Editrix - Tell Me I'm Bad (Exploding In Sound)
Wendy Eisenberg's restless and terrifying electric progressive power trio. Brutal and turbulent.
Eiko Ishibashi - Drive My Car OST (Newhere Music / Space Shower Music)
In another good year for original film soundtracks, this one stood out for its nuance, delicacy of touch and plaintive feeling.
Electric Jalaba - El Hal / The Feeling (Strut)
Simo Lagnawi is one of the UK's leading exponents of Gnawa music and this exciting music recorded in London draws together a wide range of global influences and comes with a strong sense of movement and activity.
Elephant9 - Arrival Of The New Elders (Rune Grammofon)
A sometimes more considered, organised and pensive set from the Norwegian improvising trio.
Elephant Micah - Vague Tidings (Western Vinyl)
Another beautiful collection from underrated singer-songwriter Joseph O'Connell (very much in the Jason Molina, Will Oldham, Bill Callahan mould but less frequently mentioned), inspired by a tour of Alaska.
The percussionist and composer continues to forge a unique and personal path, meticulously interweaving acoustic and electronic sound worlds.
Elori Saxl - The Blue Of Distance (Western Vinyl)
This album exploring technology and our relationship with nature seemed perfect for this second pandemic year.
Emma-Jean Thackray - Yellow (Movement)
A neat fusion of jazz, funk and psychedelic soul.
Endless Boogie - Admonitions (No Quarter)
Maximum mesmeric riffage.
Equinoxx - Basic Tools Mixtape (Equinoxx Music)
Great collage based hip hop/R&B/dub fusion.
Erika De Casier - Sensational (4AD)
Brilliantly produced R&B set bursting with rhythmic invention and acute hooks.
Eris Drew - Quivering In Time (T4T LUV NRG)
Superb, fully formed debut album from the DJ and Producer.
Faye Webster - I Know I'm Funny haha (Secretly Canadian)
Soulful, country tinged songs delivered with both poignant vulnerability and an acerbic sharpness.
Fergus McCreadie - Cairn (Edition)
Stunning, beautifully evocative piano trio album tinged with Scottish folk melody.
Field Music - Flat White Moon (Memphis Industries)
The ever-prolific Field Music continue to develop their intelligent, idiosyncratic contemporary pop sound.
Fire! - Defeat (Rune Grammofon)
The Swedish group again reshape their sound and approach, with Mats Gustafsson now focusing on flute (in addition to baritone saxophone and electronics). The superb Goran Kafjes also joins on trumpet.
Foodman - Yasuragi Land (Hyperdub)
Japanese footwork master's first album for Hyperdub is bass-less, but still rhythmically inventive and compelling.
Fruit Bats - The Pet Parade (Merge)
Fruit Bats - Siamese Dream (Merge)
Eric D. Johnson's song craft project produces a winning, ingratiating album and a strangely satisfying softer, warmer reinterpretation of the Smashing Pumpkins classic.
FUJI||||||||||TA - Noiseem (33 33)
Fascinating record that finds Fujita working with amplified water, manipulating a series of water tanks that become their own instrument.
Fuubutsushi - Shiki (Cached Media)
A collection of the four seasons themed albums from Sage, Jussell, Prymek and Shiroishi - beautiful, evocative, rustling, bristling, bright, eerie, crepuscular.
GAS - Der Lange Marsch (Kompakt)
Another welcome celebration of pulse and musical hypnosis from Wolfgang Voigt.
Genesis Owusu - Smiling With No Teeth (House Anxiety/Ourness)
One of the year's most impressive debut albums.
Gerald Cleaver - Griots (Positive Elevation/Meakusma)
A masterful, meticulously constructed electronic work from the outstanding jazz drummer that deserved more widespread attention.
Gerycz/Powers/Rolin - Lamplighter (American Dreams)
Improvising roots trio continues to expand its palette.
Ghost Rhythms - Spectral Music (Cuneiform)
Recorded remotely during the pandemic, yet still carefully interactive, this music explores themes of remoteness, isolation and connection.
Godspeed You! Black Emperor - G_d's Pee At State's End (Kranky)
It is harder to listen to Godspeed now that it feels that the end times may have indeed come, but this may be the best of their albums since returning to action. There is, as usual, a sense of collective hope amidst the doom.
Green-House - Music For Living Spaces (Leaving)
Bright, empathetic and spacious music.
Greentea Peng - Man Made (Universal)
Absorbing modern soul music.
Liz Harris continues to enthrall with her static-heavy textures and mysterious, manipulated songs.
Growing - Diptych (Silver Current)
Lilting, drifting ambient experimental music from the legendary duo, released on Ethan Miller's label.
GS Schray - The Changing Account (Last Resort)
Guitar-lead compositions revelling in unpredictability and surprise.
Hafez Modizardeh - Facets (Pi Recordings)
The saxophonist works with two of the most imaginative and skilled piano players currently at work - Kris Davis and Craig Taborn - with Tyshawn Sorey (better known as a drummer but also an impressive, characteristically thoughtful pianist) also contributing. The piano here is retuned to an unexpected temperament, leaving the players free to explore tonal spaces unusual to the western experience of the instrument.
Hand Habits - Fun House (Saddle Creek)
Meg Duffy's most wide ranging and impressive album as Hand Habits - melodic and enticing songs with impressively crisp production.
Hedvig Mollestad Trio - Ding Dong You're Dead (Rune Grammofon)
Norwegian jazz/rock trio veers between scything aggression and eerie contemplation.
Helado Negro - Far In (Private Energy/4AD)
The kind of album that offers space for calm and reflection, but still gently grooving too.
Henry Parker - Lammas Fair (Cup and Ring)
Brilliantly executed folk rock - think Fairport meets Ryley Walker.
Henry Threadgill - Poof (Pi Recordings)
Concise but typically adventurous music from he great saxophonist, composer and improviser. There's an intuitive relationship between the musicians that allows them to find their own spaces.
Billed as the third album in a 'domestic house' trilogy (following Around The House and Bodily Functions), this celebration of domesticity and intimacy doesn't quite reach the heights of its classic predecessors. However, it's an impressively agile combination of musical contributions recorded in isolation (including contributions from Nick Ramm, Tom Herbert, Tom Skinner, Leo Taylor and Finn Peters alongside 8 vocalists).
Hiatus Kaiyote - Mood Valiant (Brainfeeder)
Welcome return from the much admired and dazzling Australian groove eccentrics.
Hiss Golden Messenger - Quietly Blowing It (Merge)
Hiss Golden Messenger - O Come All Ye Faithful (Merge)
More than fulfilling his commitment to release something every year, MC Taylor not only released a typically inspired set of original songs neatly addressing the contemporary moment, but also graced us with a fine seasonal holiday album (Hung Fire particularly stands among his best songs and transcends the functional context of the album). Quietly Blowing It included his most expansive and detailed arrangements yet, accompanying graceful and lyrical songs.
Howie Lee - Birdy Island (Mais Um Discos)
Elaborate, sophisticated, invigorating sound design based around the idea of a floating theme park.
Injury Reserve - By The Time I Get To Phoenix (Injury Reserve)
Genuinely innovative contemporary hip hop, combining a freedom of wordplay with an improvisatory approach to sound.
Irreversible Entanglements - Open The Gates (International Anthem)
This brilliant band continue to go from strength to strength, presenting the combination of poetry and improvisation as a battleground force.
Isaiah Collier & The Chosen Few - Cosmic Transitions (Division 81)
Five part suite offering a take on 'spiritual jazz'- not wildly original but certainly intense and genuine.
Ivo Neame - Glimpses Of Truth (Whirlwind)
A brilliant, powerful large ensemble album exploring the chaos, conspiracist modern times in which we live. It is at once turbulent and playful and Neame is one of the best composers and arrangers we have.
Ivo Perelman Trio - Garden Of Jewels (Tao Forms)
Ivo Perelman & Nate Wooley - Polarity (Burning Ambulance)
Bold, risk taking trio set with Matthew Shipp and Whit Dickey. It's also fascinating to hear Perelman in a duo with Nate Wooley on Phil Freeman's new label. It feels as if duos, always an interesting format in which to create and improvise, are beginning to receive more interest through recordings.
Jack Cooper and Jeff Tobias - Tributaries (Bandcamp)
Compositions described as 'systems' and inspired by Essex tributaries of the river Cam. I would have liked to include the Modern Nature projects here too, but they are only available on ludicrously expensive vinyl and, I'm sorry, but I'm just not biting.
Jacky Naylor - The Industrial Suite (Ubuntu)
Beautiful, assured, richly melodic jazz suite telling the story of industrialisation (and post-industrialisation) in the North of England. I feel this deserved more attention this year. Commissioned by the Lancaster Jazz Festival.
James Brandon Lewis Red Lily Quintet - Jesup Wagon (Tao Forms)
James Brandon Lewis Quartet - Code Of Being (Intakt)
An extraordinarily productive year for the saxophonist. Jesup Wagon is my favourite of these two works.
Jamire Williams - But Only After You Have Suffered (International Anthem)
Ingenious sound montage.
Jana Rush - Painful Enlightenment (Planet Mu)
Abrasive, disorientating and disruptive electronic sound design.
Janet Simpson - Safe Distance (Cornelius Chapel)
A superb, cohesive set of modern country rock songs.
Jason Moran - The Sound Will Tell You (Bandcamp)
Inventive solo piano set inspired by Toni Morrison and making creative use of the 'DRIP' effect.
Jeff Parker - Forfolks (International Anthem)
Subtle, drifting solo set from the exploratory, adaptable guitarist.
Jefre Cantu-Ledesma & Ilyas Ahmed - You Can See Your Own Way Out (Devotion)
Spectral, haunting combination of guitar, field recordings and electronics.
Jen Shyu & Jade Tongue - Zero Grasses: Ritual For The Losses (Pi Recordings)
Sublime multi-tracked vocals together with an astute ensemble, combining East Asian musical traditions with western improvisation.
Jerusalem In My Heart - Qalaq (Constellation)
An album with a title that may translate as 'deep worry' feels particularly acute for 2021. This is a fascinating and wide ranging work, involving numerous collaborators but retaining a coherent identity and approach.
Jihye Lee Orchestra - Daring Mind (Motema)
One of the most striking and resonant large ensemble jazz albums of 2021.
JJJJJerome Ellis - The Clearing (NNA Tapes)
A wonderful, highly original sound work exploring speech disfluency as a source of potential and promise.
Joan Armatrading - Consequences (Giftwend/BMG)
We don't talk about Joan Armatrading enough - and this is a confident album highlighting her observational and melodic qualities as a songwriter.
Joan As Policewoman, Tony Allen & Dave Okumu - The Solution Is Restless (PIAS)
Remarkable, original songs created from a series of improvisations between Joan Wasser, the late legendary Afrobeat drummer Tony Allen and The Invisible guitarist Dave Okumu.
Joe Lovano & Dave Douglas Sound Prints - Other Worlds (Greenleaf)
Quintet inspired by the extraordinary, pioneering legacy of Wayne Shorter. This time, the track list consists exclusively of originals, but Shorter's guiding presence is still felt within the music, which is also imprinted by the individual approaches of these leading musicians.
John Zorn - New Masada Quartet (Tzadik)
Reaching back into the Masada repertoire, but delivered with a fierce spontaneity and risk taking adventurousness by this outstanding new quartet. In keeping with Zorn's principles, there is no easy way to hear this online, so I've linked to Boomkat where you can hear samples of each track.
Johnathan Blake - Homeward Bound (Blue Note)
Nuanced and intriguing music from the drummer/composer, delivered with an inspiring lightness of touch.
Joseph Shabason - The Fellowship (Western Vinyl)
An intimate and rewarding album with a fascinating story - the music encapsulates Shabason's family history in a dual Jewish-Islamic household.
Solo album played exclusively on Baritone Saxophone.
Julian Lage - Squint (Blue Note)
Lage is a flexible musician, able to play in highly adventurous, radical situations or often making more melodically accessible music within a clear modern jazz lineage, as here.
Julian Siegel Jazz Orchestra - Tales From The Jacquard (Whirlwind)
A superb (and thrilling) modern big band work from one of our most important musicians.
Jupiter & Okwess - Na Kozonga (Zamora/Studio Gouv)
Joyful, uplifting and energetic music from the DRC.
Ka - A Martyr's Reward (Iron Works)
Ka continues to be one of the most original and distinctive rappers at work.
Kasai Allstars - Black Ants Always Fly Together, One Bangle Makes No Sound (Crammed Discs)
Beware The Fetish is a former ILWP album of the year and still means a great deal to me. This work is not quite pitched at the same feverish level but is interesting in and of itself by broadening their sound world with electronic elements and inspirations from nearby regions.
Kelman Duran - Night In Turana (Scorpio Red)
First release on Duran's own label Scorpio Red - this is a subliminal, haunted synthesis of hip hop, jazz, electronica and ambient atmospherics.
Kid Congo Powers & The Pink Monkeybirds - Swing From The Sean Delear (In The Red)
A limited release EP that is already hard to come by, but (for now at least) is still up on YouTube. It's scintillating and a lot of fun.
Kiran Leonard - Trespass On Foot (Bandcamp)
A long album split into two parts - the first half is Leonard working alone, the second half finds him operating with an ensemble. This is brilliantly constructed, densely allusive and fascinating music.
Kit Downes & Lucy Railton - Subaerial (SN Variations)
Another instalment in a long running musical collaboration, this subtle Cello and organ work may be the most fulfilling yet from Downes & Railton.
A very different, occasionally unnerving set from this open minded producer, drawing together strands from contemporary classical, minimalism, drone and jazz.
Another step forward from a key figure in ambient and electronic music.
Angular, brain melting jazz rock with a punk-ish energy and directness.
L'Rain - Fatigue (Mexican Summer)
A thoroughly designed and intoxicating sound world from multi-instrumentalist and vocalist Taja Cheek - and one of the year's most unique and overwhelming albums.
Lake Street Dive - Obviously (Nonesuch)
Cheesy? Uncool? Well, yes, probably. Irresistible? Certainly. A terrific band.
Lambchop - Showtunes (City Slang)
This seems to have been oddly overlooked come the year's end. While it may be slight in terms of length, it's another impressive reconfiguration of Kurt Wagner's core musical values.
Lana Del Rey - Chemtrails Over The Country Club (Universal)
Lana Del Rey - Blue Banisters (Universal)
The acerbic observations continue to get more and more acute. The languid pacing can be a bit oppressive over the course of two albums though.
Laura Mvula - Pink Noise (Flamingo/Atlantic)
Mvula continues to reinvent herself with each new album. This is a triumph of day glo production values coupled with great songwriting and musicianship.
Sound collage with each piece presented as 'a short, scattered poem - a moment that I captured to represent each hour'. Informed by pandemic experience, including time in a quarantine hotel, this music often feels hermetically sealed, but also strangely comforting.
Linda Fredriksson - Juniper (We Jazz)
A reflective work that Fredriksson describes as 'a singer-songwriter album performed by an instrumental jazz band'. Exactly my vibe, then.
Lindsey Buckingham - Lindsey Buckingham (Warner)
Who needs Fleetwood Mac?!
Linkwood - Mono (Athens Of The North)
Modest, homely electronica.
Little Simz - Sometimes I Might Be An Introvert (AGE 101/AWAL)
Articulate, fluent and sharply insightful.
Lonelady - Former Things (Warp)
Former Things is Julie Campbell's most assured and complete album to date, retaining her preference for wiry, scratchy grooves but developing form, melody and detail.
Loren Connors & Oren Ambarchi - Leone (Family Vineyard)
The first album bringing these two guitarists together - two individual pieces and a duo piece. Richly empathetic and thoughtful.
Compelling, unsettling work reconstituted from a single orchestral performance in Budapest.
Like Double Negative before it, this is an excellent experiment in texture and radical abrasion, but this time with Alan Parker and Mimi Sparhawk's gloriously symbiotic harmonies left mostly untouched and at the forefront.
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