This week the drummer and bandleader Johnathan Blake lingers lightly over the life of Ana Grace Márquez-Greene, the daughter of the saxophonist Jimmy Greene and flautist Nelba Márquez-Greene, who died in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting almost a decade ago. Conjuring her lively presence and the blessing of her birth, Blake pays a form of tribute to his old bandmates while establishing a new quintet for his first album on Blue Note.
Megan Alice Clune filters tremulous voice through a myriad of technologies on her latest album of ambient minimalism, finding a liminal space amidst the pandemic somewhere between scattered Tokyo and the operatic confines of her Sydney home. The Manchester producer Clemency draws from dub and bleep techno on a two-track of tightly wound percussion and sub-bass slugs. And the Los Angeles composer Sarah Davachi offers a deeply resonant take on early music armed with a patched-up Mellotron and plenty of tape echo.
Gauzy covers enfold the selection, as Annie spins to Patrick Swayze and Dirty Dancing, Iggy Pop and the guitarist Matt Sweeney shred some Velvet Underground, and Moses Sumney launches his new creative agency Tuntun in the company of the saxophonist Sam Gendel with an effusive take on T-Pain. Lana Del Rey maps the United States of America as a carnal utopia, and Ari Lennox pays homage to some of the iconic divas of times past including Diana Ross & the Supremes, Donna Summer, and TLC.
Anna Shoemaker gets lovesick over glistening synths, Big Thief deal in certainties sure as the turning of the tide, and Tirzah taps out the hive mind while staying resolutely untethered. On her debut for Ninja Tune, Park Hye Jin finds solace in the dance floor, while for the multidisciplinary PAN, Marina Herlop plays with the cyclic rhythms and nonsense syllables of South India. Songs by Haviah Mighty, Kacey Musgraves, Bomba Estéreo, and Maxo Kream round out the latest set of new music.
Playlists: Spotify · Apple Music · YouTube
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Lana Del Rey – ‘Arcadia’
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Tirzah – ‘Hive Mind’ (feat. Coby Sey)
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Sarah Davachi – ‘Border of Mind’
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Kacey Musgraves – ‘simple times’
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박혜진 Park Hye Jin – ‘Let’s Sing Let’s Dance’
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Ari Lennox – ‘Pressure’
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Johnathan Blake – ‘Homeward Bound (for Ana Grace)’
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Bomba Estéreo – ‘Ahora’
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Moses Sumney – ‘Can’t Believe It’ (feat. Sam Gendel)
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Megan Alice Clune – ‘So Bored’
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Clemency – ‘Drum Circles Against Lamentation’
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Maxo Kream & Tyler, the Creator – ‘Big Persona’
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Annie – ‘She’s Like the Wind’
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Iggy Pop & Matt Sweeney – ‘European Son’
