Instead of merging the disparate worlds of electronic ambience, non-linear improv, experimental rock and droning noise, we've asked ten frequent contributors to write about one release that excited them most this year.
Laurie Anderson
Little Women
Wadada Leo Smith
Lina Allemano Four
Flower-Corsano Duo
Sky Records reissues
M. Ostermeier
ANBB
Mary Halvorson Quintet
Chicago Underground Duo
Laurie Anderson Homeland (Nonesuch)
"Was the constitution written in invisible ink? Has everyone here forgotten how to think? Is this great big boat starting to sink?" Fair questions. And few are better positioned to play the role of inquisitor than Laurie Anderson, whose wit, perception and poetry have never sounded so engaged with her selected topic ― in this case, the end of an empire ― than they do here. Musically, she combines the best of her sci-fi sounds of the '80s with earthier and exotic instrumentation and manages to make it all breathe beautifully, even the peculiar electronic funk of "Only an Expert," featuring FourTet on keyboards and husband/producer Lou Reed on guitar skronk.
Michael Barclay
Little Women Throat (Aum Fidelity)
Time was, before Hendrix came along, that an aggressively wailing saxophone was just about the most fearsome instrument around. Nowadays, strident sounds come from so many different genres that it's difficult to truly stand out. But Little Women deliver the frightening goods. Their debut album is a seven-part suite of stunning mood swings powered by dual saxes at its core. Darius Jones and Travis Laplante spew out tremendous riffs made more powerful by righteous electric guitar and free-ranging kit drum action. For all its fury, the band isn't afraid to slow it down and play with a whole lot of soul.
David Dacks
Wadada Leo Smith Spiritual Dimensions (Cuneiform)
Wadada Leo Smith illustrates by example how art and funk can coexist. It's a marvellous thing to hear the groove being so beautifully dropped into trance vibe and in the same release being able to hear complex improvisations sparkle with colour and life. On this double CD, each disc features a radically different ensemble, yet both are very much steeped in Smith's iconic vision of contemporary black music. From Miles Davis -style stoner throb to referencing the Art Ensemble of Chicago's sweeping African narratives, Smith and ensembles take the music and spray-bomb the air like multi-armed graffiti ninjas.
Nilan Perera
Lina Allemano Four Jargon (Lumo)
Usually, to find a band this together, playing free jazz with this depth, resourcefulness and confidence, you'd have to take a trip to New York. Luckily, we've got this formidable foursome in Canada. Trumpeter/composer Lina Allemano has written some strong tunes within an Ornette Coleman orbit. To her credit, her pieces are inspired by that visionary but are anything but derivative. Tunes like "Sling Slang" and "Jargon" give her and altoist Brodie West melodic material to playfully extrapolate and interpolate upon, and drummer Nick Fraser is a standout throughout.
Glen Hall
Flower-Corsano Duo You'll Never Work in This Town Again (Independent)
Rarely is such a full-figured sound resultant of the meeting of only two minds. Mick Flower and Chris Corsano are supermen of the underground jazz scene; as such, the outright beefiness of You'll Never Work in This Town Again is not surprising. Flower's shahi baaja snakes slither hither and thither around Corsano's palpitations of profligate percussion. The strength of sound attributed to these two heavyweights is balanced by a sense of otherworldly buoyancy. Flower's nearly slight-of-hand deftness with the shahi baaja allows his intricate patterns to float atop Corsano's rapid-fire drum constructions. Truly, these gentlemen are masters of their craft.
Bryon Hayes
Sky Records reissues (Bureau B)
Founded in the mid-'70s, German label Sky Records was responsible for releasing a very strong run of seminal albums by krautrockers who pushed the avant-garde tendencies of the futuristic Teutonic music into electronics and funk. The legacy of this generation of musicians may have been lost to all but the most ardent collectors if not for the timely reminder of the folks at Hamburg's Bureau B label. Now into its third year, this year the campaign has unearthed some of its rarest gems to date, among them visionary solo and collaborative albums from the early '80s by Cluster members Dieter Moebius and Hans-Joachim Roedelius, as well as Jaki Liebezeit's Phantom Band.
Dimitri Nasrallah
M. Ostermeier Chance Reconstruction (Tench)
On his first full-length release, following two equally sublime minis early in the year, M. Ostermeier manages to quietly assemble a masterfully minimalist house of cards. While his peers in modern bedroom classical are numerous and distinguished, the Baltimore native elaborates on their current fancy for ghostly electronics married to stately acoustics with fundamental elegance. Each piece serves as hints to an eidolon; it's wisps of piano, bowed strings, remnant electrics describe the trace energies from great or sorrowful happenings as they slowly dissipate. Everything for a moment in its right place.
Eric Hill
ANBB Mimikry (Raster-noton)
Almost everything about Mimikry, the lauded collaboration between electro-acoustic wunderkind Alva Noto and former Bad Seeds guitarist Blixa Bargeld, is unsettling. The instrumentals skitter, hiss, and pop into an industrial-tinged desolation that perfectly captures the striking grey-scale cover art, while Blixa's warm yet detached vocals present different characters in each track, somewhere between "The Wasteland" by T.S. Eliot and "Eleanor Rigby" by the Beatles. Every track is a vignette of alienation and despair. One of the album's defining tracks, their cover of Harry Nilsson's classic "One," is even more melancholy than Aimee Mann's noted rendition. The warbling feline mimicking from famed '60s model/actress Veruschka brings this remarkable album to a climax along with Alva Noto's dilapidated organ and white noise instrumental, after which Blixa asks, "What is this? Where am I?" Indeed.
Alan Ranta
Mary Halvorson Quintet Saturn Sings (Firehouse 12)
Any player regularly invited to tour with instrumental ace Marc Ribot and avant-garde pioneer Anthony Braxton is clearly worthy of attention, and Halvorson justifies the spotlight with this compelling offering, her second as bandleader. Her compositional style owes a great deal to the work of Braxton (as she has acknowledged), while her playing explores wide and interesting sonic terrain. Saturn Sings marks the first time she has recorded with a horn section, a direction that warrants further exploration. Tracking her future progress promises to be interesting.
Kerry Doole
Chicago Underground Duo Boca Negra (Thrill Jockey)
It's unfortunate how little Rob Mazurek and Chad Taylor are able to reconvene these days because, when they do, they manipulate sound like few of their contemporaries. Boca Negra finds the two bolstering their cornet-and-drums configuration with computer processing and various other instruments, but the results retain their organic spirit ― improvisations and compositions mingling and interchanging in a heady, dream-like succession. Nothing is forced on Boca Negra, as it plunges the listener into soundscapes that are surreal and majestic.
Vish Khanna
Laurie Anderson
Little Women
Wadada Leo Smith
Lina Allemano Four
Flower-Corsano Duo
Sky Records reissues
M. Ostermeier
ANBB
Mary Halvorson Quintet
Chicago Underground Duo
Laurie Anderson Homeland (Nonesuch)
"Was the constitution written in invisible ink? Has everyone here forgotten how to think? Is this great big boat starting to sink?" Fair questions. And few are better positioned to play the role of inquisitor than Laurie Anderson, whose wit, perception and poetry have never sounded so engaged with her selected topic ― in this case, the end of an empire ― than they do here. Musically, she combines the best of her sci-fi sounds of the '80s with earthier and exotic instrumentation and manages to make it all breathe beautifully, even the peculiar electronic funk of "Only an Expert," featuring FourTet on keyboards and husband/producer Lou Reed on guitar skronk.
Michael Barclay
Little Women Throat (Aum Fidelity)
Time was, before Hendrix came along, that an aggressively wailing saxophone was just about the most fearsome instrument around. Nowadays, strident sounds come from so many different genres that it's difficult to truly stand out. But Little Women deliver the frightening goods. Their debut album is a seven-part suite of stunning mood swings powered by dual saxes at its core. Darius Jones and Travis Laplante spew out tremendous riffs made more powerful by righteous electric guitar and free-ranging kit drum action. For all its fury, the band isn't afraid to slow it down and play with a whole lot of soul.
David Dacks
Wadada Leo Smith Spiritual Dimensions (Cuneiform)
Wadada Leo Smith illustrates by example how art and funk can coexist. It's a marvellous thing to hear the groove being so beautifully dropped into trance vibe and in the same release being able to hear complex improvisations sparkle with colour and life. On this double CD, each disc features a radically different ensemble, yet both are very much steeped in Smith's iconic vision of contemporary black music. From Miles Davis -style stoner throb to referencing the Art Ensemble of Chicago's sweeping African narratives, Smith and ensembles take the music and spray-bomb the air like multi-armed graffiti ninjas.
Nilan Perera
Lina Allemano Four Jargon (Lumo)
Usually, to find a band this together, playing free jazz with this depth, resourcefulness and confidence, you'd have to take a trip to New York. Luckily, we've got this formidable foursome in Canada. Trumpeter/composer Lina Allemano has written some strong tunes within an Ornette Coleman orbit. To her credit, her pieces are inspired by that visionary but are anything but derivative. Tunes like "Sling Slang" and "Jargon" give her and altoist Brodie West melodic material to playfully extrapolate and interpolate upon, and drummer Nick Fraser is a standout throughout.
Glen Hall
Flower-Corsano Duo You'll Never Work in This Town Again (Independent)
Rarely is such a full-figured sound resultant of the meeting of only two minds. Mick Flower and Chris Corsano are supermen of the underground jazz scene; as such, the outright beefiness of You'll Never Work in This Town Again is not surprising. Flower's shahi baaja snakes slither hither and thither around Corsano's palpitations of profligate percussion. The strength of sound attributed to these two heavyweights is balanced by a sense of otherworldly buoyancy. Flower's nearly slight-of-hand deftness with the shahi baaja allows his intricate patterns to float atop Corsano's rapid-fire drum constructions. Truly, these gentlemen are masters of their craft.
Bryon Hayes
Sky Records reissues (Bureau B)
Founded in the mid-'70s, German label Sky Records was responsible for releasing a very strong run of seminal albums by krautrockers who pushed the avant-garde tendencies of the futuristic Teutonic music into electronics and funk. The legacy of this generation of musicians may have been lost to all but the most ardent collectors if not for the timely reminder of the folks at Hamburg's Bureau B label. Now into its third year, this year the campaign has unearthed some of its rarest gems to date, among them visionary solo and collaborative albums from the early '80s by Cluster members Dieter Moebius and Hans-Joachim Roedelius, as well as Jaki Liebezeit's Phantom Band.
Dimitri Nasrallah
M. Ostermeier Chance Reconstruction (Tench)
On his first full-length release, following two equally sublime minis early in the year, M. Ostermeier manages to quietly assemble a masterfully minimalist house of cards. While his peers in modern bedroom classical are numerous and distinguished, the Baltimore native elaborates on their current fancy for ghostly electronics married to stately acoustics with fundamental elegance. Each piece serves as hints to an eidolon; it's wisps of piano, bowed strings, remnant electrics describe the trace energies from great or sorrowful happenings as they slowly dissipate. Everything for a moment in its right place.
Eric Hill
ANBB Mimikry (Raster-noton)
Almost everything about Mimikry, the lauded collaboration between electro-acoustic wunderkind Alva Noto and former Bad Seeds guitarist Blixa Bargeld, is unsettling. The instrumentals skitter, hiss, and pop into an industrial-tinged desolation that perfectly captures the striking grey-scale cover art, while Blixa's warm yet detached vocals present different characters in each track, somewhere between "The Wasteland" by T.S. Eliot and "Eleanor Rigby" by the Beatles. Every track is a vignette of alienation and despair. One of the album's defining tracks, their cover of Harry Nilsson's classic "One," is even more melancholy than Aimee Mann's noted rendition. The warbling feline mimicking from famed '60s model/actress Veruschka brings this remarkable album to a climax along with Alva Noto's dilapidated organ and white noise instrumental, after which Blixa asks, "What is this? Where am I?" Indeed.
Alan Ranta
Mary Halvorson Quintet Saturn Sings (Firehouse 12)
Any player regularly invited to tour with instrumental ace Marc Ribot and avant-garde pioneer Anthony Braxton is clearly worthy of attention, and Halvorson justifies the spotlight with this compelling offering, her second as bandleader. Her compositional style owes a great deal to the work of Braxton (as she has acknowledged), while her playing explores wide and interesting sonic terrain. Saturn Sings marks the first time she has recorded with a horn section, a direction that warrants further exploration. Tracking her future progress promises to be interesting.
Kerry Doole
Chicago Underground Duo Boca Negra (Thrill Jockey)
It's unfortunate how little Rob Mazurek and Chad Taylor are able to reconvene these days because, when they do, they manipulate sound like few of their contemporaries. Boca Negra finds the two bolstering their cornet-and-drums configuration with computer processing and various other instruments, but the results retain their organic spirit ― improvisations and compositions mingling and interchanging in a heady, dream-like succession. Nothing is forced on Boca Negra, as it plunges the listener into soundscapes that are surreal and majestic.
Vish Khanna
