@@@ Saul Williams: MartyrLoserKing (Fader, 2016). I have to check out some black music after the two Wonderbread releases below. I have enjoyed Saul Williams music before and I thought The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of Niggy Tardust was an awesome album title. This first tune Groundwork sounds like a poetry Slam/Nine Inch Nails ago-synth rock mash. The second tune sports a classical piano loop as its central sound with some terse rhymes and then some sic-fi vocal arrangements. The lyrics in this second tune are either surreal/abstract or I don’t understand. The third tune returns to that aggro-spoken word mood of the opener and the mood is dark. I’m pretty sure this third tune is about police killing black men and the music and mood matches the topic.
@@@ Andy Metz: Delusions (Self-released, 2016) More folk/ soft rock/adult alternative I got to via a music publicist out of Chicago. Metz has a pleasant, slightly slack voice and his band has plenty of bounce. This is not ironic hipster indie, it’s pretty straightforward, sometimes tongue in cheek, sometimes earnest.
http://andymetz.bandcamp.com/album/delusions
@@@ Kyle Alfred Hillig: To Be Good (N/A, 2016) I got to this single via a music publicist email and the single is free to download for the next two weeks. It is coffeehouse rock with medium rocking, a shuffling drum beat, chill organ and slide guitar. I like Hillig’s voice a whole bunch.
http://kyealfredhillig.bandcamp.com/track/to-be-good-2
YTD recordings listened to: 100
Good music, not recommended for purchase: 57
Not good music: 38
Honorable Mentions: 2
Buys: 1
Possibles: Chris McGregor, Alvin Youngblood Hart, Dave Arner Trio, MAKU Soundsystem, Zomby, Retox, Jessie Mae Hemphill, Bone Dance, Defeater, Jonwayne, Okkyung Lee, The Ballantynes, Debruit, Slidhr, The Whammies, The Chewers, Alexander Hawkins, Toxic Holocaust, Equal Stones, Comeback Kid, Susie Iberra/Roberto Rodriguez, Lenguas Largas, The Coral, T.O.M.B., Fofoulah, Lozen, Erase Errata, Dawn Richard, Mastery, Leviathan, Xibalba, Hartley C. White, Weed, Cold Water, Akitsa, Janelle Monae, Luther Dickinson, Destruction Unit, Graeme Barrett, Fast Asleep, Goldlink, Cavanaugh, Gentleman Surfer, Satoko Fuji, Mystic Braves, Reverend Peyton, James McMurtry, Living Hell, Dos Santos Anti-Beat Orquesta
Deep In the Music 