Playlist – April 2021

Thank you, as always for reading and listening. Continue reading for notes on these songs. Bandcamp links courtesy of Hype Machine’s merch table functionality: https://hypem.com/merch-table/6VJZXb6W3X9LsAaHw7gCGo

• Vijay Iyer/Linda Oh/Tyshawn Sorey, “Uneasy” – Starting this look back on April – the cruelest month, as well as National Poetry Month – with this startling mood piece. I’ve been a big fan of all three artists’ work for a very long time, largely thanks to the Wexner Center who started booking Iyer in my town when I was 25 (in that fire-breathing quartet with Rudresh Mahanthappa). That series of shows over the last 15 years cracked my head open and kept expanding what I thought jazz could do as I got to see his work get deeper and richer. This new trio links him with longtime collaborator (and one of my favorite composers) Tyshawn Sorey on drums and mind-blowing bassist Linda Oh who’s singed my eyebrows off in so many contexts, from Dave Douglas’ quintet to her own infectious, beguiling writing in Sun Pictures. There’s uncanny affinity for mood and a rapturous tension in this title track.
• Merry Clayton, “He Made A Way” – Merry Clayton, the secret weapon of 20th-century rock-and-roll (“Gimme Shelter”, “Sweet Home Alabama”, “Rock Creek Park”, and more collaborations than I could list) sadly couldn’t capitalize on her feature in the Oscar-winning documentary Twenty Feet From Stardom. This, her first non-compilation solo record since 1994, is a burst of classic gospel, reworking some beautiful pop and message tunes (there’s a really lovely revisiting of Leon Russell’s “A Song For You”) but my favorites are the new originals. This new Terry Young tune gripped me by the collar and insisted on being played over and over, propelled by a driving bass line and sent into space by Clayton’s inimitable vocal.
• Bad Waitress, “Too Many Bad Habits” – The new single by this Toronto four piece is a firework display of ferocious delight, angst turned into a raging party with the help of a guitar riff like a waterfall of sparks. A firehose release when all you can do is scream, tied to the hard, simple end rhymes that feel as good as a punch to the sternum. “This whole room is covered in shitty blokes. All my friends are just so high on coke.”
• Rata Negra, “Cuando me muera” – One of my favorite music writers, Maria Cristina Sherman, started a new column on punk for Spin and this was my favorite of the suggestions though there wasn’t a bad one in the bunch to my ears. There isn’t much I enjoy more than the classic girl group groove with grimy guitars, and this is the best, freshest example I’ve heard in a long time. Infectious melodies, a slinky beat, and a jaw-dropping vocal from Violeta Terroba.
• Michael Beach, “Curtain of Night” – I raved about the advance single a few months ago, and Beach when I discovered him through last year’s virtual Gonerfest. The full length delivered on all those hopes and then some. An exemplar of exhausted, dragged-through-the-dirt Americana (by Melbourne). He mines a Johnny Thunders territory of soaring and staggering at the same time I can’t get enough of when it’s done this well.
• oddCouple featuring Jamila Woods, “Reflections” – The glinting synths on this song and that luscious smear on the kick drum grabbed the back of my hair the first time I played this collaboration between producer oddCouple (Zach Henderson) and longtime Chicago poetry and music scene titan Jamila Woods. That backdrop creates a gorgeous landscape for one of Woods’ most evocative, immediately accessible vocals. “You’re a sickness and I never should have caught it, you’re my weakness, said I never grew out of it. In an instant, I’ll be on another planet.”
• Jimi Tenor, “Heinola” – I got into Finnish artist Jimi Tenor right at the end of the period covered by this demos and outtakes collection Deep Sound Learning: 1993-2000 with his orchestral pop/lounge lizard magnum opus Out Of Nowhere. That record guided me through a lot of late nights and alleyways, and while I dearly loved a few of his subsequent records (especially the collaborations with Nicole Willis and the Soul Investigators) this comp put me right back in that space. The funky but impossibly hard steamroller drums under the fried flute solo acid washed by saxophone and sampled or synth strings coalesces into sticky summer bliss.
• Sycco, “My Ways (Buscabulla Remix)” – I got turned onto the Puerto Rican duo Buscabulla a few years ago when we were going to be in Chicago the same time as Ruidofest. I couldn’t make their set work with our schedule, but that recon made me an instant fan and seeing their name as remixers is an almost guaranteed sign of quality. The sultry throb of their work with Brisbane-based singer Sycco is like sunlight on a leather jacket.
• Sana Nagano, “Strings and Figures” – The infectious, surging tunes on violinist Nagano’s new quintet album Smashing Humans more than live up to the cover’s video game-like ominous whimsy. An infectious, earworm melody from Nagano surfs on a crunching, snarling earthquake groove from Ken Filiano’s elastic bass and Joe Hertenstein’s thumping drums, weaving through righteous downpours of skronk from downtown sax legend Peter Apfelbaum and guitarist Keisuke Matsuno. The rare contemporary jazz (mostly) record that I hum as I walk down the street. 
• Michael Cashmore featuring ANOHNI, “The Night Has Rushed In” – Michael Cashmore has been the linchpin of, to my ears, a true renaissance for Current 93 over the last 15 or so years and his less common solo records are always a treat; I go back to his collaborative 7” with Marc Almond every time the seasons change. This new one makes my heart sing. A reformation, with a text by Current 93 head David Tibet sung by a frequent collaborator of them both, ANOHNI, this is one of the purest distillations of playing both sides of the word “rapturous” he trades in. Piano like a glittering star scape against rotating, surging strings and silk curtains of guitar and a timeless vocal from ANHONI. “Anne waved her hand. ‘Goodbye.’ I left through broken doors. Your photograph, bright, opened for me, and your smile? Beautiful castles.” 
• Lisa Bella Donna, “Take Me in the Morning” – Columbus polymath Lisa Bella Donna’s virtuosity, curiosity, empathy, and intuition have enlivened stages and recordings from spiky jazz fusionists Descendre to proggy death metallers Dead Sea to the classic R&B of Talisha Holmes and with this new release, The World She Wanted, she reveals her most fully formed and richest world yet. This long track ripples with space, layering field recordings around a wealth of instruments played by Bella Donna, most prominently shimmering acoustic guitar and atmospheric keys, with key pedal steel textures from the lone other musician here, Joe Golden. This is the perfect gateway drug for a musician I’ve long admired and been at a loss to describe. She hits so much of her sound world without ever feeling showy or gimmicky. 
• Gallant, “Scars.” – We return to earth with the sound of a wound dripping with ice on that first line “Been a minute since you’ve been gone.” This piercing R&B travelogue into the darkness cracks into a frenetic beat rubbing against the same sustained tension on the vocal on this song that feels like an instant club classic in the making. Right at the crossroads of what Sekou Sundiata used to call “dance and be still music.” 
• Ashley Monroe, “Groove” – Another spacious club track with a deceptively low-key vocal. This masterful seduction from Monroe feels like it’s a million miles away from the work of hers I fell for initially, but I couldn’t get enough of this intriguing intersection of contemporary country and reggae. 
• Elizabeth King, “A Long Journey” – Tying the threads of the previous four or five songs, King’s first solo record, Living in the Last Days, finds this grand dame of Memphis gospel singers taking stock of herself and the world in one of the best, grimiest, righteous examples of soul blues coming out today. With a cast of the best players including Will Sexton on guitar, Jim Spake (Lucero) on horns, Al Gamble, this sums up everything I think of when I think “Memphis music.” 
• Joe Dyson, “Pious Walk” – New Orleans-born drummer Joe Dyson steps out as a leader after playing with giants including Dr. Lonnie Smith, Donald Harrison, and Pat Metheny, with a magical, vibrant record Look Within. This tune uses the gospel material Dyson grew up with, fusing a finger-snapping rhythm – pious doesn’t necessarily mean solemn – to a glowing melody from the front line of Stephen Gladney’s tenor and Steven Land’s trumpet. Dyson’s link with the rest of this rhythm section (Oscar Rossignoli on piano, Jasen Weaver on bass) is magical; I want to hear more of this band immediately. 
• Nick Waterhouse, “Medicine” – Waterhouse, one of my favorite singers, leans further into the dark side of the sad/sexy continuum he owns with this soulful croon of a cautionary tale, a standout on his excellent (if lower key than I was expecting) Promenade Blue. While I’m confident the “Radio Bar” he plants a devastating line at in the lyric is the one in Baton Rouge, the tonal quality of track feels so much like that late afternoon light pouring through the front window of one of my favorite haunts, WXOU Radio Bar in the West Village, that I immediately felt at home and it added to the overall feel of loneliness this song does so well. 
• Cha Wa, “Second Line Girl” – Wrapping this “three looks at New Orleans” subset with a slab of classic Nola funk. This dance monster rides a boiling, boisterous groove and I expect to have it blaring all summer whenever I’ve got friends over. Makes me miss one of my favorite cities even more than usual. 
• Dry Cleaning, “Scratchcard Lanyard”–This London band scratched a very specific post-punk itch, recalling Magazine a little with these big, impossibly catchy bass lines and a dry, hilarious singer. The taunting hook “Do everything and feel nothing” cut me just as deep as that barbed guitar line. 
• Bachelor, “Stay in the Car”–Palehound hit my radar when I reviewed their marvelous record Dry Food for Agit reader in 2015 and Anne turned me onto Jay Som with her 2019 record Anak Ko. This collaboration between the two plays to both strengths and explodes into the stratosphere. Clouds of tumbleweed wire guitars and urgent harmonies, leaving just enough mystery to keep me peeling back the layers. 
• Cory Hanson, “Another Story From the Center of The Earth”–The sonic quality of the scratchy guitar and yearning pedal steel resonated for me after the last two songs though this shifts down in tempo and mood. A lovely, exploratory twist on cosmic country that doesn’t sell out either side of that subgenre, with a sweet and haunting vocal: ”The only animals are blind, naked ghosts, and saltwater wine is drunk at night in the fluorescent moonlight.” 
• Jade Bird, “Black Star”–This British folksinger completely charmed me with a warm take on this Radiohead staple, orbiting around a chiming acoustic guitar figure and intertwined harmony with guitarist Luke Prosser. 
• Amanda Anne Platt and the Honeycutters, “New York”–I think I have my pal Claire Badger to thank for talking up Amanda Anne Platt and this new song of hers simultaneously drove home regret at any show I’ve ever bailed on because I believe Platt came through Natalie’s several times and makes me miss New York something terrible (the latter will be rectified in July if nothing else goes wrong). 
• Ryley Walker, “Rang Dizzy”–I liked the earlier Walker records a lot, he captured something of his influences that lots of guys working in Nick Drake’s shadow couldn’t, but for me he started coming into his own when he brought in jazz players – I saw a phenomenal set with pal and former Columbusite Ryan Jewell on drums at Big Ears – and let the song forms breathe. His new one, Course in Fable, feels miles further than even his work I loved. The three-dimensional production from Tortoise’s John McEntire helps but it also sets a new benchmark for assurance in his voice and the songs. That soaring, haunting chorus, “I am wise; I am so fried. Rang dizzy inside. Fuck me, I’m alive” is one of the best and clearest hooks of the year. 
• Roy Montgomery, “Cowboy Mouth (For Sam Shepard)”–This tune off Island of Lost Souls reminded me what I loved about Montgomery’s work when I first discovered it. The opening track off a tribute to lost friends, it’s an enrapturing, nuanced, surprising solo guitar workout, drenched in the same mix of sadness and ecstatic possibility as the writer it pays tribute to. 
• Tom Rainey Obbligato, “What’s New – There is No Greater Love”–This standards project from drummer Tom Rainey is always delightful and this live album, Untucked in Hannover, is a perfect example of what makes Rainey and the community of longtime collaborators he draws from so great. The long, supple bass intro from Drew Gress through the dancing lines of Ingrid Laubrock on reeds and Ralph Alessi on trumpet and the subtle accents of Jacob Sacks on piano, every piece of this is exactly where it should but without ever feeling overly simplistic or phoned in. It’s harder to walk a tightrope slowly than it is to run. 
• Arooj Aftab, “Last Night” – Aftab has been on the periphery of my understanding for a while. I snapped to full attention watching a Jazz Gallery Livestream collaboration with Vijay Iyer and Shazad Ismaily; realizing I was an idiot, I dove into her catalog and my anticipation built for this remarkable new record Vulture Prince. This song sets a Rumi poem – part of an ecstatic tradition I really dug into back in college – as a looping pre-dawn mediation. Mario Carrillio’s bass and Jorn Bielfeldt’s drums set up a devotional equivalent of the saloon tempo, driving dust up into the moonlight purity of Aftab’s vocals, shaded by Bhrigu Sahni’s guitar stabs and making it into diamonds. “Last night my beloved was like the moon: so beautiful.” 
• Dan Wilson, “Who Shot John” – One of the brightest lights of Akron’s flourishing jazz scene, guitarist Wilson’s tone, dipped in Wes Montgomery but with enough sharp edges and surprise to never feel like a carbon copy, and fluid ideas shine on this new record, Vessels of Wood and Earth, produced by bassist/composer Christian McBride. This Wilson original sets up a surprising, light-hearted dancing rhythm with a crack, generation-bridging rhythm section of Christian Sands on piano, Marco Panascia on bass, and the great Jeff “Tain” Watts on drums. 
• Marques Carroll, “Generational Response” – I talk a lot about the Chicago jazz scene but trumpeter Marques Carroll was new to me until I saw his excellent debut record The Ancestors’ Call mentioned in Phil Freeman’s always excellent Stereogum column. It’s the kind of beautiful, rhythmically shifting but immediately graspable classic jazz record I grew up loving. Great writing, message music that never loses sight of the groove. The killer rhythm section of Amr Fahmy on piano, Christian Dillingham on bass, Greg Artry on drums, and Victor Garcia on congas, with Carroll leading a glowing three-piece horn section. 
• Hatik, “Réparer ton cœur” – This slice of French R&B (the title translates to “Fix Your Heart”) from actor-rapper Hatik was exactly the kind of 3 am mournful swagger I was craving done as well as I’ve heard it in recent memory. 
• Meryl featuring Akiyo, “BB Compte” – A drill party jam from Martinique-based rapper Meryl collaborating with Akiyo from Guadaloupe this is a song I know almost nothing about, and my French is not good enough to wade through big sections of the lyrics or the press I found while googling but this song us utterly infectious. 
• Crystal Viper, “Whispers From Beyond” – This lush throwback metal from Polish Iron Maiden worshippers Crystal Viper scratched an itch I didn’t even know I had. Big intertwining riffs, crashing rhythms, and Marta Gabriel’s voice burning villages down. Their complete record, The Cult, made me grin like an idiot. 
• Rudimentary Peni, “The Old Lie” – There are a lot of contenders for the title but I probably got turned onto more music by my friend Blue – especially in the years he managed a record store right across the street from the college I fitfully attended – than anybody else. For sure what he turned me onto had the best average of sticking around in my brain. To the extent that I hadn’t thought about ‘80s anarcho-punk band with a Lovecraftian bent Rudimentary Peni in years but the second I saw they had a new record out whole riffs and the long conversation at the St James Tavern where he hipped me to them came rushing back. The Great War doesn’t miss a trick, Nick Blinko’s cracked snarl over martial bass and drums satisfy that nothing-matters catharsis I try not to dwell in but need a taste occasionally. 
• BROCKHAMPTON featuring Danny Brown, “BUZZCUT” – Similarly dark but on the noisier and abrasive edge, Texas hip-hop group BROCKHAMPTON teamed with Danny Brown on this taking-all-comers spray of invective at a fractured, damaged society. My unabashed fandom of Brown got me to check this out and I’m glad I did, the unsteady rhythms and certain, stabbing lines embedded in my head since I first heard it. 
• Topaz Jones featuring anaiis, “Amphetamines” – Topaz Jones’ Don’t Go Tellin’ Your Momma is one of the best breath-of-fresh-air R&B records I’ve heard all year. This pairs a classic roller rink guitar riff and heavy-on-the-kick groove with a warm, distorted vocal and a bridge that shines so brightly you could see it from orbit.  
• Spellling, “Little Deer” – This is another feather in the cap of Sacred Bones, maybe the label with the strongest hit ratio for my tastes (and my willingness to look past a stupid name as seen in a few other of these lists). Shimmering, throbbing, in a way that almost recalled disco Bjork to me. Really beguiling songs with a funky electronic edge stretching them into three dimensions. 
• Kneeling in Piss, “Return, Return/Types of Cults” – Alex Mussawir has been at the core of some of Columbus’s best rock music over the past few years, first with the band Future Nuns and lately with his loose collective Kneeling in Piss. This is their third EP in about a year and they’ve all been home runs. This song is the blend of catchy and literary Mussawir does as well as anybody in a town and a scene known for it. That guitar riff kills me every time. 
• Tirzah, “Send Me” – I liked Tirzah’s earlier record but this collaboration with Michachu slammed me up against a wall. An ingratiating rhythm, heavy on the hi-hat and a narcotic, layered and collaged vocal that draws me in. 
• Todd Snider, “Turn Me Loose (I’ll Never Be The Same)” Todd Snider’s dedicated a career – and a life – to finding reasons to live and sharing them with the rest of us. He’s also dedicated more time and care to the sound of his records, grooves and arrangements, building out a sound world to match the inner lives of the characters he writes about. His new one, First Agnostic Church of Hope and Wonder, is another step forward and up. And exactly what I needed when it dropped this month. It’s also loaded with tributes to lost friends and mentors. I had a hard time picking a song off this but by the end of my first run through it I knew something from it would end this month’s message in a bottle to whoever’s reading. “I won’t be moved by more than sorrow or settle for less than love.”