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.