Tag: Rocio Gimenez Lopez

Things Are Unhinged, but Members of The Earth, Do Not Bend to The Set-Up (Living to Listen’s Favorite Records, March ’26)

The national dumpster fire is raging so hot that The Delines’ sobering but skillful portraits and tales (hit the link below) sound like Sly and The Family Stone’s Greatest Hits in comparison. I hope you all are getting out in the street or otherwise making your presence felt—if you’re hostile to the notion that there’s something to defeat out there, you’re come to wrong blog. You probably don’t like music anyway, and you’re certainly not likely to cotton to any of these new platters.

Developments? I’ve zeroed in on a new and very solid candidate for record of the year, at least so far: Tanya Tagaq’s angry and intense new record—she’s good at those, but to my ear this is her best. I once again exalt a splendid recording by one of Argentina’s finest pianists, Rocio Gimenez Lopez, who deserves many more huzzahs and is joined on the 88s by her husband (note album title). It’s an inspired and inspiring recording. If you’d asked me in 2025 if we needed yet another tribute to Duke Ellington, I might have said no, but Jason Moran’s shining and imaginative solo voyage would have made me eat my words. Quandaries: why aren’t more rock-oriented six-string worshippers on the Bill Orcutt train (maybe they are, and I’m just isolated)—a runaway train it is, trailing several creatively skronky recordings over the past few years—and why did Fugazi and Steve Albini agree to abandon the In On the Killtaker the latter “recorded”? If you need some peace, sound-healer Harlan Silverman has some stillness for you. Along with Mr. Moran, the Congolese act Kin’Gongolo Kiniata score a vibrant five asterisks with their debut album, which appears to be associated with a documentary I need to say. KINACT offers up the latest Nyege Nyege dance-racket. Buck 65 keeps passing the test. Finally, Cecil Taylor’s last performance, which includes a spoken scientific trip, has emerged.

Social music notes: a) Nicole and I not only got to witness the 86-year-old jazz groundbreaker Roscoe Mitchell play live, but we experienced him duet with his lab Shuggie, who kept the room in line (the show was arranged by the St. Louis non-profit Dissonant Works, which experimental art fans should keep an eye on); b) We also enjoyed bass player extraordinaire and frequent Bill Evans partner Eddie Gomez, 81 going on 30, lead his expert band through a set of standards and originals as part of Columbia’s annual We Always Swing series; and c) the truly exciting and informative Apple podcast Fela: Fear No Man made two road trips of ours go extremely quickly—check it out, even if you think you know all you need to know about Afrobeat’s Black President. We still have two episodes to go, during which I hope Tony Allen is at least mentioned.

SPOTLIGHT ALBUM OF THE MONTH

Kin’Gongolo Kiniata: Kiniata (Helico Music)*****

New in March (click this for the Jan-Feb list) No asterisk = good / *** = very good / **** = great / ***** = really great

Buck 65: Do Not Bend (self-released) ****

The Delines: The Set-Up (decor) ****

E L U C I D & Sebb Bash: I Guess U Had To Be There (Backwoodz Studioz) ***

Fugazi: Albini Sessions (Dischord) ****

Sophie Gault: Unhinged (Torrez Music Group)

Ernesto Jodos / Rocio Gimenez Lopez: Una casa con dos pianos (Blue Art) ***

KINACT: Kinshasa in Action (Nyege Nyege Tapes)****

Jason Moran: Jason Moran Plays Duke Ellington (Yes Records) *****

Angelika Niescier: Chicago Tapes (Intakt) ****

OHYUNG: IOWA (self-released)

Bill Orcutt: Music in Continuous Motion (Palilalia) *****

Robyn: Sexistential (Konichiwa / Young)

Shabaka: Of the Earth (Shabaka Records) ***

Sideshow: Tigray Funk (10k & UA) ***

Harlan Silverman: Music for Stillness (Mississippi Records)

Tyshawn Sorey: Members…Don’t! (Pi Recordings) *** (out May 29)

Alister Spence: Always Ever (self-released) ****

Station Model Violence: Station Model Violence (Anti Fade)

Tanya Tagaq: Saputjii (Six Shooter) *****

Cecil Taylor New Unit: Words and Music—The Last Bandstand (Fundacja Słuchaj Records)

Various Artists: Born in the City of Tanta–Lower Egyptian Urban Folklore and Bedouin

Shaabi from Libya’s Bourini Records 1968-75 (Sublime Frequencies) ***

Weld Khadija ou L-Farqa L-Jilaliya:  Walad Haja Radio Annajah 718 راديو النجاح (Hive Mind)

2025: Too Cool for Me To Have Forgotten (or Missed)

Blanco teta: La Debacle de las Divas (Les Disques Bongo Joe)

kangding ray: SIRAT—Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (Invada)

Vintage Albums I Deeply Enjoyed This Month

Kauro Abe: Winter 1972

Abdul Al-Hannan: The Third World

Polly Bradfield: Solo Violin Improvisations

Cairo Free Jazz Ensemble: Heliopolis

Arthur Doyle + 4: Alabama Feeling

Gang of Four: Another Day Another Dollar EP

G.L. Unit: Oran Gu Tang!

The Grateful Dead: Rockin’ The Rhein

Wardell Gray: Memorial (Volumes 1 & 2)

L7: Fast and Frightening

Ikue Mori: Painted Desert

Mount Everest Trio: Waves from Albert Ayler

Kasey Musgraves: Same Trailer, Different Park

Kasey Musgraves: Golden Hour

Kasey Musgraves: Deeper Well

Public Image Limited: Second Edition

Jimmy Rushing: Rushing Lullabies

Masahiko Sato Trio: Penetration

The Stanley Brothers: The King Years 1961-1965

Swamp Dogg: Total Destruction to the Mind

Swamp Dogg: Gag a Maggot

Charles Tyler: Eastern Man Alone

John Tchicai and Cadentia Nova Danca: Afrodisiaca

Sonny Boy Williamson: The Essential Sonny Boy Williamson

Bob Wills & The Texas Playboys: The Tiffany Transcriptions, Volume 3—Basin Street Blues

The Frank Wright Quartet: Church Number Nine

Hey! I Read, Too—and So Should You!

Martin Amis: Money

Dan Flores: Coyote America—A Natural and Supernatural History

Laurel Holliday: Children of the Troubles—Our Lives in the Crossfire of Northern Ireland

Yasunari Kawabata: Snow Country

Freya McClements & Joe Duffy: Children of the Troubles

John D. MacDonald: The Deep Blue Good-By

Toni Morrison: Beloved

Edna O’Brien: Lantern Slides—Stories

Elizabeth Strout: Olive Kitteridge

Follow me on Instagram and Substack if you get the notion! Also, more of my education adventures found here.

Back To School: Living to Listen’s Favorite Records, January 1st to September 1st, 2025

To my regular readers: As I type, I have already begun my 42nd (consecutive) year as a teacher. This fall, I am teaching two on-line freshman composition classes at Stephens College (one with the school’s Conservatory and built around Sasha Geffen’s alternative pop history Glitter Up The Dark–read it yourself, folks!—and the other with its regular women’s college students, who are reading Octavia Butler’s Kindred. In addition, I will be teaching an in-person 3.5-week, M-F, three-hours-per-block freshman comp class starting in mid-October; they, too, will be reading Butler’s book. Most of you will not need to guess why I’ve chosen those books to build a composition class around; my Missouri readers will have no doubt. Anyway, I’m devoting this post to my students, so I will now proceed to, ahem, address them….

To my students: Welcome to Living to Listen, the longest list of lovely licorice pizza in Blogtown! When I was your age (zzzzz….) in 1980, I could not have made a list of 35 albums I even owned, nor barely 50 I had heard from beginning to end (I was a singles kid then). If I’d been asked to construct my favorites from those, on the list would have been Bruce Springsteen’s Darkness on the Edge of Town, Elvis Costello’s Armed Forces, The B-52s, Bob Seger’s Night Moves, The Velvet Underground’s 1969 Live, X’s Los Angeles, Black Sabbath’s We Sold Our Soul for Rock and Roll, “Rapper’s Delight,” Teddy Pendergrass’ Teddy, Neil Young’s Live Rust, Bob Dylan’s Highway 61 Revisited, The Clash’s London Calling, The Sex Pistols’ Never Mind the Bollocks, Cher’s most recent album (serious outlier)…well, I’ll stop there. Today, the year isn’t even over and the following list isn’t numbered, but odds are it will exceed 200 by New Year’s Eve 2026 and those will just be the ones I heard that I liked.

What’s the point? Good question. Often I wonder that myself. What I think I’m doing is helping my readers wade through a perpetual tsunami of new recordings—literally any sentient being can now make a record and make it available to the public—and find something that will transfix, delight, provoke, stimulate, energize, and maybe even transform them from the creatures that they are…because they did one or more of those things to me. What I am probably doing is nearer to yodeling into the Grand Canyon at 2 a.m. What I am sure I am doing at the very least is preparing myself to vote in a couple of year-end “Best of the Year” polls (though I have yet to even pull my Top 10 out of the jungle below) as well as committing to cybermemory a record (make that very plural) of what I was putting my ear to at the time. It may also appear that I am showing off and that may well be accurate, but I’d argue that I don’t spend money or time on much else than listening to music, books, movie theaters, Stephens Conservatory productions, teaching, and my very saintly bride. Oh yes, food. And occasionally drink. I have to be forced to buy new clothes, I would never drive anything if I didn’t have to, one house will do, thank you—in other words, really, music is not only an obsession for me but a lifeline. I am not religious, but sometimes I have argued with friends that every record in the house (yes, I and you should BUY music to keep food on our musicmakers’plates) is like a book of humanity’s bible to me. Seriously.

A quick scan of my 2025 favorites reveals a few things about me: 1) I listen to a lot of music; 2) I am not exactly a poptimist (I really like Olivia, Beyonce, Rihanna, Harry, and Billie, for example, but I merely seriously admire Taylor Swift and have no use for Sabrina—nor a lot of men who make poppy pop music, and I really only like one of Harry’s albums); 3) Looks like I lean hard toward improvisational jazz (especially the Scandinavian variety—they distill the best stuff!), but it frees my mind, goes great with reading, and fits an ideal I hold about living with other people; 4) I am apparently working for Nyege Nyege Tapes out of Uganda as well as the prolific Japanese jazz pianist Satoko Fujii; and—gotta stop somewhere—5) unlike many, many white men my age (63.666), I like rap music. The list does not show that I LOVE country music, but as far as today’s purveyors go, it’s mostly the women that bend my ear. I love Tyler Childers and Zach Bryan because they sing with intensity and they write outside the lines of the stereotypical “rural” coloring book.

So…sample some stuff! I would expect you haven’t heard of a lot of it, but I’ll warn you that that is not because it’s not good—it’s a wide, wide world out there! Each record listing includes a link to a way to get ahold of it or learn about it, a Spotify link (I hate that platform, but I feel I have no choice) for the whole list that follows it, and next you will see the meaning of my typology (?). I hope you find something that lifts you! Also, if something you love from 2025 isn’t on the list, that doesn’t necessarily mean I don’t like it—I might not have gotten to it yet. I also might not have simply gotten it yet. Or it could be it just don’t move me! Students, peace to you unless you have to protect others, then and always may you stay safe, please write so well you’re proud of the output, and talk to me about some of these platters!

MY LIST OF AURAL PLEASURE

January 1 – September 1, 2025

BOLD = New to the List

ASTERISKED* = Damn good!*** to Holy SHIT!*****

ITALICIZED: Excavations from the Past / Reissues

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


Africa Express: …Presents…Bahidora (World Circuit Limited) ****

Amarae: Black Star (Golden Angel) ***

Zoh Amba: Sun (Smalltown Supersound) ****

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


Marshall Allen’s Ghost Horizons: Live in Philadelphia, Volume 1 (Otherly Love Records) ****


The Ancients: The Ancients (Eremite) ***


Ichiko Aoba: Luminescent Creatures (Psychic Hotline)


Artemis: Arboresque (Blue Note) ****

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

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

Julien Baker & Torres: Send a Prayer My Way (Matador) ****


Bar-B-Q Killers: The Last Shit, Part 1 (Chunklet 45)

Gina Birch: Trouble (Third Man)

The Bitter Ends: The Bitter Ends (Trouble in River City)


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


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


Yugen Blakrok: The Illusion Of Being (I.O.T. Records) ***
*

Blood Orange: Essex Honey (RCA) ***

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


Benjamin Booker: Lower (Fire Next Time)


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) ****

Earl Sweatshirt: Live Laugh Love (Tan Cressida) ***

Silke Eberhard Trio: Being-A-Ning (Intakt)

Eddy Current Suppression Ring: Shapes and Forms (Cool Death EP) ***

Marty Ehrlich Trio Exaltation: This Time (Sunnyside) ***

Electric Satie: Gymnopedia ’99 (In Sheep’s Clothing) ****

Marco Eneidi Quintet: Wheat Fields of Kleylehof (Balance Point Acoustics / Botticelli) ****

Mark Ernestus’ Ndagga Rhythm Force: Khadim (Ndagga) ***

Ex-Void: In Love Again (Tapete Records)

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)

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) ****

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) ****

Hunx and His Punks: Walk Out on This World (Get Better) ****

Hüsker Dü: January 30, Parts 1 & 2 (Numero EP) ***** (Numero box on the way….)

Mikko Innanen and Ingebrigt Häker Flaten: Live in Espoo (Sonic Transmissions)

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


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


JLZ & GG: Medio Grave (Nyege Nyege Tapes) ***

Rico Jones: Bloodlines (Giant Step Arts)

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

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

Kelela: In the Blue Light (Warp) ***


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

Kronos Quartet + The Hard Rain Collective: Hard Rain (Red Hot Org EP)

Lady Gaga: Mayhem (Interscope)


Lambrini Girls: Who Let The Dogs Out (City Slang US) *****

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


José Lencastre: Inner Voices (Burning Ambulance) ***

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


James Brandon Lewis: Apple Cores (Anti-)


James Brandon Lewis Quartet: Abstraction is Deliverance (Intakt) ***

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


Little Simz: Lotus (AWAL) ****

LOLO: LOLO (Black Sweat)


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


Rocio Gimenez Lopez: La Palabra Repetida (Blue Art) ***

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

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


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) ***

Alick Nkhata: Radio Lusaka (Mississippi Records) ***

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

Nourished By Time: The Passionate Ones (XL)

Isabelle Olivier: Impressions (Rewound Echoes)


The Onions: Return to Paradise (Hitt Records)


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


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

Aruan Ortiz: Creole Renaissance (Intakt) ***

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)


Les Rallizes Denudes: Jittoku ’76 (Temporal Drift)

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

Jonathan Richman: Only Frozen Sky Anyway (Blue Arrow)


Adam Rudolph, Dave Liebman, Billy Hart: Beingness (Meta)


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

Sverre Sæbo Quintet: If, However, You Have Not Lost Your Self Control (SauaJazz)


SAULT: 10 (Sault Global) ***


Serengeti: mixtape 2 (serengetiraps / self-released)


Serengeti: Palookaville (serengetiraps / self-released) 


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


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


Matthew Shipp: The Cosmic Piano (Canteloupe Records) ****

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) ***

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)


Three-Layer Cake: “sounds the color of grounds” (Otherly Love)

Los Thuthanaka: Los Thuthanaka (Studio Pankara) ****

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)

Morgan Wade: The Party is Over (recovered) (Ladylike) ****

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) ****

Miguel Zenon: Vanguardia Subterranea (Miel Music) ***

Put this SPITify sucker on shuffle and free your ears-–so your arse and mind will follow!

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

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!