YTD recordings listened to: 186
Good music, not recommended for purchase: 124
Not good music: 55
Honorable Mentions: 0
Buys: 0
Possibles: Boyd Rivers, Chris McGregor, Alvin Youngblood Hart, Dave Arner Trio, Trap Them, Bill Horist, MAKU Soundsystem, Zomby, Retox, Owiny Sigoma Band, About Group, Jello Biafra, Fat Freddy’s Drop, Jessie Mae Hemphill, All Pigs Must Die, Kendl Winter, Shigeto, Bone Dance, Cage the Elephant, Defeater, Sidi Toure, Lindi Ortega, Jonwayne, Christian Kjellvander, Okkyung Lee, Tiger Hatchery, Xiu Xiu, The Ballantynes, Debruit and Aljawal, Slidhr, Temples, The Whammies
@@@ Black Masala: Black Masala (Self-released, 2014). Some partyistic Eastern European music I saw listed on the WRIR weekly playlist email. The record seems less devoted to a particular style and more devoted to a party bounce. There’s a bit of funk, some swingin’ horns, Eastern European melodies, hints of ska/dancehall, all mashed up together. Male and female singers and the horns caught my ear the most.
@@@ Kerry Wallace: Songs to Sing and Tales to Tell (Kerry Wallace, 2013) An acoustic country record I got to via an online PR site called MusicSubmit. Lots of mid to slow tempo acoustic guitar playing and sweet melancholic singing. Very melancholic and strong Emmylou Harris influences in the fourth tune, Pilgrim. That’s the best track of what I checked out.
Some bite sized samples over here at CD Baby.
@@@ Axxa/Abraxas: Axxa/Abraxas (Captured Tracks, 2014). A semi-psych/indie effort I found on the All Music weekly email. Nice rhythm section sound, some phase type effect on the vocal and the chimey, throwback arpeggiated guitars. I like what these guys are doing — I don’t sense any great spark to it, but it’s very solid. There’s a lot of this psych indie floating around right now which helps to dampen my excitement.
@@@ Ashanti: Braveheart (eOne, 2014) Some epic r&b I found on the All Music weekly email. The intro is an inward looking nugget of self-help cheese/New Age cheerleading. Myriad references to betrayals, overcoming, and being brave. Slick beats, electro club synth droplets/chainsaw patches, and lots of ooh aahh singing with ample backing vocals. I like second tune, No Where, better than the title track but this doesn’t really work for me.
Deep In the Music 