Below is part 1 of a longlist featuring a large cross section of music I have enjoyed during 2021. It is hard to overstate how important recorded music has been during this very uncertain period where life feels like it has been repeatedly stopping and half resuming. I have to thank everyone who has contributed to my weekly new music threads on Twitter - I heard a lot of music that would otherwise have passed me by that way. Links to Bandcamp or Spotify where possible. TL;DR - Yes I will be picking a shortlist of 50 or so if you have neither the time nor the inclination to explore all this!
Artifacts - ...and then there's this (Astral Editions)
The combination of Mike Reed (drums), Tomeka Reid (cello) and Nicole Mitchell flute makes for a fascinating and unusual improvising trio on this kinetic, engaging album.
Aaron Dilloway & Lucrecia Dalt - Lucy & Aaron (Hanson)
Unsettling sounds, loops and textures in a highly effective, modern sounding collaboration.
Adam Rudolph/Go: Organic Guitar Orchestra - Resonant Bodies (Metarecords)
A guitar ensemble featuring some of the most individual and innovative guitarists currently at work (Liberty Ellman! Nels Cline! Miles Okazaki!) with pieces named after stars in the Cygnus cluster. The way these guitars are orchestrated to adopt different functions within the ensemble is so interesting.
Adeline Hotel - The Cherries Are Speaking (Ruination Record Co.)
Adeline Hotel - Good Timing (Ruination Record Co.)
Two excellent albums - one solo, one with considered arrangements for an ensemble.
Alasdair Roberts & Volvur - The Old Fabled River (Drag City)
A combination of Roberts originals and Scottish and Norwegian songs in this fruitful, evocative combination of folk traditions.
Alchemy Sound Project - Afrika Love (Alchemy Sound Project)
The core of this group is a quintet with three horns, bass and piano. Chad Taylor guests on drums. The music has an urgency and potency.
Alexander Hawkins - Togetherness Music (Intakt)
A dramatic and enthralling work for sixteen musicians, featuring Evan Parker and Riot Ensemble and a valuable addition to one of the most impressive recorded catalogues in contemporary British improvised music.
Alexis Taylor - Silence (Domino)
Alexis was kind enough to send me an advance stream of this album while I was in hospital with pancreatitis back in early spring. Although the songs are in many ways either sad or melancholy, I also feel a degree of solace and consolation, in the spaces as much as the sounds, so this made an ideal soundtrack to my recovery. Alexis' best solo album so far for me.
Allison Russell - Outside Child (Birds Of Chicago)
A bold and beautiful survivor's suite of songs. Overwhelmingly moving at times. Nightflyer and Persephone are two of my favourite songs of the year.
Jasper Verhulst's project with Turkish musicians produced two captivating albums this year.
Amethyst Kiah - Wary + Strange (Rounder)
Together with Allison Russell and Rhiannon Giddens and Leyla McCalla, Amethyst Kiah is part of the Our Native Daughters collaboration (and she powerfully revisits the strident Black Myself from that project here). Here, her own voice and presence dominates with clarity of purpose and conviction, but without losing subtlety and nuance in communication and dynamics.
Amir ElSaffar Rivers Of Sound - The Other Shore (Outhere)
This is ElSaffar's eighth album, but his second large scale project with the Rivers Of Sound orchestra, brilliantly fusing approaches from improvised music with Arabic musical content and culture.
Andrew Cyrille Quartet - The News (ECM)
The great jazz drummer is making some of his best work in his 80s, in a quartet with David Virelles (piano), Bill Frisell (guitar) and Ben Street (bass). Delicate, controlled, lyrical and gently haunting music.
Andrew Scott Young, Ryan Jewell & Ryley Walker - Post Wook (Husky Pants)
Atmospheric jams.
Andrew Tuttle and Padang Food Tigers - A Cassowary Apart (Bedroom Suck Records)
A pandemic collaboration between two of my favourite artists, made in home studios in London and Brisbane and developed over email. There's an obvious kinship between Tuttle and PFTs and A Cassowary Apart feels impressively effortless. Much like Tuttle's superb Alexandra album from last year, it's very evocative of place and environment.
Andrew Wasylyk - Balgay Hill: Morning In Magnolia (Clay Pipe Music)
A musical compendium of lockdown walks and all the more beautiful for it.
Andy Stott - Never The Right Time (Modern Love)
More mechanistic, alienating electronica.
Nico-esque vocals over minimalist, tense and edgy grooves.
Two discs of exploratory and challenging improvisation and composition - one for a trio (without bass) and one for a larger ensemble.
Anthony Braxton - Quartet (Standards) 2020 (Bandcamp)
Anthony Braxton - 12 Comp (Zim) 2017 (Firehouse 12)
A vast and unmanageable body of work to add to an already vast and unmanageable body of work! Braxton's discography is foreboding, but worth grappling with given the insight and innovation it yields. A deeply serious and hugely important musician.
Anthony Naples - Chameleon (ANS Recordings)
Bright, fluid electronic music with an emphasis on texture.
Arab Strap - As Days Get Dark (Rock Action)
A hugely welcome return, with the duo's qualities of wry, often sleazy observation and intricate musical detail very much still intact.
Archie Shepp & Jason Moran - Let My People Go (Archieball/YES Records)
An intuitive and empathetic intergenerational collaboration.
Archipelago - Echoes To The Sky (New Jazz and Improvised Music Recordings)
Striking integration of contemporary jazz and alternative rock influences.
Arlo Parks - Collapsed In Sunbeams (Transgressive)
Acute, well observed songs on this impressive, Mercury prize winning debut album.
Armand Hammer & The Alchemist - Haram (Backwoodz Studios)
The Armand Hammer body of work is increasingly one of the most original and inspired catalogues in contemporary hip hop.
Arooj Aftab - Vulture Prince (Verve/Universal)
Absorbing and compelling third album from the Brooklyn-based Pakistani composer, with intriguing instrumentation.
Arushi Jain - Under The Lilac Sky (Leaving Records)
Beautiful work combining ambient electronics with Indian traditional music approaches.
Abstraction meets frank honesty in these unsettling sound worlds.
Ayanda Sikade - Umakhulu (Afrosynth)
Melodic, life affirming jazz from South Africa.
BadBadNotGood - Talk Memory (XL/Innovative Leisure)
Perhaps the most sonically and formally elaborate work from the Canadian hybrid jazz group.
Badume's Band/Salamnash Zemene - Yaho Bele/Say Yeah (Ton All Produksion/Innacor)
Spectacular, powerful Ethiopian rock music.
Becca Stevens & Secret Trio - Becca Stevens & Secret Trio
The ever versatile Becca Stevens continues to demonstrate her enthusiasm for a range of settings. While her solo albums have moved in a poppier direction, here is an intimate and distinctive modern chamber music set - the trio consists of oud, kanun and clarinet. But even this line-up doesn't preclude exploring Stevens' love of groove and rhythm, as Bring It Back ingeniously attests.
Ben Chasny - The Intimate Landscape (Drag City)
Chasny is one of the year's clutch of seriously hardworking artists - having produced this warm and enriching solo acoustic guitar album alongside a darker Six Organs Of Admittance album and an album with The New Bums. Solo guitar music has been in diverse and inspiring health this year - and this is a substantial contribution to that trend.
Ben Goldberg/Todd Sickafoose/Jordan Glenn - Thought Out Vol. 1 (BAG Production)
Ben Goldberg - Everything Happens To Be (BAG Production)
The first release is part of an intended series started by Todd Sickafoose and Ben Goldberg and features a two part improvisation with both musicians in a trio with Jordan Glenn, brilliantly exploring sound and space. Glenn's sonic range in the percussion contribution is a marvel. Everything Happens To Be is more arranged and finds Goldberg in an inspired quintet with Mary Halvorson, Ellery Eskelin, Tomas Fujiwara and Michael Formanek.
Ben LaMar Gay - Open Arms To Open Us (International Anthem)
A synthesis of so many influences and ideas that it can only sound like itself. Features superb contributions from a number of idiosyncratic musicians, including some also nestling elsewhere in this overview - Macie Stewart, Tomeka Reid and Rob Frye.
Bendik Giske - Cracks (Smalltown Supersound)
A deeply engaging, forward thinking, tactile and sensual solo saxophone album inspired by queer theory, particularly Jose Munoz's Cruising Utopia.
Benoit Delbecq - The Weight Of Light (Pyroclastic)
Benoit Delbecq - Gentle Ghosts (Jazzdor Series)
Another excellent release from Kris Davis' excellent Pyroclastic label - this time pianist Benoit Delbecq's first solo recording in more than a decade - using percussive prepared piano very effectively.
Gentle Ghosts is a quartet recording with Mark Turner, John Hebert and Gerald Cleaver.
Bex Burch and Leafcutter John - Boing! (Vula Viel)
Strange and alluring combination of percussion and synths.
Emotive, melodic electronic examination of island life. Also now available in a deluxe edition with three bonus tracks.
Bill Mackay & Nathan Bowles - Keys (Drag City)
Bill Mackay can now add this timeless and haunting collaboration with Nathan Bowles to his growing CV of duo collaborations. Brilliantly informed and communicated contemporary American folk music.
Birds Of Maya - Valdez (Drag City)
Highly welcome return after eight years for the relentless, churning, riff heavy Philadelphia band. A fabulous blast of noise.
Bitchin Bajas - Switched On Ra (Drag City)
A celebration of Sun Ra very much refracted through the Bajas' meditative, ambient lens.
Black Country, New Road - For The First Time (Ninja Tune)
Impressive, potent and urgent debut from the precocious art rock band. Reminds me a lot of Diary, a band legendary amongst their modest following, who used to regularly play at the Bull & Gate when I was a teenager.
Black Twig Pickers - Friend's Peace (VHF)
Brilliantly executed Appalachian folk from the supergroup (current line-up Sally Anne Morgan, Mike Gangloff, Nathan Bowles, Isak Howell).
BLK JKS - Abantu / Before Humans (Glitterbeat)
Another forthright, groove heavy and impressive album from the South African rock group - emboldened by the crisp horn section. I really hope to get the chance to see this band live at some point.
Bobby Lee - Origin Myths (Tompkins Square)
Cinematic electric Americana improvisations recorded directly to four track.
Bonnie 'Prince' Billy & Bill Callahan - Blind Date Party (Drag City)
Compilation of the fun and spirit-raising online collaboration between two of the greatest contemporary singer-songwriters, mostly taking on the work of others. Featuring a raft of special guest contributions.
Borderlands Trio - Wandersphere (Intakt)
Double disc set of confident, crackling improvisations from the trio of Stephan Crump, Kris Davis and Erin McPherson.
Brandee Younger - Somewhere Different (Impulse!)
Heavy astral grooves from the promising harpist, emboldened by the depth and detail of Marcus Gilmore's drumming.
Caetano Veloso - Meu Coco (Sony)
More usually a natural collaborator, the pandemic has prompted Veloso to work on a new album of original songs - staggeringly, the first album consisting entirely of his own original songs in his career. A major late period work.
Cameron Knowler - Places Of Consequence (American Dreams)
Cameron Knowler & Eli Winter - Anticipation (American Dreams)
A beautiful duo album between two young masters of modern American folk guitar, and then a debut solo album from Knowler, brilliantly soundtracking the American Wes with both guitar and banjo.
Carlos Nino & Friends - More Energy Fields, Current (International Anthem)
Transcendent, healing music from the percussionist and his other illustrious contributors.
Carter Tanton - Carter Tanton (Western Vinyl)
Slow, ruminative but eerily present songwriting.
Cassandra Jenkins - An Overview On Phenomenal Nature (Ba Da Bing!)
A concise and focused album of softly delivered but piercingly sharp songs. Jenkins is a real songwriting talent, and Josh Kaufman of Fruit Bats and Bonnie Light Horseman serves the music well as producer.
Charles Lloyd & The Marvels - Tone Poem (Blue Note)
Charles Lloyd continues to enjoy a magnificent late career period, with music that is elevating and passionate.
Charlotte Keefe - Right Here, Right Now (Discus Music)
The trumpeter captured solo, in duo and quartet and with various members of the London Improvisers Orchestra.
Ches Smith and We All Break - Path of Seven Colors (Pyroclastic)
A fascinating and thrilling octet line up including Smith on drums, Miguel Zenon on saxophone, Matt Mitchell on piano, vocalist Sirene Dantor Rene and three hand drummers, drawing on Smith's study of Haitian cultural and musical traditions.
A grandiose and resplendent rock record from the Codeine and Come guitarist and songwriter, now on something of a diverse hot streak.
Chris Corsano and Bill Orcutt - Made Out Of Sound (Palilalia)
A typically expressive and cascading collaboration between two master musicians.
Chris Schlarb & Chad Taylor - Time No Changes (Astral Spirits)
Another questing, exploratory guitar and drums duo, with Schlarb sometimes using Moog or Hammond organ.
Chris Sharkey - Presets (Not Applicable)
Magnificent, playful, confrontational solo electric guitar album.
Chuck Johnson - The Cinder Grove (Tak:til)
Magnificent recontextualisation of pedal steel guitar and a 'suite of requiems for lost places' (see also Susan Alcorn from last year and the Nashville Ambient Ensemble album for more in this rich seam).
Circuit Des Yeux - -io (Matador)
It's quite an achievement - but this may be one album where Hayley Fohr's extraordinary voice doesn't quite dominate - set as it is amidst dramatic, turbulent strings and horns on one of her most theatrical works.
Cities Aviv - The Crashing Sound Of How It Goes (D.O.T.)
A fearless and inventive production that consistently disorientates and surprises.
Claire Cronin - Bloodless (Orindal)
Ghostly, warped American songwriting.
Claire Rousay - A Softer Focus (American Dreams)
Claire Rousay & More Eaze - An Afternoon Whine (Ecstatic Recordings)
The two highlights of Claire Rousay's wildly productive 2021, brilliantly incorporating field recordings and mundanities into her contemplative, immersive sound worlds.
A more melancholy and classic influenced second album.
Cleo Sol - Mother (Forever Living Originals)
Second album of retro-modernist soul.
Colleen - The Tunnel and the Clearing (Thrill Jockey)
Impressively arranged, lucid and striking work centred on Cecile Schott's organ, made in the face of challenges from extreme fatigue.
Craig Taborn - Shadow Plays (ECM)
Typically breathtaking, wide ranging, technically dazzling solo piano performance from one of the modern masters of the form.
cr-ow tr-io - Hold Music (Luminous)
Massively enjoyable, disruptive and mischievous improvised music from Cath Roberts, Otto Wilberg and Tullis Rennie.
dal:um - Similar and Different (Eastern Standard Sounds)
Korean duo creating strange and crepuscular sound worlds from traditional stringed instruments.
Damon Albarn - The Nearer The Fountain, More Pure The Stream Flows (Transgressive)
Albarn at his more low key, observational, pensive and melancholy.
Damon Locks & Black Monument Ensemble - NOW (International Anthem)
A brilliant, rhythmically propulsive cross-genre expression of urgency and defiance.
Dan Nicholls - Mattering and Meaning (We Jazz)
Ostensibly a solo piano record, but one that retains Nicholls' longstanding fascination with electronic production, utilising loops and field recordings and recorded with a mobile phone voice recorder. It's a curious celebration of the creative process.
Dan Weiss and Miles Okazaki - Music For Drums and Guitar (Bandcamp)
Further evidence for the drums and guitar duo being one of the intriguing formats for improvising musicians in 2021. This is the product of real depth of kowledge and skill, but also a substantial freedom in the moment.
Daniel Bachman - Axacan (Three Lobed)
An intense, brave and bewitching album from the increasingly innovative guitarist.
Daniel Blumberg - The World To Come OST (Node)
Daniel Blumberg continues his successful foray into more abstract musical territory with this vivid, unsettling soundtrack work.
Darius Jones - Raw Demoon Alchemy (A Lone Operation) (Northern Spy)
Untethered and imposing solo saxophone.
Dave Harrington brilliantly manipulates, reconstructs and radically transforms the First Flight performance.
Dave Holland - Another Land (Edition)
Now in a trio with guitarist Kevin Eubanks and drummer Obed Calvaire, Another Land continued to explore Dave Holland's preoccupations with rhythm and asymmetry, but also explored space too.
Dave Okumu - Knopperz (Transgressive)
Astonishingly, this is Dave Okumu's (The Invisible) first solo project, and there is a lot to take in from its refracted and unusual sound worlds.
David Crosby - For Free (Three Blind Mice/BMG)
Another impressive, richly imagined late period solo work.
David Grubbs & Ryley Walker - A Tap On The Shoulder (Husky Pants)
One of four albums involving Ryley Walker this year, proving his restless artistry is as good as his banter.
Dean McPhee - Witch's Ladder (Hood Faire)
Another melodic, mesmerising and transporting solo guitar record from the dependably excellent artist. Dean's sound continues to become more and more distinctive and effective.
Dean Wareham - I Have Nothing To Say To The Mayor Of LA (Double Feature)
Dean Wareham's first new songs since 2014 are wry and grizzled.
Deerhoof - Actually, You Can (Joyful Noise Recordings)
Another set combining wit, invention and madcap energy. One of the great bands.
Desertion Trio - Numbers Maker (Cuneiform)
The band's first 'true trio' release, without guests, and brimming with ideas drawn from psychedelia, funk, rock and the avant garde. Recorded live in front of an audience at the Firehouse 12 studio.
Diego Pinero - Odd Wisdom (ACT)
An insanely good band with Donny McCaslin, Ben Monder and Scott Colley - making for one of my favourite jazz albums of the year.
Dinosaur Jr - Sweep It Into Space (Jagjaguwar)
You know what you're getting (the opening song is called I Ain't!!). Lou is also on good form here.
Divide & Dissolve - Gas Lit (Invada)
A pulverising noise record aimed right at the core of white power.
Donald Beaman - Sunlight On The Platform (Bandcamp)
Cass McCombs-esque dusty, minimalist songcraft.
Donor Lens - Error Area (My Pet Flamingo)
Second album of well constructed chill wave and soulful electronic pop from the duo and guest vocalists.
Vivid and hallucinatory collaboration between Toronto band Mr. Joy and Matthew 'Doc' Dunn.
Dry Cleaning - New Long Leg (4AD)
I avoided this for a while, expecting to find it over-hyped, but actually there's lots to enjoy in these scratchy, wiry antics. Inevitably boxed in with the other sprechgesang bands (Black Country, New Road and Squid) but actually quite different.
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