50 From 2020

 For those without the time or inclination to wade through over 500 albums from across the year (and who can blame you?), of if you are in any way curious as to which have stayed with me the most, here is a shorter selection of 50 from the year. I won't necessarily claim they are the best, some are very personal (and predictable, if you know me) choices. They are loosely ordered with favourites at the top, but I care less and less for ranking or standouts these days! 

First of all, I'm going to cheat and introduce an award for Artist of the Year - which will go to Moor Mother, for having the sheer audacity to play a major role in (at least) six great albums this year. If I had to pick a favourite of them, it would probably be the Irreversible Entanglements record. 

Andrew Tuttle - Alexandra

Maria Schneider - Data Lords

Bob Dylan - Rough & Rowdy Ways

Mourning [A] BLKstar - The Cycle

Daniel Blumberg - On&On&On&On&On...

Bonny Light Horseman - Bonny Light Horseman

Speaker Music - Black Nationalist Sonic Weaponry

Frazey Ford - U Kin B The Sun

Rob Luft - Life Is The Dancer

Pulled By Magnets - Rose Golden Doorways

Bruce Springsteen - Letter To You

Armand Hammer - Shrines

The Necks - Three

Tyshawn Sorey - Unfiltered

Jeff Parker - Suite For Max Brown

Nathan Salzburg - Landwerk Vol 1/Landwerk Vol 2

Junk Magic - Compass Confusion

Rob Mazurek Exploding Star Orchestra - Dimensional Stardust

Shabason, Krgovich & Harris - Philadelphia

Nate Wooley - Seven Storey Mountain VI 

Starebaby - Natural Selection

Hiss Golden Messenger - Forward, Children/School Daze

Jeremy Cunningham - The Weather Up There

MoonMot - Going Down The Well

Horse Lords - The Common Task

Tatsuhisa Yamamoto - Ashioto

Okkyung Lee - Yeo-Neun 

Greg Fox - Contact

North Americans - Roped In 

Krononaut - Krononaut 

Irreversible Entanglements - Who Sent You? 

Aesop Rock - Spirit World Field Guide 

Mary Halvorson - Artlessly Falling

Martin Pyne - Spirit Of Absent Dancers 

Gregoire Maret, Romain Collin, Bill Frisell - Americana 

H.C. McEntire - Eno Axis 

Pretty Sneaky - Pretty Sneaky

William Tyler - New Vanitas

Michael Wollny - Mondenkind 

Caleb Dolister - Daily Thumbprint Collection 3: The Wandering 

Seafarers - Seafarers 

Shabaka & The Ancestors - We Were Sent Here By History

Eli Winter - Unbecoming 

Pink Siifu - Negro

Matthew 'Doc' Dunn - Rain, Rain, Rain

Coriky - Coriky 

David Torn - Fur/Torn 

Jasper Høiby - Planet B 

Fiona Apple - Fetch The Bolt Cutters

Gillian Welch & David Rawlings - All The Good Times 

2020 In New Music Part 14

 upsammy - Zoom (Dekmantel) 

Gelatinous electronica. 

Victoria Monet - Jaguar (Tribe) 

A songwriting presence behind some massive pop hits (including Ariana Grande's 7 Rings), Victoria Monet's Jaguar is futuristic R&B, sexually forthright R&B. 

Vladislav Delay - Rakka (Cosmo Rhythmatic) 

Five years on from his last album, during which time Sasu Ripatti initially gave up on music before returning via some soundtrack compositions. Rakka is a heavier, more confrontational beast, combining electronica with more extreme noise elements. 

Vula Viel - What's Not Enough About That? (Vula Viel) 

Third album from Bex Burch's group is vibrant, poised and alive. Although released before lockdown, the questions it posits ('Are you alive? Are you loved? What's not enough about that?') seem pertinent in a year when excess and entertainment were necessarily stifled. 

V.V. Lightbody - Make A Shrine Or Burn It (Acrophase) 

Lush but unconventional theatrical pop. 

Waclaw Zimpel - Massive Oscillations (Ongehoord) 

Polish clarinettist and multi-instrumentalist making immersive sound design. 

Waxahatchee - Saint Cloud (Merge) 

Katie Crutchfield has always had an instinctive skill with melody but on Saint Cloud, she finally finds a sound and arrangements that adequately support and enhance her songs. 

Wax Machine - Earth Song Of Silence (Beyond Beyond Is Beyond) 

Refined psychedelia from Brighton. 

Webber/Morris Big Band - Both Are True (Greenleaf) 

Superb, inventive and playful big band writing. 

Wendy Eisenberg - Auto (Ba Da Bing)

Gently freeform, liberated, challenging songs. 

Wesley Wolffe - Wesley Wolffe (Total Works) 

Arty post-punk jousting. 

Westerman - Your Hero Is Not Dead (PIAS) 

Gently manipulative and experimental pop songwriting. 

White Denim - World As A Waiting Room (Radio Milk) 

30 day album project - typically blistering. 

William Basinski - Lamentations (Temporary Residence) 

The source material for the tape loops on Lamentations apparently dates back across Basinski's life and career, going back 40 years in some cases. This might explain why the music here sounds so timeless and enduring. These meditations on grief are haunting and captivating. 

William Tyler - Music From First Cow (Merge) 

William Tyler - New Vanitas (Merge) 

Soundtrack for Kelly Reichardt's film (sadly delayed by the pandemic in the UK) and low key solo album take William Tyler a step away from the ensemble vistas he has been focusing on for the past few years and back into more intimate, introspective mode. 

Witch Prophet - DNA Activation (Heart Lake) 

Imaginative and effective fusion of Ethiopian jazz, R&B and hip hop. 

Wolfgang Muthspiel - Angular Blues (ECM) 

A nuanced and adroit trio with Scott Colley and Brian Blade handling both originals and standards. 

Woods - Strange To Explain (Woodsist) 

Dreamlike, textured album recorded in California. 

Yaeji - What We Drew (XL) 

Detailed and carefully constructed first full length mixtape. 

Yello - Point (Universal)

A very welcome return from Boris Blank and Dieter Meier, very much playing to their strengths (perhaps too much so in the case of Waba Duba, which could have sat very comfortably on Flag). 

yMusic - Ecstatic Science (New Amsterdam) 

Contemporary chamber music. 

Yo La Tengo - We Have Amnesia Sometimes (Matador) 

Yo La Tengo - Sleepless Night (Matador) 

No official new album from YLT this year, but instead some diverting and satisfying additional projects. Sleepless Night is a warm and charming set of covers, placed alongside a drifting, beautiful new song called Bleeding. We Have Amnesia Sometimes finds the band recording and releasing some of their 'formless' studio improvisations. 

Yves Jarvis - Sundry Rock Song Stock (Anti) 

Brilliant use of multitracked vocals as part of the music's overall texture. 

Yves Tumor - Heaven To A Tortured Mind (Warp)

Space age rock music. 

Zachary Cale - False Spring (All Hands Electric) 

Bittersweet, poetic songs. 

Zara McFarlane - Songs Of An Unknown Tongue (Brownswood) 

McFarlane continues to develop her own voice, and is becoming more assured and a clearer communicator with every album. Here, her various genre preoccupations are subsumed more thoughtfully within a clear and coherent overall sound. 

2020 In New Music Part 13

Tambourinen - Wooden Flower (Centripetal Force)

Potent psychedelic project from multi-instrumentalist Grant Beyshcau. 

Tamikrest - Tamotait (Glitterbeat) 

Billed as a louder, rockier album from the Malian group - but this is a little misleading. Beyond a couple of heavier tracks, this might be their most texturally and dynamically diverse record to date. 

Tangents - Timeslips (Temporary Residence) 

Excellent, vivid fourth album from the Australian group, crafting curious, percussive and involving sound worlds.

Tara Clerkin Trio - Tara Clerkin Trio (Laura Lies In) 

Strange, escapist, otherworldly music. 

Tashi Dorji - Stateless (Drag City) 

Brilliantly abrasive solo guitar work. 

Tatsuhisa Yamamoto - Ashioto (Black Truffle) 

Yamamoto's first full international release - two superbly realised, patiently developing long pieces combining percussion, field recordings, electronics and guest musicians. 

Taylor Swift - Folklore

Taylor Swift - Evermore 

Perhaps due to the involvement of Aaron Dessner and Justin Vernon, these surprise releases were very much the hipster's choice of pop albums in 2020. I wasn't fully sold on Folklore's glossy backwoods vibes, but the wordy, savvy Evermore demonstrates Swift's skills as a songwriter. 

Tenci - My Heart Is An Open Field (Keeled Scales) 

Minimal, striking song craft from the Chicago singer-songwriter. 

Terje Rypdal - Conspiracy (ECM) 

Typically sweeping, atmospheric sounds from the great guitarist. 

Terry Allen and the Panhandle Mystery Band - Just Like Moby Dick (Paradise Of Bachelors) 

First set of new, original songs from Allen since 2013 is rich in allusive narratives and well drawn arrangements. 

The Avalanches - We Will Always Love You (Modular Recordings) 

Pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this, having been somewhat unmoved by Wildflower - the collaborations with guests work really well, everything subsumed into a wider, coherent whole, despite being a bounty of sounds and ideas. 

The Budos Band - Long In The Tooth (Daptone) 

Killer grooves, killer horns, great sound. 

The Dead Tongues - Transmigration Blues (Psychic Hotline) 

Possibly the strongest of Ryan Gustafson's albums as The Dead Tongues and, as we can't listen to Ryan Adams anymore, this will do very nicely. 

The Homesick - The Big Exercise (Sub Pop) 

Great blend of wiry indie rock and pastoral elements. 

The Howling Hex - Knuckleball Express (Fat Possum) 

Typically ragged and frayed genius from Neil Hagerty. 

The Magnetic Fields - Quickies (Nonesuch) 

Never ones to miss an opportunity to build an album around a gimmicky concept, here Stephin Merritt's outfit deliver an album of many pithy, very short songs. The format works well for Merritt's brand of sardonic wit. 

The Microphones - Microphones in 2020 (PW Elverum & Sun) 

One very long, very moving song-story. 

The Necks - Three (ReR)

Another triumphant set of improvisations from the band expert in conjuring sheets of sound. 

The Orb - Abolition Of The Royal Familia (Cooking Vinyl) 

Vintage electronica pioneers sound fresh and revitalised. 

The Soft Pink Truth - Shall We Go On Sinning So That Grace May Increase? (Thrill Jockey) 

Dense atmospherics and revitalising sounds from Drew Daniel, on an album that apparently began life as a response to the rise of facism around the world. 

The Third Mind - The Third Mind (Yep Rock) 

Something of a mighty supergroup, with Richard Thompson drummer Michael Jerome, Dave Alvin, Victor Krummenacher, David Immergluck, and special guest Jessie Sykes. They brilliantly interpret music by Alice Coltrane, Tim Buckley, Paul Butterfield and others. 

The Transcendence Orchestra - Feeling The Spirit (Editions Mego) 

Ambient, healing music from Anthony Child. 

Theo Parrish - Wudaaji (Sound Signature) 

Typically soulful and deep club music from one of the great innovators. 

Thiago Nassif - Mente (Gearbox) 

Nassif organises a vast supporting cast on this album of unconventional, unclassifiable groove pop. 

This Is The Kit - Off Off On (Rough Trade) 

Absorbing, turbulent and intricate songs from Kate Stables. 

Threadbare - Silver Dollar (No Business) 

Radical, deconstructed, often heavy jazz from clarinettist Jason Stein, who readers may know from Natural Information Society. 

Three Queens In Mourning/Bonnie 'Prince' Billy - Hello Sorrow/Hello Joy (Textile) 

Alasdair Roberts, Jill O'Sullivan and Alex Neilsen take on the Will Oldham repertoire with predictably tremendous results. 

Throwing Muses - Sun Racket (Fire) 

Intense and incandescent, but sometimes hushed and tightly coiled. 

Thumbscrew - The Anthony Braxton Project (Cuneiform) 

Compelling approach to as yet unperformed Braxton compositions. There's clearly an affinity for Braxton's music and his concerns here, but also an individual freedom too. 

Thundercat - It Is What It Is (Brainfeeder) 

The virtuoso bassist continues to create thrillingly complex and inspirationally vivid contemporary fusion.

Tim Berne's Snakeoil - The Fantastic Mrs. 10 (Intakt)  

This feels a bit rawer and more insistent than the previous few Snakeoil albums - the project continues to develop in new and interesting ways. 

Tim Garland - ReFocus (Edition) 

An imaginative, audacious but empathetic reworking of Stan Getz's Focus album - Garland really excels at these broad canvas arrangements. 

Tim Heidecker - Fear Of Death (Spacebomb) 

Warm, loose and free wheeling album of 70s inspired country and soft rock pastiches. This jars with the album's thematic preoccupations with death and mid-life anxieties, itself a curiously effective device. 

TJO - Songs For Peacock (Orindal) 

A covers album of sorts - but a uniquely moving, unexpected and personal one, serving as it does as a mixtape dedication to Tara Jane O'Neil's late brother. 

Tomas Tello - Cimora (Discrepant) 

Unique sounding, contemplative instrumental music drawing on Peruvian traditions. 

Toots & The Maytals - Got To Be Tough (Trojan Jamaica/BMG)

Toots Hibbert is a massive loss. I reviewed this for musicOMH here. 

Trees Speak - Shadow Forms (Soul Jazz) 

Tucson, Arizona based experimental act explore motorik/Krautrock vibes. 

Tricky - Fall To Pieces (False Idols)

Characteristically terse and claustrophobic music from Tricky - working well with new vocalist Marta. 

Tristan Perich - Drift Multiply (New Amsterdam/Nonesuch) 

Contemporary composition for 50 violins and 50 loudspeakers. 

Tunes Of Negation - Like The Stars Forever and Ever (Cosmo Rhythmic) 

Second mysterious and hypnotic album from Sam Shackleton's trip with Takumi Motokawa and Raphael Meinhart. 

Tyshawn Sorey - Unfiltered (Bandcamp) 

More robust and brave contemporary music from the immense and uncompromising Tyshawn Sorey - pulling in all manner of different directions and offering constant surprise. A Bandcamp exclusive - but not set up to enable embedding, perhaps because, as the title suggests, these pieces are long, unedited and difficult to digest. 

https://tyshawn-sorey.bandcamp.com/album/unfiltered

2020 In New Music Part 12

Sam Amidon - Sam Amidon (Nonesuch)  

I reviewed this for musicOMH here. 

Sam Burton - I Can Go With You (Tompkins Square) 

Perfect reverb soaked laconic songs. 

Sam Gendel - Satin Doll (Nonesuch)

Sam Gendel - DRM (Nonesuch) 

Crazy video game jazztronica. Deconstructed standards on Satin Doll, modern standards (Old Town Road!) and original compositions on DRM.

Sam Lee - Old Wow (Cooking Vinyl) 

Another excellent album of repurposed folk material that sounds fresh, engaging and spirited. 

Santrofi - Alewa (OutHere) 

Tremendous Ghanaian Highlife. 

Sarah Davachi - Cantus, Descant (Late Music) 

Sarah Davachi - Figures In Open Air (Late Music) 

More mesmeric, immersive soundscapes. Figures In Open Air captures some assured live performances and is intended as a supplementary work. Cantus, Descant is a brilliantly coherent, strangely moving work for various organs and keyboards. 

Sarah Louise - Earth and Its Contents (Bandcamp) 

Originally created as a soundtrack for Nick Crockett's film Fire Underground, this elemental music now stands alone as it is made more resonant by climate change and by the pandemic. 

SAULT - Untitled (Black Is) (Forever Living Originals)

SAULT - Untitled (Rise) (Forever Living Originals) 

Supposedly mysterious artists shy of the limelight but actually no doubt an exceedingly effective PR project, Sault's two albums this year captured the BLM Zeitgeist with righteous protest and jubilant celebration. Most likely the work of producer Inflo and singer Cleo Sol (whose own somewhat overshadowed album was masterful). 

Schnellertollermeier - 5 (Cuneiform) 

Polyrhythmic delirium. 

Seafarers - Orlando (Bandcamp) 

Jazz musicians tackling modern original folk songs - vocals from the tremendous and very versatile Lauren Kinsella. 

Secret Machines - Awake In The Brain Chamber (TSM)

Welcome return of heavy progressive shoegaze outfit. 

Shabaka and The Ancestors - We Are Sent Here By History (Impulse!)

For me, the best and most important of Shabaka Hutchings' various projects. 

Shabason, Krgovitch & Harris - Philadelphia (Idee Fixe) 

Intimate, hushed songs capturing the detail of the mundane and the routined. Not sure I get the same satisfaction from making the bed, but the consolations of the home life meant something more in lockdown. 

Shabazz Palaces - The Don of Diamond Dreams (Sub Pop) 

Inventive and compelling avant-hip hop. 

Shackleton/Zimpel - Primal Forms (Cosmo Rhythmic)

Three long, slow building pieces in this successful collaboration between Sam Shackleton and Polish clarinettist Waclaw Zimpel. 

Shamir - Shamir (Bandcamp)

Shamir - Cataclysm (Bandcamp) 

Artful pop music with wide-ranging vocal presence. These albums are refreshingly different from Shamir's prior work - much less disco and much more angular rock band. 

Shirley Collins - Heart's Ease (Domino) 

Collins' assured comeback continues apace with this graceful collection, providing beautiful framings for Collins' conversational and direct delivery. This includes four new non-traditional tracks. 

Sibusile Xaba - Ngiwu Shwabada (Komos) 

Part of the maskandi and malombo traditions but also clearly with a distinctive and individual approach, this album of South African guitar and vocal music, apparently recorded in one continuous take, is revelatory. 

Sidi Toure - Afrik Toun Me (Thrill Jockey) 

More softly rhythmic. beautiful and joyful music from Mali with Toure joined by guitarist Mamadou Kelly and Boubou Diallo on calabash. 

Silver Scrolls - Music For Walks (Three Lobed) 

The title would suggest that this music is very much for me - and indeed, its combination of meditative, reflective space and exploration of rock music terrain is robust and effective. 

Sink Ya Teeth - Two (Hey Buffalo) 

Great art pop for the dance floor. 

Sir Richard Bishop - Oneiric Formulary (Drag City) 

Some fascinating divergences and tangents on this one, from electric guitar pieces to use of keyboards. 

Siti Muharam - Siti of Unguja (Romance Revolution On Zanzibar) (On The Corner) 

The granddaughter of legendary taraab singer Siti Binti Saad places her own interpretation on romantic musical traditions. 

Six Organs Of Admittance - Companion Rises (Drag City) 

Ben Chasny wrote, recorded and played everything here, sometimes adroitly blending acoustic guitar performances with treated vocals and electronics. This is not a lockdown record (it was released back in February), but one that maybe inadvertently set the scene for that type of independent, reflective release. 

Skeletons - If The Cat Comes Back (Shinkoyo) 

Nebulous, floating, curious song structures from Matt Mehlan. 

Skyway Man - The World Only Ends When You Die (Mama Bird Recording Co.) 

Country got soul.

Slauson Malone - Vergangenheitsbewältigung (Bandcamp) 

Brilliantly uncategorisable, disorientating, sonic verbiage. 

Sonar with David Torn - Tranceportation Vol. 2 (RareNoise) 

Second volume of lattice like groove structures with the innovative guitarist guesting. 

Songhoy Blues - Optimisme (Transgressive) 

Desert blues now with urgent, punkish energy. 

Space Afrika - hybtwibt? (Bandcamp) 

Mixtape of sounds, samples and recordings reconstructed with a strong narrative. Revenue donated to a range of BLM related charities. 

Sparkle Division - To Feel Embraced (Musex International/Temporary Residence) 

Bizarre collaboration between William Basinski (sometimes playing saxophone) and Preston Wendel. 

Sparks - A Steady Drip, Drip, Drip (BMG) 

One of the most consistently imaginative and underrated of bands. 

SPAZA - Uprise! (Mushroom Hour Half Hour) 

Subtly stirring improvised score documenting the battle against Apartheid. 

Speaker Music - Black Nationalist Sonic Weaponry (Planet Mu) 

Released without prior publicity in response to the death of George Floyd and the issues again highlighted as a result, DeForrest Brown Jr.'s second full album for Planet Mu is intellectual and theoretical but also visceral, hard hitting and uncompromising. A compelling amalgam of words and rhythm. 

Spencer Zahn - Sunday Painter (Cascine) 

Beautiful, lush, atmospheric instrumentals - delivered with a sense of painterly detail. 

Spike Orchestra - Splintered Stories (Tzadik) 

Sam Eastmond's radical modern big band music with remarkable dynamic range and intensity. 

https://www.tzadik.com 

Squarepusher - Be Up A Hello (Warp) 

Tom Jenkinson still has the ability to surprise and delight - and this favours his mischievous side. 

Starebaby - Natural Selection (Pi)

Dan Weiss' David Lynch-inspired noisy electric ensemble continues to produce music of impressive intensity and impact. 

Steve Spacek - Houses (Black Focus) 

Minimal and efficient soulful dance music. 

Stillefelt - Stillefelt (Stoney Lane) 

Chris Mapp's excellent ambient jazz trio offers space for contemplation and reflection. 

Still House Plants - Long Play (Bison) 

Still House Plants - Fast Edit (Bison) 

Bursts of combative defiance - free improvisation with a DIY/punk energy, interaction built on anxious and querulous interjections. 

Sufjan Stevens - The Ascencion (Asthmatic Kitty)

Sufjan Stevens and Lowell Brams - Aporia (Asthmatic Kitty) 

I'm still somewhat unconvinced by Sufjan Stevens' detours into electronic music - the clutter seems to too often detract from his emotional intentions. Still, The Ascension still has sublime moments and belongs here for its vaunting ambition alone. The instrumentals on Aporia, made in collaboration with his step father, radiate a genuine warmth. 

Sun Araw - Rock Sutra (Sun Ark) 

Manic and gleeful electro weirdness. 

Sun Ra Arkestra - Swirling (Strut) 

First studio album from the Arkestra, corralled by the great Marshall Allen, in over 20 years. Still very much in touch with the core astral concerns. 

Surprise Chef - Daylight Savings (Mr Bongo) 

Lithe and breezy groove pieces, recorded over the course of a single weekend. 

Susan Alcorn - Pedernal (Relative Pitch) 

Expanding the vocabulary and possibilities of the pedal steel guitar. Also, dream ensemble with Mary Halvorson, Mark Feldman, Michael Formanek and Ryan Sawyer. 

SUSS - Promise (Northern Spy) 

Dreamscapes of the American west. 

Swamp Dogg - Sorry You Couldn't Make It (Joyful Noise Recordings) 

A great new set of country soul songs to relish. The sadly missed John Prine guests on two tracks. 

2020 In New Music Part 11

Pantayo - Pantayo (Telephone Explosion) 

Brilliant all female contemporary kulintang ensemble. 

Pantha Du Prince - Conference Of Trees (Modern Recordings) 

Addressing the secret life of trees through percussive electronic music. 

Paradise Cinema - Paradise Cinema (Gondwana) 

Percussion-focused project from Jack Wyllie, recorded in Senegal.

Pat Metheny - From This Place (Nonesuch)  

First studio recording from Pat Metheny's current touring quartet with Gwilym Simcock, Linda May Han Oh and Antonio Sanchez brings lush, expansive arrangements and resplendent romanticism. 

Paul Burch & WPA Ballclub - Light Sensitive (Plowboy)

The former Lambchop member continues to inhabit a range of timeless song forms with genuine enthusiasm. 

Paul McCartney - McCartney III (MPL Communications/Universal) 

Lockdown prompted McCartney to revisit the approach of his previous self titled albums, playing all the instruments and handling production duties himself. The result is his bravest, most musically intriguing album for some time. 

Pearl Jam - Gigaton (Monkeywrench/Universal) 

Now something of a rock behemoth, it's not clear that Pearl Jam are actually developing any further musically with each album, although the unexpected burst of disco on Dance Of The Clairvoyants works well. They trundle on consistently - and that is welcome enough. 

Pet Shop Boys - Hotspot (x2 Recordings) 

Another sleek and dependable, cannily observed modern pop record. Their continued existence and success is a wonder. 

Phoebe Bridgers - Punisher (Dead Oceans) 

Literate and acutely observed songwriting, unafraid of expressing emotion and deploying absorbing textures in the sound. 

Pinch - Reality Tunnels (Tectonic) 

First album in thirteen years from genre-crossing electronic producer Rob Ellis. 

Pink Siifu - Negro (Field-Left) 

Pink Siifu & Fly Anakin - FlySiifu's (Lex) 

'Negro' is fragmented, inspired, brutalist hip hop. The Fly Anakin collaboration is more easily approachable, but also full of distinctive ideas. 

Pole - Fading (Mute)

A new album from Stefan Betke is always welcome - and his minimalist, shielded aesthetic works as well as ever here. 

Porridge Radio - Every Bad (Secretly Canadian) 

One of 2020's most confident and convincing indie rock albums. 

Powers/Rolin Duo - Powers/Rolin Duo (Feeding Tube) 

Powers/Rolin Duo - The Nightland (Trouble In Mind) 

Beautiful, transcendent guitar/hammered dulcimer duo collaboration strikes gold twice. 

Pretty Sneaky - Pretty Sneaky (Mana) 

Very little seems to be known about Pretty Sneaky - as very little information is provided, the music seemingly appearing through stealth. So the protracted and mesmerising dub techno has to speak for itself, which it does most effectively. 

Psychic Temple - Houses Of The Holy (Joyful Noise)

Epic exploration of a variety of set-ups and approaches from the excellent Chris Schlarb. 

Pulled By Magnets - Rose Golden Doorways (tak:til) 

Sebastian Rochford's outstanding latest project, a very different beast from Polar Bear, explores both sound and space with depth and contemplation. 

I interviewed Sebastian for musicOMH here, touching on compelling themes of identity and self realisation. 

Pure Bathing Culture - Hats (Better Company) 

A bold move - the dreamy electro pop duo reimagine The Blue Nile's masterpiece. 

Quelle Chris & Chris Keys - Innocent Country 2 (Mello Music) 

One of 2020's most ambitious, high concept and powerful hip hop albums, with a compelling roster of guests. 

Raul Monsalve y los Forajidos - Bichos (Olindo) 

Thrilling, kinetic Afro-Venezuelan music with a superbly articulate horn section, produced by Malcolm Catto (The Heliocentrics). 

Ray Russell - Fluid Architecture (Cuneiform) 

Drawing from blues, progressive rock, electronic and ambient music, the great guitarist crafts something modernist and unpredictable. In the words of Jim O'Rourke, 'Russell makes it sound as if the guitar is not enough'. 

Regis - Hidden In This Is The Light That You Miss (Downwards) 

Unflinching brutalist electronica. 

RG Lowe - Life Of The Body (Western Vinyl) 

Smooth, soulful and sensuous pop songs from the former neo-classical artist. 

Rhyton - Krater's Call (Bandcamp) 

Six studio improvisations from the rhythmically malleable rock trio. 

Rian Treanor - File Under UK Metaplasm (Planet Mu) 

Informed by footwork and dubstep, but far more frenetic, wild and disorientating, Rian Treanor's music is overwhelming and full on. 

Richard Skelton - Lastglacialmaximum (Corbel Stone Press)

Richard Skelton - These Charms May Be Sung Over A Wound (Phantom Limb) 

The great chronicler of the British and Irish landscape meditates on the Ice Age. 

On his first album for the Phantom Limb label, he eschews all acoustic instrumentation and aims for somewhat different textures and effects. 

Rick Simpson - Everything All The Time: Kid A Revisited (Whirlwind) 

Released to coincide with the 20th anniversary of Radiohead's Kid A, this album of small acoustic jazz group interpretations demonstrates both an inherent curiosity and affinity for the source material, using it as a template from which to explore new ideas and interactions. The result is a more human take on this anxious, edgy turn of the millennium treatise. 

Rina Sawayama - Sawayama (Dirty Hit) 

All encompassing, urgent, daring pop music. 

Riz Ahmed - The Long Goodbye (Mongrel) 

An album that speaks to the British moment - reflecting on the relationship of British Asians with Britain as an abusive one, reflections inevitably made through the prism of colonial history. 

Rob Luft - Life Is The Dancer (Edition) 

The guitarist is one of the most exciting musicians at work in contemporary jazz. After a surprising and brilliant motorik opener ('Berlin'), the rest of the album is in more familiar contemporary jazz mode, but the compositions are confident and striking, and the album as a whole is agile and jubilant. 

Rob Mazurek Exploding Star Orchestra - Dimensional Stardust (International Anthem/Nonesuch) 

Masterful, awe inspiring large ensemble work featuring some of the most imaginative and dynamic musicians currently at work on the US scene (including Nicole Mitchell, Tomeka Reid, Damon Locks, Jeff Parker and Joel Ross). 

Robert Haigh - Black Sarabande (Unseen Worlds) 

Minimal, intimate and gorgeous piano and electronics pieces. 

Robert Hood - Mirror Man (Rekids) 

Techno pioneer continues to produce high quality, powerful work. 

Roisin Murphy - Roisin Machine (Loaded/BMG)

Sleek, majestic, hugely enjoyable dance pop workout. Perhaps Murphy's best album? 

Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever - Sideways To New Italy (Sub Pop) 

Crisp, pacy, power pop with a refreshing attention to melodic detail. 

Romeo Poirier - Hotel Nota (Sferic) 

Abstract electronic/musique concrete travelogue. 

Ron Miles - Rainbow Sign (Blue Note) 

A dream ensemble lead by trumpet and cornet player Ron Miles (with Bill Frisell, Thomas Morgan, Jason Moran and Brian Blade) negotiate sincere, emotional but nonetheless knotty compositions, reflecting Miles' period providing end of life care for his father in 2018. 

Roly Porter - Kistvaen (Subtext/Multiverse) 

Kistvaen takes its name from a type of granite tomb found on Dartmoor and this reflection on burial sites is starkly evocative. 

Rose City Band - Summerlong 

Exuberant, loosely propulsive second album from Ripley Johnson's recording project. 

Ross McHenry - Nothing Remains Unchanged (First Word) 

Tricksy, complex jazz compositions executed with daring precision. Typically tremendous drumming from Eric Harland on this. 

Rudresh Mahanthappa - Hero Trio (Whirlwind Recordings) 

A modern standard repertoire delivered with ingenuity and a playful sense of fun. 

Run The Jewels - RTJ4 (Jewel Runners/BMG)  

The strongest example of EL-P and Killer Mike's enduring collaboration since the first release. 

Rustin Man - Clockdust (Domino) 

Bonus second helping of Paul Webb's pastoral, ambitious modern folk music. I had really been excited about seeing this music live towards the end of this year - sadly not to be. 

2020 In New Music Part 10

 Nadia Reid - Out Of My Province (Spacebomb) 

Effective, bittersweet and empathetic collaboration between the assured singer-songwriter and the Spacebomb studio team. 

Nadine Shah - Kitchen Sink (Infectious/BMG) 

Shah's best album to date - a darkly imaginative, rhythmic confection. A particularly excellent opening three songs (Club Cougar, Ladies for Babies (Goats for Love) and Buckfast). 

Naeem - Startisha (37d03d)

The rapper also known as Spank Rock makes an ambitious (and successful) vault for modern soul. 

Nahash - Flowers Of The Revolution (SVBKVLT)

Confrontational and abrasive sound worlds. 

Nap Eyes - Snapshot Of A Beginner (Jagjaguwar) 

Quirky, idiosyncratic indie-rock. 

Nate Wolley - Seven Storey Mountain VI (Pyroclastic) 

Longform integration of composition and improvisation, the score assembled from instructions to musicians. Stunning choral arrangement. I first encountered Wooley's music in 2019 because he released a suite inspired by the Columbia Icefield just as I was visiting Banff and Jasper. I now really need to delve back and explore the rest of this song cycle - on this evidence, it is extraordinary music. 

Nathan Salsburg - Landwerk (No Quarter) 

Nathan Salsburg - Landwerk 2 (No Quarter) 

Inspired by The Caretaker, guitarist Salsburg (Joan Shelley, amongst others) took fragments from old 78rpm records as the basis for these atmospheric, haunting pieces. 

Nazar - Guerilla (Hyperdub) 

Nazar terms his music Rough Kuduro - a contemporary, unflinching interpretation of Angolan music and dance style to confront memory and collective trauma. 

Neil Charles - Low and Beyond (Takuroku) 

cafeOTO · TR096 - Neil Charles - Bass solo

The entire, massive Takuroku catalogue of musicians' lockdown recordings is worth investigating, this album of highly creative, versatile solo bass improvising from the excellent Neil Charles being a particular highlight. 

Nels Cline Singers - Share The Wealth (Memorize and Destroy) 

Long and exploratory work from the great guitarist, often exploring softer textures and more melodic environments. 

Nick Cave - Idiot Prayer (Mute) 

Live recording of Cave's Alexandra Palace streamed event finds him playing to his strengths with tender, romantic solo piano performances. 

Nick Jonah Davis - When The Sun Came (Thread Recordings) 

Solo guitar work featuring blues-tinged laments and bright, joyful hymnals. 

Nicolas Jaar - Centriza (Other People)

Nicolas Jaar - Telas (Other People) 

A bounty from Jaar this year, when these two excellent albums are set alongside the Against All Logic material. Telas emphasises long form pieces incorporating a range of acoustic instrumentation, while Centriza focuses more on drones and electronics. 

Nicole Atkins - Italian Ice (Single Lock) 

Compelling, lush, soulful songwriting. 

Nicole Mitchell and Moor Mother - Offering (Don Giovanni) 

Nicole Mitchell and Lisa E. Harris - EarthSeed (FPE) 

Two great collaborations from the composer and improviser, the latter an opera project inspired by Octavia Butler, the former an electronics-dominated set with Moor Mother. 

Nihiloxica - Kaloli (Crammed Discs) 

Traditional Ugandan music meets the nightclub. 

No Age - Goons Be Gone (Drag City) 

Scuzzy, distorted, raw and elemental rock. 

Noemi Nuti - Venus Eye (Ubuntu) 

The female perspective in jazz song - including some startling arrangements. 

Nordra - Pylon III (Sige) 

Score to a multimedia performance. 

North Americans - Roped In (Third Man) 

Beautiful, drone based landscapes in sound. 

Noveller - Arrow (Ba Da Bing) 

Sarah Lipstate's radical guitar pieces, with furtive effects and electronics. 

Nubya Garcia - Source (Concord Jazz) 

Vibrant, accessible debut fusing jazz composition with a range of black musical forms - reggae, dub, West African rhythms and more beyond. 

Obongjayar - Which Way Is Forward? (September Recordings) 

Wonderfully intricate electronic soul, drawing from West African musical traditions. 

Oddjob - Kong (Headspin/Outhere) 

Swedish cinematic jazz quintet. 

Okkyung Lee - Neo-Yeun (Shelter Press) 

An unexpected shift sees the great cellist leading an experimental chamber quartet with harp, bass and piano and making disarmingly vulnerable, beautiful music. 

Oliver Coates - Skins n Slime (RVNG Intl.) 

With a five part suite called Caregiver, this feels painfully relevant to the pandemic year. It's also a sonically imaginative work, further expanding Coates' musical vocabulary. 

Oneohtrix Point Never - Magic Oneohtrix Point Never (Warp) 

Daniel Lopatin continues his prolific run with more fractured, attention deficit electronica, alternating with more melodically conventional pieces. 

ONO - Red Summer (American Dreams) 

A confrontational, provocative and uncategorisable record dealing with racial violence, history and the city of Chicago. 

Ooioo - Nijimusi (Thrill Jockey) 

Return of Yoshimi

Open Mike Eagle - Anime, Trauma & Divorce (Auto Reverse) 

Forward thinking, original and darkly funny hip hop. 

Osees - Protean Threat (Castleface) 

Osees - Panther Rotate (Castleface) 

Trashy, ramshackle, noisy psychedelia. 

Otis Sansjo - Y-OTIS 2 (We Jazz) 

In an ensemble with Petter Eldh, Dan Nicholls and Til Weber, Sandsjo is making intelligent, forward thinking contemporary jazz with electronics and synthesisers. 

Oval - Scis (Thrill Jockey) 

Markus Popp further refines his approach to electronic composition.