2018 in New Music Part 4

Natalie Prass - The Future and the Past (ATO)
A second album of delightfully groovy, sassy, saccharine, meticulously arranged pop.



Nathan Bowles - Plainly Mistaken (Paradise of Bachelors)
Nathan Bowles' fourth album is brilliantly realised, juxtaposing various musical traditions to craft a musical contradiction at once forward looking and hermetic.



Nathan Salsburg - Third (No Quarter)
Salsburg is a versatile guitarist who has collaborated with James Elkington and also plays regularly with Joan Shelley. This solo album is a warming and spirited collection of solo guitar music.



Neko Case - Hell-On (ANTI)
I've found this Neko Case album a little harder to negotiate than its most recent predecessors, particularly given its impressive stylistic diversity. Yet it has now started to reveal its own achievements and rewarding pleasures, and Case remains one of the finest singer-songwriters currently at work.



Neneh Cherry - Broken Politics (Smalltown Supersound)
Cherry has been on a major artistic roll since beginning a working relationship with the Smalltown Supersound label. Again working with Kieren Hebden, Broken Politics finds her in ruminative but quietly defiant mode and is rich in small, absorbing details.



Nicole Mitchell - Maroon Cloud (FPE)
Another great American resistance work, this eight part suite from the flautist and composer celebrates the power of the human imagination and its capacity to flourish in dark times. Recorded live at the Sawdust in Brooklyn as part of the John Zorn commissions series, the resulting music is both aching and transcendent. It is worth reiterating again what a great year 2018 has been for radical vocal jazz (Fay Adams is the powerful vocal presence here).



**Noname - Room 25 (Noname)**
Debut album proper from the innovative Chicago rapper. Aquatic sounds and deep grooves underpin the mischievous linguistic manipulation.



Norma Waterson and Eliza Carthy with The Gift Band - Anchor (Topic)
Intergenerational meeting of legendary folk artists that is both playful and deeply affecting.



Norma Winstone, Klaus Gesing, Glauco Venier - Descansado - Songs For Films (ECM) 
Winstone remains not just a superb interpreter of song, but also possessed of a rare ability to turn compositions into deeply moving new works with new original lyrics. Her trio with Klaus Gesing and Glauco Venier remains an enrichingly subtle and sensitive unit, capable of communication and empathy. This set focuses on reimaginings of film soundtrack music and the song selection is frequently inspired.



Objekt - Cocoon Crush (PAN)
Painterly, reflective electronica.



Oliver Coates - Shelly's On Zenn-La (RVNG Intl.)
Cellist Oliver Coates continues to operate in a wide range of musical environments and his own work as a composer/performer places him alongside Lucy Railton and Shiva Feshareki in a new generation of artists opening up new possibilities for new music composers. Shelly's On Zenn-La is a nervy, skittering work in search of new vistas.



Oneohtrix Point Never - Age Of (Warp)
Daniel Lopatin's latest finds him focusing on collaboration and sharing of ideas. Some of this feels decidedly dark.



Olivia Chaney - Shelter (Nonesuch)
Olivia Chaney's slight frustration at being categorised as a folk singer has some justification - as second album Shelter presents her as a multi-faceted singer-songwriter and interpreter, capable of crafting direct, honest and affecting performances and arguably more confident accompanying herself at the piano than with guitar.



Orquestra Del Tempo Perdido - Stille (Shhpuma)
Jeroen Kimman's music genuinely does sound unlike anything else. I don't know what it is, but it draws me in.



Pablo Held Trio - Investigations (Edition)
Complex, intricate but thrilling piano trio jazz that moves through a wide range of moods and atmospheres, often within the space of a single composition.



Papa M - A Broke Moon Rises (Drag City)
Papa M - The Piano Sessions (Drag City)
The rehabilitation of David Pajo is something for which we should all be profoundly grateful - his two short works this year were both skeletal and unassuming, but imbued with a grace, determination and imagination with simple foundations.






Pariah - Here From Where We Are (Houndstooth)
First full length album and first release in six years from the DJ and producer results in a multi-faceted, textured and mesmerising work, producing tangible focus from the conventions of abstraction.



**Park Jiha - Communion (Tak:Til)**
**Park Jiha - Philos (Mirrorball Music)**

Two excellent, free spirited albums from the Korean composer, producer and performer blending modern minimalism with traditional instrumentation.



Paul Simon - In The Blue Light (Sony)
2018 saw Paul Simon announce his retirement from international touring, and find an impressive and thoughtful way of revisiting some choice highlights from his back catalogue. Here, Simon's songs are rearranged in rich, jazz-inspired fashion with very rewarding results.



**Pete Lee - The Velvet Rage (Ubuntu)**
The pianist and composer deserved more recognition from this excellent and very personal album - which bravely moves well outside current voguish trends in contemporary jazz to follow its own confident and individual trajectory. Foot tapping grooves blend effortlessly with lush string arrangements and intriguing variety in colour.



Peter Wiegold, Sam Lee and Notes Inegales - Van Diemen's Land (Club Inegales) 
Club Inegales in Euston has built a reputation for fostering unexpected and fruitful cross-genre (sometimes cross-art form) collaborations. Sam Lee's appearance resulted in further work with Peter Wiegold and the Notes Inegales ensemble, placing Lee's interpretations of folk ballads in new and intriguing settings.



Phil Cook - People Are My Drug (Merge) 
Cook makes a substantial contribution to a number of different artists' work as a sideman and instrumentalist, and is often a crucial presence in the live line-up of Hiss Golden Messenger. His work as a solo singer-songwriter continues to develop - and People Are My Drug is a radiant and luminous set of brilliantly formed songs, many of them simple and direct in the bravest and most assured of ways, well informed in the history of American popular music.



Philip Jeck - Arcade (Touch)
An excellent, vivid long form piece captured at a live performance.



Phosphorescent - C'est La Vie (Dead Oceans)
It's been a while since I've been able to get fully on board with Matthew Houeck's music but this is comfortably the strongest and most evocative Phosphorescent album since Here's To Taking It Easy. There is, nevertheless, a sense that the flirtations with genre and production trickery still sometimes undermine the directness of the songs.



Phronesis - We Are All (Edition)
The restless band continue to make progressive strides on this superb, empathetic seventh album. The music here is often turbulent and dramatic but also at times deeply thoughtful and introspective. Their longevity is a triumph for European jazz.



Pram - Across the Meridian (Domino)
Welcome return after more than ten years for more kitchen sink maximalist hauntings, proving that the loss of a lead singer does not necessarily have to be an insurmountable obstacle.



Punch Brothers - All Ashore (Nonesuch)
Dependably deep and virtuosic modern day folk music, this time self produced by the band.



**Red River Dialect - Broken Stay Open Sky (Paradise of Bachelors)**
For me, one of the most subtly immersive and captivating albums of 2018, its expansive songs often feel like being out on the open seas.



Reinier Bass and Ben Van Gelder with Metropole Orkest - Smash Hits (Basta Music)
Radical and stirring enlarged arrangements of existing compositions recorded at two live performances. With apologies to Jacob Collier, but this is probably my favourite 2018 release involving the Metropole Orkest.



Richard Skelton - Front Variations I and II (Aeolian Editions)
In which Richard Skelton turns his landscape soundtracking skills to the distinctive terrain and atmospheres of Iceland.



Richard Swift - The Hex (Secretly Canadian)
One of the biggest and most surprising losses of 2018, Richard Swift's premature passing has taken a major songwriting talent who really ought to have had time to mature yet further as an artist. Still, The Hex is an album that bottles the essence of Swift's gifts for pop song form, melody and harmony.



**Richard Thompson - 13 Rivers (Proper)**
Arguably Thompson's strongest album since Dream Attic - you know what you're going to get from the master songwriter and guitarist, but this one feels particularly incisive and in the moment.



Robyn - Honey (Konichiwa/Universal)
Some Robyn fans on social media felt disappointed by this - perhaps due to a relative lack of immediate, insistent songs. Instead, there's a sense of hard won experience and longing and the melodies are hazy rather than blinding.



Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever - Hope Downs (Sub Pop)
Basic, kinetic, urgent, four square rock and roll delivered with verve and skill.



Rosali - Trouble Anyway (Scissor Tail)
One of the year's most beautiful sounding records, underpinning some lush and lyrical songs - a combination of dry and resonant sounds that works really well.



Rosalia - El Mar Querer (Sony Spain) 
Modernised pop flamenco from the Spanish star - and, along with Robyn and Christine and the Queens, the best pure pop music of 2018.



Rosanne Cash - She Remembers Everything (Capitol) 
If not quite as deep as the remarkable The River and The Thread, She Remembers Everything is still a poignant and insightful collection, delivered with characteristic clarity and understatement from Cash. 'Crossing To Jerusalem' might just be 2018's most important song.



Ross From Friends - Family Portrait (Brainfeeder)
Ghastly moniker aside, this is idiosyncratic, intrepid and artful electronica.



**Roy Montgomery - Suffuse (Grapefruit)**
Supposedly always uncomfortable with his own singing, Roy Montgomery here composes music for some of the most idiosyncratic and innovative vocalists currently at work, including Grouper's Liz Harris, Julianna Barwick and Haley Fohr. The results are predictably awe inspiring.



RP Boo - I'll Tell You What (Planet Mu)
Legendary Footwork pioneer captures the mood.



**Ry Cooder - The Prodigal Son (Caroline International)**
In which Ry Cooder departs from the social and political high concepts of recent albums in favour of a renewed focus on interpretation and making blues and folk tradition live and breathe. This is a natural, unforced and outstanding album.



Ryan Porter - The Optimist (World Galaxy)
Trombonist with the Kamasi Washington LA scene makes impressive, punchy album as leader.



**Ryley Walker - Deafman Glance (Dead Oceans)**
Ryley Walker further develops his tendency for stretching out, his melodies increasingly subsumed within the mood and feel of each song. As ever, his provocative goofiness on Twitter belies his increasingly serious depth as a musician.



Sam Anning - A Field As Vast As One (Earshift) 
Bassist/composer Sam Anning is a major presence in Australian jazz, but this subtle, assured and empathetic album is my introduction to his work.



Samba Toure - Wande (Glitterbeat)
The Malian musician has taken the core elements of desert blues and imbued them with a sense of joy and peace. Occasionally, he arguably moves too far to western fusion (Yerfara sounds like The Rolling Stones), but the majority of this album neatly balances tradition with reaching outward.



**Sarah Davachi - Gave In Rest (Ba Da Bing!)**
**Sarah Davachi - Let Night Come On Bells End The Day (Forced Exposure)** 
2018 brought two excellent albums for two different labels from the inventive Canadian ambient composer, currently also working on a PhD in Musicology at UCLA. Gave In Rest experiments with Davachi's love for Medieval and Renaissance music, whilst Let Night Come On Bells...focuses on mellotron and organ. These are works that amply reward deep, close listening.





Sarah Louise - Deeper Woods (Thrill Jockey) 
Also one half of House and Land, Sarah Louise brilliantly inhabits and revitalises American folk traditions.



Sarathy Korwar and UPAJ Collective - My East Is Your West (Gearbox)
Recorded live at London's Church of Sound, this bold and imaginative album seeks to re-establish and develop cross-cultural relationships between jazz, spirituality and Indian music. Reworking legendary pieces from the likes of Joe Henderson, Alice Coltrane, Abdullah Ibrahim, John McLaughlin and Don Cherry amongst others is a brave move, but Korwar has brought his own skillset and magic to this effective collaboration.



Scott Hirsch - Lost Time Behind The Moon (Scissor Tail) 
The former Hiss Golden Messenger member returns with his best solo album to date, brilliantly fusing the primary influences of JJ Cale and Al Green with his own songwriting voice.



Seabuckthorn - A House With Too Much Fire (876627)
Andy Cartwright's superb latest adds some intriguing instrumentation and a meditative, psychedelic tinge to his hypnotic guitar music.



Senyawa - Sujud (Sublime Frequencies) 
This duo from Jogjakarta, Indonesia are crafting some pretty extraordinary cross-cultural fusions here, incorporating home-made instruments, Indonesian traditions, heavy distortion and drone metal.



serpentwithfeet - Soil (Secretly Canadian/Tri Angle) 
Highly creative blend of pop melody, performance art and the influence of church music from a major musical personality.



**Seun Kuti and Egypt 80 - Black Times (Strut)**
Righteous, infectious groove energy and Seun Kuti's finest album.



Shackleton - Furnace of Guts (Woe to the Septic Heart) 
Two typically percussive and idea-filled long-ish pieces from Sam Shackleton, still seemingly more interested in collaborations and shorter form releases than making conventional albums.



**Sidi Toure - Toubalbero (Thrill Jockey)**
Defiant, inspiring and uplifting music from Mali.




Sink Ya Teeth - Sink Ya Teeth (Hey Buffalo) 
Slinky, hugely enjoyable old school electropop.



Skee Mask - Compro (Ilian Tape) 
Ingenious electronica covering a broad spectrum from light to dark, fusing ambient, house and drum and bass influences.