23.  Ann Savoy: Another Heart (Smithsonian Folkways)
  24.  Brandon Seabrook: Object of Unknown Function (Pyroclastic)*
  25.  Patrick Shiroishi: Glass House (Otherly Love)
  26.  Snotty Nose Rez Kids: Red Future (Savage Mob)
  27.  Swamp Dogg: Blackgrass—From West Virginia to 125th Street (Oh Boy! Records)*
  28.  Takkak Takkak: Takkak Takkak (Nyege Nyege Tapes)
  29.  Fay Victor:  Life is Funny That Way—Herbie Nichols Sung (TAO Forms)
  30.  X: Smoke & Fiction (Fat Possum)

…and secondly:

MY TOP 15 VERY FAVORITE EXCAVATED OR REISSUED RECORDS 

(I always list these alphabetically anyway, but * = my faves and $ = tops)

  1. Christer Bothen Featuring Bolon Beta: Trancedance—40th Anniversary Edition (Black Truffle reissue)*
  2. Alice Coltrane: The 1971 Carnegie Hall Concert (Impulse!) (Goner Records reissue)
  3. Cosmic Psychos: Go the Hack (Goner Records reissue)
  4. Creation Rebel: High Above Harlesden 1978-2023 (On-U Sound) 
  5. Charles Gayle / Milford Graves / William Parker: WEBO (Black Editions)
  6. Phil Haynes: 4 Horns or What?—The Complete American Recordings (Corner Store Jazz)*
  7. Love Child: Never Meant to Be (12XU) 
  8. Franco Luambo Mkaidi: Presents Les Editions Populaires (Planet Ilunga) 
  9. Sonny Rollins: Freedom Weaver–The 1959 European Tour Recordings (Resonance)*$
  10.  Juma Sultan’s Aboriginal Music Society: Father of Origin (Eremite)
  11. Sun Ra: Excelsior Mill (Sundazed)*
  12. Unholy Modal Rounders: Unholier Than Thou 7/7/77 (Don Giovanni)*$
  13. Various Artists: Congo Funk! Sound Madness From The Shores Of The Mighty Congo River (Analog Africa)
  14. Various Artists: Love Hides All Faults—Deep Gospel Soul Selected by Jumbo (Elusive Vinyl / Pyramid Records)*
  15. Mal Waldron & Steve Lacy: The Mighty Warriors Live in Antwerp (Elemental Music)

September Struggle: 22 Records That Helped Me Power Through

Covid finally caught up with me. I had not received the most recent booster (I’d been advised to wait), but I suppose it was inevitable, and at least I have a measure more immunity. The virus was a different bitch each of the five days I was on my back: uncontrollable 101.5-102.5 fever, deep hacking (including ugly music exploding from me without warning) to the point I could barely put a cough lozenge back there, 160 BPM heart rate (plus some A-Fib, which I’ve already had a procedure to prevent) for nearly 12 hours, an inability to sleep for more than an hour at a time (two night actually), and some rounds of deep lethargy, a state I despise with every fiber of my being. BUT: such a state enabled me to listen to the entirety of Allen Lowe’s Louis Armstrong’s America (see below–four consistently interesting discs of varied and original jazz compositions played by instrumentalists of unique voice many of you have not heard of–and in Lowe’s own liner notes) and the entire three-volume, seven-disc oeuvre of the mysterious international improvisatory jazz unit called [ahmed]–they’re like The Necks with something to be angry about. And such a state is just what fascinating music exists to sweep away. Fittingly, I came around just in time to see AACM stalwart Kahil El’Zabar’s Ritual Trio (featuring a fragile but still musically fetching Ari Brown on saxophone) energetically open the 66th year (!!!) of St. Louis’ New Circle Jazz Series, and, in spite of a surprisingly rough recovery week, caught alto saxophonist Vincent Herring’s “Something Else!” jazz band here in Columbia, which featured Nicole’s and my favorite saxophonist, the (sometimes too) ebullient master of the reeds James Carter.

I did get to listen to and evaluate some new stuff. All things below are listed alphabetically, but I’ve bolded the ones that are really fine. I’m still limiting myself to single-sentence reviews because I am busy with other things. And soon to come will be my update–for what it could possibly be worth to you–of my 10 or 15 or 20 favorite albums of this entire scary year.

New

  1. BASIC: This is Basic (No Quarter)—A pleasing labor of love, in tribute to a widely-felt too-basic ’80s album featuring the corruscating guitarist Robert Quine.
  2. Coco & Clair Clair: Girl (Nice Girl World)–Throbbing bass, cute tunes ‘n’ talk-singing…and the wrong girls to eff with.
  3. Kris Davis: Run the Gauntlet (Pyroclastic)–The pre-eminent pianist in Stateside improvisatory jazz waxes her first trio record in awhile, which is also showcase for master drummer Johnathan Blake.
  4. Doechii: Alligator Bites Never Hea l (Top Dawg Entertainment / Capitol)–I’m no one to play women against each other–that’s a chump’s game–but rap’s a battle-art no matter who’s spittin’, so maybe team Doechii up with Coco & Clair on an EP and turn ’em loose on some victimizers or some fakes.
  5. El Khat: Mute (Glitterbeat)—At a local record party, a friend played me this Berlin-based Yemeni band’s previous record and I was immediately hooked by its hypnotic clanking and addictive Middle Eastern rhythms; I’ve since acquired their entire catalog–solid!–and this new one might be their best.
  6. Etran de L’Air: 100% Sahara Guitar (Sahel Sounds)–This Agadez wedding band keeps getting better–my esteemed music-enraptured colleague behind the superb Substack newsletter RiotRiot prefers them to Mdou Moctar–and the title speaks for itself.
  7. Fastbacks: For WHAT Reason? (No Threes)–Rock and roll lives, though if you listen through the bright, fast guitar-propelled music, it hasn’t been easy.
  8. Ingebrigt Haker Flaten & (Exit) Knarr: Breezy (Sonic Transmissions)—Flaten and his excellent band (Exit Knarr) follow up the stunning compositions and free playing of their debut by upping the ante with continued inventive writing and the well-timed skronks of guitarist Jonathan Horne.
  9. Floating Points: Cascade (Ninja Tune)–The Pharoah Sanders record didn’t end up knocking my socks off, so, in sampling this as an obligation, I was pleased to find the beats delighted and brightened me.
  10. GALVEZTON: Some Kind of Love (A Tribute to the Velvet Underground) (La Izquierda)–The Feelies did this last year, on a record of pretty much the same title, and the vocals killed it for me, which they DO NOT here…plus I’m fascinated by why these Texans even waxed it.
  11. Darius Jones: Legend of e’Boi (The Hypervigilant Eye) (AUM Fidelity)–Jones’ saxophone playing on this soon-come release is emotionally powerful but carefully controlled, and it’s the strongest of what will be eventually nine installments of his “Man’ish Boy” epic (according to the notes) as well as my favorite saxophone record of the year.
  12. LL Cool J: The FORCE (LL Cool J Records)–I’m calling it a comeback, a strong one, though while reading Helen Zahavi’s haunting and harrowing Dirty Weekend, I have questions about his sexual politics.
  13. Allen Lowe & The Constant Sorrow Orchestra: Louis Armstrong’s America (Constant Sorrow)–No important music chronicler has ever composed and played this well, though I am tempted to boil the four discs down to a master cut and see if it strikes me more deeply.
  14. Satoko Fujii Quartet: Dog Days of Summer (Libra)–Fujii can play piano and compose in any configuration, including fusion, which this kinda is, and though the bassist occasionally exerts too much enthusiasm, I continue to marvel at her flexibility and dream of witnessing her live.
  15. Brandon Seabrook: Object of Unknown Function (Pyroclastic)–Roll over, Bill Orcutt, and tell Bob Quine’s dust the news.
  16. Patrick Shiroishi: Glass House (Otherly Love)—I kid you not, this lovely sax-and-soundscape record is on par (for me) with In a Silent Way, Another Green World, Private Parts, and Ocean of Remembrance as magically calming records to meditate or get to sleep to if you’re troubled
  17. Snotty Nose Rez Kids: Red Future (Savage Mob)—I await anyone’s answer why this trio of First Nations smart-allecks and advancers of tradition aren’t more lauded in the hip hop world…other than that they’re First Nations rappers (they’re a trip love, too).
  18. Thalin, Cravinhos & VCR Slim: Maria Esmeralda (Sujoground)–Brazilian rap of the first order…though I don’t really know enough to know that for sure, I just stayed locked in.
  19. Various Artists: BACaRDi Fest EP (New Money Gang)–Almost 50 minutes of rolling South African beat-flow, if you wanna call that an EP.
  20. Dustin Wong & Gregory Uhlmann: Water Map (Otherly Love)–An engrossing tour of, as one listener puts it, “A river, a cavern, for the mind’s ear.”

New-Old

  1. Unholy Modal Rounders: Unholier Than Thou 7/7/77 (Don Giovanni)—An absolutely essential, impossibly lively, lovably louche–and highly educational–pair of performances led by the mad vocals and scratch-that-itch fiddle of the legendary Peter Stampfel.
  2. Raphael Roginski: Plays John Coltrane and Langston Hughes (Unsound)–Lots of guitar this month, but so be it, and Roginski’s 2015 album–guitar-only but for a few guest vocals–does justice to the title, which I was certain it would not and could not.

Sample the shit!