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