Armand Hammer & The Alchemist – Mercy
Armand Hammer (Elucid and billy woods) team up with The Alchemist for some top-tier rap music. Sometimes abstract, sometimes gritty, sometimes obtuse, always intensely engaging. The beats by Alchemist are atmospheric and minimal, with just the right amount of tension and drama. A perfect balance between the vocals and the music.
Lucrecia Dalt – A Danger to Ourselves
I have always found Lucrecia Dalt’s sound design to be a pleasing mix of experimental and accessible. This album of “pop” songs has a similar blend of experimental sonics and melodic tunefulness. Lots of space for sounds and textures to breathe and space for her voice to affect its gravity on your mind.
Richard Dawson – End of the Middle
An understated masterpiece. I initially mistook the shambling quality of the guitar on the first track for imprecision but the guitar playing on the whole album is incredibly intentional. Similarly, the harmonic and melodic moves are more sophisticated than expected. But above that, the lyrics are incredible. Ranging from almost pedestrian, plain-spoken prose (“I’m in the library every lunchtime / Far away from the noise outside / Putting the finishing touches on my entry / For the ‘Short Story Competition'”) to nearly poetry (“Billowing bunting, my self-loathing is / A purse full of bile whose drawstrings are this cheery smile”), the lyrics describe events and emotions both epic and banal. The opening song “Bolt” is a prime example of his storytelling style, filled with humdrum details while describing the devastation of a near-death experience of lightning striking his family home. And then there is the closer “More than real.” It opens with almost cheesy synth pads, which caught me off guard stylistically, before diving right into a raw and vulnerable meditation on parenting, failure, death, and healing, which also caught me off guard. My first listen moved me to tears and it still puts a lump in my throat every time.
Kirby – Miss Black America
Southern R&B/neo-soul singer manages to escape any obvious comparisons to Erykah Badu. No small order. Confident, P-Funk-y, political, sexy.
Little Barrie & Malcolm Catto – Electric War
Dirty, fuzzy, funky, psych rock nuggets. Fantastic drumming and guitar playing.
Tom Skinner – Kaleidoscopic Visions
Spacious and expansive jazz compositions that overlap with modern classical and alt-R&B sounds. Great taste and selection in vocal collaborators.
Arjuna Oakes – While I’m Distracted
Melding the questing, skittering energy of uptempo London jazz with a sensual neo-soul vibe, this album is a journey. Singer and multi-instrumentalist Oakes has an unadorned and direct vocal delivery that is very effective in its lack of showiness. An impressively ambitious album that feels effortless and low-key despite its grand arrangements.
Christina Vantzou, John Also Bennett and Oliver Coates – Death, Reverb and Decay
Beautiful, mournful ambient/modern classical diptych.