Saturday, January 30, 2016


Music Week

Music: Current count 27708 [27673] rated (+35), 366 [363] unrated (+3).

Most of what I have to say both about new music and EOY lists has already appeared in last week's Streamnotes post. Since then I added the new David Weiss album to my nascent 2017 A-list. Still almost exclusively jazz because that's what I have physical copies of, but I'm working on the xx -- new album is as slow to catch as the old ones, but Tatum likes it a lot and I'm sorta getting there.

Updated EOY Aggregate file to include the Village Voice's Pazz + Jop results, as well as Robert Christgau's ean's List. I wrote some extra code for the latter to include the reviews in the CG database -- all but eight records appear (some appeared at Noisey after my last update, some have yet to appear).

Glenn McDonald's tabulation of Pazz + Jop results is here. I didn't see a link to this at from the Voice site, so I'm personally late in looking at it. Here's my own ballot analysis: my centricity score was 0.887 (451 of 542), less than my historic average, although I only voted for one record this time that no one else listed (Chemistry, by Houston Person & Ron Clarke, one of those marvelous mainstream sax albums I'm so partial to). Still, the hive think this year was such that I fell into the most obscurantist decile despite voting for three albums with 10+ other votes: Drive-By Truckers (55), Brandy Clark (20), Aesop Rock (10). The most similar ballots to mine were by Todd Kristel (3 common albums; he was the only other voter for Aly Keita's Kalo-Yele; 9 of his albums were on my A-list, the only exception a *** for Car Seat Headrest, and he was the only one to vote for Tom Zé's Canções Eróticas de Ninar) and Tim Riley (2 common albums, DBT and Clark, only 6 A-list, I wasn't among his 16 most similar ballots).

Among voters I've been similar to in the past, Jason Gubbels had my 6th most similar ballot (common votes for David Murray and Brandy Clark; 7 A-list, 3 ***), and Michael Tatum was 12th (common vote for DBT, 6 A-list, 2 ***, 2 lower). Tatum's most similar ballot belonged to Robert Christgau (not on my common list, but we both had DBT, and he had 9 of my A-list albums plus one ***), so if the ballots went deeper we would have been more similar. Looking at these lists, perhaps I should reconsider Car Seat Headrest and American Honey. I wouldn't be surprised if either rose a notch if I bothered to give them much more time. By the way, Gubbels' long, unranked EOY list is here.

I hope to resume work on the Jazz Guide(s), which got interrupted a couple months ago due to a computer crash.


New records rated this week:

  • Rez Abbasi & Junction: Behind the Vibration (2015 [2016], Cuneiform): [bc]: B+(**)
  • Shirley Collins: Lodestar (2016, Domino): [r]: B+(***)
  • Stephan Crump/Ingrid Laubrock/Cory Smythe: Planktonic Finales (2015 [2017], Intakt): [cd]: B+(*)
  • Tim Daisy's Celebration Sextet: The Halfway There Suite (2016, Relay): [bc]: B+(**)
  • Tim Daisy: Red Nation "1" (2016 [2017], Relay): [cd]: B+(**)
  • Frank Gratkowski/Alexey Kruglov/Simon Nabatov/Oleg Yudanov: Leo Records 35th Anniversary Moscow (2014 [2015], Leo): [r]: B+(*)
  • Barry Guy & Ken Vandermark: Occasional Poems (2014 [2015], |Not Two, 2CD): [r]: B+(***)
  • I.P.A.: I Just Did Say Something (2016, Cuneiform): [dl]: B+(**)
  • Led Bib: Umbrella Weather (2016 [2017], RareNoise): [cdr]: B+(*)
  • Terrace Martin: Velvet Portraits (2016, Ropeadope): [r]: B
  • Dave Rempis/Elisabeth Harnik/Michael Zerang: Wistfully (2013 [2016], Aerophonic): [bc]: B+(*)
  • Dave Rempis/Joe Morris/Tomeka Reid/Jim Baker: Nettles (2013 [2016], Aeroponic): [bc]: B+(*)
  • Dave Rempis/Darren Johnston/Larry Ochs: Neutral Nation (2015 [2016], Aerophonic): [bc]: B
  • Dawn Richard: Redemption (2016, Our Dawn): [r]: B+(**)
  • Richmond Fontaine: You Can't Go Back if There's Nothing to Go Back To (2016, Fluff & Gravy): [r]: B+(***)
  • Free Nelson Mandoomjazz: The Organ Grinder (2016, RareNoise): [r]: B+(*)
  • Slava Ganelin/Lenny Sendersky: Hotel Cinema (2016, Leo): [r]: B+(**)
  • Le Rex: Wild Man (2014 [2015], Cuneiform): [dl]: B+(*)
  • Simon Nabatov Trio: Picking Order (2015 [2016], Leo): [r]: B+(**)
  • Qasim Naqvi: Chronology (2016, New Amsterdam): [bc]: B
  • Jeff Rosenstock: Worry (2016, Side One Dummy): [r]: B+(*)
  • Xenia Rubinos: Black Terry Cat (2016, Anti): [r]: B+(*)
  • Richard Sears Sextet: Altadena (2015 [2016], Ropeadope): [r]: B+(**)
  • Kandace Springs: Soul Eyes (2016, Blue Note): [r]: B
  • Jonah Tolchin: Thousand Mile Night (2016, Yep Roc): [r]: B+(**)
  • Yves Tumor: Serpent Music (2016, Pan): [r]: B+(*)
  • David Weiss & Point of Departure: Wake Up Call (2015 [2017], Ropeadope): [cd]: A-
  • Weyes Blood: Front Row Seat to Earth (2016, Mexican Summer): [r]: B-

Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries rated this week:

  • African Head Charge: Return of the Crocodile (1981-86 [2016], On-U Sound): [r]: B+(**)
  • Bitori: Legend of Funana: The Forbidden Music of the Cape Verde Islands (1997 [2016], Analog Africa): [r]: B+(***)
  • Gqom Oh! The Sound of Durban Vol 1 (2016, Goom Oh!): [bc]: B+(*)
  • Elvis Presley: Way Down in the Jungle Room (1976, RCA/Legacy, 2CD): [r]: B+(*)
  • Putumayo Presents: African Rumba (1962-2015 [2016], Putumayo World Music): [cd]: A-
  • Senegal 70: Sonic Gems and Previously Unreleased Recordings From the 70s (1970s [2015], Analog Africa): [r]: B+(**)
  • Space Echo: The Mystery Behind the Cosmic Sound of Cabo Verde Finally Revealed! (1977-85 [2016], Analog Africa): [r]: B+(**)

Old music rated this week:

  • James Luther Dickinson: Dixie Fried (1972, Atlantic): [r]: B
  • James Luther Dickinson: Jungle Jim and the Voodoo Tiger (2006, Memphis International): [r]: B+(**)
  • James Luther Dickinson: Dinosaurs Run in Circles (2009, Memphis International): [r]: B+(**)


Grade changes:

  • Fanfare Ciocarlia: 20 (1996-2016 [2016], Asphalt Tango): [r]: [was B:+(***)] A-


Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:

  • Heather Bambrick: You'll Never Know (self-released): February 10
  • Josh Green & the Cyborg Orchestra: Telepathy & Bop (self-released): March 2
  • Donny Most: Mostly Swinging (Summit)

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