Author: A Maxwell

2024 Viewing

This film journaling sat as a draft in a digital moth drawer for several months, which may say more about a waning compulsion for listmaking than for my general appetite for filmgoing, which is still hale in tendency and frequency. I projected north of fifty films in 2024 at 2220, while still making it out in front of myriad other screens, from airplane backseats to microcinemas to Euro IMAX megatheaters.

My favorite films were still often ‘small’ and specific, fully unpredictable and with a sense of wilderness and invention. The top and bottom of the first list below were both undistributed films I projected at 2220 Arts – the first by Lois Patiño the most visually spectacular feature I’ve seen in a year, seconded only by the radically self-conscious chiaroscuro of Robert Eggers’s vampire pastische. My other dominant memory of the year was watching the new restoration of Chantal Akerman’s Toute une nuit at LAFM, which was perfection, and which sent me back to Akerman’s neglected 80s films, including a couple home viewings of Golden Eighties (super!).

Here are ten that rise to the top of sustaining memory from 2024:

  • Samsara – Lois Patiño
  • Universal Language – Matthew Rankin
  • Soundtrack to a Coup D’Etat – Johan Grimonprez
  • All We Imagine As Light – Payal Kapadia
  • Janet Planet – Annie Baker
  • Sing Sing – Greg Kwedar
  • Here – Bas Devos
  • La Chimera – Alice Rohrwacher
  • Perfect Days – Wim Wenders
  • Invention – Courtney Stephens

Another ten that struck me as strange, specific or strong in their voices and visions:

  • A Different Man – Aaron Schimberg
  • The Beast – Bertrand Bonello
  • Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point – Tyler Taorima
  • GIFT / Evil Does Not Exist – Ryusuke Hamaguchi
  • Good One – India Donaldson
  • Green Border – Agnieszka Holland
  • I’m Still Here – Walter Salles
  • Nocturnes – Anupama Srinivasan, Anirban Dutta
  • Nosferatu (IMAX version) – Robert Eggers
  • Totem – Lila Aviles

And in the spirit of journaling, some others that had their moments: Anora, A Real Pain, Challengers, Civil War, Close Your Eyes, Dahomey, Didi, Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World, Hard Truths, Hit Man, Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person, It’s Not Me, Last Summer, Starve Acre, The Substance.

2024: Best Listens

Eighty LPs that tutored me throughout the year, including a healthy selection of Los Angeles metro catalyzers, global genii, and archival rediscoveries that push the horizons forward and back, revisioning all settlements in between.

20 faves

Specific to no place or point of origin, the ones that came down what-strange pipes and kept sounding me out.

20 from LA

A selection of local burners and new releases, roughly half of which we hosted record releases for at 2220 Arts, or which found themselves in high rotation in the bar and theater. A good sample of the vibrant LA community that sustains and inspires 2220 as a living room for venturesome sound artists and all-genre music.

  • Anna Butterss – Mighty Vertebrate
  • Barry Archie Johnson – Fortune’s Mirror
  • Carlos Niño & Friends – Placenta
  • Celia Hollander – Perfect Conditions
  • Chris Cohen – Paint a Room
  • claire rousay – Sentiment
  • Dave Harrington, Max Jaffe, Patrick Shiroishi – Speak, Moment
  • Devin Daniels – LesGo!
  • Itasca – Imitation of War
  • Jessica Pratt – Here in the Pitch
  • Julia Holter – Something in the Room She Moves
  • Josh Johnson – Unusual Object
  • Marina Allen – Eight Pointed Star
  • Mary Lattimore & Walt McClements – Rain on the Road
  • mk.Gee – Two Star & The Dream Police
  • R.A.P Ferreira + Fumitake Tamura – the First Fist to Make Contact When We Dap
  • Salami Rose Joe Louis + Flanafi – Sarah
  • Sharada Shashidhar – Soft Echoes
  • SML – Small Medium Large
  • Tashi Wada – What Is Not Strange?

Top 40 long-players from elsewhere

An expanded top 40 from outside Los Angeles, most frequently returned to over the course of the year.

  • Abdullah Miniawy – NigmaEnigma أ​ن​ي​ج​م ا​ل​ن​َ​ج​م
  • Arooj Aftab – Night Reign
  • Caroline Shaw + So Percussion – Rectangles and Circumstance
  • Cindy Lee – Diamond Jubilee
  • Dana Gavanski – LATE SLAP
  • Dina Ögun – Orion
  • Earth Flower (Ruth Garbus, Sam Gendel) – Earth Flower
  • Eddie Marcon – Yahho no Potori
  • Fievel Is Glauque – Rong Weicknes
  • Ibelisse Guardia Ferragutti & Frank Rosaly – MESTIZX
  • George + Dove – Air from Air
  • Guazuncho – Odiseas del Litoral
  • Jantar – Turnos
  • Kruangbin – A LA SALA
  • Laetitia Sadier – Rooting for Love
  • Lao Ro – Cabana
  • Mabe Fratti – Sentir Que No Sabes
  • Mari Kvien Brunvoll – Barefoot in Bryophyte
  • Meridian Brothers – Mi Latinoamérica Sufre
  • Meril Wubslin – Faire ça
  • Michelle Moeller – Late Morning
  • Mount Kimbie – The Sunset Violent
  • Nadah El Shazly – Les Damnés ne pleurent pas (OST)
  • Naima Bock – Below a Massive Dark Land
  • Orchestre Tout Puissant Marcel Duchamp – Ventre Unique
  • Rafael Toral – Spectral Evolution
  • Ruth Goller – SKYLLUMINA
  • Sababa 5 + Yurika Hanashima – Kokoro
  • Sahra Halgan – Hiddo dhawr
  • Shovel Dance Collective – The Shovel Dance
  • The Smile – Cutouts / Wall of Eyes
  • Sternpost – Ulrika
  • V/A – Red Hot & Kronos Quartet, Outer Spaceways Incorporated

Top 20 tributes & archival releases

As ever, the archive keeps revealing and extending itself.

2023 Viewing

As with last year, as the default projectionist for many series at 2220 Arts, countless theatrical experiences in the past year were on home turf, where we hosted several Los Angeles debuts for undistributed films, or preview screenings for works on the cusp of weeklong runs. I still have a festival backlog of titles that haven’t hit the city, or only made it for a one-off screening or a few days at one of the farflung Laemmles. It was a strong year for cinema.

Meantime, here’s a short-list dozen of viewings that still pluck a memorable string, or feel complicated in a lasting or worthwhile way.

  • Afire – Christian Petzold
  • All of Us Strangers – Andrew Haigh
  • Anatomy of a Fall – Justine Triet
  • Fremont – Babak Jalali
  • Full Time – Éric Gravel
  • Human Flowers of Flesh – Helena Wittmann
  • Man in Black – Wang Bing
  • Reality – Tina Satter
  • Roald Dahl Quartet – Wes Anderson
  • Sister, What Grows Where Land is Sick? – Franciska Eliassen
  • The Eight Mountains – Felix Van Groeningen + Charlotte Vandermeersch
  • The Zone of Interest – Jonathan Glazer

And another twenty or so that were impressive to see or hear, or think about with friends:

  • Asteroid City – Wes Anderson
  • A Thousand and One – AV Rockwell
  • Coma – Bertrand Bonello
  • Enys Men – Mark Jenkin
  • Fallen Leaves – Aki Kaurismäki
  • Foragers – Jumana Manna
  • Holy Spider – Ali Abbasi
  • How to Blow Up a Pipeline – Daniel Goldhaber
  • Infinity Pool – Brandon Cronenberg
  • May December – Todd Haynes
  • Menus-Plaisirs – Les Troisgros – Frederick Wiseman
  • Oppenheimer – Christopher Nolan
  • Orlando, My Political Biography – Paul B. Preciado
  • Our Body – Claire Simon
  • Poor Things – Yorgos Lanthimos
  • Rewind & Play – Alain Gomes
  • Rye Lane – Raine Allen-Miller
  • Saint Omer – Alice Diop
  • Showing Up – Kelly Reinhardt
  • Will-O-the-Wisp – Joao Pedro Rodrigues
  • Youth (Spring) – Wang Bing

I’ve still yet to see the new Rohrwacher and Radu Jude films, and missed Trenque Lauquen when it came through. Some of the films that others loved this year, like Past Lives, felt inert and sketch-like to me, and the Scorsese overlong and in need of subtraction – it’s simply too much time to spend with this actor stable – DiCaprio et al.

Though perhaps I agree with Richard Brody (strangely) that this was really the year of Wes Anderson – while many write him off on house style (or too much thereof), I thought he really landed this year in his sweet spot of literary adaptation and full-dimensional book design / expanded cinema. He should become a Dahl completist.

2023: Best Listens

20 faves (Archival & Reissues)

  1. The Clouds – The Clouds
  2. Kristen Nogues – Marc’h Gouez
  3. Emahoy Tsege Mariam Gebru – Jerusalem
  4. Alan Hovhaness – Orbits, Mountains, Moons & Flowers
  5. Hako Yamasaki – Tobimasu
  6. Yanti Bersaudara – Yanti Bersaudara
  7. v/a – Prends le temps d’ecouter: Tape music, sound experiments…
  8. v/a – Searchlight Moonbeam
  9. Byard Lancaster – It’s Not Up to Us
  10. Aselefech Ashine & Getenesh Kebret – ሸ​ገ​ኔ​ዎ​ች (Beauties)
  11. X-Cetra – Stardust
  12. Jeanne Loriod – Music for Ondes Martenot
  13. v/a – A moi la liberté: Early electronic raï
  14. Pharoah – Pharoah Sanders
  15. Les Abranis – Amazigh Freedom Rock 1973-1983
  16. Dorothy Carter – Waillee Waillee
  17. Miles Davis – Turnaround (On the Corner Sessions)
  18. Masumi Hara – Imagination Exchange
  19. v/a – The NID Tapes: Electronic Music from India 1969-1972
  20. Arthur Russell – Picture of Bunny Rabbit

25 faves (LA artists / producers)

So much of what I hear generates from the city I live in, and much lands in the theater of which I’m the caretaker. It’s a world city at what feels like peak creativity, and a great many of the artists here were both in our speakers and on our stages in the past year.

  • André 3000 – New Blue Sun
  • Art Feynman – Be Good the Crazy Boys
  • billy woods, Kenny Segal – Maps
  • Carlos Niño & Friends – (I’m just) Chillin’ on Fire
  • Celia Hollander – 2nd Draft
  • Clear Thing – Everywhere I Go
  • Decisive Pink – Ticket to Fame
  • Eddie Chacón – Sundown
  • Fabiano do Nascimento – Lendas
  • Gabriel do Rosa – É o que a casa oferece
  • Genevieve Artadi – Forever Forever
  • Jeremiah Chiu – In Electric Time
  • Jessika Kenney & Eyvind Kang – Azure
  • John Krausbauer + Patrick Shiroishi – High Life
  • Lionmilk + Club Diego – In Float
  • Lisel – Patterns for Auto-tuned Voices and Delay
  • Louis Cole – Some Unused Songs
  • Mega Bog – End of Everything
  • Miguel Atwood-Ferguson – Les Jardins Mystiques vol 1
  • Monde UFO – Vandalized Statue to be Replaced by Shrine
  • Salami Rose Joe Louis – Akousmatikous
  • Shana Cleveland – Manzanita
  • Slauson Malone I – EXCELSIOR
  • Thandi Ntuli / Carlos Niño – Rainbow Revisited
  • Wild Up – Julius Eastman Vol. 3: If You’re So Smart, Why Aren’t You Rich?

Faves from elsewhere

Thirty or so from outside Los Angeles, including a couple who came through 2220 Arts. The rest a global wishlist for a festival in some Elysium.

  • Alasdair Roberts – Grief in the Kitchen and Mirth in the Hall
  • Angel Bat Dawid – Requiem for Jazz
  • Armand Hammer – We Buy Diabetic Test Strips
  • The Bug Club – Rare Birds: Hour of Song
  • Cassandra Miller – Traveller Song / Thanksong
  • Dudu Tassa, Johnny Greenwood – Jarak Qaribak
  • Fuensanta – Principio del Fuego
  • Henry Threadgill – The Other One
  • Insólito UniVerso – Ese puerto existe
  • Jantra – Synthesized Sudan
  • John Roseboro – Johnny / Four Cantos
  • L’Rain – I Killed Your Dog
  • Mayssa Jallad – Marjaa: the Battle of the Hotels
  • Namian Sidibé – Namian Sidibé
  • Noname – Sundial
  • Nourished by Time – Erotic Probiotic 2
  • Ora Cogan – Formless
  • Piotr Kurek – Smartwoods
  • PJ Harvey – I Inside the Old Year Dying
  • Raja Kirik – Phantasmagoria of Jathilan
  • Seaming To – Dust Gatherers
  • Sourdurent – L’Herbe de D​é​tourne
  • Spencer Cullum’s Coin Collection – s/t 2
  • Svitlana Nianio + Tom James Scott – Eye of the Sea
  • Titanic, I la Catolica, Mabe Fratti – Vidria
  • Titi Bakorda – Molende
  • V/Z, Valentina Magaletti, Zongamin – Suono Assente
  • Y La Bamba – Lucha

2022 Viewing

15 that remain with me after a dense and various year of films, most viewed in a theater. Some were late 2021 releases that found single night or festival screenings in LA this year (six at 2220 Arts & Archives).

  • A New Old Play – Qiu Jiongjiong
  • A Night of Knowing Nothing – Payal Kapadia
  • Aleph – Iva Radivojevic
  • Decision to Leave – Park Chan-wook
  • EO – Jerzy Skolimowski
  • Fire of Love – Sara Dosa
  • From the Planet of the Humans – Giovanni Cioni
  • Geographies of Solitude – Jacquelyn Mills
  • Incroyable mais vrai – Quentin Dupieux
  • Memoria – Apichatpong Weerasethakul
  • Men – Alex Garland
  • Murina – Antoneta Alamat Kusijanovic
  • Neptune Frost – Saul Williams, Anisia Uzeyman
  • Riotsville, USA – Sierra Pettengill
  • The Girl and the Spider – Ramon & Silvan Zürcher

A few more I think about: The Sacred Spirit (Chema García Ibarra), Watcher (Chloe Okuno), Tár (Todd Field), El Lado Quieto (Miko Revereza, Carolina Fusilier), The Cathedral (Ricky D’Ambrose), Aftersun (Charlotte Wells)

Best good-bad film: RRR

2022: Best Listens

30 faves (new releases)

  1. Mabe Fratti – Se Ve Desde Aquí
  2. Fievel is Glauque – Flaming Swords
  3. Rosalía – Motomami
  4. Lucrecia Dalt – ¡Ay!
  5. Marina Herlop – Pripyat 
  6. Contour – Onwards!
  7. Naima Bock – Giant Palm
  8. Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek – Dost 2
  9. Marion Rampal – Tissé
  10. Sudan Archives – Natural Brown Prom Queen
  11. El Khat – Albat Alawi Op. 99
  12. Marina Allen – Centrifics
  13. Park Jiha – The Gleam
  14. Hatis Noit – Aura
  15. Sarah Davachi – Two Sisters
  16. Sessa – Estrela Acesa
  17. Star Feminine Band – In Paris
  18. Alexander Deplume – GOLD
  19. Voice Actor – Songs from My Telephone
  20. Quelle Chris – Deathframe
  21. Paavorharju & Joose Keskitalo – Happiness
  22. Moor Mother – Jazz Codes
  23. Tim Bernardes – Mil Coisas Inviseis
  24. Cate Le Bon – Pompeii
  25. Kristine Leschper – The Opening, Or Closing of a Door
  26. billy woods – Aethiopes
  27. Antonia Cytrynowicz + Sam Gendel – LIVE A LITTLE
  28. Citron Citron – Chagrin Bleu
  29. Jessca Hoop – Order of Romance
  30. Olovson – Storytelling

10 faves (reissues)

  1. Maha – Orkos
  2. V/A – Padang Moonrise: The Birth of the Modern Indonesian Recording Industry (1955-1969)
  3. Luiza Brina – A Toada Vem é Pelo Vento
  4. Emahoy Tsege Mariam Gebru – s/t
  5. Tia Blake & Her Folk Group – Folksongs & Ballads
  6. Iftin Band – Mogadishu’s Finest: The Al-Uruba Sessions
  7. Ferkat Al Ard – Oghneya
  8. Ernst Hood – Back to the Woodlands
  9. Staples Jr. Singers – When Do We Get Paid
  10. V/A – Down & Out (NTS)

Others (most-spun)

The ruthless digital counters say these are the 2022 releases I listened to most beyond the top 40 above.

  • Adelaida – Cántaro
  • Aldous Harding – Warm Chris
  • Alice Phoebe Lou – Child’s Play
  • Anadol – Felicita
  • Anteloper – Pink Dolphins
  • Aoife Nessa Frances – Protector
  • Arima Edera – An Orange Colored Day
  • Ayanda Sikade – Umakhulu
  • Balka Sound – s/t
  • Bill Callahan – YTILAER
  • Bill Fay – Still Some Light Part 1
  • Bitchin Bajas – Bajascillators
  • Branko Mataja – Over Fields and Mountains
  • Broadcast – Mida Vale Sessions
  • Carla dal Forno – Come Around
  • Charles Lloyd – Trios: Chapel (Live)
  • Chris Olsen – Human! Sound! …
  • Daniel Villarreal – Panamá 77
  • Dexter Story & Carlos Niño – Feel Recordings vol 1
  • Diatom Deli – Time~Lapse Nature
  • Duval Timothy – Meeting with a Judas Tree
  • Etran de L’Aïr – Agadez
  • Eyal Talmudi & Rejoicer – The Audience
  • Group Listening – Clarinet & Piano, Selected Works vol 2
  • Gwenno – Tresor
  • Horse Lords – Comradely Objects
  • Jana Horn – Optimism
  • Jeremiah Chiu & Marta Sofia Honer – Recordings from the Åland Islands
  • Jonathan Personne – s/t
  • Karima Walker – demos
  • Kadhja Bonet – JGS / For You / Dear Gina
  • Läuten der Seele – s/t
  • Leoni Leoni – s/t
  • Linda Ayupuka – God Created Everything
  • Loraine James – Build Something Beautiful for Me
  • Lysandre – Sans oublier
  • Maria Chira Argirò – Forest City
  • Maxine Funke – Pieces of Driftwood
  • Maya McCraven – In These Times
  • Medicine Singers – s/t
  • mim & Charlene Darling – L’amour aux mille parfums
  • Modern Nature – Island of Noise
  • Molly Lewis – Mirage
  • OKI – Tonkori in the Moonlight
  • Rachika Nayar – Heaven Come Crashing
  • Robert Stillman – What Does It Mean to Be an American?
  • Rude Skott Osborn Trio – The Virtue of Temperance
  • Ryley Walker – So Certain
  • Sam Gendel – blueblue
  • SAULT – (5 LPs)
  • Silvia Tarozzi – Canti di guerra, di lavoro e d’amore
  • Sophie Birch & Antonia Nowacka – Languoria
  • Steve Gunn – Nakama
  • Surya Botofasina – Everyone’s Children
  • Tegh & Adel Poursamadi – Ima (ایما)
  • The Mauskovic Dance Band – Bukaroo Bank
  • V.C.R. – The Chronicles of a Caterpillar: The Egg
  • Vilhelm Bromander – Aurora
  • Wau Wau Collectif – Mariage
  • Weyes Blood – And in the Darkness, Hearts Aglow
  • Yaya Bey – Remember Your North Star

2021 Viewing

Film

  1. Drive My Car – Ryusuke Hamaguchi
  2. The Worst Person in the World – Joachim Trier
  3. What Do We See When We Look at the Sky? – Alexandre Koberidze
  4. The Power of the Dog – Jane Campion
  5. Her Socialist Smile – John Gianvito
  6. Victoria (2020, undistributed) – Sofie Benoot, Isabelle Tollenaere, Liesbeth De Ceulaer
  7. The American Sector / Terra Femme – Courtney Stephens (x2), Pacho Velez
  8. Can’t Get You Out of My Head – Adam Curtis
  9. About Endlessness – Roy Andersson
  10. Gunda – Viktor Kossakovsky
  11. The Green Knight – David Lowery
  12. Mandibles – Quentin Dupieux
  13. Preparations to Be Together for an Unknown Period of Time – Lili Horvát
  14. I’m Your Man – Maria Schrader
  15. Titane – Julia Ducournau

15 more films I enjoyed or which stuck with me (unranked):

  • Bad Luck Banging, or Loony Porn
  • Beginning
  • C’mon C’mon
  • Dear Comrades!
  • Flee
  • Lamb
  • Licorice Pizza
  • Malmkrog
  • Notturno 
  • Parallel Mothers
  • Pig
  • Summer of Soul
  • The Card Counter
  • The Velvet Underground
  • Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy

2021 Listening

Ernest Bergez, pagan ecstasies, in Occitan!

30 fave listens (new releases)

  1. Sourdure – De Mòrt Viva
  2. Rita Payés + Elisabeth Roma – COMO LA PIEL
  3. Gabriels – Bloodline / Love and Hate in a Different Time
  4. Dina Ögon – Dina Ögon
  5. Devin Hoff – Voices from the Empty Moor
  6. Gisele Pape – Caillou
  7. Arooj Aftab – Vulture Prince
  8. L’Rain – Fatigue
  9. Meril Wubslin – Alors quoi
  10. Floating Points + Pharaoh Sanders – Promises
  11. Mabe Fratti – Será Que Ahora Podremos Entendernos
  12. Lionmilk – I Hope You Are Well
  13. Laura Cannell + Kate Ellis – January-December Sounds (12 releases)
  14. Wau Wau Collectif – Yaral Sa Doom
  15. Jamael Dean – Primordial Waters
  16. Erlend Apneseth + Margit Myhr – Slåttesong / Fragmentarium
  17. William Parker – Migration of Silence Into and Out of the Tone World
  18. R.A.P. Ferreira – bob’s son / the Light Emitting Diamond Cutter Scriptures
  19. Lightman Jarvis Ecstatic Band – Banned
  20. Altin Gül – Yol
  21. LaHasna – GLOBAL RESET
  22. Sarah Davachi – Antiphonals
  23. Ben LaMar Gay – Open Arms to Open Us
  24. Tirzah – Colourgrade
  25. Caetano Veloso – Meu Coco
  26. Miryam Solomon – Romance
  27. Joan As Police Woman / Tony Allen / Dave Okumu – The Solution is Restless
  28. Patricia Brennan – Maquishti
  29. Green-House – Music for Living Space
  30. Myriam Gendron – Ma délire – Songs of love, lost & found

25 faves (reissues)

  1. Nermin Niazi – Disco Se Aagay
  2. Futur Antérieur: Bongo Joe’s 5 Years Anniversary
  3. Alice Coltrane – Kirtan: Turiya Sings
  4. Skúli Sverrisson & Óskar Guðjónsson – The Box Tree
  5. 4 Mars – Super Somali Sounds from the Gulf of Tadjoura
  6. Pastor T.L. Barrett – I Shall Wear a Crown (5 lps)
  7. Jose Mauro – A Viagem das Horas / Obnoxius
  8. Zanzibara First Modern Taarab Vibes from Mombasa & Tanga
  9. Tassos Chalkias – Divine Reeds
  10. Hailu Mergia – Tezeta
  11. Die Welttraumforscher – Die Rückkehr der echten Menschheit (1981-1990)
  12. Kim Jung Mi – Now
  13. Somewhere Between: Mutant Pop, Electronic Minimalism & Shadow Sounds of Japan
  14. Willie Dunn – Creation Never Sleeps, Creation Never Dies
  15. Grauzone – Grauzone, 40 Years Anniversary Edition
  16. Leo Nocentelli – Another Side
  17. Fitz Gore + the Talismen – s/t / Soundmagnificat / Soundnitia
  18. Don Cherry’s New Researches – Organic Music Theater
  19. Plastic Ono Band – Ultimate Collection
  20. Stelle Chiweshe – Ambuya! (remastered)
  21. Back Up: Mexican Tecno Pop 1980-1989
  22. Francis Bebey – Dibiye
  23. Sun Ra – Lanquidity
  24. Linda Smith – Till Another Time 1988-1996
  25. Rogér Fakhr – Fine Anyway

30 more, oft-spun

  1. Nahawa Doumbia – Kanawa
  2. The Vernon Spring – A Plane Over Woods / On the 21st of May
  3. Sylvie Courvoisier + Mary Halvorson – Searching for the Disappeared Hour
  4. Sam Gendel – Fresh Bread
  5. Nevers – Clueless / Minor Plot Twist
  6. Tex Crick – Live in…New York City
  7. Orchestre Tout Puissant Marcel Duchamp – We’re OK. But We’re Lost Anyway.
  8. Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek – Dost 1
  9. James Brandon Lewis – Jesup Wagon
  10. The Weather Station – Ignorance
  11. Vijay Iyer Trio – Uneasy
  12. This is Tehran? (v/a)
  13. Jeff Parker – Forfolks
  14. Loshh – Ífaradá
  15. Jaubi – Nafs at Peace
  16. Low – HEY WHAT
  17. Chihei Hatakeyama – Late Spring
  18. Rosie Lowe + Duval Timothy – Son
  19. Teeth Agency – You Don’t Have to Live in Pain
  20. Emmanuelle Parrerin / Detlef Weinrich – Jours de grève
  21. Jamire Williams – But Only After You Have Suffered
  22. Mason Lindahl – Kissing Rosy in the Rain
  23. Mega Bog – Life, and Another
  24. Rachika Nayar – fragments
  25. Club Coco (v/a, Bongo Joe)
  26. Nala Sinephro – Space 1.8
  27. Apifera – Overstand
  28. Bitchin Bajas – Switched on Ra
  29. Charlotte Greve – Sediments We Move
  30. yumbo – The Fruit of Errata

July 2021: Listening Diary

Best Listens (new releases)

Erlend Apneseth & Margit Myhr – Slåttesong (May 2021)

Tomoko Omura – Branches Vol. 2 (June 2021)

William Parker – Mayan Space Station (July 2021)

William Parker – Painters Winter (July 2021)

yumbo – The Fruit of Errata (June 2021)

Arusha Jain – Under the Lilac Sky (July 2021)

Mabe Fratti – Será Que Ahora Pordremos Entendernos (June 2021)

Best Listens (leftfield pop)

May Witch – May Witch (February 2021)

Mirage – Glass Beams (June 2021)

Dry Cleaning – New Long Leg (April 2021)

Marina Allen – Candlepower (June 2021)

Midnight Sister – Painting the Roses (January 2021)

Bobby Lee – Origin Myths (March 2021)

Best Listens (reissues)

V/A – Good as Gold: Artefacts of the Apple Era 1967-1975 (2021 / 1967-75)

Oronzo de Filippi – Meccanizzazione (2021 / 1971)

Five from the Archive (frequent spins, rediscoveries)

Jessika Kenney + Eyvind Kang – The Face of the Earth (2012)

Blaise Volou – Nadoki / Boti (1984)

Sirom – A Universe That Roasts Blossoms for a Horse (2019)

Henry Threadgill – Easily Slip Into Another World (1988)

Mary Lou Williams presents Black Christ of the Andes (1964)

July 2021: Viewing Diary

Film (recent releases)

Mandibles – Quentin Dupieux, France, 2021 (2020)

Two of Us – Filippo Meneghetti, France, 2021 (2019)

Summer of Soul – Questlove, US, 2021

Nine Days – Edson Oda, US, 2021

Da 5 Bloods – Spike Lee, US, 2020

Black Widow – Cate Shortland, US, 2021

Film (archival)

Princess Cyd – Stephen Cone, US, 2017

Maso and Miso Go Boating, Nadja Ringart, Ioana Wieder, Carole Roussopoulos, Delphine Seyrig, France, 1976

As Tears Go By – Wong Kar-Wai, Hong Kong, 1988

Los Pequeños Gigantes – Hugo Butler, Mexico, 1960

Raging Bull – Martin Scorcese, US, 1980



Serial TV



Katla – Iceland, 2021

Master of None (Moments in Love) – US, 2021

Ozark (Season 3) – US, 2020

Never Have I Ever (Season 2) – US, 2021

Dave (Season 2) – US, 2021

Hacks (Season 1) – US, 2021

Working Moms (Season 1) – Canada, 2017

A few with the kids:

Hunger Games #1-3 – US, 2012-14

The Willoughbys – US, 2020