Music Week (6:2)

A few select reviews from week 2 of month 6 (June).

I'm pretty much always listening to new music, not so much to review as out of a curiosity about the world, but I take notes as I'm trying to write about seemingly more serious matters, and they do pile up. This is the third straight week I've interrupted work to pick a few notes out from the pile and share them on Notes on Everyday Life. They are part of a larger draft file, which will sooner or later turn into one of my Music Week blog posts.

Last week, I sent my preview, with 9 brief reviews, out on Wednesday, and I posted Music Week, with +47 rated albums, on Thursday. This week I'm rushing the preview out on a Tuesday, but Music Week itself will probably take longer, perhaps until Friday. The delay gives me time for two things: one is that there is more overhead in the blog posts; the other is that I usually spend more time on the introduction. And this week I expect I'll have a lot to write about.

The main thing is that I'm trying to organize another Mid-Year edition of the Francis Davis Jazz Critics Poll. I hope to have the website ready in a day or two, and to send out invitations to vote by the end of the week (Friday, June 12). That will give voters three weeks plus a holiday weekend before the deadline on July 5. I'll have more details in Music Week, and much more on the website.

The poll is a major time suck, but I keep being drawn back to it. Most obviously, it has pushed my work on Loose Tabs to the back burner. The draft file is up to 17,905 words. I'll post whatever I have later in the week, but I have no hope (and increasingly no desire) of catching up with the news. My idea of carving pieces out to post here is on hold, as are a half-dozen other ideas, but that could change without warning.

One new feature here is that I've added links to Bandcamp pages where available. My original plan was to only link to pages that have full albums available, but I went ahead and included the partial for Sorey (2/7) and White Denim (12/17, but no note as the extra five "deluxe edition" missing tracks are outside my review).

Bop Alloy: Masters of the Artistry (2026, Bop Alloy): Hip-hop duo of Substantial (Virginia-based MC from Maryland) and Marcus D (producer/pianist from Seattle), third album since 2010, easy underground flow. Choice cut: "Last Song I'll Ever Write." A-
[Bandcamp]

Entropic Hop: The Quest for the Normal Is the Death of the Self (2025 [2026], ESP-Disk'): Group of Aron Namenwirth (guitar, voice, electronics), Ayumi Ishito (sax, electronics), and Kevin Shea (drums, voice, electronics), with special guest Sonic (voice, guiro), recorded in Brooklyn. Shea I recall from MOPDTK and Talibam!, and I've heard several of Ishito's albums on 577. Namenwirth is new to me, but his guitar is key, the foundation of their "post-human soundscape." Song titles start with "ChatGPT Grafted My Identity" and end with "Justice is no more than just ice," with scattered words, pondering much existential anguish along the way (a long one, 16 tracks, 76:47). B+(***)
[Bandcamp]

Joel Futterman/William Parker: Transcendent Universe (2025 [2026], Burning Ambulance): Piano and bass duo, although I was thrown at first with a piercing sound that reminded me of saxophone (no such credit, but Futterman has played sax in the past). But as similar sounds evolved, I figured they must have been emanating from Parker's bass. But after a few minutes, this settles into what you might expect: a rhythmically adventurous pianist and a relentlessly inventive bassist. A-
[Bandcamp]

Mod Lang: Borrowed Time (2026, Just Add Water): Detroit power pop group, quartet with retro-sixties harmonies, hooks, and drums, but doesn't trigger any nostalgia for me, even for later bands in this vein like the Raspberries or the Pooh Sticks, let alone Big Star (a name-drop, but also a signature guitar quote). B+(**)
[Bandcamp]

Jeff Parker ETA IVtet: Happy Today (2025 [2026], International Anthem/Nonesuch): Guitarist, born in Connecticut, studied at Berklee, moved to Chicago in 1991 where he established himself (in post-rock groups Tortoise and Isotope 217, as well as jazz groups like Chicago Underground and many other collaborations), before moving to Los Angeles in 2013. There this quartet took its name from "a Monday night residency from 2016-2023 at ETA Highland Park." With Josh Johnson (alto sax), Anna Butterss (bass), and Jay Bellerose (drums). Two 20+ minute pieces, as basic patterns iterate, mutate, and develop. A-
[Bandcamp]

Tyshawn Sorey: Members . . . Don't (2025 [2026], Pi, 2CD): Drummer, MacArthur genius, arranged four pieces by Stanley Cowell plus three more (Jymie Merritt, Gary Bartz, Max Roach/trad.), for a quintet that expands them masterfully to an average over 13 minutes, with Adam O'Farrill (trumpet), Mark Shim (tenor sax), Lex Korten (piano), and Tyrone Allen II (bass), with vocalist Fay Victor nailing the finale. A-
[Bandcamp (2/7)]

White Denim: Workout Holiday (2008, Full Time Hobby): Austin group, their new Wd13 testifies to aging gracefully, but reminded me that I had missed this first album, hard to find at the time (released in Europe after re-recording an EP with the same title plus some extras, then reissued for their American debut under a different title). The guitar/noise brinksmanship reminds me of a similar group from the time, No Age, whose title Weirdo Rippers would fit this as well. B+(***)
[Bandcamp]