Thank the stars we have the music. We also are better-looking than they are.
Side note: my head is spinning re: the recurrence of the “poptimism v. rockism” debate / clarification / writer cage match / white-flag-wave.” I’ve never had any doubt massively popular music is interesting, I am very interested in semi-popular music that exists between those poles, and I guess I sometimes wonder where loving pure sound (in the Pauline Oliveras sense) lies in the debate, or if it matters. I hate feeling guilty because I simply don’t see where Sabrina Carpenter connects with my lived life—I respect her talent, but I don’t need her work like I need the stuff listed below—and I have sampled her as well as seen her perform live on my smart TV. On the other hand, and it’s not just that I’m from her corner of Missouri, Chappell Roan was automatic for me: exuberant, clever, catchy, shifty, transgressive (in a way), imaginative, and charismatic, I find plenty to like. But Deepstar Enigmatica, which seems outside of the scrum, is also automatic and reaches deep inside of me. Probably, what it comes down to is I don’t fully get it, despite my having read Carl Wilson’s Let’s Talk About Love, from which I took this maxim: don’t taste-spar with others, because you don’t know what they’ve been through that spurs them to connect to a piece of music. Ok, done.
MY LIST OF AURAL PLEASURE
January 1 – October 1, 2025
BOLD = New to the List
ASTERISKED* = Damn good! to Holy SHIT!
ITALICIZED: Excavations from the Past / Reissues
Aesop Rock: Black Hole Superette (Rhymesayers) ****
Africa Express: …Presents…Bahidora (World Circuit Limited) ****
Amarae: Black Star (Golden Angel) ***
Zoh Amba: Sun (Smalltown Supersound) ****
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) ****
Mulatu Astatke: Mulatu Plays Mulatu (Strut) ****
Backxwash: Only Dust Remains (Ugly Hag) ****
Bad Bunny: DeBI TiRAR MaS FOToS (Rimas Entertainment) **** *
Julien Baker & Torres: Send a Prayer My Way (Matador) ****
Bar-B-Q Killers: The Last Shit, Part 1 (Chunklet 45)
Gina Birch: Trouble (Third Man)
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) *** *
Blood Orange: Essex Honey (RCA)
Booker T & The Plasmic Bleeds: Ode To BC/LY… And Eye Know BO…. da Prez (Mahakala Music)
Benjamin Booker: Lower (Fire Next Time)
Christer Bothén: Christer Bothén Donso n’goni (Black Truffle)
Johnny Bragg: Let Me Dream On (Org Music) ***
Patricia Brennan: Of The Near and Far (Pyroclastic) ****
Brother Ali & Ant: Satisfied Soul (Mello Music) Buck 65: Keep Moving (self-released)
Peter Brotzmann: The Quartet (Otoroku) *****
Master Wilburn Burchette: Master Wilburn Burchette’s Psychic Meditation Music (Numero Group) ***
Joe Chambers, Kevin Diehl, Chad Taylor: Onilu (Eremite) ****
Tyler Childers: Snipe Hunter (RCA / Hickman Holler) ****
Christer Bothén 3: L’Invisible (thanatosis) ****
clipping: Dead Channel Sky (Sub Pop)
Clipse: Let God Sort ‘Em Out (Roc Nation) ***
Common and Pete Rock: The Auditorium, Volume 1 (Casa Loma)
Cosmic Ear: TRACES (We Jazz) *****
Sylvie Courvoisier & Mary Halvorson: Bone Bells (Pyroclastic) ***
Sylvia Courvoisier & Wadada Leo Smith: Angel Falls (Intakt)
Chuck D: Chuck D Presents Enemy Radio—Radio Armageddon(Soundspeak)
Lucrecia Dalt: A Danger to Ourselves (RVNG International) ****
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 Haram: Beside Myself (Hyperdub)
DJ Shaun-D: From Bubbling to Dutch House (Nyege Nyege Tapes)
Big Chief Bo Dollis Jr. & The Wild Magnolias: Chip Off The Old Block(Strong Place)
Doseone & Height Keech: Wood Teeth (Hands Made EP) ****
doseone & Steel Tipped Dove: All Portrait, No Chorus (BackwoodzStudios) ****
Earl Sweatshirt: Live Laugh Love (Tan Cressida) ***
Silke Eberhard Trio: Being-A-Ning (Intakt)
Eddy Current Suppression Ring: Shapes and Forms (Cool Death EP) ***
Marty Ehrlich Trio Exaltation: This Time (Sunnyside) ***
Electric Satie: Gymnopedia ’99 (In Sheep’s Clothing) ****
Marco Eneidi Quintet: Wheat Fields of Kleylehof (Balance Point Acoustics / Botticelli) ****
Mark Ernestus’ Ndagga Rhythm Force: Khadim (Ndagga) ***
Ex-Void: In Love Again (Tapete Records)
Shamek Farrah: First Impressions (Strata-East) ***
Shamek Farrah & Sonelius Smith: The World of the Children(Strata-East) ****
Fieldwork: Thereupon (Pi 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)
Tomas Fujiwara: Dream Up (Out of Your Head)
Karol G: Tropicoqueta (Bichota) ****
Galactic and Irma Thomas: Audience with the Queen (Tchoup-Zilla)
Girl Scout: Headache (self-released EP)
Roger Glenn: My Latin Heart (Patois) ****
Woody Guthrie: Woody at Home, Vol 1 + 2 (Shamus) ****
HAIM: I quit (Haim Productions) ****
Keiji Haino and Natsuki Tamura: what happened there? (Libra)
Mary Halvorson: About Ghosts (Nonesuch) *****
Hamell on Trial: Harp (for Harry) (Saustex)
Phil Haynes & Free Country: Liberty Now! (Corner Store Jazz) ***
Heat On: Heat On (Cuneiform)
The Hemphill Stringtet: Plays the Music of Julius Hemphill (Out of Your Head Records)
Horsegirl: Phonetics On and On (Matador)
HHY & The Kampala Unit: Turbo Meltdown (Nyege Nyege Tapes) ****
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) ***
Hot 8 Brass Band: Big Tuba (Tru Thoughts) ***
Hunx and His Punks: Walk Out on This World (Get Better) ****
Hüsker Dü: January 30, Parts 1 & 2 (Numero EP) ***** (Numero box on the way….)
Mikko Innanen and Ingebrigt Häker Flaten: Live in Espoo (Sonic Transmissions)
Michael Gregory Jackson: Frequency Equilibrium Koan (moved-by-sound)
Jeong – Bisio Duo (featuring Joe McPhee): Morning Bells Whistle Bright (ESP-Disk) ****
JID: God Does Like Ugly (Dreamville/Interscope) ****
JLZ & GG: Medio Grave (Nyege Nyege Tapes) ***
Rico Jones: Bloodlines (Giant Step Arts)
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) ****
Kronos Quartet + The Hard Rain Collective: Hard Rain (Red Hot Org EP)
Lady Gaga: Mayhem (Interscope)
Lambrini Girls: Who Let The Dogs Out (City Slang US) *****
Steve Lehman: The Music of Anthony Braxton (Pi Recordings) *****
José Lencastre: Inner Voices (Burning Ambulance) ***
Jinx Lennon: The Hate Agents Leer at the Last Agents of Hope (Septic Tiger) ***
James Brandon Lewis: Apple Cores (Anti-)
James Brandon Lewis Quartet: Abstraction is Deliverance (Intakt) ***
Jeffrey Lewis: The Even More Freewheelin’ Jeffrey Lewis (Don Giovanni)
Little Simz: Lotus (AWAL) ****
LOLO: LOLO (Black Sweat)
Rocio Gimenez Lopez: La Forma Del Sueno (Blue Art) ****
Rocio Gimenez Lopez: La Palabra Repetida (Blue Art) ***
K. Curtis Lyle, Jaap Blonk, Damon Smith, Alex Cunningham: A Radio of the Body
Jako Maron: Mahavelouz (Nyege Nyege Tapes) ****
Mahotella Queens: Buya Buya—Come Back (Umsakazo) ****
Mazinga: Chinese Democracy Manifest—Greatest Hits, Vol. 2 (Rubber Wolf)
Mean Mistreater: Do or Die (self-released) ***
The Mekons: Horror (Fire) ***
Ava Mendoza/Gabby Fluke-Mogul/Carolina Perez: Mama Killa(Burning Ambulance) ***
Mexstep & Principe Q: Tráfico (Puro Unity EP)
M(h)aol: Something Soft (Merge) ***
Mac Miller: Baloonerism (Warner Records)
Billy Mohler: The Eternal (Contagious)
Moonchild Sanelly: Full Moon (self-released)
MonoNeon: You Had Your Chance…Bad Attitude! (Color Red) ****
Christy Moore: A Terrible Beauty (Claddagh) *****
Jason Moran/Trondheim Jazz Orchestra/Ole Morten Vågan: Go To Your North (Yes Records)
Maria Muldaur: One Hour Mama (Nola Blue)
Matthew Muneses and Riza Printup: Pag-Ibko, Volume 1 (Irabbagast Records)
David Murray Quartet: The Birdsong Project Presents Birdly Serenade (Verve)
Amina Claudine Myers: Solace of the Mind (Red Hook) ****
Natural Information Society and Bitchin’ Bahas: Totality (Drag City)
Louis Nevins: The Fumes (Cavetone Records) ***
Alick Nkhata: Radio Lusaka (Mississippi Records) ***
NOBRO: Set Your Pussy Free (Dine Alone) ***
Nourished By Time: The Passionate Ones (XL)
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) *****
Aruan Ortiz: Creole Renaissance (Intakt) ***
Kassa Overall: Cream (Warp) ***
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)
Preservation & Gabe ‘Nandez: Sortilège (BackwoodzStudioz) ****
The Prize: In the Red (Anti Fade Records) ****
Public Enemy: Black Sky Over The Projects—Apartment 2025 (self-released) ***
Les Rallizes Denudes: Blind Baby Has Its Mother’s Eyes (Life Goes On)
Les Rallizes Denudes: Jittoku ’76 (Temporal Drift)
R.A.P. Ferreira: Outstanding Understanding (Ruby Yacht)
Jussi Reijonen: sayr—salt/thirst (unmusic) ***
Jonathan Richman: Only Frozen Sky Anyway (Blue Arrow)
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) ***
Matthew Shipp: The Cosmic Piano (Canteloupe Records) ****
Patrick Shiroishi: Forgetting is Violent (American Dream)
Anthony “Big A” Sherrod: Torchbearer of the Clarksdale Sound(Music Makers Recordings EP)
$ilkMoney: WHO WATERS THE WILTING GIVING TREE ONCE THE LEAVES DRY UP AND FRUITS NO LONGER BEAR? (Lex)
Slick Rick: Victory (Mass Appeal) ***
Peter Stampfel: Song Shards (Jalopy Records) ***
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)
Sun Ra: Nuits de la Fondation Maeght 5 August 1970 (Strut) ***
Superchunk: Songs in the Key of Yikes (Merge) ****
John Surman: Flashpoint and Undercurrents(Cuneiform Records) ***
Atef Swaitat & Abu Ali: Palestinian Bedouin Psychedelic Dabka Archive (Majazz Project/Palestinian Sound Archive) ****
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)
Cecil Taylor / Tony Oxley: Flashing Spirits (Burning Ambulance)
Ebo Taylor, Adrain Younge, and Ali Shaheed Muhammad: Jazz Is Dead 22 (Jazz is Dead)
The Third Mind: Right Now! (Yep Roc)
Three-Layer Cake: “sounds the color of grounds” (Otherly Love)
Los Thuthanaka: Los Thuthanaka (Studio Pankara) ****
Trio Glossia: Trio Glossia (Sonic Transmissions) ****
Trio of Bloom: Trio of Bloom (Pyroclastic) ***
The Tubs: Cotton Crown (self-released) ***
Kali Uchis: Sincerely (Capitol) ***
Akira Umeda & Metal Preyers: Clube de Mariposa Mórbida (Nyege Nyege Tapes)
The Untamed Youth: Git Up and Go (Hi-Tide / Nu-Tone)
Various Artists: African Jazz Invites O.K. Jazz (Planet Ilunga) ***
Various Artists: A Tribute to the King of Zydeco (Valcourt) *****
Various Artists: Democracy Forward (Bitter Southerner) ***
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) ***
Vibration Black Finger: Everybody Cryin’ Mercy (Enid)
Morgan Wade: The Party is Over (recovered) (Ladylike) ***
The War & Treaty: Plus One (Mercury Nashville)
Wednesday: Bleeds (Dead Oceans) ***
Wet Leg: moisturizer (Domino) ***
Alfred White: The Definitive Alfred White (Music Makers Recordings)
Wheelhouse: House and Home (Aerophonic)
Simon Willson: Bet (Endectomorph Records)
billy woods: GOLLIWOG (x) (Backwoodz Studios)
Wu-Tang Clan: Black Samson, The Bastard (All Maf / 36 Chambers)
Jeong Lim Yang: Synchronicity (Fully Altered Media)
Hiroshi Yoshimura: Flora (Temporal Drift) ***
Brandee Younger: Gadabout Season (Impulse) ***
The Young Mothers: Better If You Let It (Sonic Transmissions) ****
Miguel Zenon: Vanguardia Subterranea (Miel Music) ***
SAMPLE THIS STUFF AND OTHER 2025 NOTABLES USING THIS SPITIFY PLAYLIST!
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