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A következő címkéjű bejegyzések mutatása: Mark Lanegan Band. Összes bejegyzés megjelenítése
A következő címkéjű bejegyzések mutatása: Mark Lanegan Band. Összes bejegyzés megjelenítése

2022. március 3., csütörtök

FROM HER TO ETERNiTY FAVTRAX:MiX ~ 33 FAVOURiTE tracks 2014-2018 (2h 56m)


FROM HER TO ETERNiTY FAVTRAX:MiX ~ 33 FAVOURiTE tracks 2014-2018 (2h 56m) >>Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, Mike Dillon, Duke Garwood, Sam Cohen, Mark Lanegan Band, David Bowie, Blonde Redhead, Thurston Moore, Jimmy Chamberlin Complex, Beak>, The Messthetics<<

M U S I C  (2h 56m)


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2014-2018



Since the late '70s, Australian singer and songwriter Nick Cave has proved to be one of the most enduring talents to emerge from the post-punk era. In addition to being a remarkably consistent recording artist, his songs have been covered by everyone from Josh Groban, PJ Harvey, and Johnny Cash to Arctic Monkeys, Metallica, and Chelsea Wolfe, to name a few. However, his often dramatic, romantic, and/or harrowing tomes sound best on his own recordings...
Formed after the breakup of the Birthday Party in 1983, Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds became one of the most original and celebrated bands of the post-punk and alternative rock eras in the '80s and onward. Playing music that meshed with the dark, multi-layered narratives of Cave's lyrics, the Bad Seeds created sounds that were physically and emotionally powerful, but with a sense of dynamics and drama that set them apart from their peers...
From Her to Eternity (Nick Cave) 5:35
In the Ghetto (Nick Cave) 4:06
Tupelo (Nick Cave) 7:16
Nick Cave is a singular figure in contemporary rock music; he first emerged as punk rock was making its presence known in Australia, but though he's never surrendered his status as a provocateur and a musical outlaw, he quickly abandoned the simplicity of punk for something grander and more literate, though no less punishing in its outlook. Cave also had an approach to collaboration that made his backing band, the Bad Seeds, an integral part of his creative vision, even as their membership changed and their sound evolved over the space of three decades of fury and eloquence. In Kirk Lake's liner notes to Lovely Creatures: The Best of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, 1984-2014, he celebrates the band as much as their charismatic leader and songwriter, and the 45 songs collected on this three-disc set make the case that while Cave may be the frontman -- and a profoundly charismatic one with a powerful voice that can communicate from a whisper to a scream -- his musicians bring a color, shape, and texture to his songs that focus and amplify his gifts as a singer and lyricist... Lovely Creatures is a superior introduction to Cave's post-Birthday Party work, and while the lack of unreleased material might make it superfluous for serious fans, this remains a splendid summation of the work of a major artist who continues to create deeply personal, profoundly moving music.



Vibraphonist, percussionist, and songwriter Mike Dillon is an eclectic, highly adventurous musician with a sound steeped in post-bop jazz, funk, and avant-garde rock. Drawing upon such wide-ranging influences as Harry Partch, Thelonious Monk, Tom Waits, and Frank Zappa, he has led and co-led numerous ensembles, including the Dead Kenny Gs, Garage a Trois, and Critters Buggin'. As a sideman, Dillon has also worked with a varying cadre of acclaimed performers, such as Primus' Les Claypool, Karl Denson, Ricki Lee Jones, and Ani DiFranco. In addition, he has released his own genre-bending albums...
Head (Mike Dillon) 2:13
Homeland Insecurity (Mike Dillon / Jon Richards / John Speice / Clark Wyatt) 2:54
Missing (Mike Dillon) 3:48
Vibraphonist, percussionist, composer, and bandleader Mike Dillon has been a musical outsider since beginning his professional career more than 25 years ago. Though he's a jazz virtuoso, he's never restricted himself: he's played punk, post-punk, funk, rock, jazz, R&B, indie folk, and more, with his own bands and as a deft sideman and collaborator. Band of Outsiders features Dillon in the company of three New Orleans musicians: trombonist Carly Meyers, bassist Patrick McDevitt, and drummer Adam Gertner. Dillon handles electric vibes, marimba, xylophone, and a plethora of percussion instruments in addition to lead vocals. Everybody sings backup. There are a slew of guest spots by well-known friends, too. Band of Outsiders is unclassifiable; it careens across genres, tempos, dynamics, and textures with joy, fury, and an inherent spirit of mischief that the group developed over a the course of year spent touring through Mexico and Brazil... On Band of Outsiders, Dillon's vision makes generous room for his influences but ultimately, it's also his own, articulated with grit and sophistication by his bandmates and friends. This album is for those who like their music, raw, bawdy, challenging, and outrageously humorous.



Duke Garwood is a London-based multi-instrumentalist and recording artist whose expertise on a wide range of instruments has graced numerous albums by an eclectic range of musicians. While Garwood's own music is rooted in the blues, generating a dark and spectral sound full of late-night atmosphere on albums like 2009's The Sand That Falls and 2014's Heavy Love...
Some Times (Duke Garwood) 4:16
Heavy Love (Duke Garwood) 4:00
Snake Man (Duke Garwood) 3:27
from Heavy Love 2015
Heavy Love is Duke Garwood's fifth full-length solo album. It is a natural follow-up to Black Pudding, the collaborative album he cut with Mark Lanegan in 2012. Recorded in London and Los Angeles, Garwood self-produced the set and enlisted Lanegan and Alain Johannes from Queens of the Stone Age to mix it. Garwood plays many of the instruments himself, but gets selective assistance from friends along the way, including Johannes on various keys, backing vocalists Jehnny Beth and Johnny Hostile of Savages, and longtime friend, collaborator, and drummer Paul May. Garwood's guitar is the album's most recognizable feature, but his singing voice is its most natural companion. The songwriter, producer, and multi-instrumentalist has always utilized a minimalist approach to the blues and the same holds true here... As a whole, the songs on Heavy Love seem to emerge from the soul's longest, loneliest night to meet the raw, bleary edges of a new dawn that makes no promises. In sum, Heavy Love is all of a piece: slow, slippery, jungly. It is easily the most confident, fully realized album in his catalog to date, and his most poetic to boot.



Songwriter Sam Cohen spent long stints as a bandleader, working as the core of the ecstatic Apollo Sunshine for the entirety of the aughts and then with Yellowbirds for the first part of the 2010's. After Yellowbirds called it a day in 2014, Cohen spent some time working on other people's projects but still managed to write a new set of sun-dazzled synth-rock tunes for his first album under his own name, 2015's Cool It...
The Garden (Sam Cohen) 3:49
El Dorado (Sam Cohen) 4:14
Kepler 62 (Sam Cohen) 4:27
from Cool It 2015
Beginning with his 2000s indie group Apollo Sunshine and then with his solo bedroom project-turned-collaborative band Yellowbirds, singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Sam Cohen has been cultivating a finely tuned brand of sunny throwback indie pop. When Yellowbirds fizzled out in 2014, Cohen decided to issue music under his given name, and though Cool It is a debut, it comes from a seasoned veteran years into sculpting a specific style of both songwriting and production. Among his other band projects, Cohen's stellar guitar playing and engineering skills have earned him session work on a plethora of big-name records. Both of those skill sets are in full force on Cool It... The album strolls by in a warm amble, with unexpected but subtle production moves bolstering Cohen's thoughtfully constructed but still easy-going tunes.



Singing with a deep, nicotine-ravaged growl that was rich, strong, and sensuously forbidding, Mark Lanegan rose to fame when his band the Screaming Trees won a taste of mainstream recognition in the '90s. Though his first success was tied to the grunge scene, Lanegan subsequently carved out a strong identity of his own as a vocalist and songwriter. Lanegan's music was nearly always informed by the blues, but the singer was willing to take his darkly poetic sensibility wherever his muse pointed him...
Death Trip to Tulsa [Mark Stewart's Exopolitix Demix] (Mark Lanegan) 3:30
The Killing Season [UNKLE Remix] (Sietse Van Gorkam / Mark Lanegan) 5:54
Seventh Day [Tom Furse Extrapolation] (Mark Lanegan) 8:18
With this collection, Mark Lanegan offers his fans a different perspective on his 2014 album Phantom Radio. Lanegan and his collaborator Alain Johannes have handed off most of the tracks from Phantom Radio (as well as several from the EP No Bells on Sunday) to other musicians and producers to create new mixes of the material. With the help of Soulsavers, Moby, Mark Stewart, UNKLE, Greg Dulli, Moon Gangs, Alastair Galbraith, and others, A Thousand Miles of Midnight spins new soundscapes from the moody frameworks of Lanegan's original recordings, bringing his electronic influences to the forefront and confirming the strength and versatility of Lanegan's work.


One of the greatest stars of the rock & roll era, David Bowie evaded easy categorization throughout his career, operating as the artiest rocker within the mainstream and the most accessible musician on the fringe. Bowie may have trafficked in ideas cultivated in the underground, but he was never quite an outsider as far as rock & roll was concerned. From the outset of his career in the 1960s, he attempted to break into the Top 40, playing British blues, mod rock & roll, and ornate pop before finally hitting paydirt as a hippie singer/songwriter... 
Blackstar (David Bowie) 9:57
Tis a Pity She Was a Whore (David Bowie) 4:52
Lazarus (David Bowie) 6:22
from Blackstar 2016
David Bowie died within days after the January 8, 2016 release of Blackstar, an event that immediately shaped perceptions of his 25th album. Unbeknownst to all but his inner circle, Bowie wrote and recorded Blackstar after receiving word that he had liver cancer, so the album was certainly shaped through the prism of this diagnosis... Bowie's remarkable achievement with Blackstar is how it's an album about mortality that is utterly alive, even playful.
Unlike its predecessor, 2013's The Next Day, Blackstar doesn't carry the burden of ushering a new era in Bowie's career... Certainly, the luxurious ten-minute sprawl of "Blackstar" -- a two-part suite stitched together by string feints and ominous saxophone -- suggests Bowie isn't encumbered with commercial aspirations, but Blackstar neither alienates nor does it wander into uncharted territory. For all its odd twists, the album proceeds logically, unfolding with stately purpose and sustaining a dark, glassy shimmer... Bowie recruited saxophonist Donny McCaslin and several of his New York cohorts to provide the instrumentation (and drafted disciple James Murphy to contribute percussion on a pair of cuts), a cast that suggests Blackstar goes a bit farther out than it actually does... This progression brings Blackstar to a close on a contemplative note, a sentiment that when combined with Bowie's passing lends the album a suggestion of finality that's peaceful, not haunting.



Moving from Sonic Youth-like art punk to eclectic pop over the course of their decades-long career, Blonde Redhead remained one of indie rock's most creative acts. The band formed in 1993 after Japanese art students Kazu Makino and Maki Takahashi randomly met Italian twin brothers Simone and Amedeo Pace at an Italian restaurant in New York. (The name was taken from a song by the '80s no wave band DNA.) With Makino and Amedeo on guitars and vocals, Simone on drums, and Takahashi on bass, the band's chaotic, artistic rock caught the attention of Sonic Youth drummer Steve Shelley, who produced and released the band's debut album, Blonde Redhead, on his Smells Like Records label...
I Don't Want U (Kazu Makino / Amedeo Pace / Simone Pace) 5:04
Astro Boy (Kazu Makino / Amedeo Pace / Simone Pace) 4:21
U.F.O. (Kazu Makino / Amedeo Pace / Simone Pace) 5:37
Before they made intricate, transporting pop for labels like 4AD, Blonde Redhead took inspiration from '70s no wave and released singles and albums on Smells Like Records, the label of Sonic Youth drummer Steve Shelley. This connection between the bands led some to call Blonde Redhead derivative, but in hindsight -- and especially on this collection -- the elements that endured in their music and made it special are what stand out. Another installment in Numero Group's 200 Line reissue series, Masculin Feminin gathers the band's first two albums, Blonde Redhead and La Mia Vita Violenta, which arrived in a prolific burst of creativity in 1995, as well as a generous amount of singles, rarities, and radio performances...


Thurston Moore's work with Sonic Youth rearranged the parameters of indie rock to an almost incalculable degree, merging experimental art rock tendencies with unconventional guitar tunings for a sound that would influence generations to come. Moore's abstract poetic lyrics and perpetually mysterious aura were core ingredients of Sonic Youth's 30-plus-year run, but also bled into countless side projects and less-frequent solo albums like 1994's sprawling and loose Psychic Hearts. After the group's breakup in 2011, Moore continued with his ambitions...
Exalted (Thurston Moore) 11:54
Cusp (Thurston Moore) 6:33
Turn On (Thurston Moore) 10:17
Reunited with his backing band for The Best Day -- My Bloody Valentine bassist Deb Googe, Nøught guitarist James Sedwards, and longtime drummer Steve Shelley, as well as poet/songwriter Radieux Radio -- Thurston Moore delves even deeper into that album's contemplative, redemptive side on Rock N Roll Consciousness... With two tracks stretching beyond the ten-minute mark, Rock N Roll Consciousness' songs are consistently longer than Sonic Youth's output, but they're not just expanded; they're heightened. The band locks in on the most transporting aspects of Moore's music, allowing his deadpan vocals to be the eye of the of the storms surrounding him...  Another fine addition to his solo work, Rock N Roll Consciousness proves that Moore's search for enlightenment through noise remains vital.



The Jimmy Chamberlin Complex is an exploratory jazz and rock outfit led by Smashing Pumpkins drummer Jimmy Chamberlin. A longtime jazz and fusion aficionado, Chamberlin formed the Complex in 2004 as an outlet to do something more experimental than his more alt-rock-oriented work. Also featured in the band are bassist/producer Billy Mohler, guitarist Sean Woolstenhulme, pianist Randy Ingram, and saxophonist Chris Speed. The group debuted in 2005 with Life Begins Again on Sanctuary...
Horus and the Pharaoh (The Jimmy Chamberlin Complex) 6:19
The Parable (The Jimmy Chamberlin Complex) 6:50
Magick Moon (The Jimmy Chamberlin Complex) 4:51
from The Parable 2017
Hard-hitting drummer Jimmy Chamberlin is famous among rock fans for his years of work with the Smashing Pumpkins. Jazz fans know Chamberlin from his recent work with saxophonist Frank Catalano. And diehard fans will recall Life Begins Again, his 2005 album by The Jimmy Chamberlin Complex. Bassist Billy Mohler and guitarist Sean Woolstenhulme, who both played on that album, are back for the band’s new release, a jazz effort titled The Parable, on which they are joined by Randy Ingram (piano, Fender Rhodes) and Chris Speed (tenor sax, clarinet). Here, Chamberlin combines the energy and production values of a rock album with the spontaneity of an improvised jazz session. “Jazz really allows you to paint in real time,” Chamberlin said in the press materials for The Parable. “You’re painting first drafts and being OK with them.” This program of six tracks contains some killer “frist drafts” that succeed wonderfully... Overall, Chamberlin proves himself to be a gracious bandleader, providing a platform for his colleagues to soar.



Featuring members of Portishead and Moon Gangs, Beak> is a trio crafting dense and atmospheric music inspired by dub, Krautrock, and the Beach Boys.., The moody sound of albums such as the group's self-titled 2009 debut made Beak>'s music a perfect fit for soundtrack work, which included 2016's Couple in a Hole soundtrack. On later efforts like 2018's >>>, the band's sound expanded to more structured songs as well as farther-flung experiments while retaining their unmistakable vibe...
The Brazilian (Geoff Barrow / Billy Fuller / Will Young) 4:12
Brean Down (Geoff Barrow / Billy Fuller / Will Young) 3:52
Birthday Suit (Geoff Barrow / Billy Fuller / Will Young) 4:32
from >>> 2018
"You don't like our music cuz it ain't up on the radio," Beak>'s Geoff Barrow sings on >>> with something approaching pride. This contrarian attitude defines the band's third album: Barrow and company could have easily made another album of sinister motorik-driven instrumentals like >>, but this time, they blow up their music. Since Beak> haven't released a full-length in six years and now include Moon Gangs' Will Young among their ranks, some evolution was inevitable. Even so, >>> reveals some drastic changes. The lock grooves that powered Beak>'s first two albums are almost entirely absent, freeing them to double down on their distinctively murky, eerie moods and express them in new ways. The vocals that served as texture on the band's previous work come to the fore on >>>, bringing with them more structured songwriting. However, the closer Beak> get to conventional notions of pop music, the stranger they sound... Some of the band's most entertaining and most challenging music, >>>'s eclectic experiments prove that the greater-than symbol at the end of Beak>'s name isn't just for show -- they keep pushing forward, and it's thrilling to go along on the ride with them.



A meeting of the minds between respected members of Washington, D.C.'s experimental music and punk rock communities, the Messthetics are an instrumental trio who combine soaring, visionary guitar work with one of the tightest and most powerful rhythm sections in rock. The Messthetics feature bassist Joe Lally and drummer Brendan Canty, members of the iconic punk/indie band Fugazi, marking their first collaboration since the band went on extended hiatus in 2002. Rounding out the trio is guitarist Anthony Pirog, an artist steeped in jazz who is also a major figure on Washington, D.C.'s experimental music scene, as well as working with the groups Janel & Anthony (featuring cellist Janel Leppin), Skysaw (who also include Smashing Pumpkins drummer Jimmy Chamberlin), and New Electric. The trio came together in 2017, rehearsing and recording material at Canty's practice space, and they began playing out late that year. In March 2018, the Messthetics released their self-titled debut album, primarily drawn from their practice space recordings and cut live without overdubs...
Mythomania 4:09
Once Upon a Time 4:20
Crowds and Power 4:53
from The Messthetics  2018
Ever since Fugazi went on indefinite hiatus in 2003, there's been a steady murmur from their fans for a reunion, with many hoping against hope that the band would once again create new music. Given this, it was no surprise that the announcement that Fugazi's rhythm section -- bassist Joe Lally and drummer Brendan Canty -- had formed a new band was greeted with much enthusiasm in the indie music community. And the debut album from Lally and Canty's new project, the Messthetics, will certainly resonate with a certain part of Fugazi's audience. Listeners who embraced Fugazi's more experimental side, especially their travels through dub-like space and guitar dissonance, will doubtless be pleased with The Messthetics. Guitarist Anthony Pirog, a Washington, D.C.-based artist whose background is in jazz and avant-garde music, is the third member of the Messthetics, and while Lally and Canty's playing is as taut, muscular, and expressive as one would expect, it's Pirog's work that gives this music its most distinct aural signature. Though the rhythm section makes this music rock, Pirog picks and chooses between atmospheric extended tones, rapid volleys of notes, and clouds of inspired noise that certainly contain elements of the rock vocabulary but don't acknowledge the clichés of the typical guitar hero. (If Pirog's work recalls anyone, it's Robert Fripp, though mostly in his sense of intelligence and adventure rather than any explicit similarity.)... In short, the Messthetics are not Fugazi, but they are a bold, bracing, fearless band from Washington, D.C. playing music that challenges and dazzles, and that's more than enough reason to make their debut album worth your time.












2019. október 20., vasárnap

060 ALTER.NATION weekly favtraX 20-10-2019

ALTER.NATION #60
Foals, Jimmy "Duck" Holmes, Garcia Peoples, Mark Lanegan Band, The Muffs, Richard Dawson, Kiefer, Corridor, Battles, Floating Points, Bremer/McCoy, Jan Garbarek / The Hilliard Ensemble

weekly favtraX 
2 0 - 1 0 - 2 0 1 9

"Like Lightning"




ALTER.NATION #60 on DEEZER



Oxford, England group with a complex sound based on dance-rock, new wave, and atmospheric post-rock.
Foals - Like Lightning from Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost Part 2
The gamble paid off. Yannis and co. took a risk when they announced that they would release two albums this year, but this follow-up is indisputable proof of their greatness
‘Like Lightning’ lays on some filthy blues for a sleaze-rock anthem to dusting yourself off and becoming something new...




Acclaimed Mississippi bluesman and member of the Bentonia blues school who also operates America's oldest surviving juke joint. The last surviving bluesman of what became known as the Bentonia School, Jimmy "Duck" Holmes is known for both his own sparse, haunting blues style and as the longtime proprietor of the Blue Front Cafe, America's longest-operating juke joint located in his hometown of Bentonia, Mississippi.
Jimmy "Duck" Holmes - Two Women from Cypress Grove
Jimmy "Duck" Holmes is one of the last practitioners of old-fashioned Mississippi blues, playing a variation that belongs to the Yazoo county town of Bentonia. Holmes kept that sound alive at his own juke joint and on a series of records in the 2000s, but the 2019 album Cypress Grove is designed as a vehicle to introduce the bluesman to a wider audience. Dan Auerbach, the lead singer of the Black Keys and head of the Easy Eye Sound studio and label, shepherded the project, bringing Holmes up to Nashville to record with a bunch of his cohorts, including guitarist Marcus King...  It's a modernization of his sound but not a bowdlerization; if anything, it's perhaps the finest realization of Holmes' blues. At the very least, it's certainly the liveliest and boldest album he's made.


New Jersey band who took notes from a canon of classic psychedelic searchers to develop their jammy, cosmic rock sound.
Garcia Peoples - One Step Behind (Single Edit) from One Step Behind
...Diving deeper into the mercurial depths than they ever have before, the band eschews their usual groove to get lost in a bit of the cosmic wilds for a patch. Malach, the elder, used to knock down sessions with everyone from Miles Davis to Arto Lindsay to Stevie Wonder so this is no nepotism knockout, this is a familial team-up for the ages. Ah-ah, but you’re gonna have to wait until the full platter’s out of the oven to hear Bob’s double overdubbed sax goodness. Right here is the radio edit, a line closer to what they’ve been playing live for the track. Heard this the other night when they opened for KV and it hit just as hard — the band workin’ up their own “Playing in the Band’ alchemy. They sync up in full symbiosis, playing off of one another with the veracity of players with twice as many trips ‘round the sun and its a delight to watch...


The frontman for Screaming Trees who went on to a fascinating solo career marked by an acoustic tone and dark, folk- and blues-inspired songwriting. Singing with a deep, nicotine-ravaged growl that's rich, strong, and sensuously forbidding,
Mark Lanegan Band - Radio Silence from Somebody's Knocking
With his deep, rough-hewn voice and easy confidence with lyrics about bad behavior and lives gone wrong, Mark Lanegan doesn't seem like the kind of guy you would invite to your next party, unless you wanted to bum out uninvited guests. Which is why 2019's Somebody's Knocking is something of a surprise coming from Lanegan; thematically, it's no cheerier than most of his work, but most of the time it has a good beat and you can dance to it, even if the folks on the dancefloor aren't laughing a lot. Like most of his releases credited to the Mark Lanegan Band, Somebody's Knocking finds him collaborating with Alain Johannes and Rob Marshall, who play most of the instruments -- Johannes is also credited as producer -- and this time Lanegan's unlikely fascination with electronics and dance music dominates the set...


L.A. outfit created slap-happy pop punk with ample hooks, buoyed by the dynamic vocals of Kim Shattuck. Fusing big guitar riffs, pop hooks, fast tempos, and an attitude that sways between sweet and snarky, the Muffs were a pop-punk band from Los Angeles led by guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter Kim Shattuck.
The Muffs - On My Own from No Holiday
The late, great Kim Shattuck had a lot more to give, as proven by the cocksure charm of this (barely) posthumously released effort.
It is heartbreaking that Kim Shattuck, the forthright singer and cocksure songwriter for the Muffs, died at the beginning of October. Renowned for her short, sharp brand of power-pop punk song, yearning but prickly lyrics, and screamy, shredded vocals with a tender, expressive edge... The main Muff leaves behind a rep for sugar-pop riffage, manic tempos, deep hooks and a lyrical éclat pitched between smart snark and adoring devotion.
Kim Shattuck, star of LA punk scene, dies aged 56


Northumbrian singer/songwriter with a flair for shambolic psych-folk and experimental rock. Based out of the industrial Tyneside region of Northern England, esoteric singer/songwriter Richard Dawson's shambolic, guitar-driven folk music has drawn comparisons to other singular artists like Jandek, Mike Waterson, John Martyn, Bonnie "Prince" Billy, Adem, Skip Spence, and King Creosote. Specializing in a heady blend of traditional English folk music, Sacred Harp-kissed North Country blues, and jazzy psych-folk.
Richard Dawson - Black Triangle from 2020
It's a hard time to be happy, and Richard Dawson knows it. The British guitarist and songwriter would hardly be the first artist to make music that reflects the chaos and uncertainty of a time when the world's political outlook has turned ugly and the divide between the haves and have-nots grows wider by the minute. Dawson's 2019 album 2020 is certainly a work of its time, reflecting the social, political, and economic uncertainty that has swept the globe. But rather than dealing in sloganeering or checking off the familiar outrages that are part of our collective existence, Dawson casts his gaze on the daily lives of ordinary people trying to live their lives despite the fractures in the society around them...


Los Angeles-based jazz keyboardist and producer with a hip-hop and R&B-influenced sound.
Kiefer - Frozen from Superbloom
As Kiefer puts it, "This music is naturally me. It sounds like me. As with everything that I release, I am showing you what I love about music. Making rhythm, harmony, melody, and sounds that move me. I spend everyday talking to students and mentors and listening to music and finding things that I think are beautiful, and then translating them through my unique musicality. I'm doing it in a way that only I can, and regardless of how good or bad it may be, I'm trying my best."


Twitchy and tuneful post-punk-inspired indie rock from Montreal and the first Francophone band signed to Sub Pop.
Corridor - Goldie from Junior
After two albums of spiky, echoing post-punk revivalism of the finest kind, recorded at a slow pace over long stretches, the Montreal band Corridor had to change their way of working on their third album, Junior... The chief songwriters, Jonathan Robert and Dominic Berthiaume, didn't let the short turnaround time cramp their style; every song has a jagged hook, a crystal-cut guitar line, or a sparkling melody that hits hard and sticks. The up-tempo tracks like "Domino" and "Goldie" are sweaty, pulsing indie rock powered by thrumming bass lines, and Robert's insistent vocals...


Respected New York City group that plays a highly cerebral brand of indie rock, with electronic and experimental influences.
Battles - Fort Greene Park from Juice B Crypts
Like a hummingbird in flight, Battles make the most complex labour look carefree and weightless... Ultimately, though, it's the tracks where Battles are left to their own devices that define the album. On "Fort Greene Park," watch as a blustering guitar collects itself into precarious catharsis — synths fall out of the drums that contain them, climb back in, and all builds to quietness. It's one of the most plaintively beautiful songs in Battles' catalogue, in its sonic attention to loss, to change over time. And, as we listen to it, we also listen to the sound of a band who continue to create after more than a decade — tempered with loss, yes, but also joy, also freedom.


Known on dancefloors and tastefully progressive U.K. radio programs as Floating Points, producer and DJ Sam Shepherd has applied his love for gritty funk, slick R&B, and avant-garde jazz to house, techno, and orchestral compositions that have tended to be equally stimulating through club sound systems and headphones.
Floating Points - LesAlpx from Crush
Sam Shepherd's second Floating Points album is as distinct from Reflections: Mojave Desert as that live band-oriented 2017 EP is distinguishable from the painstaking 2015 LP Elaenia. The making of Crush was powered in part by the lasting creative energy Shepherd felt during a string of dates supporting the xx, for which he performed alone with only a modular synthesizer... That said, it's hard to imagine more forethought and deliberation resulting in a listen more riveting than this one.


Danish duo Bremer/McCoy make atmospheric jazz- and dub-influenced instrumental music. Together since 2013, they have issued albums on the Raske Plader label, including 2015's Ordet and 2016's Forsvinder.
Based in Copenhagen, Bremer/McCoy features bassist Jonathan Bremer and keyboardist/tape delay artist Morten McCoy.
Bremer/McCoy - Salme from Utopia
There are some albums that beg to be listened to from beginning to end in one sitting; Brian Eno's Music for Airports, Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon, and Steve Reich's Music for 18 Musicians come to mind. The fourth album (and Luaka Bop debut) from Danish instrumentalists Bremer/McCoy, 2019's Utopia, is also one of those albums. Featuring the talents of bassist Jonathan Bremer and keyboardist/tape delay artist Morten McCoy, Utopia showcases the duo's expansive, often hypnotic jazz-, dub-, and classical-influenced sound. Aesthetically, their intimate sound falls somewhere in between Keith Jarrett, Paul Winter, and Mike Oldfield without ever borrowing too heavily from any one source...


Since the release of Afric Pepperbird in 1970, no other musician save for pianist Keith Jarrett has been as closely associated with ECM Records as Norwegian saxophonist Jan Garbarek. His playing style on both tenor and soprano horns is identified by a sharp-edged tone and long, sustained notes that often sound like cries; he prioritizes the use of space and silence.
An entire class of English vocal ensembles, sometimes placed under an "Oxbridge Sound" umbrella, specializes in early music. Among the prestigious ranks of the Gothic Voices, the Tallis Scholars, Pro Cantione Antiqua, the Oxford Camerata, and The Sixteen, longevity and musical versatility placed the Hilliard Ensemble in a class almost of their own. 
Jan Garbarek / The Hilliard Ensemble - Remember Me, My Dear from Remember Me, My Dear
Made shortly before the dissolution of the Hilliard Ensemble in 2014, this live recording first appeared in the fall of 2019. It thus has the quality of a swan song for the unique collaboration of the Hilliard Ensemble and saxophonist Jan Garbarek, which still sounds fresh many years after it was first developed. The way the cool textures of the Hilliard's singing and Garbarek's saxophone bring together the disparate worlds of medieval music, contemporary music including Baltic minimalism, and jazz remains fascinating...
The Hilliard Ensemble, Jan Garbarek Bath Abbey May 2014. Photo Mick Destino
Foals, Jimmy "Duck" Holmes, Garcia Peoples, Mark Lanegan Band, The Muffs, Richard Dawson, Kiefer, Corridor, Battles, Floating Points, Bremer/McCoy, Jan Garbarek / The Hilliard Ensemble