Wire Recordings Of The Year 2020 pt 1
Dec. 10th, 2020 02:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jazzy_daveMore music from the best of the year in the current Wire magazine -
no.1
Beatrice Dillon - Workaround One
Recorded in London, Berlin and New York, Beatrice Dillon’s solo debut album was a masterclass in rhythmic invention, moulded from FM synthesis and a bank of original samples. Drawing on influences including dub, Afro-Caribbean rhythmic traditions and painter Bridget Riley’s essays on grids and colour, Workaround was forensically experimental but gorgeously tactile: it grooves. Abi Bliss said: “Filled with playful delight, honed by minimalism and absorbingly complex, a constant 150 bpm that’s the opposite of metronomic.” (February/432)
No.2
Moor Mother - Circuit Break
Camae Ayewa aka Moor Mother debuted Circuit City at Philadelphia’s FringeArts in June 2019. Claustrophobic and agitated, the album used free jazz and electronics to address oppressions meted out to marginalised communities – from police brutality to neglected public housing. Mariam Rezaei said: “Part choreopoem and part political play, Ayewa’s first theatrical work Circuit City is a riotous political statement… the creative force that is Moor Mother is at once impenetrable and indefatigable.”
no.3
Mourning [A] BLKstar - Deluze (Solange Say Remix)
Under the aegis of humble bandleader RA Washington, eight-strong Cleveland collective Mourning [A] BLKstar made their most powerful statement yet with The Cycle. A sprawling double album, its retro-futurist take on African-American musical forms – gospel and soul, hip-hop and jazz – spoke directly to the current political moment. Stephanie Phillips said: “It’s the kind of music made for the frontlines of a protest… The Cycle is a fully realised, liberating dive into self-actualisation; one that, given the times we’re living through, couldn’t be more timely.” I totally agree.
no.4
Bob Dylan - False Prophet
Heralded by “Murder Most Foul”, a 17 minute song about the assassination of JFK and its pivotal place in the American cultural firmament, Rough And Rowdy Ways – Dylan’s 39th solo album – marked his return to original songwriting after an extended sojourn through traditionals and standards. Stewart Smith said: “Rough And Rowdy Ways is undoubtedly the work of an artist with one eye on his legacy, yet it’s so full of wit, mischief and life that it positively sings.”
Enjoy
no.1
Beatrice Dillon - Workaround One
Recorded in London, Berlin and New York, Beatrice Dillon’s solo debut album was a masterclass in rhythmic invention, moulded from FM synthesis and a bank of original samples. Drawing on influences including dub, Afro-Caribbean rhythmic traditions and painter Bridget Riley’s essays on grids and colour, Workaround was forensically experimental but gorgeously tactile: it grooves. Abi Bliss said: “Filled with playful delight, honed by minimalism and absorbingly complex, a constant 150 bpm that’s the opposite of metronomic.” (February/432)
No.2
Moor Mother - Circuit Break
Camae Ayewa aka Moor Mother debuted Circuit City at Philadelphia’s FringeArts in June 2019. Claustrophobic and agitated, the album used free jazz and electronics to address oppressions meted out to marginalised communities – from police brutality to neglected public housing. Mariam Rezaei said: “Part choreopoem and part political play, Ayewa’s first theatrical work Circuit City is a riotous political statement… the creative force that is Moor Mother is at once impenetrable and indefatigable.”
no.3
Mourning [A] BLKstar - Deluze (Solange Say Remix)
Under the aegis of humble bandleader RA Washington, eight-strong Cleveland collective Mourning [A] BLKstar made their most powerful statement yet with The Cycle. A sprawling double album, its retro-futurist take on African-American musical forms – gospel and soul, hip-hop and jazz – spoke directly to the current political moment. Stephanie Phillips said: “It’s the kind of music made for the frontlines of a protest… The Cycle is a fully realised, liberating dive into self-actualisation; one that, given the times we’re living through, couldn’t be more timely.” I totally agree.
no.4
Bob Dylan - False Prophet
Heralded by “Murder Most Foul”, a 17 minute song about the assassination of JFK and its pivotal place in the American cultural firmament, Rough And Rowdy Ways – Dylan’s 39th solo album – marked his return to original songwriting after an extended sojourn through traditionals and standards. Stewart Smith said: “Rough And Rowdy Ways is undoubtedly the work of an artist with one eye on his legacy, yet it’s so full of wit, mischief and life that it positively sings.”
Enjoy
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