Armand Hammer (Elucid and billy woods) team up with The Alchemist for some top-tier rap music. Sometimes abstract, sometimes gritty, sometimes obtuse, always intensely engaging. The beats by Alchemist are atmospheric and minimal, with just the right amount of tension and drama. A perfect balance between the vocals and the music.

Lucrecia Dalt – A Danger to Ourselves

I have always found Lucrecia Dalt’s sound design to be a pleasing mix of experimental and accessible. This album of “pop” songs has a similar blend of experimental sonics and melodic tunefulness. Lots of space for sounds and textures to breathe and space for her voice to affect its gravity on your mind.

Richard Dawson – End of the Middle

An understated masterpiece. I initially mistook the shambling quality of the guitar on the first track for imprecision but the guitar playing on the whole album is incredibly intentional. Similarly, the harmonic and melodic moves are more sophisticated than expected. But above that, the lyrics are incredible. Ranging from almost pedestrian, plain-spoken prose (“I’m in the library every lunchtime / Far away from the noise outside / Putting the finishing touches on my entry / For the ‘Short Story Competition'”) to nearly poetry (“Billowing bunting, my self-loathing is / A purse full of bile whose drawstrings are this cheery smile”), the lyrics describe events and emotions both epic and banal. The opening song “Bolt” is a prime example of his storytelling style, filled with humdrum details while describing the devastation of a near-death experience of lightning striking his family home. And then there is the closer “More than real.” It opens with almost cheesy synth pads, which caught me off guard stylistically, before diving right into a raw and vulnerable meditation on parenting, failure, death, and healing, which also caught me off guard. My first listen moved me to tears and it still puts a lump in my throat every time.

Kirby – Miss Black America

Southern R&B/neo-soul singer manages to escape any obvious comparisons to Erykah Badu. No small order. Confident, P-Funk-y, political, sexy.

Little Barrie & Malcolm Catto – Electric War

Dirty, fuzzy, funky, psych rock nuggets. Fantastic drumming and guitar playing.

Tom Skinner – Kaleidoscopic Visions

Spacious and expansive jazz compositions that overlap with modern classical and alt-R&B sounds. Great taste and selection in vocal collaborators.

Arjuna Oakes – While I’m Distracted

Melding the questing, skittering energy of uptempo London jazz with a sensual neo-soul vibe, this album is a journey. Singer and multi-instrumentalist Oakes has an unadorned and direct vocal delivery that is very effective in its lack of showiness. An impressively ambitious album that feels effortless and low-key despite its grand arrangements.

Christina Vantzou, John Also Bennett and Oliver Coates – Death, Reverb and Decay

Beautiful, mournful ambient/modern classical diptych.

A disorienting, head-spinning display of sample mangling and MPC fuckery. Rhythmically disorienting and sonically dazzling, the stream-of-consciousness flow of ideas belies any architectural plan but the listener is nonetheless gripped by the ideas presented by this keen ear and musical intelligence.

Disclosure: the producer/composer behind this project is my most-frequent musical collaborator and best friend. When we play together, regardless of instrumentation, it is hard to distinguish where his sounds start and mine end. There is no way for me to be unbiased.

Gangrene – Heads I Win, Tails You Lose

Gangrene is the collaboration between producer/rappers The Alchemist and Oh No and it was the most consistently satisfying Hip-Hop album I heard all year (honorable mention to LL Cool J, who proved he can still deliver lyrically).

Jabu – A Soft and Gatherable Star

I put this album on expecting some post-dubstep UK Bass club music. What I got instead is a lonely-bedroom shoegaze atmosphere worthy of Slowdive or Cocteau Twins, with a little bit of Blonde Redhead thrown in. Marinate in melancholy.

Shane Parish – Repertoire

A solo guitar album from The Ahleuchatista’s Shane Parish. His version of Ornette Coleman’s “Lonely Woman” is worth the price of admission alone. He really captures the spirit of the material he is working with (Ornette, Eric Dolphy, Fred Rogers, Alice Coltrane) and creates something new with every interpretation.

Samuel Reinhard – Movement

Samuel Reinhard’s 2020 release “Miniatures” was one of my most frequent listens last year, whether I needed a soothing balm in the middle of the day or I was trying to fall asleep in bed. His latest, “Movement,” fulfills the same needs for me. The patiently paced, gentle piano core is surrounded and supported by its own natural decay as well as electronically enhanced textures. The macro-lens detail of the string and woodwind instruments bring to mind Ekkehard Ehlers’ 2002 release “Plays.” As with all of the best ambient music, this works in the background but it also rewards close attention.

This post is dedicated to the memory of my best friend from middle school and high school, Christian Cabañero. He was one of the most passionate and unique souls I have known and I will treasure the memories of surviving our goofiest years together.

Arovane – Seismograf

Crystalline and scratchy digital sound design that manages to feel cold and warm simultaneously. It evokes in me a nostalgic feeling similar to my first experience with Arovane, Tides.

El Michels Affair & Black Thought – Glorious Game

Horse Lords – Comradely Object

This album begins with a polyrhythmic poly-tempo labyrinth of a track, with the guitar slicing across the groove with double-time, half-time, third-time(?) arpeggios. Elsewhere, I hear the influence of Fred Frith, Massacre, and On the Corner-era Miles Davis. The oblong angular Prog grooves are balanced by austere piercing drones, built out of amplifier feedback and saxophone multiphonics (and a dash of synth), that are equally captivating.

Jalen Ngonda – Come Around and Love Me

Classic Motown vibes, both melodically and sonically. Strong influences of Marvin Gaye (specifically What’s Goin’ On), Smokey Robinson, and maybe a touch of The Tempations in a psychedelic fuzz guitar mood.

Rest in peace, “Crischon.”

In this first video, me and my friends are playing a guitar instrumental called “Bested” that Chris wrote and dedicated to me (“Best Ed”/bastard). I have always been blown away by the EVH/Cathedral-esque ending that he composed. Incredible, especially since he was only 18 years old.

In the next video, Chris is playing a piece that I composed and dedicated to him (ildg = I love day glo). He transcribed and learned it by ear and surprised me by playing it in front of our entire high school.

Once again, I am WAY behind in listening to this year’s releases. My Spotify “listen later” playlist has 772 songs and would take 50 hours, 25 min to listen to all the way through. My downloads folder has over 3000 items, almost all folders of mp3s from the last few years. I know there’s gold in there. Anyway, here are my favorite albums that I heard this past year (in alphabetical order):

Oren Ambarchi / Johan Berthling / Andreas Werliin – Ghosted

Deep muted grooves that lay half-time bass/guitar riffs under polymetric pointillistic drumming that makes the most out of a minimal kit.

Coast Contra – Apt 505

After being thoroughly impressed by their YouTube “freestyles” I was eager to lay ears on their debut. Infectious energy and clever wordplay take me back to the days of Leaders of the New School, Fu-Schnickens, Lords of the Underground, and other hype acts of 90s Hip Hop.

Danger Mouse & Black Thought – Cheat Codes

DM coming a little less polished and poppy and Black Thought coming cool and deadly, sharp as ever. Killer combo.

Earl Sweatshirt – Sick!

Earl is still weird and smart and a smart-ass, which is very appealing to me.

Ghost Power – Ghost Power

Using the sonic vocabulary of space-age bachelor pad music, psychedelic pop, and vintage British television soundtracks, this album takes the listener on a wide-eyed journey through plucky organ grooves and surf guitar adventures. Reminds me a little bit of Dymaxion but less angular and weird.

Grid Ravage – Grid Ravage

Shuffling and skittering brushed drums under scraping dissonant instrumental textures.

Kendrick Lamar – Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers

This album is a brave achievement in the context of American masculinity, Hip-Hop culture, and Capitalism. It is honest and vulnerable and introspective and emotionally complex when most art/product produced by his contemporaries serves only to commodify Black suffering for a voyeuristic mainstream audience’s consumption.

SAULT – 11

Uplifting elastic grooves that incorporate a diverse range of styles while remaining cohesive. Hippie vibes meet gospel vibes meets reggae vibes with a dash of Afro Psych but everything feels related to The Brand New Heavies.

Young Gun Silver Fox – Ticket to Shangri La

This duo has a real gift for recreating the smooth, harmonically sophisticated pop rock of the 70s Yacht Rock era. From the production values to the melodic ideas, their instincts and execution are always flawless.

Another year with young kids (ages 3-years-old and 10-months-old) and my backlog of albums-to-listen-to continues to grow exponentially. I feel so far behind and yet I would venture to guess that I still listen to more new music than the average listener. Here’s a handful of albums that grabbed my attention this past year.

Children of Zeus – Balance

Neo-soul/R&B/UK Hip-Hop duo Children of Zeus have crafted a dark and twinkling collection of songs whose smoothness belies the neuroses/struggles lurking in the lyrics.

Dawuna – Glass Lit Dream

This album feels extremely intimate. It feels as though you have been invited to listen to a whispered reading of a diary, accompanied by the sounds in the creator’s brain — alt-R&B rubbing up against clicks and pops of random thoughts shifting in the overhead compartments.

Magda Drozd – 18 Floors

As a vocalist, Magda Drozd has a very unadorned instrument. Accurate in pitch but not overly expressive, no vibrato, no improvisation, and yet it is highly effective as part of her sound world. Her production style is dense and melancholy, with more than a few nods to Coil (and related groups like ELpH and Black Light District).

Joy Orbison – still slipping vol. 1

UK bass music variants that range from House to Garage to Grime, and even some Electro in the vein of Amber-era Autechre. Always rhythmically interesting, and sonically slightly different from the crowd. I am not certain but it may have something to do with a lot of room reverbs that place sounds in spaces that are familiar to us as humans yet unfamiliar in the context of usually larger-than-life dance music.

Lady Blackbird – Black Acid Soul

A voice and a vibe out-of-time. Echoes of Nina Simone, Sarah Vaughan, Aretha Franklin, and Roberta Flack, but avoiding nostalgic homage or mere imitation. To my delight, she includes a straightforward cover of one of my all-time favorite Sam Cooke records, “Lost and Looking.”

Penelope Trappes – Penelope Three

Falling somewhere between slow-motion alt-country indie-rock and sexy dark Massive Attack-style trip hop, these songs use space, light, and darkness, combined with patience, in very effective arrangements.

Vanishing Twin – Ookii Gekkou

Bright and airy vamps, plenty of ride cymbal, slightly weird sensibilities, reminds me a little of Stereolab sometimes, mellow but odd. Recommended.

R.I.P., Alvin Lucier

Rest in peace, Alvin Lucier. Of all my teachers, he had the most profound effect on my thinking and my listening. He would greet me jovially as “Mr. Cho!” and treat me with respect and sincerity even though I was just a young undergrad know-nothing. It was an honor to be connected to you in some small way.

https://www.npr.org/2021/12/01/1060591230/alvin-lucier-inquisitive-and-innovative-composer-has-died-at-90

There has been a great outpouring of music during the various lockdown periods this year. I, unfortunately, have not had time to keep up because the remote nature of my job meant that the pace never dropped when everything else ground to a halt (though, really, I should count it as fortunate because I have been steadily employed and even started a new job).

Here are my favorite music releases that I heard this past year (in alphabetical order):

The Bug feat. Dis Fig – In Blue

Kevin Martin continues to explore the intersection of dancehall reggae, grime/dubstep, and melancholy/sorrow with his The Bug project, this time with vocalist Dis Fig. This alias proves to be an adaptable framework for exploring moods that have been previously explored via last year’s Solitude by Martin’s other group King Midas Sound.

Irreversible Entanglements – Who Sent You?

This group harnesses the keening, searching, soulful howl/moan of 60s Ornette Coleman and adds a polyrhythmic almost second-line bounce. The playfulness of the rhythm section offers an uplifting influence to counter vocalist Moor Mother’s gravity and political purpose.

Ka – Descendants of Cain

Understated “beats” that consist of texturally interesting loops and almost no percussion offer plenty of space for Ka’s gravelly monotone voice. The casual delivery and repetitive cadence belie his dense lyricism and labyrinthine internal rhyme schemes. Pay close attention.

The Sorcerers – In Search of the Lost City of the Monkey God

There seems to be a glut of bands with releases this year inspired by the funky jazz of 70s Library Music composers and Italian film composers. This was one of the first I heard this year and it still stands above the rest to me. Recommended for fans of Surprise Chef, Magic in Threes, El Michels Affair, Calibro 35, and of course Lalo/Ennio/Nino.

Spivak – Μετά Το Ρέιβ

Smudged, deconstructed, sometimes wordless vocals over 90s-inspired ambient techno backdrops. Reminiscent of seefeel, Andrea Parker, Pan American, even a little Vibert/Simmonds.

Moses Sumney – græ

This artist was brought to my attention because a friend, Josh Finck (aka half|state aka o_t_t_i_f), is responsible for directing a slew of low-tech but visually arresting music videos for the album. Moses is a confidently weird artist. His voice is at once fragile and sure, a seductive combination.

JG Thirlwell & Simon Steensland – Oscillospira

I am not at all familiar with Simon Steensland but I approached this album with great anticipation based solely on Thirlwell’s involvement (loved him as Foetus and Steroid Maximus). The music is angular, sinister, and complex, sometimes Zappa-esque, sometimes more cinema-minded Fantômas. A cerebral and cinematic instrumental journey.

Tvii Son – Tvii Son

Hiss, primitive drum machine sounds, tape echo, deadpan vocals. All the best qualities of dubby, arty 80s rock experiments are represented here.

Neil Young – Homegrown

If you are even a casual fan of 70s-era Neil Young you will not be surprised by anything on offer here, as it was recorded between On the Beach and Zuma. Classic-Neil-Young-sounding songs backed by Nashville studio musicians, along with some studio banter on Florida. Great stuff.

More Emmeline Songs…

This year I was able to continue working on my series of songs inspired by my daughter. Look for a full album release (hopefully) in 2021…

But, thankfully, not having time for listening did not mean no musical activity. Ever since my daughter was born I have been writing lyrics again. I only managed to write and record one of those songs this year. Click through to give a listen…

presented in alphabetical order…

Altin Gün – Gece

Amsterdam band that nails that 70s fuzzed-out Turkish psych rock sound.

The Andretti – Suicide, Italian Style

My friend, Joe Ferrara, released this new project and asked me to write a blurb. Here’s what I wrote:

Suicide, Italian Style by The Andretti is epic. It is sonically epic, taking the sweeping drama of Ennio Morricone and the melodrama of Scott Walker’s first solo album and infusing 90s noise rock rawness and a millefoglie of textural details. It is musically epic in its ambition. Every track twists and turns through a labyrinth of shifting genres and time signatures. It is stylistically epic in its breadth. Spaghetti western and crime drama soundtracks, vintage Italian pop, “math” rock, surf rock, exotica, and doo wop are skillfully woven together into a unified whole. There are no nonsequitors, only interesting surprises. It all makes sense because all the details are perfect. If the atmosphere of a palm-muted baritone guitar dripping with spring reverb piques your interest as much as throat-shredding, amp-melting intensity then you will enjoy all the journeys contained within Suicide, Italian Style.

Asuna & Jan Jelinek – Signals Bulletin

This is a patiently paced album that builds tension and atmosphere through repetition and layering. The album’s scope expands from simple loops to field recordings and synth baths with arpeggiated melodies worming up out of the thicket to keep the surface in motion. The finale brings the emotions back down with the abstract beating of sine tones that recalls raster-noton’s stark aesthetic.

King Midas Sound – Solitude

As the title implies, this is a lonely listen. The mood is crushingly heavy, even in its quietest moments. Roger Robinson’s deadpan reading perfectly suits Kevin Martin’s greyscale yet emotionally turbulent sonic settings.

Edmond Cho – Little Baby

Here is my song. I wrote the lyrics with a punky energy in mind, but one day realized that they would perfectly fit a rocksteady song. I’d like to give big thanks to my bandmate, Scott DeDecker from The Twilights, for recording drums, piano, and organ parts for me.

RIP Jared Balogh

Finally, I’d like to take a moment to acknowledge and recognize a great loss from this year. My friend and bandmate in Pink Hex, Jared Balogh, died suddenly this past April. Jared was an extremely broad-minded listener and musician. He was a self-taught musician and a talented visual artist. He was prolific. He was tireless in his pursuit of creative collaboration. He pushed Pink Hex further than Joel or I ever envisioned and created opportunities for us constantly. He was also gentle and funny and sarcastic and goofy. I miss him.

For much of this year I felt like I had less time than usual for active music listening. I got married, my wife was pregnant, she gave birth to our beautiful daughter, I had work commitments, my band The Twilights recorded and released a new album, etc. As a result I have a huge backlog of albums that I wanted to check out that I have not listened to yet.

So, this year’s list consists of albums that I did hear that made a strong enough initial impression on me that I either 1.) wrote it down to remember for this list, or 2.) immediately suggested some like-minded friends have a listen — with the caveat that my survey was woefully incomplete as I probably only made it through half of my to-do list of albums.

Anyway, here’s my list in alphabetical order:

Beak〉 – 〉〉〉
Geoff Barrow (of Portishead fame) has brought his attention to groove and atmosphere to a fusion of prog rock and krautrock. It’s not highly technical music, but I use the prog rock label because of the production style and drum sounds as well as some pretty precise playing.

Francis Harris – Trivial Occupations
This album is a set of dance music-inspired pieces layered with performances on acoustic instruments. The melodic minimalism and the repetitive structure are familiar entry points for fans of house or techno and the improvisation elevates the tracks beyond dance floor utility.

Khruangbin – Con Todo El Mundo
This mostly instrumental TX-based guitar trio has escaped most of the expectations that come of being guitar-based and TX-based by avoiding blues and rock cliches. Instead they take a solid soul/rhythm & blues foundation and pepper it with melodic and tonal influences from African and South East Asian pop. The grooves are unfussy and the lead guitar is always tasteful.

Mary Jane Leach – (f)lute songs
Gorgeous, slowly unfolding compositions (spanning 1985-2018) that inhabit the same universe as Morton Feldman, Phill Niblock, and Alvin Lucier (especially his pieces for slow-moving oscillator).

Noinonoinonoino – 8
Dark fuzzy electronic improvisations with smears of analog delay feedback self-oscillating over bass-heavy beats.

Lucy Railton – Paradise 94
Dark and richly textured debut release from this composer and cellist. Plenty of extended techniques to pull out cello creaks and groans that blend seamlessly with her electronic sound design and effects. Really engrossing compositions that seem almost stream-of-consciousness in their flow but never feel aimless or unstructured.

Debashis Sinha – The White Dog
This release was brought to my attention by a post on Create Digital Music. The White Dog is patiently paced and restrained electronic music with nods to 90s ambient techno and IDM. It name checks Alvin Lucier in its titles but I don’t hear an obvious sonic influence. It’s always a pleasant surprise to hear electronic music that is not easily labelled into its component sub-genres.

Jared C. Balogh – Between Probabilities (Evgeny Gerasimchuk, Grigory Bazhanov and Jared C. Balogh)

Balogh’s compositions are complex thorny things sometimes. Rhythmically dense, melodically spiky, angular in all the best ways. What a treat to hear this set of compositions realized with live guitar (played by Evgeny Gerasimchuk) instead of rendered via computer. Available as a free download on WFMU’s Free Music Archive. Disclosure: Jared is my friend and bandmate.

Andrea Belfi – Ore

Live percussion with synth textures. Exploratory, propulsive, and edgy.

The Bug vs Earth – Concrete Desert

Two of my musical heroes join forces for a full-length album of forbidding atmosphere and heavy dread.

Sarah Davachi – All My Circles Run

Slow-building drone manipulations of strings, voice, piano, and organ source materials. Skillful and musical editing transforms and reveals the source material’s essence in a manner reminiscent of Phill Niblock’s work.

Carla dal Forno – The Garden

Slow, brooding, post-punk-y sounds with icy minimal wave melodies. Flawless use of drum machine in service of the songs.

Sharon Jones – Soul of a Woman

Swan song. Gone too soon. This is a meager consolation for the loss of such a talent.

Jonwayne – Rap Album Two

Introspective and brutally honest with himself. Jonwayne at his most vulnerable and exposed. A rarity in rap music.

Kid Koala – Music To Draw To: Satellite

A far cry from what one might expect of DJ-created electronic music. Patient, delicate, enveloping, tender.

Wayne Snow – Freedom TV

Alt/future R&B music with influences ranging from broken beat to deep house to Dilla/Spacek.

The Body – No One Deserves Happiness
Starting off quiet and dark like Miranda Sex Garden, this album soon gives way to slow-crushing heavy guitar glaciers. Almost like Swans in the 90s turning back into Swans in the 80s.

Horse Lords – Interventions
Loping circular grooves recall the Sub Saharan blues of Ali Farka Touré and Tinariwen as well as the Hill Country blues of Junior Kimbrough. A heady, trance-inducing, minimalist rock sound.

Givan Lötz – MAW
I became aware of this record via the instagram account of @thevinylmind. He said, “One of the many things that fascinate me about music is how physical sounds can be. Artists who can create shape and weight with sound have my utmost respect.” This was enough for me to seek out the album and I am certainly glad that I found it. Soft-edged electric guitar ballads flow within a muddy stream of ambient textures. The pace is patient, like Low or Codeine.

Abul Mogard – Works
According to the product page on boomkat.com, Abul Mogard found his way to a late-in-life music career after retiring from decades-long service at a factory. Seeking to fill the sonic absence of post-factory life he turned to electronic music and drone-making and we are all the richer for it. Displaying the care and attention of a craftsman, Mogard’s drones pulse and swell with emotions both familiar and unnameable.

Strobes – Brokespeak
Strobes plays a thorny angular fusion of jazz, progressive rock, and Battles-style post-rock. My good friend and Pink Hex band mate Joel Kromer turned me on to this one.

A Tribe Called Quest – We got it from Here… Thank You 4 Your service…
ATCQ surprised us all in 2016 with this release. The level of execution and individual artistry is something that is getting rare to find in hip-hop releases, especially 2-LP full albums. The music is rooted in the Tribe formula but is a great leap forward as well. The intertwined vocal verses work perfectly to imbue the whole with the spirit of the recently deceased Phife Dawg. Jarobi’s contributions are crucial and I can’t help but wonder why we haven’t heard his voice more before now. This album is so good that I feel obligated to go back and listen to The Love Movement again with an open mind because maybe they only made good albums and I wasn’t ready for that one yet.

Yussef Kamaal – Black Focus
Funky, complex, modern fusion. The core of this group is the duo of drummer Yussef Dawes and keyboard player Kamaal Williams (who also operates as Henry Wu). They work within loose frameworks, rarely planning much in terms of arrangements. The result is a loose-limbed groove-based music that sits deeply in the pocket.