I realize that many of the choices below are actually releases from 2017, but they are fresh enough and so hard to have gotten one’s hands on that I’m-a have to count them. Happy hunting, and enjoy the above playlist of highlight tracks (excluding the Dawkins album, as no video was available.
Nona Hendryx and Gary Lucas: The World of Captain Beefheart
What can I tell you? I’d hoped things (i. e., our American life) would be much better by now, since I last posted a lazy list–for the time being, I cannot write, a kind of impotence I am sure is related to political distraction. However, “fury and fire” are the order of the day, so I guess I’ll be leaning even harder on music to get me from rising from my pillow in the morning to lowering my head back upon it at night. These records keep me believing in a decent future, and in a humanity that continues to evolve. Big ups to St. Louis’ Black Artists Group contingent, my research into which has been exciting; to the Golden Pelicans, who are the Black Oak Arkansas of hard-ass punk rock; to the ebullient Eno Williams, who powers the exultant Ibibio Sound Machine; to Tyshawn Sorey, who is always looking for a way forward; and to the indefatigable musical exploration of John Corbett, who’s damn-near supplanted every other music writer in my esteem. I’ve taken the time to link all the new releases to clips for you to enjoy (that is, except for Jay Z, because, as nice as his old-dude album is technically and artistically, I’m done for now with caring about the lives of the very rich), and I did my best to do the same for the older rekkids I am digging, but…shit, you know how to get to YouTube, correct?
Important Addendum: The Lost Bayou Ramblers crashed the Top 10 out of nowhere with the hardest-rocking, most eccentrically textured Cajun record in years, Kalenda–which is my favorite record right now, but it just dropped today (9/29/17). Also, against all my strongest, well-honed instincts, I’ve been broken by Lana Del Rey. A six-hour immersion in her catalogue justified the hype and more, though I would still opine that a little goes a long (but deep) way.
In so many ways, this year has flat sucked. I’m a born optimist, and I’ve never considered that a disability, but now? I guess that I just don’t know. As long as I keep certain names off my tongue, my eye on the courts, my feet on the street and trails, my arms around my woman, and my ears on this stuff, well…I guess I will power through. Perhaps you will be tempted to try one of the following aural encouragements, and it’ll help you through, too.
TOP 50 New Releases of the First Half of 2017
(in order of my preference if the world goes up in flames tomorrow):
Honestly, I’ve continued to be distracted from music, and reading, and…well, haven’t you? Nonetheless, I’ve laid ear to some dandy new records; also, I have spent some time with some dandy old records as well. Here we go!
These are the recent records (most minted in this calendar year, some not quite) that I most whole-heartedly recommend to the musical adventurer. I’m starting to hate lists, but it’s a habit, and when one is dealing with annual ones, one must stay on top of them. If you peer back at my last list-post, you’ll probably see little change, so as a bonus, I am throwing in some additional offerings that I don’t quite so strongly recommend, but that may delight you and eventually grow on me. As for purchasing them, I assume you know how to use the Internet, but in a few case where the source (sometimes the artist himself) needs a boost, I may direct you. As much as it’s possible for me to deduce it, they are in order of, um, power.
August 7, Rahsaan Roland Kirk’s birthday (by the way), is not a neat place at which to break off a list, but I have time, inspiration, and beer at my behest, so here it is. Some opening comments:
*I stared at that #1 for a long time. But I couldn’t do anything about it. Nothing is wrong with me or my judgment. And She knocked Anna Hogberg (who, right?) out of the top spot.
*I acknowledge that much of my Top 10 is the result of my political biases, as well as the fact that I am very much aware that I, more than usual, am in the midst of a terrible and/or wonderful history being made, or making us.
*My tastes are all over the place, but as Duke said, and I paraphrase, there is just good and bad music. I can’t in good conscience separate, say, septuagenarian free-jazzer Joe McPhee from yearling rock and roller Joe Toledo–it wouldn’t be worthy of my United States citizenship. Plus, I’m sorry, it’s just boring to listen to the same genre or whatever all day–not to mention all year.
So I humbly submit my favorite 25 rekkids–in order of the amount of mental, physical, and spiritual stimulation they give me, from most to least–of this roiling year that’s just gonna burble and bubble and boil more furiously until New Year’s Eve. Each item has a little surprise (sometimes not so surprising) linked to it for your enjoyment, edification, or consumeristic/aesthetic impulses.
The first third of this haunted year is over: list time! I’ve got 35 rekkids so far that could conceivably make my year-end best-of (alphabetized, because I don’t have the energy to rank ’em–except my Top 10, asterisked and bolded for your convenience). That’s complicated by one that I was way behind on (even further than I was on Jazmine Sullivan) that might be argued as impacting 2016, a Brazilian record from a few years back that just came into most of our earlines, an addictive Serengeti EP project, and a documentary that I want to count.
*Angry Angles: Angry Angles
Bajakian, Aram: Music Inspired by “The Color of Pomegranates” *Bombino: Azel *Booker, James: Bayou Maharajah (film)
Bowie, David: Blackstar
Bradley, Charles: Changes
Braxton, Anthony: 3 Compositions [EEMHM] 2011
Childbirth: Women’s Rights
Dalek: Asphault for Eden
Del McCoury Band: Del and Woody
Hemphill, Julius: Julius Hemphill Plays the Songs of Allen Lowe *Hogberg, Anna: Anna Hogberg Attack *Kool and Kass: Barter 7 *Iyer, Vijay, and Wadada Leo Smith: A Cosmic Rhythm with Each Stroke
Lamar, Kendrick: Untitled Unmastered
Lewis, Linda Gail: Heartache Highway
Lynn, Loretta: Full Circle
McPhee, Joe, and Paal Nilssen-Love: Candy *Mexrissey: No Manchester
Open Mike Eagle: Hella Personal Film Festival
Parquet Courts: Human Performance
Perfecto: You Can’t Run from The Rhythm
Professor Longhair: Live in Chicago
Pusha T: Darkness Before Dawn
Reed, Blind Alfred: Blind Alfred Reed–Appalachian Visionary
Rihanna: Anti
Rollins, Sonny: Holding Down the Stage—Road Shows, Volume Four
Simpson, Sturgill: A Sailor’s Guide to Earth
Stetson, Colin: Sorrow—A Reimagining of Gorecki’s Third Symphony
Threadgill, Henry: Old Locks and Irregular Verbs *Various Artists: Music of Morocco–Recorded by Paul Bowles, 1959
Various Artists: Original Cast Recording of Hamilton#
Various Artists: Soul Sok Sega–Sega Sounds from Mauritius *Veloso, Caetano, and Gilberto Gil: Dois Amigos, Um Século de Música–Multishow Live *Williams, Saul: Martyr Loser King
Wills, Bob, and the Texas Playboys: Let’s Play, Boys–Rediscovered Songs from Bob Wills’ Personal Transcriptions
Wussy: “Ceremony”/”Days and Nights”
Wussy: Forever Sounds
Ze, Tom: Vira Lata na Via Lactea#
*Top 10 selections—as of now # Complicated by not being 2016 by a long shot.
If you’re walking around with f-oldin’ money, here’s my rather casually assembled Top 15 releases for the first quarter of 2016, with some explanations:
1. Various Artists: Original Cast Recording of Hamilton*
2. Kool and Kass: Barter 7
3. Bajakian, Aram: Music Inspired by “The Color of Pomegranates”
4. Williams, Saul: Martyr Loser King
5. Lynn, Loretta: Full Circle
6. Lamar, Kendrick: Untitled Unmastered
7. Various Artists: Soul Sok Sega–Sega Sounds from Mauritius
8. McPhee, Joe, and Paal Nilssen-Love: Candy@
9. Pusha T: Darkness Before Dawn
10. Wussy: Forever Sounds
11. Wills, Bob, and the Texas Playboys: Let’s Play, Boys–Rediscovered Songs from Bob Wills’ Personal Transcriptions
12. Childbirth: Women’s Rights
13. Hemphill, Julius: Julius Hemphill Plays the Songs of Allen Lowe
14. Bowie, David: Blackstar
15. Bradley, Charles: Changes
*Definitely not 2016—but, dang it, I slept on it, and isn’t it still relevant in the Year of Our Gorge?
@Definitely not 2016—but, dang it, it’s seven discs! GIVE me just a little more TIME/And my take will surely GROW!
Seems like all I am doin’ is listing this year–many more things on my mind than writing. But I am listening, listening discerningly, listening hard, listening and dancing, listening around. One conclusion I have come to is that our citizens could coexist as intriguingly as these varied discs–maybe this list is a wish. Reader, give some of these a shot.
Jack DeJohnette: Made in Chicago (ECM)
Willie Nelson and Sister Bobbie: December Day (Legacy)
Kendrick Lamar: to pimp a butterfly (Aftermath)
Iris DeMent: The Trackless Woods (Flariella)
Africa Express: Terry Riley’s “In C”—Mali (Transgressive)
Kate Tempest: Everybody Down (Big Dada)
79rs Gang: Fiyo on the Bayou (Sinking City)
Nots: We Are Nots (Goner)
J. D. Allen: Graffiti (Savant)
Low-Cut Connie: Hi Honey (Ardent)
Mdou Moctar: Soundtrack to the film Akounak Tedalat Taha Tazoughai (Sahel Sounds)
Irene Schweizer and Han Bennink: Welcome Back (Intakt)
Sufjan Stevens: Carrie & Lowell (Asthmatic Kitty)
Heems: Eat Pray Thug (Megaforce)
The Paranoid Style: Rock and Roll Just Can’t Recall (self-released)
Courtney Barnett: Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit (Mom & Pop)
The Close Readers: The Lines are Open (Austin)
Tamikrest: Taksera (Glitterbeat)
Mammane Sani et son Orgue: La Musique Electronique du Niger (Sahel Sounds)
Shamir: Racket (XL)
Dead Moon: Live at Satyricon (Voodoo Doughnut)
Alex Chilton: Ocean Club ’77 (Norton)
Mbongwana Star: From Kinshasa (World Circuit)
Bob Dylan: Shadows in the Night (Sony)
Various Artists: Burn, Rubber City, Burn (Soul Jazz)
Henry Threadgill & Zooid: In for a Penny, In for a Pound (Pi)
Young Fathers: White Men are Black Men Too (Ninja Tune)
Big Chief Don Pardo and Golden Comanche: Spirit Food (self-released)
Coneheads: L.P. aka “14 Year Old High School PC–Fascist Hype Lords Rip Off Devo for the Sake of Extorting $$$ from Helpless Impressionable Midwestern Internet Peoplepunks L.P.” (Erste Theke Tontraeger)
Various Artists: The Red Line Comp (self-released)
Pop Staples: Don’t Lose This (Anti-)
Bob Marley & The Wailers: Easy Skankin’ in Boston, 1978 (Tuff Gong)
Sleater-Kinney: No Cities to Love (Sub Pop)
Leo Bud Welch: I Don’t Prefer No Blues (Big Legal Mess)
Mountain Goats: Beat the Champ (Merge)
Obnox: Know America (Ever/Never)
Vince Staples: Summertime ’06 (Def Jam)
Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard: Django & Jimmy (Legacy)
Bassekou Kouyate and Ngoni: Ba Power (Glitterbeat)
Vijay Iyer: Break Stuff (ECM)
J. B. Smith: No More Good Time in the World For Me (Dust-To-Digital)
Doomtree: All Hands (Doomtree)
The Sonics: This is The Sonics (Revox)
Kasey Musgraves: Pageant Material (Mercury)
The Falcons: The World’s First Soul Group—The Complete Recordings (History of Soul)
Sonny Simmons and Moksha Samnyasin: Nomadic (Svart)
Reactionaries: 1979 (Water Under the Bridge)
James McMurtry: Complicated Game (Complicated Game)
Continental Drifters: Drifted–In The Beginning & Beyond (Omnivore)
Swamp Dogg: The White Man Made Me Do It (S.D.E.G.)
Banging on the door: Kamasi Washington, Titus Andronicus, Beale Street Saturday Night reissue, and a Jason Isbell record that won’t leave me alone.
Living To Listen 