We’re entering the home stretch with the first half of the year’s Best New Releases. A common theme is the pursuit of fresh possibilities.
20. BASIC – This is BASIC (No Quarter) Doing it sans vocals, Chris Forsythe (guitar), Nick Millevoi (baritone guitar, drum machine), and Mikel Patrick Avery (percussion, electronics) aren’t exactly venturing into well-trod territory with a sound that can perhaps be a bit oversimplified as art-rock/prog-rock meets new wave. Suffice it to say that if you dig the early ’80s records of Robert Fripp, King Crimson from the same era, and pointedly, Fred Maher and Robert Quine’s Basic, then This is BASIC will likely hit you right in the pleasure zone. Math rock lovers take note.
19. Steph Richards – Power Vibe (Northern Spy) It’s unsurprising given the decidedly retro cover design, but there are a few moments on the fifth full length by trumpeter-flugelhornist-composer-improvisor-bandleader Richards that spring forth from the same era that has so impacted BASIC, if not necessarily the same influences. Because Richard’s work is more jazz rooted and can inspire comparisons to assorted ’70s happenings, including flashes of Creed Taylor’s CTI aesthetic. But Power Vibe is far from any kind of straightforward throwback. Richards playing is the predominant driver of the album’s goodness.
18. claire rousay – sentiment & sentiment remixed (Thrill Jockey) Often, when a steadfast experimentalist makes a move toward the pop sphere, a feeling of disappointment can arise and linger. That’s happily not the case with sentiment, as rousay hasn’t drifted into bland conventionality, but is instead still navigating the fringes; her recent stuff has been described as emo ambient (with ties to her earlier experimental work still strong) and there has been comparisons to slowcore, and that’s astute, but also indie-folk, and that’s sweet. Also nifty is the remix album, which is really worth the effort.
17. Telepathic Band – Telepathic Mysteries Vol. 2 (577) The Telepathic Band is Daniel Carter on saxophones, clarinet, and flute, Patrick Holmes on clarinet, Matthew Putman on piano and keyboard, Hilliard Greene on bass, and Federico Ughi on drums. This set is the second half a session that took place at Sear Sound in NYC in 2019. Although clearly launching from the avant-garde (with decades-long relationships as the bonding agent), there’s an occasional sense of tranquility in this material that’s reinforced by the album’s cover photo. But of course, they do build up the intensity very nicely, and it’s great to hear so much top-notch clarinet. A favorite amongst many fine records released by 577 in 2024.
16. Maalem Houssam Guinia – Dead of Night (Hive Mind) Moroccan vocalist and guimbri player Maalem Houssam Guinia is the son of renowned master of Gnawa music Maalem Mahmoud Guinia, who passed in 2015; both father and son collaborated with British electronic musician James Holden with appealing results, but Dead of Night captures Houssam totally alone, carrying on the Gnawa tradition with just guimbri (a three-stringed skin covered lute) and voice, and the playing is thrillingly gripping in its unrelenting power. Gnawa is a trance music, and this recording really establishes an up close in the room intensity that doesn’t dissipate until the record’s over. An instant classic.
15. Eyal Maoz and Eugene Chadbourne – The Coincidence Masters (Infrequent Seams) Along with playing in Abraxas and releasing a pair of records for John Zorn’s Tzadik label, guitarist Eyal Maoz is a prolific collaborator; here, he gets in cahoots with one of the greatest genre-hopping string burners the avant-garde has ever produced. Going at it without amplifiers, there are flurries of free improv note tangling aplenty, but also tangible (and sometimes pedal-based) patterns in the weave and even a few moments of (acid) rock structure. Massively impressive work from both halves of this duo, and it’s terrific to hear Chadbourne still at it so effectively.
14. Frank London/The Elders – Spirit Stronger Than Blood (ESP-Disk) Recently diagnosed with the rare and fatal blood cancer myelofibrosis, trumpeter and composer London cut this record as a celebration of life, dedicating all six tracks to friends and colleagues who have passed from blood diseases and cancers. His musical inspirations for the record include Charles Mingus, Pharaoh Sanders, and Alice Coltrane, and what’s striking is how London’s compositions and the ensemble’s thrust really builds up an atmosphere that’s comparable to the restless beauty of the 1960s scene without feeling constrained by the parameters of homage. Spirit Stronger Than Blood is far too alive to register as a mere tribute. The Elders are London on trumpet, Marilyn Lerner on piano, Hilliard Greene on bass, Newman Taylor Baker on drums, and on two tracks, Greg Wall on saxophone.
13. Satoko Fujii Quartet – Dog Days of Summer (Libra) Pianist-composer Fujii’s group is completed with trumpeter Natsuki Tamura, bassist Takeharu Hayakawa, and drummer Tatsuya Yoshida. The sound is jazz-rock, but with aspects of the avant-garde keeping the fusion tendencies in check. Dog Days of Summer is the group’s sixth album and the first in a long while, and it’s a stone gas how it favors the gruff thud of rock heaviness over standard issue flashy technique-based jazz-rock grooves. Although elevated prowess is certainly part of the equation.
12. The Messthetics and James Brandon Lewis – S/T (Impulse) From jazz-rock to jazz-rock; the genre merger is wide-ranging. The Messthetics is Joe Lally on bass and Brendan Canty on drums (Fugazi’s rhythm section, don’tcha know) with another genre-hopping guitarist on this list Anthony Pirog (he’s recorded a bunch for Cuneiform). This collab with saxophonist James Brandon Lewis, who’s recorded as a leader and extensively as a sideman and in leaderless ensembles, is a blend of jazziness, late-Dischord rock muscle (with some Fugazi-like dub influences from Lally) and plenty of prog-inclinations from Pirog. The record just grows in its likability the more it’s played. The diversity of stylistic angles and how they cohere really adds value.
11. Shellac – To All Trains (Touch and Go) We lost one of the great ones this year, and the reality is that it still really fucking stings that he’s gone. Because Steve Albini hit the scene as a crafty edgelord who made some (very) regrettable decisions along the way, but then gradually transformed into a genuinely inspiring human being (and one that was often funny as hell). In part because he’d avoided the often debilitating consequences of artistic compromise, Albini was as talented as ever, as To All Trains makes clear. It’s a lean set of quick but pulverizing jabs that gathers value as almost certainly Shellac’s coda.
