Music Week [520 - 529]Tuesday, February 2, 2016
Music Week
Music: Current count 26199 [26163] rated (+36), 412 [408] unrated (+4).
Nearly everything here appeared in yesterday's
Rhapsody Streamnotes -- the eagle-eyed will note that the exception
is saxophonist Roxy Coss's minor-label debut. That one can wait for late
February, by which time it will have some company. How much is hard to
say: I really need to start writing more on other things. Wrapping up
yesterday's music column precluded a Weekend Roundup. I'll try to start
by doing a midweek edition, by which time the Iowa thing will be history
(not that I expect to have anything to say on the subject).
In the last week, my
jazz and
non-jazz EOY files
tightened up. When I first put them together, jazz had a big 52-33
lead in A-list files. End of January that had narrowed to 77-73 (with
an 11-11 tie in reissues/compilations/vault music). There's a pretty
strong correlation between what I think and what Michael Tatum and
Robert Christgau write. If you read me, you probably read them, so
are familiar with their picks. What I thought I'd do here is to pull
out my list's non-jazz A/A- records that neither Christgau nor Tatum
have reviewed thus far (the bracketed numbers are rank from my EOY
aggregate file, as of yesterday; ** means ≥ 1000, breaking at 5
points):
- Lyrics Born: Real People (Mobile Home) [633]
- Gwenno: Y Dydd Olaf (Heavenly) [132]
- New Order: Music Complete (Mute) [54]
- Nozinja: Nozinja Lodge (Warp) [439]
- Dr. Yen Lo: Days With Dr. Yen Lo (Pavlov Institute) [205]
- Hieroglyphic Being & J.I.T.U. Ahn-Sahm-Buhl: We Are Not the First (RVNG Intl) [283]
- Mdou Moctar: Akounak Tedalat Taha Tazoughai [Original Soundtrack Recording] (Sahel Sounds) [826]
- ¡Mayday!: Future/Vintage (Strange Music) [993]
- Bully: Feels Like (Startime International/Columbia) [136]
- Tuxedo: Tuxedo (Stones Throw) [**]
- Asleep at the Wheel: Still the King: Celebrating the Music of Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys (Bismeaux) [764]
- 79rs Gang: Fire on the Bayou (Sinking City/Urban Unrest) [**]
- Ray Wylie Hubbard: The Ruffian's Misfortune (Bordello) [**]
- BadBadNotGood & Ghostface Killah: Sour Soul (Lex) [126]
- The Mowgli's: Kids in Love (Republic) [**]
- Laura Marling: Short Movie (Ribbon Music) [65]
- Murs: Have a Nice Day (Strange Music) [**]
- Protoje: Ancient Future (Indiggnation Collective/Overstand) [**]
- Alaska Thunderfuck: Anus (Sidecar) [**]
- Downtown Boys: Full Communism (Don Giovanni) [355]
- Desaparecidos: Payola (Saddle Creek) [284]
- John Moreland: High on Tulsa Heat (Old Omens) [288]
- Alan Jackson: Angels and Alcohol (Capitol Nashville) [808]
- Robyn & La Bagatelle Magique: Love Is Free (Konichiwa/Cherrytree/Interscope, EP) [**]
- Battles: La Di Da Di (Warp) [159]
- Steve Hauschildt: Where All Is Fled (Kranky) [333]
- Max Richter: From Sleep (Deutsche Grammophon) [117]
- Skylar Spence: Prom King (Carpark) [489]
- Erykah Badu: But You Caint Use My Phone (Control Freaq) [213]
- Archy Marshall: A New Place 2 Drown (True Panther Sounds) [384]
- Hieroglyphic Being: The Acid Documents (Soul Jazz) [**]
- Metric: Pagans in Vegas (Metric) [998]
- Elysia Crampton: American Drift (Blueberry) [277]
- Fabiano Do Nascimento: Dança Dos Tempos (Now-Again) [429]
- Plastician: All the Right Moves (self-released) [**]
I let the software renumber these, but there's a big gap between
my number 1 and 2 -- about a dozen (OK, 11) common albums, although
Christgau hasn't touched Ezra Furman (A per Tatum) and sloughed off
Sleaford Mods and Low Cut Connie with low HMs. But I'm not looking
for disagreements -- for what it's worth, a quick check shows 26
Christgau A/A- records I rated *** (12) or worse, out of 50 (with
one records unheard, so I downrate a bit more than 50%) -- just
to point out some exceptional records you may not have noticed.
(Looking down the list, I find a few more tips I might have flagged,
especially from Jason Gubbels, Phil Overeem, and Lucas Fagen.)
PS: Added Arca: Mutant to the A-list while working
on this today. Thanks to Thomas Walker for pointing out it finally
surfaced on Rhapsody. It will be in next week's list, but is already
in the EOY list file, reducing the jazz edge to 77-74. Various things
held this normally-on-Monday post up, including continued fiddling
with the EOY Aggregates: added a bunch of jazz ballots, two aggregates
from Album of the Year, plus I finally scored my own grades (same as
I had done for Christgau and Tatum). This resulted in some reshuffling
at the top of the list: Father John Misty in 5th breaking the tie
with Tame Impala, Kamasi Washington to 8th ahead of Sleater-Kinney,
Julia Holter to 10th ahead of Björk, and Alabama Shakes topping
Oneohtrix Point Never for 14th. Also the top jazz records got a
sizable boost: Maria Schneider (30), Rudresh Mahanthappa (32), Jack
DeJohnette (44), Vijay Iyer (48), Henry Threadgill (56), Steve Coleman
(67), Mary Halvorson (74), Chris Lightcap (87), Matana Roberts (100),
Arturo O'Farrill (112), and Cecile McLorin Salvant (117) -- most of
the latter two's gains came from counting the Latin and Vocal votes
on Jazz Critics Poll ballots.
I wound up counting about two-thirds of the Jazz Critics Poll
ballots -- in many cases the decision to include or exclude was
arbitrary. I also counted 60+ Pazz & Jop ballots, although
that's only about 15% of the total (those who voted in both had
their ballots merged, with rank points from JCP; I didn't do rank
points in P&J because of some presentation quirks).
New records rated this week:
- Aram Bajakian: There Were Flowers Also in Hell (2014, Sanasar): [bc]: B+(**)
- Aram Bajakian: Music Inspired by the Color of Pomegranates (2015, Sanasar): [r]: B+(**)
- Nicholas Bearde: Invitation (2015 [2016], Right Groove): [cd]: B+(*)
- Big Boi + Phantogram: Big Grams (2015, Epic, EP): [r]: B+(*)
- Deafheaven: New Bermuda (2015, Anti): [r]: B+(*)
- Dilly Dally: Sore (2015, Partisan): [r]: B+(**)
- DJ Paypal: Sold Out (2015, Brainfeeder): [r]: B+(**)
- Elephant9 with Reine Fiske: Silver Mountain (2015, Rune Grammofon): [r]: B+(*)
- Foals: What Went Down (2015, Warner Brothers): [r]: B
- Helena Hauff: Discreet Desires (2015, Ninja Tune/Werkdiscs): [r]: B+(***)
- Steve Hauschildt: Where All Is Fled (2015, Kranky): [r]: A-
- Helen: The Original Faces (2015, Kranky): [r]: B+(*)
- Mette Henriette: Mette Henriette (2014 [2015], ECM, 2CD): [dl]: B+(*)
- Ira Hill: Tomorrow (2015, self-released): [cd]: C
- Florian Hoefner: Luminosity (2015 [2016], Origin): [cd]: B+(***)
- Jason Kao Hwang: Voice (2014 [2016], Innova): [cd]: B+(*)
- Abdullah Ibrahim: The Song Is My Story (2014 [2015], Sunnyside): [r]: B
- Kehlani: You Should Be Here (2015, self-released): [r]: B-
- Sam Lee & Friends: The Fade in Time (2015, The Nest Collective): [r]: B+(*)
- Lizzo: Big Grrrl Small World (2015, BGSW): [r]: B+(*)
- Marina and the Diamonds: Froot (2015, Atlantic): [r]: B+(*)
- Archy Marshall: A New Place 2 Drown (2015, True Panther Sounds): [r]: A-
- Pete McCann: Range (2014 [2015], Whirlwind): [r]: B+(*)
- Nero: Between II Worlds (2015, Cherrytree/Interscope): [r]: B
- Dick Oatts/Mats Holmquist/New York Jazz Orchestra: A Tribute to Herbie +1 (2015 [2016], Summit): [cd]: B+(*)
- Chris Pitsiokos Trio: Gordian Twine (2015, New Atlantis): [r]: B+(***)
- Nathaniel Rateliff: Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats (2015, Stax): [r]: B+(*)
- Roswell Rudd & Heather Masse: August Love Song (2015 [2016], Red House): [cd]: A-
- Julian Shore: Which Way Now (2015 [2016], Tone Rogue): [cd]: B
- Michael Spiro/Wayne Wallace/La Orquesta Sonfonietta: Canto América (2015 [2016], Patois): [cd]: B-
- Lew Tabackin Trio: Soundscapes (2014-15 [2016], self-released): [cd]: B+(**)
- Thundercat: The Beyond/Where the Giants Roam (2015, Brainfeeder, EP): [r]: B
- Ray Vega & Thomas Marriott: Return of the East West Trumpet Summit (2014 [2016], Origin): [cd]: B+(**)
- Brian Wilson: No Pier Pressure (2015, Capitol): [r]: B+(*)
- Chelsea Wolfe: Abyss (2015, Sargent House): [r]: B+(*)
Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries rated this week:
- Tubby Hayes Quartet: The Syndicate: Live at the Hopbine 1968 Vol. 1 (1968 [2015], Gearbox): [r]: B+(**)
- Schlippenbach Trio: First Recordings (1972 [2015], Trost): [r]: B+(**)
Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:
- Harris Eisenstadt: Old Growth Forest (Clean Feed)
- Fred Frith/Darren Johnston: Everybody Is Somebody Is Nobody (Clean Feed)
- John Grant: Grey Tickles, Black Pressure (2015, Partisan): [r]: B+(*)
- Dre Hocevar: Collective Effervescence (Clean Feed)
- Jon Lundbom & Big Five Chord: Bring Their 'A' Game (Hot Cup, EP): advance, February 5
- Jon Lundbom & Big Five Chord: Make the Magic Happen (Hot Cup, EP): advance, February 5
- Ken Peplowski: Enrapture (Capri): February 16
- Protean Reality: Protean Reality (Clean Feed)
- Renku: Live in Greenwich Village (Clean Feed)
- Roswell Rudd/Jamie Saft/Trevor Dunn/Balasz Pandi: Strength & Power (Rare Noise): advance, February 26
- J. Peter Schwalm: The Beauty of Disaster (Rare Noise): advance, February 26
- Dan Weiss: Sixteen: Drummers Suite (Pi): February 26
Ask a question, or send a comment.
Sunday, January 25, 2015
Music Week
Music: Current count 26163 [26129] rated (+34), 408 [402] unrated (+6).
The dead CD changer crisis is over. Having suffered two dead changers
from Sony in just a few years, I splurged and bought the Yamaha. Main
problem is that in order to let you change all five discs without having
to spin the carousel around, the new unit is a couple inches deeper than
the old one. The stereo equipment is housed in a cabinet I built way back
in the 1970s for components of the time. The face of the new unit sticks
out from the front edge, but at least the feet fit. I suppose I could
tidy it up a bit by expanding the small hole in the back for the wires,
but for now it works. Sounds pretty good, too.
I continue making minor additions to the
EOY Aggregate file, even after Pazz & Jop -- mostly adding
selective P&J and JCP ballots. Still, I'm hundreds short of
logging them all, so I suppose I could be accused of cherrypicking
favorites to tweak the standings. Main result of this has been
that Kamasi Washington's The Epic moved ahead of Julia
Holter's Have You in My Wilderness to claim 9th place,
while Sleater-Kinney's No Cities to Love edged ahead of
The Epic to 8th. Neither gainer is a particular favorite
of mine, although I do like both more than Holter. Main reason
I think I'm doing this is that I'm continuing to scour the lists
for prospects, so I'm picking out ballots that look promising.
However, no amount of fudging is going to displace Father John
Misty or Tame Impala from the top ten. Of course, their current
tie for 5th is fragile.
The other reason, I suppose, is that I'm reluctant to move on
with my life, even though I've been very neglectful of website
work I've committed to (not to mention writing a book or two).
In this regard January 31 looms as a drio dead date: I intend to
freeze the
2015 list then, which would
make it a good date to halt doing everything else 2015-related.
This week's finds all come from scrounging around the lists,
and I'll do some more of that next week. Every A- record this
week came highly rated from someone but was a pleasant surprise
to me. I wound up liking Bully more than similar groups like
Chastity Belt and Childbirth. Crampton turned out to have one
of the year's best electronica albums -- seems like I've parked
a lot of those in the high B+ tier this year (Carter Tutti Void,
DRKWAV, Floating Points, Jlin, JME, Kammerflimmer Kollektief,
Lifted, Lnrdcroy, LoneLady, Noonday Underground, RJD2/STS,
Skrillex/Diplo, Jamie XX).
Even better is Plastician. Michaelangelo Matos spent 60 P&J
points on his top two: one, as far as I can tell, is a podcast,
something I have no clue what to do with (and rather doubt should
be considered an album at all), and the other is Plastician's cut
and paste dance mix. It at least is CD length, although I have no
idea how to get one burned. (For one thing, I doubt the samples
are cleared, but if you can figure this out, please consider
sending me a copy.)
The reissues lists from electronica specialist publications and
stores were full of obscurities I had never heard of. I managed to
dig up a handful of those, sorting Patrick Cowley and Savant above
the A- cusp -- Mariah and Arthur Russell below. (The Trevor Jackson
compilation is more Adrian Sherwood so I wouldn't call it obscure.
It's probably possible to assemble an A- Sherwood CD, but why go
to that trouble when you can have a half-dozen B+'s instead?) I
also waded through three Rough Guides, something that eats at me
more than it will you, because I want to have some idea when and
where these songs come from, and that information is awful hard
to dig up. Still, a winner there, disguised as something else
(Lost in Mali).
Three high HMs might have benefitted from more patience and
dilligence on my part. Damily is a Malagasy guitarist/band that
recycles soukous with extra grit and distortion. Michael Bates
is a bassist leading what's basically a Michael Blake sax trio,
roughly comparable to Blake's own Tiddy Boom (an A- in
2014). Then there's the Velvet Underground's Complete Matrix
Tapes, which at 4CD got one spin and a summary judgment.
Lots of wonderful music in there, but also lots of old news --
1969: Velvet Underground Live came from these tapes --
and I got a bit tired of hearing several songs recycle four or
more times. Chances are if I had the box, the booklets, etc.,
I might have leaned the other way. But I didn't really get the
sense that additional sets added much, unlike some jazz boxes
I can think of (Miles Davis at the Plugged Nickel, Art Pepper
at the Village Vanguard).
Current plans are to publish a Rhapsody Streamnotes by the
end of the month. Currently 90 entries in the draft file --
shorter than most columns but not too shabby.
New records rated this week:
- Julian Argüelles: Let It Be Told (2012 [2015], Basho): [r]: B+(***)
- Julian Argüelles: Tetra (2014 [2015], Whirlwind): [r]: B+(***)
- Julien Baker: Sprained Ankle (2015, 6131 Records): [r]: B+(*)
- Michael Bates: Northern Spy (2015, Stereoscopic): [r]: B+(***)
- Bully: Feels Like (2015, Startime International/Columbia): [r]: A-
- Elysia Crampton: American Drift (2015, Blueberry): [r]: A-
- Damily: Very Aomby (2015, Helico): [r]: B+(***)
- Stephen Haynes: Pomegranate (2015, New Atlantis): [r]: B+(***)
- Christine Jensen and Maggi Olin: Transatlantic Conversations: 11 Piece Band Live (2013 [2016], Linedown): [cd]: B+(*)
- Knxwledge: Hud Dreams (2015, Stones Throw): [r]: B+(*)
- Los Lobos: Gates of Gold (2015, 429/Savoy Jazz): [r]: B+(**)
- New York Gypsy All Stars: Dromomania (2015, self-released): [r]: B+(**)
- Kresten Osgood, Masabumi Kikuchi, Ben Street & Thomas Morgan: Kikuchi/Street/Morgan/Osgood (2008 [2015], ILK Music): [r]: B+(***)
- Laura Perlman: Precious Moments (2015 [2016], Miles High): [cd]: B+(*)
- Plastician: All the Right Moves (2015, self-released): [sc]: A-
- Joan Shelley: Over and Even (2015, No Quarter): [r]: B+(*)
- Taraf de Haïdouks: Of Lovers, Gamblers and Parachute Skirts (2015, Crammed Discs): [r]: B+(**)
- James Taylor: Before This World (2015, Concord): [r]: C+
- Tenement: Predatory Headlights (2015, Don Giovanni): [r]: B+(*)
- Zomba Prison Project: I Have No Everything Here (2015, Six Degrees): [r]: B+(**)
- Zs: XE (2015, Northern Spy): [r]: B+(**)
Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries rated this week:
- Buena Vista Social Club: Lost and Found (1996-2000 [2015], World Circuit): [r]: B
- Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen: Live in San Francisco 1971 (1971 [2015], Sundazed): [r]: B+(**)
- Patrick Cowley: Muscle Up (1973-81 [2015], Dark Entries): [r]: A-
- Trevor Jackson Presents: Science Fiction Dancehall Classics (1981-87 [2015], On-U Sound, 2CD): [r]: B+(**)
- Karin Krog: Don't Just Sing: An Anthology: 1963-1999 (1963-99 [2015], Light in the Attic): [r]: B+(**)
- Lost in Mali: Off the Beaten Track From Bamako to Timbuktu ([2015], Riverboat): [r]: A-
- Mariah: Utakata No Hibi (1983 [2015], Shan-Shan): [r]: B+(**)
- The Rough Guide to Psychedelic Salsa (2008-13 [2015], World Music Network): [r]: B+(**)
- The Rough Guide to Psychedelic Samba (2009-14 [2015], World Music Network): [r]: B+(***)
- Arthur Russell: Corn (1982-83 [2015], Audika): [r]: B+(**)
- Savant: Artificial Dance (1981-83 [2015], RVNG Intl): [r]: A-
- The Velvet Underground: The Complete Matrix Tapes (1969 [2015], Polydor, 4CD): [r]: B+(***)
Old music rated this week:
- Commander Cody and the Lost Planet Airmen: Live From Deep in the Heart of Texas (1973 [1974], MCA): [r]: B+(***)
- Stephen Haynes: Parrhesia (2010, Engine Studios): [r]: B+(**)
- New York Gypsy All Stars: Romantech (2011, Traditional Crossroads): [r]: B+(***)
Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:
- Allison Au Quartet: Forest Grove (self-released): February 16
- Brooklyn Blowhards (Little(i)Music): April 8
- Heroes Are Gang Leaders: Highest Engines Near/Near Higher Engineers (Flat Langton's Arkeyes)
- The Great American Music Ensemble: It's All in the Game (Jazzed Media): March 4
- Florian Hoefner: Luminosity (Origin)
- Bruce Torff: Down the Line (Summit): February 9
Ask a question, or send a comment.
Tuesday, January 20, 2015
Music Week
Music: Current count 26129 [26097] rated (+32), 402 [389] unrated (+13).
Missed my usual Monday deadline this week. Stuff happens, most of
which is getting me down.
Rated count dropped back into normal range, although that may just
be because I lost Sunday to cooking (Italian, for six). I played old
favorites that day, winding up with Ben Webster's Soulville --
I'm tempted to bump it up a notch to A+, but the CD player (a Sony
CDP-CD345) was dead this morning, so it will be some time before I
play anything on the good stereo. I suppose I can still play CDs on
the computer, but that's not really the same thing (and I've never
done it except to test the sound system). I can still stream stuff,
so there'll be more of that in the next week or so until I sort this
out. The problem is in the mechanics: the motor, gears, belts, or
what have you that are used to open the tray and change discs. I've
gone through four or five CD changers in the lifespan of one receiver,
and they seem to be getting crappier all the time. They're also not
getting cheaper (actually, I mean less expensive; a free market should
weed out planned obsolescence, but when have we had one of those?).
Pazz & Jop came out last week. I meant to do some of my usual
analysis this week, but that got wiped out with the rest of the week.
The album totals are
here, compiled by Glenn McDonald. I've noted the standings
there in my
EOY Aggregate, scoring
them like a regular list (which means 1 point for everything from
21st to the end). Some notes:
There were 481 voters this time, out of a "thousand plus"
invites sent out (past years have had close to 1500, but they're
less forthcoming this year. Kendrick Lamar was on 43.6% of those
ballots; Courtney Barnett 34.6%; no one else more than 20%. The
top three point totals were 2639-1872-1073, so huge margins for
Lamar and Barnett. The former was no surprise at all. The latter
shouldn't have been, but Sufjan Stevens has been securely ranked
second in my EOY aggregate ever since Lamar passed him. P&J
reliably values American hip-hop more than my EOY Aggregate,
which includes dozens of British and European lists. Kendrick
Lamar topped both lists by large margins, but below nearly every
US hip-hop artist gained from EOYA to P&J:
- Vince Staples: Summertime '06: from 12 to 7
- Drake: If You're Reading This It's Too Late: 19 to 18
- Future: DS2: 20 to 17
- Miguel: Wildheart: 22 to 14
- Donnie Trumpet & the Social Experiment: Surf: from 32 to 15
- Shamir: Ratchet: 34 to 31
- The Weeknd: Beauty Behind the Madness: 35 to 19
- Earl Sweatshirt: I Don't Like Shit, I Don't Go Outside: 39 to 26
- Dr Dre: Compton: A Soundtrack: 41 to 56
- ASAP Rocky: At.Long.Last.ASAP: 52 to 65
- Rae Sremmurd: SremmLife: 64 to 40
- Young Thug: Barter 6: 66 to 32
- The Internet: Ego Death: 67 to 57
- Jazmine Sullivan: Reality Show: 94 to 39
- Dawn Richard: Blackheart: 100 to 29
On the other hand, Sleaford Mods: Key Markets dropped from
36 to 122, and Young Fathers dropped from 56 to 120. My theory for
the two drops on this list (Dr. Dre and ASAP Rocky, but especially
the former) is that the albums sucked. I won't try to dig through
the data, but I think there's a fairly decent correlation between
quality (as measured by the gold standard of my grades) and the gain
from the EOYA baseline to P&J.
It would be helpful if P&J made available demographic data
on the electorate. I imagine that at least 95% of the voters are
Americans (or at least based in the US), and that helps tilt the
electorate toward US hip-hop. On the other hand, the voters are
probably 90-95% white, and the number of hip-hop specialists is
probably quite small. Note that the biggest gains in my hip-hop list above were
posted by women (Dawn Richard, Jazmine Sullivan). P&J voters
are also more likely to favor women artists relative to the EOYA
baseline. To wit:
- Courtney Barnett: Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit: from 3 to 2
- Grimes: Art Angels: 7 to 4
- Julia Holter: Have You in My Wilderness: 8 to 33
- Sleater-Kinney: No Cities to Love: 10 to 5
- Bjork: Vulnicura: 11 to 23
- Joanna Newsom: Divers: 13 to 16
- Carly Rae Jepsen: E-mo-tion: 16 to 3
- Beach House: Depression Cherry: 23 to 38
- Adele: 25: 27 to 35
- Natalie Prass: Natalie Prass: 42 to 67
- Lana Del Rey: Honeymoon: 46 to 61
- Kacey Musgraves: Pageant Material: 47 to 20
- Wolf Alice: My Love Is Cool: 49 to 115
- Florence + the Machine: How Big How Blue How Beautiful: 50 to 64
- Hop Along: Painted Shut: 59 to 22
- Laura Marling: Short Movie: 61 to 112
- Torres: Sprinter: 65 to 28
- Chelsea Wolfe: Abyss: 71 to 176
- Jenny Hval: Apocalypse Girl: 72 to 112
- Ibeyi: Ibeyi: 74 to 143
- Beach House: Thank Your Lucky Stars: 78 to 118
- Waxahatchee: Ivy Tripp: 79 to 37
- Susanne Sundfor: Ten Love Songs: 83 to 72
- Jessica Pratt: On Your Own Love Again: 90 to 63
- Jazmine Sullivan: Reality Show: 94 to 39
- Dawn Richard: Blackheart: 100 to 29
- Ashley Monroe: The Blade: 102 to 36
- Rhiannon Giddens: Tomorrow Is My Turn: 105 to 52
The trend is a bit less pronounced here, because other styles and
the US/UK split enter into the matter, and because the electorate is
probably 80-85% male (I counted once, but don't recall the numbers).
To sharpen it a bit I dropped
two non-singers (Holly Herndon, who dropped from 21 to 78, and Maria
Schneider, 69-289). I also extended the EOYA cutoff to 110 to pick
up Monroe and Giddens (no hip-hop artists in that range, but the next
one down, Heems, got a bump from 113 to 74). Among style issues,
P&J likes country (including alt) more than EOYA (aside from
Musgraves and Monroe, above, Chris Stapleton rose from 62 to 24,
James McMurtry from 107 to 51, and Eric Church from 138 to 83). On
the other hand, with rare crossover exceptions P&J has little
interest in electronica, with rare crossover exceptions, really
isn't very interested in electronica. Last week I made a list of albums I thought would finish
higher in P&J than in my EOYA. My list included several names
that did indeed make significant gains: Sleater-Kinney (10-5),
Vince Staples (12-7), Kacey Musgraves (47-20), Hop Along (59-22),
Chris Stapleton (62-24), Bob Dylan: Shadows in the Night
(81-49), Bob Dylan: The Cutting Edge (96-86), Ashley Monroe
(102-36), James McMurtry (107-51), and Heems (113-74). Others on
my list didn't do so well: Oneohtrix Point Never: Garden of
Delete (14-30), Lana Del Rey (46-61), JLin: Dark Energy
(48-127), ASAP Rocky (52-65), Arca: Mutant (57-66), Ezra
Furman: Perpetual Motion People (76-184), . Most of these
are records that had steadily gained throughout my list build.
Furman was probably just wishful thinking, given that almost all
of his support came from UK lists. Oneohtrix was my main surprise
here: it had closed strong late, was as close to hip-hop as to
electronica, and had quite a bit of US support (including an A-
from Christgau), so it seemed likely to buck the anti-electronica
bias (similar to Flying Lotus last year). Some big gains I didn't mention: Carly Rae Jepsen (16-3),
Jason Isbell: Something More Than Free (28-11), The Weeknd
(35-19), Waxahatchee (79-37), Titus Andronicus (75-50). I also
didn't look far enough down the EOYA list to even consider:
Hamilton (134-21), Royal Headache (108-44), Beach Slang (144-48),
Future: 56 Nights (194-56), Bully: Feels Like (136-62),
Colleen Green: I Want to Grow Up (342-68), Yo La Tengo: Stuff
Like That There (126-69), Julien Baker: Sprained Ankle
(219-70), The Sonics: This
Is the Sonics (356-73), Speedy Ortiz: Foll Deer (159-77),
Joan Shelley: Over and Even (253-80), Laurie Anderson:
Heart of a Dog (193-83), JD McPherson: Let the Good Times
Roll (226-94), Erykah Badu: But You Caint Use My Phone
(218-95), Beauty Pill: Describes Things as They Are (492-97),
Jeffrey Lewis: Manhattan (211-98). The biggest surprise for
me was Jepsen, despite being aware that the album made substantial
gains over time. Hamilton was less of a surprise, but it's
such an unusual item (and appeared so late in the year) there were
no obvious rules for how it might move. I hadn't even been aware of
it until Rolling Stone -- almost alone among publications --
listed it 8th. (Its only other top ten placement was number 2 at
Billboard.) I played it, and found it a rather unique item --
a trait some like a lot, while most of the rest of us simply put it
out of mind. (I quibbled more with the tone than with the facts of
the history -- I never thought of Hamilton as an immigrant striver;
he seemed much more to be a proto-Napoleon, an empire-builder. Of
course, constant contrast to Burr makes him look good. As for as
the music is concerned, I appreciate the hip-hop as a joke, but
it's clear to me Lin Manuel-Garcia draws more on the hack-musical
tradition than any other resource.) I didn't attempt to predict many losses: I flagged Julia
Holter (8-33) and Kamasi Washington (9-8) as possibles, and Blur
(15-53) and Sleaford Mods (36-122) as probables, and thought
Adele (27-35) could go either way. Otherwise, I rather expected
everything on the EOYA list that wasn't rising would fall a bit
but roughly maintain order. To some extent that happened toward
the top of the list: Sufjan Stevens: Carrie and Lowell
(2-6), Jamie XX: In Colour (4-9), Father John Misty: I
Love You Honeybear (5-10), Tame Impala: Currents (6-12),
Bjork (11-23), Kurt Vile: B'lieve I'm Goin Down (17-27).
Beyond that most of the exceptional drops were genre-related:
electronica: Jamie XX (4-9), Chvrches: Every Open Eye (31-41),
Arca (56-66), Floating Points: Elaenia (29-76), Holly Herndon
(21-78), Four Tet: Morning/Evening (82-104); jazz: Maria
Schneider (69-289), Rudresh Mahanthappa: Bird Calls (99-190),
Vijay Iyer: Break Stuff (98-232); metal: Deafheaven: New
Bermuda (24-54), Ghost: Meliora (84-104), Faith No More:
Sol Invictus (63-125), Tribulation: The Children of the
Night (95-143), Iron Maiden: The Book of Souls (73-179);
and something I can only disparage as damaged art rock: Holter (8-33),
Unknown Mortal Orchestra: Multi-Love (30-106), Tobias Jesso
Jr: Goon (44-102), Godspeed You! Black Emperor: Asunder
Sweet and Other Distress (77-538) -- but note that Beauty Pill
was an exception. Kamasi Washington: The Epic (9-8) is a unique case.
The idea that it might drop was largely based on the fact that it
got reasonably good support among jazz critics (4th place in the
Jazz
Critics Poll, I pick up a lot of jazz lists, and P&J has
very few jazz critics voting. Take those jazz critics away and
The Epic finishes a few slots lower (12-15th). I also
noted that it did exceptionally well in Europe, and that would
work against it in P&J. I also don't think it's all that
great (and as I noted, records I don't like tend to sink), but
it's also a fairly unique item if you get into it, and I've long
suspected that there is a latent jazz audience waiting for
something to break out of the tradition and the school system.
So it wasn't certain to drop, but I wouldn't have been surprised
if it did. And now we know that it held its own, passing four
records ahead of it (Stevens, XX, Misty, and Holter) while getting
passed by three others (Jepsen, S-K, and Staples). Maybe I should
be hopeful that more such crossovers will follow, but I still
rather think it's a fluke. The vote distribution has a long tail: only 2 records appear
on more than 20% of the ballots, 14 on more than 10%, 32 on 5% or
more, roughly 100 on 2%, roughly 200 on 1%, and more than 1200 on
fewer ballots (the highest single ballot album came in 267th).
Relative rankings are pretty much meaningless after 250th place
(if not more like 200th). I've long felt that the poll would be
much more interesting if you allowed voters to cast longer ballots --
to fatten up that tail -- where 11-20 are accorded 3 points (vs.
minimum 5 for the top 10), 21-30 2 points, and everything after
that 1 point. The marginal points wouldn't have much impact on the
totals, but they would make it much easier to analyze the voting
base and the affinities of individual voters. The poll could also
solicit various forms of demographic information. I'd also like to
construct a taste profile where voters rate a selected list of
records independently of their rankings. More work, sure, but a
lot more useful data. (I did use the expanded voting scheme on a
couple of polls I ran on the Christgau website, and I thought it
worked well -- the voter base was small and pretty homogeneous,
so the extra data helped a lot.) - Glenn McDonald also calculates a number of extra metrics to
help explain the data (explanation
here). Aside from
kvltosis, which attempts to find records that were popular among
voters who stayed clear of the really popular records -- a dialectic
which can elevate records favored by smallish cliques (like jazz and
metal) rather than true obscurities -- McDonald's other categories
have meaningful names which undermined by peculiar definitions. One
you can sort of understand is
enthusiasm: the ratio of points to votes. The list it generates
is a mix of poll leaders (6. Lamar, 14. Stevens, 16. Jepsen, 23.
Washington, 25. Barnett, 28. Grimes) and low-vote albums where odds
suggest that there will be a wider spread of vote value. To limit
the latter effect, McDonald only lists albums with 5+ votes: the
result is that the top three have 5-6 votes, and half of the top
40 have 10 votes or less. Some of those certainly do show albums
that only a small circle likes a lot (like #19 Laurie Anderson,
or with a wider circle #4 Hamilton) but some are statistical
flukes.
Several of McDonald's terms seem almost as arbitrary as their
definitions. Hipness, for instance, favors album voters who also
voted for singles over those who didn't. I've been on both sides
of that equation, and hardly feel hipper for having filled out a
singles list this year. The
Hipness
list itself may steer slightly toward pop, but mostly looks like
noise to me. Except, that is, for the bottom five (min. 5 ballots):
Dave & Phil Alvin: Lost Time, Ezra Furman, Jeffrey Lewis,
Laurie Anderson, and Yo La Tengo. Michael Tatum must be kicking
himself for not filing a singles ballot this year (also Robert
Christgau and Cam Patterson). I'm not going to bother with deconstructing McDonald's other
terms, like Monolithity, Vitality, and Singularity, none of which
mean anything you can imagine. I will note that I personally followed
a voting strategy which undermines those categories: I deliberately
only picked singles from albums I didn't pick. I don't know how
common that strategy is -- you'd largely eliminate it by allowing
more than 10 album picks -- but it complicates using singles data
to gain insights into voters. (I'll note, for instance, that Dan
Weiss moved up on my "similar ballots" list because I literally
cribbed some singles from his ballot. We did have two albums in
common -- Barnett and Heems -- enough to put him on my list, but
further down.) I will comment on Metalism, a category which exists
only because McDonald is a Metalist (#5 this year). The same concept
could be applied with any reasonably identifiable genre -- hip-hop,
country, jazz, electronica, Latin, African, etc. As someone who is
the proud owner of a .000 lifetime metalism score, I dare say
anything else would be more interesting. My own ballot-plus-analysis is
here,
including previous ballots back to 2008 (used to calculate Breadth,
another concept I find statistically dubious). The Centricity score
is more useful: it measures how much overlap a voter has with the
poll average, so the people who go with the crowd have high scores
(I find it curious that I only recognize 2 of the 20 most centric
voters) and those who abhor crowds have low scores. My centricity
scores have averaged .131, with a low in 2014 of .061, but reached
a record high this year at .234, almost exclusively on the strength
of voting for Courtney Barnett: 166 other votes; after that it's
James McMurtry (16), Heems (11), Laurie Anderson (8), Sleaford Mods
(6), Henry Threadgill (4), Irene Schweizer (2), Lyrics Born (1),
and Paris (1). I could have totally goosed my score by voting for
Kendrick Lamar, which would have placed in my top 20, but as much
as I admire the album, I still don't really feel it (and I've played
it twice since voting), nor did I feel like wasting a vote (that
ultimately went to Heems but probably should have gone to a third
jazz album, Schlippenbach Trio or Chris Lightcap). The point being
that these numbers are volatile, depending as much on strategic
choices as taste. All of the EOYA values listed above are taken from last week's
file. Since then I've added in a bunch of new lists, plus noted all
the P&J results. I'll add more data over the next few days, but
I'm getting pretty close to done. Main thing I will be doing is jumping
from individual ballot to ballot. For instance, I'll check out everyone
I don't already know who has a similar ballot to mine. (Michael Tatum,
not for the first time, topped that list.) Ever since the Voice built
its database-driven P&J reporting system this kind of hopscotch
has been its most useful feature, allowing you to repeatedly pose the
questions: who likes the albums I like, and what do they also like. Also see the Hilary Hughes interview with the former Pazz & Jop
poobahs:
Robert Christgau, Joe Levy, Ann Powers, and Greg Tate on the Year That
Was. Christgau gets cranky about Hamilton, Kamasi Washington,
and Chris Stapleton, and I have to admit I basically agree with him on
those.
The big music news of the week was David Bowie's death. I was a
pretty serious fan back in the 1970s, but I have to admit that I've
been surprised by the outpouring of testaments and such. (Last time
that happened was with Michael Jackson, who like Bowie touched many
people deeper than I realized. Here are some links I collected:
I spent a few days last week going through nearly all of the Bowie
albums I had missed. I can't say that I missed much, although the song
"I'm Afraid of Americans" has only become truer. Despite the jazz moves,
I can't, however, see his new album, Blackstar, as some sort of
final masterpiece. Which isn't to deny that it is a big improvement --
his best since Scary Monsters (1980) or maybe even Heroes
(1977). (Actually, my favorite Bowie album ever is Lust for Life,
under Iggy Pop's name, which also came out in 1977.)
Finally, more EOY lists:
New records rated this week:
- The Arcs: Yours, Dreamily (2015, Nonesuch): [r]: B
- Battles: La Di Da Di (2015, Warp): [r]: A-
- The Bellfuries: Workingman's Bellfuries (2015, Hi-Style): [r]: B
- David Bowie: Blackstar (2016, Columbia): [r]: B+(***)
- Kenny Carr: Exit Moon (2015, Zoozazz Music): [cd]: B+(*)
- Bob Gluck/Billy Hart/Eddie Henderson/Christopher Dean Sullivan: Infinite Spirit: Revisiting Music of the Mwandishi Band (2015 [2016], FMR): [cd]: B+(***)
- Health: Death Magic (2015, Loma Vista): [r]: B+(*)
- Lil Dicky: Professional Rapper (2015, self-released, 2CD): [r]: A-
- Lions: Lions EP (2014 [2015], self-released, EP): [bc]: B+(**)
- Jenny Maybee/Nick Phillips: Haiku (2015 [2016], self-released): [cd]: B
- Terrence McManus and John Hébert: Saints and Sinners (2015, Rowhouse Music): [dl]: B+(*)
- John Raymond: John Raymond & Real Feels (2014 [2016], Shifting Paradigm): [cd]: B+(***)
- Adam Rudolph/Go: Organic Guitar Orchestra: Turning Towards the Light (2015, Cuneiform): [dl]: B+(**)
- Skyzoo & Antman Wonder: An Ode to Reasonable Doubt (2013, self-released, EP): [r]: B+(**)
- Skyzoo: Music for My Friends (2015, First Generation Rich): [r]: B+(**)
- The Stryker/Slagle Band Expanded: Routes (2015 [2016], Strikezone): [cd]: B+(***)
- Snarky Puppy/Metropole Orkest: Sylva (2014 [2015], Impulse!): [r]: B+(***)
Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries rated this week:
- Mike Osborne: Dawn (1966-70 [2015], Cuneiform): [dl]: A-
- Gloria Ann Taylor: Love Is a Hurtin' Thing (1971-77 [2015], Luv N' Haight): [r]: B+(*)
Old music rated this week:
- David Bowie: David Live (1974 [2005], Virgin EMI, 2CD): [r]: B
- David Bowie: Stage (1978 [2005], Virgin EMI, 2CD): [r]: B+(**)
- David Bowie: Tonight (1984, EMI America): [r]: B-
- David Bowie: Never Let Me Down (1987, EMI America): [r]: B-
- David Bowie: Black Tie White Noise (1993, Virgin): [r]: B
- David Bowie: The Buddha of Suburbia (1993 [2007], Virgin): [r]: B
- David Bowie: Outside (1995, Virgin): [r]: B-
- David Bowie: Earthling (1997, Virgin): [r]: B
- David Bowie: Hours . . . (1999, Virgin): [r]: B-
- David Bowie: Heathen (2002, ISO/Columbia): [r]: B
- David Bowie: Nothing Has Changed (1995-2014 [2014], Columbia/Legacy): [r]: B+(*)
- Sue Foley: Change (2004, Ruf): [r]: B+(***)
- Peter Karp/Sue Foley: Beyond the Crossroads (2012, Blind Pig): [r]: B+(*)
- Tin Machine: Tin Machine (1989, EMI): [r]: C+
Grade changes:
- Carly Rae Jepsen: E-MO-TION (2015, Interscope/Schoolboy/Silent): [r]: [was: B+(***)] A-
- Lord Huron: Strange Trails (2015, Iamsound): [r]: [was: B+(**)] B+(***)
Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:
- Melissa Aldana: Back Home (Wommusic): advance, March 11
- Cowboys & Frenchmen: Rodeo (Outside In Music): CD, no cover
- Blue Muse: Blue Muse Live (Dolphinium)
- Kenny Carr: Exit Moon (Zoozazz Music)
- Roxy Coss: Restless Idealism (Origin)
- Mike Freeman ZonaVibe: Blue Tjade (VOF): January 25
- Ira Hill: Tomorrow (self-released)
- Joseph Howell: Time Made to Swing (Summit)
- Christine Jensen and Maggi Olin: Transatlantic Conversations: 11 Piece Band Live (Linedown): February 15
- Matt Kane & the Kansas City Generations Sextet: Acknowledgement (Bounce-Step): March 4
- Urs Leimgruber/Alex Huber: Lightnings (Wide Ear)
- Dick Oatts/Mats Holmquist/New York Jazz Orchestra: A Tribute to Herbie +1 (Summit)
- La Orquesta Sonfonietta: Canto América (Patois): February 12
- Matt Parker Trio: Present Time (BYNK): February 12
- Jemal Ramirez: Pomponio (First Orbit Sounds Music)
- Roswell Rudd & Heather Masse: August Love Song (Red House): February 26
- Samo Salamon Bassless Trio: Unity (Samo)
- Carlos Vega: Bird's Ticket (Origin)
- Ray Vega & Thomas Marriott: Return of the East West Trumpet Summit (Origin)
Ask a question, or send a comment.
Monday, January 11, 2016
Music Week
Music: Current count 26097 [26050] rated (+47), 389 [395] unrated (-6).
Most of the following list appeared in last week's
Rhapsody Streamnotes, so no news there. I think I ran the program
that counts the ratings on Thursday when I cloned the file and was
surprised to find the ratings count at +32, normally a good week's
work. Or maybe that was Friday when it was posted. The new draft file,
which I set up as "January 2016 Part 2" currently has 20 records, a
pretty healthy start. (Actually, I think I seeded it with three 2016
releases I had already written up -- Friday's RS had no 2016 releases.)
The 2016 releases thus far are jazz items I shoved to the end of
the queue to concentrate on 2015 releases. I haven't begun to look
for new 2016 streamables, although I did notice a new David Bowie
album on Rhapsody last night, and with the news of his death I'm
spinning it now. (Marks a return of the "thin white duke" crooner,
with orchestral swing and quite a bit of sax adding a jazzy air,
the dramatic flair reminding me of Ziggy Stardust as much
as anything else. Bowie produced a lot of lousy records following
1983's Let's Dance -- itself a very mixed bag -- and I thought
his much-touted 2013 The Next Day came up short, but I can
imagine someone more sentimental than I falling for this record.
Will play it again for next week. Maybe I'll also get around to
that 1993 album still marked 'U' in my database.)
I expect good things from Intakt, but still was surprised to find
my first A record of 2016, an African-born, balafon-driven jazz trio
called Kalo Yele. The balafon player, Aly Keïta, comes from
Côte D'Ivoire, but the other two musicians are recognizably Swiss,
yet somehow managed to be born in Cameroon (once a German colony,
divided between France and Britain after 1919, independent in 1960
with the British dragging their heels until 1961). Lucas Niggli is
a well-known drummer I need to look into further -- I do know that
he was a protégé of Lucien Favre, who's long been fascinated by
African drumming. But I've never heard of clarinetist Jan Galega
Brönnimann, who provides the perfect complement to the percussion.
Marvelous.
I also came close to A-listing Intakt's other January release,
a piano trio with Aruán Ortiz, Eric Revis, and Gerald Cleaver. A
lot of piano trio fall into my "nice" trough, and this one --
largely thanks to the rhythm section -- rose above that, but only
a few each year really dazzle me, and this didn't quite.
One piano trio that did dazzle me was released in 1953 as
Introducing Paul Bley -- as
much as Revis and Cleaver impressed me, note that Bley managed to
get help from Charles Mingus and Art Blakey. Bley's second great
album came in 1958 when he expanded to a quintet by hiring a young
alto saxophonist named Ornette Coleman: I first ran across this
as Live at the Hilcrest Club, but my current copy is simply
The Fabulous Paul Bley Quintet. And in 1961-62 he was in
one of the most famous avant-garde trios in jazz history, with Jimmy
Giuffre and Steve Swallow. He was also famous for having married
two brilliant musicians, the composer-pianist Carla Borg (better
known under his name) and the singer-songwriter Annette Peacock
(don't know her maiden name, but her first husband was bassist Gary
Peacock, later an important collaborator of Bley's), and he recorded
several albums of their compositions. Bley continued to record
through 2008, mostly solo and trio albums, some exceptional (1965's
Closer and 1989's BeBopBeBopBeBopBeBop are personal
favorites but I've only heard about a third of them). Anyhow, he
died a week ago, and should be remembered as a giant of modern
jazz.
I rarely listen to multi-disc sets on Rhapsody because they are
invariably too much to swallow in one stretch, and it's hard to break
up the experience like I would normally if I had separate discs.
However, I took a chance with a 4-CD box that Phil Overeem has been
touting, Chicken Heads: A 50-Year History of Bobby Rush last
night when I was working on my screed about ISIS, and it fit the
bill perfectly, running on and on with deep blues and soul grooves
and the occasional chintzy cover. Rush missed the heyday of Chicago
blues, failed at Philadelphia International, then spent three or
four decades working the chitlin circuit, a nice career for a guy
who never came close to stardom. I wrote my review before the last
disc finished, only to find that the last few cuts tailed off quite
a bit. I thought about docking the grade then, but decided to let
it slide by. Having only heard one previous album (out of at least
three dozen), I'm going out on a limb saying that he probably doesn't
have a single A- record in his catalog so there's something inherently
unseemly about grading a 4-CD box that high, but he was so steady he
grows on you, and over the course of a long career one winds up
admiring that.
Maybe I'll find an appropriate time to try The Complete Matrix
Tapes. Last time I looked, The Cutting Edge wasn't there,
at least in a recognizable product configuration. (The Dylan bootlegs,
by the way, completely buried the Miles Davis bootlegs in my
EOY Aggregate: Old Music,
37-15, with Ata Kak's Obaa Sima (one of those Awesome Tapes
From Africa) in third place. The list is pretty idiosyncratic, largely
because it's built from 20-30 lists, less than 10% of the new release
albums lists I've compiled, and partly because the longer lists skew
toward obscure electronica (although it looks like most are so obscure
I haven't flagged them).
Meanwhile, I keep adding to the
EOY Aggregate (although I
haven't touched it in a couple days). Current standings (with Pazz &
Jop coming out later this week; my grades in brackets):
- [728]: Kendrick Lamar: To Pimp a Butterfly (Aftermath/Top Dawg/Interscope) [A-]
- [477]: Sufjan Stevens: Carrie & Lowell (Asthmatic Kitty) [***]
- [404]: Courtney Barnett: Sometimes I Sit and Think and Sometimes I Just Sit (Mom + Pop Music) [A-]
- [352]: Jamie XX: In Colour (XL/Young Turks) [***]
- [325]: Father John Misty: I Love You Honeybear (Sub Pop) [B]
- [325]: Tame Impala: Currents (Caroline) [*]
- [282]: Grimes: Art Angels (4AD) [A-]
- [265]: Julia Holter: Have You in My Wilderness (Domino) [B]
- [249]: Kamasi Washington: The Epic (Brainfeeder) [**]
- [247]: Sleater-Kinney: No Cities to Love (Sub Pop) [*]
- [237]: Bjork: Vulnicura (One Little Indian) [B-]
- [219]: Vince Staples: Summertime '06 (Def Jam) [***]
- [199]: Joanna Newsom: Divers (Drag City)
- [162]: Oneohtrix Point Never: Garden of Delete [***]
- [139]: Blur: The Magic Whip (Parlophone/Warner) [**]
- [136]: Carly Rae Jepsen: E-mo-tion (Interscope/School Boy) [***]
- [132]: Kurt Vile: B'lieve I'm Goin Down (Matador) [B]
- [131]: Alabama Shakes: Sound & Color (ATO) [*]
- {130]: Drake: If You're Reading This It's Too Late (Cash Money) [B]
- [127]: Future: DS2 (Epic) [A-]
- [121]: Holly Herndon: Platform (4AD) [**]
- [121]: Miguel: Wildheart (RCA) [***]
- [120]: Beach House: Depression Cherry (Sub Pop) [B]
- [119]: Deafheaven: |New Bermuda (Anti)
- [116]: Deerhunter: Fading Frontier (4AD) [***]
- [104]: Viet Cong: Viet Cong (Jagjaguwar) [**]
- [98]: Adele: 25 (XL)
- [97]: Jason Isbell: Something More Than Free (Southeastern) [*]
- [96]: Floating Points: Elaenia (Luaka Bop) [***]
- [92]: Unknown Mortal Orchestra: Multi-Love (Jagjaguwar) [B-]
- [88]: Chvrches: Every Open Eye (Universal) [**]
- [86]: Donnie Trumpet & the Social Experment: Surf (self-released) [A-]
- [85]: Mbongwana Star: From Kinshasa (World Circuit) [A-]
- [85]: Shamir: Ratchet (XL) [A-]
- [84]: The Weeknd: Beauty Behind the Madness (Republic) [*]
- [80]: Sleaford Mods: Key Markets (Harbinger Sound) [A-]
- [78]: Wilco: Star Wars (dBpm) [***]
- [77]: Destroyer: Poison Season (Merge) [*]
- [76]: Earl Sweatshirt: I Don't Like Shit I Don't Go Outside (Columbia) [*]
- [75]: D'Angelo & the Vanguard: Black Messiah (RCA -14) [A-]
- [75]: Dr Dre: Compton: A Soundtrack by Dr Dre (Aftermath/Interscope) [B-]
- [75]: Natalie Prass: Natalie Prass (Sony) [*]
My grades here are pretty evenly distributed: 8 A-, 8 ***, 5 **, 8 *,
5 B, 3 B-, 3 ungraded. Robert Christgau, who's always a bit more in step
with the critical consensus, graded eight (or nine with Adele) of these
records higher than I did, moving five over the A- line: Jamie XX,
Sleater-Kinney, Oneohtrix Point Never, Miguel, Jason Isbell. Other
aggregate lists pretty much agree, regardless of depth or method --
I'd say they're probably more consistent this year than most. P&J
will shuffle these around a bit, but I don't forsee anything major,
unless Holter or Washington take a dive (Sleater-Kinney will probably
pass them, maybe Vince Staples and/or Oneohtrix Point Never too. UK
favorites typically fall off, but that mostly means Blur and Sleaford
Mods. The closest thing to a late gainer (like Beyoncé and D'Angelo
in recent years) is Adele, which could go either way.
Also not a lot of lower-ranked albums with much P&J upside
potential. The best outside shots I see are: Lana Del Rey:
Honeymoon (46), Kacey Musgraves: Pageant Material (47),
Jlin: Dark Energy (48), ASAP Rocky: At.Long.Last.ASAP
(52), Arca: Mutant (57); Hop Along: Painted Shut (59),
Chris Stapleton: Traveller (62); Ezra Furman: Perpetual
Motion People (76), Ashley Monroe: The Blade (102), James
McMurtry: Complicated Game (107), Heems: Eat Pray Thug
(113). Bob Dylan has also always run much higher in P&J than in
aggregates, so either Shadows in the Night (81) or, more
likely, The Cutting Edge bootlegs could crack the top 40.
New records rated this week:
- Brian Andres and the Afro-Cuban Jazz Cartel: This Could Be That (2015 [2016], Bacalao): [cd]: B+(*)
- Babyface: Return of the Tender Lover (2015, Def Jam): [r]: B+(***)
- Beauty Pill: Beauty Pill Describes Things as They Are (2015, Butterscotch): [r]: B
- Carter Tutti Void: f(x) (2015, Industrial): [r]: B+(***)
- Mary Foster Conklin: Photographs (2014 [2016], MockTurtle Music): [cd]: B+(**)
- Joseph Daley/Warren Smith/Scott Robinson: The Tuba Trio Chronicles (2015 [2016], JoDa Locust Street Music): [cd]: B+(**)
- Dâm-Funk: Invite the Light (2015, Stones Throw): [r]: B
- Dej Loaf: #AndSeeThatsTheThing (2015, Columbia, EP): [r]: B
- Dr. Dre: Compton (2015, Aftermath/Interscope): [r]: B-
- C Duncan: Architect (2015, Fat Cat): [r]: B-
- FKA Twigs: M3LL155X (2015, Young Turks, EP): [r]: C+
- The Foxymorons: Fake Yoga (2015, Foxyphoton): [bc]: B+(***)
- Michael Gibbs & the NDR Bigband: Play a Bill Frisell Set List (2013 [2015], Cuneiform): [dl]: A-
- Hieroglyphic Being: The Acid Documents (2013 [2015], Soul Jazz): [r]: A-
- Hieroglyphic Being & J.I.T.U. Ahn-Sahm-Buhl: We Are Not the First (2015, RVNG Intl): [r]: A-
- Ryan Keberle & Catharsis: Azui Infinito (2015 [2016], Greenleaf Music): [cd]: B+(**)
- The Libertines: Anthems for Doomed Youth (2015, Virgin EMI): [r]: B+(*)
- Liturgy: The Ark Work (2015, Thrill Jockey): [r]: C-
- Lnrdcroy: Much Less Normal (2014 [2015], Firecracker): [r]: B+(***)
- Meek Mill: Dreams Worth More Than Money (2015, Atlantic/MMG): [r]: B+(*)
- Gabriel Mervine: People (2015 [2016], Synergy Music): [cd]: B
- Milo: So the Flies Don't Come (2015, Ruby Yacht): [r]: B+(**)
- Hudson Mohawke: Lantern (2015, Warp): [r]: B
- Róisin Murphy: Hairless Toys (2015, PIAS): [r]: B+(**)
- Noonday Underground: Body Parts for Modern Art (2015, Stubbie): [r]: B+(***)
- Aruán Ortiz Trio: Hidden Voices (2015 [2016], Intakt): [cd]: B+(***)
- Protomartyr: The Agent Intellect (2015, Hardly Art): [r]: B+(**)
- Raury: All We Need (2015, Columbia): [r]: B+(*)
- Schnellertollermeier: X (2013 [2015], Cuneiform): [dl]: B+(**)
- Dale Watson: Call Me Insane (2015, Red House): [r]: B+(**)
Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries rated this week:
- Rastafari: The Dreads Enter Babylon 1955-83 (1955-83 [2015], Soul Jazz): [r]: A-
- Bobby Rush: Chicken Heads: A 50-Year History of Bobby Rush (1964-2014 [2015], Omnivore, 4CD): [r]: A-
- Ty Segall: Ty-Rex (2011-13 [2015], Goner, EP): [r]: B+(*)
- Idrissa Soumaoro: Djitoumou (2010 [2015], Lusafrica): [r]: B+(***)
- Dale Watson: Truckin' Sessions, Vol. 3 (2014 [2015], Red River): [r]: B+(***)
Old music rated this week:
- Michael Gibbs: Tanglewood 63 (1970, Deram): [r]: B+(*)
- Michael Gibbs With Joachim Kühn: Europeana: Jazzphony No. 1 (1994 [1995], ACT): [r]: B+(**)
- Throbbing Gristle: The First Annual Report of Throbbing Gristle (1975 [2001], Thirsty Ear): [r]: B
Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:
- Steve Barta: Symphonic Arrangement: Suite for Flute and Jazz Piano Trio (Steve Barta Music)
- Nicholas Bearde: Invitation (Right Groove): January 29
- Laura Perlman: Precious Moments (Miles High)
- Julian Shore: Which Way Now (Tone Rogue): February 12
- The Stryker/Slagle Band Expanded: Routes (Strikezone): February 5
Ask a question, or send a comment.
Monday, January 4, 2016
Music Week
Music: Current count 26050 [26017] rated (+33), 395 [396] unrated (-1).
One New Year's resolution that I've been able to keep is that I
stop adding records to the previous year's list, so that now that
2015 is gone, I'm officially done with 2014. The final list for 2014
is here. Since the January 31,
2015 freeze date, I added 81 records to the file, bringing the total
number of records there to 1248. That was up slightly from 2013
(1222) and 2012 (1190), but still well below the record years of
2011 (1415) and 2010 (1300). The first year I topped 1000 records
was 2004, when I started
Jazz Consumer Guide --
1052 that year, which has only dropped below 1000 twice since
(982 in 2005, 996 in 2008). The last Voice-published JCG
was in 2011, and the freebies thinned out after then, but I had
started using Rhapsody in 2007, which took up the slack (and then
some).
In fact, the share of rated records I've sourced from Rhapsody
(and a few other download sources, including links from publicists)
has increased every year since 2007 (16.1%), up to 58.1% in 2014.
(The series from 2008-13: 21.9% 34.0%, 42.5%, 46.8%, 47.4%, 49.5%.)
It is not clear whether that trend will be sustained for 2015: my
plan is to "freeze" the file no later than January 31, and to
continue to add stragglers until December 31, 2016. The current
2015 file lists 1007 albums,
of which 505 (50.1%) are from Rhapsody, etc. Virtually everything
I add in that time will be streamed, so if I wind up with 1200
records (a little less than my 2012-14 average) I'll wind up at
58.5%. Odds of that happening are probably 50-50. Last year I
added approximately 230 albums to my 2014 list after January 1
(133 in the pre-freeze January 24 Rhapsody Streamnotes, plus
about one-third of the 50 more in the February 13 RS, plus 81
post-freeze albums, so another 193 wouldn't be out of ordinary.
However, I suspect that I'm beginning to slow down, so I may
not add that any. The number of physical albums I received (or
in some cases bought -- not easy to separate the two, but the
latter is certainly a tiny share for the last 5-6 years) has
declined every year since 2011 (753, 623, 617, 523, 502), and
significantly since 2004-07 (1017, 941, 1092, 956) -- peak JCG
years, but also pre-Rhapsody, so I was also buying more CDs.
It would be a lot of work (and probably not worth doing) but
I could go back through the metacritic files (and I'd probably
need some additional sources) and figure out my share of all
(at least fairly well known) jazz releases. If I did so, I have
little doubt that it would show that my share has decreased
regularly since 2004-07 (with a probable peak year of 2004).
I've currently heard 211 of the 426 jazz records in the
2015 EOY Aggegate
List, so 49.5% -- better than I would have expected, but I
have many fewer jazz lists compiled this year. (Actually, I
have a larger sample list,
2015 Music Tracking: Jazz,
with 1040 jazz albums listed, of which I've heard 610 -- 58.6%;
that list includes everything I have heard, whereas the aggregate
only lists records that have appeared on other lists.) That's just
one data point -- not a trend -- and while it strikes me as respectable
I still sense that I am slipping.
I keep expecting my
Jazz and
Non-Jazz EOY lists
to converge in length, but while I added four non-jazz albums this
week (Days With Dr. Yen Lo, Halsey, Nozinja, and Skylar
Spence -- underground rap, teen pop, Afro-electronica, and disco),
Allen Lowe matched that on the jazz side (with a little help from
Matthew Shipp), and Steve Swell added an extra, so now the counts
are 76-63. Evening out compared to a month ago, but still there
are blips. After the JCP ballots were sent off, I received 5-CD
packages from both Lowe and Swell. It took a while to sort them
out, but I wound up with five A- and 4 B+(***) (one of Swell's is
2-CD). Lowe's are all fairly matched, with a couple regulars and
many friends circling around a common approach -- the sort of
thing he previously released in single packages (the 3-CD Blues
and the Empirical Truth and the 4-CD Mulatto Radio).
Three of Swell's sets are the sort of avant-jazz that has little
chance of appealing to non-believers -- solo trombone album, a
compilation of scattered live sets (including more solo), and
a trio with Peter Brötzmann -- but all are exceptionally well
done, hence my grades. The fourth, Kende Dreams, is an
all-star quintet where everyone excels. Good chance had I gotten
it earlier it would have wound up on my ballot, but not feeling
like bumping anyone so soon, I left it a notch lower in my file.
Terrific album, even for someone with no interest or knowledge
of Bartók (like me).
Among the old music, I picked out the two Kaiser records because
I had them marked as ungraded, and could skip the step of finding
them by tuning into Rhapsody. The unrated account is listed weekly.
These are records that I have (at least at one point had) but never
got around to. New records pile onto the end of that list, but I
currently only have two unrated 2015 releases -- a cassette tape
I can't play and a Kansas CD I won't (at least not now) -- and most
recent years have been handled with similar efficiency. So most of
those records are ten or more years old, many bought up when the
last decent local record stores went out of business, and some date
back to the LP era (in which case I quite possibly don't have them
anymore). Still, I always like to knock a few off whenever I get in
the neighborhood, as I was with the new Kaiser/Russell album.
Negro Religious Field Recordings appeared in an Allen Lowe
Facebook post. I clicked on it, then found it on Rhapsody, and figured
why not? There's probably a lot more down that rabbit hole, and maybe
some day I'll go there, but for me this resonated not just from hearing
Lowe's latest records but from checking out a Staples Family reissue
that's nowhere near as good.
Good chance I'll post a Rhapsody Streamnotes sometime this week.
Draft file is currently 125 records deep, more than enough. Probably
enough time left in January for a second column too, although I have
a couple other ideas kicking around.
EOY Aggegate list
should be winding down, but I'm still have a bunch of lists I
haven't transcribed yet, and a few stragglers are coming in. One
thing I did do was to score the Robert Christgau [RC] and Michael
Tatum [MT] grades I've been tracking: 5 for A/A+, 4 for A-, 3 for
B+/***, 2 for **, 1 for *. I'm not sure I have them all yet, and
will add new ones when they appear (until I stop working on the
file). I might wind up doing the same thing for my own grades,
but that would be a lot more work.
Here are some EOY lists by critics you should know by name (and
note I especially appreciate long lists, which I regard as realistic
for people who listen broadly):
Also:
For a list of many more lists, look
here.
New records rated this week:
- Peter Brötzmann/Steve Swell/Paal Nilssen-Love: Krakow Nights (2015, Not Two): [cd]: B+(***)
- Cécile & Jean-Luc Cappozzo: Soul Eyes (2015, Fou): [cd]: B+(**)
- Lana Del Rey: Honeymoon (2015, Interscope): [r]: B+(***)
- Deradoorian: The Expanding Flower Planet (2015, Anticon): [r]: B
- The Deslondes: The Deslondes (2015, New West): [r]: B
- Dr. Yen Lo: Days With Dr. Yen Lo (2015, Pavlov Institute): [r]: A-
- Open Mike Eagle: A Special Episode Of (2015, Mello Music Group, EP): [r]: B+(**)
- Jean-Marc Foussat & Jean-Luc Petit: . . . D'Où Vient La Lumière! (2015, Fou): [cd]: B+(**)
- Patty Griffin: Servant of Love (2015, PGM): [r]: B+(**)
- Halsey: Badlands (2015, Astralwerks): [r]: A-
- Hamilton [Original Broadway Cast Recording] (2015, Atlantic, 2CD): [r]: B+(**)
- Ted Hearne: The Source (2015, New Amsterdam): [r]: B+(*)
- Amy Helm: Didn't It Rain (2015, E1): [r]: B+(**)
- Henry Kaiser & Ray Russell: The Celestial Squid (2014 [2015], Cuneiform): [dl]: B+(***)
- Toby Keith: 35 MPH Town (2015, Show Dog Nashville): [r]: B
- Kode9: Nothing (2015, Hyperdub): [r]: B+(**)
- Lightning Bolt: Fantasy Empire (2015, Thrill Jockey): [r]: B+(**)
- Low: Ones and Sixes (2015, Sub Pop): [r]: B
- Allen Lowe: In the Diaspora of the Diaspora: Man With Guitar: Where's Robert Johnson? (2013 [2015], Constant Sorrow): [cd]: A-
- Allen Lowe: In the Diaspora of the Diaspora: Where a Cigarette Is Smoked by Ten Men (2015, Constant Sorrow): [cd]: A-
- Allen Lowe: In the Diaspora of the Diaspora: We Will Gather When We Gather (2015, Constant Sorrow): [cd]: A-
- Allen Lowe/Matthew Shipp/Kevin Ray/Jake Millett: In the Diaspora of the Diaspora: Ballad for Albert (2015, Constant Sorrow): [cd]: B+(***)
- Old Man Luedecke: Domestic Eccentric (2015, True North): [r]: B+(***)
- Nozinja: Nozinja Lodge (2015, Warp): [r]: A-
- Dave Rawlings Machine: Nashville Obsolete (2015, Acony): [r]: B+(*)
- Rival Consoles: Howl (2015, Erased Tapes): [r]: B+(**)
- Royal Headache: High (2015, What's Your Rupture?): [r]: B+(*)
- Matthew Shipp: Matthew Shipp Plays the Music of Allen Lowe: I Alone: The Everlasting Beauty of Monotony (2015, Constant Sorrow): [cd]: A-
- Troye Sivan: Blue Neighbourhood (2015, Capitol): [r]: B+(*)
- Skylar Spence: Prom King (2015, Carpark): [r]: A-
- Susanne Sundfør: Ten Love Songs (2015, Sonnet Sound): [r]: B+(*)
- Steve Swell: Kanreki: Reflection & Renewal (2011-14 [2015], Not Two, 2CD): [cd]: B+(***)
- Steve Swell: Steve Swell's Kende Dreams: Hommage à Bartók (2014 [2015], Silkheart): [cd]: A-
- Steve Swell: The Loneliness of the Long Distasnce Improviser (2015, Swell): [cd]: B+(***)
Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries rated this week:
- Ed Sanders: Yiddish-Speaking Socialists of the Lower East Side (2006 [2015], Okraina, EP): [bc]: B+(*)
- Sonny Simmons: Reincarnation (1991 [2015], Arhoolie): [r]: B+(**)
- The Staple Singers: Freedom Highway Complete: Recorded Live at Chicago's New Nazareth Church (1965 [2015], Epic/Legacy): [r]: B+(*)
Old music rated this week:
- Henry Kaiser: Devil in the Drain (1987, SST): [r]: B+(*)
- Henry Kaiser & David Lindley: A World Out of Time, Vol. 2 (1993, Shanachie): [r]: B+(*)
- Negro Religious Field Recordings: From Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee (1934-1942): Vol. 1 (1934-42 [1994], Document): [r]: A-
- Team Hegdal: Vol 1 (2009 [2010], Øra Fonogram): [r]: B+(***)
- Team Hegdal: Vol 2 (2011, Øra Fonogram): [r]: B+(***)
Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:
- Jenny Maybee/Nick Phillips: Haiku (self-released): January 29
- Gabriel Mervine: People (Synergy Music): January 22
- Naked Truth: Avian Thug (Rare Noise): January 22
Ask a question, or send a comment.
Monday, December 28, 2015
Music Week
Music: Current count 26017 [25987] rated (+30), 396 [394] unrated (+2).
Ratings down a bit due to the holidays -- I cooked traditional family
fare for my sister and nephew on Xmas Eve, then next day drove out to a
nearby farm for dinner with a cousin and his wife's family -- and also
due to the Pazz & Jop ballot deadline. After kicking some things
around, I filed the following ballot a day early:
Albums:
- Lyrics Born: Real People (Mobile Home) 16
- Irène Schweizer/Han Bennink: Welcome Back (Intakt) 14
- Sleaford Mods: Key Markets (Harbinger Sound) 12
- Blackalicious: Imani, Vol. 1 (OGM) 10
- James McMurtry: Complicated Game (Complicated Game) 10
- Laurie Anderson: Heart of a Dog (Nonesuch) 8
- Courtney Barnett: Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit (Mom + Pop Music) 8
- Paris: Pistol Politics (Guerrilla Funk, 2CD) 8
- Henry Threadgill Zooid: In for a Penny, In for a Pound (Pi, 2CD) 8
- Heems: Eat Pray Thug (Megaforce) 6
Songs:
- Chris Lightcap's Bigmouth, "All Tomorrow's Parties" (from Epicenter, Clean Feed)
- Tuxedo, "Do It" (from Tuxedo, Stones Throw)
- Ezra Furman, "Ordinary Life" (from Perpetual Motion People, Bella Union)
- Lindstrøm & Grace Hall, "Home Tonight" (Feedility)
- Aesop Rock & Homeboy Sandman, "Get a Dog" (from Lice, Stones Throw)
- Kendrick Lamar, "King Kunta" (from To Pimp a Butterfly, Top Dawg/Aftermath/Interscope)
- Ashley Monroe, "Dixie" (from The Blade, Warner Music)
- Death Team, "Fucking Bitches in the Hood" (no label)
- Gwenno, "Chwyldro" (from Y Dydd Olaf, Heavenly)
- Jason Derulo, "Want to Want Me" (from Everything Is 4, Warner Bros)
I'm reasonably satisfied with the albums list, although you might
note that the Threadgill album is higher (6 vs. 9) on my official
2015-in-progress list than several
non-jazz albums on the ballot, and four more jazz albums are on the
list ahead of Heems:
- Schlippenbach Trio: Features (Intakt)
- Mike Reed's People Places & Things: A New Kind of Dance (482 Music)
- Joe Fiedler Trio: I'm In (Multiphonics Music)
- Chris Lightcap's Bigmouth: Epicenter (Clean Feed)
I don't like the idea that Pazz & Jop should be the non-jazz
(actually, rock/rap-only) forum it effectively is, but I've already
touted the jazz records above in the
Jazz Critics Poll, but at the moment felt like spreading the
action around a bit. (Actually, I doubt that I'll be the only person
voting for Schweizer/Bennink or Threadgill in Pazz & Jop, and
might not have been the only one for Reed and Lightcap, although I
will be surprised if any of the others clear a vote.) I've been
keeping separate
Jazz and
Non-Jazz EOY
lists for several years now, but I don't think I've ever skewed
the scales before. This may just be a temporary aberration,
but it also has something to do with the way I've been working,
which keeps me from really falling in love with practically any
of the records I've been recommending.
At this point, I still only have two full-A records for 2015
(whereas Christgau has 9 plus 1 A+, not counting anything he
has in reserve, and Tatum has 7 plus 3 A+, not counting Courtney
Barnett [number 4 on his P&J ballot]). I did manage to play
six of my ballot picks this week, but didn't move any of them
up from A- to A -- most years I move 4-5 up, so I can't say if
this is the records or me. (I also rechecked 4 albums I had filed
in the B+ range, all records that Christgau had A-listed, and did
move three up to A-, which helps even out the Jazz/Non-Jazz lists --
currently 71 to 59. The straggler was Jamie XX's In Colour,
certainly a fine album but not enough so to get me to do all the
associated paperwork.)
I also replayed the consensus record of the year, Kendrick Lamar's
To Pimp a Butterfly, but never gave it all the time it seems
to demand. And while I flagged it as a very solid A- the first time
I streamed it, it's never cohered enough to move on up. No chance it
won't win Pazz & Jop -- it's way ahead (577-381-320-285) in my
EOY List Aggregate, and no
other record has any late momentum like D'Angelo's Black Messiah
last year, or any identifiable demographic advantage -- so it felt
like it would be a wasted vote. So I nudged Heems above it: not sure
it's the better album, but it might be, and is the more interesting
choice. Among other things, it makes for two Asian-American rappers
on my list. (For what it's worth, Heems will do better in P&J than
it has in my EOY List Aggregate: its support is almost exclusively
concentrated among Christgau's Expert Witnesses, who amount to a block
of 20-30 voters. The effect should be about midway between Wussy and
Withered Hand in 2014, where Wussy rose from 66 to 24, and Withered
Hand from 100 to 92, but note that I'm working with final metafile
tallies for 2014, which already include a lot of individual ballots
from the Expert Witness poll. Currently I only have a few of them --
and haven't counted any points for Christgau, Tatum, or myself -- so
Heems at 142 is probably a bit better than Withered Hand was at the
same stage. I predict it will get 15-20 P&J votes and end up in
the 50-70 range. Last year Wussy got 29 and Withered Hand got 8.)
On the other hand, I have no confidence in my songs list. I almost
didn't bother, but wanted to tout Chris Lightcap's Velvet Underground
cover -- especially since I skipped over his album. It then occurred
to me that I could pick songs from other albums that missed the cut --
Lamar, of course, plus Furman, Gwenno, Monroe, and especially Tuxedo
(the year's most memorable single). I looked a couple friends' lists,
and watched 10-15 videos (more than I've done all year), picking out
songs that seemed good enough. I wound up with two non-album singles
that
Dan Weiss likes, and one choice cut from an album that otherwise
I don't much care for (Jason Derulo's). Also the standout track from
one of the few EPs I graded A-.
Certainly a decent list, but one that I'm sure could have been
improved had I spent a few more days checking things out, especially
if I considered cuts from my top-ten albums ("Free People" would
easily have made the list, and very likely "Flag Shopping"). I sort
of get the appeal of "best songs" lists on two levels: I grew up in
an era when we first heard music on AM radio (KLEO was my station)
and bought 45s, so it seems perfectly natural to me to segue "Wild
Thing," say, into "Woolly Bully." Until 1965 I didn't even have a
record player that could play LPs, and I doubt that I bought twenty
of them through the end of the decade. On the other hand, by the
early 1970s we came to think of LP sides as integral works of art,
meant to be consumed whole, and from 1970 up to about 1977 I doubt
I bought a single 45 -- good chance the record that broke that
streak was "God Save the Queen."
I also approve, at least in principle, of the idea of programming
your own playlists, something that home computers made accessible to
the masses. However, I've never gotten the hang of the technology,
not so much because I find it incomprehensible as because it doesn't
suit the way I work. Even streaming, I rarely bother with anything
but album-length chunks, because that still makes sense to me as the
unit to write about -- and for today, at least, I mostly listen to
write. I can imagine at some point turning back inward and starting
to reduce my collection to its rare finest moments, but that's mostly
to eliminate clutter. (At some point I suspect all collections decay
into clutter.) Nor am I sure that constant exposure to brilliance
would be such a good thing. I suspect I'd get too used to it.
The other thing that bothers me about "best songs" is how much
they are tied to videos. I hated MTV when it started to exercise
its tyranny over popular music in the 1980s. My initial complaint
was how it added an extraneous and expensive obstacle for music
to reach the public. Moreover, it worked to select popular music
by how photogenic the musicians were. Of course, since then music
videos have been democratized (and amateurized) with the usual
mixed bag of results. My research this year consisted of nothing
more than watching Youtube videos, which were equally divided
between nonsensical collages and Bollywood-worthy dance numbers.
(Conceiving singles as studio product, I didn't bother with the
third great class: live performance documents.) So inadvertently
I bought into the notion that it's not a song unless it comes
packaged in a video.
I've also been invited to participate in El Intruso's 8th Creative
Music Critics Poll. I think it's based in Argentina, and the focus is
avant-jazz. About half of the 40+ critics are Americans I recognize.
Instructions call for no more than three answers in each category.
Most of those categories are instruments, which raises all sorts of
awkward problems -- it's hard enough to rank albums, but I don't
really believe in ranking people, so the names I jotted down below
are just ones I thought could use some extra recognition. Also note
that the instruments themselves weren't created equal: I could reel
off the names of twenty tenor saxophonists (and fifteen altoists)
before I could get to a third soprano or baritone. Also, while there
are quite a few good acoustic bassists who also play electric, I
hardly ever recognize them as such. Final point is I spent less than
half an hour doing this, mostly by looking back over last year's
notes file. Anyhow, this is what I sent in:
- Musician of the year: Allen Lowe
- Newcomer Musician: Tomeka Reid, Gard Nilssen, Katie Thiroux
- Group of the year: Old Time Musketry, The Kandinsky Effect, The Resonance Ensemble
- Newcomer group: Free Nelson Mandoomjazz
- Album of the year: Irene Schweizer/Han Bennink: Welcome Back (Intakt)
- Composer: Mike Reed
- Drums: Milford Graves, Gerry Hemingway, Michael Zerang
- Acoustic Bass: William Parker, Chris Lightcap, Ken Filiano
- Electric Bass: Nate McBride
- Guitar: Liberty Ellman, Samo Salamon, Mary Halvorson
- Piano: Irene Schweizer, Marilyn Crispell, Michael McNeill
- Keyboards/Synthesizer/Organ: Gary Versace
- Tenor Saxophone: Dave Rempis, Rich Halley, Rodrigo Amado
- Alto Saxophone: Francois Carrier, Rent Romus, John O'Gallagher
- Baritone Saxophone: Ken Vandermark
- Soprano Saxophone: Evan Parker
- Trumpet/Cornet: Taylor Ho Bynum, Amir ElSaffar, Kirk Knuffke
- Clarinet/bass clarinet: Michael Moore, Mort Weiss, Josh Sinton
- Trombone: Steve Swell, Joe Fiedler
- Flute: Nicole Mitchell
- Violin/Viola: Jason Kao Hwang
- Cello: Erik Friedlander, Fred Lonberg-Holm
- Vibraphone: Jason Adasiewicz, Joe Locke
- Electronics: Thomas Stronen
- Others instruments: Cooper-Moore
- Female Vocals: Sheila Jordan, Katie Bull
- Male Vocals: Freddy Cole
- Best Live Band: Mostly Other People Do the Killing
- Record Label: Clean Feed, Intakt, Pi
It would, I think, be more interesting if they did more of a record
poll, especially if the ballots could extend beyond a top ten.
Probably the first week ever where everything in the newly rated
list came from streaming. I did play several records in the new jazz
queue but didn't get around to writing them up. My first impression
is that Allen Lowe's In the Diaspora of the Diaspora would
have easily added up to an A- had he packed them into a box, but
releasing them individually is making me do more work. Steve Swell's
Hommage à Bartok is also certainly an A-, but he begged me
to write "more than your usual" and nothing slows me down like that.
Also spent a lot of time adding to the EOY List Aggregate files,
but have no time left to write about them. Maybe next week, or when
Pazz & Jop comes out (January 13). As of this moment I have 318
lists compiled, referencing 3126 albums. Still working on it, but
I have a pretty good idea how it all sorts out (Kendrick Lamar,
Sufjan Stevens, Courtney Barnett, Jamie XX, Father John Misty,
Tame Impala, Grimes, Julia Holter, Bjork, Sleater-Kinney, Vince
Staples, Kamasi Washington, Joanna Newsom, Oneohtrix Point Never;
4-5-6 are pretty close but fairly stable; 9-12 are even closer
and more volatile; 14 is gaining, but has too much ground to make
up to bump 13; the rest of the top-20 are Kurt Vile, Carly Jepsen,
Blur, Drake, Alabama Shakes, Viet Cong, and they're still likely
to change).
New records rated this week:
- Scott Amendola: Fade to Orange (2014 [2015], Sazi): [r]: B+(*)
- Lotte Anker: What River Is This (2012 [2014], ILK Music): [r]: B+(*)
- Car Seat Headrest: Teens of Style (2015, Matador): [r]: B
- Brian Charette/Will Bernard/Rudy Royston: Alphabet City (2014 [2015], Posi-Tone): [r]: B+(*)
- Chick Corea & Béla Fleck: Two (2015, Concord, 2CD): [r]: B
- Stanley Cowell: Juneteenth (2014 [2015], Vision Fugitive): [r]: B+(*)
- Crack Ignaz: Kirsch (2015, Melting Pot): [r]: B+(*)
- Adrian Cunningham: Ain't That Right! The Music of Neal Hefti (2015, Arbors): [r]: B+(**)
- Downtown Boys: Full Communism (2015, Don Giovanni): [r]: A-
- The Greg Foat Group: The Dancers at the Edge of Time (2015, Jazzman): [r]: B+(*)
- Future: 56 Nights (2015, Freebandz, EP): [r]: B+(*)
- Have Moicy 2: The Hoodoo Bash (2015, Red Newt): [r]: A-
- Wayne Horvitz: Some Places Are Forever Afternoon (2015, Songlines): [r]: B+(***)
- Jenny Hval: Apocalypse, Girl (2015, Sacred Bones): [r]: B+(*)
- I Love Makonnen: I Love Makonnen 2 (2015, OVO Sound, EP): [r]: B+(*)
- The Internet: Ego Death (2015, Odd Future/Columbia): [r]: B+(**)
- Becky Kilgore/Nicki Parrott: Two Songbirds of a Feather (2015, Arbors): [r]: B+(***)
- Julian Lage: World's Fair (2014 [2015], Modern Lore): [r]: B+(*)
- !Mayday!: Future/Vintage (2015, Strange Music): [r]: A-
- Mika: No Place in Heaven (2015, Casablanca): [r]: B+(**)
- Pusha T: King Push Darkest Before Dawn: The Prelude (2015, Def Jam): [r]: B+(***)
- Randy Rogers & Wade Bowen: Hold My Beer, Vol. 1 (2015, Lil' Buddy Toons): [r]: B+(***)
- Todd Rundgren/Emil Nikolaisen/Hans-Peter Lindstrøm: Runddans (2015, Smalltown Supersound): [r]: B-
- John Scofield: Past Present (2015, Impulse!): [r]: B+(***)
- Christian Scott: Stretch Music (2015, Ropeadope): [r]: B+(*)
- Sophie: Product (2013-15 [2015], Numbers, EP): [r]: B+(**)
- Wolf Alice: My Love Is Cool (2015, Dirty Hit/RCA): [r]: B+(*)
Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries rated this week:
- Kenny Knight: Crossroads (1980 [2015], Paradise of Bachelors): [r]: B+(***)
- Sherwood at the Controls, Volume 1: 1979-1984 (1979-84 [2015], On-U Sound): [r]: B+(**)
Grade changes:
- Leonard Cohen: Can't Forget: A Souvenir of the Grand Tour (2012-13 [2015], Columbia): [r]: [was B+(***)]: A-
- Future: DS2 (2015, Epic): [r]: [was B+(***)]: A-
- Grimes: Art Angels (2015, 4AD): [r]: [was B+(**)]: A-
Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:
- Ross Hammond and Sameer Gupta: Upward (Prescott): advance, March
- Mike Sopko/Simon Lott: The Golden Measure (self-released): advance, March 25
Ask a question, or send a comment.
Monday, December 21, 2015
Music Week
Music: Current count 25987 [25944] rated (+43), 394 [381] unrated (+13).
The Tenth Annual Jazz Critics Poll, which Francis Davis started
at the Village Voice, then after the Voice tanked kept going first
at Rhapsody and now at NPR, appeared today. In 2009 Voice Music
Editor Rob Harvilla asked me to compile and host all of the critic
ballots, and I've continued doing so through all of the subsequent
gyrations. Deadline for the ballots was last Sunday, and Davis
forwarded them to me on Tuesday or Wednesday, but I putzed around
and didn't start on them until Saturday. That wiped out my weekend
and, well, today, and I still have work to do. Among other things,
I figured out a system for double checking the collated ballots
against Francis' tabulations. When I first got all of the data
plugged in, my diff-checker spit out 480 lines of discrepancies --
roughly 120 of about 650 albums that received votes. Since then,
one of the main things I've been doing has been to whittle down
that discrepancy list. As I write this, I have it down to five
more records that I have to check. It's fair to say that about
half of those have been errors in Francis' original tabulation,
and half were problems I introduced during data entry.
A second category of changes has to do with a sort of canonic
representation of artist/title/label names. Francis doesn't like
spurious group names attached to artist names so, say, The Gabriel
Alegria Afro-Peruvian Sextet becomes Gabriel Alegria, Steve Coleman
and the Council of Balance is Steve Coleman, and Satoko Fujii Tobira
is just Satoko Fujii. He also doesn't like slashes for multiple
artists -- says they mean either/or -- so two artists use &
and three or more use dashes, even when the album itself uses
slashes (although more likely they just use space). Part of the
reason is no doubt practical: when 147 meticulous critics and
supposedly literate writers jot down lists, the sheer quantity
of variations they come up with is mind-boggling. Still, several
of these canonicalizations are arguable, and some are far from
clear. At some point in the ballot collating process I get to
comparing the data hacked according to his rules with a similar
set of data I've been accumulating (with different rules) all
year long. Unfortunately, that point is still in the future --
probably when I get around to feeding a fair amount of ballot
data into my own
EOY List Aggregate
file (which, by the way, has significantly less jazz data
now than it
has in recent years, mostly because so few jazz critics have
been using the
JJA website to post their lists/ballots). Still, if I had
some magical way to filter out the non-majority-jazz lists, my
data would have reasonably well anticipated the JCP results.
(Kamasi Washington and Matana Roberts would have lost most, but
far from all, of their support, and Colin Stetson would have
lost everything -- curiously enough Stetson's is my favorite
of those three.) The main blip I see is that Jack DeJohnette
ran much better in JCP, while Vijay Iyer (and JD Allen) ran a
bit better in my sparser data. (I haven't weighed my own grades
into my data yet, so that isn't a factor.)
There are two main pages at NPR to look at:
The 2015 NPR Music Jazz Critics Poll, where Francis Davis presents
a list of the top sixty finishers, with paragraph write-ups on the top
ten finishers. (Davis voted for six of the ten -- Rudresh Mahanthappa,
Maria Schneider, Jack DeJohnette, Vijay Iyer, Henry Threadgill, and
Mary Halvorson -- and had one more (Steve Coleman) in his HM list
(leaving Kamasi Washington, Charles Lloyd, and Chris Lightcap -- only
Washington gets much of a critique).
Close Enough for Jazz: How the 2015 NPR Jazz Critics Poll Was Fit to
Be Tied: Francis Davis' annual essay on the poll -- the title refers
to the effective tie between Mahanthappa and Schneider (same point total,
but Mahanthappa on four more ballots -- still the official tie-breaker
in my own
tabulation) --
plus Davis' own ballot including an Honorable Mention list.
Much more data is available at
my site, including
complete totals for all five categories (new, reissue/historical,
vocal, debut, Latin jazz) and complete ballots for all of the 147
participating
critics.
This site isn't built on a full-fledged database, but the data is
internally tabled up in such a way that one need only write a little
more software to organize it like, say, the Village Voice's Pazz
& Jop section: one would need a script to list out all of the
critics who voted for any given album, and another to fetch the
ballot for any single critic -- plus a lot of extra links in each
file, and some CSS to present those links. I actually wrote the
second script in a couple hours last year, so critics could link
to their own ballots (mine is
here) without confusing the issue by picking up
other critics' ballots. Unfortunately, I only think about writing
things like this when I'm up to my ears facing an annual deadline,
stuck with more pressing things to do.
I don't have time to comment on the results, other than to
make the obvious point that I'm not much of a fan of either of
the winning records (although it's been quite some time since
I played either; I have them at low- and middle-B+ grades).
I've liked Mahanthappa's work much more in the past, but don't
get (or find interesting) his postbop take on Charlie Parker
(my issue is definitely not that I find the record too bebop-y).
And while I enjoyed Schneider's new album more than her previous
much-hyped work, her ornate expressionism has scant appeal for
me. I'm not real disappointed to see these two records doing so
well: I figure they're just different strokes for different
folks, especially ones grounded in classical but open to the
greater vitality of postmodern jazz. (I, on the other hand, have
always detested classical music, and look to jazz that builds on
the rowdy subversion I first found in rock and roll.)
The next two finishers don't do much for me either. For Jack
DeJohnette, the problem is (most likely) purely business. Since
ECM stopped servicing me with actual product, I've had to make do
with time-limited download links I often don't get to in time, and
I missed the DeJohnette link -- and didn't get a second chance,
despite several requests. So I simply haven't heard a record that
looks great on paper and has a terrific reputation. Then there's
the matter of Kamasi Washington: again I didn't get a copy -- a
real practical problem for something that fills up three CDs --
again despite a further request. However, I was able to hear it
on Rhapsody, and recently gave it a second complete spin. I do
like him as a saxophonist, and the '70s-throwback-vibe that Davis
complains about is one of my favorite jazz era-niches, but I don't
get off on the electro-flavored choral goop that fills most of
the first two discs. (Complicit in all of this is Steve Ellson,
aka Flying Lotus, whose own work leaves me cold.)
In the end, I only had two of the top 10 albums on my
A-list (with
this week's bonanza 71 albums deep -- Threadgill and Lightcap
were also on my ballot). Add one more for 11-20 (Ryan Truesdell),
a clump of five in 21-30 (Mike Reed, Matthew Shipp, Amir ElSaffar,
Liberty Ellman, Nicole Mitchell). Three for 31-40 (Irène Schweizer,
MOPDtK, Barry Altschul). Two in 41-50 (Noah Preminger, Tomeka Reid).
Four more for 51-60 (Erik Friedlander, James Brandon Lewis, Gary
McFarland Legacy Ensemble, Joe Lovano). It thins out further from
there, mostly because the number of records I haven't heard grows.
For instance, only six more from 61-100 (Ochion Jewell, Milford
Graves, Alex von Schlippenbach, William Parker, Satoko Fujii,
Michael Blake -- Steve Swell's record just came in the mail).
Only seven from 101-200 (Josh Berman, Charles McPherson, Nate
Wooley, Ray Anderson, Tomas Fujiwara, Rich Halley, Chico Freeman).
No doubt I'll find more good records by sniffing around the
ballots -- actually, more so than by looking at the totals.
While working on the ballots, I spent my time streaming items
I found there, and indeed came up with two A- records this week
(Ray Anderson and Tomeka Reid; the Bobby Bradford/John Carter
archival release was already in my CD queue, as were voteless
discs by François Carrier and and Andrew Jamieson; Daniel
Rosenboom also got no votes, but was recommended in another
EOY list somewhere; same for Max Richter, which I gather is
classical music, but it sure fooled me).
New records rated this week:
- Ray Anderson's Organic Quartet: Being the Point (2015, Intuition): [r]: A-
- Blanck Mass: Dumb Flesh (2015, Sacred Bones): [r]: B+(***)
- Samuel Blaser: Spring Rain (2014-15 [2015], Whirlwind): [r]: B+(**)
- Cam: Welcome to Cam Country (2015, Arista Nashville, EP): [r]: B
- Cam: Untamed (2015, Arista Nashville): [r]: B+(**)
- François Carrier/Steve Beresford/John Edwards/Michel Lambert: Outgoing (2014 [2015], FMR): [cd]: A-
- Container: LP (2015, Spectrum Spools): [r]: B+(**)
- Dungen: Allas Sak (2015, Mexican Summer): [r]: B
- Duane Eubanks Quintet: Things of That Particular Nature (2014 [2015], Sunnyside): [r]: B+(**)
- Nils Frahm: Solo (2015, Erased Tapes): [r]: B+(**)
- Paul Heaton & Jacqui Abbott: Wisdom, Laughter and Lines (Virgin EMI): [r]: B+(***)
- John Hébert: Rambling Confessions (2011 [2015], Sunnyside): [r]: B+(*)
- Andrew Jamieson: Heard the Voice (2015, Edgetone): [cd]: A-
- Jlin: Dark Energy (2015, Planet Mu): [r]: B+(***)
- Kanaku y El Tigre: Quema Quema Quema (2015, Strut/Tigers Milk): [r]: B+(*)
- Kelela: Hallucinogen (2015, Warp/Cherry Coffee, EP): [r]: B+(*)
- Kneebody + Daedelus: Keedelus (2015, Brainfeeder): [r]: B+(***)
- Jeffrey Lewis: Jeffrey Lewis & the Jrams (2014, self-released): [bc]: B+(***)
- Lifted: 1 (2015, PAN): [r]: B+(***)
- Amy London/Darmon Meader/Dylan Pramuk/Holli Ross: Royal Bopsters Project (2015, Motéma): [r]: B
- Lionel Loueke: Gaia (2015, Blue Note): [r]: B+(**)
- Møster!: When You Cut Into the Present (2015, Hubro): [r]: B+(***)
- The Necks: Vertigo (2015, Northern Spy): [r]: B+(*)
- Neon Indian: Vega Intl. Night School (2015, Mom + Pop Music): [r]: B+(*)
- Noertker's Moxie: Simultaneous Windows (2015, Edgetone): [cd]: B+(**)
- Larry Novak: Invitation (2014 [2015], Delmark): [cd]: B+(***)
- The Nu Band: The Cosmological Constant (2014 [2015], Not Two): [r]: B+(**)
- Evan Parker/Peter Jacquemyn: Marsyas Suite (2012 [2015], El Negocito): [r]: B+(***)
- John Patitucci Electric Guitar Quartet: Brooklyn (2015, Three Faces): [r]: B
- Bucky Pizzarelli: Renaissance: A Journey From Classical to Jazz (2015, Arbors): [r]: B
- Tomeka Reid: Tomeka Reid Quartet (2015, Thirsty Ear): [r]: A-
- RJD2/STS: STS X RJD2 (2015, RJ's Electrical Connections): [r]: B+(***)
- Daniel Rosenboom: Astral Transference & Seven Dreams (2014 [2015], Orenda, 2CD): [r]: A-
- Alejandro Sanz: Sirope (2015, Universal): [r]: B+(*)
- Dexter Story: Wondem (2015, Soundway): [r]: B+(*)
- They Might Be Giants: Glean (2015, Idlewild): [r]: B+(*)
- The Thing: Shake (2015, Thing): [r]: B+(***)
- Samba Touré: Gandadiko (2015, Glitterbeat): [r]: B+(***)
- Kenny Werner: The Melody (2014 [2015], Pirouet): [r]: B+(**)
- Barrence Whitfield & the Savages: Under the Savage Sky (2015, Bloodshot): [r]: B+(*)
- Nate Wooley/Ken Vandermark: East by Northwest (2013 [2015], Audiographic): [bc]: B+(**)
Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries rated this week:
- Bobby Bradford & John Carter Quintet: No U Turn: Live in Pasadena 1975 (1975 [2015], Dark Tree): [cd]: A-
- Billie Holiday: Banned From New York City: Live 1948-1957 (1948-57 [2015], Uptown, 2CD): [r]: B+(***)
- Sun Ra and His Arkestra: To Those of Earth . . . and Other Worlds (1956-83 [2015], Strut, 2CD): [r]: B+(***)
Old music rated this week:
- They Might Be Giants: Long Tall Weekend (1999, Idlewild): [r]: B+(***)
Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:
- Brian Andres and the Afro-Cuban Jazz Cartel: This Could Be That (Bacalao): January 15
- Peter Brötzmann/Steve Swell/Paal Nilssen-Love: Krakow Nights (Not Two)
- Mary Foster Conklin: Photographs (MockTurtle Music): February 2
- Ryan Keberle & Catharsis: Azui Infinito (Greenleaf Music): March 4
- Aly Keïta/Jan Galega Brönnimann/Lucas Niggli: Kalo-Yele (Intakt): advance, January
- Allen Lowe: In the Diaspora of the Diaspora: Where a Cigarette Is Smoked by Ten Men (Constant Sorrow)
- Allen Lowe: In the Diaspora of the Diaspora: We Will Gather When We GAther (Constant Sorrow)
- Allen Lowe/Matthew Shipp/Kevin Ray/Jake Millett: In the Diaspora of the Diaspora: Ballad for Albert (Constant Sorrow)
- Allen Lowe: In the Diaspora of the Diaspora: Man With Guitar: Where's Robert Johnson? (Constant Sorrow)
- Aruán Ortiz Trio: Hidden Voices (Intakt): advance, January
- Matthew Shipp: Matthew Shipp Plays the Music of Allen Lowe (Constant Sorrow)
- Steve Swell: Kanreki: Reflection & Renewal (Not Two, 2CD)
- Steve Swell's Kende Dreams: Hommage à Bartok (Silkheart)
- Steve Swell: The Loneliness of the Long Distasnce Improviser (Swell)
- Lew Tabackin Trio: Soundscapes (self-released): February 5
Ask a question, or send a comment.
Monday, December 14, 2015
Music Week
Music: Current count 25944 [25911] rated (+33), 381 [383] unrated (-2).
Didn't bother with a Weekend Roundup yesterday. I figure there will
be plenty of opportunities in the future, and had something better --
at least more constructive -- to do. When we lived in Boston, we used
to be regularly invited to Hannukah parties, which aside from anecdotes
that were more historical than religious was mostly an excuse to pig
out on latkes -- fried potato pancakes. Since then I've learned to fry
up my own latkes, and we throw a nice little dinner party every year
sometime around the holiday, and last night was this year's occasion.
The latkes are pretty straightforward, although my recipe has strayed
from the one I reference in Claudia Roden's The Book of Jewish Food.
What I did last night was:
- Peeled and soaked five russet potatoes.
- Peeled and chopped two yellow onions. Put them in a large bowl.
- Added five eggs, some salt and pepper to the onions.
- Dried the potatoes and ran them through the coarse shred food processor
disc, then chopped them up further with the blade. Folded the potatoes into
the bowl, and added a little more pepper.
- Fired up two frying pans. Added vegetable oil (safflower) a little
less than 1/4 inch deep. I have a large salad spoon which is about right
to scoop up about 3 tbs. of potato-onion-egg mixture. I could put four
scoops in a frying pan at a time, flattening them into four pancakes.
When they're good and brown around the edges, flip them over. When done
I put them on a platter lined with paper towels. I meant to keep them
in a warming oven but ultimately didn't bother.
- Repeat until done.
I suspect you can get away with four (instead of five) eggs (Roden's
recipe calls for one, and makes onions optional). The mix did get to
be a little soupy toward the end. I don't use any flour to bindn the
latkes together (matzo meal is traditional; potato starch is gluten-free
and probably better), but the extra egg works fine. In past dinners
I served the latkes hot out of the pan, which is nice for the guests
but means the dinner is done before the cook can sit down. Also, I like
to make some side dishes, which start out on the table and tend to get
eaten while the guests are waiting for latkes.
Latkes are traditionally served with sour cream and applesauce. I
bought sour cream and served it in several dishes. I made applesauce,
improvising on Roden's recipe:
- Bought two Braeburn and two Red Delicious apples. Quartered, peeled,
and cored them. Put them in a sauce pan, with one tsp. water and the
juice from one small lemon. Covered and steamed them until they could
be broken up easily.
- Crushed them with a potato masher. Added 2 tbs. light brown sugar,
and a generous 1/2 tsp. of that really nice Vietnamese Cinnamon I get
from Penzey's.
My favorite way to eat latkes is with sour cream and a slice of cured
salmon. For the latter, I bought a pound of Scottish salmon cut from the
tail. Following Roden's recipe, I packed the salmon with 1.5 tbs. kosher
salt in a freezer bag, and stored it in the refrigerator for 12 hours
(actually, a little longer). Take it from the bag, rinse it off, and
test it for saltiness. If it's too salty, you can soak it in cold water
for as long as it takes. Slice and serve.
That's all it really takes, but over the years I've added some side
dishes. I usually serve some herring -- alas, from the Nathan's jars,
as it's been a long time since I've been able to buy matjes or schmaltz
herring locally -- and chopped liver (I used to use Roden's recipe, but
now prefer Ottolenghi's Jerusalem). For yesterday's menu I got
carried away and added some vegetable salads/spreads:
- I had an eggplant and red bell pepper left over and some very ripe
homegrown tomatoes someone had given me, so tried a variation on the
Odessa Eggplant Caviar recipe in Anya Von Bremzen's Russian cookbook,
Please to the Table. Main difference was that I roasted the
onion and garlic along with everything else.
- Von Bremzen also had a Mushroom Caviar recipe I was intrigued by,
and I found a package of "wild mushrooms" on sale, to which I added
some baby portabellas. I could have passed the result off as chopped
liver.
- I made Von Bremzen's marvelous potato salad, with smoked salmon,
olives, capers, chopped red onion, dill, and vinaigrette.
- I also had a couple of cucumbers that needed to be used, and
most of a package of plain yogurt, so mixed up Von Bremzen's version
of cacik -- yogurt with garlic, mint, and a little olive oil.
- I figured the spreads, especially the chopped liver, needed
something more substantial to top than the latkes, so halved Roden's
recipe and baked a loaf of rye bread.
Most of the spreads were made the night before -- the eggplant,
etc. were roasted the night before that -- so the actual cooking
on Sunday was fairly light, and actually relaxing in that I let it
displace everything else I usually do -- Weekend Roundup, a day
and a half of rating records. Rated count this week is still quite
respectable, and you'll find a very wide range of interesting music
listed below. I also reduced the 2015 jazz queue to virtually nothing
(just that cassette; even nabbed four Xmas albums below, only one
even marginally recommended), although incoming mail has since added
a few stragglers -- a critic's work is never done.
Most of the non-jazz records below were found on EOY lists, although
few of them panned out. However, the best stuff continues to come from
trusted critics: two string band obscurities recommended by Robert
Christgau (Have Moicy 2 continues to elude me), a drag queen
thing Lucas Fagen likes, a mixtape Jason Gubbels praised in Spin.
I toyed with picking on Peter Gabriel over the Youssou N'Dour concert,
but in the end decided I'd rather be grateful. The Sharrock reissue
is an upgrade from my original B+. I can't argue that the new album is
any better (although I do prefer the new cover), but I played it many
times while cooking, enough to appreciate some of the nuances in the
drums and sax. Or maybe I just appreciate getting a physical copy?
That doesn't happen often with reissues.
I got delayed in posting this as I was trying to bring the EOY
aggregate files up to date -- even thinking I'd comment on them a
bit. I currently have 162 lists counted (see
legend). You can look at
the current state of the
New Music and
Old Music lists.
I will briefly note that the top three albums (Kendrick Lamar,
Sufjan Stevens, Courtney Barnett) seem secure and unlikely to
change. The next three are very close together (Jamie XX, Tame
Impala, Father John Misty). After Julia Holter, three albums
have nudged their way into the top ten (Björk, Grimes, Vince
Staples), displacing Kamasi Washington and Sleater Kinney (I
think Björk was previously 10th).
In the next ten, the top gainers are Oneohtrix Point Never
(16), Blue (17), and Carly Jepsen (18) -- up from 22, 30, and
20 last week. Very few new jazz lists this week, so the top
jazz records have dropped relative to everyone else. Francis
Davis' Jazz Critics Poll results are due to be published Dec.
21, so I'll be able to add more then. The total number of new
albums so far is 1986. The Old Music list is much sparser, only
171 deep at present, with a tie between Legacy's Miles Davis
and Bob Dylan Bootleg Series entries.
One note I might as well mention here. This was originally written
a few days ago as a comment to a Facebook post by a Witness bemoaning
that he had looked through three EOY lists (Rolling Stone, Spin, and
Paste) and hadn't seen any mention of Ezra Furman, Heems, or Paris.
However, for some reason (maybe tardiness) the comment bounced, so I
thought I'd make it public here:
Main reason I'm replying is to point that that Ezra Furman has
done respectably well on many UK lists (4: Rough Trade; 5: God Is in
the TV; 25: Guardian, Resident Music; 30: Q; 31: Mojo; 43: Uncut; 47:
Louder Than War; unranked: Line of Best Fit); on the other hand, I
only count two US lists (24: Loud & Quiet; 34: LA Music Blog). Heems
only has one general list (63: PopMatters; actually, I also counted
him on Phil Overeem's list), although he shows up on a couple of
hip-hop sidelists (AMG, Quietus). Paris hasn't appeared on any list
anywhere (i.e., less than the 1804 records I've counted so far). Paris
is one of 9 Christgau A-list albums on no lists so far (Bottle
Rockets, Leonard Cohen, Amy LaVere, Nellie McKay, Ragpicker String
Band, Slutever, Tinariwen, Have Moicy 2 -- or 12 if we ignore
Overeem's sole mention of John Kruth, Paranoid Style, and Mark
Rubin).
One more bit of news is that I've actually frozen the December Rhapsody
Streamnotes file. I'll try to get it indexed and posted tomorrow -- the
way things have been going, probably late evening.
New records rated this week:
- Alaska Thunderfuck: Anus (2015, Sidecar): [r]: A-
- Asylum Street Spankers: The Last Laugh (2014, Yellow Dog): [r]: A-
- Erykah Badu: But You Caint Use My Phone (2015, Control Freaq): [r]: A-
- Ann Hampton Callaway: The Hope of Christmas (2015, MCG Jazz): [cd]: B-
- Chaise Lounge: A Very Chaise Lounge Christmas (2015, Modern Songbook): [cd]: B+(*)
- Childbirth: Women's Rights (2015, Suicide Squeeze): [r]: B+(***)
- The Claudettes: No Hotel (2015, Yellow Dog): [r]: B
- Ghostface Killah/Adrian Younge: Twelve Reasons to Die II (2015, Linear Labs): [r]: B+(**)
- Clark Gibson + Orchestra: Bird With Strings: The Lost Arrangements (2015, BluJazz): [cd]: B+(**)
- Girl Band: Holding Hands With Jamie (2015, Rough Trade): [r]: B+(**)
- Holychild: The Shape of Brat Pop to Come (2015, Glassnote): [r]: B+(**)
- Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis: Big Band Holidays (2012-14 [2015], Blue Engine): [cd]: C-
- Elle King: Love Stuff (2015, RCA): [r]: B+(*)
- Doug MacDonald: Solo Plus (2014 [2015], BluJazz): [cd]: B+(*)
- Melanie Martinez: Cry Baby (2015, Atlantic): [r]: B+(***)
- Danny Mixon: Pass It On (2015, self-released): [cd]: B+(**)
- Gunnar Mossblad & Cross Currents: R.S.V.P. (2015, Summit): [cd]: B+(**)
- The Nightingales: Mind Over Matter (2015, Louder Than War): [r]: B+(*)
- Eric Olsen ReVision Quartet: Sea Changes (2014 [2015], BluJazz): [cd]: B+(*)
- Pittsburgh Jazz Orchestra: Joyful Jazz (2015, MCG Jazz): [cd]: C
- Rabit: Communion (2015, Tri Angle): [r]: B+(**)
- The Ragpicker String Band: The Ragpicker String Band (2015, Yellow Dog): [r]: A-
- Rocket From the Tombs: Black Record (2015, Fire): [r]: B+(*)
- Ben Stapp & the Zozimos: Myrrha's Red Book: Act 1 (2014 [2015], Evolver): [cd]: B
- Pat Thomas: Pat Thomas & Kwashibu Area Band (2015, Strut): [r]: B+(***)
- The Dan Trudell Trio: Dan Trudell Plays the Piano (2015, self-released): [cd]: B+(*)
- Waco Brothers: Cabaret Showtime (2015, Bloodshot): [r]: B+(**)
- Fetty Wap: Fetty Wap (2015, RGF 300/Atlantic): [r]: B-
- X__X: Albert Ayler's Ghosts Live at the Yellow Ghetto (Smog Veil, EP): [r]: B+(***)
Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries rated this week:
- Youssou N'Dour Et Le Super Etoile De Dakar: Fatteliku: Live in Athens (1987 [2015], Real World): [r]: A-
- Ork Records: New York, New York (1975-79 [2015], Numero Group, 2CD): [r]: B+(***)
- Sonny Sharrock: Ask the Ages (1991 [2015], MOD Technologies): [cd]: A-
Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:
- Bobby Bradford & John Carter Quintet: No U Turn: Live in Pasadena 1975 (Dark Tree)
- Cécile & Jean-Luc Cappozzo: Soul Eyes (Fou)
- François Carrier/Steve Beresford/John Edwards/Michel Lambert: Outgoing (FMR)
- Robin Eubanks Mass Line Big Band: More Than Meets the Ear (ArtistShare)
- Jean-Marc Foussat & Jean-Luc Petit: . . . D'Où Vient La Lumière! (Fou)
- Bob Gluck/Billy Hart/Eddie Henderson/Christopher Dean Sullivan: Infinite Spirit (FMR): February 1
- Gutbucket: Dance (Gut)
- Andrew Jamieson: Heard the Voice (Edgetone)
- Noertker's Moxie: Simultaneous Windows (Edgetone)
- Larry Novak: Invitation (Delmark)
- John Raymond: John Raymond & Real Feels (Shifting Paradigm)
- Deborah Schulman: My Heart's in the Wind (Summit): January 12
Ask a question, or send a comment.
Tuesday, December 8, 2015
Music Week
Music: Current count 25911 [25871] rated (+40), 383 [388] unrated (-5).
Running a day late here: internet went down ("for maintenance,"
says Cox) last night, which not only prevent posting, it also threw
a wrench into my writing. But also various distractions kept cropping
up, not least the fact that there's always something new to be added
to the
EOY Aggregate File.
Another big week, despite some down time, or perhaps I mean diverted
time. The deadline for the Jazz Critics Poll was Sunday, so the most
urgent thing I had to do was to straighten out a very unruly list of
sixty-plus poorly sorted A- new jazz albums. Almost as badly sorted
were my shelves, so while I replayed a few better-remembered candidates.
Ultimately I came up with something I'm reasonably pleased with, but
I don't have much confidence that the same list would have resulted
from extensive A:B comparison rounds.
It helped, somewhat perversely, to start toting up some EOY jazz
lists, especially those at
JJA. The net effect there was to reassure me that I couldn't do
worse. This has less to do with the ordinariness of the leaders --
Maria Schneider's The Thompson Fields, Vijay Iyer's Break
Stuff, Rudresh Mahanthappa's Bird Calls, Steve Coleman's
Synovial Joints, as well as Kamasi Washington's crossover hit
The Epic, all more-or-less B+ records -- than with the rather
frequent inclusion of more mediocre postbop fare.
I've managed to whittle my ungraded 2015 new jazz queue down to
10 titles (plus the non-jazz Kansas album): 4 of those arrived last
week, 3 are Xmas titles, 1 is a cassette I no longer have the means
to play. Even though the ballot is in, there will be more discoveries,
probably sooner rather than later. I just discovered this week that
AUM Fidelity -- a label I used to have such good relations with that
now I regard their lack of service as proof of my inability to keep
going -- has just released old music by David S. Ware (Birth of a
Being from 1977) and not-so-old music by William Parker (Great
Spirit from 2007). At least I found those two on Rhapsody -- their
other Parker set, the 3-CD box of For Those Who Are Still
(recorded 2011-13) doesn't seem to be on Rhapsody.
I found out about the AUM Fidelity releases from
Tim Niland's EOY list. He also voted for new records I haven't
heard by Paul Dunmall/Tony Bianco, The Thing, John Zorn, plus a Sonny
Rollins oldie. I rated 5 of his 7 other picks A-, so there's a good
chance the ones I haven't heard would rate well. In past years it
usually takes 1-3 days before I find another A- record, and 1-3 weeks
before I find a record that would have bumped the 10th pick on my
ballot off the list. That hasn't happened yet, but it's just a matter
of time.
Anyhow, here's my Jazz Critics Poll ballot:
10 best new releases:
- Irène Schweizer/Han Bennink: Welcome Back (Intakt)
- Henry Threadgill Zooid: In for a Penny, In for a Pound (Pi, 2CD)
- Schlippenbach Trio: Features (Intakt)
- Mike Reed's People Places & Things: A New Kind of Dance (482 Music)
- Joe Fiedler Trio: I'm In (Multiphonics Music)
- Chris Lightcap's Bigmouth: Epicenter (Clean Feed)
- Charles McPherson: The Journey (Capri)
- Rich Halley 4: Creating Structure (Pine Eagle)
- Rodrigo Amado: This Is Our Language (Not Two)
- Mort Weiss: Mort Weiss Is a Jazz Reality Show (SMS Jazz)
3 best reissues or historical albums:
- Anthony Braxton: Trio and Duet (1974, Delmark/Sackville)
- Wild Bill Davison: The Jazz Giants (1968, Delmark/Sackville)
- Willem Breuker Kollektief: Angoulême 18 Mai 1980 (Fou, 2CD)
Best vocal album:
- William Parker/Raining on the Moon: Great Spirit (AUM Fidelity)
Best debut album:
- Gard Nilssen's Acoustic Unity: Firehouse (Clean Feed)
Best Latin jazz album:
- Harry Allen's All-Star Brazilian Band: Flying Over Rio (Arbors)
I didn't have any A-list vocalist albums, but the William Parker album
is all songs with vocals, and Leena Conquest is terrific there. The Ernest
Dawkins album also has some vocals, and there may be a couple more marginal
cases (Rent Romus, Mort Weiss). HM vocal albums are not rare but tend to
be eccentric:
- Tony Adamo: Tony Adamo & the New York Crew (Urban Zone)
- Sarah Buechi: Shadow Garden (Intakt)
- The Katie Bull Group Project: All Hot Bodies Radiate (Ashokan Indie)
- Michael Dees: The Dream I Dreamed (Jazzed Media)
- Oleg Frish: Duets With My American Idols (Time Out Media)
- Heroes Are Gang Leaders: The Avant Age Garde I AMs of the Gal Luxury (Flat Langton's Arkeyes)
- Nancy Lane: Let Me Love You (self-released)
- Tiny People Having a Meeting (Fast Speaking Music)
- Bradley Williams: Investigation (21st Century Entertainment, 2CD)
- Mark Winkler: Jazz and Other Four Letter Words (Cafe Pacific)
I have the Gary McFarland Legacy Ensemble rated slightly above Gard
Nilssen, but I figured the latter was more in spirit with "debut album" --
a new performer as opposed to a new ad hoc group of veterans. I don't
do a good job of keeping track of debuts, although Introducing Katie
Thiroux is at least one more on the A-list.
I expect Kamasi Washington to easily win the debut category. I've
been impressed by his work elsewhere (Phil Ranelin, Gerald Wilson),
but didn't get enough out of streaming The Epic to dig further.
(I made a second pass after I wrote the above. No doubt Washington
can bust a solo, but I don't enjoy the choral settings, even though
not all were annoying. Also, the third disc starts real strong,
including an amusing take on "Cherokee." He's clearly capable of
more consistently elevated albums, but unless you put a lot of
weight on the grand gesture this isn't one.)
I almost picked Ivo Perelman's Callas for the "Latin jazz"
album, before I recalled Allen's superior album. Band is Brazilian,
and he's been working this vein for years. I've come up so lean in
this category before that I've picked other Perelman albums -- he
is Brazilian but plays avant-jazz. Indeed, I usually have a handful
of Spanish and Portuguese players I could fall back on, but always
seem to have trouble coming up with conventional clave-base picks.
The HM list does have two such picks:
- The Gabriel Alegria Afro-Peruvian Sextet: 10 (Zoho)
- Arturo O'Farrill & the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra: Cuba: The Conversation Continues (Motema Music, 2CD)
There's a lot of classic Latin jazz that I really like, so I'm always
a bit surprised that so few new records measure up. Makes it look like
I'm prejudiced against the stuff, but realistically, how much new hard
bop or soul jazz measures up either? I'm not an avant purist, but it
tends to dominate my list because it still offers surprises even if the
bleeding edge doesn't move much.
Nine A- records this week, but only releases this year, only five
new records, four picked up via Rhapsody. Could be that the agitprop
of Desaparecidos or the Bob Wills tribute just hit personal soft spots --
I'm certainly a sucker for the latter. The Chemical Brothers' best-of
has been on my search list for some time. It comes in two versions, so
I wound up grading it twice, but using only the 2-CD version cover.
Part of the George Lewis grade is sheer pleasant surprise: I've only
heard a handful of solo trombone records, usually avant but limited
by the instrument. The Getz and Ware reissues are every bit as good,
but I came up with quibbles. The problem with The Steamer is
that every other album by the Getz's coast quartet is better -- 1955's
West Coast Jazz especially. As for Ware, I was a bit exhausted
by the session's unrelenting fierceness.
I was steered toward Sons of Kemet by comments comparing it favorably
to Kamasi Washington's The Epic. Needless to say, I agree, but
I'd also say the same about the group's 2013 album, Burn. Among
the high HMs, the ones that came closest were the Fall and the Resonance
Ensemble: in both cases I settled for the lower grade rather than give
them an extra spin to see if they'd get better.
Overlap was one of three good records I picked up from the
Catalytic Sound
Bandcamp site. The two others are high HMs and might have been higher
had I not compared them against memories of previous similar projects.
Still more there I haven't gotten to -- especially several multi-disc
projects.
Good chance I'll post a Rhapsody Streamnotes column before the coming
week is out. Draft currently showing 120 records.
New records rated this week:
- Harry Allen: Something for Jobim (2015, Stunt): [r]: B+(***)
- Stephen Anderson/360° Jazz Initiative: Distracted Society (2015, Summit): [cd]: B+(**)
- Asleep at the Wheel: Still the King: Celebrating the Music of Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys (2015, Bismeaux): [r]: A-
- June Bisantz: It's Always You: June Bisantz Sings Chet Baker Vol. 2 (2015, self-released): [cd]: B+(*)
- Raoul Björkenheim Ecstasy: Out of the Blue (2014 [2015], Cuneiform): [dl]: B+(***)
- Bomba Estéreo: Amanecer (2015, Sony Music Latin): [r]: B+(***)
- Breakfast in Fur: Flyaway Garden (2015, Bar/None): [r]: B+(*)
- The Chemical Brothers: Born in the Echoes (2015, Virgin EMI): [r]: B+(**)
- Tom Collier: Across the Bridge (2015, Origin): [cd]: B+(*)
- Desaparecidos: Payola (2015, Saddle Creek): [r]: A-
- Drake/Future: What a Time to Be Alive (2015, Cash Money): [r]: B+(*)
- Joe Ely: Panhandle Rambler (2015, Rack 'Em): [r]: B+(**)
- The Fall: Sub-Lingual Tablet (2015, Cherry Red): [r]: B+(***)
- Lorraine Feather: Flirting With Disaster (Jazzed Media): [r]: B
- Föllakzoid: III (2015, Sacred Bones): [r]: B+(**)
- Erik Friedlander: Oscalypso: Tribute to Oscar Pettiford (2015, Skipstone): [cd]: A-
- GLOSS: Demo (2015, self-released, EP): [bc]: B+(***)
- Heroes Are Gang Leaders: The Avant Age Garde I AMs of the Gal Luxury (2015, Flat Langton's Arkeyes): [cd]: B+(***)
- Kammerflimmer Kollektief: Désarroi (2015, Staubgold): [r]: B+(***)
- Ernie Krivda: Requiem for a Jazz Lady (2014 [2015], Capri): [cd]: B+(***)
- Mundell Lowe/Lloyd Wells/Jim Ferguson: Poor Butterfly (2015, Two Helpins' of Collards): [cd]: B+(*)
- Tobias Meinhart: Natural Perception (2015, Enja/Yellowbird): [cd]: B+(**)
- Arturo O'Farrill & the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra: Cuba: The Conversation Continues (2014 [2015], Motema Music, 2CD): [r]: B+(***)
- Oneohtrix Point Never: Garden of Delete (2015, Warp): [r]: B+(**)
- William Parker/Raining on the Moon: Great Spirit (2007 [2015], AUM Fidelity): [r]: A-
- Parquet Courts: Monastic Living (2015, Rough Trade, EP): [r]: B+(**)
- Fred Randolph: Song Without Singing (2015, Creative Spirit): [r]: B+(*)
- The Resonance Ensemble: Double Arc (2013 [2015], Not Two): [bc]: B+(***)
- Charles Rumback: In the New Year (2015, Ears & Eyes): [cd]: B+(***)
- Richard Sears Trio: Skyline (2014 [2015], Fresh Sound New Talent): [cd]: B+(***)
- Sons of Kemet: Lest We Forget What We Came Here to Do (2015, Naim Jazz): [r]: A-
- Nora Jane Struthers & the Party Line: Wake (2015, Blue Pig Music): [r]: B
- Curt Sydnor: Materials and Their Destiny (2015, Ears & Eyes): [cd]: B+(**)
- Tin/Bag: The Stars Would Be Different (2013 [2015], Epigraph, EP): [bc]: B
- Tiny People Having a Meeting (2015, Fast Speaking Music): [cd]: B+(***)
- Titus Andronicus: The Most Lamentable Tragedy (2015, Merge): [r]: B+(*)
- Ken Vandermark/Paal Nilssen-Love: The Lions Have Eaten One of the Guards (2013 [2015], Audiographic): [bc]: B+(***)
Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries rated this week:
- The Stan Getz Quartet: The Steamer (1956 [2015], Classic Standard): [r]: B+(***)
- George Lewis: The George Lewis Solo Trombone Album (1976 [2015], Delmark/Sackville): [cd]: A-
- David S. Ware/Apogee: Birth of a Being (1977 [2015], AUM Fidelity, 2CD): B+(***)
Old music rated this week:
- The Chemical Brothers: Brotherhood (1995-2008 [2008], Virgin): [r]: A-
- The Chemical Brothers: Brotherhood + Electronic Battle Weapons (1995-2008 [2008], Virgin, 2CD): [r]: A-
Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:
- Bill Frisell: When You Wish Upon a Star (Okeh): advance, January 29
- Clark Gibson + Orchestra: Bird With Strings: The Lost Arrangements (BluJazz)
- Doug MacDonald: Solo Plus (BluJazz)
- Eric Olsen ReVision Quartet: Sea Changes (BluJazz)
- Ben Stapp & the Zozimos: Myrrha's Red Book: Act II (Evolver)
Ask a question, or send a comment.
Monday, November 30, 2015
Music Week
Music: Current count 25871 [25829] rated (+42), 388 [399] unrated (-11).
We've had a very pleasant autumn here in Wichita, but the weatherfolk
forecast a turn toward miserable for Thanksgiving through the weekend.
Objectively I doubt it ever got that bad, at least here. A cold front
went stationary along a diagonal which probably extended from Amarillo
to Chicago, but which cut across Kansas just north of Wichita. Along
this front, wave after wave of rain/sleet/snow-storms slid northeast.
In northwest Kansas this was the fourth blizzard of November, although
in Wichita we never saw more than an isolated flurry. North and west
of Wichita, the rain froze into a thick coat of ice on everything, and
there were reports of power outtages in Hutchinson. In Wichita all I
noticed was rain, which froze overnight, making driving and walking
treacherous. Our solution for that was to stay hunkered down in a warm
house. I like to cook when it's miserable out, so made cacciatore on
Friday, and braised some pork ribs with garlic-ginger-scallions and
fermented black beans on Sunday.
On Thanksgiving we did go out, to a hotel buffet with some friends.
Although I've rarely cooked on Thanksgiving, that was the first time
we ever took that option. The meal was fairly good as I skipped past
the usual fare and found other things more to my taste -- a very moist
baked salmon, a nice succotash, some salads, a slice of ham. But the
desserts were mediocre: I sampled the pecan pie and carrot cake, and
watched others leave half-picked-over slices of cheesecake. I thought
I could have done better on each of those, and for that matter on the
bread pudding which no one even bothered to taste. Wasn't overfilling,
and we weren't stuck with any leftovers, so those are pluses.
Should warm up a bit over the next few days, not that there is
anything here to melt, but we should be able to get out and around.
Experienced another earthquake last night, just before I went to
bed. It measured
4.7, located just over the Oklahoma border northwest of Enid.
Heard the house groan, then watched various things sway back and
forth for 20-30 seconds. I thought I felt a couple of smaller quakes
after I went to bed, but I don't seen them in the USGS log: there
was a 3.0 near Edmond 2 hours later, and since then a 3.1 and a
2.7 west of Perry and a 3.2 east of Cherokee, all in Oklahoma and
unlikely to be felt here. That's quite a bit of seismic activity
for one day. Idaho, Wyoming, and Washington had one quake each in
that period (2.6, 3.4, and 3.0 respectively). Puerto Rico had two.
California none, although they had a 2.6 at Gilroy the day before.
Earthquakes in Kansas and Oklahoma were unheard of as recently as
five year ago. They are clearly caused by injection wells, which
are drilled in declining oil fields to dispose of the large amount
of water that is being pumped up along with the last drops of oil.
I think the largest earthquake to date in Oklahoma was a 5.7 --
big enough to do some actual damage (where last night's earthquake
was merely creepy).
Pushed quite a few records through the mill last week. Eleven came
from my new jazz queue, but those were the most promising 2015 releases
there. I also picked up two Mali groups and Craig Finn from Christgau's
Expert Witness, and tried out a few Black Friday Special nominees from
correspondents. Most other records popped up in EOY lists: John Moreland
was in the top ten at American Songwriter; Flako topped the list
at Bleep; Gwenno and Ryley Walker were on several lists (and Kurt Vile
and Unknown Mortal Orchestra were on way too many lists).
Still too early to say much about EOY lists, but here's the top 20
in my
EOY Aggregate File:
- Sufjan Stevens: Carrie & Lowell (Asthmatic Kitty) {56}
- Kendrick Lamar: To Pimp a Butterfly (Top Dawg/Aftermath/Interscope) {55}
- Julia Holter: Have You in My Wilderness (Domino) {50}
- Courtney Barnett: Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit (Mom + Pop Music) {46}
- Tame Impala: Currents (Caroline) {37}
- Father John Misty: I Love You, Honeybear (Sub Pop) {35}
- Jamie XX: In Colour (XL/Young Turks) {34}
- Kamasi Washington: The Epic (Brainfeeder) {31}
- Bjork: Vulnicura (One Little Indian) {25}
- Joanna Newsom: Divers (Drag City) {24}
- Sleaford Mods: Key Markets (Harbinger Sound) {23}
- Kurt Vile: B'lieve I'm Goin Down (Matador) {23}
- Ryley Walker: Primrose Green (Dead Oceans) {22}
- Unknown Mortal Orchestra: Multi-Love (Jagjaguwar) {21}
- Sleater-Kinney: No Cities to Love (Sub Pop) {20}
- New Order: Music Complete (Mute) {17}
- Alabama Shakes: Sound & Color (ATO) {16}
- Natalie Prass: Natalie Prass (Sony) {16}
- Deerhunter: Fading Frontier (4AD) {15}
- Jim O'Rourke: Simple Songs (Drag City) {15}
Stevens is up from 3rd last week, and Lamar is up from 5th. I still
expect Lamar to pull away. I've factored in a couple long lists from
user-rating sites (Rate Your Music, Sputnik Music), although I don't
think they have had much impact. No jazz lists yet: the British mag
Jazzwise has published a list of 20 albums (I think) but all
I have seen is the top three, and I decided that's not enough to count.
Some lists come out in sections. I should be patient, but in one case
I've already counted [21-40], while waiting for the top 20.
Would have more, and more comments, but it's gotten late.
New records rated this week:
- Juhani Aaltonen & Iro Haarla: Kirkastus (2013 [2015], TUM): [cd]: B+(***)
- Algiers: Algiers (2015, Matador): [r]: B
- Justin Bieber: Purpose (2015, Def Jam): [r]: B
- Big K.R.I.T.: It's Better This Way (2015, self-released): [r]: B+(*)
- Boytoy: Grackle (2015, Papercup Music): [r]: B+(***)
- Geof Bradfield Quintet: Our Roots (2014 [2015], Origin): [cd]: B+(**)
- Gaz Coombes: Matador (2015, Hot Fruit): [r]: B+(*)
- Bram De Looze: Septych (2014 [2015], Clean Feed): [cd]: B+(**)
- Kristin Diable: Create Your Own Mythology (2015, Speakeasy): [r]: B
- Kaja Draksler/Susana Santos Silva: This Love (2015, Clean Feed): [cd]: B+(*)
- Craig Finn: Faith in the Future (2015, Partisan): [r]: A-
- The Fireworks: Switch Me On (2015, Shelflife): [r]: B+(**)
- Flako: Natureboy (2015, Five Easy Pieces): [r]: B+(**)
- Floating Points: Elaenia (2015, Luaka Bop): [r]: B+(***)
- Food: This Is Not a Miracle (2013 [2015], ECM): [dl]: A-
- David Friesen & Glen Moore: Bactrian (2015, Origin): [cd]: B+(***)
- Jacob Garchik: Ye Olde (2014 [2015], Yestereve): [cd]: B+(**)
- Georgia: Georgia (2015, Domino): [r]: B+(**)
- Gwenno: Y Dydd Olaf (2014 [2015], Heavenly): [r]: A-
- Per Texas Johansson: De Långa Rulltrapporna I Flemingsberg (2014 [2015], Moserobie): [cd]: B+(**)
- John Moreland: High on Tulsa Heat (2015, Old Omens): [r]: A-
- Niyaz: Fourth Light (2015, Six Degrees): [r]: B+(***)
- Tess Parks and Anton Newcombe: I Declare Nothing (2015, 'a' Records): [r]: B+(**)
- RMaster: New Anime Nation, Vol. 10 (2015, Anime): [r]: B+(*)
- Wadada Leo Smith & John Lindberg: Celestial Weather (2012 [2015], TUM): [cd]: B+(***)
- Mike Sopko/Bill Laswell/Thomas Pridgen: Sopko Laswell Pridgen (2015, self-released): [cd]: B+(**)
- Svenska Kaputt: Suomi (2015, Moserobie): [cd]: A-
- Terakaft: Alone (Ténéré) (2015, Out Here): [r]: B+(***)
- Richard Thompson: Acoustic Classics (2014, Beeswing): [r]: B+(***)
- Richard Thompson: Still (2015, Fantasy): [r]: B+(***)
- Tinariwen: Live in Paris (2015, Anti-): [r]: A-
- Torres: Sprinter (2015, Partisan): [r]: B+(*)
- Unknown Mortal Orchestra: Multi-Love (2015, Jagjaguwar): [r]: B-
- Kurt Vile: B'lieve I'm Goin Down . . . (2015, Matador): [r]: B
- Ryley Walker: All Kinds of You (2014, Tompkins Square): [r]: B+(*)
- Ryley Walker: Primrose Green (2015, Dead Oceans): [r]: B+(**)
- White Out With Nels Cline: Accidental Sky (2015, Northern Spy): [r]: B+(**)
- Wreckless Eric: America (2015, Fire): [r]: B+(***)
- Wussy: Public Domain, Volume 1 (2015, Shake It, EP): [bc]: B+(**)
- Torbjörn Zetterberg & Den Stora Frågan: Om Liv Död (2015, Moserobie): [cd]: B+(**)
Old music rated this week:
- Loren Connors & Jim O'Rourke: Are You Going to Stop . . . in Bern? (1997 [2010], Hatology): [r]: B+(*)
Grade changes:
- Beach House: Depression Cherry (2015, Sub Pop):
[was: B+(*)] B
Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:
- Jason Kao Hwang: Voice (Innova): January 29
Ask a question, or send a comment.
prev -- next
|
