Tag: JLin

Rockin’ Records–Check These Folks’ Rock Records!: A Weeded-Out, Rearranged, Expanded Top 120 for 2018 (and Not Just Rock) (October 3, 2018, Columbia, MO)

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I’ve updated my sprawling list of very strong records released in 2018 with some really sharp new releases from September (see the above slideshow for most of those–plus I’ve bolded them below), plus I’ve trimmed some items that just weren’t hanging through further listening. Highlights?

A new record by the Aussie band Tropical Fuck Storm that may assist you with your stored rage and despair.

JLin’s terrific follow-up to the amazing dance record Black Origami, a bit of a soundtrack entitled Autobiography.

A stunning exhibition of lyrical flow and shining intelligence, riding atop a sparkling stream of beats, by the Chicago rapper Noname: Room 25 (approved by my students, who are no dummies).

The latest entry by the Nigerian-American MC Fat Tony, representing for Houston, TX, as well, 10,000 Hours, which stands with Room 25 as a bit of a shot across the crowded hip-hop bow. Mother Wit, in full effect, in both cases.

A haunting, raging, energized Cajun-rock slab from south Louisiana, courtesy of Lost Bayou Rambler fiddler Louis Michot’s Melody Makers side project: it’s called Blood Moon, and it’s storming up my chart.

A desolate, beautiful release by an old soul-music vet who’s never been associated with that first adjective and has a complicated relationship with the second: Swamp Dogg’s Love, Loss, and AutoTune. It’s a joke–and it’s not.

…and the second record from an exciting, smart band from Brisbane (just kids–including one with a Go-Between pedigree), The Goon Sax. It’s called We’re Not Talking:

  1. Tracy Thorn: Record
  2. CupcaKe: Ephorize
  3. Bettye LaVette: Things Have Changed
  4. Tropical Fuck Storm: A Laughing Death in Meatspace
  5. JLin: Autobiography (Music from Wayne McGregor’s Autobiography)
  6. Zeal & Ardor: Stranger Fruit
  7. Noname: Room 25
  8. Sly & Robbie and Nils Petter Molvaer: Nordub
  9. Orquesta Akokan: Orquesta Akokan
  10. Michot’s Melody Makers: Blood Moon
  11. Pusha T: Daytona
  12. Elza Soares: Deus É Mulher
  13. John Prine: The Tree of Forgiveness
  14. Blood Orange: Negro Swan
  15. Chloe x Halle: The Kids are Alright
  16. The Internet: Hive Mind
  17. Janelle Monae: Dirty Computer
  18. Parquet Courts: Wide Awake!
  19. Berry: Everything, Compromised
  20. JD Allen: Love Stone
  21. Superchunk: What A Time to Be Alive
  22. Mary Gauthier and Songwriting with Soldier: Rifles and Rosary Beads
  23. Toni Braxton: Sex & Cigarettes
  24. Joe McPhee: Imaginary Numbers
  25. Nidia: Nídia É Má, Nídia É Fudida
  26. Fat Tony: 10,000 Hours
  27. Swamp Dogg: Love, Loss, and Auto-Tune
  28. Subtle Degrees: A Dance That Empties
  29. Daniel Carter: Seraphic Light
  30. Alice Bag: Blue Print
  31. The Necks: Body
  32. Young Fathers: Cocoa Sugar
  33. Quelle Chris & Jean Grae: Everything’s Fine
  34. Robbie Fulks & Linda Gail Lewis: Wild! Wild! Wild!
  35. James Brandon Lewis: Radiant Imprints
  36. Mitski: Be the Cowboy
  37. Sons of Kemet: Your Queen is a Reptile
  38. Lisbon Freedom Unit: Praise of Our Folly
  39. The Goon Sax: We’re Not Talking
  40. Grupo Mono Blanco: ¡Fandango! Sones Jarochos from Veracruz
  41. Ken Vandermark / Klaus Kugel / Mark Tokar: No-Exit Corner
  42. Knife Knights: 1 Time Mirage
  43. Angelika Niescier: The Berlin Concert
  44. Young Mothers: Morose
  45. No Age: Snares Like a Haircut
  46. Kids See Ghosts: Kids See Ghosts
  47. Sidi Toure: Toubalbero
  48. Wynton Marsalis & Friends: United We Swing–Best of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Galas
  49. Jonghyun: Poet / Artist
  50. Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever: Hope Downs
  51. Dave Holland: Uncharted Territories
  52. Halu Mergia: Lalu Balu
  53. Mekons 77: It Is Twice Blessed
  54. Jeffrey Lewis: Works by Tuli Kupferberg
  55. Bombino: Deran
  56. Idris Ackamoor & The Pyramids: An Angel Fell
  57. Rapsody: Laila’s Wisdom
  58. Sarayah: Feel the Vibe
  59. Maria Muldaur: Don’t You Feel My Leg—The Naughty Bawdy Blues of Blu Lu Barker
  60. Jinx Lennon: Grow a Pair
  61. The Thing: Again
  62. Tierra Whack: Whack World
  63. Lori McKenna: The Tree
  64. Nas: Nasir
  65. Speedy Ortiz: Twerp Verse
  66. Courtney Barnett: Tell Me How You Really Feel
  67. Car Seat Headrest: Twin Fantasy
  68. Makaya McCraven: Where We Come From (Chicago x London Mixtape)
  69. Evan Parker, Barry Guy, and Paul Lytton: Music for David Mossman
  70. Salim Washington: Dogon Revisited
  71. Beats Antique: Shadowbox
  72. Jon Hassell: Listening To Pictures (Pentimento, Vol. One)
  73. Charge It to The Game: House with a Pool
  74. JPEGMAFIA: Veteran
  75. The Beths: The Future Hates Me
  76. Various Artists: Girls Just Wanna Have Fun…and Rights!!!
  77. Apolo: Live in Stockholm
  78. Mdou Moctar & Elite Beat: Mdou Moctar meets Elite Beat In a Budget Dancehall
  79. Willie Nelson: Last Man Standing
  80. Wussy: What Heaven is Like
  81. Kiefer: happysad
  82. Meshell Ndegeocello: Ventriloquism
  83. Freddie Gibbs: Freddie
  84. Kamasi Washington: Heaven & Earth
  85. Cardi B: Invasion of Privacy
  86. Shopping: The Official Body
  87. Cypress Hill: Elephants on Acid
  88. Dana Murray: Negro Manifesto
  89. Shame: Songs of Praise
  90. Henry Threadgill: Dirt..and More Dirt
  91. Ceramic Dog: YRU Still Here?
  92. Marc Ribot: Songs of Resistance 1942-2018
  93. The Coup: Soundtrack to the Film Sorry to Bother You
  94. Van Morrison & Joey DeFrancesco: You’re Driving Me Crazy
  95. Various Artists/Sahel Sounds: Field Recordings
  96. L.E.S. Douze: The Stoned 1
  97. Kendrick Lamar, et al: Black Panther—Music from and Inspired by the Film
  98. Tal National: Tantabara
  99. Rodrigo Amado (with Joe McPhee): History of Nothing
  100. Hop Along: Bark Your Head Off, Dog
  101. MAST: Thelonious Sphere Monk
  102. Tirzah: Devotion
  103. The Chills: Snowbound
  104. Eddie Daniels: Heart of Brazil
  105. Big Freedia: Third Ward Bounce
  106. Old Man Saxon: The Pursuit
  107. Amy Rigby: The Old Guys
  108. Busdriver: Electricity Is On Our Side
  109. Lonnie Holley: MITH
  110. Del McCoury Band: Del McCoury Still Plays Bluegrass
  111. Dr. Michael White: Tricentennial Rag
  112. Migos: Culture II
  113. Yo La Tengo: There’s a Riot Goin’ On
  114. The Carters: Everything is Love
  115. Sleep: The Sciences
  116. The English Beat: Here We Go Love
  117. Princess Nokia: A Girl Cried Red
  118. Santigold: I Don’t Want—The Gold Fire Sessions
  119. Nicki Minaj: Queen
  120. Chad Popper: A Popper People

OLD MUSIC NICELY OR NEWLY PACKAGED

  1. Sonny Rollins: Way Out West (Deluxe Reissue)
  2. Neil Young: Roxy—Tonight’s the Night
  3. Erroll Garner: Nightconcert
  4. Various Artists: Voices of Mississippi—Artists and Musicians Documented by William Ferris
  5. Prince: A Piano and a Microphone
  6. Various Artists: Listen All Around–The Golden Age of Central and East African Music
  7. Gary Stewart: “Baby I Need Your Loving” / “Yester-Me, Yester-You, Yester-Day”
  8. Peter Brotzmann and Fred Lonberg-Holm: Ouroboros
  9. Oneness of Juju: African Rhythms
  10. Bruce Springsteen: 1978/07/07 West Hollywood, CA
  11. The Revelators: In which the Revelators perform live renditions of selections from the Billy Childish songbook
  12. Against All Logic: 2012-2017
  13. Grant Green: Live at Oil Can Harry’s
  14. Entourage: Ceremony of Dreams—Studio Sessions & Outtakes 1972-1977
  15. Kuniyuki Takahashi: Early Tape Works 1986 – 1993 Volume 1
  16. Various Artists: Africa Scream Contest, Volume 2
  17. Wussy: Getting Better
  18. David Bowie: Santa Monica ‘72
  19. Mulatu Astatke & His Ethiopian Quintet: Afro-Latin Soul, Vols. 1 & 2
  20. Various Artists: Two Niles to Sing a Melody—The Violins & Synths of Sudan

Latin Lightning (June 28th, 2018, Columbia, MO)

Fresh from knocking out my first-half-of-’18 list, a fellow music maniac tipped me to several new records I’d missed, mainly because they’re from Latin America and Mexico and haven’t shown up in my usual channels. I haven’t made my way through all of them, but the two I have heard, ahem, made a serious impression.

Legendary Brazilian singer Elza Soares (listen above) has a fairly new record out. This is notable for at least two reasons: she’s 81 and feeling 19, and has succeeded in following up a very impressive previous record (and big favorite of mine), A Woman at the End of the World, issued just two years ago. Like its predecessor, Deus E Mulher (I think that translates to “God is a Woman,” and I’ll buy that) is influenced by the innovative angular rhythms, instrumental alienation effects (that’s a compliment in these parts), and skillful Brazilian music syntheses of her country man Tom Ze–only her vocals add an allure Ze would have difficulty matching (she’s been called the Brazilian Tina Turner, but that’s a bit inexact). The guitars, and keyboards that sound like guitars, sound like they’re strung with concertina wire and scraped with scrap-iron picks, and Soares ducks in and out of their accents when she’s not riding just above them. Also, the compositions flow a little more consistently here, which may be a downer for more adventuresome listeners (I’m one) but I consider an improvement.

I was also encouraged to sample another current Brazilian release, Anelis Assumpção’s Taurina. While this record’s a bit more conventional–pretty clear samba and bossa nova influences, though never really freaked into anything Tropicalia-like–it’s also fetchingly sung, very catchy, and possessed of the seductive, flirtatious movement the country’s musicians have minted. However, don’t get the idea it’s too smooth; you can also count on Brazilian guitarists to keep you honest, as Ms. Assumpção’s do on several tracks, especially “Segunda a Sexta.”

My happiness with those platters sent me back to something I listened to in a somewhat distracted mode last week and loved out of the corner of my ear. This time I bore down, and was not disappointed; in fact, Nidia’s Nidia E Ma, Nidia E Fudida is one of two recent electronic dance music albums created by women that have bewitched and beguiled me over the last year and a half, the other being the somewhat mysterious JLin‘s footwork masterpiece, Black Origami. At least, I think Nidia’s work is EDM; informed sources tab it as the Angola brew known as batida, Apple Music calls it “bass,” and given Nidia’s Portuguese heritage, its ingredients may account for happy impurities that make for what it sounds like to me: original, mind- and feet-engaging, and just this side of being undanceable (hence the JLin connection). Fortunately for a stiffly-bending 56-year-old like me, it’s fun to listen to and think about, and I do not sell our youth short–I am sure some kids can step between her startling and surprising beats.

Short-shrift Division:

The little “Make Me Choose Between Two Bands” game on my Facebook wall is near to stretching into its third week, with thousands of comments, new participants every day–and some repeat pairings, such as today’s “Al Green or O.V. Wright?” That’s one I didn’t have to let marinate either time; as deep-soul amazing and intense as Wright is at his best (with the same studio band behind him as Green enjoyed on his Hi hits), that’s like Hercules (only half-God) vs. Zeus–wait, maybe I mean Eros. Yeah. Full god, deity of love and sex. Anyway, yeah–AL. But I had to get out MCA’s handy Duke/Peacock label compilation, The Soul of O. V. Wright just to be fair. If you don’t know the man’s work, suffice it to say that he invests titles like “I’d Rather Be Blind, Crippled, and Crazy,” “Ace of Spades” (easily as tough as Motorhead’s), “Eight Men, Four Women,” “A Nickel and a Nail,” “Drowning on Dry Land,” and “He’s My Son (Just the Same)” with the exact commitment, grit, barely contained agony, and verisimilitude that you’d dream. Not only that, but could he bring gospel warhorses like “Motherless Child” and “Don’t Let The Devil Ride” (here, jiggered into “Don’t Let My Baby Ride”) back from the graveyard of overexposure. I hope I just demonstrated that the pairing was fairer than it seems.

After that dose of O. V., I had to keep that Memphis rhythm rolling, and reached for Ann Peebles: The Hi Rhythm Years. I try not to take folks for granted, but if you happen to be a big Al Green fan and always sit amazed at Willie Mitchell’s production and the Hi Rhythm Band’s prowess (Howard Grimes on drums, Teenie Hodges on drums, and Do Funny Hodges on slithery organ, especially) on Green’s hits, and you haven’t heard St. Louis’ Ann Peebles in front of the same band–change that not. You’ll be forced to give this 99-pounder credit where it’s due and beyond, or she’ll tear your playhouse down. She might just anyway.