Category: Playlists

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.

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)

June 2021: Listening Diary

A busy month, shy of contemplative spaces and moments – music in the near-background often, but also scattered in the clatter of work and building. A big project came on – launching an art center to share and broadcast musics among other forms. But much new music did find its way in, though, as ever, and a few special collections no less.

Any month that sees a Jeanne Lee reissue is a good one, and this month saw two, Gunter Hampel’s rerelease of far-too rare 1975 LP Conspiracy, and a strange Spotify-only collection of uncertain vintage (’61? ’62?), with a number of live tracks with Ran Blake. The mastering is terrible, and it’s one of those things that may just mysteriously disappear from platform, but there are some wonderful cuts, including “Left Alone” from The Newest Sound Around. Along with the Lee from 1975, we also got a first reissue of the great Tezeta from 1975 by Hailu Mergia. Great year for film, great year for music.

Geneva continues to collect everything good – another terrific Bongo Joe comp, and a big, wild, hybrid, unpredictable release from Orchestre Tout Puissant Marcel Duchamp. Lots of surprises on that album, and lots of velocity. Nothing was stranger than the new Lightman Jarvis Ecstatic Band project, which sounds like the frinkiest 90s lost avant-pop disc ever (it’s not), but Nick Hakim & Roy Nathanson’s Small Things comes close at times. And speaking of frinky things, the latest Scallops Hotel / RAP Ferreira was back in rotation again – I’d listened to it a lot early in the year, bundle of earworms that it is, and then a friend noted he was in town, so good luck for us.

Most relaxing night sounds: Guatemalan cellist Mabe Fratti’s latest. Or classic Mina, take you pick.

Best Listens (new releases)

Orchestre Tout Puissant Marcel Duchamp – We’re OK. But we’re lost anyway. (June 2021)

V/A – Club Coco (Bongo Joe compilation) (May 2021)

Mabe Fratti – Será que ahora podremos entendernos (June 2021)

Lightman Jarvis Ecstatic Band – Banned (June 2021)

Ìxtahuele – Dharmaland (June 2021)

Nico Roig, Lucia Fumero, Rita Payes – Soy esa tonta canción (single, June 2021)

The Vernon Spring – What’s Happening Brother? (single, June 2021)

Mdou Moctar – Afrique Victime (May 2021)

Les Pythons de la Fournaise – L’Orchestre du Piton (May 2021)

Carlos Niño and Friends – More Energy Fields, Current (May 2021)

Nick Hakim & Roy Nathanson – Small Things (April 2021)

R.A.P. Ferreira – bob’s son (January 2021)

Tomás Tello – Cimora (2020)

Douglas Germano – Escumalha (2019)

Best Listens (reissues)

Jeanne Lee – Conspiracy (1975, June 2021)

Jeanne Lee, Ran Blake – Our Season in the Sun (???, June 2021)

Hailu Mergia + The Walias – Tezeta (1975, June 2021)

Mário Rui Silva – Stories from Another Time 1982-1988 (1980s, 2021)

Dmitris Mystakidis – 16 Ρεμπέτικα τραγούδια με κιθάρα | Επετειακή έκδοση (2006, 2021)

Francis Bebey – Dibiye (1997, 2021)

Five from the Archive (frequent spins, rediscoveries)

Mina – Studio Uno (Italy, 1965)

Yanti Bersaudara – s/t (Singapore, 1971)

Pharoah Sanders – Elevation (US, 1974)

Bargou 08 – Targ (Tunisia, 2017)

Abdou El Omari – Nuits D’Étés (three, Morocco – 2016-17)