Half-Year Roundup

The 50 best albums of January-June 2024...

Free book! I recently ordered a copy of Camae Ayewa’s American Equations In Black Classical Music from Hat & Beard Press. Ayewa is better known as Moor Mother, a solo artist and the vocalist for Irreversible Entanglements, but she’s also an accomplished poet. Anyway, the publisher sent me two copies of the book, so I’m giving one away. The first person to claim it via email gets it. (US contestants only.)

Shfl reviews! I’ve published reviews of three excellent (in one case, surprisingly so) new records over at Shfl. Here are the links:

[Ahmed], Giant Beauty

Bill Frisell, Orchestras

Brandon Ross, Off the End

All right, let’s get to it!

The year’s half over, so it’s time to take stock of things. As I mentioned when I did this in 2022 and 2023, I keep an Excel spreadsheet that I call “INCOMING MUSIC.” I organize it all by Artist, Album Title, Release Date, Genre, and whether it’s a Promo, a Purchase, or just a Download from somewhere. I also make notes on Coverage: whether I include it in my Stereogum jazz column, review it for The Wire or DownBeat, write about the artist for Bandcamp Daily, or write about it for Burning Ambulance.

So far, it’s been a slow year compared to last year: only about 300 albums (box sets count as a single entry) have landed here in 2023. Of those, the 50 that have given me the most pleasure are listed below, unranked, in alphabetical order. A lot of them are also part of my Bandcamp collection, so feel free to check that out, too.

[Ahmed], Giant Beauty (Fönstret): A 5CD set containing five full live performances by an avant-garde jazz quartet (Pat Thomas on piano, Seymour Wright on alto sax, Joel Grip on bass, Antonin Gerbal on drums).

Attic, Return of the Witchfinder (Ván): Third album by a band that sounds a lot like King Diamond/Mercyful Fate. If you enjoy that style, they do it very well.

Black Art Jazz Collective, Truth To Power (Savant): Fourth album by a group led by saxophonist Wayne Escoffery, featuring all its past and present members rotating in and out.

Chapel of Disease, Echoes of Light (Ván): Adventurous death metal with some ’70s hard rock thrown in. Like Tribulation mixed with Blue Öyster Cult.

Coffins, Sinister Oath (20 Buck Spin): Ultra-heavy, primitive death metal by Japanese veterans. Every Coffins album is basically the same, and every Coffins album rules.

Isaiah Collier & The Chosen Few, The Almighty (Division 81): Spiritual jazz by an up-and-coming Chicago saxophonist — fellow Chicago titan Ari Brown guests on one track — who’s putting out a bunch of music this year, so keep an eye out and an ear open.

Alice Coltrane, The Carnegie Hall Concert (Impulse): A previously unreleased performance from 1972 featuring Archie Shepp, Pharoah Sanders and others.

Deicide, Banished By Sin (Reigning Phoenix): One of the bands that invented death metal is still at it on album #13, writing shockingly catchy and crushingly heavy songs produced with more polish than usual.

Dave Douglas, Gifts (Greenleaf Music): Trumpeter Douglas is joined by saxophonist James Brandon Lewis and Rafiq Bhatia and Ian Chang of post-rock band Son Lux to play his own originals and four tunes by Billy Strayhorn.

Final, What We Don’t See (Room40): A dark ambient release by one of Justin K. Broadrick’s longest-running projects (pre-Godflesh, even). Wear headphones.

Bill Frisell, Orchestras (Blue Note): Two different live recordings by guitarist Frisell’s excellent trio, one with a string-based ensemble, the other with a jazz orchestra.

Milford Graves/William Parker/Charles Gayle, WEBO (Black Editions Archive): An incredible two-hour slab of newly unearthed ultra-high-energy free jazz from 1991.

Rosanna Gunnarson/Karin Johansson, I grunda vikar är bottnarna mjuka (Outerdisk): Prepared piano and underwater field recordings; an immersive world of eerie and unsettling, yet oddly immersive (no pun intended) music. Again, headphones recommended.

Mary Halvorson, Cloudward (Nonesuch): One of the most interesting “jazz” guitarists around returns with a new ensemble featuring vibraphonist Patricia Brennan, trumpeter Adam O’Farrill and trombonist Jacob Garchik; the music shimmers and soars.

High On Fire, Cometh The Storm (MNRK): New drummer Coady Willis, formerly of the Melvins, makes this the heaviest and most enjoyable album this band has released in 20 years.

Iron Curtain, Savage Dawn (Dying Victims Productions): Raging, primitive, thrashy traditional heavy metal from Spain. RIYL old Motörhead, Judas Priest circa 1980.

Ethan Iverson, Technically Acceptable (Blue Note): Solid piano trio compositions rooted in pre-bebop styles, plus a piano sonata that recalls Gershwin. Smart and intriguing, with foot-tapping grooves.

Vijay Iyer, Compassion (ECM): The second album by a brilliant trio featuring Linda May Han Oh on bass and Tyshawn Sorey on drums. Moody at times, joyous others, but cohesive and always compelling.

Atsushi Izumi, Schismogenesis (Ohm Resistance): Concussive electronic compositions that blend industrial, drum ’n’ bass and raw noise. Headache-inducing in the best way.

Jlin, Akoma (Planet Mu): Ignore the tracks with guests (Björk, Kronos Quartet, Philip Glass) and focus on the solo tracks by one of the most original and fascinating electronic composers of the 21st century.

Judas Priest, Invincible Shield (Sony): The strongest comeback album yet by these metal veterans, who’ve been in the field 50 years and still kick the ass of bands whose parents weren’t born when they started.

Cassie Kinoshi’s Seed, Gratitude (International Anthem): A short but beautiful release by a brilliant UK jazz ensemble, with help from the London Contemporary Orchestra and genius turntablist NikNak, who pops up again farther down this list.

Jake Long, City Swamp (New Soil): Four long tracks by a crew of UK jazz all-stars (Tamar Osborn, Binker Golding, Shirley Tetteh and more) given psychedelic dub-funk production.

Lord Spikeheart, The Adept (HAEKALU): Solo debut by the former vocalist of Kenyan cyber-metal duo Duma; screaming electronic noise with jackhammer beats and a million guest appearances from stars of the global post-industrial noise-rap diaspora.

Nduduzo Makhathini, uNomkhubulwane (Blue Note): An emotionally resonant, spiritually questing piano trio album divided into three multi-part suites.

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HALFTIME BREAK! Here’s High On Fire, with new drummer Coady Willis, live at the Middle East back in May:

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Malignancy, Discontinued (Willowtip): Head-spinningly complex death metal by a veteran New York crew. Squealing guitars, shift-on-a-dime rhythms, riffs that double back on themselves… unpredictable, but thrilling.

Charles McPherson, Reverence (Smoke Sessions): An always swinging, bebop-rooted alto saxophonist pays tribute to an early mentor, pianist Barry Harris, with trumpeter Terell Stafford, drummer Billy Drummond, and others.

Mean Mistreater, Razor Wire (self-released): Fist-pumping, fight-starting metal meant to soundtrack chugging beers and doing donuts in the bar parking lot.

Ron Miles, Old Main Chapel (Blue Note): An archival live set from 2011, documenting an amazing chamber-jazz group with coiled-spring energy featuring cornetist Miles, guitarist Bill Frisell, and drummer Brian Blade; they’d work together, later bringing in pianist Jason Moran and bassist Thomas Morgan, until Miles’ death in 2022.

Moor Mother, The Great Bailout (Anti-): An extended indictment of the UK’s role in the transatlantic slave trade with a ton of guest vocalists; it plays like an opera. Spine-chilling and amazing.

Necrot, Lifeless Birth (Tankcrimes): Primitive, hard-charging death metal that’ll make you want to tear your own face off. (That’s a compliment.)

NikNak, Ireti (Accidental): Abstract turntable music, more beat-driven than her previous releases. If you wonder what ever happened to DJ Spooky, you should be listening to NikNak.

Tomeka Reid Quartet, 3+3 (Cuneiform): Long-form, shape-shifting compositions by a cello-guitar-bass-drums group that makes abstract chamber music swing and groove.

Replicant, Infinite Mortality (Transcending Obscurity): A pounding, dissonant death metal release from a ferocious Jersey band. As polyrhythmic as Meshuggah, but more aggro than those dudes have been in a decade or more.

Brandon Ross Phantom Station, Off The End (Sunnyside): A 65-minute live performance featuring cornet, electric guitar (not so’s you could tell), keyboards, drums, and electronics/sound design. You’ll think you’re dreaming it.

Marta Sánchez Trio, Perpetual Void (Intakt): A fiercely energetic piano trio disc with Chris Tordini on bass and Savannah Harris on drums; the music was inspired by grief and loss, but it sounds like someone powering through it, not wallowing in it.

Shabaka, Perceive Its Beauty, Acknowledge Its Grace (Impulse): An album of flute-based tunes from the former saxophonist behind The Comet Is Coming and Sons of Kemet. Subdued and introspective, but never boring.

Matthew Shipp, New Concepts In Piano Trio Jazz (ESP-Disk): Shipp’s trio with bassist Michael Bisio and drummer Newman Taylor Baker delivers some of the most audacious free swing you’ll ever hear, and on this disc, they add elements of modern classical to create something that lives up to that brash title. Astonishing stuff.

Tom Skinner, Voices Of Bishara Live At “Mu” (International Anthem): Drummer Skinner’s live band features saxophonists Robert Stillman and Chelsea Carmichael, cellist Kareem Dayes, and bassist Tom Herbert; they interpret compositions by cellist Abdul Wadud with an energy that’ll unscrew the top of your head like a jar.

Slift, Ilion (Sub Pop): The best French band since Gojira deliver 79 minutes of ecstatic post-Hawkwind stoner psych that feels like you’re strapped to a rocket and headed for the outer rim of the galaxy, throwing horns all the way.

Wadada Leo Smith & Amina Claudine Myers, Central Park’s Mosaics of Reservoir, Lake, Paths and Gardens (Red Hook): Trumpet/piano duos that blend ultra-spacious improvisation with chamber music romanticism.

Sonic Youth, Walls Have Ears (reissue) (Goofin’): A legendary bootleg, now reissued by its subjects, this double LP documents Sonic Youth live in the UK in 1985, in a period of transition but about to hit peaks few bands have ever approached.

Sunbomb, Light Up The Sky (Frontiers): The second album by a highly improbable duo; Stryper singer Michael Sweet and L.A. Guns guitarist Tracii Guns team up to make Sabbath-y, Trouble-d trad/doom metal, and it rules.

Mazz Swift, The 10000 Things: Praise Songs For The iRiligious (New Amsterdam): Solo work (and I mean that; she does almost everything) by an adventurous composer — electronics, drum programming, sound design, multi-tracked vocals, and layers of violin.

Tarbaby, You Think This America (Giant Step Arts): This trio — Orrin Evans on piano, Eric Revis on bass, Nasheet Waits on drums — usually invite horn players like Oliver Lake, Ambrose Akinmusire and JD Allen to the party, but this time they’re on their own. The results are as stark and challenging as ever.

Cecil Taylor, Cecil Taylor Unit, Live At Fat Tuesdays, February 9, 1980 First Visit (Hat Hut): A previously unreleased set from the same two-night stand that yielded the 1981 album It Is In The Brewing Luminous.

Ulcerate, Cutting The Throat Of God (Debemur Morti Productions): The seventh album by a New Zealand trio whose music lays dissonant, intertwining guitars over precisely aimed avalanches of drums.

Lisa Ullén, Heirloom (Fönstret): Two versions of a three-part suite performed on prepared piano; the music is full of unsettling rumbles and booms, crackles and vibrations that sound like electronic noise or post-production tricks, but are neither. Listen on headphones.

Vitriol, Suffer & Become (Century Media): Bone-grinding, nerve-shredding death metal that feels genuinely on the brink of going out of control in a way I haven’t heard since the early work of Anaal Nathrakh.

Kamasi Washington, Fearless Movement (Young): Washington is a good but not virtuosic saxophonist; his real talents are in production and arrangement, and his sonic choices are always fascinating — here, he’s exploring rhythm, amosphere, and synths. So many synths.

That’s it for now. See you next week!