2020 In New Music Part 8

Ka - Descendents Of Cain (Iron Works) 

Ka's rapping style is defiantly unconventional - intimate, as if he is speaking to the listener at close quarters, but also capable of authority. Similarly the music, more reliant on atmosphere and texture than beats, is unusual and compelling. 

Kacy & Clayton with Marlon Williams - Plastic Bouquet (New West) 

Collaboration across geography and seasons between the duo from Saskatoon and the New Zealand songwriter. 29 minutes of crisp, acute, vintage sounding country pop. 

Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith - The Mosaic Of Transformation (Ghostly International) 

More gently effervescent electronica, sometimes centred around the sound of the wooden organ. 

Kamaal Williams - Wu Hen (Black Focus) 

Effective dance and hip hop as orchestrated on 'live instruments'. 

Kassa Overall - I Think I'm Good (Brownswood) 

Decisively contemporary jazz and hip hop inspired sound collage from the drummer and composer, tackling issues surrounding mental health and inequality. 

Kate NV - Room For The Moon (RVNG Intl) 

Intricate and playful electronic compositions. 

Kath Bloom - Bye Bye These Are The Days  (Dear Life) 

Fragile but beautiful songs. 

Katie Gately - Loom (Houndstooth) 

An intense and moving record, foregrounding Gately's voice. 

Keeley Forsyth - Debris (The Leaf Label) 

A bold, singular and minimal work with striking and immediate impact.  

Keith Jarrett - Budapest Concert (ECM) 

ECM's regular issuing of Keith Jarrett concert recordings assumed a new emotional significance and power this year, as he went public about the stroke that has devastatingly left him unable to play. 

Keleketla & Coldcut - Keleketla! (Ninja Tune) 

Huge and greatly enjoyable global collaborative project recorded in South Africa and London. Features the late, great Tony Allen. 

Kelly Lee Owens - Inner Song (Smalltown Supersound) 

Reflective, thoughtful electronica, its cold edges warmed by Owens' feathery vocals. 

Kevin Morby - Sundowner (Dead Oceans) 

Prolific songwriter with a Dylanesque vocal twang balances acoustic and electric arrangements in depicting the Midwest and brings an acerbic quality to the delivery. 

Khruangbin - Mordechai (Dead Oceans) 

Aquatic sounding groove based psychedelia from the Texas band. 

Klein - Frozen (Bandcamp)

An intriguing left turn into abstraction. 

KMRU - Peel (Editions Mego) 

Warm, enveloping ambience from Nairobi. 

Krononaut - Krononaut (Glitterbeat) 

Superb collaboration between producer and multi-instrumentalist Leo Abrahams and drummer Martin France. Also features contributions from Matana Roberts. I reviewed this for music OMH here.  

Lama Lobsang Salden & Jim Becker - Compassion (Drag City) 

This unexpected collaboration is one of the great consoling albums of 2020. Jim Becker is a multi instrumentalist who has played with Califone and Iron & Wine, Lama Lobsang Palden is an 'energy healer' specialising in Buddhist meditation. 

Lambchop - TRIP (City Slang) 

A covers album of rare insight - with each band member selecting a favourite song to be delivered in Kurt Wagner's inimitable style. 

Larraji - Sun Piano (All Saints) 

Laraaji - Moon Piano (All Saints) 

Meditative solo piano improvisations from the Eno-endorsed artist, sometimes around familiar themes. Both albums were recorded in the same session in a Brooklyn church that stayed open while Laraaji was playing. 

Lara Jones - Enso (Lara Jones Music) 

Otherworldly solo saxophone recordings. 

LA Timpa - Modern Antics In A Deserted Place (Halcyon Veil) 

Weird, lurching, woozy sound worlds. 

Laura Cannell - The Earth With Her Crowns (Brawl) 

Laura Cannell - These Feral Lands Vol. 1 (Brawl) 

On The Earth With Her Crowns, Laura Cannell (a regular feature in these lists) continues to find intriguing spaces in which to record - in this case, the Wapping Hydraulic Power Station - and the natural acoustics are a significant part of the overall sound. 

On These Feral Lands, Cannell collaborates with comedian Stewart Lee, Cellist Kate Ellis, writer and broadcaster Jennifer Lucy Allan and musician and writer Polly Wright to create a highly inventive and beautiful music and spoken word project. 

Laura Groves - A Private Road (Bella Union) 

Laura Groves signing with Bella Union was some of the best cultural news of 2020 - and this EP captures her skills with melody and lush textures. 

Laura Marling - Song For Our Daughter (Chrysalis) 

Marling is a singer-songwriter continuing to grow in confidence, developing a distinctive voice and approach. 

Laura Veirs - My Echo (Bella Union) 

Much like Marling, Laura Veirs is another impressively consistent and dependable songwriter. This one movingly captures the disintegration of her marriage with producer Tucker Martine ("my songs knew I was getting divorced before I did"). 

Laurel Halo - Possessed (The Vinyl Factory) 

Eerie, crepuscular original score. 

Laurence Pike - Prophecy (The Leaf Label) 

Solo performances on drums, percussion and sampler - recorded during the period of severe wildfires in Australia, but also very relevant to the pandemic. Delivered with a nuanced touch and a clear musicality. 

Leo Takami - Felis Catus and Silence (Unseen Worlds)

Beautiful, meticulously arranged music informed by Japanese gakaku, jazz, ambient and new age. 

Les Amazones d'Afrique - Amazones Power (Real World) 

Second album of forthright, strident music from this powerhouse supergroup. 

Lindstrøm & Prins Thomas - III (Smalltown Supersound) 

Renewed and revitalised collaboration - tactile and sensory electronic music. 

Liv.e - Couldn't Wait To Tell You (In Real Life) 

Unique, fragmented perspective on soul and R&B. 

Lloyd Miller with Adam Michael Terry and Ian Camp - At The Ends Of The World (Fountains AVM)

A superb spiritual jazz album informed by Persian influences with multifaceted arrangements using varied instrumentation. 

Lomelda - Hannah (Double Double Whammy) 

Hannah Read's songs are endearingly brittle. 

Lonnie Holley - National Freedom (Jagjaguwar) 

Grittier follow up to Mith, with greater emphasis on guitar and blues stylings. 

Lorenzo Senni - Scatto Matto (Warp) 

Punchy, dayglo electronica. 

Lucia Cadotsch - Speak Low II (We Jazz) 

Swiss vocalist in a trio with Otis Sansjo and Petter Eldh adds the considerable talents of  Kit Downes on Hammond organ and Lucy Railton on cello. 

Lucinda Williams - Good Souls, Better Angels (Highway 20) 

Less Memphis soul and dusty country roads and more gritty, defiant bluesy rock and roll on this one. 

Lucrecia Dalt - No Era Solida (RVNG Intl.)

A fascinating, haunted sound collage, into which the voice is subsumed. 

Luke Abbott - Translate (Border Community) 

Slow building, protracted pastoral electronica. 

Luke Schneider - Altar Of Harmony (Third Man) 

A reinvention of the pedal steel guitar into something truly versatile. 

Luke Stewart - Exposure Quintet (Astral Spirits) 

More great improvised music from the astonishingly fertile Chicago scene. 

Lydia Loveless - Daughter (Honey, You're Gonna Be Late) 

Typically caustic country rock songs, and the first release on Lydia Loveless' own record label. 

Lyra Pramuk - Fountain (Bedroom Community) 

Excellent debut album, built from Pramuk's ghostly and insidious vocals and sculpted with electronics.