Record Roundup: Evocative Voices

The origins of all music lie in the body and the voice. Here are some remarkable recent releases that foreground the voice in various ways.

The Crossing - Born "So this is his mother. This small woman. The gray-eyed procreator." So begins Born, the arresting poem by Wislawa Szymborska that provides the text for the emotionally incisive piece (2017) by Michael Gilbertson that opens this album. Scored so it feels like the singers are feeling their way through the poem's universe and reacting in real time, it's a gorgeous tribute to the mother of conductor Donald Nally, whose sure hand guides the choir. Gilbertson's Returning (2021), which draws on Biblically-inspired text from Kai Hoffman-Krull, closes the collection in two parts of dynamic, searching music. In between those bookends is Edie Hill's Spectral Spirits (2019), 13 short movements meditating on extinct birds through the poetry of Holly J. Hughes and observations by Henry David Thoreau and other naturalists. Hill uses the words and occasional vocalise to create gently flowing phrases, interspersed with short solos announcing the naming of the lost animals. It's a gorgeous elegy and an original way to reflect on all the ways humankind has been unkind to the earth. Typically for an album by The Crossing, the recording and performances are impeccable. 

Carlos Simon - Requiem For The Enslaved If a piece of music can be seen as a container for emotion, then Simon's extraordinarily powerful Requiem is near to bursting. Such is the weight of what he's conveying - "marking eternal rest" for the American slaves sold off in 1838 to keep Georgetown University afloat - that it would seem an impossibility for any work of art to encompass it. But Simon is both brave and skilled enough that he pulls it off in a way that should silence any argument about slavery's central role in the American legacy. The idiom he creates, drawing on musical colors associated both with the European classical tradition and the diaspora, including spirituals, hip hop, New Orleans jazz, and others, would become a morass for almost any other composer, but Simon moves his brush around the palette with dazzling ease and great depth of feeling. 

While I hope this bold, at times shattering, work becomes a concert hall staple, it's going to be hard to match Simon's collaborators here, including rapper and spoken word artist Marco Pavé, who also wrote the text, trumpeter Jared "MK Zulu" Bailey, and Hub New Music, a quartet that sounds like an orchestra. Simon himself takes on the piano part, lending it the dynamic range and compelling flow of a great preacher, making it another voice in the piece. Another masterstroke is Simon's complete ownership of the 10-movement requiem structure, using the soul-nourishing force of ritual to his own ends. To be clear, however, while there is a healing force here, there is also deep sorrow and anger. Pavé's text ends with this blistering couplet: "Now when you read the word slave in your false history books...you will know the truth. The so-called masters unknowingly elevated the souls of their property while simultaneously building a tomb in hell for themselves." Amen. 

Kate Soper Feat. Sam Pluta - The Understanding Of All Things On this fantastic and fantastical collection, Soper shoulders her way into a small but elite group that includes Scott Johnson and Laurie Anderson. Using her voice to convey content that is both informational and musical, all with a wry wit that seems to say, "Can you believe I'm getting away with this?" she takes us on a thrill ride grounded in her piano and Pluta's electronics. At times her voice is a ghost in the machine, getting pulled like taffy or chopped into bits, while never losing sight of the thoughts she wishes to explore. Pulling texts as wide-ranging as Kafka, Parmenides, and W.B. Yeats, to explore the meaning of existence, this is like hippest philosophy class - or Ted Talk - ever, and one you can play over and over again. To be honest, however, I wasn't feeling it much on my first go round. But then I listened to Season Two of the Miller Theatre's Mission Commission podcast, on which Soper is a featured composer, and something clicked. Whatever journey you take to find this, get started now. You don't want to be late for class. 

Loadbang - Quiver This quartet puts baritone voice (Jeffrey Gavett) alongside trumpet (Andy Kozar),  trombone (William Lang), and bass clarinet (Carlos Cordeiro or Adrián Sandi) almost as if it were just another breath-powered instrument  - yet one that can outdo the others in flexibility and variety. As on their last album, which featured a string section, they unflappably take on whatever the pieces demand, whether it's the (mock?) solemnity of Gavett's own Quis Det Ut (2016), which takes inspiration from the renaissance, or the gasps and warbles of Heather Stebbins' fragmented title track (2014). Other pieces by Quinn Mason, Cordeiro, ZangYun WE, Kozar, and Chaya Czernowin, are more text-based, featuring poetry by Lydia Davis, William Blake, and others, in settings like you'e never heard before. Venture in and be as fearless in your listening as Loadbang was in the act of creation.

Ethan Woods - Burnout After 2019's Hyperion Drive, a sleek and sexy collaboration with Alice TM, Woods returns to similar realms as his earlier Mossing Around EP, applying his warm singing to  meandering melodies in chamber-folk arrangements of his most assured set of songs yet. Many of the lyrics address animals or are even from the point of view of the feathered and the furred, adding to the gently dissociative vibe that could be called psychedelic, but also reaches back to Lewis Carroll and Edward Lear. Woods' approach to song-craft is unique enough that it's easier to see it as a parallel path rather than tangential so when you get tired of our storyline, give a listen to his.

Moor Mother - Jazz Codes Though not obviously a concept album, there's a cinematic sweep to this latest from poet, professor, composer, and visual artist Camae Aweya that calls back to Barry Adamson's movie of the mind, Moss Side Story. While there is great musical variety here, with bright touches from Mary Lattimore's harp, Nicole Mitchell's flute, and other guests, the whole thing is slathered in a rhythmic juiciness, like a lost dream of the late, great Ras G. The vocal blend is top notch, with singers Orion Sun, Wolf Weston, Melanie Charles, and others lending their hearts and souls to the project alongside rappers including Yungmorpheus and Akai Solo. But dominion over all comes from Moor Mother herself: her composition, her intention, her spoken words, and even her sharp flow on Rap Jasm, the obvious single here. Her kaleidoscopic overview of the Black musical experience encompasses everyone from Woody Shaw to OutKast and Linton Kwesi Johnson. Her lyrics are impressionistic, revealing, and arising out of a depth of knowledge and feeling that power through any haziness due to their roots in the traditions of "great Black music, ancient to the future," as the Art Ensemble of Chicago put it. The song Evening gives us plenty of bread crumbs to follow, from "Free jazz lifestyle, yeah, I'm off the cuff," to "Spirits in the dark, let Nina sing, because it DON'T mean a thing/If it ain't got the blues." I mentioned a lot of names here, but the only one you should remember is Moor Mother's as she continues to astonish and become ever more crucial to the tenor of our times.

Lizzo - Special When her last album, Cuz I Love You, exploded in the sky over 2019, I worried about the influence success might have on her future work. But as she was just remaking pop, hip hop, and r&b in her own image, I was probably overthinking it. Either way, I'm overjoyed that her latest goes down so easy you might play it twice just to keep feeling so good. No song overstays its welcome and if Am I Ready causes a slight cringe with its Katy Perry-esque chorus, its still catchy as heck and goes by fast. Standouts are the pure disco of About Damn Time, the electro overshare of I Love You, Bitch, and the swinging folk-pop of If I Love You, but she plays to her strengths throughout for a fun, fizzy ride. And we all owe her thanks for the great opening lines of The Sign, an epitaph for a pandemic that is not quite over: "Hi, motherfucker, did you miss me?/I've been home since 2020/I've been twerkin' and making smoothies, it's called healing/And I feel better since you seen me last." So do I, now that I have Special in my life.

Billie Eilish - Guitar Songs While the death of the album has been an ongoing debate for a decade or more, it seems like singles are the things that can disappear more easily. So I'm pinning this here, like the beautiful butterfly it is. With Eilish in intimate, reflective mode, accompanied by her brother Finneas' delicate backing, these two songs show off her songwriting and singing in their purest form. The lyrics are deeply personal, with TV finding her alone on the couch after a breakup, asking "What's the point of anything?" and The 30th detailing the aftermath of a friend's terrifying car accident. But her sense of drama never leaves her and the way she finds comfort in a stadium audience near the end of TV, or the crescendo of The 30th ("You’re alive, you’re alive, you’re alive!"), are strokes of genius that nail the songs to your soul like the end of a Raymond Carver short story. Deceptively simple stuff and hopefully a signpost to her next album.

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Record Roundup: Rooms Of Their Own
Record Roundup: Vox Humana

Best Of 2020: Out Of The Past

Herein I end the Best Of 2020 series as it began, with a multi-genre roundup of some amazing releases from last year, the difference being these are all reissues or otherwise from out of the past. As usual, click play here or below to listen as your read. 

The Big Boxes

Lou Reed - New York If only the New York City Man himself could have lived to see this glorious super-deluxe edition, with the original album luxuriously spread across four sides of vinyl and a DVD of a brilliant live show from Montreal in 1989. You also get the album on CD and discs of live takes and sketches. If the latter are not as revealing as you might hope, it's only further proof of the laser-focus Reed brought to the creation of the album, which never wavered between thought and expression. The songs themselves have a remarkable double-life, as a catalog of the ills of the 80's (AIDS, urban decline, climate change) and and reminder of how far we have to go in addressing some of them. And that Reed-Rathke guitar interplay never gets old.

Jimi Hendrix Experience - Live In Maui In the electric church of rock & roll, I'm nominating Eddie Kramer and John McDermott for sainthood. This staggering box set, containing over 90 minutes of fantastic live performances from August 1970 plus a new documentary, Music, Money, Madness...Jimi Hendrix In Maui, is yet another tribute to their careful stewardship of Hendrix's work. While some of this material has come out in other forms (and bootlegs), their sonic and sequencing magic has made for a coherent and thrilling listening experience. Highlights are too many to mention, from a fire-breathing Voodoo Child (Slight Return) to the finest version of Villanova Junction I've ever heard, and the documentary puts everything in illuminating context. Billy Cox (bass) sounds sharper than he did some months earlier when the Band Of Gypsys rang in 1970, and Mitch Mitchell proves himself Hendrix's ideal drummer, even on the tracks where he had to overdub to help conquer wind noise. It's a new landmark on my groaning shelf of posthumous Hendrix releases and I vow not to be surprised if McDermott and Kramer wow me like this again.

Jamaican Sounds

Various Artists - Coxsone's Dramatic and Music Centre Smashing remastering on this reissue puts you right in the room as Clement "Coxsone" Dodd recorded these tracks in the early 60's. Falling somewhere between jazz, doo wop, mento, and ska, this is not just a great piece of history but a direct Rx for your pleasure centers.

Various Artists - Blue Coxsone Box Set Yes, the back catalog of Studio One is endless. Yes, the super-cute 6x7" box set, which faithfully reproduced these mid-60's rarities in physical form, is sold out. But that shouldn't stop you from getting to these delightful - and mostly unfamiliar - tracks.

Various Artists - Pirate's Choice, Vol. 2 Delightfully deep cuts from Studio One in the 70's, many of them alternates, like an especially shamanistic take on Door Peep by Burning Spear. But it's now-forgotten tracks like Black Is Black by The Freedom Singers that truly astonish.

Various Artists - When Jah Come Among those we lost in 2020 was legendary reggae producer Bunny "Striker" Lee and this stellar collection of rare and alternate takes is a fitting homage to his sound, which was sleek, propulsive, and hypnotic. Too many highlights to note, but if you like roots reggae and dub, you will be thanking the good people at Pressure Sounds for their curatorial expertise.

African Head Charge - Churchical Chant Of The Iyabinghi When British dub master Adrian Sherwood collaborates with percussionist Bonjo Iyabinghi Noah, this is what happens - explorations of rhythm, bass, and studio sonics, arriving at what could be settings for unknown rituals. This collection of reworked outtakes will alter your mind in a purely organic fashion.

Mystery Music

24 Carat Black - III Dale Warren's legacy was mostly earned by the extraordinary Ghetto: Misfortune's Wealth from 1973, but over a decade after Gone: The Promises Of Yesterday, Numero Group has given us another unfinished gem in these sparse jazz-funk-soul pieces from the late 80's. Using just bass, percussion and touches of other instruments, Warren conjures a late-night vibe of romance and mystery. Just as mysterious is why the three singers featured - Princess Hearn, Vicki Gray, and especially LaRhonda LeGette - are not household names.

Miles Davis - The Lost Septet I've had a bootleg of this 1971 Vienna gig forever (with an incomplete Sanctuary, however) and can attest to its majesty. Featuring a band that never recorded in the studio, it's an essential piece of the electric period. 

Beverly Glenn-Copeland - Transmissions and Live at Le Guess Who? 2018 The rediscovery of Beverly Glenn-Copeland's genre-defying work, whether the jazz/folk of his debut or the new age ambient of Keyboard Fantasies, has been a highlight of the 21st century. Transmissions is a wonderfully curated (and immaculately pressed) souvenir that spans his whole career, including triumphant live performances from 2018 and 2019. To hear more of his great touring band, featuring phenomenal drummer Bianca Palmer, grab the whole set from Le Guess Who?, which has been released separately. P.S. Early in the days of "shelter in place," MoMA PS1 shared an online screening of the marvelous documentary about Glenn-Copeland - keep an eye here and catch it if you can.

Ethan Woods - Mossing Around And Other Songs As I noted when this was originally released in 2018 (in a vinyl-only edition of 30), Woods creates "a mood that is alternately wacky and spiritual, spinning tales backed by his guitar, Aaron Smith's laptop, and Alice Tolan-Mee's keyboard and violin. Call it "chamber-freak-folk-tronica," if you must call it something." Now, we have a digital edition, which includes slightly enhanced "hyper-real" versions of each song, so everyone can experience this unique headspace and do some mossing around of their own.

British Folk Adjacent

Keith Relf - All the Falling Angels - Solo Recordings & Collaborations 1965-1976 While some of this is meandering and sketchy (or familiar from previous Repertoire reissues), taken as a whole, it makes the strongest case yet for Relf as a creative force outside The Yardbirds. Based on All The Pretty Horses from a BBC session and the spine-tingling 47-second demo of Only The Black Rose (later polished up for Little Games, the final Yardbirds album), he was a Joe Boyd production away from true Brit-folk godhead.

Trees - 50th Anniversary Edition Speaking of Brit-folk godhead, this four-LP compilation brings together The Garden of Jane Delawney (1970) and On The Shore’(1971), the two unjustly obscure albums by this band, alongside demos, BBC sessions, etc. Featuring the crystalline voice of the late Celia Humphris (she died in January 2021) and intersecting as much with Fairport Convention and Fotheringay as with the delicate side of King Crimson, this is essential listening if any of those are important to you. 

The Clientele - It's Art Dad Not every song lands with the acuity of classic Clientele, but atmospherically speaking this compilation of material from the mid-90's (available digitally for the first time) will give you all the reverb-drenched, 60's-inspired feels of Alasdair MacLean & Co. at their best. 

Michael Chapman - Sweet Powder & Wrytree Drift Often featuring the legendary guitarist, singer, and songwriter at his moodiest - even Hi Heel Sneakers is rendered as a swampy fever-dream - this reissue makes two excellent self-released albums (from 2008 and 2010 respectively) easily available. There's more from the Chapman motherlode, too, including an expanded version of Pleasures Of The Street, a smoking live set from 1975. Get your pick and shovel, and dig deep - the rewards will be many.

Rockin' Alternatives

Supergrass - The Strange Ones (1994-2008) While I can't attest to the super-deluxe edition of this career retrospective (I have seen complaints about the picture disc vinyl, however), the streaming version is a fab non-chronological career overview with some nice live and demo bonuses. It's a fun listen for this longtime fan and one I hope will convince others of the greatness of a band that is perpetually under-appreciated in the USA.

Ut - In Gut's House As I said when their 1986 debut was reissued in 2019, Ut were "were one of the best of the lot," when it came to New York no-wave, and this 1987 LP doesn't change that opinion one iota.

David Bowie - Liveandwell.com Originally released exclusively through his website in 1999, Bowie took performances mostly from Amsterdam, New York, and Rio (all 1997), and selected them for maximum excitement. Seamlessly sequenced and mastered so you never know the difference between venues, it makes for a thrilling listen. Clearly the best of the lot of 1990's performances with which the Bowie estate has been flooding the market as of late. 

Soundscapes And Cinema

Robin Guthrie & Harold Budd - Another Flower Recorded in 2013 but never released for some reason, Budd's death seems to have impelled Guthrie to gift us this swoon-worthy collection of jewel-toned ambiance. Swoon away...

Brian Eno - Film Music 1976-2020 While the two very familiar tracks from Apollo (as used in Trainspotting, etc.) threaten to eclipse some of the other pieces, this is a fine repository of strays from Eno's film and TV career. Notable tracks from Heat, Dune, and Top Boy demonstrate his unmatched ability to create atmosphere, and his cover of You Don't Miss Your Water (from Married To The Mob) shows off his unheralded skills as an interpreter.

Mort Garson - Didn't You Hear? This soundtrack from a 1970 art-house flick shows that the magic of Mother Earth's Plantasia was no accident - but is astonishing how quickly Garson mastered the Moog. Next time you're doing a gratitude exercise, send some love to Sacred Bones Records for this and other entries in their reissue series.

Ennio Morricone - Segreto If you're as big a Morricone fan as I am, you've likely heard some of these tropes before, whether hard-driving crime jazz or comically suave sex-comedy pop, but everything just sounds better here. The sequencing and mastering are both masterful, befitting the respect demanded by Il Maestro for both his work ethic and musical brilliance. Also, some of these are alternate takes or previously unreleased so this in no way a posthumous cash-in. If this is the start of a tsunami of Morricone retrospectives, I am so ready to surf that wave.

Find more from out of the past in the 2020 archive playlist and keep track of 2021's discoveries here.

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Best Of 2019: Out Of The Past
Best Of 2018: Out Of The Past
Best Of 2017: Out Of The Past
Best Of 2016: Reissues

Record Roundup: One Day In 2018

Having burrowed deep into the best of 2017 in my recent posts, I now emerge blinking into the light of a new year, which means more music to discover. I wiped the slate clean by archiving all my “Of Note” playlists (see list below), and started filling them up again immediately. Instead of focusing on one area, as I usually do in these roundups, here's what one day of listening to only new releases might look like, one month in to 2018.

The Morning Commute

Jonny Greenwood - Phantom Thread I may be one of the few who does not revere filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson, but I have long admired his collaboration with Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood, who has worked on the scores for his last several movies. Starting with There Will Be Blood, this has led to some of the most compelling soundtrack albums of the last decade or so. My favorite might be Inherent Vice, with its fascinating mixture of Greenwood’s Herrmann-esque cues and mostly obscure global pop. With Phantom Thread, Greenwood continues the streak, resulting in another immersive listening experience that stands on its own. 

While some of my impressions may change after seeing the movie (which also includes music by Debussy, etc.), it was only a few minutes into my first listen before I was reveling in Greenwood’s ability to turn the abstractions of melody and orchestration into what felt like a meditation on memory and emotion. Composing mainly for strings, with well-placed harp, piano and percussion, Greenwood has created several themes and variations that feel elementally human, easy to grasp but with depth and nuance. 

For the first ten tracks, it feels like Greenwood (and presumably Anderson) is probing, exploring, drawing outlines and making connections. Then, when he brings the hammer down in Phantom Thread III, its baroque grandeur is shattering. Everything afterwards feels like an uneasy detente. But that’s just a guess at a narrative, letting my mind drift on a crowded A Train on the way to work. Your results may vary, but that you will likely be captivated. The Academy Of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences certainly was, so I will be rooting for Greenwood to win that elusive Oscar for best soundtrack on March 4th. 

At My Desk: I

Johnny Gandelsman - J.S. Bach Sonatas and Partitas for Violin Gandelsman, a member of both Brooklyn Rider and the Silk Road Ensemble, sought out Bach's solo pieces to "focus inward" and find his own voice again after years of collaborations with musicians and composers from around the world. After several concerts he found himself growing into the works in such a way that he felt recording them would allow him to dig deeper into this epochal music. I'm glad he did, as even a brief survey of violin performances did not turn up one that was nearly as satisfying as what Gandelsman has given us here. The first thing I noticed was the rhythmic acuity, with phrases shaped to respect their melodicism but also the dance forms on which many of them are based.

The melodies themselves are presented without frills, giving a sense of the age of the music, which was after all borne out of a mind raised on folk songs and hymns. Everything from tempo to intonation seems dedicated to bringing the music to joyful life, rather than just paying homage to the master. The recording itself is also excellent, close and crisp but not without warmth. The liveliness and forward motion in both the performances and music prove to be a perfect accompaniment to cleaning out my inbox on a Monday morning. After about an hour, however, my inbox is empty and I find myself craving a change. Perfect timing, as the first disc is over - now I have more Bach to look forward to tomorrow.

Further Listening: If wanted a completely different single instrument experience, I might put on Matteo Liberatore's Solos, 12 adventurous, mostly improvised pieces for acoustic guitar. Liberatore's lack of interest in convention has him using everything from alligator clips to a bass drum pedal to elicit a vertiginous variety of sounds out of his instrument. Some songs are more rambling than others, but the tactile quality of the music is never less than fascinating. Try the fractured lyricism of Causeway if you just want to dip a toe. 

At My Desk: II

Hollie Cook - Vessel of Love While it has been nearly four years since Cook's last album, I admit I barely noticed the gap. That's because I never stopped listening to either her heavenly self-titled debut (2011) or the equally addictive follow up, Twice (2014). Both albums featured masterful Jamaican rhythms constructed by Prince Fatty, providing a perfect setting for Cook's high, airy soprano and her tales of loves found and lost and found again. I'm a big enough fan that I was slightly concerned when I heard she had not only switched labels, from world and dance-centric Mr. Bongo to all-American Merge Records, but also changed producers, from Prince Fatty to Youth. Now, Youth has had a fascinating career - bass player for Killing Joke, producer of everyone from Bananarama to Paul McCartney - and also knows his way around reggae and dub, hence the only minor worry.

Fortunately, any trepidation was for naught and I'm happy to report that while Vessel Of Love represents a slight update to Cook's sound, it's still in the same lane as the delightful "tropical pop" for which she is known. That update is mainly reflected in the density of Youth's tracks, with keyboards and horns stacked tall in the grooves, which seem a little less retro than Prince Fatty's approach. Fatty is not totally absent, however, as all the drum tracks were sampled from one of his beat packs. Youth's post-punk past is also reflected in the participation of two original members of Public Image Ltd., Jah Wobble, who plays bass on four songs, and Keith Levene, who plays guitar on one. Wobble is especially titanic on the spacey Lunar Addition, seemingly pulling notes out of deep craters of sound. But most of the playing is by Cook's excellent road band and all is subservient to her vision. Her singing is better than ever, too, richer and more confident. If you're not hooked after listening to the sublime Freefalling or Survive, I can't help you. I know I chugged through nearly an hour of proposal-writing with a lightness of spirit thanks to drinking deeply from Cook's Vessel of Love.

Note: Hollie Cook is on tour, touching down in New York on March 23rd.

Further Listening: If I wanted to continue in the Jamaican groove, Overdubbed by Sly And Robbie Meet Dubmatix would more than do the trick. A series of tracks by one of the ultimate rhythm sections repurposed by a Toronto-based reggae maven, Overdubbed is never less than funky and occasionally whips up a storm of echoes that approaches critical mass. Boom.

Coffee Time

Shame - Songs Of Praise I recently wrote about how some bands influenced by post-punk seem rotely imitative while other take the ball and run with it. Shame is in the latter group, a South London quintet who have done their homework with bands like The Fall (RIP Mark E. Smith!), Wire, Gang Of Four, Killing Joke, etc., and figured out ways to recombine all that wondrous DNA into something fresh. They also cite Eddy Current Suppression Ring, a noisy Aussie band that made a splash about a decade ago but whom you don’t hear much about these days. 

Not only does Shame know their history, but they also grasp the crucial importance of a tight rhythm section, and both bassist and drummer keep it locked while also finding room for creativity and even swing. The guitarists also divvy up responsibilities wisely, spraying off either gritty chords or sparkling melody for a heady blend. Concrete and Friction are two songs that exemplify this approach and the latter has some their most interesting lyrics. “Do you ever help the helpless,” sings Charlie Steen in the first of a series of questions most likely directed at himself. “Do you give them any time? Do you ever bully your conscience and detach from your mind?” The answer seems to be mostly “maybe,” which is fine - the boys in Shame are still young. 

Look, I don’t want to oversell Songs Of Praise. Shame are not the second coming. But this is a damned good rock album, with energy and invention to burn, and the promise of more and even better sounds to come. Just the thing to help me power through the end of the day, when I’m caffeinating and need to clear my head get stuff done before hitting the road home. 

Note: Catch Shame live in their New York debut on March 23 at Market Hotel - yes, the same night as Hollie Cook! - or find a date near you. 

Further Listening: If I needed to keep cranking, I might play Open Here by Field Music or Rock Island by Palm. Both are filled with dense, shiny, optimistic song constructs that will make you sit up in your chair. Further listening is necessary to say much more than that, but it's obvious that these are records that will sustain me throughout the year. Palm's album comes out February 9th - come celebrate that night at Market Hotel. Holly Miranda also has a new album on the way and Golden Spiral, the latest single, is a glammy stomp with enough brute force to power a semi truck up a steep grade. Pre-order Mutual Horse here or pick up a copy at the release show on March 22nd at Park Church Co-Op. 

The Evening Commute

Maya Baiser - The Day This new album by “cello goddess” Beiser weds two post-9/11 compositions by David Lang, World To Come (2003) and The Day (2016). The newer piece was conceived by Beiser and Lang as a prequel of sorts, a meditation on the quotidian, all the varieties of experience that could be reflected in the lives of this who died on that tragic day. The Day features a spoken word text based on a Google search Lang did to complete the sentence “I remember the day that I...” The memories ranged from “I got into college,” and “I saw the advertisement” to “I heard he was tragically killed,” and “I realized my children had ruined my dreams,” a truly full range of recollections. Read crisply by actress Kate Valk and arranged alphabetically, the words can recede or come to the foreground depending on your attention. Either way, combined with the dark melodies of Beiser’s multi-tracked cello, it’s haunting and startlingly effective. 

World to Come also includes vocals, Beiser accompanying herself by singing syllables, sometimes just tuned percussive breaths, while playing Lang’s searching, interweaved cello lines. As in the first piece, Beiser’s playing is virtuosic and it is hard to imagine a better, more committed version of either work. In a recent live performance at Paula Cooper Gallery, Beiser’s immersion was obvious and some of the more melodic gestures seemed bigger and more shapely, even romantic. Both Lang and Beiser have stayed connected to the cello’s humanity in these works, making for a richly emotional experience. The use of pre-recorded cello was slightly distracting in the live context, but on the album there’s no reason to even think about the mechanics behind this gorgeous music. There are future performances in the works, some featuring a dance component, so keep an eye on Beiser's calendar. Unless the book I’m reading is totally gripping, I might just let my mind drift with the music as the A train fills up and empties again on its way to the last stop. 

Dinner Time

SiR - November This album is not much longer than SiR’s excellent EP from last year, but it further develops his vision of spare, futurist R&B. There’s a vague theme of space travel - at one point we are informed that there are 33 trillion kilometers left on our journey - but it’s mostly relationship jams, of an either edgy (Something Foreign) or cozy (Something New) variety. It’s a pretty seamless listen, with only I Know marked for deletion due to its irritating hook. SiR also has wit, which makes some of his occasionally retrograde views go down easier. The mostly mellow November provides a fine accompaniment to the clink of knives and forks on China as my wife and I catch up on the events of the day over a meal. 

SiR is part of the TDE crew, along with Kendrick Lamar and SZA, and will join them and others on the Championship Tour, which is sure to be one of the highlights of the spring concert season. Find a date near you. 

Further Listening: If it's my turn to make dinner, I might throw on #1 by Guy One, the first album this Ghanaian singer and bandleader has made outside of a remote corner of his country. His form of music is called Frafra, but this is "Frafra made in Berlin," where it was produced by Max Weissenfeldt, who's known for his work with everyone from Jimi Tenor (Finland) to Alemayehu Eshete (Ethiopia). This translates into songs that start in a modest, even disjointed, fashion before developing into dense, world-beating grooves that you wish would never end. Everything You Do, You Do For Yourself is the only song with English lyrics, but it’s really about the interaction between Guy and the backing singers, as they find new ways to call and respond while the drums, horns and keyboards combine into a tasty stew. Vortex by Wayne Escoffery is the tenor sax player's most furiously involving album yet, fueled by his rage at the direction of this country after the 2016 election. Backed by a stellar group (David Kikoski - piano, Ugonna Okegwo - bass, and Ralph Peterson, Jr. - drums, plus a few guests) and playing mostly original tunes, Escoffery proves that if you're passionate enough you can create mind-blowing jazz while still firmly in the post-bop mainstream. Who’s cooking now?

After Dinner

Ethan Woods - Mossing Around As I learned at the record release show for this vinyl-only EP, Woods has a bit of a following. I had only known him as someone who sang backup with Ocean Music on occasion, but he filled the room at C'mon Everybody with enthusiastic fans, who snapped up every last copy of the three-song 10 inch. Woods, who also performs as Rokenri, is definitely a singular presence, creating a mood that is alternately wacky and spiritual, spinning tales backed by his guitar, Aaron Smith's laptop, and Alice Tolan-Mee's keyboard and violin. Call it "chamber-freak-folk-tronica," if you must call it something. The EP perfectly replicates the atmosphere as it was all caught live on a field recorder by Richard Aufrichtig, who also put it out on his King Of Truth Records. At the moment, my favorite song on the EP is Alone, with a deeply meditative groove that affects my breathing and slows me down, just the thing for the end of the day. 

We usually catch up on TV after dinner, but Mossing Around is the perfect length for that space where we're finishing up what needs to get done before we crank up Netflix or whatever. I wish you could hear it (maybe I should host a listening party!), but the best thing I can say is to keep an eye on Woods as his next full-length album, entitled Burnout, will be out sometime in 2018 - and presumably with wider availability. Maybe some of these songs will be reprised there, but either way it's bound to be interesting!

How's your 2018 going so far, musically speaking? Let me know what you're listening to and keep up everything I'm paying attention to by following one or all of the playlists below.

Of Note In 2018 Playlists
Of Note In 2018 - Includes all the tracks in the genre-specific lists
Of Note In 2018 (Classical)
Of Note In 2018 (Electronic)
Of Note In 2018 (Hip Hop, R&B & Reggae)
Of Note In 2018 (Rock, Folk, Etc.)
Of Note In 2018 (Reissues)

The 2017 Archive
2017 Archive (Of Note)
2017 Archive (Classical)
2017 Archive (Electronic)
2017 Archive (Hip Hop, R&B & Reggae)
2017 Archive (Rock, Folk, Etc.)
2017 Archive (Reissues)