10-1
10. Squid- Bright Green Field
I don't know a huge amount about the 70s art rock, avant rock, proto punk bands apart from more obvious stuff by bands like Modern Lovers, Television, Talking Heads etc. but of the three young British bands in my list, this feels at times most informed by those bands and that era.
Some of the tracks (especially Narrator and Paddling) feel like they've been with me for years, and that seems like a clever trick as i've probably only heard them 8 or 9 times max.
But, some of the more experimental stuff sounds like it could sit comfortably on either the Black Midi or Black Country, New Road records. It was tough to place the three in my list, as I really like all of them, but this is the one I most want to go back to. It seems more ambitious in scope than the others, capturing what feels like jazz time signatures and funk bass at times and there's a whole track that sounds to me like someone took the breakdown in Paranoid Android and extended it into a full song. Not to mention the fuzzy, scuzzy breakouts which seem to be littered throughout. But in spite of all this it never feels like they're trying to be anyone else and the whole thing retains a certain warmth in the production and atmosphere which I like. Claiming that this record is broader in scope sounds almost ridiculous considering who it's up against in my new British band mini list. And I think it might just be because there's 11 tracks here compared to 6 on BC,NR and 8 on Black Midi.
It's also the album that suprised me most. But to be honest, on a different day, the order would probably change.
Favourite Track: Narrator
9. Lightning Bug- A Color of the Sky
This is their third album, but i'd never heard of them before this. I imagine the best way to listen to this would be in a flotation tank. It feels like all the best dreamier, poppier bits of the shoegaze world. Ringing, chiming guitars, a slightly hushed but warm vocal, some liberally sprinkled synths, gentle beats, easy melody left, right & centre and a fuzzy warming effect throughout.
It can very easily be played as you're getting on with something else or with a little more attention you realise it's actually a lot more meticulous and clever than it appears on the surface. Lovely lovely lovely.
Favourite Track: The Right Thing Is Hard To Do
8. Cassandra Jenkins- An Overview of Phenomenal Nature
First and foremost it's packed full of great songwriting. It's just lovely to listen to on the surface with understated but layered instrumentation, and subtle melodies that reveal themselves slowly but surely. The kind that have longevity and don't get boring quickly.
But dig deeper and there's so much lyrically to draw you in too and her delivery makes me believe every word. It almost feels like a therapy session and fits the weird times we're living in so well.
Like a number of records on my list I wish i'd discovered it when it was released earlier in the year so could have spent a lot more time with it, but i've no hesitation putting it this high. Crosshairs is one of the best songs i've heard this year.
Favourite Track: Crosshairs
7. Damu The Fudgemunk- Conversation Peace
A name that I'd seen around (once you see that name you don't forget it) but hadn't dipped in to his discography. I can't remember where I saw this first, but it was probably a review that made me take a listen. I was hooked immediately.
He's a producer that blurs the lines between hip hop and jazz so well that at first I couldn't tell what was samples and what was live instrumentation. Turns out it's mostly sample based, but such a judicious choice of samples and so sensitively treated.
The beats are great and the verses of the guest rappers (particularly Raw Poetic, who he seems to work a lot with and Blu- who has popped up on quite a bit I like this year) fit perfectly- they don't over power, rather they compliment a record which is all about the production. The closing 4 piece Four Better or Worse pts 1,2,3 & 4 is stunning.
Favourite Track: Four Better or Worse pts 1,2,3 & 4
6. Trees Speak- Posthuman
This monster of a record is impossible to review. It feels like you could write a whole side of A4 on each of it's 16 tracks. It's a behemoth of mental, motorik madness and mayhem. It's very obviously Krautrock influenced but at the same time doesn't really remind me of any Krautrock record I've heard. It seems much more futuristic. Almost as if Krautrock had been invented now rather than the late 60s. And then without warning it drops into space jazz mode before lulling you into a dreamy, ambienty psychedelic folky sort of sound.
One thing I do know is that you SHOULD NOT TAKE PSYCHEDELICS when listening to this record. Or maybe you should. Perhaps that's the only way to fully get to grips with it. What do I know? I'll tell you what I know- this is a magnificent record.
Favourite Track: Scheinwelt
5. Madlib- Sound Ancestors
I listened to this a bit early in the year and then forgot about. I've come back to it over the last 2 months and was amazed at how fresh, yet familiar it sounded (surely Road of the Lonely Ones was released years ago….it wasn't, but it feels like an all time classic cut).
I've dipped in and out of MadLib's stuff over the years. I'm well versed in his early stuff (Madvillainy, Champion Sound, the Quasimoto albums, the Blue Note thing) and his stuff with Freddie Gibbs, but otherwise i've still got quite a bit of listening to do.
This doesn't really sound too much like the other stuff mentioned above, but I suppose it wouldn't with Kieran Hebden at the controls. Unsuprisingly it feels tighter and the production cleaner, but still unmistakably Madlib. I guess there's an extra layer of production on top of Madlib's production and that should sound dense and muddy, but somehow it has incredible clarity. And works amazingly well.
There's so much going on over the 16 tracks that it would be difficult to do justice in a few lines here, but regular hip hop touch points are littered all over- jazz, soul, funk, reggae (and various sub-genres within each) samples run right through and and it never stands still. It sometimes reminds me of some of the MoWax and Ninja Tunes sample heavy stuff from the 90s. It must've been amazing fun to put together. I hope they do a follow up in a couple of years.
I reckon this could easily get played at a party but at the same time be amazing after a joint with your headphones on. I'll be sure to try both.
Favourite Track: Road of the Lonely Ones
4. Web Web x Max Herre- Web Max
Not a lot needs saying except that this is a perfectly executed spiritual jazz mini masterpiece that if you told me it was from 1970 I wouldn't have blinked twice.
I know nothing about Web Web or Max Herre, except that they come from Germany and collaborate here with heavyweight guest names including Mulatau Astatke and Yuseef Lateef to amazing effect.
Full of soul. Also full of just enough jazz flute to remain on the right side of tasteful. Fuck, I do love a bit of jazz flute. The whole record is ripe for sampling and any 21st century hip hop producer that doesn't plunder it's breaks is not doing their job correctly.
Favourite Track: Sartori Ways
3. Villagers- Fever Dreams
Villagers were/was new to me other than hearing and dismissing a song or two a decade ago. I heard So Simpatico on the radio and was kind of blown away. I don't think there's been many better songs this year.
The First Day was I think another that got a fair bit of radio play and it's a fantastic optimistic slice of wonky indie pop.
The rest of the album doesn't disappoint either.
I love the way he starts some songs with slightly distorted melody or sound which then straighten out and drop into irresistible hooks.
At other times the record has a pure soul feel with brass and harmonies adding texture and at others intros stripped down to his delicate falsetto and light instrumentration which then lead into a warm rush with layers of harmony and music (like Simpatico).
When he plays it really delicate it's almost unbearably beautiful. Like on Full Faith in Providence - it starts with just his vocal and a few piano notes, and then a background female vocal drops in and out and he adds his own vocal as a second track while a synth line starts up so subtly that you don't notice it at first, then some shimmering strings come in low in the mix, before suddenly at about 2mins 30 the vocal melody shifts into something utterly gorgeous with a crescendo, which very quickly drops off again. It's proper hairs standing on end stuff.
The closing track- Deep in my Heart has an almost Van Morrison Moondance feel to it musically. That kind of languid jazz vibe.
Synths are used to compliment the songs rather than completely informing them, similarly with the piano. In fact, there's a whole host of different instruments used on the album (Piano, violins, cello, sax, trumpet, flugelhorn, keys- half of which Conor O'Brien plays himself) and the production feels new but non unfamiliar at the same time.
There are little touches that compliment the lyrics, like the car engine and hooter sounds on Momentarily when he sings about slowing down and taking a turn. It never sounds naff.
This will be an album I come back to a lot, and i'm astonished that it didn't feature much higher in the music publication's end of year lists.
Favourite Track: So Simpatico
2. Anthony Joseph- The Rich Are Only Defeated When Running For Their Lives
I've listened to a lot more jazz this year. New jazz seems to be having a bit of a moment. I've always loved Jazz but this year I've bought a load more and really spent time digging deeper. From old blue note classics, through 70s free/spiritual to some newer stuff. Oddly, the more established newer acts like Sons of Kemet (even though i've had a lot of time for Shabaka Hutchings [who plays on here] when i've seen him playing with others at Oto in recent years), Portico Quartet, Ezra Collective etc. haven't really captured my imagination in ways others have. And this one really has.
I'd never heard of him before popular forum member Mahoney recommended this record on the new albums thread and a quick search online doesn't reveal a whole lot.
From what I can gather, he's a poet first and foremost and on this album is backed by established jazz musicians. I don't know (but don't think) he plays or writes music himself, but his voice almost acts like an instrument in it's own right. He doesn't sing, but the cadence of his poetry seems to drive the tempo and the forthrightness of his words inform the mood of the record more than any of the musicians.
The poems centre around his own and others' experiences as immigrants in TCOTU, from the start of the windrush in the 40s to his own move to TCOTU in the 80s. And covers what you'd expect it to in terms of the way he was treated. It also harks back to the Caribbean and almost by default offers up a comparison between the two.
There are obvious parallels with Gil Scott-Heron but very much through a British/Carribean/TCOTU lens. And although it's backwards looking in lyrical content, it's very much forward looking and modern in feel.
It's a properly powerful piece and i'll be keeping a close eye out for him in future.
Favourite Track: Lanaguage (Poem for Anthony McNeill)
1. Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders, LSO- Promises
Ah man- what a record.
I'd been a big fan of Floating Points' Elaenia a few years back, but for whatever reason hadn't really heard anything from him since. Add in Pharoah Sanders, a favourite of mine and then one of the world's great orchestras then this was never going to fail.
It's a record that really has to be given full attention, preferably on good earphones without distraction and listened to in one go. At first it can feel a little underwhelming (no, that's the wrong word- "understated" is better). It builds beautifully, at a serene pace.
The harpsichord motif that opens the album and runs right through gets right into your head and those light, tender sax moments in the first few movements are so clearly Pharoah Sanders, plus the use of his voice at the start of movement 4 and it almost feel like he's playing exclusively for you in your living room. Floating Points use of electronics is so subtle throughout those early tracks that you're not entirely sure he's there or if it's something orchestral going on, but listen closely and the touches are so deft and clever.
Then, halfway through movement 5 the tone shifts a bit- the electronics add a slightly murkier tone and the sax picks up a little, but then it drifts off, back to calm (it feels like when the wind suddenly picks up but just as quickly drops off).
Then in movement 6 the orchestra really starts to make it's presence felt as a full set of strings comes in with big swells and extended high notes and shimmering arrangements (reminding me a little of some of the arrangements David Axelrod used on his great records).
The orchestra takes a back seat and the electronics come more to the fore in movement 7 creating a kind of celestial space-travel vibe- a nod perhaps to Pharoah Sanders masterpiece Astral Travelling? The sax playing briefly gets a little more frantic towards the end of the track sitting on top of the electronics but then fades away to almost nothing as what sounds like a hammond organ segues into movement 8.
Keys play a more prominent role as the track moves on and the use of a kind of industrial static makes it feel like an old record is being played in the background- about a minute before the end of the track the sound drops to almost silence apart from a barely perceptible pulsing that could be a piece of machinery somewhere off in the distance.
And as the final track starts a synth gradually gets louder and the strings come back in before you're left with 30 seconds of silence at the end where you take a moment and almost meditate on what you've just heard. A little like the couple of minutes you're left with in silence at the end of a great massage.
A wonderful piece of work that is so expertly put together by masters of their art and by a distance my number one record of the year.
Favourite Track: The whole fucking lot.
Love this. Also I forgot about listening to The Primitives record during lockdown.