Greetings, Afterword brothers and sisters,
We’ve all read so many “Albums of the year” lists now, that we’re full to bursting. But I hope you have room for at least one more helping. Because here comes the duco01 Favourite New Albums of 2016 list, and I like to think that it’s worth at least a quick glance. When I’ve done lists of previous years, I’ve restricted myself to 40 albums, but 2016 has been such an outstanding 12 months full of fine records that I’ve been compelled to expand the chart to an unprecedented 60 titles. And I still found there wasn’t room for albums by perennial favourites like Paul Simon and Lucinda Williams in the sixty.
Looking at the list, I see that 40 out of the albums are wholly or almost wholly instrumental, while only 20 are basically albums of songs. I don’t know why this is. I’ve certainly never made a conscious decision to seek out more music without the human voice on it; it’s just happened that way. One’s tastes mutate and evolve.
So here we are. I’ll start with the also-rans, numbers 41 to 60. But 2016 has been such a gem of a musical year that even these stragglers are well worth your attention…
41. Alasdair Roberts & James Green – Plaint of Lapwing
More keening, left-field wyrd folk from the estimable Glaswegian.
42. Claire M. Singer – Solas
Ms Singer finally puts 14 years of music from performance art on a double CD. Soundscapes built up from organ, cello and electronics.
43. Dead Light – Dead Light
Debut album by English ambient/tape loop/synth duo. Rather nice.
44. Glenn Jones – Fleeting
Another fine US guitarist in the John Fahey/Jack Rose tradition. Lovely.
45. Daniel Bachman – Daniel Bachman
US primitive guitarist stretches out into some more raga territory here.
46. C Joynes & Nick Jonah Davis – Spill Electric
Two English guitarists duelling mightily through two sides of caustic instrumentals. A bit like Tom Verlaine and Richard Lloyd trying to play different selections from the John Fahey songbook at the same time. Obscure but well worth tracking down.
47. Palle Sollinger & Fredrik Hermansson – Brännkyrkagatan 44
Some exquisite, brief jazz piano and double bass duets recorded in someone’s front room in central Stockholm (plus a little clarinet here and there). Anyone who likes the Keith Jarrett/Charlie Haden duet albums would go for this, I reckon
48. Allen Toussaint – American Tunes
A worthy farewell by the N’Orleans keyboard legend.
49. Itasca – Open to Chance
Promising young female singer-singwriter from Los Angeles
50. Brigaden – Om Lill, Jesus, Alberto och våra föräldrar
Brassy, good-time Swedish folk-jazz
51. Mathias Landaeus – From the Piano
Landaeus states categorically that the only instrument used on this album is an upright piano. So the bits that sound like a synthesizer and percussion must be him doing very weird things with the piano. Bizarre but intriguing.
52. Peter Broderick – Music for Confluence
A beautiful piano-based soundtrack from the versatile and prolific Oregonian.
53. Dana Falconberry & Medicine Bow – From the Forest Came the Fire
All Joanna Newsom fans, please step this way
54. Chris Forsyth & the Solar Motel Band – The Rarity of Experience Pts. I & II
Forsyth’s full, casually abrasive guitar sound still reminds me a bit of Television, but with fewer vocals and a somewhat more down-home style.
55. Trio Medieval – Aquilonis
Commendable ECM outing by Norwegian female classical vocal/instrumental trio.
56. Dylan Golden Aycock – Church of Level Track
Scissor Tail Records are on target again with this stylish Oklahoman fingerpicker.
57. Kenneth James Gibson – The Evening Falls
A fine, fine slice of US ambient loveliness
58. Christine Ott – Only Silence Remains
The ondes martenot is one of the strangest musical instruments ever. Hear it here!
59. Per Oddvar Johansen – Let’s Dance
Typically plangent Norwegain chamber jazz.
60. Michael Kiwanuka – Love and Hate
Starts off better than it finishes
The chart continues soon!
I was getting worried that this most essential of lists was taking a sabbatical this year. I’m very glad that this is not the case.
Now I know which gigs I may be attending in 2017.
Re #58.
I saw the Berlin Philharmonic (Simon Ratte conducting, as I recall) do a concert at Liverpool Philharmonic Hall a few years back, the main piece was a modern classical piece, with the main instrument being said ondes martenot.
On the way up, I said to my companion “What will it be like?”
He replied “Put it like this, you won’t be humming the tune on the way home…”.
I was there too. It was Messiaen’s Turangalila, written in the 1940s. A fantastic piece of music although like any great work it needs several (at least 6?) listens.
It was an incredible listen, it has to be said.
It had a very recognisable leitmotif as I recall.
Oooh! I’ve heard of most of these. (‘Heard of’ not ‘heard’.)
Just playing Joynes and Davis – first track sounds like a fuzz electric Leo Kottke – great!
“Plangent” -had to look that one up.
Glad you like the Joynes/Davis, Junior.
I think Elvis Costello’s music publishers are “Plangent Visions”, or something like that.
As we all know, only 25 albums are eligible for the overall Afterword 2016 albums poll that’s being compiled, so without further ado, here comes my next batch – the albums from 26 to 40 that are lurking just below the positions that gain points in that illustrious chart.
26. Einar Scheving – Intervals
The Icelandic chamber jazz album of the year. Oh yes!
27. Jan Lundgren – The Ystad Concert: A Tribute to Jan Johansson
Concert given by Swedish pianist Lundgren (and a string quartet) in tribute to an illustrious predecessor of his, the great Jan Johansson, who died in a car crash in 1968, aged only 37.
28. Kacy & Clayton – Strange Country
Beguiling folk duo: two cousins from Saskatchewan – one female, one male. Sound like their influences are more British than North American. A short album, but a good ‘un. I can imagine quite a few Afterworders going for this.
29. North Sea Radio Orchestra – Dronne
Craig Fortnum and his NSRO pals again conjure up the sweetest large-ensemble chamber folk, somewhat in the spirit of the Penguin Café Orchestra.
30. Three Cane Whale – Palimpsest
The odd little chamber folk trio from Bristol continue to make enchanting sounds
31. Aziza Brahim – Abbar El Hamada
Charming, very accessible desert blues from Western Sahara
32. John Zorn (and the Gnostic Trio) – The Mockingbird
Bill Frisell (guitar), Carol Emanuel (harp) and Kenny Wollesen (vibes) present another delicate, mesmerizing suite of compositions by the superhumanly productive Zorn.
33. Andrew Bird – Are You Serious
His second best album, after “Break it Yourself”
34. Allison Miller’s Tic Tic Boom – Otis was a Polar Bear
The only proper, swinging American jazz album in my Top 60. How strange.
35. Nathan Bowles – Whole and Cloven
Paradise of Bachelors Records can do no wrong with their roster of modern fingerpickers.
36. Bartosz Kruczyński – Baltic Beat
Beautiful, relaxing piano-based ambient work inspired by the beaches on the Baltic coast of Poland.
37. East of the Valley Blues – EOTVB
Torontonian brothers Kevin and Patrick Cahill serve up some tasty American Primitive guitar in a duo format.
38. Mats Eilertsen – Rubicon
Thoroughly enjoyable ECM outing from the Norwegian double-bassman’s all-star septet.
39. P.J. Harvey – The Hope Six Demolition Project
A bit like “Let England Shake”. But not quite as good.
40. Chuck Johnson – Velvet Arc
Absolutely first rate ‘American primitive’ guitarist. Not quite as stripped-down and bare as his two previous outings. More of a fleshed-out band sound.
That’s all for now. Numbers 11 to 25 coming up later!
I shall ignore this thread. Duco is obviously really a Russian hacker hell bent on bringing the West to its knees simply by luring us all into deep, unsurvivable personal debt.
I know you can hardly contain your excitement. We’re down to numbers 11 to 25. Feast your eyes on these platters that mattered…
11. Johánn Johánnsson – Orphée
Johánnsson is suddenly a pretty big star in the world of ambient and modern chamber/classical music. It couldn’t happen to a more deserving guy.
12. Markus Stockhausen & Florian Weber – Alba
Very lovely and surprisingly delicate piano/trumpet duo album on ECM
13. Littlebow – Three
Very English instrumental trio: flutes, cello, harp, piano, clarinet. Sounds like a modern cousin of Virginia Astley’s “From Gardens Where We Feel Secure” LP from 1983.
https://littlebow.bandcamp.com/album/three-2
14. Mammal Hands – Floa
Gondwana Records’ fourth signing make a big step forward from their debut. Some top tunes here.
15. Brigid Mae Power – Brigid Mae Power
Sounds a bit like Elizabeth Fraser out of the Cocteau Twins singing slightly folkier material.
16. David Bowie – Blackstar
Erm … you know this one, right?
17. Ryley Walker – Golden Sings that have been Sung
My favourite of his three albums so far.
18. Sokratis Sinopoulos Quartet – Eight Winds
I’ve only just received this. It’s the most recent purchase on the list, and it sounds really good. Maybe if I’d had it a couple of weeks longer, it would’ve been top 5. If you like the sound of the Greek lyra and you like the glacial, spacey ECM house vibe, then you must hear this. One for late winter evenings.
19. Djelimady Tounkara – Djely Blues
The aging Malian guitar maestro records fairly sparingly nowadays, but when the albums finally arrive, they’re always ones to cherish.
20. Dele Sosimi Meets Prince Fatty/Nostalgia 77 – You No Fit Touch Am in Dub
Someone had the brilliant idea of doing a dub version of the You No Fit Touch Am album by former Fela Kuti keyboardist Dele Sosimi. If you like Afrobeat AND dub, then buy with confidence.
21. Steve Gunn – Eyes on the Lines
This sounds like all Steve Gunn’s other albums. But that means it sounds good.
22. Marisa Anderson – Into the Light
“Written as the soundtrack to an imaginary science-fiction western film”, apparently. And she makes a pretty good job of it, too.
23. Ilya Beshevli – Wanderer
Solo piano player from the frozen Siberian wilderness. Beautiful, and always very accessible pieces.
24. Paolo Fresu, Richard Galliano & Jan Lundgren – Mare Nostrum II
Kaisfatdad bought me this for my birthday. A trumpet, accordion and piano trio. The telepathy between these guys is really something.
25. The Hardy Tree – Through Passages of Time
‘The Hardy Tree’ is Frances Castle, the illustrator behind Clay Pipe Records’ beautiful artwork. Now she’s put out some music, too: an instrumental suite with plenty of moog and mellotron. Nice.
The Top 10 are coming up in due course…
ooh, I like the sound of that Dele Sosimi. I have the Prince Fatty Meets Nostalgia 77 In The Kingdom Of Dub album, which closes with an Afrobeat-y number:
Similar vein?
Hmmm … yes, I’d say the Dele Sosimi is in a roughly similar vein. I reckon it’d be your cup of tea, Mr Dynamite.
And I know I’m pre-empting my Reissues and Historical Recordings chart, but you must hear the Dub Store reissue of Errol Brown’s “Orthodox Dub,” too. What a marvellous year it’s been for fans of vintage reggae and dub.
Ordered! Don’t suppose it’ll be here til New Year now, but I’ll keep you posted.
Will investigate Errol Brown as well, thanks.
Perfect night driving music, that.
Another one to investigate.
I like this gradual reveal technique. All these will get one point each in the end of year poll and Mammal Hands is in my basket along with Dele Sosimi.
Oh my poor wallet…
How do you get time to listen to all this new music?
Ah, I’m glad you asked me that, Wheaty.
I have six ears, and I assign each one of them a tip-top new album to listen to. Et voilà. Simple!
Ah. I’d assumed that Acme had finally perfected this: https://theafterword.co.uk/invent-something-now-and-get-rich/#comment-150171
Mmmm!
Happy Christmas.
Did you receive my message Uncle?
Yes I did thank you. I was looking for something for her on the day and I will probably leave it for now but get in touch in better time next year!
OK. No problem. Good luck in your search.
Afterworders, I feel that the time has come to unveil numbers 6 to 10 in my modest little list.
Are you ready for five absolute corkers? Here we go…
6. Various Artists – Day of the Dead
A 5CD box of Grateful Dead covers. No – wait! Come back! It’s really good. Honestly it is. Bryce and Aaron Dessner of the National do a sterling job in curating and producing the whole set, and appearing on a few tracks as well. The collection is something that can be enjoyed by Deadheads and non-Deadheads alike. There are fresh new takes on around 60 Dead songs from artists as diverse as Orchestra Baobab, Tim Hecker, Béla Fleck and the Flaming Lips. I prefer many of the versions to the Dead’s originals, and for me that’s no mean feat.
7. Leyla McCalla – A Day for the Hunter, a Day for the Prey
Second solo album by cellist and vocalist McCalla, a former member of Carolina Chocolate Drops. She lives in New Orleans and her parents are from Haiti, and so the francophone influence on her music is strong from two directions. A lovely sparse sound. Spiritual, deep roots music from the Americas. Highly, highly recommended.
8. Conscious Sounds & Partial Records – Hackney Dub
A modern approach to dub, from a couple of East London crews. The main guy behind it seems to be the Hackney-based dubmaster Dougie Wardrop. An uncompromising and riveting sound.
9. Jean-Michel Blais – Il
Phenomenal set of supremely melodic solo piano pieces by obscure French Canadian chap. If you like Chilly Gonzales’s “Solo Piano” album, then dive in.
http://jeanmichelblais.com/#videos
10. Suzanne Vega – Lover, Beloved: Songs from an evening with Carson McCullers
This is from some 2011 stage show about the life of “The Heart is a Lonely Hunter” hitmaker. Ms Vega writes a set of songs that are light and witty – bouncier and jazzier than her standard material. This may be her best ever record, at the age of 57.
Those Chocolate Drops are delicious, aren’t they?
That’s it for today, then, Afterworders.
Sorry to keep you on tenterhooks, but I’ll be back tomorrow with the mighty Top Five in the chart that everyone’s talking about.
Any chance of a curated Spotify playlist or similar ? I have prior knowledge of 4 of those artists so far…
I always do a playlist of the Duke’s List, Harold.
Give me a half a day and it will be done.
Continuing the gradual reveal technique until the end, I’m now going to unleash numbers 2 to 5 in my modest little chart:
2. Yorkston/Khan/Thorne – Everything Sacred
Did you hear the one about the Mancunian, the Fifer and the Indian? They made one of the best jazz/Scottish folk/Indian fusion albums of all time! Most crossover projects seem to be less than the sum of their parts, but this one is somehow more. Would love to see them perform it live.
3. Andy Shauf – The Party
Third album by singer-songwriter from Saskatchewan, Canada. A sort of a concept album, apparently, focusing on the various people attending a party in a small town. Shauf has a thin, whiny voice which I find strangely appealing. Most of all, his songs and the arrangements of them remind me of the great, much-missed Elliott Smith.
4. Lloyd Swanton – Ambon
Lloyd Swanton is the double-bass player of the Necks. Ambon is a 2CD + book package which tells the true story of Lloyd’s uncle, Stuart Swanton, who died in a Japanese PoW camp in 1945. Lloyd has done his uncle proud. He’s assembled a 13-piece ensemble to tell the musical story of camp life in those terrible years through a series of hymns and instrumental pieces.
5. Ryan Teague – Site Specific
This one goes out to Afterworder Mike_H (I think), whole alerted everyone to Ryan Teague a couple of months back. Eight instrumentals played on a Fender Rhodes, guitar, percussion and bass clarinet. Jazz-informed, but not jazz. A very rewarding listen.
Can you guess what going to be no.1, readers? clue. It’s an album that I hadn’t seen mentioned on the Afterword at all – not once – until yesterday…
I guess Mammoth Weed Wizard Bastard are out, then.
And here, ladies and gentlemen, is my number one. Sadly, not Mammoth Weed Wizard Bastard, but this:
1. Chaim Tannenbaum – Chaim Tannenbaum
Top of the heap is a guy who’s made his debut album at the age of 69. It was worth the wait. I was going to say something like “No one’s mentioned it on the Afterword at all,” but yesterday Artery pipped me at the post and sang its praises in the “Best Albums of 2016” thread. One could hardly imagine a more Afterword-friendly album: Tannenbaum has been an associate of and sung with the McGarrigles and the Wainwrights for decades. The rest of the time, he’s had a day job as a university lecturer in philosophy in Montreal. The album is sensitively produced by modern US folk musicologist Dick Connette, with sleeve notes by the great Joe Boyd.
Most of the tracks are traditional folk and spiritual numbers, beautifully arranged and sung. There’s also a respectful version of Kate McGarrigle’s “(Talk to Me of) Mendocino” sung with Kate’s ex-husband Loudon Wainwright. Best of all are the two original songs – “Brooklyn 1955,” about Tannenbaum’s childhood in the Jewish quarter of Flatbush, and the 10-minute “London, Longing for Home,” about the five rainy months he spent in central London in 1971. Evoking the spirit of Edmund Spenser, it’s a wistful, elegiac piece, and unquestionably my favourite song of the year.
In “Brooklyn 1955,” he sings of watching the Brooklyn Dodgers at Ebbets Field. Well, to use the corniest old baseball metaphor, Tannenbaum, in his debut appearance, has stepped up to the plate and hit the ball clean out of the park.
Magnificently maintained excitement and suspense, Mr D. Were you a fan dancer in a previous life?
Not the Mammoth Weeders? You like to live dangerously. I anticipate a new Pitchfork Rebellion.
There you go @Harold_Holt and anyone else. Dive into Ducoland.
Obviously there are no tracks from artists on ECM. And if the latest album is not on Spotify. I took the liberty of taking a track from a previous album.
I knew 16 of the artists on this list and have seen 10 of them live at some point or another. And what I do know I like a lot, which bodes well for the other stuff.
What’s going on? Is the Duke mellowing or am I starting to get far more off piste in my listening?
I suspect this playlist would make a very good late-night listen
Good point. Is the Duke becoming more Afterword or is The Afterword becoming more Duke?
I’m almost disappointed…not only have I heard of many of these albums, I actually own eight of them! Are you feeling quite well, Duco? 😉
Tigger, Locust … age is clearly mellowing me at an alarming rate. I suddenly find myself heading towards the middle of the road. In twelve months’ time, you can expect to see the duco01 Favourite Albums of 2017 full of challenging, radical works by the like of Michael Bublé, Richard Clayderman and James Last.
My nan loved Michael Bublé! She was 94 when she died.
OK, OK, its got to be said. I like Chaim Tannenbaum the instrumentalist, and, as acknowledged elsewhere, I liked the idea of his album. But it is too late for me to purchase, so, for a change, I have spotified. Thank christ it was too late. Sorry, Duco, fabulous tunes, but he sings like a lemon. Think the comments about Tom Paxton in the thread that has popped about him. He sounds like the description: overly earnest from the 60s.
That has saved me a tenner or whatever…….
Spotify is the modern equivalent of those small booths they used to have in record shops. Except you can now listen in the comfort of your own home while enjoying a cup of tea or whatever. No need to buy a pig in a poke!
When were those listening booths discontinued? Many a happy hour spent in them during my 6th form years. Oh! The nostalgia!
This site has some wonderful b & w photos of the old HMV shop in Oxford Street
http://www.voicesofeastanglia.com/2011/11/more-from-the-hmv-oxford-street-store.html
Been travelling so only just reading the thread. As ever some intriguing, some disturbing, some appealing and some downright weird.
Oh, Chaim really cannot sing – a male reincarnation of Florence Foster Jenkins.
Huge thanks Duco (and also to Kai for the Spotify thingie)
I was in St Nick’s Market this afternoon, and flashing back to this thread, I picked up a copy of the Hackney Dub LP from the little reggae shop. Very good it is too. Thanks for the heads up, @duco01 (although I would have got it a lot quicker if you’d mentioned it starts with a dub to the Imperial March from Star Wars)
Glad you like it, Mr Dynamite!
I think it’s a record that, while paying tribte to the classic Jamaican dub sound of the 70s, isn’t a slavish copy. It’s a modern, 2016 London take on the dub genre that stands up well on its own terms.
Incidentally, have you seen that Burning Sounds have reissued Elroy Bailey’s “Red Hot Dub” set from 1979? Could be worth a punt…
And it’s on Spotify!
That does sound excellent.
Just goes to show too that people do take note of what gets mentioned here, even if that’s not immediately apparent.
Excellent. I enjoyed that.
Now where did I put that chalice…