Bab L’Bluz - Nayda (Real World Records)
"The debut album by Moroccan-French rockers was received with universal acclaim, and no wonder: psychedelic and bluesy, with lyrics in Arabic and leftfield politics to the fore, it jumps off from Moroccan Gnawa music to explore the North African roots of the blues. Lead singer Yousra, singing words of freedom while firing riffs from her awisha (small guimbri lute), is a revelation."
Picked by Jane Cornwell
Balatron - Iðavöllur (Yuku)
"The incredible and crushing debut album by Icelandic electronic producer Bjarki Hallbergsson, hiding under the equally weighty name Balatron. The LP
Iðavöllur is an hour-long trip to all kinds of bass music — from steroid-pumped and opiate hip-hop to rude destructive dubstep. Yes, dubstep — it seemed that this genre could not be rehabilitated in any way after its final fall in the eyes of all the ravers of the world, but Balatron did it with special grace. The album
Iðavöllur is simply stuffed with bangers, which cannot be dismissed in any way — closer to the middle of the LP the excess of body movements becomes even bad. However, all this wonderful wobble does not at all cause bouts of nostalgia — it sounds absolutely adequate for 2020, as if all its main advantages were crystallized and put into practice only now. Conceptually, the album was composed very competently — sometimes it slows down its pressure, sometimes it replaces the bass obsession with garage and techno rhythms and rappers starts to sound like Roots Manuvas from all over the world into it. There is even not an obvious curtsey, forgive me, towards The Prodigy — for example, the track
Straight Thugin sounds one to one like
Poison of the XXI century. Best of all, the design of the album will talk about this LP — the cover depicts the futuristic urbanism of the cyberpunk city, whose residents are watching the approach of something huge, demolishing everything in its path. Another second and this whopper will carry not only these unfortunates (one of whom began to levitate in fear), but also you, the listener."
Picked by Eugenie Galochkin
Bob Vylan - We Live Here (Venn Records)
"The politically most charged offering of the year comes from a London-based duo with a quirky name. Perfectly in sync with the „Black Live Matters“ demonstrations this spring and summer, adding a particularly British perspective and demanding so much more than only securing the bare lives of people. This record forms a pinnacle of a long line of dissident English voices for me. Fun fact: They nicked the title from one of my favourite films. The seminal „Babylon“ (1980) offered not only a fascinating insight into the booming UK reggae sound system culture of the time but also the bleak racism surrounding it."
Picked by Christoph Linder
Bulbul - Kodak Dream (Siluh Records)
"First heard this album on my birthday in February shortly after it was released while I walked around the frozen and freezing lakeshore in Chicago. I kept pulling out my phone to take photos of ice patterns and, sans gloves, my hands and fingers became completely numb, burning from the cold. The insistent smiling darkness of this music kept me going, and then all throughout the year, even when “Going” meant standing stock-fucking-still and watching the know-it-alls hypermouth everyone else’s reality for them. If LCD Soundsystem had a personality thicker than a mirror, they’d have aspired to the humor, danceability, and groove panache of Bulbul. This latest album is like an icy stare from your hopeless crush, misread as a look of recognition."
Picked by Andrew Choate
Cafe Türk - Cafe Türk (Zel Zele)
"A now-forgotten Turco-Swiss band creating gritty NDW in the 80’s is not only an anomaly on the musical side of things, but also an anachronism in the historical & socio-political side of things. Weren’t the Turkish gastarbeiters in Europe impossible to integrate? Weren’t the Swiss or the Germans unwelcoming or downright hostile? Who is this Turco-punk frontman? Why is this even a thing? Kudos to Zel Zele team for unearthing these materials 40 years after."
Picked by mersenne/undomondo
Carlos Niño & Miguel Atwood-Ferguson - Chicago Waves (International Anthem)
"An intensely spiritualizing session to be consumed seamlessly. Motivating cymbals, violin prayers and percussive rattles persuade the unconscious, creating a spacious zone for contemplation. We courageously traverse emotional landscapes. Releasing the burden of baggage, we travel light - lifted by music which is as conducive as it is noble."
Picked by Omri Shmulewitz
Carsten Meinert - CM Musictrain (Stunt)
"Danish saxophonist Carsten Meinert is known to many thanks to the album
To You, recorded with his quartet in 1970. But not many people know that a year before that, Carsten had put together a group of debutants to record his most ambitious album. The lineup included young musicians who later became stars of Scandinavian and world jazz — these are Pierre Derge, Erling Kroner and many others. Disc
C. M. Musictrain was recorded in one day — August 24, 1969 — half a week after Davis finished
Bitches Brew on the other side of the ocean. However, for me personally, Carsten’s album sounds many times more modern and brighter than the incorruptible Miles. In
C. M. Musictrain merged everything that could be heard in jazz music at that time. Psychedelic rock into a few electrified guitars at high speeds crashes into boorish free jazz; impudent fusion overflows with feelings and merges with radiant soul, and fidgety funk strives to turn into impudent punk (which at that time had not yet been invented). All this was played with the frantic energy of twenty-year-olds virtually on the first try. Here even saxophones are processed with guitar pedals — this album is so fresh and modern. The LP turned out to be so fiery that a few months after its release, a fire broke out in the studio and in the office of the Spectator label, which destroyed all remnants of the circulation, as well as the master copy. This year
C. M. Musictrain is exactly 50 years old — on this occasion, this artifact of the era was reissued and finally became available to everyone."
Picked by Eugenie Galochkin
Channelers - Isles Beyond (Inner Islands)
"This is the tenth full-length release by Channelers, an artist and musician based out of Oakland, California, by the name of Sean Conrad. He produces music since 2015 and releases under his own imprint Inner Islands. Suitable for meditation, the whole album is a beautiful journey, providing inner peace through its healing soundscapes."
Picked by Dragoș Rusu
Charley Crockett - Welcome To Hard Times (Son of Davy)
"Charley Crockett is a young Texan country singer who has lived what he sings about."
Picked by Garth Cartwright
Contento - Lo Bueno Está Aquí (El Palmas Music)
"Sexy and smooth. One of my favourite choices for dancing in the living room during lockdown. Favourite Track: Pelo Negro."
Picked by Coco Maria
Dervish Taxi - Round One (FancyMusic)
"The Round One album was the result of the first joint session of two musicians: Dmitriy Peitsch (guitar player) and Yan Yamin (drummer). The recording made in the fall of 2018 is the constituent of this record, without any edits, carefully recorded musical experience that gave rise to the new project."
Picked by Dragoș Rusu
