From hyper-literate Oak Park the former National Youth Poet Laureate and fledgling songwriter Kara Jackson holds folk and country music in her thrall, cast through a captivating blend of brusque imagery, dolorous tones, and wayfaring melodies. Spurred by the death of her best friend and nourished by a small group of Chicago collaborators, including KAINA, Nnamdï, and Sen Morimoto, on her debut album Why Does The Earth Give Us People To Love? the singer and guitarist takes neither the gift nor weight of life for granted and still finds time to throw out some cactus-like barbs, squirreling romance while cutting off all the naysayers and dickheads.
Born in bustling Kaohsiung and currently based in Berlin, the producer SABIWA takes her own voice and the ancient nature-mimicking musics of the Thau, Bunun, Atayal, and other tribespeople from her native Taiwan as a starting point. Steady undulations punctuated by glottal stops give way to a psychedelic swirl of communal chanting, as SABIWA dissects field recordings and employs subterranean bass to turn her surrounds distinctly concrete, with bell chimes, drones, and scabrous feedback serving to blur or mask the moment of arrival.
Seeking refuge from the coronavirus pandemic at the Nyege Nyege villa in Kampala, the Ugandan rap dagger Mc Yallah hooks up with the Japanese chiptune and gabber veteran Scotch Rolex and the Congolese club sensualist Chrisman plus her Kubali partner in crime Debmaster. Penelope Trappes lifts the lid on her new imprint Nite Hive with more missives pertaining to the heavens and the other side, whose eight songs were recorded during a two-week residency for Britten Pears Arts using only her voice, an upright piano, and an old German reel-to-reel tape deck.
From long drags puffed or snarled out of tightly sculpted lips to quickened gasps borne of anxiety or wonder, the drummer and composer Lesley Mok considers a musical ensemble as a living force, sharing moments of frolic and palpitations of breath with a stellar cast encompassing David Leon, Yuma Uesaka, Adam O’Farrill, Kalun Leung, Cory Smythe, Joanna Mattrey, Aliya Ultan, Florian Herzog, and Weston Olencki. With the winnowing sax of Colin Stetson in tow, the smallpipes player Brìghde Chaimbeul draws inspiration from birdsong and weaves double-note drones as a way of gasping new life into Celtic folk traditions.
The saxophonist Walter Smith III shines alongside Taylor Eigsti, Matt Stevens, Harish Raghavan, and Ambrose Akinmusire on his Blue Note debut. From Antônio Carlos Jobim, Djavan, and Chico Buarque to Bill Evans, Billie Eilish, and The Beatles, with Mancini and Mercer, Stevie Wonder, and Sting nestled below or laced somewhere in between, the guitarists Chico Pinheiro and Romero Lubambo perform some of their favourite pieces and rejuvenate the Brazilian sound in an easy outpouring of their longstanding friendship.
Reuniting four years on from their first collaborative effort Hiding Places, the rapper billy woods and producer Kenny Segal tell stories of the road and the long way home alongside Danny Brown, ELUCID, Shabaka Hutchings, Sam Herring, Quelle Chris, Aesop Rock, Benjamin Booker, and ShrapKnel. Glüme partners with Sean Ono Lennon on a trio of warped odes to Los Angeles, plucking and pulling at the seedy underbelly of the City of Angels while laying bare all of the backseat dramas and unrequited romances which belie the age-old Hollywood dream, as the former child actor and internet infiltrator finally embraces her role as main character.
On their first volume as a trio, Eva Novoa braces her piano against the plunging bass of Masa Kamaguchi and cascading percussion of Gerald Cleaver as the composer marks her debut on the Brooklyn improvisational bastion 577 Records. Somewhere in the vicinity of Seaforth with its waterfront views and terraced houses, King Krule shows faith in the same eyes amid a world full of sundering. And the duo of Nava Dunkelman and gabby fluke-mogul conceive light as a conflagrative spark, passing hot coals amid the roiling flames and flickering embers.
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Eva Novoa, Masa Kamaguchi, Gerald Cleaver – ‘Paralelo’
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Nava Dunkelman & gabby fluke-mogul – ‘Momiji’
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Lesley Mok – ‘floral and full’
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Chico Pinheiro & Romero Lubambo – ‘Morro Dois Irmãos’
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Mc Yallah & Scotch Rolex – ‘Moss’
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Glüme & Sean Ono Lennon – ‘Brittany’
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Penelope Trappes – ‘A Seagull Learns To Sleep Alone’
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Brìghde Chaimbeul – ‘Pìobaireachd Nan Eun’ (feat. Colin Stetson)
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billy woods & Kenny Segal – ‘FaceTime’ (feat. Samuel T. Herring)
