The big annual round-up of new music for 2020 took so long that I am considering doing a regular blog post summarising the new music for each month of the year. This is at least in part to remind myself to return to things occasionally!
I am not promising I will be able to sustain this, but here is a first attempt - more than 60 albums released in January that are at least worthy of a listen. It's too soon to pick out potential highlights of the year, but I've been particularly enjoying Patricia Brennan, Yasmin Williams, Fergus McCreadie and Diego Pinera.
Thanks, as ever, to everyone on Twitter contributing to the Friday new music threads - what a revelation they continue to be!
Abul Mogard - In Immovable Air (Ecstatic)
Beautiful, textured ambience evoking the natural world.
Aki Takase/Christian Weber/Michael Griener - Auge (Intakt)
Democratic, collaborative and empathetic piano trio, balancing haunting beauty with moments of wildness.
Albertine Sarges - The Sticky Fingers (Moshi Moshi)
The Sticky Fingers provides the name of both this album and the band Sarges has assembled to create it. Arty, fun and radical pop music with joyously infectious melodies.
Alexander Hawkins - Togetherness Music (For Sixteen Musicians) (Intakt)
One of the UK's great pioneers of improvised music, here celebrating his 40th birthday, continues to produce work of seriousness, combining intensity with the joy of collaborative music making. It is of course notable that this also features the great Evan Parker.
Alostmen - Kologo (Strut)
Celebratory, joyful and vital music centred around the Frafra traditions of the kologo (stringed lute).
Ani DiFranco - Revolutionary Love (Righteous Babe)
DiFranco's extraordinary consistency as a songwriter and performer continues on this gloriously soulful album.
Anna B Savage - A Common Turn (City Slang)
Excellent debut album of myserious, translucent songs. Produced by William Doyle (East India Youth).
Apifera - Overstand (Stones Throw)
Hazy, dreamy, synthy jazz textures.
Arlo Parks - Collapsed In Sunbeams (Transgressive)
The sort of release I might often be (unfairly) resistant towards because of the months of prior hype - but this is genuinely delightful, soulful, lingeringly memorable music.
Azmari - Sama'i (Sdban/N.E.W.S.)
Brussels based band fusing musical influences from various parts of the world.
Beautify Junkyards - Cosmorama (Ghost Box)
Fourth album from Lisbon based group specialising in haunted grooves.
Bicep - Isles (Ninja Tune)
Detailed dance music with lush textures and insistent impact. Dreams of the dance floor.
Binker and Moses - Escape The Flames (Gearbox)
Appropriately incandescent live set from the always impressive duo.
Bisbaye - The Sense Of An Ending (Cuneiform)
Intense, hugely enjoyable metal-meets-math rock-meets jazz.
Bitchin Bajas - live ateliers claus (Bandcamp)
Characteristically absorbing live recording. Intriguingly, the band had had all their equipment stolen immediately ahead of this 2018 performance - it's fascinating to hear how comfortably they adapt.
Caroline Shaw - Narrow Sea (Nonesuch)
So Percussion, Dawn Upshaw and Gilbert Kalish deliver Shaw's very new settings of often familiar texts from the Sacred Harp - this is an intricate, richly imagined musical world.
Celeste - Not Your Muse (Universal)
The much feted singer delivers a direct, classy debut album.
Diego Pinera - Odd Wisdom (ACT)
A superb ensemble with saxophonist Donny McCaslin, guitarist Ben Monder and bassist Scott Colley deliver Pinera's knotty but memorable compositions with a thrilling, adventurous small group vibe.
Divide and Dissolve - Gas Lit (Invada)
A 'call to transformation and freedom' encompassing some brutal noise and dense, confrontational sheets of sound.
Elori Saxl - The Blue Of Distance (Western Vinyl)
The music here feels aquatic and elemental - and then you discover that it is partially based on digitally processed recordings of wind and water. When combined with instrumental contributions, the result is a compelling and effective contemporary sound world.
Emeka Ogboh - Beyond The Yellow Haze (A-TON)
Superb, multi-layered debut album from the Nigerian sound and installation artist.
Ethan Iverson - Bud Powell In The 21st Century (Sunnyside Communications)
The former Bad Plus pianist explores the lasting legacy and influence of the great piano player and composer Bud Powell in rich, kaleidoscopic arrangements. Features an impressive roster of musicians including Ingrid Jensen, Ben Street and the Umbria Jazz Orchestra.
Fergus McCreadie - Cairn (Edition)
Thoughtful, deeply melodic, frequently thrilling trio album from the young Scottish pianist and composer with a strong sense of landscape and nature. Great dynamic and textural range throughout.
Francisco Mela - M.P.T. Trio Volume 1 (577 Recordings)
Jazz meets Cuban traditions on this breathtaking set.
Goat Girl - On All Fours (Rough Trade)
More nuanced, introspective and exposed second album.
Grandbrothers - All The Unknown (City Slang)
Third album exploring the integration of electronics and live instrumentation to create percussive patterns and layered atmospherics.
Hilang Child - Every Mover (Bella Union)
Earnest, honest electro-acoustic songwriting.
Ivo Perelman Trio - Garden of Jewels (Tao Forms)
Bold and uncompromising improvised music.
James Yorkston - The Wide, Wide River (Domino)
The kind of artist it is now too easy to take for granted due to their extensive catalogue. This one is a loose and spontaneous collaboration with The Secondhand Orchestra, with intuitive arrangements that really bring the songs to life.
Jason Moran - The Sound Will Tell You (Bandcamp)
A good example of how lockdown has unlocked a different kind of creativity in some artists.
Jim Ghedi - In The Furrows Of Common Place (Basin Rock)
Powerful and intense exploration of modern folksong.
Joe Lovano/Marilyn Crispell/Carmen Castaldi - Garden Of Expression (ECM)
Both expressive and meditative - featuring some deft and controlled playing with great lightness of touch.
John Pope Quintet - Mixed With Glass (NEWJAiM)
An open-minded approach to contemporary jazz and improvisation, both drawing from jazz tradition and engagement with other forms of music. The triple horned front line and lack of chordal rhythm section instrument makes for a compelling and refreshing line up too.
Kitchen Cynics - Beads Upon An Abacus (The Trilogy Tapes)
Technically a compilation, so probably belongs there, but it's well worth highlighting Alan Davidson's refracted folksong.
Lande Hekt - Going To Hell (Get Better)
Songwriting that succeeds in being both raw and sophisticated, often drawing from new wave.
Lia Ices - Family Album (Natural Music)
Enriching, melodic and emotive songs delivered with an affecting, tremulous grace.
Loren Connors and Oren Ambarchi - Leone (Family Vineyard)
A dream collaboration, structured with two solo performances sandwiching a duo piece.
Madlib - Sound Ancestors (Madlib Invasion)
Visionary hip hop producer joins forces with Kieren Hebden (perhaps playing a Teo Macero-style editing role) for a compelling sound collage.
Mala Herba - Demonologia (Olindo)
The study of demons, ghosts etc - music both haunting and ritualistic.
Mario Rom's Interzone - Eternal Fiction (Traumton)
A band celebrating its ten year anniversary but very much new to me - an incandescent take on European jazz with very agile drumming!
Mason Lindahl - Kissing Rosy In The Rain (Tompkins Square)
Enveloping, hypnotic solo guitar music with a beautiful reverb-drenched sound.
Mica Levi - Blue Alibi (Bandcamp)
Surprise second instalment of raw sounding but intelligent avant noise pop from an artist determined not to be pigeonholed.
Midnight Sister - Painting The Roses (Jagjaguwar)
Brilliantly constructed synthesis of 70s pop stylings.
Mu Tate - Let Me Put Myself Together (Experiences Ltd)
Blissful, carefully textured, tactile electronica.
Nahawa Doumbia - Kawana (Awesome Tapes From Africa)
Effortlessly strident and energising music from Mali.
Palberta - Palberta5000 (Wharf Cat)
Another band who have been around for a while but are new to me - I've been enjoying this deceptively rough around the edges art pop from New York.
Patricia Brennan - Maquishti (Valley Of Search)
Thoughtful and engaging percussion improvisations with a spiritual quality and without genre boundaries.
Pom Poko - Cheater (Bella Union)
Zany, off kilter and distinctively artful pop from the Norwegian group.
Rhye - Home (Lome Vista Recordings)
Sensuous and sensitive song based music, this time incorporating guest vocalists.
Richard Osborn - Endless (Tompkins Square)
Student of Robbie Basho belatedly issues first widely available solo guitar album.
Shai Maestro - Human (ECM)
Second ECM release from the pianist and his current trio - drifting, resonant and empathetic music.
Spyros Polychronopoulos/Thanos Polymeneas-Liontris/Iakovos Pavlopoulos - Widdershins (Room40)
Electronics, bass and percussion improvisations often drawing maximum drama from unexpected and curious sounds.
Susie Ibarra - Talking Gong (New Focus)
An album of great range and depth from the percussionist and composer.
Teresa Winter - Love Crime (Boomkat Editions)
https://boomkat.com/products/love-crime-ee03296b-2238-440f-b80a-347be9fd7a82
Brilliantly immersive and provocative lockdown recordings, distilling a range of club and electronic influences into a heady synaesthesia for the moment.
Terry Gross - Soft Opening (Thrill Jockey)
Motorik intensity from trio with Trans Am's Phil Manley.
The Besnard Lakes - The Besnard Lakes Are The Last Great Thunderstorm Warnings (Full Time Hobby)
Further progtastic explorations, although not without attention to detail in mood and melody too. One of the stronger Besnard Lakes records.
The Body - I've Seen All I Need To See (Thrill Jockey)
Typically brooding, visceral and intense meditations.
The Notwist - Vertigo Days (Morr Music)
File alongside Califone in a list of dependably consistent and underrated bands, continuing to explore new directions.
Theo Bleckmann and The Westerlies - This Land (The Westerlies Music)
Fascinating exploration of the combination of voice and brass.
Th1rt3en - A Magnificent Day For An Exorcism (Fat Beats)
The impact of some of this may depend on your tolerance for rap-rock, but Pharaohe Monch's near-breathless, nimble flow is compelling in any context.
Universally Challenged - Oh Temple! (Hive Mind)
Minimalist but gradually broadening psychedelic expanses.
Various Artists - Indaba Is (Brownswood)
Another of the specially curated projects the Brownswood label excels at, this time focusing on contemporary South African jazz. Recorded over five days, the music here has an urgency and immediacy.
Various Artists (John Dwyer) - Witch Egg (Castle Face)
The ever prolific John Dwyer (O Sees) assembles a range of musicians to explore skronky avant rock improvising. Hints of Can.
Will Glaser - Climbing In Circles (Ubuntu)
The supremely musical and expressive drummer has released an album of maturity and depth, exploring a range of approaches to improvisation in a trio with saxophonist Matthew Herd and pianist Liam Noble.
Xela and Jake Muir - Safe (Boomkat Editions)
John Twells returns to recording under the Xela moniker for the first time in more than ten years.
Yasmin Williams - Urban Driftwood (Spinster)
Stunning, shimmering solo guitar music.
Yung - Ongoing Dispute (PNKSLM)
Edgy, angular, verbose indie rock.
Yu Su - Yellow River Blue (Yi Shi Yi Se)
Subtle and absorbing electronic tapestries.
Yvette Janine Jackson - Freedom (Fridman Gallery)
Remarkable compositions dealing in textured sound.
SOME REISSUES AND COMPILATIONS
PJ Harvey - Is This Desire? + Demos
Julius Hemphill - The Boye Multi-National Crusade For Harmony (Box Set) https://www.newworldrecords.org/products/julius-hemphill-1938-1995-the-boye-multi-national-crusade-for-harmony-box-set
Marc Almond - The Stars We Are Deluxe Edition
Various Artists - Somewhere Between: Mutant Pop, Electronic Minimalism & Shadow Sounds Of Japan 1980-88 (Light In The Attic)
Various Artists - Cafe Exil - New Adventures in European Music 1972-1980 (Ace)
Shintaro Quintet - Evolution (BBE Music)
Various Artists - For The Good Times - The Songs of Kris Kristofferson (Light In The Attic)
SINGLES/LOOKING AHEAD
The Weather Station - Atlantic
Pino Palladino and Blake Mills - Just Wrong
Hiss Golden Messenger - Sanctuary
Teenage Fanclub - I'm More Inclined
Matthew E. White and Lonnie Holley - This Here Jungle of Modernness/Composition 14
Bill Mackay and Nathan Bowles - Joy Ride
Dean McPhee - The Alchemist