Top 20 of 2020 Part 2: #10-1

The Top 10 from my Top 20 of 2020 list.

Relevant Links:

Post on Floating Points Crush

Post on Venetian Snares Rossz Csillag Alatt Született 

Post on Kate Davis’ Trophy

Here's a Spotify playlist with representative tracks from the Top 20 of 2020

Top 20 of 2020 Part 1: #11-20

 The lower half of my annual Top 20 list!

November Albums 2020: Drawing the Line

Overview of November Albums for 2020, including:

Miles Davis – In a Silent Way (1969)
Animals as Leaders – The Joy of Motion (2014)
The Hawkins – Silence is a Bomb (2020)
Lunatic Soul – Walking on a Flashlight Beam (2014)
Hildur Guðnadóttir – Joker OST (2019) 

Fall Album Roundup 2020 Part 2: Songs of Whimsey and Grit

Roundup of new listening for Fall 2020, including comments on:

Bad Brains- I Against I (1986)
Sault- Untitled (Black Is) (2020)
Johann Johannson- IBM 1404, A User’s Manual (2006)
Tiger Moth Tales – Storytellers Parts 1 & 2 (2016/2018)
Aiming for Enrike – Music for Working Out (2020)
The Flaming Lips – American Head (2020)

Relevant links
An older text post on Johann Johansson

Fall Overview 2020 Part 1: Breaking the Streak

Hot takes and overviews of recent albums in rotation, including:

The Rentals – Q36 (2020)
Brittany Howard – Jaime (2019)
Ash Walker – Aquamarine (2019)
Master Boot Record – Virtuaverse.OST (2020)
Mohamed Assani – Wayfinder (2020)
George Clanton & Nick Hexum – George Clanton & Nick Hexum (2020) 

Relevant links:

Previous post on Pinkerton

Previous post on Slide

Best of 2018

Summer Album Overview 2020: Shades of Black pt. 2

Another overview as summer 2020 draws to a close, including:

Funkadelic – Maggot Brain (1971)

Heroes are Gang Leaders – The Amiri Baraki Sessions (2019)

Moses Sumney – Græ (2020)

The Koreatown Oddity – Little Dominique’s Nosebleed (2020)

MonoNeon – Living The Best Life And The Worst Life At The Same Damn Time (2019)

Marvin Gaye – What’s Going On? (1971)

Previous post in the Shades of Black series

Link to Robert Johnson post

And below is the ever-growing 2020 Radio playlist

Summer Album Overview 2020: Shades of Black pt.1

Overview of my mid-year music stimulus package, including:

Run the Jewels – RTJ4 (2020)

Damon Locks and the Black Monument Ensemble – Where Future Unfolds (2019)

Moor Mother – Analog Fluids of Sonic Black Holes (2019)

Afrikan Sciences – Centered (2019)

Shon Dervis – 16 (2018)

The Meters – Look-Ka Py Py (1970)

Relevant Links:

Review of Hama’s Houmeissa

The ever-growing 2020 Spotify Playlist

Album Overview 2020: A Month In Summer

An overview of recent listening, with albums by

Mother Yeti – My Best Please (2020)

Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith- The Mosaic of Transformation (2020)

Man Man – Dream Hunting in the Valley of the In-Between (2020)

Frank Zappa – You Can’t Do That On Stage Anymore v.4 (1988)

Carl Stone – Baroo (2019)

Markus Floats – Third Album (2020)

Album Overview Spring 2020: Quarantunes - The Sequel! (Part 2)

Overview of recent listening, including:

Fountains of Wayne – Welcome Interstate Managers (2003)

The Sorcerers – In Search of the Lost City of the Monkey God (2020)

Gaijin Blues – Gaijin Blues II (2019)

Brendan Benson – Dear Life (2020)

Stephan Thelan – Fractal Guitar (2019)

Other Lives – For Their Love (2020)

Relevant Links:

Previous post on Fountains of Wayne

An older pair of text posts (1,2) on Brendan Benson

An older text post on Other Lives Tamer Animals

The ever-growing 2020 playlist:

Spring Album Roundup Part 2: The Fo' Realz Quarantine Collection

A new album overview for late Spring 2020, including

J. Balvin – Colores (2020)

Brutus – Nest (2019)

Igorrr – Spirituality and Distortion (2020)

Mdou Moctar – Ilana, the Creator (2019)

Nine Inch Nails – Ghosts V: Together (2020)

Nine Inch Nails – Ghosts VI: Locusts (2020)

And the playlist grows!

Spring Album Overview Part 1: The Quarantine Collection

Overview of recent albums in rotation, including:

Steve Hackett: At the Edge of Light (2019)

avery r. young: tubman. (2019)

dumama + kechou: buffering juju (2020)

Dana Jean Phoenix: PixelDust (2018)

Anna Meredith: FIBS (2019)

Venetian Snares: Rossz Csillag Alatt Született (2005)

Relevant Links:

Older text review of Anna Meredith’s Varmits

Venetian Snares’ Traditional Synthesizer Music

2020 Spotify playlist

2020 Album Preview Series Part 3: The Melody Spectrum

More previews of new music for 2020, including:

Blood Incantation – Hidden History of the Human Race (2019)

Larry Gus – Subservience (2019)

Angel Olson - All Mirrors (2019)

No-Man - I Love You To Bits (2019)

James Blake – Assume Form (2019)

Various Artists – Kankyo Ongaku: Japanese Ambient, Environmental, and New Age Music 1980-1990 (2019)

Relevant Links:

Old text review of James Blake’s debut

Aaaand the ever-growing 2020 Spotify list....

2020 Album Preview Series Part 2: To Reshape the Cliche

Album previews for Spring 2020, including:

The Rentals – Return of the Rentals (1995)

Frank Zappa – You Can’t Do That On Stage Anymore Vol. 3 (1989)

John Williams – The Rise of Skywalker OST (2019)

Iron Maiden – Somewhere in Time (1986)

Saariselka – The Ground Our Sky (2019)

Stevie Ray Vaughn and Double Trouble – In Step (1989)

Related Links:

Overview of Weezer albums

Recent thoughts on Weezer’s Pinkerton AND Star Wars

Posts on Zappa’s You Can’t Do That On Stage Anymore Vol. 1 and Vol. 2

The ever-growing 2020 playlist

2020 Preview Series Part 1: The Hands-On Approach

Previews of new music for 2020, including:

Anamanaguchi – [USA] (2019)

Battles – Juice B Crypts (2019)

Crystal Beth – Push Through (2019)

Floating Points – Crush (2019)

Everything Everything- A Fever Dream (2017)

RPWL – Tales From Outer Space (2019)

Below is a widget to the 2020 playlist.  Watch it grow!