Rodrigo Amarante - Drama (Polyvinyl Record Co.)
The Brazilian singer-songwriter has produced a vibrant, joyful work.
Rodrigo Brandao - Outros Espaço (Groovie Records)
Absorbing and expansive collaboration with Sun Ra Arkestra.
Rosali - No Medium (Spinster Sounds)
Rosali - Chokeweed (Unifactor)
Two very different albums - the first focusing on strong songwriting and soulfully accompanied by members of the David Nance Group, the second focusing on improvisation and freedom.
Rose City Band - Earth Trip (Thrill Jockey)
Languid psychedelic country
Roy Montgomery - 40th Anniversary 2021 LP Series (Grapefruit)
Marking 40 years of exploratory musical work, Roy Montgomery released four excellent albums over the course of 2021, some exploring voices (Emma Johnston again guests on Rhymes Of Chance), others exploring the wider possibilities of the guitar. For some reason the last album, Audiotherapy, is still not available yet (perhaps production delays?).
Ruth Goller - Skylla (Vula Viel)
A magical, glimmering, textural solo work (with contributions from vocalists Alice Grant and Lauren Kinsella) from the bassist, improviser and composer.
Ryley Walker - Course In Fable (Husky Pants)
Ryley Walker & Kikagaku Moyo - Deep Fried Grandeur (Husky Pants)
A thrilling but also more concise collection from Ryley Walker, who now seems to be developing his melodic qualities to match his gift for arrangement and free wheeling musicianship. Deep Fried Grandeur finds him collaborating with the psychedelic band at Le Guess Who in Utrecht, with predictably explosive results.
Saint Etienne - I've Been Trying To Tell You (PIAS)
Gently infectious songs capturing the 'optimism' of 1997-2001, including samples from pop songs of the period (Honeyz, Natalie Imbruglia, Samantha Mumba etc).
Sally Ann Morgan - Cups (Thrill Jockey)
Another album of contemporary Appalachian folk excellence from the increasingly prolific House and Land member.
Sam Gendel - Fresh Bread (Leaving Records)
Sam Gendel - Valley Fever (Leaving Records)
Sam Gendel - AE-30 (Leaving Records)
Sam Gendel & Sam Wilkes - Music For Saxofone and Bass Guitar: More Songs (Leaving Records)
A pretty extraordinary body of work involving a follow-up collaboration, an assembly of cumulative home recordings and soundtrack material. Futuristic electronic jazz.
Samba Toure - Binga (Glitterbeat)
Another excellent album from the Malian singer and guitarist.
Santomimagae - Hanazono (RVNG Intl.)
Beautiful, drifting, curious ambient folk music.
Sara Schoenbeck - Sara Schoenbeck (Pyroclastic)
The bassoon works very effectively as a jazz instrument - both for its melodic and textural qualities. Here it is set in a series of duos. A highlight is the take on Low's Lullaby with Nels Cline.
Sarah Davachi - Antiphonals (Late Music)
Sarah Davachi & Sean McCann - Mother Of Pearl (Recital)
Sarah Davachi continues to make a major contribution to contemporary instrumental music. On Antiphonals, Davachi uses mellotron, electric organ and harpsichord to conjure a fairytale dreamscape. With Sean McCann on Mother of Pearl, she records at home to create shimmering music with no specific brief.
Sarah Louise - Earth Bow (Bandcamp)
While Sarah Louise has been veering further from traditional folk templates in her solo work, this progressive, expansive masterpiece still comes as a thrilling surprise.
Sarah Wilson - Kaleidoscope (Brass Tonic)
Elevating, melodic contemporary jazz from the trumpeter and composer.
Scott Hirsch - Windless Day (Echo Magic/Soundly)
The occasional Hiss Golden Messenger contributor returns with his most assured and enjoyable solo album to date.
Sean Gibbs - When Can I See You Again? (Ubuntu)
A great set of compositions with interactive performances from the young trumpeter. Very promising.
Shackleton - Departing Like Rivers (Woe To The Septic Heart)
No collaborations this time, just Sam Shackleton at his most immersive, atmospheric and reflective.
Shai Maestro - Human (ECM)
Shai Maestro's subtleties of tone and colour fit well with the ECM aesthetic.
Six Organs Of Admittance - The Veiled Sea (Three Lobed)
One of Ben Chasny's darker, more imposing works.
Skee Mask - Pool (Ilian Tape)
Epic electronica set that gathers four to five years worth of material and traverses wide musical territory. Yet Bryan Muller conceives of Pool as 'a fully conceived project' rather than a compilation of unreleased tracks. It is a compelling listen with a sense of movement and development throughout.
Sons Of Kemet - Black To The Future (Impulse!)
Comfortably the best Sons Of Kemet album, and perhaps Shabaka Hutchings' overall masterpiece, this is a defiant work drawing from so much musical and cultural experience.
Space Afrika - Honest Labour (Dais)
Space Afrika effectively broaden their sound spectrum and scope on this magnificent suite of music.
Spellling - The Turning Wheel (Sacred Bones)
A lavish, elaborately orchestrated work.
Springtime - Springtime (Joyful Noise Recordings)
Raw and insistent collaborative supergroup featuring Gareth Liddiard, the exceptional drummer Jim White and Chris Abrahams from The Necks.
Squid - Bright Green Field (Warp)
Agitated, state of the nation urgency.
St Vincent - Daddy's Home (Loma Vista)
Annie Clark continues to make elegantly constructed, idiosyncratic, superbly produced pop music that combines an imaginative synthesis of influences with her own personality and concerns.
Steve Gunn - Other You (Matador)
Steve Gunn's most languid and contemplative album so far - breezy and hypnotic.
Sufjan Stevens & Angelo De Augustine - A Beginner's Mind (Asthmatic Kitty)
A collaboration resulting in a literate, sensitive and vivid set of songs inspired by films. Strong Simon & Garfunkel vibes on this one.
Sunburned Hand Of The Man - Pick A Day To Die (Three Lobed)
Covers the range of Sunburned's musical strengths, from spacious sonic landscapes to motorik grooves.
Ted Byrnes - Moving My Body Through Space (Arkeen)
Brilliantly frenzied and combative solo percussion.
Teenage Fanclub - Endless Arcade (PeMa)
Even without bassist and key songwriter Gerry Love, Teenage Fanclub remain one of the UK's great songwriting teams. Here, Norman Blake and Raymond McKinley continue to assume an equal division of labour, and Endless Arcade effectively develops the striking contrasts between their two songwriting approaches, while achieving a unity through sound and musicianship. It's clear now that this band still has a lot of mileage.
Thalia Zedek Band - Perfect Vision (Thrill Jockey)
Another excellent, gritty, raw rock album in a very consistent run.
The Bug - Fire (Ninja Tune)
Kevin Martin at his exuberant but dystopian best.
The Notwist - Vertigo Days (Morr Music)
Excellent first album in six years from the important group, with pieces built from group improvisations that ebb and flow, and with special guests including Ben LaMar Gay.
The Weather Station - Ignorance (Fat Possum)
Tamara Lindeman continues to make her arrangements more expansive and arranged, but without losing the sense of space and stillness that characterises her delivery. These songs, inspired by the context of the climate crisis, are lush, sensuous and gently cascading. The deluxe edition adds some meticulous live takes and the extraordinary ballad Better Now, one of the year's very best songs.
Thumbscrew - Never Is Enough (Cuneiform)
One of the most inventive and exciting bands in contemporary jazz.
Tim Berne, Chris Speed, Reid Anderson and Dave King - Broken Shadows (Intakt)
A dream line-up of hugely experienced and consistently potent improvisers. Pretty fiery.
Tirzah - Colourgrade (Domino)
A life viewed through a murky translucence, full of purposeful wanderings.
Tonstartssbandht - Petunia (Mexican Summer)
Bright, gently fizzing pieces with 12 String guitar, drums and exquisite vocal harmonies.
Tony Joe White - Smoke From The Chimney (Easy Eye Sound/Swamp Records)
A fine posthumous album assembled and completed with care by Dan Auerbach.
Toumani Diabate & London Symphony Orchestra - Korolen (World Circuit)
Beautiful orchestral settings of Diabate's remarkable kora playing poised with longing.
Tune-Yards - sketchy. (4AD)
Something of a return to Merrill Garbus' core musical values.
Tyshawn Sorey & King Britt - Tyshawn & King (The Buddy System)
Lucid and commanding combination of percussion and electronics.
Ubaldo - Casa (Urpa i mussell)
A beautiful, mesmerising celebration of stillness.
Umlaut Big Band - Mary's Ideas (Umlaut Big Band Plays Mary Lou Williams) (Umlaut)
Substantial, very enjoyable big band reworkings of the great Mary Lou Williams.
United Bible Studies - Divining Moments (Bandcamp)
Celebrating their 20th anniversary year with music characterised both by its freedom and by its connections to landscape and custom.
Vanishing Twin - Ookii Gekkou (Fire)
Further adventures in a cinematic sound world - for fans of Stereolab and Broadcast.
Various Artists - Indaba Is (Brownswood)
The album that got 2021 off to a great start - a collection of specially commissioned contemporary South African jazz.
Vijay Iyer - Uneasy (ECM)
The most restlessly interesting album of Vijay Iyer's ECM run so far.
Wadada Leo Smith with Milfred Graves and Bill Laswell - Sacred Ceremonies (TUM)
Wadada Leo Smith - Trumpet (TUM)
Wadada Leo Smith Great Lakes Quartet - The Chicago Symphonies (TUM)
Wadada Leo Smith, Jack DeJohnette, Vijay Iyer - A Love Sonnet for Billie Holiday (TUM)
Wadada Leo Smith, Douglas Ewart & Mike Reed - Sun Beans Of Shimmering Light (Bandcamp)
Three box sets and two albums: an extraordinary body of work to have produced at any time, never mind all in one year, a year that also happens to have been Smith's 80th birthday year. Age and experience only seem to sharpen his purpose and presence, and his acknowledgement of the impact of space and silence remains crucial too.
Walt McClements - A Hole In The Fence (American Dreams)
An accordion work as you've never heard the instrument before.
Wau Wau Collectif - Yaral Sa Doom (Sahel Sounds)
A collaboration between Swedish musician Karl Jonas Winqvist and Senegalese engineer Arouna Kane, with the performing skills and expressive qualities of many local musicians, combining influences from a range of regions and traditions.
Wendy Eisenberg - Bent Ring (Dear Life)
Banjo and voice, percussive textures, nuance and articulate communication.
Wild Up - Julius Eastman, Vol. 1: Femenine (New Amsterdam)
This new performance of Femenine is the first in a proposed seven volume anthology of new settings of Julius Eastman's work from this outstanding musical collective.
Will Guthrie - People Pleaser Vol. 2 (Kythibong)
Second, tremendously fun instalment of the Australian percussionist's inventive opus.
William Parker - Migration Of Silence Into and Out of the Tone World (AUM Fidelity)
William Parker - Mayan Space Station (AUM Fidelity)
William Parker - Painter's Winter (AUM Fidelity)
Another absurdly productive and consistently individual body of work that demands to be celebrated far into the future. The Migration Of Silence... box set is a colossal celebration of Parker's work as a composer, the other two albums celebrate his work as an improvising performer. Mayan Space Station is a dazzling guitar trio album with the excoriating Ava Mendoza in outrageous form.
Yasmin Williams - Urban Driftwood (Spinster)
An acutely felt, beautiful album of solo guitar, often played in radically idiosyncratic ways and yielding moving results.
Yola - Stand For Myself (Easy Eye Sound)
Another rich and informed Dan Auerbach production on these stellar soul songs.