Albums of 2020

[Birds in Hell]

I don't know what sort of jazz you're really into, but I've been listening to more of it myself this year, mostly from a small Toronto scene, and thought you might enjoy the pair of albums that See Through 4 put out in the spring.

Thanks for the suggestion! I am listening to False Ghosts, Minor Fears right now on Bandcamp, and it's great! It reminds me of some of the albums Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter recorded for Blue Note in the 1960's (Hancock's Maiden Voyage and Shorter's The All-Seeing Eye specifically), in those parts where it gets free but never too free, expressionistic but never abrasive, almost aqueous-sounding. The pianist especially is really catching my ear. Plus, I'm a sucker for themed/series-styled album art -- it makes me want to listen to all of them!

I'm enjoying this on first listen.

[psychobain]

New Ryan Adams album out tomorrow

[kreng]

Top 18 alphabetic:

不在话下 - Last Date 24​/​09​/​2017
Ambrose Akinmusire - on the tender spot of every calloused moment
BACKxWASH - God Has Nothing To Do With This Leave Him Out Of It
Bill Callahan - Gold Record
Black Curse - Endless Wound
Chicago Underground Quartet - Good Days
Couch Slut - Take A Chance On Rock 'n' Roll
Flying Horseman - Mothership
Fra Fra - Funeral Songs
Gong Gong Gong, Anton Rothstein and Angel Wei Bernild - Rytme Og Drone III | 節奏與嗡鳴三
gulch - Impenetrable Cerebral Fortress
Jeff Parker - Suite for Max Brown
Moon Pussy - Moon Pussy
The Necks - Three
Oliver Coates - skins n slime
Seabuckthorn - They Haunted Most Thickly
Ulaan Janthina - Ulaan Janthina (Part I)
Ulaan Janthina - Ulaan Janthina (Part II)

Rest, alphabetic:

Agrio - La Murga EP
Alain Johannes - Hum
Bardo Pond - Adrop / Circuit VIII
Bill Nace - Both
Black Phoebe - Black Phoebe
Cabane - Grande Est La Maison
clipping. - Visions of Bodies Being Burned
Clown Core - Van
Damien Jurado - What's New, Tomboy?
Destroyer - Have We Met
Elkhorn - The Storm Sessions
Emma Ruth Rundle - May Our Chambers Be Full
exhalants - Atonement
Fiona Apple - Fetch the Bolt Cutters
Matthew Tavares & Leland Whitty - Visions
Frank Ene - No Longer
Grid - Decomposing Force
Human Impact - Human Impact
Idles - Ultra Mono
Imperial Triumphant - Alphaville (Bonus Tracks Edition)
Irreversible Entanglements - Who Sent You?
Jasper Høiby - Planet B
John Zorn - Beyond Good and Evil - Simulacrum Live
John Zorn - Virtue
João Cabrita - Cabrita
Liturgy - Origin of the Alimonies
Lyenn - Adrift
Mamaleek - Come & See
Mark Lanegan - Straight Songs of Sorrow
Mong Tong 夢東 - Mystery 秘神
Mrs. Piss - Self-Surgery
Mute Duo - Lapse in Passage
Nadine Shah - Kitchen Sink
Naujawanan Baidar - Naujawanan Baidar
Neil Young - Homegrown
New Standard Men - I Was A Starship
Oranssi Pazuzu - Mestarin Kynsi
Oxes - The Fourth Wall
Pearl Jam - Gigaton
Primitive Man - Immersion
Rodan - the Hat Factory 93
Run the Jewels - RTJ4
Seabuckthorn - Through A Vulnerable Occur
Spencer Cullum - Spencer Cullum's Coin Collection
Sumac - May You Be Held
tētēma - Necroscape
Truus - Dawn of Perdition
Tyler Higgins - Broken Blues
Wayfarer - A Romance With Violence
William Basinski - Lamentations
Wolfgang Muthspiel - Angular Blues
Wrekmeister Harmonies - We Love To Look At The Carnage
Xibalba - Años en infierno

[tragabigzanda]

[Jorge]

I love that Ambrose Akinmusire album. It makes me happy to see it pop up here

[Birds in Hell]

I love that Ambrose Akinmusire album. It makes me happy to see it pop up here

Liking the sound of this - thanks, you guys.

[Jorge]

I love that Ambrose Akinmusire album. It makes me happy to see it pop up here

Liking the sound of this - thanks, you guys.

Once you're done digesting it, make sure to listen to Origami Harvest which is also great. I'm not sure which I like better

[Kevin Davis]

Origami Harvest is really good, a really interesting synthesis of styles, but I find myself getting more pure enjoyment from the new one, as well as the live album that preceded it (A Rift in Decorum: Live at the Village Vanguard).

I also highly recommend checking out Wolfgang Muthspiel's two previous albums for ECM (Rising Grace and Where the River Goes), both of which feature Muthspiel, Akinmusire, Brad Mehldau, Larry Grenadier, and Brian Blade -- an all-star lineup!

[Ello Sailor]

Checked out Moon Pussy and Couch Slut based on their names alone. Shit's intense.

[Higgs]

Josh Kimbrough of NC is a fingerstyle 'American Primitive' (?) acoustic guitarist. He released Slither, Soar and Disappear this year, a very peaceful, quite beautiful meditation on slowing down and fatherhood. Most tracks were composed literally on his back porch. Listened to it last night while sitting outside on a gorgeous summer's night, just taking the world in.

Here's 'Squirrel in the Leaves':

[tragabigzanda]

Top 10 maybe?
Hello Morning
Close Captioned
The Kill
Place/Position
Do You Like Me?
Latest Disgrace
Recap Modotti
Nightshop
Break
Life & Limb

I'd maybe bump Life & Limb for Epic Problem

[Higgs]

American Primitive is a well established genre/term. John Fahey is sort of the standard point of entry.

[Jorge]

I stayed up late finishing a project so I decided to give both the new Taylor Swift and Ryan Adams albums a listen. I played them in full back-to-back and my spicy spicy hot potato take is that the Ryan Adams one is much, much stronger. Neither album is the kind of thing I really respond to nowadays but RA's album had moments of beauty while the TS one, much like its predecessor, struck me as upsettingly insipid. I also listened to half of the Kid Cudi album (it's good) until I finished my project and resolved to go to bed, instead ending up posting on RM

[Higgs]

Mildlife are a Melbourne crew in the same sphere as Tame Impala. They go across many styles with perhaps a psych/disco veneer. Their album Automatic is a lot better than my description of the band would have you expect.

Here's 'Memory Palace':

[Brett]

I don't know what sort of jazz you're really into, but I've been listening to more of it myself this year, mostly from a small Toronto scene, and thought you might enjoy the pair of albums that See Through 4 put out in the spring.

Thanks for the suggestion! I am listening to False Ghosts, Minor Fears right now on Bandcamp, and it's great! It reminds me of some of the albums Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter recorded for Blue Note in the 1960's (Hancock's Maiden Voyage and Shorter's The All-Seeing Eye specifically), in those parts where it gets free but never too free, expressionistic but never abrasive, almost aqueous-sounding. The pianist especially is really catching my ear. Plus, I'm a sucker for themed/series-styled album art -- it makes me want to listen to all of them!

I'm enjoying this on first listen.

Sweet! I'm glad you guys liked it. Kevin, All-Set! is a pretty neat little label. It's run by three guys, Mike Smith, Ali Berkok, and Pete Johnston, and so far every artist on the label features at least one of the three. My favorites are the two Aurochs albums and Songs of the Mike Smith Company.

[Orpheus]

I stayed up late finishing a project so I decided to give both the new Taylor Swift and Ryan Adams albums a listen. I played them in full back-to-back and my spicy spicy hot potato take is that the Ryan Adams one is much, much stronger. Neither album is the kind of thing I really respond to nowadays but RA's album had moments of beauty while the TS one, much like its predecessor, struck me as upsettingly insipid. I also listened to half of the Kid Cudi album (it's good) until I finished my project and resolved to go to bed, instead ending up posting on RM

Jorge used "insipid," everyone drink!

[Jorge]

Apparently the last time I used it was January to describe Midsommar (crazy accurate) and then 2017 before then. Get off my dick

[Orpheus]

I'm joking buddy, relax.

[Jorge]

But I can't

[Orpheus]

What can I do to help?