2020 In New Music Part 9

 M Ward - Migration Stories (Anti) 

More timeless, laconic songs that gently unwind. 

Machinedrum - A View Of U (Ninja Tune) 

Frenetic and stimulating dance-soul fusion. 

Madeleine Kenney - Sucker's Lunch (Carpark) 

Working with Jenn Wasner and Andy Stack of Wye Oak, Madeleine Kenney has fashioned a lush sounding, absorbing context for her songs. 

Magik Markers - 2020 (Drag City) 

Distinctively scuzzy - an imaginative approach to rock band music. 

Makaya McCraven - Universal Beings E & F Sides (International Anthem)

Makaya McCraven - We're New Again - A Reimagining (XL) 

Addendum to Universal Beings provides evidence of the drummer and serial collaborator's generous bounty of ideas. 

Perhaps there have already been too many versions of Gil Scott Heron's final album, but McCraven's groove heavy take proves gripping and empathetic. 

Margo Price - That's How Rumours Get Started (Loma Vista) 

Slicker and sometimes rockier than its predecessors, but still engaged with the grit and determination in the face of adversity that characterises Price's country troubadour approach. 

Maria McKee - La Vita Nuova (AFAR) 

An extraordinary, dramatic, opulent and grandiosely swooping song cycle embracing McKee's new life as a queer artist and activist. 

Maria Schneider - Data Lords (ArtistShare) 

A masterful double set exploring the evils of the modern corporate internet, and contrasting it with a sense of awe for the natural world. Yet, amongst her railing against exploitative technology and her passionate advocacy for artists' rights, Schneider does also find the space and time to explore the positive aspects of our connectedness when used responsibly. The articulate writing and precisely established moods are perfect for conveying her concerns clearly. Schneider's projects are immense undertakings, and they do not appear too frequently - but when they do, the level of dedication, craft and ingenuity that has gone in to making them is immediately evident, and they keep yielding further, deeper rewards with every listen. No embed here due to aforementioned objection to all streaming services! 

Marius Neset - Tributes (ACT) 

Thrilling, elaborate and dazzling work for the Danish Radio Big Band. There's an agility and sense of jubilation to this complex music. 

Martin Pyne - Spirit Of Absent Dancers (Discus) 

The percussionist Martin Pyne, who works extensively with dancers in more normal circumstances, fashioned this resourceful and moving response to lockdown conditions, celebrating the spirit of movement and connection in its absence. 

Mary Halvorson's Code Girl - Artlessly Falling (Firehouse 12) 

The ingenious and forward thinking guitarist and composer focuses on curious songs - incorporating a guest appearance from Robert Wyatt. 

Mary Lattimore - Silver Ladders (Ghostly International) 

Mary Lattimore & Mac McCaughan - AVL (Bandcamp) 

With Neil Halstead producing, Mary Lattimore both expands and refines her serene, captivating harp excursions on Silver Ladders. 

AVL offers an addendum to her previous collaboration with Mac McCaughan on New Rain Duets. When touring that record in 2019, they opted not to attempt recreations of those structured improvisations, but instead to play newly created in the moment pieces, working from a blank slate. One such performance is captured here. 

Masma Dream World - Play At Night (Northern Spy) 

Pulsating heartbeats, snap and crackle percussion and disorientating manipulated voices. 

Matmos - The Consuming Flame: Open Exercises In Group Form (Thrill Jockey) 

More of a document than an album, with three hours worth of musical experimentation, with 99 musicians requested to contribute at a strict 99 Beats Per Minute. 

Matt Kivel - That Day, On The Beach (Pedro Y El Lobo) 

A low key but affecting ambient release, named after Edward Yang's debut feature film.

Matthew 'Doc' Dunn - Rain, Rain Rain (Cosmic Range) 

Sublime, lovingly arranged, vintage sounding Canadian take on American song craft. 

Max De Wardener - Music For Detuned Pianos (Village Green) 

Compositions for detuned pianos drawing from minimalism and contemporary electronica. Played by Kit Downes. 

Maxwell Sterling - Laced With Rumour: Loud-Speaker Of Truth (Ecstatic)

Fluid, shifting sound collage commissioned as an installation. 

Melt Yourself Down - 100% Yes (Decca/Universal) 

Pete Wareham's percussive, abrasive, full throttle approach to the saxophone and Kush Gaya's urgent vocals create a distinctively modern, multicultural punk vibe. Exhilarating and exhausting. 

Methods Body - Methods Body (New Amsterdam) 

Drones meet driving polyrhythmic experimentation. 

Mica Levi - Ruff Dog (Bandcamp) 

Billed as Mica's grunge album in the press, but actually something more confrontational and provocative than that. A compelling experiment in abrasion and noise. 

Michael Rother - Dreaming (Groenland) 

Rippling textures and vivid colours in this new work from the New and Harmonia founder. 

Michael Vallera - Window In (Denovali)

Guitarist from Chicago crafts ambient pieces with a sinister, mechanistic edge. 

Michael Wollny - Mondenkind (ACT)

A beautiful, intelligent, thoughtful solo piano work. 

Michel Benita - Looking At Sounds (ECM) 

The Algerian born French bassist leads a new European quartet creating floating, richly melodic jazz compositions. Plenty of washy ECM reverb on this recording. 

Mike Cooper - Playing With Water (Room40) 

Cooper continues to address one of his long term career concerns - climate change and the devastating effects of rising sea levels. The album mixes his distinctive guitar playing with field recordings. 

Mike Polizze - Long Lost Solace Find (Paradise Of Bachelors) 

Purling Hiss frontman collaborates with Kurt Vile on solo album that succeeds in being simultaneously bright and laconic. 

Mike Sopko, Bill Laswell, Tyshawn Sorey - On Common Ground (M.O.D. Reloaded) 

A really fascinating combination of musicians. Essentially free jazz with a heavy metal perspective. 

Misha Mullov-Abbado - Dream Circus (Edition) 

Third and most successful album of melodic, playful, sometimes elegant contemporary jazz from the bassist and composer. 

Modern Nature - Annual (Bella Union) 

EP serving as a pastoral companion piece to last year's How To Live album. Hints at the Talk Talk of Laughing Stock at times here. 

MoonMot - Down In The Well (Bandcamp) 

Excellent UK/Swiss collaborative improvised music project - Dee Byrne, Cath Roberts, Seth Bennett and Johnny Hunter combine with Simon Petermann and Oli Kuster, with each band member bringing a distinctive composition. 

Moor Jewelry - True Opera (Don Giovanni) 

Moor Mother - Circuit City (Don Giovanni) 

Moor Mother - Clepsydra (Bandcamp) 

Moor Mother & Billy Woods - Brass (Backwoodz Studios) 

2020's most prolific and productive artist, Moor Mother's righteous, combative poetry found a range of compelling contexts, from the rock and metal settings of Moor Jewelry (a collaboration with Mental Jewelry), to the radical soundscapes of Clepsydra, via the freeform jazz energy of theatrical project Circuit City and the excellent hip hop collaboration with Billy Woods of Armand Hammer. 

Moses Boyd - Dark Matter (Exodus) 

This Mercury nominated album is quite some distance from Boyd's drumming work in jazz ensembles or his remarkably lucid, free flowing improvising in the duo with Binker Golding. Instead, this feels very designed and produced - combining Boyd's interest in jazz with his interests in recorded musical forms - drum and bass, dub, R&B, hip hop. 

Moses Sumney - Grae (Jagjaguwar)

Grandiose, epic, two part monolith. 

Mosses - TV Sun (Anyway) 

Experimental, psychedelic rock from Ryan Jewell. 

Mourning [A] BLKstar - The Cycle (Don Giovanni) 

As good as the two Sault albums are, the focus on them has maybe lead to this outstanding, brilliantly coherent statement from the large, genre-crossing collective being overlooked as a record very much speaking to the current moment, the history of black civil rights movements and black music and also to the future.

Mute Duo - Lapse In Passage (American Dreams) 

More Chicago brilliance, this time patient, gracefully unfolding music for drums and pedal steel guitar. 

2020 In New Music Part 8

Ka - Descendents Of Cain (Iron Works) 

Ka's rapping style is defiantly unconventional - intimate, as if he is speaking to the listener at close quarters, but also capable of authority. Similarly the music, more reliant on atmosphere and texture than beats, is unusual and compelling. 

Kacy & Clayton with Marlon Williams - Plastic Bouquet (New West) 

Collaboration across geography and seasons between the duo from Saskatoon and the New Zealand songwriter. 29 minutes of crisp, acute, vintage sounding country pop. 

Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith - The Mosaic Of Transformation (Ghostly International) 

More gently effervescent electronica, sometimes centred around the sound of the wooden organ. 

Kamaal Williams - Wu Hen (Black Focus) 

Effective dance and hip hop as orchestrated on 'live instruments'. 

Kassa Overall - I Think I'm Good (Brownswood) 

Decisively contemporary jazz and hip hop inspired sound collage from the drummer and composer, tackling issues surrounding mental health and inequality. 

Kate NV - Room For The Moon (RVNG Intl) 

Intricate and playful electronic compositions. 

Kath Bloom - Bye Bye These Are The Days  (Dear Life) 

Fragile but beautiful songs. 

Katie Gately - Loom (Houndstooth) 

An intense and moving record, foregrounding Gately's voice. 

Keeley Forsyth - Debris (The Leaf Label) 

A bold, singular and minimal work with striking and immediate impact.  

Keith Jarrett - Budapest Concert (ECM) 

ECM's regular issuing of Keith Jarrett concert recordings assumed a new emotional significance and power this year, as he went public about the stroke that has devastatingly left him unable to play. 

Keleketla & Coldcut - Keleketla! (Ninja Tune) 

Huge and greatly enjoyable global collaborative project recorded in South Africa and London. Features the late, great Tony Allen. 

Kelly Lee Owens - Inner Song (Smalltown Supersound) 

Reflective, thoughtful electronica, its cold edges warmed by Owens' feathery vocals. 

Kevin Morby - Sundowner (Dead Oceans) 

Prolific songwriter with a Dylanesque vocal twang balances acoustic and electric arrangements in depicting the Midwest and brings an acerbic quality to the delivery. 

Khruangbin - Mordechai (Dead Oceans) 

Aquatic sounding groove based psychedelia from the Texas band. 

Klein - Frozen (Bandcamp)

An intriguing left turn into abstraction. 

KMRU - Peel (Editions Mego) 

Warm, enveloping ambience from Nairobi. 

Krononaut - Krononaut (Glitterbeat) 

Superb collaboration between producer and multi-instrumentalist Leo Abrahams and drummer Martin France. Also features contributions from Matana Roberts. I reviewed this for music OMH here.  

Lama Lobsang Salden & Jim Becker - Compassion (Drag City) 

This unexpected collaboration is one of the great consoling albums of 2020. Jim Becker is a multi instrumentalist who has played with Califone and Iron & Wine, Lama Lobsang Palden is an 'energy healer' specialising in Buddhist meditation. 

Lambchop - TRIP (City Slang) 

A covers album of rare insight - with each band member selecting a favourite song to be delivered in Kurt Wagner's inimitable style. 

Larraji - Sun Piano (All Saints) 

Laraaji - Moon Piano (All Saints) 

Meditative solo piano improvisations from the Eno-endorsed artist, sometimes around familiar themes. Both albums were recorded in the same session in a Brooklyn church that stayed open while Laraaji was playing. 

Lara Jones - Enso (Lara Jones Music) 

Otherworldly solo saxophone recordings. 

LA Timpa - Modern Antics In A Deserted Place (Halcyon Veil) 

Weird, lurching, woozy sound worlds. 

Laura Cannell - The Earth With Her Crowns (Brawl) 

Laura Cannell - These Feral Lands Vol. 1 (Brawl) 

On The Earth With Her Crowns, Laura Cannell (a regular feature in these lists) continues to find intriguing spaces in which to record - in this case, the Wapping Hydraulic Power Station - and the natural acoustics are a significant part of the overall sound. 

On These Feral Lands, Cannell collaborates with comedian Stewart Lee, Cellist Kate Ellis, writer and broadcaster Jennifer Lucy Allan and musician and writer Polly Wright to create a highly inventive and beautiful music and spoken word project. 

Laura Groves - A Private Road (Bella Union) 

Laura Groves signing with Bella Union was some of the best cultural news of 2020 - and this EP captures her skills with melody and lush textures. 

Laura Marling - Song For Our Daughter (Chrysalis) 

Marling is a singer-songwriter continuing to grow in confidence, developing a distinctive voice and approach. 

Laura Veirs - My Echo (Bella Union) 

Much like Marling, Laura Veirs is another impressively consistent and dependable songwriter. This one movingly captures the disintegration of her marriage with producer Tucker Martine ("my songs knew I was getting divorced before I did"). 

Laurel Halo - Possessed (The Vinyl Factory) 

Eerie, crepuscular original score. 

Laurence Pike - Prophecy (The Leaf Label) 

Solo performances on drums, percussion and sampler - recorded during the period of severe wildfires in Australia, but also very relevant to the pandemic. Delivered with a nuanced touch and a clear musicality. 

Leo Takami - Felis Catus and Silence (Unseen Worlds)

Beautiful, meticulously arranged music informed by Japanese gakaku, jazz, ambient and new age. 

Les Amazones d'Afrique - Amazones Power (Real World) 

Second album of forthright, strident music from this powerhouse supergroup. 

Lindstrøm & Prins Thomas - III (Smalltown Supersound) 

Renewed and revitalised collaboration - tactile and sensory electronic music. 

Liv.e - Couldn't Wait To Tell You (In Real Life) 

Unique, fragmented perspective on soul and R&B. 

Lloyd Miller with Adam Michael Terry and Ian Camp - At The Ends Of The World (Fountains AVM)

A superb spiritual jazz album informed by Persian influences with multifaceted arrangements using varied instrumentation. 

Lomelda - Hannah (Double Double Whammy) 

Hannah Read's songs are endearingly brittle. 

Lonnie Holley - National Freedom (Jagjaguwar) 

Grittier follow up to Mith, with greater emphasis on guitar and blues stylings. 

Lorenzo Senni - Scatto Matto (Warp) 

Punchy, dayglo electronica. 

Lucia Cadotsch - Speak Low II (We Jazz) 

Swiss vocalist in a trio with Otis Sansjo and Petter Eldh adds the considerable talents of  Kit Downes on Hammond organ and Lucy Railton on cello. 

Lucinda Williams - Good Souls, Better Angels (Highway 20) 

Less Memphis soul and dusty country roads and more gritty, defiant bluesy rock and roll on this one. 

Lucrecia Dalt - No Era Solida (RVNG Intl.)

A fascinating, haunted sound collage, into which the voice is subsumed. 

Luke Abbott - Translate (Border Community) 

Slow building, protracted pastoral electronica. 

Luke Schneider - Altar Of Harmony (Third Man) 

A reinvention of the pedal steel guitar into something truly versatile. 

Luke Stewart - Exposure Quintet (Astral Spirits) 

More great improvised music from the astonishingly fertile Chicago scene. 

Lydia Loveless - Daughter (Honey, You're Gonna Be Late) 

Typically caustic country rock songs, and the first release on Lydia Loveless' own record label. 

Lyra Pramuk - Fountain (Bedroom Community) 

Excellent debut album, built from Pramuk's ghostly and insidious vocals and sculpted with electronics. 

2020 In New Music Part 7

 Ian William Craig - Red Sun Through Smoke (FatCat)

A characteristically moving and coherent set of music centred around the piano and Craig's extraordinary voice, informed by the tumultuous personal and environmental factors surrounding its creation. 

Idris Ackamoor & The Pyramids - Shaman! (Strut) 

The third in a superb series of comeback albums blending Afrobeat, funk and burning improvisation, this time with Pyramids founder member Dr. Margaux Simmons returning on flute. 

India Jordan - For You (Local Action) 

Irresistible EP of insistent rhythm and deconstructed disco. 

Ingrid Laubrock - Dreamt Twice, Twice Dreamt (Intakt) 

Ingrid Laubrock and Kris Davis - Blood Moon (Intakt) 

A fascinating exercise featuring two very different approaches to the same set of compositions. The first disc features the EOS Chamber Orchestra and the second disc features a bespoke smaller ensemble. Laubrock has a unique voice both as composer and improviser. 

The duo album with Kris Davis combines two of the best improvising musicians currently at work. 

Irma Vep - Embarrassed Landscape (Gringo) 

Ramshackle, noisy garage psychedelia that is highly invigorating. 

Irreversible Entanglements - Who Sent You? (International Anthem) 

Brilliant, fiery combination of propulsive, sometimes hard swinging avant garde jazz and politically righteous texts from Camae Ayewa (Moor Mother). 

Ivo Neame & Jim Hart - Multiverse (Edition) 

Also featuring a crucial contribution from Matt Calvert on electronics, this extension of Ivo Neame and Jim Hart's duo project is one of the best, most otherworldly sounding jazz releases of the year and also features the kind of attuned, insightful playing that you would expect from these two great musicians. 

Jabu - Sweet Company (Do You Have Peace?) 

A quietly evocative and intimate album of electronic soul capturing a connectedness that could only be replicated on screens this year. 

Jackie Lynn - Jacqueline (Drag City) 

Hayley Fohr's bizarre alter ego adopts a new and surprising identity as this latest album relates the inner life of a long haul truck driver. Musically, this combines the driving qualities of modernised disco and new wave. 

Jacob Collier - Djesse Volume 3 (Hajanga/Interscope) 

The Quincy Jones-endorsed multi-instrumentalist and vocalist continues his odyssey with an R&B focused offering that not only afford the opportunity for myriad special guests but emphasises where Collier's considerable skills can be most well directed - expanding the harmonic and rhythmic possibilities of contemporary pop. 

Jacob Cooper - Terrain (New Amsterdam) 

Compelling blend of fragmented electronic sound collage and meditative vocal pieces. 

Jaga Jazzist - Pyramid (Brainfeeder) 

A move from Ninja Tune to Brainfeeder seems to make sense for Jaga Jazzist, who continue to make thoughtfully realised, expansive and precisely articulated modern fusion. 

Jake Blount - Spider Tales (Free Dirt)

In a similar manner to Rhiannon Giddens, Jake Blount combines adroit musicianship with careful research, unearthing a vital and fascinating history of black folk music. 

Jam City - Pillowland (Earthly) 

Quite a way from the intoxicating serenity of Dream A Garden, Pillowland is a bustling set of scorching, garish, sometimes frenetic electronic pop constructions. 

James Copus - Dusk (Ubuntu) 

Bright, melodic, thrilling and well structured debut album from the young trumpet player and composer. The excellent ensemble also features the talents of pianist Tom Cawley, in demand bassist Conor Chaplin, and drummer Jason Brown. 

James Elkington - Ever-Roving Eye (Paradise Of Bachelors) 

The opening Nowhere Time's sudden lurch from contemplative solo guitar piece to freewheeling full band work sets the tone for this repurposing of Elkington's idiosyncratic songwriting. Recorded at Wilco's Loft Studios with Spencer Tweedy on drums. 

JARV IS... - Beyond The Pale (Rough Trade) 

This new project from Jarvis Cocker is most welcome, offering as it does a refreshingly new context for his sleazy sprechgesang. At times here, he seems to resemble Leonard Cohen, particularly with the responding chorus of female vocalists. The excellent band includes Adam Betts (Heritage Orchestra, Three Trapped Tigers) on drums and Emma Smith (Elysian Quartet, Hot Chip) on violin. It's comfortably his most effective work since the end of Pulp. 

Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit - Reunions (Southeastern/Thirty Tigers) 

Soulful and honest songwriting with a defiantly personal perspective. 

Jason McMahon - Odd West (Shinkoyo) 

Brilliantly arranged and entrancing solo project from the former Skeletons member, threaded like an intricate tapestry. 

Jason Molina - Eight Gates (Secretly Canadian) 

Powerful and moving posthumous solo album from the Songs:Ohia and Magnolia Electric Co. leader, giving some fascinating hints at new directions he might have taken. I reviewed it for musicOMH here. 

Jasper Høiby - Planet B (Edition) 

With Phronesis currently on hiatus, this is the first in a planned four part series over the next four years (although it's entirely possible that Covid-19 might delay the timetable of course). First, it's really exciting to hear Høiby's playing and compositional voice in a different context - this time in a very different trio set up with saxophonist Josh Arcoleo and drummer Marc Michel. It's bold and adventurous music and, in part through choice use of speech samples, politically and environmentally engaged. 

Jeff Parker - Suite For Max Brown (International Anthem) 

The Tortoise guitarist's most effective integration of improvisation and production techniques to date. The mostly brief pieces (sometimes referencing each other) are integrated together into a cohesive work around the theme of family (the dedication is to Parker's mother, and his daughter provides the vocals on the Dirty Projectors-esque opener Build A Nest). 

Jeff Tweedy - Love Is The King (dBpm) 

Another musician who bossed lockdown - Jeff Tweedy broadcasted The Tweedy Show along with his family on Instagram, incorporating their idiosyncratically comic family dynamic as much as live performances. He also this unassuming but quietly effective solo album (also recorded with sons Spencer and Sammy). There seems to be less tension in his writing now, but the comforting nature of this music proved helpful for the times. It has an effortless quality. 

Jennifer Castle - Monarch Season (Paradise Of Bachelors) 

A fully solo album, recorded at home, yet full of interesting textures and sonic manipulation to accompany its stark, direct and beautiful songs. 

Jennifer Curtis and Tyshawn Sorey - Invisible Ritual (Tundra) 

This is a fascinating recording and very hard to describe. First of all, a percussion and violin duo sounds pretty unusual simply by definition. The pieces are improvised but it doesn't feel anywhere close to a cliche of free improvisation. Instead, it draws from contemporary classical music and folk traditions to create something bristling with life and inspiration. 

Jeremy Cunningham - The Weather Up There (Northern Spy) 

So many great musicians are involved in this superb record - Jeff Parker, Ben LaMar Gay, Makaya McCraven, Tomeka Reid, Mike Reed, Josh Johnson and others. It joins a number of other 2020 albums in being a jazz work equally committed to exploring production and the resources of the studio. It's also a moving tribute to Cunningham's brother Andrew, who died in unfortunate circumstances in 2008. Voice samples on the recording directly confront these events.  

Jess Williamson - Sorceress (Mexican Summer) 

Dusty, wise and curious songs. 

Jessie Ware - What's Your Pleasure? (Universal) 

One of 2020's biggest pop triumphs - silky and sophisticated late night club vibes, with Fern Kinney's emotional disco classic Love Me Tonight cited as a key influence. 

Jessy Lanza - All The Time (Hyperdub)

Again collaborating with Jeremy Greenspan, Jessy Lanza's third album of thin but crisp electropop is minimal and spellbinding. 

Jim White and Marisa Anderson - The Quickening (Thrill Jockey) 

Compelling, untethered duo album with impressive dynamic range from the great drummer and guitarist. 

Joan Shelley - Live At The Bomhard (Absolute Anthem Music)

The gloriously pure sound and measured phrasing of Joan Shelley's vocal delivery, captured in live performance. 

Joel Ross - Who Are You? (Blue Note) 

Subtle and elegiac jazz compositions from the vibraphone player. 

Johanna Burnheart - Burnheart (Ropeadope) 

Agile rhythms, insidious melodies and intriguing textures from the improvising violinist and composer. 

John Kolodij - First Fire/At Dawn (Bandcamp) 

Two long, transporting pieces by the High Aura'd composer with Sarah Hennies on percussion and Anna Rg on fiddle. 

John Scofield, Steve Swallow, Bill Stewart - Swallow Tales (ECM) 

Longstanding musical relationships here, still sounding fluid and responsive. 

Jon Collin - Backporch Fågelsundet Midsommar 20​/​20 (Bandcamp)

Jon Collin and Demdike Stare - Sketches Of Everything (DDS)

The first record is a quiet, considered lockdown beauty - the guitarist playing out among nature on the back porch of his home in Sweden. 

The second is an empathetic collaboration with the Manchester hauntological electronic duo. 

Jon Hassell - Seeing Through Sound (Pentimento Volume Two) (Ndeya) 

The second volume in Hassell's Pentimento (sound painting) series is airy, spacious and haunting. 

Jon McKiel - Bobby Joe Hope (You've Changed)  

Dreamlike psychedelic pop songs weaving in samples from an unknown artist whose work McKiel found left in a reel to reel tape recorder he purchased. 

Jordan Reyes - Sand Like Stardust (American Dreams) 

One day in the myth and the reality of the American west via a careful integration of folk music and electronics. 

Joseph Allred - On Whatever Ground (Meliphonic) 

Joseph Allred - Pentecost (Meliphonic) 

Distinctive and challenging solo guitar work. 

Josephine Davies - Satori: How Can We Wake? (Whirlwind Recordings) 

Beautiful suite of contemporary jazz compositions played expressively and freely live at The Oxford in Kentish Town in the before times. 

Josephine Foster - No Harm Done (Fire)

Foster's curious approach to folk music continues to sound both abrasively modern and old as the hills. 

Josh Kimbrough - Slither, Soar & Disappear (Tompkins Square) 

Circling and swooping finger picked guitar pieces, also featuring the brush stroke support of some sensitive small ensembles. 

Joshua Massad & Dylan Aycock - Joshua Massad & Dylan Aycock  (Scissor Tail) 

Massad is an Indian classical musician who studied tabla with Zakir Hussein, Aycock is a twelve string guitarist and multi instrumentalist. Their improvised collaborations are committed and immersive. 

Judith Hamann - Peaks (Black Truffle)

Two captivating, long cello and electronics meditations. 

Juliana Barwick - Healing Is A Miracle (Ninja Tune) 

Dependably stirring and beautiful layered choral, sometimes with supporting instrumental textures. 

Junk Magic - Compass Confusion (Pyroclastic) 

Craig Taborn's Junk Magic album is one of the pioneering documents of merging a human, interactive jazz ensemble with electronics. Compass Confusion returns to the project and continues to yield forward thinking, imaginative approaches to ensemble jazz. 

Jussell, Prymek, Sage, Shiroshi - Fuubutsushi (Cached) 

Part of a series of socially distanced collaborative recordings - again demonstrating just how empathetic and connected it is possible to sound while still apart. 

Jyoti - Mama, You Can Bet! (eOne Music) 

Glorious, no boundaries alter ego project from Georgia Anne Muldrow, incorporating spiritual jazz, funk and hip hop. 

2020 In New Music Part 6

 Garcia Peoples - Nightcap At Wit's End (Beyond Beyond Is Beyond) 

Psychedelic rock and roll both spirited and sensitive, with strong melodic content and a real sense of empathy and interaction in the ensemble. 

Gerycz/Powers/Rolin - Beacon (Garden Portal) 

Intriguing trio of guitar, hammered dulcimer and percussion creating undulating, contemplative mood pieces. 

Gillian Welch & David Rawlings - All The Good Times (Acony) 

You wait many years for a new Gillian Welch album, and then four come along at once. The Lost Songs series provided a veritable bounty of riches (see reissues and comps list, assuming I have time to finish it!) and this lockdown covers album, complete with beautiful imperfections, proved once again that their two voices in harmony may be one of the world's most beautiful sounds (rivalled perhaps only by Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker from Low). Particularly moving was their version of Hello In There, underlining the very sad loss of John Prine to Covid-19. 

Good Sad Happy Bad - Shades (Textile) 

The group formerly known as Micachu & The Shapes still making effective off-kilter, ragged, avant pop, but with a different focus. Keyboardist Raisa Khan now handles lead vocals, and CJ Calderwood is added on saxophone and additional electronics. The result is a cleaner, more dreamlike and fully realised sound world. 

Gordon Koang - Unity (Light In The Attic/Cargo) 

Eleventh album from the Sudanese artist who has sought asylum in Australia. Comes with a powerful message and also a sense of collective unity in the music too. 

Greg Dulli - Random Desire (Royal Cream/BMG) 

It's hard to get a handle on what makes a Greg Dulli solo project and what makes a Twilight Singers or Afghan Whigs project now - but this is his most robust and powerful work outside either of those monikers. 

Greg Foat - Symphonie Pacifique (Strut) 

Wide-ranging, genre-crossing, lush sounding album from UK pianist. 

Greg Fox - Contact (RVNG Intl) 

Impressive, texturally rich album of solo percussion plus electronics that combines melodic improvisation with intensity generated from speed of movement, drawing from jazz, metal and electronica. It's also worth noting that the interview with Fox in Wire magazine was one of the most inspiring musical discussions of 2020 for me. 

Gregoire Maret, Romain Collin & Bill Frisell - Americana (ACT) 

Beautiful trio of harmonica, piano and guitar exploring American country and folk traditions and other contemporary music within its orbit. Includes gorgeous interpretations of Dire Straits' Brothers In Arms, Bon Iver's re: Stacks and Jimmy Webb's Wichita Lineman. 

Guided By Voices - Surrender Your Poppy Field (Guided By Voices)

Guided By Voices - Mirrored Aztec (Guided By Voices)

Guided By Voices - Styles We Paid For (Guided By Voices) 

Just the three albums of crunchy, oblique power pop from Robert Pollard this year!  

Gunn - Truscinski Duo - Soundkeeper (Three Lobed) 

Steve Gunn and John Truscinski continue to draw a huge span of possibility from the guitar-drums duo format, from noisy squall to meditative exchange via steadfast, restrained grooves. 

Gwenifer Raymond - Strange Lights Over Garth Mountain (Tompkins Square) 

Dark, gothic folk-blues and outstanding guitar playing. 

Hailu Mergia - Yene Mircha (Awesome Tapes From Africa) 

Groove heavy latest from Ethiopian keyboardist and accordionist is at once both relaxed and enlivening. 

Hamerkop - Remote (Drag City)

Promising debut from this blissful synth pop duo. 

Hayley Williams - Petals For Armour (Atlantic) 

Album collating three ambitious, meticulously crafted and modern sounding EPs from the Paramour singer. 

Hazel English - Wake UP! (Marathon Artists) 

Insistent and infectious songs with great choruses. 

H.C. McEntire - Eno Axis (Merge) 

Brilliantly evocative songwriting with a sense of landscape and place. I reviewed this for musicOMH here 

Heather Leigh - Glory Days (Boomkat Editions) 

A lockdown work that succeeds in broadening the scope of Heather Leigh's arrangements, sometimes incorporating rhythmic foundations, electronics, atmosphere and energy alongside her more familiar pedal steel guitar features. 

Helen Money - Atomic (Thrill Jockey) 

Imaginative, versatile and refreshing use of the cello on this very personal work.

Helena Deland - Someone New (Luminelle Recordings)  

One of the year's strongest pop albums - sadly not much remarked upon more broadly. The writing is slippery and fascinating. 

Helm - Saturnalia (After) 

A live recording from 9am at the close of the Saturnalia festival, these three long pieces brilliantly capture the ebbing of vitality and alertness. 

HHY & The Kampala Unit - Lithium Blast (Nyege Nyege Tapes) 

Percussion meets dub meets West African musical traditions and electronics in this exciting, heady, masterfully constructed synthesis. 

Hilary Woods - Birthmarks (Sacred Bones) 

More cinematic ghostliness from the former JJ72 member now very much defining her own sound. 

Hiss Golden Messenger - Forward, Children (Merge) 

Hiss Golden Messenger - School Daze (Merge) 

No new studio album from Hiss this year, but MC Taylor continues to fulfil his promise of a release every year with these two outstanding live albums with completely different set lists. Both albums are essential, but School Daze best captures the incandescence of the Hiss full band vibe. This is where I turned when I most missed the feeling of being together at a show. 

Horse Lords - The Common Task (Northern Spy) 

One of the most exciting bands currently at work, with music that is both fearsomely intelligent and also celebratory. 

Hum - Inlet (Earth Analog) 

Full powered, muscular return from the noisy shoe gazing group. 

Hunteress - The Unshackling (Boomkat Editions) 

One of many projects from the great Laura Cannell this year, this introduced entirely new facets to her music, with synthesisers, electronics and vocals. 

Huw V Williams - Equidistant Between (HVW Recordings) 

The bassist and composer leads an exploratory trio with saxophonist George Crowley and drummer Devin Grey that captures a sense of space as well as bustling activity. 

2020 In New Music Part 5

 Eartheater - Phoenix: Flames Are Dew Upon My Skin (PAN) 

Exquisite and distinctive modern chamber works, arranged around Eartheater's soft focus guitar and wide ranging vocals. 

Eddie Chacon - Pleasure, Joy And Happiness (Day End) 

One of 2020's great surprises, this piece of introspective, artfully warped, sensual contemporary electronic soul comes from one half of pop duo Charles and Eddie, working with producer John Carroll Kirby. 

Eiko Ishibashi - Hyakki Yagyo (Black Truffle) 

Translating as Night Parade of One Hundred Demons, this set of two long pieces is Eiko Ishibashi's ghost stories project. 

Einsturzende Neubauten - Alles In Allem (Potomak) 

Mechanistic, industrial clanging, ominous incantations and fragments of melody - also the first studio album in 13 years. 

Elena Setien/Grande Days/Xabier Erkizia - Mirande (Forbidden Colours) 

Expressive and haunting ballads from the Basque singer-songwriter. 

Eli Winter - Unbecoming (American Dreams)

An expanded canvas for the very promising guitarist yields brilliant results. 

Elina Duni, Rob Luft, Fred Thomas, Matthieu Michel - Lost Ships (ECM) 

Singer Elina Duni's collaboration with the excellent Rob Luft is fully realised here on this beautiful collection of songs combining six originals with six interpretations. Delivered with a delicate touch and depth of feeling.  

Elkhorn - The Storm Sessions (Beyond Beyond Is Beyond) 

Maybe setting a precedent for 2020's lockdown experience, this improvised recording came about after Elkhorn were snowed in on a night they should have been playing a gig. The resulting music is glimmering and captivating. 

Ellen Allien - Auraa (Bpitch) 

With this being her third album in three years, it has been hard to keep up with Berlin's techno pioneer lately. Auraa is vivid and vibrant. 

Elliott Galvin - Live In Paris, at Foundation Louis Vuitton (Edition) 

This excellent, fluent solo performance from May 2018 captures the core of Elliott Galvin's distinctive and playful approach to piano improvisation. 

Elvis Costello - Hey Clockface (Concord) 

Even if Elvis Costello now appears to be struggling to draw the theatrical gravitas from his vocal chords that has been the defining feature of his later work, he is still a songwriter of great range and depth. Actually only his third studio album in the past ten years,  Hey Clockface finds Costello experimenting with production techniques, arrangement and instrumentation as well as his usual genre flirtations. 

Elysia Crampton - Orcorara 2010 (PAN) 

Dedicated to Paul Sousa who, while incarcerated, worked as an inmate firefighter tackling wildfires in the Sierra Nevada, Elysia Crampton's bold and powerful latest began life as the soundtrack to an installation. It more than stands alone, however, with the vocal presences of its various guests firmly at the forefront (from the spoken narratives of Jeremy Rojas to the theatrical, near operatic contributions from Shannon Funchess). 

Enrique Rodriguez & The Negra Chiway Band - False Liminal (Soul Jazz) 

Intense, spiritual jazz from Chile. 

Eric Revis - Slipknots Through The Looking Glass (Pyroclastic) 

Contemporary jazz exploring dissonance, but with a propulsive impetus. 

Erland Cooper - Hether Blether (Phases)

Erland Cooper - Landform (Phases) 

Final instalment of the majestic Orkney trilogy and its, to me, more satisfying digital companion piece. 

Ezra Feinberg - Recumbent Speech (Related States) 

Ezra Feinberg and John Kolodij - Ezra Feinberg and John Kolodij (Bandcamp) 

Ezra Feinberg's Recumbent Speech brilliantly combines agile, repetitive picked guitar or percussion figures with shimmering synth textures to create something gently elevating. A great ensemble includes Chuck Johnson on pedal steel and John McEntire on drums. The collaboration with John Kolodij is a split LP. 

FACS - Void Moments (Trouble In Mind) 

Wiry, minimal, angular, determinedly dark, sometimes industrial post-punk from the Chicago trio. 

Faten Kanaan - A Mythology Of Circles (Fire) 

While the Brooklyn composer may be most interested in 'cyclical repetitions', what emerges most from her music is a keen sense of stillness, beauty and awareness of the moment. 

Field Music - Making A New World (Memphis Industries) 

Field Music's extraordinarily consistent strike rate continued with this outstanding song cycle that grew from projects with the Imperial War Museum, exploring the after-effects of the WW1. This still contains Field Music's by now familiar core ingredients - robust grooves, a Peter Gabriel meets Jeff Lynne-esque approach to melody and arrangement, intelligent song structures and bold lyrics. 

Fiona Apple - Fetch The Bolt Cutters (Sony) 

One part musical theatre and cabaret, another part Marc Ribot-esque avant garde percussive textures, Fetch The Bolt Cutters seemed to really cut through the noise of this year. Features some of the most disarming and honest lyrics of the year.  

Fire! Orchestra - Actions for Free Jazz Orchestra (Rune Gramofon) 

A bit of a detour for this improvising big band project as they interpret a work by Krysztof Penderecki. The result is ominous sounding and apposite for our dystopian moment. 

Fleet Foxes - Shore (Anti) 

Essentially a solo project from Robin Pecknold and emerging unexpectedly from lockdown, Shore provided a welcome ray of sunlight with its bright sounding production and lingering melodies.  

Flora Yin-Wong - Holy Palm (Modern Love) 

Highly absorbing sound collage combining abrasive noise with temple bells and effective use of space. 

Four Tet - Sixteen Oceans (Text) 

Combines familiar blissful melodies with more ambient interludes and meditative pieces. 

Fra Fra - Funeral Songs (Glitterbeat) 

Astounding ritual songs from North Ghana. 

Frances Quinlan - Likewise (Saddle Creek) 

Dexterous melodies and verbose narratives from the Hop Along singer. 

Frazey Ford - U Kin B The Sun (Arts & Crafts) 

Another masterful co-opting of a session soul sound from the former Be Good Tanya. These exquisite songs along with Ford's translucent delivery make this one of the 2020 albums I've been returning to the most. 

Freddie Gibbs & The Alchemist - Alfredo (ESGN/ALC/Empire) 

Great grooves, hypnotic loops and quickfire phrasing on this Mafioso themed hip hop collaboration. 

FujiIIIIIIIIIIIIta - Iki (Hallow Ground) 

Fascinating, deeply absorbing exporation of the possibilities from a purpose built pipe organ.