Tag: music blogs

In From the Storm: My Favorite Records from ’25, January 1st to August 1st

  • 1.90.3-MZ3QFTV76J3TIOVOFV34APR5CE.0.1-2

I fell behind in June but revved up to as close to the front of the line as can be expected, I suppose. I still have much business swirling around my head—every time I’ve dealt with the last piece of post-mortem paperwork, something new arrives in the mail, and there’s always grief—so I’m not going to say much other than what a rush of recorded matter has there been into this deity-forsaken world, and I’m thankful.

I have provided album cover images to stimulate you (above) and links in the items’ titles to lead you to purchase (please buy musicians’ music—please?). Later, I will add an updated Spitify playlist with a track a piece from everything on the list if you want to have a…song tasting. If an item is bolded, it is new to the list; if an item is italicized, it is a newly released record that contains older music (there are a few late-’24 entries that might have flown under your radar); if an item is asterisked, it’s very good up to the everlovin’ shit, depending on the number of *s; if an item you think is dandy isn’t on the list, I might not have caught up to it yet (or it didn’t move me, so it got real gone for a change). A truckload of new thangs have been loosed as I hunt and peck this morning; I’m just gonna have to wait until September 1st for the best of those. I hope you find something that can distract you beatifically (but temporarily) from the destruction at large. And…try the Red Hot Org EP that mixes the Kronos Quartet, Dylan’s most surrealistic protest song, and Terry Riley. It ain’t a spinach ice cream cone—it’s brilliant, and necessary.

AND OH YEAH! Do not overlook two shining 5-asterisk discs: jazz guitarist Mary Halvorson’s most mesmerizing recording in a career of them (special assistance from Patricia Brennan) and Irish folk giant Christy Moore’s powerful take on the troubles nouveux in his country (and the world).

MY LIST OF RECENT AURAL PLEASURE – SAMPLER PLAYLIST BELOW
BOLD = New to the List
ASTERISKED* = Damn good! to Holy SHIT! (one day, I will organize them)
ITALICIZED: Excavations from the Past / Reissues


Aesop Rock: Black Hole Superette (Rhymesayers) ****
Zoh Amba: Sun (Smalltown Supersound) ****
Ale Hop & Titi Bakorta:  Mapambazuko (Nyege Nyege Tapes) *****
Marshall Allen’s Ghost Horizons: Live in Philadelphia, Volume 1 (Otherly Love Records) ****
The Ancients: The Ancients (Eremite) ***
Ichiko Aoba: Luminescent Creatures (Psychic Hotline)
Artemis: Arboresque (Blue Note) ****

Backxwash: Only Dust Remains (Ugly Hag) ****
Bad Bunny: DeBI TiRAR MaS FOToS (Rimas Entertainment)****
Julien Baker & Torres: Send a Prayer My Way (Matador) ****
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) ***
Booker T & The Plasmic Bleeds: Ode To BC/LY… And Eye Know BO…. da Prez (Mahakala Music)
Benjamin Booker: Lower (Fire Next Time)
Johnny Bragg: Let Me Dream On (Org Music) ***
Brother Ali & Ant: Satisfied Soul (Mello Music)
Buck 65: Keep Moving (self-released)
Peter Brotzmann: The Quartet (Otoroku)****
Master Wilburn Burchette: Master Wilburn Burchette’s Psychic Meditation Music (Numero Group)***

Joe Chambers, Kevin Diehl, Chad Taylor: Onilu (Eremite) ****
Tyler Childers: Snipe Hunter (RCA / Hickman Holler)
Christer Bothén 3: L’Invisible  (thanatosis)****
clipping: Dead Channel Sky (Sub Pop)
Clipse: Let God Sort ‘Em Out (Roc Nation)***
Common and Pete Rock: The Auditorium, Volume 1 (Casa Loma)
Cosmic Ear: TRACES (We Jazz) *****
Sylvie Courvoisier & Mary Halvorson: Bone Bells (Pyroclastic)
Chuck D: Chuck D Presents Enemy Radio—Radio Armageddon (Soundspeak)

Christopher Dammann Sextet: Christopher Dammann Sextet (Out of Your Head)Deepstaria Enigmatica: The Eternal Now Is the Heart of a New Tomorrow (ESP-Disk)
The Delines: Mr. Luck & Ms. Doom (Jealous Butcher) ****
DJ Dadaman & Moscow Dollar: Ka Gaza (Nyege Nyege Tapes)
DJ Haram: Beside Myself (Hyperdub)
DJ Shaun-D: From Bubbling to Dutch House (Nyege Nyege Tapes)
Big Chief Bo Dollis Jr. & The Wild Magnolias: Chip Off The Old Block (Strong Place)
Doseone & Height Keech: Wood Teeth (Hands Made EP) ****
doseone & Steel Tipped Dove: All Portrait, No Chorus (BackwoodzStudios) ****

Silke Eberhard Trio: Being-A-Ning (Intakt)
Eddy Current Suppression Ring: Shapes and Forms (Cool Death EP)***
Marty Ehrlich Trio Exaltation: This Time (Sunnyside) ***
Electric Satie: Gymnopedia ’99 (In Sheep’s Clothing)****
Marco Eneidi Quintet: Wheat Fields of Kleylehof (Balance Point Acoustics / Botticelli) ****
Ex-Void: In Love Again (Tapete Records)

Fieldwork: Thereupon (Pi Records)
Craig Finn: Always Been (Tamaric / Thirty Tigers) ***
FKA twigs: Eusexua (Young Recordings Limited)
Robert Forster: Strawberries (Tapete) ****
Satoko Fujii GEN: Altitude 1100 Meters (Libra)
Satoko Fujii Trio: Dream a Dream (Libra) ****
Satoko Fuji / This is It!: Message (Libra)

Galactic and Irma Thomas: Audience with the Queen (Tchoup-Zilla)
Girl Scout: Headache (self-released EP)

Keiji Haino and Natsuki Tamura: what happened there? (Libra)
Mary Halvorson: About Ghosts (Nonesuch)*****
Hamell on Trial: Harp (for Harry) (Saustex)
Heat On: Heat On (Cuneiform)
The Hemphill Stringtet: Plays the Music of Julius Hemphill (Out of Your Head Records)
Patterson Hood: Exploding Trees & Airplane Screams (ATO) ***
William Hooker: Jubilation (Org Music) *****
William Hooker: A Time Within: Live at the New York Jazz Museum, January 14, 1977 (The Control Group / Valley of Search) ***

Horsegirl: Phonetics On and On (Matador)
HHY & The Kampala Unit: Turbo Meltdown (Nyege Nyege Tapes) ****
Hüsker Dü: Jan.30, First Ave., Part 1 (Numero EP) ****

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) ****
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) *****

Karol G: Tropicoqueta (Bichota) ****

Kelela: In the Blue Light (Warp) ***

KINGDOM MOLOGI: Kembo (Nyege Nyege Tapes) ***
Kronos Quartet + The Hard Rain Collective: Hard Rain (Red Hot Org EP)

Lady Gaga: Mayhem (Interscope)
Lambrini Girls: Who Let The Dogs Out (City Slang US) *****
Steve Lehman: The Music of Anthony Braxton (Pi Recordings) *****
José Lencastre: Inner Voices (Burning Ambulance)***
Jinx Lennon: The Hate Agents Leer at the Last Agents of Hope (Septic Tiger) ***
James Brandon Lewis: Apple Cores (Anti-)
James Brandon Lewis Quartet: Abstraction is Deliverance (Intakt) ***
Jeffrey Lewis: The Even More Freewheelin’ Jeffrey Lewis (Don Giovanni)
Little Simz: Lotus (AWAL) ***
LOLO: LOLO (Black Sweat)
Rocio Gimenez Lopez: La Forma Del Sueno (Blue Art) ****
K. Curtis Lyle, Jaap Blonk, Damon Smith, Alex Cunningham: A Radio of the Body

Jako Maron: Mahavelouz (Nyege Nyege Tapes) ****
Mazinga: Chinese Democracy Manifest—Greatest Hits, Vol. 2 (Rubber Wolf)
Mean Mistreater: Do or Die (self-released)***
The Mekons: Horror (Fire) ***
Ava Mendoza/Gabby Fluke-Mogul/Carolina Perez: Mama Killa (Burning Ambulance) ***
M(h)aol: Something Soft (Merge) ***
Mac Miller: Baloonerism (Warner Records)
Billy Mohler: The Eternal (Contagious)
Moonchild Sanelly: Full Moon (self-released)
MonoNeon: You Had Your Chance…Bad Attitude! (Color Red) ****
Christy Moore: A Terrible Beauty (Claddagh) *****
Jason Moran/Trondheim Jazz Orchestra/Ole Morten Vågan: Go To Your North (Yes Records)
Matthew Muneses and Riza Printup: Pag-Ibko, Volume 1 (Irabbagast Records)
David Murray Quartet: The Birdsong Project Presents Birdly Serenade (Verve)
Amina Claudine Myers: Solace of the Mind (Red Hook) ****

Natural Information Society and Bitchin’ Bahas: Totality (Drag City)
Louis Nevins: The Fumes (Cavetone Records)
NOBRO: Set Your Pussy Free (Dine Alone) ***

Isabelle Olivier: Impressions (Rewound Echoes)
The Onions: Return to Paradise (Hitt Records)
Bill Orcutt Guitar Quartet: Hauslive 4 (Palilalia) ***
Organic Pulse Ensemble: Ad Hoc (Ultraaani Records) *****
Aruan Ortiz: Creole Renaissance (Intakt)

Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra Led by Horace Tapscott: Live at Widney High December 26th, 1971 (The Village) ***
Ivo Perelmamn and Matthew Shipp: Armageddon Flower (TAO Forms)
Pitch, Rhythm, and Consciousness: Sextet (Reva Records)
Marek Pospieszalski Octet & Zoh Amba: NOW! (Project financed by a scholarship from the Minister of Culture and National Heritage “Młoda Polska” & Katowice City of Music UNESCO)
Public Enemy: Black Sky Over The Projects—Apartment 2025 (self-released) ***

Les Rallizes Denudes: Blind Baby Has Its Mother’s Eyes (Life Goes On)
R.A.P. Ferreira: Outstanding Understanding (Ruby Yacht)
Adam Rudolph, Dave Liebman, Billy Hart: Beingness (Meta)
Bobby Rush and Kenny Wayne Shepherd: Young Fashioned Ways (Deep Rush / RAM Records) ***

Sverre Sæbo Quintet: If, However, You Have Not Lost Your Self Control (SauaJazz)
SAULT: 10 (Sault Global) ***
Serengeti: mixtape 2 (serengetiraps / self-released)
Serengeti: Palookaville (serengetiraps / self-released) 
The Sex Pistols: Live in the U.S.A. South East Music Hall, Atlanta, January 5th, 1978 (UME)
The Sharp Pins: Radio DDR (K / Perennial Death) ****
Matthew Shipp: The Cosmic Piano (Canteloupe Records) ****
Anthony “Big A” Sherrod: Torchbearer of the Clarksdale Sound (Music Makers Recordings EP)
Slick Rick: Victory (Mass Appeal)
Luke Stewart / Silt Remembrance Ensemble: The Order (Cuneiform) ***
Ray Suhy / Lewis Porter Quartet: What Happens Next (Sunnyside) ***
SUMAC and Moor Mother: The Film (Thrill Jockey)
Sun Ra: Nuits de la Fondation Maeght 5 August 1970 (Strut) ***
John Surman:Flashpoint and Undercurrents (Cuneiform Records) ***

Masahiko Tagashi: Session in Paris, Volume 1—Song of the Soil (with Don Cherry and Charlie Haden) (We Want Sounds)
Taj Mahal and Keb’ Mo’: Room on the Porch (Concord Jazz) 
Taj Mahal & Keb’ Mo’: Room on the Porch for Everyone (UMG EP) 
Cecil Taylor / Tony Oxley: Flashing Spirits (Burning Ambulance)
Ebo Taylor, Adrain Younge, and Ali Shaheed Muhammad: Jazz Is Dead 22 (Jazz is Dead)
Three-Layer Cake: “sounds the color of grounds” (Otherly Love)
Trio Glossia: Trio Glossia (Sonic Transmissions) ****
The Tubs: Cotton Crown (self-released)***

Kali Uchis: Sincerely (Capitol) ***
Akira Umeda & Metal Preyers: Clube de Mariposa Mórbida (Nyege Nyege Tapes)
The Untamed Youth: Git Up and Go (Hi-Tide / Nu-Tone)

Various Artists: African Jazz Invites O.K. Jazz (Planet Ilunga) ***
Various Artists: A Tribute to the King of Zydeco (Valcourt)
Various Artists: Democracy Forward (Bitter Southerner)
Various Artists: Prisoners’ Day Compilation (Majazz Project / Palestinian Sound Archive) ***
Various Artists: Roots Rocking Zimbabwe– The Modern Sound of Harare’ Townships 1975-1980 (Analog Africa) ****
Various Artists: Sweet Rebels—The Golden Era of Algerian Pop-Rai (We Want Sounds) ***
Vibration Black Finger: Everybody Cryin’ Mercy (Enid)

The War & Treaty: Plus One (Mercury Nashville)
Wet Leg: moisturizer (Domino)
Alfred White: The Definitive Alfred White (Music Makers Recordings)
Wheelhouse: House and Home (Aerophonic)
Simon Willson: Bet (Endectomorph Records)
billy woods: GOLLIWOG (x) (Backwoodz Studios)
Wu-Tang Clan: Black Samson, The Bastard (All Maf / 36 Chambers)

Jeong Lim Yang: Synchronicity (Fully Altered Media) 
Hiroshi Yoshimura: Flora (Temporal Drift) ***
Brandee Younger: Gadabout Season (Impulse) ***
The Young Mothers: Better If You Let It (Sonic Transmissions)****

SAMPLE THIS SHIT AND PUT IT ON SHUFFLE! We are not alone in the musical cosmos!







	


	


			
				


			

			
Death Don’t Have No Mercy: In Lieu of My Monthly List, Would You Care for My Mid-Year Francis Davis Memorial Jazz Critics Ballot?
		
	
	

		















My mother, Mary Jane Overeem, passed away from dementia in her assisted living facility early in the morning of Wednesday, June 18, 2025. I am sure it was a coincidence, but she left in the midst of 15-minute wind, lightning, thunder, and pouring rain storm that seemed to harness the furiousness of the battle between her physical determination to keep living and her spiritual will to be released–after months of begging to be. It was exceedingly difficult to witness. I had hoped to be there at her side when she finally passed, but I had to sleep. She might have been waiting for me to pass all the way out so she could slip away alone.





Once during her final four torturous days, the topic of music arose. One of her best friends in the community was an English octogenarian named Rita who happened to come by and check on her. My mom had mentioned to Rita that I kinda-sorta liked music, so she casually offered to tell me the story of her having seen the 1965 edition of The Rolling Stones in Coventry when she was 20. I have a very soft spot for the Jones-era Stones, so I was all ears—especially when she groused, “I was on the front row, and I tried to grab Mick’s balls but a cop grabbed me before I could get ‘em. I almost had his balls—I would have been on the cover of The Daily Mirror, you know?” I was doubled over, crying with laughter. She went on to mention that she’d only seen Gene Vincent three times (!!!) and Eddie Cochran once (!!!!). I will always treasure that pop-by, and when Rita rolled up to express her condolences after the funeral this past Sunday, I wanted to tell her, “I wish I could grab death by the balls,” but I settled for giving her a big hug, wetting her shoulder with tears, and whispering, “Sweet Gene Vincent.”





All of that is to say that I was not able to attend to a June new music inventory, though I will also say that passionate new records by the Irish folk legend Christy Moore, the fiery and spirited saxophone sprite Zoh Amba, and a heap of very inspired rock and rollers and zydeco masters paying tribute to Clifton Chenier will be crowned with four or five stars when I catch up, maybe this week or next.





What I can do is share the ballot I submitted to the Francis Davis Memorial Mid-Year Jazz Critics Poll, topped, naturally, by an album that came out in November of 2024 (that’s within the rules, since it barely had time to be distributed; also, see the video above). It’s a great year for jazz, and especially for piano records, four of which made my Top 10.





Enjoy yourself, and keep livin’….





NEW JAZZ ALBUMS (ranked)





Organic Pulse Ensemble: Ad Hoc (Ultraaani Records)





Cosmic Ear: TRACES (We Jazz)





Matthew Shipp: The Cosmic Piano (Cantaloupe Music)





William Hooker: Jubilation (Org Music)





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





Amina Claudine Myers: Solace of the Mind (Red Hook Records)





Zoh Amba: Sun (Smalltown Supersound)





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





Trio Glossia: Trio Glossia (Sonic Transmissions)





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





RARA AVIS 





(ranked—these are older recordings come to the light of day)





Marco Eneidi Quartet: Wheat Fields of Kleylehof (Balance Point Acoustics)





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





Sun Ra and His Inter-Galactic Research Arkestra: Nuits de la Fondation Maeght 3rd August 1970 (Strut)





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





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










	


	


			
				


			

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

		






Whew! It has been a month. 





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





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





    

  1. No, I am not on the Nyege Nyege Tapes or Satoko Fujii payrolls, nor do I get review copies from Nyege Nyege Tapes (I demand them from Libra Records jk). Both forces have truly been on a creative roll and bring life and rhythm to my house with each new release.
    2. 




  2. The Delines, Patterson Hood, and Craig Finn chipped away at the thickening personal ice block separating me from enjoying most of the “Americana” genre.
    3. 




  3. If you get a chance to see Jeffrey Lewis, take it. You get excellent songs, impish charm, songs for the hear-and-now…and Lewis-illustrated history lessons.
    4. 




  4. If you are so fed-up you need some in-your-face music, may I direct you to the new Sumac-Moor Mother team-up? Or would you prefer some Backxwash? Or maybe clipping? All three acts are at their finest on these releases.
    5. 




  5. I believe Argentinian jazz pianist Rocio Gimenez Lopez is one of the least well-known terrific musicians in the world. Her new album of interpretations of jazz classics is sublime. Please give her a shot.
    6. 




  6. I have pushed the freak-folk/psychedelic-doom/quiet-REAAAAALLLLY fucking loud-quiet Japanese band Les Rallizes Denudes several times here before. Check out the below RSD reissue for maybe the best way into their work.
    7. 




  7. There are now several Bill Orcutt Guitar Quartet albums out there, many featuring interpretations of the exact same songs in different live settings and also featuring ace Ava Mendoza. You need at least one: you can get the studio version, but I would also take your pick of the live versions, as they all go into different sonic territory. Fans of Quine, 75 Dollar Bill, even Mdou Moctar have no reason to ignore me.
    8. 




  8. When you hear the NOLA team-up of Galactic and Irma Thomas, you will not believe Irma’s 84. This isn’t their first collab; when they lock in they sound made for each other. And while I’m talking soul, you may have given up on SAULT (not sure why you would have, but they are not exactly stingy with their output, and might have created in you some aural calluses), but please give 10 a chance: it carries a timely, easeful late great-period Sly vibe.
    9. 




  9. That’s right: Ed Hamell and Jinx Lennon have new records out. Get your rabble roused and your heart emboldened.
    10. 




  10. The Bitchin’ Bajas’ Cooper Crain: Columbia, Missouri’s Smithton Middle School’s most creative graduate. He wasn’t on my team during his tenure there, but I was made aware of him of my students who were in his orbit. 
    11. 






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





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





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





The Ancients: The Ancients (Eremite)





Ichiko Aoba: Luminescent Creatures (Psychic Hotline)





Artemis: Arboresque (Blue Note) ****





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





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





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





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





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





Benjamin Booker: Lower (Fire Next Time)





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





Brother Ali & Ant: Satisfied Soul (Mello Music)





Sylvie Courvoisier & Mary Halvorson: Bone Bells (Pyroclastic)





clipping: Dead Channel Sky (Sub Pop)





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





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





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





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





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





Ex-Void: In Love Again (Tapete Records)





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





FKA twigs: Eusexua (Young Recordings Limited)





Satoko Fujii GEN: Altitude 1100 Meters (Libra)





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





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





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





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





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





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





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





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





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





Horsegirl: Phonetics On and On (Matador)





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





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





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





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





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





Kelela: In the Blue Light (Warp)***





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





Lady Gaga: Mayhem (Interscope)





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





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





James Brandon Lewis: Apple Cores (Anti-)





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





LOLO: LOLO (Black Sweat)





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





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





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





The Mekons: Horror (Fire)***





Mean Mistreater: Do or Die (self-released)





Mac Miller: Baloonerism (Warner Records)





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





Billy Mohler: The Eternal (Contagious)





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





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





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





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





Isabelle Olivier: Impressions (Rewound Echoes)





The Onions: Return to Paradise (Hitt Records)





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





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





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





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





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





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





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





SAULT: 10 (Sault Global)***





Serengeti: mixtape 2 (serengetiraps / self-released)





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





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





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





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





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





SUMAC and Moor Mother: The Film (Thrill Jockey)





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





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





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





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





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





The Tubs: Cotton Crown (self-released)





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





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





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





The War & Treaty: Plus One (Mercury Nashville)





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





Simon Willson: Bet (Endectomorph Records)





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





SAMPLE THIS SHIT! 










	


	


			
				


			

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

		






THE LIST (January 1 – April 1, 2025)





Bolded = New to the list





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





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





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





The Ancients: The Ancients (Eremite)





Ichiko Aoba: Luminescent Creatures (Psychic Hotline)





Artemis: Arboresque (Blue Note) ****





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





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





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





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





Benjamin Booker: Lower (Fire Next Time)





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





Brother Ali & Ant: Satisfied Soul (Mello Music)





Sylvie Courvoisier & Mary Halvorson: Bone Bells (Pyroclastic) 





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





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





Ex-Void: In Love Again (Tapete Records)





FKA twigs: Eusexua (Young Recordings Limited)





Satoko Fujii GEN: Altitude 1100 Meters (Libra)





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





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





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





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





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





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





Horsegirl: Phonetics On and On (Matador)





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





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





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





Kelela: In the Blue Light (Warp)***





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





Lady Gaga: Mayhem (Interscope)





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





James Brandon Lewis: Apple Cores (Anti-)





LOLO: LOLO (Black Sweat)





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





Mean Mistreater: Do or Die (self-released)





Mac Miller: Baloonerism (Warner Records)





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





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





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





Isabelle Olivier: Impressions (Rewound Echoes)





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





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





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





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





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





Serengeti: mixtape 2 (serengetiraps / self-released)





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





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





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





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





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





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





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





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





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





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





The War & Treaty: Plus One (Mercury Nashville)





Jesse Welles: Middle (Jesse Welles Music)





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





Simon Willson: Bet (Endectomorph Records)





Jeong Lim Yang: Synchronicity (Fully Altered Media)





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










	


	


			
				


			

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

		






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





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





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





THE LIST (January 1 – February 26, 2025)





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





The Ancients: The Ancients (Eremite)





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





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





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





Benjamin Booker: Lower(Fire Next Time)





Brother Ali & Ant: Satisfied Soul (Mello Music)





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





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





Ex-Void: In Love Again(Tapete Records)





FKA twigs: Eusexua (Young Recordings Limited)





Satoko Fujii GEN: Altitude 1100 Meters (Libra)





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





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





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





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





Horsegirl: Phonetics On and On (Matador)





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





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





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





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





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





James Brandon Lewis: Apple Cores (Anti-)





LOLO: LOLO (Black Sweat)





Mean Mistreater: Do or Die (self-released)





Mac Miller: Baloonerism (Warner Records)





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





Isabelle Olivier: Impressions (Rewound Echoes)





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





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





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





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





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





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





The War & Treaty: Plus One (Mercury Nashville)





Jesse Welles: Middle (Jesse Welles Music)





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





Simon Willson: Bet (Endectomorph Records)





Jeong Lim Yang: Synchronicity (Fully Altered Media)





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










	


	


			
				


			

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

		






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





New Releases:





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





Bad Bunny: DeBI TiRAR MaS FOToS (Rimas Entertainment)





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





Benjamin Booker: Lower (Fire Next Time)





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





Ex-Void: In Love Again (Tapete Records)





Satoko Fujii GEN: Altitude 1100 Meters (Libra)*





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





LOLO: LOLO (Black Sweat)





Mac Miller: Baloonerism (Warner Records)





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





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





Omar Thomas: Griot Songs (Omar Thomas Music)





Simon Willson: Bet (Endectomorph Records) @





Jeong Lim Yang: Synchronicity (Fully Altered Media)





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





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





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





Old Stuff I Happily Listened To:













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





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





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





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










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










	


	


			
				


			

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

		






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





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





NEW WORKS I DUG (in alphabetical order)





    

  1. Isaiah Collier & The Chosen Few: The World is on Fire (Division 81)—Collier and band are in a serious Trane mode, and the media clips make it sound like the record was made in 2020–but isn’t it really still, and might it possibly eternally stay, 2020?
    2. 




  2. Jazz Sabbath: The 1968 Tapes (Blacklake)—Yes: early Sabbath jazzed impressively and with a wry sense of humor.
    3. 




  3. Kenneth Jimenez: Sonnet to Silence (We Jazz)—It’s a musical sonnet to silence, not of silence, and bassist Jimenez’s quartet’s noise is splendid.
    4. 




  4. Ava Mendoza: The Circular Train (Palilalia)—Is this a Year of the Guitar?
    5. 




  5. Kendrick Lamar: GNX (pgLang/Interscope)—Sounds great to me, I guess because the music I’m loving most is his cadences and the production is brightly…defiant.
    6. 




  6. Oaagaada: Music of Ogaadaa (We Jazz)—Finnish free quartet augmented by shruti box and log drum and generating serious energy that’s just contained enough for a dabbler.
    7. 




  7. Kelly Lee Owens: Dreamstate (dh2)—My friend Kevin suggested this to somebody else when I was in a low mood, I stole the suggestion, and quickly added her to (a bit lesser light, but not by much) Jessie Ware as a mood shifter.
    8. 




  8. Jeff Parker ETA IVtet: The Way Out of Easy (International Anthem)—Is this a Year of the Guitar?
    9. 




  9. Paper Jays: Paper Jays (ESP-Disk)—Rhode Island instro-combo combines the spaciness of very early Meat Puppets with the weird, itchy vibe of Penguin Café and a touch of…the Middle East?
    10. 




  10. Pascal & Baya Rays: Sonic Joy (Ultraani)—Freaky and fun Finnish funk.
    11. 




  11. claire rousay: The Bloody Lady (Viernulvier)—Ambient master writes a mysterious score for Viktor Kubal’s 1980 film The Bloody Lady doesn’t require you to watch the film to be hypnotized.
    12. 




  12. Various Artists: TRANSA (Red Hot Org)—Eight “chapters,” 46 songs, a dazzling array of performers (Larraji, Tweedy, Julien Baker, Sumney + ANOHNI, JLin + Moor Mother), consistent quality, surprising musical coherence, and good reason to worry made it easy for me to listen to this beginning to end.
    13. 




  13. Wussy: Cincinnati Ohio (Shake It)—I really like the lyrics, I’m not too sure about the music, and I can’t hear Lisa well enough.
    14. 




  14. Charli xcx: Brat and it’s completely different but also still brat (Atlantic)—This irresistibly trashy brat dragged me kicking and screaming and grinning ear to ear through this version.
    15. 




  15. Dwight Yoakam: Brighter Days (Via/Thirty Tigers)—Dude really cannot make a bad album (always reminds me of Tom Petty that way) and this one (despite a very corny and terrible song and thanks to my favorite-ever cover of “Keep On the Sunny Side”) is no exception: sings great, surrounds himself with a crack band, and writes solidly—and, weirdly, often BRIGHTLY.
    16. 




  16. Tucker Zimmerman: Dance of Love (4AD)—I was telling a friend the other day that, for a reason I can’t pin down that has to do with the way things are, I am tired of Americana even when it’s good…but I have a feeling I’m (and possibly you’re) gonna need this one, knocked out by a resurfaced legend who has his finger on the pulse o’things, Big Thief behind him, and his arms around a few friends.
    17. 






EXCELLENT EXCAVATIONS





    

  1. Black Artists Group: For Peace & Liberty, in Paris, December 1972 (We Want Sound)—Too few recordings are available from a St. Louis, Missouri, gang of players who would later help fire up the NYC loft jazz movement, and this has never before been released.
    2. 




  2. Emily Remler: Cookin’ at Queens (Resonance)—This short-lived, Wes Montgomery-influenced guitarist had already raised the eyebrows of her fellow players and was poised for bigger things when she stepped on a narcotic rainbow; she is flying on these live recordings.
    3. 




  3. B. B. King: B. B. King in France (Elemental)—The most famous of the several “King”s of the blues is in exceptional form on this unearthed ‘70s set.
    4. 




  4. Sister Rosetta Tharpe: Live in France—The 1966 Limoges Concert (Elemental)—Her guitar is shorter on beautifully ugly noise than on other available live recordings, but otherwise, 51 and just seven years from passing on, she’s all the way on.
    5. 




  5. Various Artists: Super Disco Pirata—De Tepito Para El Mundo 1965-1980 (Analog Africa)—Don’t we all need even more cumbia (and related contagious rhythms) in our lives right now?
    6. 






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










	


	


			
				


			

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

		

  • 1.86.0-WCXSX24H5BJESUVV5RXH5DOOGY.0.1-1





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





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





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





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





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















OCTOBER 2024 NEW RECORDINGS I HEARD (alphabetically ordered)





BOLDED = Damn good!





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





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





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





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





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





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





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





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





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





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





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





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





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





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





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





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





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





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





2024-RELEASED EXCAVATIONS OF OLD BUSINESS





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





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





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





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





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










	


	


			
				


			

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

		

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





Thusly, firstly:





MY 30 VERY FAVORITE NEW RECORDS FROM 2024 SO FAR





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





    

  1. Acceleration Due to Gravity: Jonesville (Hot Cup)
    2. 




  2. Adeem The Artist: ANNIVERSARY (Thirty Tigers /Four Quarters) 
    3. 




  3. Big Freedia & The Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra: Live at the Orpheum Theater (Queen Diva)
    4. 




  4. Alan Braufman: Infinite Love Tears (The Control Group / Valley of Search)
    5. 




  5. Patricia Brennan: Breaking Stretch (Pyroclastic) 
    6. 




  6. Buck 65, doseone, Jel: North American Adonis (Handsmade)
    7. 




  7. Ingebrigt Haker Flaten & (Exit) Knarr: Breezy (Sonic Transmissions)*
    8. 




  8. Fox Green: Light Over Darkness (self-released)
    9. 




  9. Amaro Freitas: Y’Y (Psychic Hotline)
    10. 




  10. Satoko Fujii Trio: Jet Black (Libra)
    11. 




  11.  Hurray for the Riff Raff: The Past is Still Alive (Nonesuch)*$
    12. 




  12.  Jlin: Akoma (Planet Mu)*
    13. 




  13.  Darius Jones: Legend of e’Boi (The Hypervigilant Eye) (AUM Fidelity)*
    14. 




  14.  Ka: The Thief Next to Jesus (self-released)*
    15. 




  15.  El Khat: Mute (Glitterbeat)
    16. 




  16.  Corb Lund: El Viejo (New West)*$
    17. 




  17.  Mdou Moctar: Funeral for Justice (Matador)
    18. 




  18.  Bill Orcutt Guitar Quartet: Four Guitars Live (Palilalia)*
    19. 




  19.  QOW Trio: The Hold Up (Ubuntu)
    20. 




  20.  Ren: Sick Boi (renmakesmusic.com) 
    21. 




  21.  Ryuichi Sakamoto: Opus (Milan) 
    22. 




  22.  SAULT: Acts of Faith (self-released)
    23. 




  23.  Ann Savoy: Another Heart (Smithsonian Folkways)
    24. 




  24.  Brandon Seabrook: Object of Unknown Function (Pyroclastic)*
    25. 




  25.  Patrick Shiroishi: Glass House (Otherly Love)
    26. 




  26.  Snotty Nose Rez Kids: Red Future (Savage Mob)
    27. 




  27.  Swamp Dogg: Blackgrass—From West Virginia to 125th Street (Oh Boy! Records)*
    28. 




  28.  Takkak Takkak: Takkak Takkak (Nyege Nyege Tapes)
    29. 




  29.  Fay Victor:  Life is Funny That Way—Herbie Nichols Sung (TAO Forms)
    30. 




  30.  X: Smoke & Fiction (Fat Possum)
    31. 






…and secondly:





MY TOP 15 VERY FAVORITE EXCAVATED OR REISSUED RECORDS 





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





    

  1. Christer Bothen Featuring Bolon Beta: Trancedance—40th Anniversary Edition (Black Truffle reissue)*
    2. 




  2. Alice Coltrane: The 1971 Carnegie Hall Concert (Impulse!) (Goner Records reissue)
    3. 




  3. Cosmic Psychos: Go the Hack (Goner Records reissue)
    4. 




  4. Creation Rebel: High Above Harlesden 1978-2023 (On-U Sound) 
    5. 




  5. Charles Gayle / Milford Graves / William Parker: WEBO (Black Editions)
    6. 




  6. Phil Haynes: 4 Horns or What?—The Complete American Recordings (Corner Store Jazz)*
    7. 




  7. Love Child: Never Meant to Be (12XU) 
    8. 




  8. Franco Luambo Mkaidi: Presents Les Editions Populaires (Planet Ilunga) 
    9. 




  9. Sonny Rollins: Freedom Weaver–The 1959 European Tour Recordings (Resonance)*$
    10. 




  10.  Juma Sultan’s Aboriginal Music Society: Father of Origin (Eremite)
    11. 




  11. Sun Ra: Excelsior Mill (Sundazed)*
    12. 




  12. Unholy Modal Rounders: Unholier Than Thou 7/7/77 (Don Giovanni)*$
    13. 




  13. Various Artists: Congo Funk! Sound Madness From The Shores Of The Mighty Congo River (Analog Africa)
    14. 




  14. Various Artists: Love Hides All Faults—Deep Gospel Soul Selected by Jumbo (Elusive Vinyl / Pyramid Records)*
    15. 




  15. Mal Waldron & Steve Lacy: The Mighty Warriors Live in Antwerp (Elemental Music)
    16. 


	


	


			
				


			

			
AUGUST 24: 15 New Records That Reached Me
		
	
	

		






August was a great musical month for us, but new records had little to do with it. Chappell Roan really blew up–deservedly so, but too late for the 2024 list since her record came out in ’23–and I found out her parents were students at Parkview High School in Springfield, Missouri, when I was teaching there. In fact, I was her dad’s student council sponsor, though I don’t remember him very well. We have played that 2023 record a lot and can’t wait for the next one. We also snagged tickets to several concerts scheduled for Columbia’s fabled “We Always Swing!” Jazz Series–check out the schedule, which might be the best in the series’ long history and which was shrewdly enriched by incorporating the sharp ear and skills of Dismal Niche‘s Matt Crook. Also, I discovered a St. Louis jazz series I didn’t know about–it’s only in its 66th year!–and bought tickets to the on-a-serious-roll AACM vet Kahil El’Zabar’s show as well as Nicole Mitchell’s (the best album of her long career is listed below). I’ve built an asynchronous composition class for freshmen around Ann Powers’ alternate American pop history Good Booty here at Stephens College, student writing is just coming in, and it looks promising. Finally, I substitute-taught for a friend at Hickman High School, my old stomping grounds, and he allowed me to construct my own lesson to fit his objectives: we reviewed aspects and “non-negotiables” of poetry by examining the question, “Can song lyrics be poetry with the music and vocals excised?” Students vehemently agreed as we listened to a few songs; I’m usually on the other side of the fence there. I also snuck in a lesson about blackface minstrelsy; Missouri officialdom ain’t so fond of any kind of black history, but Hickman has always been a mental cut above the state it occupies.





OK, my favorites, with my commentary continuing to be limited to single–and I hope simple–sentences (* indicate older recordings brought back to the present in some way):





Patricia Brennan: Breaking Stretch (Pyroclastic) – Brennan threads strands of strange vibraphone magic through all of her very impressive compositions, and this album may be her best yet.





Melissa Carper: Borned in Ya (Mae Music / Thirty Tigers) – First full album by a member of the Wonder Women of Country Music (Carper, Kelly Willis, and Brennen Leigh) since their outstanding EP appeared earlier this year, and it’s a legit doozy, mixing witty originals with soulful covers of standards that aren’t actually country.





Dead Moon: Dead Ahead (Mississippi Records)* – I very seriously ride or die with Dead Moon, the last of the great garage bands; Mississippi Records has been dedicated to keeping all their work in print, and this was their final record, which I’d call autumnal except the Coles would return a decade later with the more explosive band Pierced Arrows.





Phil Haynes: 4 Horns or What?—The Complete American Recordings (Corner Store Jazz)* – I hadn’t heard of Haynes, received a physical copy of this three-CD rerelease + live show, ignored it, then played it out of obligation–only to have my doors blown off by the power of Haynes’ drumming and writing and his employment of some amazing horns (specifically Ellery Eskelin and John Tchicai on saxophones).





Ka: The Thief Next to Jesus (self-released) – The Brownsville, NY, rapper carefully–and lyrically–examines the minefield of Christianity many of us, but specifically Black Americans, are trying to negotiate in these difficult times on perhaps the finest of his many intriguing albums.





Shelby Lynne: Consequences of the Crown (Monument) – She sounds slightly bruised but very much unbowed, as well as justifies folks’ occasional comparisons between her and Dusty Springfield.





Nicole Mitchell and Ballake Sissoko: Bamako * Chicago Sound System (FPE) – I admire Mitchell so much as a thinker and conceptualist and player, but none of her previous albums have stuck with me permanently until now–Sissoko’s kora contributions are the glue that grounds her flute.





Meshell Ndegeocello: No More Water—The Gospel of James Baldwin (Blue Note) The second quietly powerful tribute Meshell’s assayed in ’24–the first honoring Sun Ra–comes at, as Lightnin’ Hopkins and others have sung, a “needed time.” 





OKSE: OKSE (BackwoodzStudioz) – As with Superposition (see below), I am at the beck and call of the sharp-eared Norwegian music writer Christopher Monsen–I have even tried to coin the term “Monsen Bucks” to designate how reliably I shed dollars when he raves–who was the first to hip me to this Danish/Swedish/Haitian/American rap-jazz combo that lured none other than Billy Woods onto their fascinating disc. 





Ryuichi Sakamoto: Opus (Milan) – I am not a classical music buff, but this is one of the saddest records I have ever heard, and I mean that as a high compliment.





Juma Sultan’s Aboriginal Music Society: Father of Origin (Eremite)* – As with Dead Moon/Pierced Arrows, I ride or die with any record featuring participants in St. Louis’ Black Arts Group; the leader’s on bass, hand drums, and other stuff, but to hear Julius Hemphill, Bobo Shaw, Philip Wilson, and Abdul Wadud on a set of 1969-1970 recordings is a treat.





Moses Sumney: Sophcore (self-released EP) – When I first heard Sumney a few years back, I figured him for a kind of innovator–of depressive r&b or something like that–but the words didn’t hold me like the music and his vocals, and they definitely do here.





Superposition: II (We Jazz) – Another Chris Monsen whisper-in-my-ear, this Finnish group is the latest Scandinavian jazz unit to make me seriously consider traveling to the region and exploring the clubs.










Cecily Wilborn: Kuntry Gurl Playlist (self-released) – This very solid album is not as raw as the title seems to imply, but it’s very high-quality country music with rhythm and blues flavor, Ms. Wilborn can sing and write fetchingly, and I’m intrigued that, though she claims West Memphis, she mentions zydeco and trail rides. 





Kathryn Williams & Withered Hand: Willson Williams (One Little Independent Records) – I knew nothing about Kathryn Williams and, for some reason, despite enjoying Dan Wilson’s /Withered Hand’s previous work, thought another contributor might water his very unique yearning, spiritual thing down–but damned if this doesn’t catch me up just as short, and movingly.