INDIE
Rachael Dadd – Flux Wow, who is this and why am I just now learning about her?! My first-take description was “progressive indie folk,” and after a few more listens, I think that’s still pretty accurate. Racheal Dadd is an English singer/songwriter with some really special things happening on her new album. The instrumental arrangements are intricate and dynamic, time signatures occasionally shift very subtly, and the songs prove to be surprisingly diverse as the album unfolds. Acoustic and electric guitar, banjo, ukulele, piano, pitched and unpitched percussion, woodwinds, brass, (and probably a bunch of other things that I didn’t catch) ebb and flow underneath Dadd’s airy but strong soprano voice. Her Bandcamp page contains the following statement: “Flux is a response to external and internal tides: the flow of life up-rooted; a protest against the flow of recent political history and a diary of the flow within the intimate space of home.” With the images and feelings that her lyrics and delivery evoke, it really does feel like this music is both for herself in a very personal way, but also for all humankind. This is truly beautiful and brilliant music. After a few more listens to better digest everything that’s going on here, I plan on digging into Dadd’s back catalogue. — 9.5/10
SUSS – High Line Ambient country? This kind of sounds like if Brian Eno went to Nashville to make an ambient album with the session pros. If anyone is making a comparison to Earth in their mind, because that’s the closest familiar point of reference, this isn’t dark and doomy like Earth, but does have that country twang. There’s also a lot of slide guitar, reminiscent of Daniel Lanois, and only occasional drums. So if I want something really chilled out and peaceful, this is a good go-to. It’s not incredibly engaging, but that doesn’t feel like the point. — 7.5/10
Ryley Walker & Charles Rumback – Little Common Twist I’m not familiar with either of these artists, but they are both highly regarded in their respective scenes. Walker is an indie/experimental fingerstyle guitarist, and Rumback is an avant-garde/experimental jazz drummer. The songs on this collaborative album are largely bare acoustic guitar and “jazz” drum set duets, but some songs contain electric guitar with various layered effects, keyboards, and subtle electronic percussion. The atmosphere is spacious, and the mood is mellow and meditative. Added to my “Chill” playlist. — 7.5/10
JAZZ
Terri Lyne Carrington & Social Science – Waiting Game In this age of instant access to endless music, paired with my never-ending quest to hear as much of it as possible, devoting the time needed to fully digest a long, dense album is hard to do. That’s why I’ve only listened to Kamasi Washington’s albums all the way through once. So I’ve only gotten through this album once, but this is not the kind of album that needs time to gradually reveal its greatest with repeated listens. Just from seeing the personel, tracklisting, and cover art alone, any modern jazz fan would have a pretty confident assumption that they’re about to hear a brilliant masterpiece.
Terri Lyne Carrington (b. 1965) is a Grammy-winning jazz drummer, composer, singer, and record producer who has played with Dizzy Gillespie, Stan Getz, Herbie Hancock, and Wayne Shorter, to name just a few. Waiting Game’s first disc contains 11 songs that throw jazz, hip-hop, RnB, soul, rock, poetry, and political protest into a giant pot, and present to the world what feels like an incredibly important and monumental piece of artwork. And if that wasn’t enough, disc two is a 42+ minute-long, 4-part instrumental suite titled “Dreams & Desperate Measures,” which features Esperanza Spaulding on upright bass, and felt reminiscent of Sun Ra. I’m just going to stop right there and let you listen for yourself, instead of trying to describe this monumental album with any more detail. — 10/10
Harish Raghavan – Calls for Action This guy (upright bassist, composer, bandleader) means business. After a short bass solo intro, the first full band track is an impressive feat of jazz dexterity. The whole song is in a really fast 5. I don’t know how it’s written, but for a lot of the song the chords are changing every five 16th notes. Continuing on, tempos vary plenty throughout the album, so it’s not fast and dense all the time, but the musicians are definitely not holding back any of their chops. The instrumentation is traditional (sax, bass, drums, piano, vibes) and the production is in the “modern post-bop” style (I may have just made that up) with drums that really crack during the louder parts, but everything is still very warm. An impressive debut album. — 8/10
METAL
Immanifest – Macrobial Do you like tech-death? Do you like Dimmu Borgir’s early 2000’s albums? If you answered yes to both, then this album is for you. Blazing fast riffs and blast beats; atmospheric, ominous synth pads painting the background; keyboard arpeggios that are very reminiscent of Puritanical Euphoric Misanthropia; symphonic embellishments; a mix of death and black metal growls and screams. This is not exactly my go-to death metal style of choice, but for what they are going for, it’s flawless. — 8.5/10
Ade – Rise of the Empire Ade incorporates a heavy does of Middle Eastern folk instruments and tonalities into their furious death metal, so the Nile comparison comes quickly. It sounded Egyptian to me, but when I looked them up, I discovered that the band is from Italy, and it’s actually Ancient Greek music, particularly Roman war music, that they are pulling from. Pretty cool concept. Maybe it’s unfair to compare them to Nile (my all-time favorite death metal band), but I can’t really help it when they have so much in common, and there aren’t a whole lot of bands that sound like this in general. I don’t really care for the vocalist’s tone, which rarely changes, so that’s maybe the biggest detractor. There are a lot of interesting, powerful musical ideas happening here, but some of the riffs are a bit typical sounding, and if I want to listen to something like this, it’s going to be Nile every time. Hopefully the band can find a little more of their own sound next time around. — 7/10
HIP-HOP
Sarah, the Illstrumentalist – Pocket Full of Crystals: Vol 2 Instrumental jazzy hip-hop beats, similar to Kiefer. Good background/chill music. I love this kind of stuff. — 8/10