white with foam

Love lists, but hate all that enumeration? Here are three albums that came out this year, and some sample tracks so you too, gentle reader, can enjoy some of what I’ve enjoyed this year.

Mulatu Astatke & the Heliocentrics: Inspiration Information 3

I’m ill-equipped to describe jazz of any kind. On top of that, the pedigree on this album is from a line I knew nothing about, but I’ll share it anyway: veteran Ethiopian pianist, composer and vibraphonist teams up with English DJ team. The result is a set of funky, cool, modal songs that evoke On the Corner-era Miles with cleaner production and a slew of North African drums and wind instruments. Listening to this album makes me somehow excited and relaxed at the same time. I can’t get enough of it.
Masenqo

Robbie Fulks: 50-vc Doberman

A perfect expression of what the Internet-only distribution model can do. After a long official-release drought, this fifty-song .zip archive is utterly in tune with contemporary listening habits — mine, anyway. You can’t sit down with it like you would a 12-song CD; rather, it’s the kind of thing that works best on shuffle. ‘Cause it’s the songs, man! Cool refreshment wherever you step into the stream.

Fulks throws it all at the wall to see what sticks. His wide-ranging stylistic palette gives you off-Broadway story songs and Northern soul along with earnest, churchy bluegrass and pitch-perfect two-steps. The accuracy and nuance of his lyrics elevate the songs above simple genre exercises.
It Was Love that Ruined Me

Dirty Projectors: Bitte Orca

Proof that Pitchfork isn’t always wrong: Bitte Orca is #2 on their top-fifty list. Whereas Dirty Projectors used to be fairly arch and impenetrable, this album deepens their sound by forefronting the warmth, playfulness and soul in their strange language. It’s their Abacab.
Temecula Sunrise

Oh, and these are nice, too:
Arrington De Dionysio: Malaikat Dan Singa
Mika: The Boy Who Knew Too Much
Golden Silvers: True Romance
K’naan: Troubadour

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