Author: admin

Or, if you use Qobuz (which you oughta):

https://open.qobuz.com/playlist/9167735

Anais Drago is an Italian violinist who experiments on the borders between classical and jazz. She was unknown to me until I heard her interpretaion of Satie’s Gnossiene (on Mondo Jazz) and I had to hear more. I was not disappointed. Solitudo includes the Satie, but the rest of the pieces are her own, innovative compositions. While it’s solo violin, Drago employs effects, samples, and various electronic embellishments that thicken the sound considerably. In the wrong hands, that can be a little wonky, seemingly compensating for music that lacks its own thrust. Not so here. The album is continuously engaging, but I’d specifically recommend the Gnossiene, Firma Mentis and Horror Vacui.

Perennial tears it up. In the Midnight Hour is the threesome’s first album, and I’m reminded of the excitement of listening to Refused’s Shape of Punk to Come. Granted, that’s a high bar, and Perennial can’t claim that level of originality, but damn it’s a strong album. Tag-team vocals from Chelsea Hahn and Chad Jewett bash over heavy-riff guitars with synth breakdowns. Perhaps it’s dance-punk? No need to pigeon hole: it’s pure energy and it’s excellent.

Cate le Bon is one of the most consistently interesting and fearlessly independent artists going. Pompeii is her sixth, and possibly her best, album. (Though Mug Museum is a must hear…) Each instrument–wandering bass, subdued sax, idiosyncratic guitar, 80’s synth–crosses the others at oblique angles. Add vocals reminiscent of Nico (but with a much broader palette) and it’s a bit of a strange brew. But somehow everything comes together in a blend that can almost convince you it’s pop. My favorite album of the year so far.

Starting the year I still had my head in the covid clouds and nursed myself with Louis Armstrong and Bach–pure comfort music. At some point, though, the obsession returned and I began listening to new music constantly. This year I didn’t find myself dwelling on any particular album. It’s probably more to do with the way music is delivered and the way I consume it, but it was more of a song year for me. So the top albums represent less the albums I listened to again and again and more the albums that supplied my listening with fresh music and inspiration. Though I didn’t listen to a ton of Jazz, a couple of heavily listened albums are left off here because I classify them more as Jazz: Sons of Kemet and Ben Lamar Gay.

1. Low–Hey What

2. Japanese Breakfast—Jubilee

3.  Hand Habits—Fun House

4.  The Armed—Ultrapop

5.  HTRK—Rhinestones

6.  Juçara Marçal—Delta Estácio Blues

7.  The Notwist—Vertigo Days

8.  Flock of Dimes—Head of Roses

9.  Moor Mother—Black Encyclopedia of the Air

10.  Circuits des Yeux— -io

11.  Maria Elena Silva—Eros

12.  Snail Mail—Valentine

13.  Tropical Fuck Storm—Deep States

14. Shame—Drunk Tank Pink

15.  Squid—Bright Green Field

16.  Cassandra Jenkins—An Overview on Phenomenal Nature

17.  Low Hummer—Modern Tricks for Living

18.  Illuminati Hotties—Let Me Do One More

19.  Adia Victoria—A Southern Gothic

20.  Idles—Crawler

21.  Sylvan Esso—Free Love

22.  Torres—Thirstier

23.  Geese—Projector

24.  Parquet Courts—Sympathy for Life

25.  Hildegard–Hildegard

I’m a latecomer to the wonder that is The Caretaker. This album, An Empty Bliss Beyond This World, was released in 2011, but it has been running in my background for much of 2019. It’s a haunting recording stitched together from old 78s and sounds like nothing so much as wandering room to room in the Overlook hotel. (Yes, The Shining is a pretty clear influence here.) The Caretaker is British producer James Leyland Kirby, and according to him this is part of a group of pieces inspired by the disorientation of Alzheimers. His project Everywhere at the End of Time was just released and, though I haven’t fully digested it, it seems just as eerily seductive.

This is one of the most devastating albums I’ve heard in a while. Julia Jacklin’s songs remind us of the damage we do to each other when we’re trying to learn how and whom to love. After listening to this album straight through, I always feel like I’ve woken from a vivid dream with an emotional hangover. There are a lot of similarities in sound to Sharon von Etten’s Tramp, but this earns its own space with honest and effective songwriting.

No one believes me when I tell them that an album by Tropical Fuck Storm is my favorite album of the year so far. Both the band name and the album title seem like a joke, and championing the album reeks of being needlessly obscure. Whatever. This is the sort of sweaty, reeling album that just doesn’t get made much anymore, except perhaps by Iceage. Unapologetic guitar driven bad assery from Melbourne. What started as a side project for Garieth Liddiard and Fiona Kitschin from the Drones turnes out to be better (imho) than the main project.