Moor Mother & billy woods - BRASS [2020]

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The first song on BRASS, “Furies”, was the beginning of something special. Although Moor Mother and billy woods had connected before on “Ramesses II” by Armand Hammer (woods and ELUCID), “Furies” was the first time they recorded as a duo. The track was originally released as part of the Adult Swim single series - a full album was not on the cards yet. “Furies” has a cavernous mysticism to it. Moor Mother travels through time and woods crafts a foreboding verse full of paranoia and greek mythology. The chemistry between the two was undeniable, but nothing could have sufficiently prepared listeners for what was to come. The surprise release of BRASS hit like a lightning bolt. Both Moor Mother and woods have released excellent albums in the past, and on BRASS they push and pull each other into exciting new dimensions.

Small Bills - Don't Play It Straight [2020]

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Ten tracks into ELUCID's Valley of Grace, the rapper declared that "nothing's broken, this is how it’s supposed to run" on "Talk Disruptive Fo Me”. At that point in the EP, if the listener did not know that he was talking about systemic racism, they had not been paying attention. Inspired by a trip to South Africa and released in 2017, Valley of Grace was a powerful reaction to turbulent times. The beats, produced entirely by ELUCID himself, had a grim futuristic tone that fit the subject matter perfectly. 

Open Mike Eagle - Anime, Trauma and Divorce [2020]

 

Despite how unrealistic the stories in something like Anime can be, a colorful imagination can help people process their own realities. It can be a method of escapism and even empowerment - just listen to the spirit and positivity of “I’m a Joestar (Black Power Fantasy)”. This can be especially appealing if one happens to be Black in America. To be blunt, cops and other tools of white supremacy would probably be a lot easier to deal with as a Super Saiyan or a Hamon user. According to rapper Open Mike Eagle, this was, more or less, the initial concept behind what would end up being Anime, Trauma and Divorce - before the divorce turned his life upside down. 

Cat Toren's Human Kind - Scintillating Beauty [2020]

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With a first track as striking as "Radiance In Veils", one immediately gets the sense that Cat Toren's Human Kind's Scintillating Beauty is an album that will live up to its name. The tune is an epic Cat Toren original that moves from serenity to overwhelming force - in one instance in shockingly abrupt fashion. In its calmer moments, Toren's piano is spellbindingly delicate, working particularly well in the company of mesmerizing chimes. Later on, a fiery solo by saxophonist Xavier del Castillo is met well by energetic playing from the rest of the band. The high-quality on display will not surprise anyone who has heard Cat Toren's Human Kind's self-titled debut album, which featured the same band: Cat Toren (piano, compositions) Yoshie Fruchter (oud), Jake Leckie (bass), and Matt Honor (drums). Stephanie Rooker, who plays chimes, tuning forks and singing bowls on "Radiance in Veils", is the only addition.

Tyshawn Sorey - Unfiltered [2020]

 

Multi-instrumentalist and composer Tyshawn Sorey is a master of modern creative music. Unfiltered has Sorey on drums joined by five talented young musicians, Nathan Reising (alto saxophone), Morgan Guerin (tenor saxophone), Lex Korten (piano), Nick Dunston (bass), and Sasha Berliner (vibraphone). Those who have heard Sorey's recent work as a bandleader may be surprised at the relatively grounded nature of this two-hour piece. Unlike past albums such as Verisimilitude or Pillars, Unfiltered is not a release characterized by overtly modern classical or free improvisation elements. However, this has not changed a key aspect of Sorey's work: riveting complexity and extremely high quality. 

Protomartyr - Ultimate Success Today [2020]

 

Ultimate Success Today is bleak and eerily prescient. The seemingly optimistic title of Protomartyr's fifth album is in jest, diametrically opposed to its grim content. The album name makes a murmured appearance on opener "Day Without End", a song in which frontman Joe Casey paints a picture of imminent death. Although there is nothing even relatively close to a joyful celebration of success on Ultimate Success Today, that isn't anything the Protomartyr fans would expect, and more importantly, it's an exceptional album.

Amani + King Vision Ultra - An Unknown Infinite [2020]

An Unknown Infinite by Amani and King Vision Ultra is full of gems - two of the most striking being "Scrapes" and "Shaft In Africa". The songs have very different lyrical approaches, the former scattering through free-form imagery and the latter containing poignant socio-political commentary. Amani is the principal emcee of the album, but "Scrapes" is exclusively occupied by the words of Elucid, a rapper who recently reached new creative heights alongside Billy Woods in Armand Hammer's Shrines. As the eerie chimes, bass, clicks, and clacks of "Scrapes" sound off, it's hard to imagine a better environment for Elucid's hoarse voice. Producer King Vision Ultra's creation is the unnerving calm after the storm - an ominous, desolate search through rubble, debris, and unhinged doors. Elucid rips through the tension with mystifying poetic transit. It's winter, then summer - "The jazz is free, the noise is love / You wear me out, I drag my tongue" - there is no defined structure as the East New York emcee crafts fractured vignettes of his surroundings. As the first full song of the album, "Scrapes" is a bold and appropriate introduction: Amani and King Vision Ultra would fit in extremely well on any playlist containing Backwoodz Studioz artists like Armand Hammer or ShrapKnel. 

Thumbscrew - The Anthony Braxton Project [2020]

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It would be hard to find a trio better equipped to tackle an entire album of saxophonist Anthony Braxton’s compositions than Thumbscrew. Braxton is an accomplished veteran of the avant-garde, free improvisation, and everything in between. Mary Halvorson (guitar), Tomas Fujiwara (drums, vibraphone), and Michael Formanek (bass) do not approach The Anthony Braxton Project (Cuneiform Records, 2020) with the same distance that many other musicians may have. Braxton has played with every member of Thumbscrew, having a profound influence on Halvorson in particular. Braxton is a mentor to the guitarist, who changed her college major from biology to music after taking a class with him at Wesleyan University.

SAULT - UNTITLED (Black Is) [2020]

Very little is known about SAULT. The group may be a trio, and they are much more about "show" than "tell". The band revealed the bare minimum to the public when they appeared on the scene, seemingly out of nowhere, with two albums in 2019: album titles and a band name. Eventually, listeners were led to the names of multi-instrumentalist/producer Inflo, singer/songwriter Cleo Sol, and rapper Melisa Young (Kid Sister). SAULT is most likely a London based band, as both Inflo and Cleo Sol are Londoners. Inflo has worked on recent high-quality British albums such as Grey Area (Little Simz) and Love & Hate (Michael Kiwanuka). He also produced Cleo Sol's sublime debut album, Rose In The Dark. The role of Young in SAULT is arguably the most curious revelation, as she is best known for a brand of pop-rap that is radically different from her empowering spoken word on UNTITLED (Black Is).*

Gerald Clayton - Happening: Live at the Village Vanguard [2020]

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Pianist Gerald Clayton first came to the attention of many jazz fans by way of the late Roy Hargrove's quintet on Earfood (Emarcy, 2008). Since then, the musician has grown to be a fine bandleader in his own right. He has released nothing but high-quality work, with a notable artistic shift between 2011's Bond: The Paris Sessions (Emarcy) to 2013's Life Forum (Concord). On the exceptional Life Forum, Clayton expanded beyond the piano trio setting of his past recordings and included singers, a horn section and poignant poetry. Tributary Tales (Motema), released in 2017, continued the strong returns of this new format with slightly different personnel. Although there are no singers or poets on Happening: Live at the Village Vanguard (2020), the accomplished musicianship makes it obvious why Clayton was recently signed by the legendary Blue Note record label.

Armand Hammer - Shrines [2020]

Armand Hammer, a duo composed of rappers Billy Woods and Elucid, are at the vanguard of left-field rap music. In the last decade, they have steadily amassed fans by releasing unapologetically exploratory albums. It's music that rewards time and analysis - the opposite of rap the average listener can fully digest in one listen. Armand Hammer's lyrics are often cryptic, non-linear and peppered with a myriad of references. Both Woods and Elucid are extraordinary writers with distinct styles. Elucid's guttural cadence is more visceral than Woods', whose raps can be aggressive but are relatively more aloof than impulsive. Woods is more likely to employ the inflection of a narrator, while Elucid raps as if he is battling in the trenches. These differences in tone and poetic nuance create a fascinating juxtaposition that has reached its greatest point thus far on Shrines.

Okkyung Lee - Yeo-Neun [2020]

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Cellist Okkyung Lee is best known for her visceral attack and extended techniques, which can be heard on past albums such as Ghil. On Yeo-Neun, she embraces the delicacy of chamber music, leading a quartet including Maeve Gilchrist (harp), Elvind Opsvik (bass) and Jacob Sacks (piano). Lee has not lost her experimental edge - she can bend the cello to her will in such a manner that sometimes it's impossible not to focus on her. However, even though she composed the entire album, Yeo-Neun is never solely about Lee. Each tune puts the onus on the quartet as a whole.

Irreversible Entanglements - Who Sent You? [2020]

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In their debut and the live album released a year after, Irreversible Entanglements wowed audiences with energetic free-jazz poetry performances, and that doesn't stop on Who Sent You?. Camae Ayewa does not have as many lines as on the band's first album, but whenever she does speak she is as effective as ever. The poet's delivery often contains more reserved anger as opposed to the explosive rage that characterized much of her contributions to the band's debut. An impressive cold intensity courses through her voice, and when she does explode, the stellar band supports her with even more fire. Aquiles Navarro (trumpet) and Keir Neuringer (alto saxophone) excel whether they are wailing or blowing through a melodic lament, but the MVP of Who Sent You? is arguably the rhythm section, with Luke Stewart (bass) and Tcheser Holmes (drums) both putting in great performances.

Ka - Descendants of Cain [2020]

Ka's music is full of moments in which he speaks his essence into existence. In the hook of "Land of Nod", the rapper bluntly states "You can tell I'm in fact a native / I live this vivid shit / I ain't that creative" and by the end of Descendants of Cain, you believe him. When he carefully see-saws between reverence and boasting on "Every Now and Then" ("People I love blood is in the soil that I walk / Where them curbs serve the servant, but it's royal when I talk"), it's impossible to disagree. Ka's recent work is so good that when speaking of him this statement feels almost redundant, however, it must be said - he is a magnificent lyricist.

Tricot - 真っ黒 (Makkuro) [2020]

Tricot is an extremely consistent band. Outside of "危なくなく無い街へ" a pop-ballad track that surprisingly lacks the main drawing elements of the rock group, Makkuro does not do much in the way of pushing further into the poppier territory that 3 flirted with. While "危なくなく無い街へ" stands out as the album's nadir, thankfully nothing else on the tracklist resembles it. The entire album is high quality overall, but the first half of Makkuro has the band pushing their math-rock sound to new heights. 

Fiona Apple - Fetch the Bolt Cutters [2020]

Fetch the Bolt Cutters is immense. The album is a natural and bold evolution of ideas present in moments of Fiona Apple's previous album, The Idler Wheel. A highlight of that album was "Anything We Want" a song anchored by the clicks and clangs of somewhat unorthodox percussion. Eight years later, Apple takes the ethos of "Anything We Want" and runs with it on Fetch the Bolt Cutters, singling out percussion as the driving force of the record. With drums, bells, wooden blocks, metal butterflies, chairs and abandoned stove-tops all making contributions, there seems to be no limitation to what her band will use. The strong percussive focus pushes Apple's sound to new heights.

Pink Siifu - NEGRO [2020]

Pink Siifu has a great range of talent. There is the mellowness of his previous solo album, Ensley, and then there is Negro. The two projects are extraordinarily different, but an analysis of his discography reveals relevant precedent. The artist embraced abrasive hardcore punk in 2018 on Fuck Demo, a four-track EP that contains tracks featured here. On Negro, Siifu leaves the smooth hip-hop pastures of Ensley for radical noise. The album is a fierce evolution in sound and structure. Siifu's voice is filled with furious energy - and the indignation is justified. Negro is a record that rages against the violence of systemic racism.

KeiyaA - Forever, Ya Girl [2020]

KeiyaA's music has a compelling warmth and fluidity. The New York City-based Chicago-raised singer is a student of her craft, being the sole producer of the majority of Forever, Ya Girl. While it's informed by Neo-Soul legends such as Erykah Badu, KeiyaA's work has a distinctly modern haze to it. The strong sequencing and loose lo-fi brilliance of the album makes it extremely easy to listen to. The aesthetic of Forever, Ya Girl finds a creative middle ground in-between music like Georgia Anne Muldrow's more sample-based work and the more organic nature of albums such as Solange's When I Get Home. Similarly to the work of both the aforementioned women, in KeiyaA's vision, blackness is paramount.

King Krule - Man Alive [2020]

Man Alive continues the melancholy present in much of The Ooz, but here King Krule feels much more desolate. Sparse darkness and a sense of longing permeate throughout the entire tracklist. The two singles, which are both album highlights, are almost polar opposites. On "(Don’t Let the Dragon) Draag On", Krule feels apathetic and depressive, whereas "Alone, Omen 3", offers the listener a surprising dose of hazy sunshine via some of the Englishman's best writing.

R.A.P. Ferriera - Purple Moonlight Pages [2020]

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On Purple Moonlight Pages, R.A.P. Ferreira is extremely loose and free, at times even nonchalant, but he is always impressive and in control. The emcee's intriguing abstract nature, wit, confidence and unwavering commitment to the craft of imaginative rhyming all combine in a performance that will undoubtedly go on to be remembered as one of his peaks. Although his verses are rarely conventionally direct, the combination of the upward trajectory of his career, the establishment of his own record label and the birth of his son has made Ferreira much more open and reflective lyrically. Living and learning from these experiences has helped him release what is arguably his best work yet.