In the fall of 2020 in the backyard of Chicali Outpost in Los Angeles, the drummer Daniel Villarreal was joined by the guitarist Jeff Parker and bassist Anna Butterss for the first in-person recording session any of the participants had mustered as an ensemble since the start of the pandemic. Some of the resulting music appeared on Panamá 77, the verdant suite of jazz-laced folk-funk which Villarreal released through International Anthem last year, but most of it remained hitherto unreleased. Through the insistent taps of two drum sticks and arcing bass which descends like a knife through the proverbial cream stuff before lilting guitar licks linger in the gloaming groove, over ‘Sunset Cliffs’ this week Villarreal introduces Lados B which pulls from those two autumnal afternoon sessions, informed by the Latin funk of Fania Records and the otherworldly trance of Brain Records while Parker and Butterss draw upon their extensive shared experience playing free.
Closing in on twenty years as a collective, following their previous album Voices which featured an assortment of vocalists including Laura Veir, Holland Andrews, Peter Broderick, Laura Gibson and Edna Vazquez, the Portland quintet Blue Cranes starring the saxophonists Reed Wallsmith and Joe Cunningham, the drummer Ji Tanzer, the keyboardist Rebecca Sanborn and bassist Jon Shaw turned towards twelve-tone, through-composition and non-linear modes of songwriting in a bid to break through their own perceptions of an incipient harmonic rut. As much a retort to the strictures of twelve-tone serialism, on the standout track ‘Gaviota’ from their new album My Only Secret the quintet evoke the minimalism of John Adams through intertwining melodies and an extended coda, where rattling percussion plays off the lilting upswing of John Powers on trombone and John C. Savage on flute.
Tangling rods with some of America’s finest bass anglers on their pandemic-era fishing expedition Catch and Release, the duo of Lungs and S!LENCE wade and snap through brackish waters on tracks like ‘Exposed Toes In Alaska’, ‘Bass Rats’, the grisly jazz vamp of ‘Midnight Mass’ and ‘Up The River No Paddle’ which features their frequent collaborator phiik. Like old melodies manifesting through the subconscious, from the wafting impermanence of Dust comes the slow smear and pungent aftertaste of Ash as the violist Mat Maneri leads his now familiar quartet through the second installment of an intended trilogy, with the drummer Randy Peterson and bassist John Hébert joined by the glinting keys and folk stylings of the pianist Lucian Ban.
Two of the best records of the year to date – the twisted torments and limpid desires of Dog Dreams (개꿈) by Lucy Liyou, which swapped molten piano instrumentals and text-to-speech snippets for a staccato of saliva sounds and a more fulsome embrace of pansori, and the hushed whispers and spectral zither refrains of Slowly Forgetting, Barely Remembering by the Polish composer Martyna Basta – get tactile and tenebrous addenda on the third edition by Doyenne, the do-it-yourself publisher and record label which explores transient forms and the divine feminine, headed up by the London-born sound artist Flora Yin Wong.
Through the shining skies of an august Sunday, the flautist Joe Melnicove continues to explore the ups and downs of life as a working artist alongside Ben Street on bass, Billy Hart on drums, and his mentor the saxophonist George Garzone. The son of a man who was active in the Zimbabwe War of Independence, the Backwoodz rapper billy woods comes through with an evocative verse on the keenly anticipated new album by Noname which wonders whither salvation, from Nairobi the scabrous noisemaker Slikback sends serrated shards of isolation, Tomu DJ embarks on a crazy trip, while Laurel Halo unveils the latest graph from her upcoming album Atlas in the form of the title track which features Lucy Railton on cello and James Underwood on violin.
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Daniel Villarreal – ‘Sunset Cliffs’
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S!LENCE & Lungs – ‘Up The River No Paddle’ (feat. phiik)
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Joe Melnicove – ‘Sky Shines On August Sunday’
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Noname – ‘gospel?’ (feat. $ilkMoney, billy woods and STOUT)
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