Early list for me as there’s a lot to get through! My list here is in alphabetical order only because I really don’t know where to start. Let us know what else you have and where you’re starting your day!
Aesop Rock x Blockhead - Garbology
First fully collaborative album between the underground rapper with the supposed largest vocabulary in hip-hop and his long-time beatmaker producer.
Alva Noto - Hybr:id I
Music commissioned for the score of ‘Oval’, the choreographic piece directed by Richard Siegal and performed by the Staatsballett Berlin at the Berlin State Opera in 2019. The process of creating HYbr:ID Vol. 1 was defined by the search for a form to bind astrophysics phenomena, fiction, and performance movements. Its narrative is inspired by cinematic visual techniques and static images portraying scientific events.
Batu - I Own Your Energy
Bass-heavy grooves, deep techno kinetics crafted for rave efficiency, with a dazzling sense of nuance, enriched by frisky and intoxicating sound design.
Blawan - Woke Up Right Handed
EP being billed as an evolution or at least a change in tone from the techno titan as he moves away from club-centred music and focuses on studio production.
Courtney Barnett - Things Take Time, Take Time
Lo-fi droll Australian indie pop.
Damon Albarn - The Nearer the Fountain, More Pure the Stream Flows
“Originally intended as an orchestral piece inspired by the landscapes of Iceland,” but the Blur frontman loves the sound of his own voice so much that “this last year has seen Albarn return to the music in lockdown and develop the work to 11 tracks which further explore themes of fragility, loss, emergence and rebirth. The result is a panoramic collection of songs with Albarn as storyteller”
Delmer Darion - Morning Pageants: Remixes
Joseph Shabason, Jefre Cantu-Ledesma and Anton from Squid are amongst the contributors of reworkings of tracks from last year’s fascinating industrial /IDM/folk /ancient record about the death of Satan.
Erika de Casier - The Sensational Remixes
Mura Masa and Eartheater amongst the contributors to this remix record of the Danish R&B star’s record from earlier this year.
Hoavi - Music For Six Rooms
Second release on the Balmat record label; Hoavi, aka Kirill Vasin, a Russian electronic musician, deepest dub techno, atmospheric ambient, liquid drum’n’bass
Idles - Crawler
Can the noisy, politicised post-punk group recover from the backlash against their third album Over Mono last year? Early reviews indicating that they may well do so. Kenny Beats on production for the full record is what has me interested (he had a hand on one song on over Mono).
Ill Considered - Liminal Space
First fully produced studio-album from the UK jazz group, featuring Theon Cross and Sarathy Korwar as guests.
Irreversible Entanglements - Open The Gate
Moor Mother-voiced ‘agit jazz’ - “ethereal shards of jagged onyx, a melancholic exploration of the post-colonial debris that surrounds us…the band stitches patient anthems out of atmosphere… pre- and post-apocalypse, as bass lurches in a tranced-out loop, horns are up in the track grooves like poltergeists playing in the streets, poetry cascades like a warrior call at a satsang, the drums both wild and refined pulse with uhuru-heart cadence…”
Jon Hopkins - Music for Psychedelic Therapy
On an LP timed to a ketamine high, Hoppers goes full on spiritual drug lord of electronica.
Jonny Greenwood - Spencer
Radiohead’s Jonny G’s score for the new Princess Die movie.
Logic1000 - In the Sweetness of You
Rising Australian star of the deep house scene with an EP with a more indoors focus than her recent out and out club bangers.
Malcolm Jiyane Tree-O - Umdali
Some really exciting South African jazz here - gospel-tinged anthemic melodies with big-band influenced bebop, this is music to feel alive to.
NOUS & Laraaji & Arji OceAnanda - Circle of Celebration
Members of Swans, Mercury Rev and Mùm are just a few of the vast and diverse cast contributing to this lengthy album of spiritual collaborative joyous music.
Portico Quartet - Monument
Recorded side-by-side with the ambient-minimalist Terrain released earlier this year, this is a more direct, danceable nu-jazz effort by all accounts.
Robin Guthrie - Pearl Diving
Yet more lush, layered guitar Instrumentals from the former Cocteau Twin
Rosie Low & Duval Timothy - Son
Collaboration borne of a shared love of choral music, using the voice as an instrument.
Silk Sonic - An Evening With Silk Sonic
Debut album for the R&B project of Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak.
Valentina Gontšarova - Recordings 1987-1991, Vol. 2
Second volume of recordings of a Ukrainian/Estonian artist making remarkable electroacoustic jazz influenced experimental music.
Xenia Xamanek - DELIRIO REAL
Danish/Honduran artist channeling the downtempo dancefloor dub of DJ Python; an unpredictable mix of synths, drum machines and guitar-led songwriting make for an enigmatic listen.