A HOLIDAY MONTH’S MEAL AND A FEW WEEKS OF LUSCIOUS LEFTOVERS: MY FAVORITE RECORDS, JANUARY 1st to DECEMBER 2nd (precisely), 2025

I listened to almost 40 records last month that passed muster–many did so in splendid style. A huge chunk of my time was taken up by a new studio (!) album by the forceful, imaginative, and focused jazz improvisers known as [ahmed] (a double set that requires very close attention and replaying) and Corbett vs. Dempsey’s shining new six-disc compilation of Chicago and international players known and relatively unknown blowing the doors off The Empty Bottle, one of the country’s greatest dives, circa 1996-2005. In addition, I was fortunate to receive review copies of two live Rahsaan Roland Kirk excavations by the indefatigable Zev Feldman for Resonance Records, and I’ll stop doing almost anything for Rah. Plus, I was finishing teaching two on-line classes plus a 3.5-week, three-hour-per-session, M-F freshman comp course during which many unpredictable things occurred that ’bout had me losing my religion. Add my first Thanksgiving without either of my parents above ground (ghost distraction) and Todd Snider’s passing hitting me harder than I’d figured, and I feel like I’ve been through a very slow-moving, tight wringer. I am through it, so some quick observations:

Sabrina Carpenter–I give. I give. You are the master.

If you watched Big Freedia‘s show back in the day, it’ll be impossible not to be moved by her new gospel album devoted to her departed long-time paramour.

Re: Snider‘s passing? So fucking sad, so weird, probably in the end, if all the facts ever come out, not surprising. But his last album (see below) is Americana’s version of Billie Holiday’s Lady in Satin: it is very painful to hear a powerful voice and spirit reduced to a near-husk–but the word is NEAR.

If you’ve never heard an album by the musician/writer/performance artist/stutter-battler JJJJJerome Ellis, you might give his new one a try. I witnessed him live perform much of the material, and, while it’s demanding, it’s astonishingly inspiring.

Thank you, Alfred and Joey, for the tips on Home Front (my kind of punk) and the new Allo Darlin’ (my kind of, um, twee…but I don’t like that appelation). Where would we be without other scouts?

If you have a taste for eccentric, intriguing, and impish jazz, you’ll be hard-pressed to find two albums that fit that bill better than Yuhan Su‘s and Joe Westerlund‘s new records. Delightful is another good adjective for those two.

No, these are not those Wrens. Not by a long shot. But they are tres interesante.

If you can’t decide between the Huskers and the Mats of your youth (assuming you were a youth at that time), go Huskers! You may be tempted by the live Replacements disc, but, though they actually sound pretty together, the sound is not great. On the other hand, the Du discs explode (though some are still complaining about mixes).

Regarding trends–I’m really backtracking to last month, when I should have said more about the even newer (and improved) Sharp Pins release–is there such a thing as a power-poptimist?

The billy woods reimagining is better than the originally imagined. And that would be about the music, which with woods is often a kind of sticking point.

What about the new De La Soul? It is de la sweet.

Sorry no playlist but I am still not gonna play with Spotify.

MY LIST OF AURAL PLEASURE—January 1 – December 2, 2025
BOLDED = New to the List
ASTERISKED* to ***** = Damn good! to Holy CANNOLI!
ITALICIZED: Excavations from the Past / Reissue

Aesop Rock: Black Hole Superette (Rhymesayers) **** 

Aesop Rock: I Heard It’s a Mess There (Rhymesayers) ****
Africa Express: …Presents…Bahidora (World Circuit Limited) ****

[ahmed]: Sama’a [Audition] (Otoroku) *****

Allo Darlin’: Bright Nights (Slumberland)

Rodrigo Amado / The Bridge: Further Beyond (Trost) ****
Amarae: Black Star (Golden Angel) ***
Amasia: Anamibia Sessions 2 (Archetext)
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) ***
Anna Hogberg Attack: Ensamseglaren (fönstret) ***
Ichiko Aoba: Luminescent Creatures (Psychic Hotline) 

Armand Hammer & The Alchemist: Mercy (BackwoodzStudioz)
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) **** 

Mohinder Kaur Bhamra: Punjabi Disco (Naya Beat) ***
Bar-B-Q Killers: The Last Shit, Part 1 (Chunklet 45)

Big Freedia: Pressing Onward (Queen Diva Music) ***

Big Thief: Double Infinity (4AD) ***
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)

Bob Dylan: Through the Open Window—The Bootleg Series Volume 18(Columbia) ***
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) *****

Danny Brown: Stardust (Warp) ***
Master Wilburn Burchette: Master Wilburn Burchette’s Psychic Meditation Music (Numero Group) ***

Sabrina Carpenter: Man’s Best Friend (Island) ****
Joe Chambers, Kevin Diehl, Chad Taylor: Onilu (Eremite) ****
Tyler Childers: Snipe Hunter (RCA / Hickman Holler) *****
Christer Bothén 3: L’Invisible (thanatosis) ****
Citric Dummies: Split with Turnstile (Feel It)
clipping: Dead Channel Sky (Sub Pop) 
Clipse: Let God Sort ‘Em Out (Roc Nation) ***
Common and Pete Rock: The Auditorium, Volume 1 (Casa Loma)
Hollie Cook: Shy Girl (Mr. Bongo) ***
Cosmic Ear: TRACES (We Jazz) *****
The Cosmic Tones Research Trio: The Cosmic Tones Research Trio (Mississippi Records) ***
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)
cupcakKe: The Bakery (self-released) ***
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) ****

De La Soul: Cabin in the Sky (Mass Appeal) ***
The Delines: Mr. Luck & Ms. Doom (Jealous Butcher) *****
Dial Up: Dial Up (Aerophonic)
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)

Kenny Dorham: Blue Bossa in the Bronx—Live from the Blue Morocco (Resonance) ***
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) ****

JJJJJerome Ellis: Vesper Sparrow (Shelter Press) ***
Marco Eneidi Quintet: Wheat Fields of Kleylehof (Balance Point Acoustics / Botticelli) ****
Mark Ernestus’ Ndagga Rhythm Force: Khadim (Ndagga) ***
Silvana Estrada: Vendran Suaves Lluvia (Glassnote)
Ex-Void: In Love Again (Tapete Records)

Augustus Fanon & billy woods: gowillog (reimagined) (Backwoodz Studios) ****
Shamek Farrah: First Impressions (Strata-East) ***
Shamek Farrah & Sonelius Smith: The World of the Children (Strata-East) ****
Fieldwork: Thereupon (Pi Records) ****
Robert Finley: Hallelujah! Don’t Let the Devil Fool Ya! (Easy Eye) ****
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 Quartet: Burning Wick (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)
The Hives: Forever Forever The Hives (Play It Again Sam)

Home Front: Watch It Die(La Vida Es En Mus) ****
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: 1985—The Miracle Year (Numero Group) *****
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) ****

Kahil El’ Zabar’s Ethnic Heritage Ensemble: Live at ‘mu’ London (Spiritmuse) ***

The Kasambwe Brothers: The Kasambwe Brothers (Mass MoCA) ****
Tyler Keith: I Confess (Wyatt & Black)
Kelela: In the Blue Light (Warp) ***
KINGDOM MOLOGI: Kembo (Nyege Nyege Tapes) ****

Rahsaan Roland Kirk: Seek & Listen—Live at the Penthouse (Resonance) ****

Rahsaan Roland Kirk: Vibrations in the Village—Live at the Village Gate (Resonance) ****
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) 

Makaya McCraven: The People’s Mixtape (International Anthem EP—best of the three to my ear) ***

Stephen McCraven: Wooley the Newt (moved-by-sound) ***
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) *****(late 2024 BUT that was in Ireland…)
Jason Moran / Trondheim Jazz Orchestra/ Ole Morten Vågan: Go To Your North (Yes Records)
kelly moran Don’t Trust Mirrors (Warp)
The Morells: You’re Gonna Hurt Yourself (Sound Asleep)

Gurf Morlix: Bristlecone (self-released) ****
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: Perseverance Flow (Eremite) *****
Natural Information Society and Bitchin’ Bahas: Totality (Drag City) 
The Necks: Inquiet (Northern Spy) ***
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)
Linda May Han Oh: Strange Heavens (Biophilia) ****
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) ***** (late 2024)

Otherlands Trio (Crump/Jones/McPherson): Star Mountain (Intakt) ****
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) ***
Raphael Pannier: Live in St. Louis, Senegal (Miel Music) ***
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) ****
Princess Nokia: Girls (Artist House) ***
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 & Kenny Segal: The Night Green Side of It (Ruby Yacht / Alpha Pup) ***
R.A.P. Ferreira: Outstanding Understanding (Ruby Yacht)
Vernon Reid: Hoodoo Telemetry (Artone / The Players Club)
Jussi Reijonen: sayr—salt/thirst (unmusic) ***
Jussi Reijonen: sayr-kaiho—Live in Helsinki (unmusic) ****

The Replacements: Let It Be (Rhino) ***
Jonathan Richman: Only Frozen Sky Anyway (Blue Arrow) ***

Rosalía: Luxe (Columbia) ***
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)

Talibah Safiya: a lil more Black Magic (High Water) ***
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) 

Noura Mint Seymali: Yenbett(Glitterbeat) ****
Sharp Pins: Radio DDR (K / Perennial Death) ***
Sharp Pins: Balloon Balloon Balloon (K / Perennial Death) ****

Mark Sherman: Bop Contest (Miles High)
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)
Laura Singh: Mean Reds (Out of Your Head)
Slick Rick: Victory (Mass Appeal) ***

Todd Snider: High, Lonesome, and Then Some (Aimless / Thirty Tigers) ***

Snocaps: Snocaps (Anti-) ****
Peter Stampfel: Song Shards (Jalopy Records)

Mavis Staples: Sad and Beautiful World (Anti-)
Luke Stewart / Silt Remembrance Ensemble: The Order (Cuneiform) *** 
Yuhan Su: OVER the MOONs (Endectomorph Music) ***
Sudan Archives: THE BPM (Stones Throw)
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)
Pat Thomas: HIKMAH (TAO Forms)
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)

Ken Vandermark: October Flowers for Joe McPhee (Corbett vs. Dempsey) ****
Various Artists: African Jazz Invites O.K. Jazz (Planet Ilunga) *** 

Various Artists: The Bottle Tapes (Corbett vs. Dempsey) *****
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) ***

Various Artists: A Tribute to the King of Zydeco (Valcourt) *****
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) ****

Joe Westerlund: Curiosities from the Shift (Psychic Hotline) ***
Wet Leg: moisturizer (Domino) ***
Alfred White: The Definitive Alfred White (Music Makers Recordings) 
Wheelhouse: House and Home (Aerophonic) 
Simon Willson: Bet (Endectomorph Records)

Wrens: Half of What You See (Out of Your Heads) ****
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) ***

Integrated List Solutions: 2023’s Best Discs With a Month to Go

RIP Shane MacGowan.

PREJUDICES:

I don’t trust critics’ positive evaluations of art when they’re mostly grounded in politics (of one sort or another). Yet I am frequently guilty of it here.
Related: For much of my life I have thought women were clearly the superior of the two traditionally recognized genders. My wife has helped me sustain that viewpoint; the last seven years of public mad, toxic explosions has convinced me we are equally flawed. Just sayin’: if the upper reaches of my list are dominated by women, it’s not because I’m still guided by romantic notions.
I love jazz right now more than any other major genre. Within that larger genre, I find experimental and free jazz more interesting than its other subgenres. It engages my mind and skin more regularly than other kinds of music. That said, it’s really hard to rank such records. I could spend another hour rearranging my favorite experimental and free jazz records, and I’d change that arrangement again this afternoon. In addition, it’s been a GREAT (and scintillatingly varied) year for those.
Few country records are on my list. I’m not resistant to that genre; I just insist on distinctly unique singing (it’s a tradition) and interesting lyrics. I was weaned on George, Merle, Willie, Dolly, Lorretty, and Tammy–what can I say?
As a writer, I “come out of” punk, garage rock, and rock when it rolled–my first writing “gigs” were with punk zines. Over the last decade, a group of friends on Facebook have given me a great crash course (if a crash course can last a decade) in busting out of that particular popular/semipopular music pen, though I still like galloping around in it. It could be, as a result, that I am too eager to enthuse about intriguing poptimistic sounds. Also, some eyebrows might jump at the exclusion from the list of a certain mega-phenomenon in light of that admission. I still struggle with blandness, even impressively mounted and executed blandness. Oh, and about my punk-pen-past: if the band Dredd Foole & the Din is unfamiliar to you, change that (see “Excavations and “Reissues”).
I like music made by melanated people more than the pale offerings. I don’t think about it beforehand–it just turns out that way. Sue me.

TRUNCATED OBSERVATIONS–PAIRINGS!:

–So-called “desert blues”? Folks, if you don’t know about it or have never gotten on the train, it’s not too late to hop on, and your first stop should be Bounaly’s glowing-orange-hot wailing guitar record Dimanche a Bamako. All hail the Sahel Sounds label. Next stop: Bombino’s Sahel.

–Prolific rappers? From Canada? Yep–it’s old news. BUT…Buck 65’s placed two releases in my Top 25 records of the year, and I had to think and listen awhile before I moved one of those out of the Top 10. Crisp beats, consistently engaging words, and a confident flow. I want to pose a question to aficionados: Buck 65 or Homeboy Sandman, if you could only take one of these fecund MCs’ oeuvres to a desert island?

–Brazilian music: I forgot a prejudice! I start out leaning forward when I put on a new Brazilian record, especially if it’s been touted by Rod Taylor of the Brazil Beat blog. And this year my Top 40 (so far) contains two great and VERY DIFFERENT–yet uniquely Brazilian–releases: Adriana Calcanhotto’s addictive samba-with-Waitsian-rhythmic-flecks Errante and Filipe Catto’s dark-toned tribute to the departed tropicalia legend Gal Costa, Belezas Sao Coisis Acesas por Dentro. Note 1: Catto’s album and Anohni’s still-chart-topping My Back Was a Bridge for You to Cross is a terrific pairing as well.

The Updated List

–If an album makes the list, it sounds and feels to me like the equivalent of a Pitchfork 7.5 or better, an All Music 3 ½ stars or better, or an Xgauvian **Honorable Mention or better.
–It can be assumed that my Top 30-40 sound to me the equivalent of an A-, but I’m a teacher in my other incarnation so watch me for grade inflation. It cannot be assumed safely, though, that my Top 10 are all straight A’s.
–After the first 50, my “rankings” are a bit loose; similarly, the entirety of my “Excavations and Reissues” I rank pretty loosely other than the Top 3. Also, I usually jigger the rankings every month upon reflection.
–Items in bold are new to the list I posted at the end of the previous month.

Note 2: I’ve repeatedly pored over this month’s list and rearranged it, after some re-listening and simple reflection. My Top 50 is approaching as much permanence as I’m capable of, though Bounaly’s record so thoroughly kicked my ass last night it may take the top spot. We also have four weeks to go….

Anohni: My Back Was a Bridge for You to Cross (Secretly Canadian)
Bounaly: Dimanche a Bamako (Sahel Sounds)
Gina Birch: I Play My Bass Loud (Third Man)
James Brandon Lewis: For Mahalia (with Love) (AUM Fidelity 2-CD version)
boygenius: the record (Interscope)
Buck 65: Punk Rock B-Boy (self-released)
Olivia Rodrigo: Guts (Geffen)
Jamila Woods: Water Made Us (Jagjaguwar)
Romy: Midair (Young)
Noname: Sundial (AWAL Recordings America)
Jessie Ware: That! Feels Good! (Universal)
Robert Finley: Black Bayou (Easy Eye)
The Mark Lomax II Trio: Tapestry (CFG Multimedia)
billy woods & Kenny Segal: Maps (Backwoodz Studios)
Miguel Zenon & Luis Perdomo: El Arte del Bolero, Volume 2 (ArcArtists)
Wild Up: Julius Eastman, Volume 3—If You’re So Smart, Why Aren’t You Rich? (New Amsterdam)
100 gecs: 10,000 gecs (Dog Show/Atlantic)
Corinna Bailey Rae: Black Rainbows (Black Rainbows)
Adriana Calcanhotto: Errante (BMG)
Big Freedia: Central City (Queen Diva)
Buck 65: Super Dope (self-released)
Ohad Talmor: Back to the Land (Intakt)
Gard Nilssen’s Supersonic Orchestra: Family (We Jazz)
Aesop Rock: Integrated Tech Solutions (Rhymesayers)
Mark Turner: Live at the Village Vanguard (Giant Step Arts)
Assiko Golden Band de Grand Yoff: Magg Tekki (Mississippi Records)
Ethnic Heritage Ensemble: Spirit Gatherer—A Tribute to Don Cherry (Spiritmuse)
Wadada Leo Smith: Fire Illuminations (Kabell)
Tyler Mitchell Octet: Sun Ra’s Journey featuring Marshall Allen (Cellar Live)
Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah & Chief Adjuah: Bark Out Thunder Roar Out Lightning (Ropeadope)
National Information Society: Since Time is Gravity (Eremite)
Allen Lowe and the Constant Sorrow Orchestra: In the Dark (ESP-Disk)
Armand Hammer: We Buy Diabetes Test Strips (Backwoodz Studios)
Hamell on Trial: Bring the Kids (Saustex)
Liv.e: Girl in The Half Pearl (Real Life / AWAL)
Jelly Roll: Whitsitt Chapel (Stoney Creek)
Fire! Orchestra: Echoes (Rune Grammofon)
Filipe Catto: Belezas Sao Coisis Acesas por Dentro (Joia Moderna)
Dropkick Murphys: Okemah Rising (Dummy Luck Music)
Ashley McBryde: The Devil I Know (Warner Nashville)
Kari Faux: REAL BITCHES DON’T DIE (drunk sum wtr records)
Jason Adasiewicz: Roscoe Village—The Music of Roscoe Mitchell (Corbett vs. Dempsey)
William Hooker: Flesh & Bones (Org Music)
Tyshawn Sorey: Continuing (Pi Recordings)
Yaeji: With a Hammer (XL Recordings)
Bettye LaVette: LaVette! (Jay-Vee)
Brandy Clark: Brandy Clark (Warner)
Jason Moran: From the Dancehall to the Battlefield (Yes Records)
Janelle Monae: The Age of Pleasure (Bad Boy)
Zach Bryan: Zach Bryan (Belting Bronco)
London Brew: London Brew (Concord)
J.D. Allen: This (Savant)
Ryoko Ono & Satoko Fujii: Hakuro (label unknown)
Rodrigo Campos: Pagode Novo (YB Music)
Kali Uchis: Red Moon in Venus (Geffen)
Bobby Rush: All My Love for You (Deep Rush / Thirty Tigers)
Kelela: Raven (Warp)
Les Raillizes Denudes: Citta’ ’93 (Temporal Drift)
Isach Skeidsvoll: Dance to Summon (Ultraani Records)
Killer Mike: Michael (Loma Vista)
Emil Amos: Zone Black (Drag City)
Marina Sena: Vicio Inerente (Sony)
Shabazz Palaces: Robed in Rareness (Sub Pop)
Young Fathers: Heavy Heavy (Ninja Tune)
Maria Jose Llergo: Ultrabella (Sony)
Irreversible Entanglements: Protect Your Light (Impulse! / Verve)
Jaimie Branch: Fly or Die Fly or Die ((world war)) (International Anthem)
David Mirarchi: Ink Folly, Orchid Gleam (Unbroken Sounds)
Superless: Superless (Oyvind Jazzforum)
Algiers: Shook (Matador)
Buselli – Wallarab Jazz Orchestra: The Gennett Suite (Patois Records)
Lewis Capaldi: Broken By Desire To Be Heavenly Sent (Vertigo Berline)
Tyvek: Overground (Gingko)
corook: serious person (part 1) (Atlantic)
Ice Cold Bishop: Generational Curse (Ice Cold Entertainment)
Allen Lowe and The Constant Sorrow Orchestra: America—The Rough Cut (ESP-Disk)
Tri-County Liquidators: cut my teeth (Hitt Rex)
ensemble 0: Jojoni (Crammed Discs)
JLin: Perspective (Planet Mu)
Sexxy Red: Hood Hottest Princess (Open Shift)
Henry Threadgill: The Other One (Pi)
Zoh Amba & Chris Corsano & Bill Orcutt: The Flower School (Palilalia)
Idris Ackamoor & The Pyramids: Afro-Futuristic Dreams (Strut)
Amanda Shires & Bobbie Nelson: Loving You (ATO)
aja monet: when the poems do what they do (drink sum wtr)
Knoel Scott (featuring Marshall Allen): Celestial (Night Dreamer)
Steve Lehman & Orchestre National de Jazz: Ex Machina (Pi)
Emmet Cohen & Houston Person: Houston Person—Masters Legacy Series, Volume 5 (Bandstand Presents)
Peso Pluma: GENESIS (Double P)
Chappell Roan: The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess (KRA)
Elijah Shiffer: Star Jelly (self-released)
Grupo Frontera: El Comienzo (Grupo Frontera)
Ember: August in March (Imani)
Kevin Sun: The Depths of Memory (Endectomorph Music)
Florian Arbenz: Conversation #10—Inland (Hammer)
Withered Hand: How to Love (Reveal)
Lafayette Gilchrist: Undaunted (Morphius)
Meshell Ndegeocello: The Omnichord Real Book (Blue Note)
The Fugs: Dancing in the Universe (Fugs Records)
Taj Mahal: Savoy (Cheraw S.C.)
Haviah Mighty: Crying Crystals (Mighty Gang)
Willie Nelson: I Don’t Know a Thing About Love—The Songs of Harlan Howard (Legacy)
Morgan Wade: Psychopath (Ladylike)
Parannoul: After the Magic (Poclanos/Top Shelf)
Felo Le Tee & Mellow & Sleazy: The Ill Wise Men (New Money Gang)
The Necks: Travel (Northern Spy)
Lori McKenna: 1988 (CN Records / Thirty Tigers)
Tyler Keith & The Apostles: Hell to Pay (Black & Wyatt)
KAYTRAMINE: KAYTRAMIUNE, Amine, & KAYTRANADA (CLBN)
Rome Streetz: Wasn’t Built in a Day (Big Ghost)
Hein Westgaard Trio: First as Farce (Nice Things)
The Urban Art Ensemble: “Ho’opomopono” (CFG Multimedia 16-minute single)
Itamar Borochov: Arba (Greenleaf)
Rodrigo Amado / The Bridge: Beyond the Margins (Trost)
ANTiINDSTRY: Numinous Interference (Muteant Sounds)
Islandman (featuring Okay Temiz and Muhlis Berberoglu: Direct-to-Disc Sessions (Night Dreamer)
Edward Simon: Femeninas (ArtistShare)
Trio San (featuring Satoko Fujii and Taiko Saito): Hibiki (Jazzdor)
Susan Alcorn: Canto (Relative Pitch)
Kill Bill—The Rapper: Fullmetal Kaiju (EXO)
Speaker Music: Techxodus (Planet Mu)
Andy Fairweather Low: Flang Dang (The Last Music Company)
ARO40: On the Blink (Aerophonic Records)
Money for Guns: All the Darkness That’s in Your Head (CD Baby)
Matana Roberts: Coin Coin Chapter Five—In the garden (Constellation)
Bombino: Sahel (Partisan)
Rough Image: Rough Image (WV Sorcerer Productions)
Ingrid Laubrock: The Last Quiet Place (Pyroclastic)
Victoria Monet: Jaguar II (Lovett Music)
Homeboy Sandman: I Can’t Sell These Either (self-released)
Havard Wiik & Tim Daisy: Slight Return (Relay)
Rob Mazurek & Exploding Star Orchestra: LightningDreamers (International Anthem)
Kaze & Ikue Mori: Crustal Movement (Circum/Libra)
DJ Black Low: Impumelelo (Awesome Tapes from Africa)
Belle and Sebastian: Late Developers (Matador)
Satoko Fujii & Otomo Yoshihide: Perpetual Motion (Ayler Records)
feeble little horse: Girl with Fish (Saddle Creek)
Rocket 88: House of Jackpots (12XU)
L’Rain: I Killed Your Dog (Mexican Summer)
DJ Sabrina the Teenage DJ: Destiny (Spells on the Telly)
Nasty Facts: Drive My Car (Left for Dead)
Taiko Saito: Tears of a Cloud (Trouble in the East)
JPEGMAFIA x Danny Brown: Scaring the Hoes (self-released)
Kalia Vandever: We Fell in Turn (AKP Recordings)
Water from Your Eyes: Everyone’s Crushed (Matador)
Lakecia Benjamin: Phoenix (Whirlwind)
Amaarae: Fountain Baby (Golden Angel/Interscope)
Blondshell: Blondshell (Partisan)
Satoko Fujii: Torrent (Libra Records)
Javon Jackson: “With Peter Bradley”—Soundtrack and Original Score (Solid Jackson)
Doja Cat: Scarlet (Kemosabe)
Tianna Esperanza: Terror (BMG)
YMA & Jadsa: Zelena (Matraca)
Palehound: Eye on the Bat (Polyvinyl)
J Hus: Beautiful and Brutal Yard (Black Butter)
Das Kondensat: Anderen Planeten (Why Play Jazz)
Iris DeMent: Workin’ On a World (FlariElla)
David Murray, Questlove, and Ray Angry: Plumb (J.M.I.)
Tyler Childers: Rustin’ in the Rain (Hickman Holler)
Baaba Maal: Being (Atelier Live/Marathon Artists)
Ed Sanders: The Sanders – Olufsen Poetry and Classical Music Project (Olufsen)
Bob Dylan: Shadow Kingdom (Columbia)
City Girls: Raw (Quality Control/Motown)
Grrrl Gang: Spunky (Kill Rock Stars)
Lana Del Rey: Did you know that there’s a tunnel under Ocean Blvd (Polydor)
Teenage Jesus and The Jean Teasers: I Love You (Triple J Unearthed)
Caroline Davis: Alula—Captivity (Ropeadope)
Kiko El Crazy: Pila’e Teteo (Rimas)
Romulo Froes & Tiago Rosas: Na Goela (YB Music)
Florian Arbenz: Conversation #9—Targeted (Hammer Recordings)
James Brandon Lewis: Eye of I (Anti-)
Sofia Kourtesis: Madres (Ninja Tune)
DJ Manny: Hypnotized (Planet Mu)
Josephus and The George Jonestown Massacre: Call Me Animal—A Tribute to the MC5 (Saustex)
Joanna Sternberg: I’ve Got Me (Fat Possum)
Tracey Nelson: Life Don’t Miss Nobody (BMG)
Etran De L’Air: Live in Seattle (EP) (Sahel Sounds)
Everything But the Girl: Fuse (Buzzin’ Fly)
Tomas Fujiwara’s Triple Double: March On (self-released)
Ice Spice: Like…? (10K Projects / Capitol Records EP)
otay:onii: Dream Hacker (WV Sorcerer Productions)
Sylvie Courvoisier & Cory Smythe: The Rite of Spring—Spectre d’un songe (Pyroclastic)
Nourished by Time: Erotic Probiotic 2 (Scenic Route)
Walter Daniels: “From Death to Texas” / “Seems Like a Dream” (Spacecase Records 45)
Nakimbembe Embaire Group: Nakimbembe Embaire Group (Nyege Nyege Tapes)
Shirley Collins: Archangel Hill (Domino)
Karol G: Manana Sera Bonito (Universal Music Latino)
Tinashe: BB/ANG3L (Nice Life)
Hollie Cook: Happy Hour in Dub (Merge)
Andrew Cyrille: Music Delivery / Percussion (Intakt)
Kate Gentile: b i o m e i.i (Obliquity)
Yves Tumor: Praise a Lord Who Chews but Which Does Not Consume; (Or Simply, Hot Between Worlds) (Warp)
Dan Ex Machina: Ex’s Sexts (self-released)
Open Mike Eagle: another triumph of ghetto engineering (AutoReverse)
Yonic South: Devo Challenge Cup (Wild Honey)
Rudy Royston: Day (Greenleaf Music)
Chien Chien Lu: Built in System—Live in New York (Giant Step Arts)
Pangaea: Changing Channels (Hessle Audio)
Lewsberg: Out and About (Lewsberg / 12XU)
Basher: Doubles (Sinking City)
That Mexican OT: Lonestar Luchador (Good Talk)
Daniel Villarreal: Lados B (International Anthem)
Staples Jr. Singers: Tell Heaven (EP) (Luaka Bop) Note: the vinyl gets you more great minutes of testifying.
Brandee Younger: Brand New Life (Impulse!)
Babe, Terror: Teghnojoyg (self-released)
Heinali: Kyiv Eternal (Injazero)
Vinny Golia Quartet: No Refunds (Unbroken Sounds)
Kresten Osgood / Bob Moses / Tisziji Munoz: Spiritual Drum Kingship (Gotta Let It Out)
The Art Ensemble of Chicago: From Paris to Paris (Rogue Art)
Clarence “Bluesman” Davis: Shake It ForMe (Music Maker Foundation)
The War and The Treaty: Lover’s Game (Mercury Nashville)
Aroof Aftab, Vijay Iyer & Shahzad, Ismaily: Love in Exile (Verve)
Asher Gamedze: Turbulence and Pulse (International Anthem)
Normal Nada the Krakmaxter: Tribal Progressive Heavy Metal (Nyege Nyege Tapes)
Natural Child: Be M’Guest (Natural Child Music)
Tanya Tucker: Sweet Western Sound (Fantasy)

Excavations and Reissues

Mahlathini and the Mahotella Queens: Music Inferno—The Indestructible Beat Tour 1988-89 (Umsakazo Records)
Kashmere Stage Band: Texas Thunder Soul 1968-1974 (Now-Again)
The Replacements: Tim—Let It Bleed Edition (Rhino)
Dorothy Ashby: With Strings Attached (New Land Records)
Walter Bishop, Jr.: Bish at the Bank—Live in Baltimore (Cellar Live)
Various Artists: Yebo! Rare Mzansi Party Beats from Apartheid’s Dying Years (BBE)
Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra: 60 Years (The Village)
Os Tincoas: Canto Coral Afrobrasiliero (Sanzala Cultural)
Various Artists: Ecuatoriana (Analog Africa)
Leon Keita: Leon Keita (Analog Africa)
Hiroshi Yoshimura: Surround (Temporal Drift)
Balka Sound: Balka Sound (Strut)
Sonic Youth: Live in Brooklyn (Silver Current)
John Coltrane: Evenings at The Village Gate (Impulse!)
Various Artists: Playing for The Man at The Door (Smithsonian Folkways)
Gabe Baltazar: Birdology (Fresh Sounds)
Hiatus Kaiyote: Choose Your Weapon (Flying Buddha / Sony Masterworks)
Dream Dolphin: Gaia—Selected Ambient & Downtempo Works (1996 – 2003) (Music from Memory)
Various Artists: The Soul of Congo – Treasures of the Ngoma label (1948-1963) (Planet Ilunga)
Sonny Stitt: Boppin’ in Baltimore—Live at the Left Bank (Jazz Detective)
Ihsan Al-Munzer: Belly Dance (BBE)
Dredd Foole & The Din: See God 1985-1986 (Corbett vs. Dempsey)
Johnny Griffin: Live at Ronnie Scott’s, 1964 (Gearbox)
Nina Simone: You’ve Got to Learn (Verve)
William S. Burroughs: Nothing Here But the Recordings (Dais Records)
Eddie & Ernie: Time Waits for No One (Mississippi Records)
Various Artists: Purple Haze from East, Volume 1 (WV Sorcerer Productions)
Various Artists: Purple Haze from East, Volume 2 (WV Sorcerer Productions)
The Southern University Jazz Ensemble: Goes to Africa with Love (Now-Again)
Roy Campbell / William Parker / Zan Matsuura: Visitation of the Spirits—The Pyramind Trio Live, 1985 (No Business)
Sonny Rollins: Live at Finlandia Hall, Helsinki 1972 (Svart)
Various Artists: The Best of Revelation Records 1959-1962 (NarroWay)
Shizuka: Heavenly Persona (Black Editions)
Jacqueline Humbert & David Rosenboom: Daytime Viewing (Unseen Worlds)
Bob Dylan: Time Out of Mind Stripped Naked (Columbia)
Various Artists: Blacklips Bar—Androgyns and Deviants / Industrial Romance for Bruised and Battered Angels 1992-1995 (Anthology Recordings)
Wes Montgomery: Maximum Swing (Resonance)
Various Artists: Con Piano, Sublime—Early Recordings from the Caribbean 1907-1921 (Magnificent Sounds)
Various Artists: Space Echo—The Mystery Behind the Cosmic Sound of Cabo Verde Revealed! (Analog Africa)
Ibrahim Hesnawi: The Father of Libyan Reggae (Habibi Funk)
RP Boo: Legacy Volume 2 (Planet Mu)
Les Raillizes Denudes: ’77 Live (Temporal Drift)
Alon Nechushtan: For Those Who Cross the Seas (ESP-Disk)
Eddie Lockjaw Davis and Shirley Scott: Cookin’ With Jaws and The Queen (Craft)
Professor James Benson: The Gow-Dow Experience (Jazzman Records)
Little Bob and The Lollipops: Nobody But You (Mississippi Records)

THE SPRAWL: A Tentacular List of Really Good Records Released in 2023, Most of Which I Can Remember Listening To (November 1st Update)

Regarding Some of the Newbies:

Soul Music! I thought Robert Finley‘s very solid Sharecropper’s Son, from 2021, was probably going to be the man’s one essential offering–it seems to me hard to follow up a kind of throwback record that appears out of the blue. Unsurprisingly, I was incorrect, as Finley’s new offering is just as powerful musically as its predecessor with a wider emotional range. If that weren’t enough of a blot on my critical faculties, I was also expecting some fall-off from Chicago’s multitalented, multifaceted Jamila Woods even though I advance-ordered her new album–her first two really hit me where I needed hitting, and I suppose I didn’t want to take a chance it might happen again. Well, it did: her writing’s grown; in fact, it’s taken on a personal dimension that reminds me of Joni Mitchell, and the music suits it. You cannot go wrong with either of these individuals’ new albums if my ranking of them hasn’t already convinced you.
A writer whose work I have recommended before and will again now, and which I regularly envy, Brad Luen, remarked to me recently that there is simply a tidal wave (my quasi-paraphrase) of excellent jazz curling down upon us right now. So you love Charlie Parker? Check out Gabe Baltazar‘s lustrous bow to Bird. Can a jazz orchestra truly be supersonic? Buckle yourself in for Norwegian Gard Nilssen‘s proof (yes, it is a jazz orchestra). You can’t really interpret compositions as distinctly abstract as Roscoe Mitchell’s with vibes, can you? Well, Jason Adasiewicz thought so, and, strangely enough, his is one of my very favorite “Roscoe Mitchell” records and has helped me hear the man himself better. Can an intriguingly delicate two-record jazz set that, if you furrow your brow and bend your ear diligently enough, justifies its title The Depths of Memory, also justify its length? The nicely surnamed Kevin Sun says, “No problem,” and there’s a whole other one he has for us I’ve only sampled that seems to prove he’s not kidding. Steel guitar? Jazz? Experimental jazz? Susan Alcorn has news for us. And can Satoko Fujii turn out albums faster than John Zorn without some dip in quality, imagination, versatility, and intensity? Well, Hibiki, a trio also featuring the magic vibraphone of Taiko Saito (vibes are truly having a moment), is only the fourth record she’s on that’s made the list, so…yes. That isn’t even all of the NEW jazz records on the list–but the list is tapping its fingers on my desk.
The Fugs live! And Ed Sanders is not done! (By the way, keep your eyes peeled for his reissuing of America: A History in Verse, which he thinks and I totally agree is the best thing he’s ever written.)
Need some tranquility? Of course you do, if your eyes are open and your heart works! But none of that “nature sounds” or Muzak-y stuff, right? While it does seem like Japanese albums from the 1980s that evoke/create/embody tranquility have been pouring forth from specialty (boutique?) reissue labels for the last few years, Hiroshi Yoshimura‘s 1986 gift Surround (Temporal Drift–these folks know what they are doing) is a cut above. It will force you to sit back and take notice.
Just when I’m thinking, “Rosalia is about to cut flamenco all the way loose” (not yet! not yet!), Maria Jose Llergo‘s Ultrabella saves the day.
Tri-County Liquidators: remember their name. Their first singles were so good I pretended they were an EP and put them on earlier versions of this list, but their first full-length record, piquantly titled cut my teeth and released by Hitt Rex, justifies their growing reputation as Columbia, Missouri’s sharpest current band–and one of the best ever. I’ve lived in Columbia for 33 years and heard plenty of others, and I think that reputation is wholly justified, based on this album (I will witness for the first time Friday night). The music is dynamic and defies category–it evokes multiple subgenres within the arenas of indie, punk, and (I’m just gonna say) pandemic rock–the group operates democratically by design (everyone writes, plays, and sings), they can but don’t cover anyone else, writing songs with wide emotional range and occasional poetic dabs, and they employ a secret weapon. This does not quite honor their dedication to democracy (fucking music writers!), but Spenser Rook’s shape-shifting guitar is something well worth concentrating on. I must confess that I have known Spenser and bassist/singer/songwriter Marielle Carlos since they were high school sophomores–I taught Marielle (though I learned more from her than she did from me), and Spenser once physically guided me to play the riff to The Sonics’ “The Witch” (not exactly Joe Maphis fare in its degree of difficulty, but I am completely devoid of musical talent, so that’s a small miracle). I am straining but (I think) succeeding at maintaining critical distance, but please just listen for yourself. A band that hand-delivers its new vinyl to advance-orderers deserves at least THAT!

The Updated List

* If an album makes the list, it sounds and feels to me like the equivalent of a Pitchfork 7.5 or better, an All Music 3 ½ stars or better, or an Xgauvian **Honorable Mention or better.
* It can be assumed that my Top 30-40 sound to me the equivalent of an A-, but I’m a teacher in my other incarnation so watch me for grade inflation. It cannot be assumed safely, though, that my Top 10 are all straight A’s.
* After the first 50, my “rankings” are a bit loose; similarly, the entirety of my “Excavations and Reissues” I rank pretty loosely other than the Top 3. Also, I usually jigger the rankings every month upon reflection.
* Items in bold are new to the list I posted at the end of the previous month.

Anohni: My Back Was a Bridge for You to Cross (Secretly Canadian)
Olivia Rodrigo: Guts (Geffen)
100 gecs: 10,000 gecs (Dog Show/Atlantic)
Gina Burch: I Play My Bass Loud (Third Man)
James Brandon Lewis: For Mahalia (with Love) (AUM Fidelity 2-CD version)
boygenius: the record (Interscope)
Buck 65: Super Dope (self-released?)
Jessie Ware: That! Feels Good! (Universal)
Robert Finley: Black Bayou (Easy Eye)
Romy: Midair (Young)
Noname: Sundial (AWAL Recordings America)
Mark Turner: Live at the Village Vanguard (Giant Step Arts)
Jamila Woods: Water Made Us (Jagjaguwar)
Big Freedia: Central City (Queen Diva)
National Information Society: Since Time is Gravity (Eremite)
Allen Lowe and the Constant Sorrow Orchestra: In the Dark (ESP-Disk)
Ethnic Heritage Ensemble: Spirit Gatherer—A Tribute to Don Cherry (Spiritmuse)
Jason Moran: From the Dancehall to the Battlefield (Yes Records)
London Brew: London Brew (Concord)
Fire! Orchestra: Echoes (Rune Grammofon)
Wadada Leo Smith: Fire Illuminations (Kabell)
billy woods & Kenny Segal: Maps (Backwoodz Studios)
Liv.e: Girl in The Half Pearl (Real Life / AWAL)
Kelela: Raven (Warp)
The Mark Lomax II Trio: Tapestry (CFG Multimedia)
Ohad Talmor: Back to the Land (Intakt)
Janelle Monae: The Age of Pleasure (Bad Boy)
Les Raillizes Denudes: Citta’ ’93 (Temporal Drift)
Dropkick Murphys: Okemah Rising (Dummy Luck Music)
Isach Skeidsvoll: Dance to Summon (Ultraani Records)
Miguel Zenon & Luis Perdomo: El Arte del Bolero, Volume 2 (ArcArtists)
Wild Up: Julius Eastman, Volume 3—If You’re So Smart, Why Aren’t You Rich? (New Amsterdam)
Parannoul: After the Magic (Poclanos/Top Shelf)
Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah & Chief Adjuah: Bark Out Thunder Roar Out Lightning (Ropeadope)
Corinna Bailey Rae: Black Rainbows (Black Rainbows)
Gabe Baltazar: Birdology (Fresh Sounds)
Yaeji: With a Hammer (XL Recordings)
Jelly Roll: Whitsitt Chapel (Stoney Creek)
The Urban Art Ensemble: “Ho’opomopono” (CFG Multimedia 16-minute single)
Gard Nilssen’s Supersonic Orchestra: Family (We Jazz)
Bettye LaVette: LaVette! (Jay-Vee)
Felo Le Tee & Mellow & Sleazy: The Ill Wise Men (New Money Gang)
Brandy Clark: Brandy Clark (Warner)
Armand Hammer: We Buy Diabetes Test Strips (Backwoodz Studios)
Rodrigo Campos: Pagode Novo (YB Music)
The Necks: Travel (Northern Spy)
Kali Uchis: Red Moon in Venus (Geffen)
Bobby Rush: All My Love for You (Deep Rush / Thirty Tigers)
Marina Sena: Vicio Inerente (Sony)
Shabazz Palaces: Robed in Rareness (Sub Pop)
Young Fathers: Heavy Heavy (Ninja Tune)
Willie Nelson: I Don’t Know a Thing About Love—The Songs of Harlan Howard (Legacy)
Withered Hand: How to Love (Reveal)
Lori McKenna: 1988 (CN Records / Thirty Tigers)
Jason Adasiewicz: Roscoe Village—The Music of Roscoe Mitchell (Corbett vs. Dempsey)
Tyler Keith & The Apostles: Hell to Pay (Black & Wyatt)
Tri-County Liquidators: cut my teeth (Hitt Rex)
Algiers: Shook (Matador)
Ashley McBryde: The Devil I Know (Warner Nashville)
Kari Faux: REAL BITCHES DON’T DIE (drunk sum wtr records)
Peso Pluma: GENESIS (Double P)
corook: serious person (part 1) (Atlantic)
Killer Mike: Michael (Loma Vista)
Emil Amos: Zone Black (Drag City)
Ice Cold Bishop: Generational Curse (Ice Cold Entertainment)
Allen Lowe and The Constant Sorrow Orchestra: America—The Rough Cut (ESP-Disk)
Tyshawn Sorey: Continuing (Pi Recordings)
Morgan Wade: Psychopath (Ladylike)
KAYTRAMINE: KAYTRAMIUNE, Amine, & KAYTRANADA (CLBN)
ensemble 0: Jojoni (Crammed Discs)
JLin: Perspective (Planet Mu)
Sexyy Red: Hood Hottest Princess (Open Shift)
Henry Threadgill: The Other One (Pi)
Zoh Amba & Chris Corsano & Bill Orcutt: The Flower School (Palilalia)
Chappell Roan: The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess (KRA)
Lewis Capaldi: Broken By Desire To Be Heavenly Sent (Vertigo Berline)
Idris Ackamoor & The Pyramids: Afro-Futuristic Dreams (Strut)
Amanda Shires & Bobbie Nelson: Loving You (ATO)
aja monet: when the poems do what they do (drink sum wtr)
Knoel Scott (featuring Marshall Allen): Celestial (Night Dreamer)
Ember: August in March (Imani)
Kevin Sun: The Depths of Memory (Endectomorph Music)
Florian Arbenz: Conversation #10—Inland (Hammer)
Meshell Ndegeocello: The Omnichord Real Book (Blue Note)
Taj Mahal: Savoy (Cheraw S.C.)
DJ Sabrina the Teenage DJ: Destiny (Spells on the Telly)
Haviah Mighty: Crying Crystals (Mighty Gang)
Rome Streetz: Wasn’t Built in a Day (Big Ghost)
Hein Westgaard Trio: First as Farce (Nice Things)
Maria Jose Llergo: Ultrabella (Sony)
Irreversible Entanglements: Protect Your Light (Impulse! / Verve)
Jaimie Branch: Fly or Die Fly or Die ((world war)) (International Anthem)
Steve Lehman & Orchestre National de Jazz: Ex Machina (Pi)
Caroline Davis: Alula—Captivity (Ropeadope)
Kiko El Crazy: Pila’e Teteo (Rimas)
Islandman (featuring Okay Temiz and Muhlis Berberoglu: Direct-to-Disc Sessions (Night Dreamer)
Edward Simon: Femeninas (ArtistShare)
Trio San (featuring Satoko Fujii and Taiko Saito): Hibiki (Jazzdor)
Susan Alcorn: Canto (Relative Pitch)
Lafayette Gilchrist: Undaunted (Morphius)
Kill Bill—The Rapper: Fullmetal Kaiju (EXO)
Speaker Music: Techxodus (Planet Mu)
Andy Fairweather Low: Flang Dang (The Last Music Company)
ARO40: On the Blink (Aerophonic Records)
Money for Guns: All the Darkness That’s in Your Head (CD Baby)
Matana Roberts: Coin Coin Chapter Five—In the garden (Constellation)
Rough Image: Rough Image (WV Sorcerer Productions)
Ingrid Laubrock: The Last Quiet Place (Pyroclastic)
Victoria Monet: Jaguar II (Lovett Music)
Havard Wiik & Tim Daisy: Slight Return (Relay)
David Murray, Questlove, and Ray Angry: Plumb (J.M.I.)
Rob Mazurek & Exploding Star Orchestra: LightningDreamers (International Anthem)
Kaze & Ikue Mori: Crustal Movement (Circum/Libra)
DJ Black Low: Impumelelo (Awesome Tapes from Africa)
Belle and Sebastian: Late Developers (Matador)
Satoko Fujii & Otomo Yoshihide: Perpetual Motion (Ayler Records)
feeble little horse: Girl with Fish (Saddle Creek)
Rocket 88: House of Jackpots (12XU)
L’Rain: I Killed Your Dog (Mexican Summer)
Nasty Facts: Drive My Car (Left for Dead)
Taiko Saito: Tears of a Cloud (Trouble in the East)
JPEGMAFIA x Danny Brown: Scaring the Hoes (self-released)
Water from Your Eyes: Everyone’s Crushed (Matador)
Lakecia Benjamin: Phoenix (Whirlwind)
Amaarae: Fountain Baby (Golden Angel/Interscope)
Blondshell: Blondshell (Partisan)
Satoko Fujii: Torrent (Libra Records)
Javon Jackson: “With Peter Bradley”—Soundtrack and Original Score (Solid Jackson)
Doja Cat: Scarlet (Kemosabe)
Tianna Esperanza: Terror (BMG)
YMA & Jadsa: Zelena (Matraca)
Palehound: Eye on the Bat (Polyvinyl)
J Hus: Beautiful and Brutal Yard (Black Butter)
Das Kondensat: Anderen Planeten (Why Play Jazz)
Iris DeMent: Workin’ On a World (FlariElla)
David Mirarchi: Ink Folly, Orchid Gleam (Unbroken Sounds) (coming soon….)
Tyler Childers: Rustin’ in the Rain (Hickman Holler)
Baaba Maal: Being (Atelier Live/Marathon Artists)
The Fugs: Dancing in the Universe (Fugs Records)
Ed Sanders: The Sanders – Olufsen Poetry and Classical Music Project (Olufsen)
Bob Dylan: Shadow Kingdom (Columbia)
Lana Del Rey: Did you know that there’s a tunnel under Ocean Blvd (Polydor)
Romulo Froes & Tiago Rosas: Na Goela (YB Music)
Buselli – Wallarab Jazz Orchestra: The Gennett Suite (Patois Records)
Florian Arbenz: Conversation #9—Targeted (Hammer Recordings)
James Brandon Lewis: Eye of I (Anti-)
Sofia Kourtesis: Madres (Ninja Tune)
Joanna Sternberg: I’ve Got Me (Fat Possum)
Tracey Nelson: Life Don’t Miss Nobody (BMG)
Etran De L’Air: Live in Seattle (EP) (Sahel Sounds)
Everything But the Girl: Fuse (Buzzin’ Fly)
Tomas Fujiwara’s Triple Double: March On (self-released)
Ice Spice: Like…? (10K Projects / Capitol Records EP)
otay:onii: Dream Hacker (WV Sorcerer Productions)
Sylvie Courvoisier & Cory Smythe: The Rite of Spring—Spectre d’un songe (Pyroclastic)
Itamar Borochov: Arba (Greenleaf)
Nourished by Time: Erotic Probiotic 2 (Scenic Route)
Walter Daniels: “From Death to Texas” / “Seems Like a Dream” (Spacecase Records 45)
Nakimbembe Embaire Group: Nakimbembe Embaire Group (Nyege Nyege Tapes)
Shirley Collins: Archangel Hill (Domino)
Karol G: Manana Sera Bonito (Universal Music Latino)
Tinashe: BB/ANG3L (Nice Life)
Hollie Cook: Happy Hour in Dub (Merge)
Andrew Cyrille: Music Delivery / Percussion (Intakt)
Kate Gentile: b i o m e i.i (Obliquity)
Yves Tumor: Praise a Lord Who Chews but Which Does Not Consume; (Or Simply, Hot Between Worlds) (Warp)
Open Mike Eagle: another triumph of ghetto engineering (AutoReverse)
Yonic South: Devo Challenge Cup (Wild Honey)
Rudy Royston: Day (Greenleaf Music)
Chien Chien Lu: Built in System—Live in New York (Giant Step Arts)
Pangaea: Changing Channels (Hessle Audio)
Lewsberg: Out and About (Lewsberg / 12XU)
Basher: Doubles (Sinking City)
That Mexican OT: Lonestar Luchador (Good Talk)
Daniel Villarreal: Lados B (International Anthem)
Staples Jr. Singers: Tell Heaven (EP) (Luaka Bop) Note: the vinyl gets you more great minutes of testifying.
Brandee Younger: Brand New Life (Impulse!)
Babe, Terror: Teghnojoyg (self-released)
Heinali: Kyiv Eternal (Injazero)
Vinny Golia Quartet: No Refunds (Unbroken Sounds)
Kresten Osgood / Bob Moses / Tisziji Munoz: Spiritual Drum Kingship (Gotta Let It Out)
The Art Ensemble of Chicago: From Paris to Paris (Rogue Art)
Clarence “Bluesman” Davis: Shake It For Me (Music Maker Foundation)
The War and The Treaty: Lover’s Game (Mercury Nashville)
Aroof Aftab, Vijay Iyer & Shahzad, Ismaily: Love in Exile (Verve)
Asher Gamedze: Turbulence and Pulse (International Anthem)
Normal Nada the Krakmaxter: Tribal Progressive Heavy Metal (Nyege Nyege Tapes)
Natural Child: Be M’Guest (Natural Child Music)
Tanya Tucker: Sweet Western Sound (Fantasy)

Excavations and Reissues

Mahlathini and the Mahotella Queens: Music Inferno—The Indestructible Beat Tour 1988-89 (Umsakazo Records)
Kashmere Stage Band: Texas Thunder Soul 1968-1974 (Now-Again)
The Replacements: Tim—Let It Bleed Edition (Rhino)
Dorothy Ashby: With Strings Attached (New Land Records)
Walter Bishop, Jr.: Bish at the Bank—Live in Baltimore (Cellar Live)
Various Artists: Yebo! Rare Mzansi Party Beats from Apartheid’s Dying Years (BBE)
Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra: 60 Years (The Village)
Os Tincoas: Canto Coral Afrobrasiliero (Sanzala Cultural)
Various Artists: Ecuatoriana (Analog Africa)
Leon Keita: Leon Keita (Analog Africa)
Hiroshi Yoshimura: Surround (Temporal Drift)
Nina Simone: You’ve Got to Learn (Verve)
William S. Burroughs: Nothing Here But the Recordings (Dais Records)
Balka Sound: Balka Sound (Strut)
Sonic Youth: Live in Brooklyn (Silver Current)
John Coltrane: Evenings at The Village Gate (Impulse!)
Various Artists: Playing for The Man at The Door (Smithsonian Folkways)
Hiatus Kaiyote: Choose Your Weapon (Flying Buddha / Sony Masterworks)
Dream Dolphin: Gaia—Selected Ambient & Downtempo Works (1996 – 2003) (Music from Memory)
Sonny Stitt: Boppin’ in Baltimore—Live at the Left Bank (Jazz Detective)
Ihsan Al-Munzer: Belly Dance (BBE)
Eddie & Ernie: Time Waits for No One (Mississippi Records)
Various Artists: Purple Haze from East, Volume 1 (WV Sorcerer Productions)
Various Artists: Purple Haze from East, Volume 2 (WV Sorcerer Productions)
The Southern University Jazz Ensemble: Goes to Africa with Love (Now-Again)
Roy Campbell / William Parker / Zan Matsuura: Visitation of the Spirits—The Pyramind Trio Live, 1985 (No Business)
Sonny Rollins: Live at Finlandia Hall, Helsinki 1972 (Svart)
Various Artists: The Best of Revelation Records 1959-1962 (NarroWay)
Shizuka: Heavenly Persona (Black Editions)
Jacqueline Humbert & David Rosenboom: Daytime Viewing (Unseen Worlds)
Bob Dylan: Time Out of Mind Stripped Naked (Columbia)
Various Artists: Blacklips Bar—Androgyns and Deviants / Industrial Romance for Bruised and Battered Angels 1992-1995 (Anthology Recordings)
Various Artists: Con Piano, Sublime—Early Recordings from the Caribbean 1907-1921 (Magnificent Sounds)
Various Artists: Space Echo—The Mystery Behind the Cosmic Sound of Cabo Verde Revealed! (Analog Africa)
Ibrahim Hesnawi: The Father of Libyan Reggae (Habibi Funk)
RP Boo: Legacy Volume 2 (Planet Mu)
Les Raillizes Denudes: ’77 Live (Temporal Drift)
Eddie Lockjaw Davis and Shirley Scott: Cookin’ With Jaws and The Queen (Craft)
Professor James Benson:The Gow-Dow Experience (Jazzman Records)
Little Bob and The Lollipops: Nobody But You (Mississippi Records)

Lowe’s Highs: Music Scholar Crashes The 2023 Record Pull / girlgeniuses get it very together (Best New Records, Reissues, and Excavations, January 1st – April 26th)

Rushed Ramblings:

I’m headed down to Bentonville, Arkansas this weekend, so I’m pushing this out a bit early. Why Bentonville, you ask? Yes, it is a corporate town of Wal-Mart’s devising, but the Crystal Bridges Museum one heir has established is the cat’s ass, currently features a Diego Rivera exhibit, and hosts The Roots and Congolese electronic band Kokoko! Saturday night, so don’t be so snobby! Northwest Arkansas is a GREAT place for all this to be, whatever the machinations behind it. You can tell, I know, that I don’t fully trust it myself, but it’s the only place I’ve ever seen a Black Power Art exhibit and viewed an actual top-flight Basquiat–with my parents, no less. So….

My big news is the return of American pop music scholar, composer, horn man, and occasional guitarist Allen Lowe to the record hop. Lowe’s probably best known for his fascinating book American Pop: From Minstrels to Mojos (other books of his that followed are just as fascinating), but his recorded output is very high quality, and his survival of and recovery from sinus cancer and related health struggles have actually helped propel him to perhaps his best composing and writing ever–four total discs worth. I hope to post today an interview I conducted with him recently in which he speaks of those subjects and many others, but the single-disc America: The Rough Cut is likely to appeal most strongly to those of you who are rockists as well as jazzists: aside from songs that range from raucous to reminiscent to romantic–with the blues always threaded through them–many feature the very underrated electric guitarist Ray Suhy, who’s full of creative and often explosive surprises and has worked with Lowe for years. Marc Ribot fans should proceed directly to this disc. The second set, a three-disker, is called In the Dark, Volume 1, and strikes me as not only a survey of jazz styles Lowe admires but, as Lowe admits in our interview, also a response–or answer, if you will–to what he has heard as a lack of interest and imagination in composing in current jazz circles. That’s not a small claim, but the range of structures Lowe leads the Constant Sorrow Orchestra through (both records feature a unit by that name, but on In the Dark the band’s much larger with mostly different personnel) is stunning. Three disks is a lot to ask of a listener, but they frequently swing–when they don’t, they do very interesting other things–and the playing is fabulous, especially by Lowe, who is truly on. You may have read keyboard master Lewis Porter’s Coltrane bio; he’s Lowe’s frequent collaborator, and on these recordings his playing is regularly eyebrow raising–especially when he imitates Augie Meyers and Jimmy Smith through a synthesizer. So…check ’em out, pronto.
Though I was a very early convert to Julien Baker’s writing (thanks to a songwriting former student), I’ve found it hard to cozy up to boygenius, Baker’s collaborative group featuring her good friends Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus. I’m not a fan of mope for the most part, and that’s how their early work struck me. the record, their new release, however, has stunned me. The writing is full of razors and barbed wire, which I don’t associate with mope, and I find it hard to think of a better time for women to respond to this world with songs like these. I can’t get enough of them, truly. When that happens, I buy vinyl for my imaginary offspring to enjoy after I die.
Without a doubt, much of the new additions here are of the jazz variety. I’d like to call your close attention to London Brew, a kind of tribute to/interpretation of Miles’ Bitches Brew by players you should know from that locality; National Information Society’s Since Time is Gravity and Fire! Orchestra’s Echoes, both of which evoke Northern Africa is an exciting way; the Ethnic Heritage Ensemble’s tribute to trumpeter Don Cherry, which continues a streak of fairly magical releases by long-time AACM ace Kahil El’Zabar; and that indefatigable font of pianistic ideas, Japanese pianist Satoko Fujii, who hasn’t let hitting her 100th album last year stop her from releasing several more already, including her fantastic soon-come solo album Torrent. She’s got an album at #35 below, Torrent‘s at #43, and her occasional collaborator, vibraphonist Taiko Saito, has Tears of a Cloud at #39. Those rankings may seem unimpressive, but folks, that’s out of a lot of records, and I don’t take the rankings that seriously (other than the Top 10) until November. Satoko is the bomb, as the kids no longer say.
Speaking of “The East,” if you are a fan of dissonant, ambient, and atmospheric noise, check out pretty much anything WV Sorceror Recordings has been putting out. I am definitely a fan of such stuff, and I can play their releases twice a day (especially when I need such stuff, the dissonance of which tends to calm me). Also, if anyone who reads this blog took me up on my strident recommendation of Les Raillizes Denudes’ reissued work on Temporal Drift last (and this) year, check out the reissue of Shikuza’s Heavenly Persona on Black Editions, which features several guitar eruptions by LRD’s Maki Miura.
It is obvious below, but I finally separated reissues and excavations from the brand-new work. Not that anyone had written in to complain, but I think it helps for some of us who are still obsessed with reaching backwards through the years (to complement our love and desire for the new).

New, Reissued, and Excavated Albums I’ve Found Most Delightful, January 1^st-April 30^th, 2023

(Bolded items are new to the list)

Gina Burch: I Play My Bass Loud (Third Man)
100 gecs: 10,000 gecs (Dog Show/Atlantic)
boygenius: the record (Interscope)
Allen Lowe and The Constant Sorrow Orchestra: America—The Rough Cut (ESP-Disk)
Allen Lowe and the Constant Sorrow Orchestra: In the Dark (ESP-Disk)
Liv.e: Girl in The Half Pearl (Real Life / AWAL)
Islandman (featuring Okay Temiz and Muhlis Berberoglu: Direct-to-Disc Sessions (Night Dreamer)
Kelela: Raven (Warp)
National Information Society: Since Time is Gravity (Eremite)
Rodrigo Campos: Pagode Novo (YB Music)
Ethnic Heritage Ensemble: Spirit Gatherer—A Tribute to Don Cherry (Spiritmuse)
Yaeji: With a Hammer (XL Recordings)
Jason Moran: From the Dancehall to the Battlefield (Yes Records)
London Brew: London Brew (Concord)
Fire! Orchestra: Echoes (Rune Grammofon)
Wadada Leo Smith: Fire Illuminations (Kabell)
Parannoul: After the Magic (Poclanos/Top Shelf)
Belle and Sebastian: Late Developers (Matador)
Satoko Fujii & Otomo Yoshihide: Perpetual Motion (Ayler Records)
The Urban Art Ensemble: “Ho’opomopono” (CFG Multimedia 16-minute single)
The Necks: Travel (Northern Spy)
Kali Uchis: Red Moon in Venus (Geffen)
Willie Nelson: I Don’t Know a Thing About Love—The Songs of Harlan Howard (Legacy)
Tyshawn Sorey: Continuing (Pi Recordings)
Karol G: Manana Sera Bonito (Universal Music Latino)
Andrew Cyrille: Music Delivery / Percussion (Intakt)
Walter Daniels: “From Death to Texas” / “Seems Like a Dream” (Spacecase Records 45)
Tyler Keith & The Apostles: Hell to Pay (Black & Wyatt)
Algiers: Shook (Matador)
Henry Threadgill: The Other One (Pi)
Kiko El Crazy: Pila’e Teteo (Rimas)
Rough Image: Rough Image (WV Sorcerer Productions)
Ingrid Laubrock: The Last Quiet Place (Pyroclastic)
Rob Mazurek & Exploding Star Orchestra: Lightning Dreamers (International Anthem)
Kaze & Ikue Mori: Crustal Movement (Circum/Libra)
DJ Black Low: Impumelelo (Awesome Tapes from Africa)
Lonnie Holley: Oh Me Oh My (Jagjaguwar)
Rocket 88: House of Jackpots (12XU)
Taiko Saito: Tears of a Cloud (Trouble in the East)
JPEGMAFIA x Danny Brown: Scaring the Hoes (self-released)
Lakecia Benjamin: Phoenix (Whirlwind)
Mat Muntz: Phantom Islands (Orenda)
Satoko Fujii: Torrent (Libra Records_
Das Kondensat: Anderen Planeten (Why Play Jazz)
Iris DeMent: Workin’ On a World (FlariElla)
Baaba Maal: Being (Atelier Live/Marathon Artists)
Romulo Froes & Tiago Rosas: Na Goela (YB Music)
Florian Arbenz: Conversation #9—Targeted (Hammer Recordings)
James Brandon Lewis: Eye of I (Anti-)
Tomas Fujiwara’s Triple Double: March On (self-released EP—coming in March)
Ice Spice: Like…?(10K Projects / Capitol Records EP)
otay:onii: Dream Hacker (WV Sorcerer Productions)
Yves Tumor: Praise a Lord Who Chews but Which Does Not Consume; (Or Simply, Hot Between Worlds) (Warp)
Aroof Aftab, Vijay Iyer & Shahzad, Ismaily: Love in Exile (Verve)
Angel Bat Dawid: Requiem for Jazz (International Anthem)
Kara Jackson: Why Does the Earth Give Us People to Love? (September Recordings)
Lana Del Rey: Did you know that there’s a tunnel under Ocean Blvd (Polydor)
Yonic South: Devo Challenge Cup (Wild Honey)
Rudy Royston: Day (Greenleaf Music)
Lankum: False Lankum (Rough Trade)
Staples Jr. Singers: Tell Heaven (EP) (Luaka Bop) Note: the vinyl gets you more great minutes of testifying.
Brandee Younger: Brand New Life (Impulse!)
Heinali: Kyiv Eternal (Injazero)
Tri-County Liquidators: “Flies” / “Weep Then Whisper” / “Bitter” (self-released)
Vinny Golia Quartet: No Refunds (Unbroken Sounds)
Black Country, New Road: Live at Bush Hall (Ninja Tune)
The Art Ensemble of Chicago: From Paris to Paris (Rogue Art)
Billy Valentine: Billy Valentine and The Universal Truth (Flying Dutchman)

Excavations and Reissues

(Note: These are not in order of my love for them–still sorting that out.)

Balka Sound: Balka Sound (Strut)
Hiatus Kaiyote: Choose Your Weapon (Flying Buddha / Sony Masterworks)
Dream Dolphin: Gaia—Selected Ambient & Downtempo Works (1996-2003) (Music from Memory)
Various Artists: Purple Haze from East, Volume 1 (WV Sorcerer Productions)
Various Artists: Purple Haze from East, Volume 2 (WV Sorcerer Productions)
Shizuka: Heavenly Persona (Black Editions)
Jacqueline Humbert & David Rosenboom: Daytime Viewing (Unseen Worlds)
Bob Dylan: Time Out of Mind Stripped Naked (Columbia)
Various Artists: Blacklips Bar—Androgyns and Deviants / Industrial Romance for Bruised and Battered Angels 1992-1995 (Anthology Recordings)
Les Raillizes Denudes: ’77 Live (Temporal Drift)
Luther Thomas: 11^th Street Fire Suite (Corbett vs. Dempsey)
Eddie Lockjaw Davis and Shirley Scott: Cookin’ With Jaws and The Queen (Craft)
Professor James Benson: The Gow-Dow Experience (Jazzman Records)
Walter Bishop, Jr.: Bish at the Bank—Live in Baltimore (Cellar Live)

No-Save* November: The Best Recordings Released in 2021 (So Far), Which I’ve Drained My Wallet For Despite Using Multiple Streaming Platforms

Odd-servations:

R. A. P. Ferreira (formerly known as Milo) is having one helluva year. If as a rap aficionado you’re insistent on the freshest, most ticklish, and slammingest beats, move along. But if you dig word-slinging and surprising associations, you best get hip.
Bible and Tire Company’s Sacred Soul of South Carolina is the perfect gospel pairing with Musicmakers Foundation’s contemporary rural blues comp Hanging Tree Guitars (from 2020). Strictly speaking, if you have one and love it, you must do right and get the other. And the “soul” in the title is no exaggeration.
You may be tired of historical theory stirred into your toons. I am not. Keep pouring, luvs. If you’re like me and enjoy critical beatdowns, Mexstep, The Brkn Record, and the irrepressible Irreversible Entanglements each have the musical cocktail for you. And yes, the music is piquant to listen to if you’re not about the science. It does help, though.
South Memphis’ Lukah is one of the most stentorian MCs I’ve heard in a good long while, plus he has two strong records out this year. The new one (bolded, below) is the pick; its politics, flow, and sense of place are astounding, and his sexual philosophy seems to have advanced.
Best news is likely in the archaeological section. This may be a strange list upon which to find Marian Anderson, but, truly, as Duke opined, there’s only two kinds of music, good and bad, and the woman brilliantly blazed a trail. That’s a 15-disc box with both historic and important unreleased recordings, plus brilliant photos and notes, but, um…less than $80*? Also, Bobo Jenkins was a rocking, charming, and eccentric DIY blues guitarist whose career stretched from the ’50s into the late ’70s; if that sounds like your meat and taters, it’s on Third Man and it might have been RSD only, but…c’mon–if you want it, you can track it down. And as far as historical monuments in the rowdier aspects of the modern musical life of Brother Europe go, you can’t beat Corbett vs. Dempsey’s look at the formative days of the masterful and mischievous Instant Composers Pool and Guerilla Records’ top-notch and long-overdue reissue of The Plastic People of the Universe’s truly revolutionary original bootleg.

Next month, I’m gonna get tough with this list, shave it down, get serious about their listenability and durability, and and arrange it into categories of A, A-, B+, and B–since we all have loved grades so much our whole lives. I know you cannot wait. And, yes, I’m very serious about that Wild Up record.

BOLDED ITEMS are new to the list.

Archaeological Digs

Halfway to Listville: Slabs from 2019 That Have Been Consistently Good To Me (and Some Music Moments That’ve Been Good For Me)

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We’re halfway through 2019 and the tanks are rolling into DC! Nice! Anyway, I’ve heard almost 100 new records that are damn good, as well as 20 issuances of older music that might cause you to get revelated. They’re further down the page. But first…

Top 10 Music-Related Moments of My Month:

ONE: I was out of town running sound for a wedding, and went for two early morning walks with headbuds in, not my usual mode of listening (I don’t like being aurally cut off from my immediate environment). On the first, 84-year-old Abdullah Ibrahim’s new album The Balance (with an impressive front line of tenor, flute, and baritone) dovetailed harmoniously with a southwest Missouri sunrise.

On the second–here I was listening out of obligation, because my expectations were low for the release but it was “required listening”–I surrendered to Freddie Gibbs, thanks to an uptick in the MC’s wit and Madlib’s subtle facilitation. The name of the album, easily one of the year’s best, is Bandana.

TWO: Speaking of that wedding, the bride had originally chosen Stevie Wonder’s “Signed, Sealed, and Delivered” as the pick to click right after she and her hubby kissed and were presented–then she changed it, much to my initial dismary, to Toby Keith’s “God Love Her.” Besides being less than moved by Mr. Keith, I thought the sentiment left out the poor groom. When Apple Music suddenly dropped the original single (fortunately, I had been testing the playlist daily and noticed), I thought that was a sign–but it turned out the video of the song was still available, so out of obligation (notice I take those seriously?) I plugged it in. Pretty good song, and the young lady’s gum-popping coincided with the couple hitting the “red carpet” after descending the altar steps. Perfectly irreverent!

THREE: I stumbled onto a neat new French label, Dark Tree. Along with a ton of other items, Dark Tree is offering two rare recordings from master pianist, composer, bandleader, and arranger Horace Tapscott’s “Watts school”: an inspiring Tapscott live show (his discography is so small and scarce every new addition is an event–to my ear and mind, anyway) and a wild and woolly concert by a quartet fronted by clarinetist John Carter and Ornette-connected trumpeter Bobby Bradford.

FOUR: Peter Perrett should never have survived the Eighties, but lo and behold the old reprobate has checked in with his second strong album in a row, Humanworld. It could use one more uptempo tune, but his sardonic lyricism and daring phrasing sound undimmed by forty years’ passage. There may be hope for the rest of us.

FIVE: Listen, I am not a fan of Iran’s fundamentalist leadership, but it’s not like every Iranian should be tarred with that brush, especially its youth and its uneasy artists. Out of solidarity with the hopeful people of that country against our stupidly-start-a-fire-then-heroically-put-it-out president, I’ve been getting deeply into the work of Sote. Subversive electronica twining traditional sounds with near-futuristic ones–you should give it a try yourself.

SIX: I don’t get out to much live music here in Columbia, Missouri. I will freely admit why: the offerings seldom interest and almost never excite me. However, I am still needing five cups of coffee in order to sleep after learning that the upcoming Dismal Niche Experimental Music Festival (October 3-6) will spotlight Agadez guitar lightning-forker Mdou Moctar [his new album Ilana (The Creator)–see below–is one of the year’s best], Chicago mix-Mesmer Makaya McCraven, soundscape weaver Julianna Barwick, and hypnotic finger-picker Yasmin Williams.

SEVEN: I received a new James Booker find and a Professor Longhair reissue in the mail on the same day, though I ordered them on different days from different outlets. The Fess record has worse sound than the original LP, but because I am a well-known nut about Booker, I am frequently asked which Booker album it should be bought if only one were to be. It might very well be the title bolded in the second list below.

EIGHT: John Corbett is one of the more enthusiastic music writers I know of. His style isn’t snazzy–in fact, it’s frequently a bit awkward and corny–but the power of his love has persuaded me on numerous occasions and I’ve seldom been disappointed. His new listening memoir, Pick Up the Pieces: Excursions in Seventies Music, is a fun read (it was worth it to me just to be directed to The Fall’s Dragnet!), and his record label, Corbett Vs. Dempsey, specializes in reissuing free jazz and experimental records that have long been out of print. A new C vs. D release I purchased made the second list below (Sounds of Liberation–Byard Lancaster’s sax backing a Black Power singing group!), and another, Tetterettet, by the wacky, sly, and skilled Instant Composers Pool Tentet, sent me on an a deeper ICP (nope–not Insane Clown Posse!) dig that netted me not quite half-a-hundred albums. Yes, I just typed that.

NINE: The first blues album I ever bought with my own money was Fenton Robinson’s Somebody Loan Me a Dime (White Dog Records, Fayetteville, AR, 1981). In the ensuing years, I was finally able to buy Howlin’ Wolf and Sonny Boy Williamson records (and plenty other masters’, as well), and I forgot about ol’ Fenton. I broke it out one afternoon out of the clear blue sky, and realized it was, in Christgauvian terms, an A+. Nicole, a blues hardliner, turned to me and said, “Why haven’t we been playing this five times a year every year since we met?” That’s a twenty-nine-year expanse, and she’s correct.

TEN: A very young septuagenarian friend of mine who lives in Austin and has very high standards recently told me, “Dylan hasn’t cut shit since Blonde on Blonde.” OK. No.I was obliged to shatter his misconceptions. Being as chronologically gifted as he is, he still buys and listens to CDs–giving me the perfect excuse to do something I live to do but never get the chance to: MAKE SOME MIX DISCS! He asked for one, and in characteristic overkill I sent him four–and I didn’t even allow myself songs Dylan waxed prior to 1980.

I haven’t heard back from him. Maybe he’s still working through the discs. But unsurprisingly as I compiled the playlist, I ran across a track even I had overlooked. It stunned me in its humility, sorrow, and depth of understanding–I’d link it, but it ain’t available. Next time you pull out World Gone Wrong, give your full attention to “Lone Pilgrim.”

BONUS TRACK: I was fortunate to attend one of only twenty nationwide theatrical screenings of Martin Scorsese’s new Rolling Thunder Tour movie. In it, he mixes fascinating footage from the tour with recently filmed interviews with participants. The house was packed–at 57, I was probably in the youngest quartile of the attendees–and we were virtually sitting on top of each other. Two elderly female friends–slightly more elderly than I, at least–were kibbitzing a bit in the aisle in front of me, and upon Dylan’s first talking head appearance (likely filmed in 2018), one turned to the other and, in complete seriousness, asked:

“Who’s that?”

My Album-Lover’s Honor Roll for 2019 (as of July 3rd, 2019)

(bolded items are new additions to the ongoing list)

Little Simz: Grey Area
Various Artists: A Day in the Life–Impressions of Pepper*
Freddie Gibbs & Madlib: Bandana
Jamila Woods: Legacy! Legacy!
Beyoncé: Homecoming
Control Top: Covert Contracts
Peter Perrett: Humanworld
Billy Woods & Kenny Segal: Hiding Places
Billie Eilish: WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO?
Royal Trux: White Stuff
Yugen Blakrok: Anima Mysterium
James Brandon Lewis: An Unruly Manifesto
Damon Locks / Black Monument Ensemble: Where Future Unfolds
Kel Assouf: Black Tenere
Teodross Avery: After the Rain–A Night for Coltrane
The Comet is Coming: Trust in the Lifeforce of the Deep Mystery
Aesop Rock & TOBACCO: Malibu Ken
Heroes Are Gang Leaders: The Amiri Baraka Sessions
Mdou Moctar: Ilana (The Creator)
2 Chainz: Rap or Go to the League
Senyawa: Sujud*
Dave: PSYCHODRAMA
Sote: Parallel Persia
Quelle Chris: Guns
Ben Lamar Gay: Confetti in the Sky Like Fireworks
Tanya Tagaq: Toothsayer EP
Abdullah Ibrahim: The Balance
Various Artists: Weaponize Your Sound
Lizzo: Cuz I Love You
DKV and Joe McPhee: The Fire Each Time
The New Orleans Dance Hall Quartet: Tricentennial Hall Dance 17. October
Joachim Kuhn: Melodic Ornette Coleman—Piano Works XIII
The Coathangers: The Devil You Know
GoldLink: Diaspora
Megan Thee Stallion: Fever
Lee Scratch Perry: Rainford
Joel Ross: Kingmaker
Steve Riley & The Mamou Playboys: 30 Years Live
Flying Lotus: Flamagra
Angel-Ho: Death Becomes Her
Usted Saami: God is Not a Terrorist
Youssou N’Dour: History
Guitar Wolf: Love & Jett
Mannequin Pussy: Patience
LPX: Junk of the Heart (EP)
Deerhunter: Death in Midsummer
Various Artists: Typical Girls Three
Various Artists: Travailler, C’est Trop Dur–The Lyrical Legacy of Caesar Vincent
Nots: 3
Santana: Africa Speaks
Judy and The Jerks: Music for Donuts
Denzel Curry: Zuu
Tyler, The Creator: IGOR
Fennesz: Agora
Salif Keita: Un autre blanc
Robert Forster: Inferno
Harriet Tubman: The Terror End of Beauty
The Art Ensemble of Chicago: We Are On the Edge
Ibibio Sound Machine: Doko Mien
Solange: When I Get Home
Freddie Douggie: Live on Juneteenth
Joe McPhee / John Butcher: At the Hill of James Magee
Branford Marsalis Quartet: The Secret Between the Shadow and the Soul
Helado Negro: This is How You Smile
Ahmed Ag Kaedy: Akaline Kidal
Lost Bayou Ramblers: Rodents of Unusual Size (Soundtrack to the Motion Picture)
slowthai: Great About Britain
Silkroad Assassins: State of Ruin
Steve Lacy: Apollo XXI
Mekons: Deserted
Zeal & Ardor: Live in London
Que Vola: Que Vola
Miguel: Te Lo Dije EP
Mary Faust: Farm Fresh
Kelsey Lu: Blood
Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba: Miri
Hama: Houmeissa
Steve Earle: Guy
Mdou Moctar: Blue Stage Session
Beth Gibbons with the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra (conducted by Krzysztof Penderecki): Henryk Gorecki—Symphony #3 (Symphony of Sorrow Songs)
Ill Considered: 5
Leyla McCalla: Capitalist Blues
Girls on Grass: Dirty Power
Stella Donnelly: Beware of the Dogs
Matthew Shipp Trio: Signature
Weyes Blood: Titanic Rising
Shovels & Rope: By Blood
The King Khan Experience: Turkey Ride
Angel Bat Dawid: The Oracle
Better Oblivion Community Center: Better Oblivion Community Center
Alfredo Rodriguez and Pedrito Martinez: Duologue
Spiral Stairs: We Wanna Be Hyp-No-Tized
Our Native Daughters: Songs of Our Native Daughters
Rosie Flores: A Simple Case of The Blues
CZARFACE & Ghostface Killah: Czarface Meets Ghostface
Jenny Lewis: On the Line

*Technically, these are 2018 releases, but for now, I’m claiming their impact is being felt more strongly this year.

New Releases of Older Material

Eric Dolphy: Musical Prophet
Burnt Sugar: 20^th Anniversary Mixtapes—Groiddest Schizznits, Vols. 1-3
Horace Tapscott and the Pan Afrikan Orchestra: Why Don’t You Listen–Live at Lacma, 1998
Various Artists: Outro Tempo II–Electronic and Contemporary Music from Brazil 1984-1996
Various Artists: All the Young Droogs–60 Juvenile Delinquent Wrecks
James Booker: Live at Onkel PO’s, Carnegie Hall, Hamburg 1976
Big Stick: Some of the Best of Big Stick
Primal Scream: Maximum Rock ‘n’ Roll—The Singles
Masayuki Takayanagi New Directions Unit: April is the Cruellest Month
Various Artists: Rhapsody in Bronze
Sir Shina Peters and His Internation Stars: Sewele
Sounds of Liberation: Sounds of Liberation
Prince: Originals
Various Artists: Nigeria 70–No Wahala, Highlife, Afro-Funk & Juju 1973-1987
Lee Moses: How Much Longer Must I Wait? Singles & Rarities 1965-1972
John Carter & Bobby Bradford Quartet: No U-Turn
Johnny Shines: The Blues Came Falling Down–Live 1973
Terry Allen & The Panhandle Mystery Band: Pedal Steal + Four Corners
Neil Young & The Stray Gators: Tuscaloosa
Sonic Youth: Battery Park, NYC: July 4th 2008

Living To Listen

Compact music commentary about artifacts new and old: I enthuse, I don't accuse, but I do refuse–to review anything lukewarm or colder!

Tag: Corbett Vs. Dempsey

A HOLIDAY MONTH’S MEAL AND A FEW WEEKS OF LUSCIOUS LEFTOVERS: MY FAVORITE RECORDS, JANUARY 1st to DECEMBER 2nd (precisely), 2025

Integrated List Solutions: 2023’s Best Discs With a Month to Go

THE SPRAWL: A Tentacular List of Really Good Records Released in 2023, Most of Which I Can Remember Listening To (November 1st Update)

Lowe’s Highs: Music Scholar Crashes The 2023 Record Pull / girlgeniuses get it very together (Best New Records, Reissues, and Excavations, January 1st – April 26th)

No-Save* November: The Best Recordings Released in 2021 (So Far), Which I’ve Drained My Wallet For Despite Using Multiple Streaming Platforms

Halfway to Listville: Slabs from 2019 That Have Been Consistently Good To Me (and Some Music Moments That’ve Been Good For Me)

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