@@@ Melissa Aldana: Back Home (Wommusic, 2016) I saw this female sax player name checked in a concert email for an upstate New York concert series. Now that I’ve clicked through I realize I haven’t heard this record but I’ve heard her before. Her previous record. It’s very close to the sax player Mark Turner in spirit and tone — super clean enunciation, mellow tone, more on the cerebral tip than the wail of Albery Ayler or other famed sax players. I’ll peep some sections of a couple more tunes. It’s a pretty straight trio and I like the bass player best. I can’t find anything from this record for my readers but here’s something from Soundcloud.
@@@ Taylor Swift: Gorgeous (Big Machine, 2017) Another signal from Tay Tay! Wow, another pop biscuit — the problem with this tune is not the arrangement it’s Ms. Swift. She’s a soulless singer and her lyrics blow. It’s an avalanche of cliches and poor delivery. I peeped the two previous singles and there were problems with the arrangements but here the song holds together but this is FM radio cheese. Bleh. Taylor has jumped the shark and maybe she will go away for a long time. That would be great.
@@@ Orissa: Verse V (Orissa, 2017) I got to this prog-metal single via a music publicist email. It’s super clean with a singer — a very serious, artistic singer. These guys sound like Tool but softer. The production is immaculate, I don’t hate the band but if you send me a link about a prog/cinematic metal band I want to get my head crushed a little bit. This is weak tea, very conservative in its way. I say drop the metal from the description and stick with the hard rock. I don’t want to come off as a genre bitch but I came to get my head put in a vice.
YTD recordings listened to: 678
Good music, not recommended for purchase: 363
Not good music: 284
Buys: 8
Honorable Mentions: 6
Possibles: Chris McGregor, Retox, Defeater, Jonwayne, Okkyung Lee, The Ballantynes, Slidhr, The Chewers, Toxic Holocaust, Susie Iberra/Roberto Rodriguez, Lenguas Largas, The Coral, T.O.M.B., Lozen, Erase Errata, Mastery, Leviathan, Hartley C. White, Weed, Cold Water, Janelle Monae, Luther Dickinson, Graeme Barrett, Fast Asleep, Goldlink, Cavanaugh, Gentleman Surfer, Satoko Fuji, Moken, Juan Atkins, Lantern, Twin Peaks, Djelimady Tounkara, The Oh Sees, Denny Zeitlin, MILF, Unfun, De La Soul, Carl Sagan’s Skate Shoes, Magrudergrind, A Tribe Called Quest, Noname, Gouge Away, Anna Hogberg, Klara Lewis, Krullur, The Lowest Form, Hard Proof, James Brandon Lewis, Yotoco, Jungle Fire, Sandoz, J.I.D., Oddisee, Forro in the Dark, RAM, Fiver, Dona Onete, Succumb Succumb, Gloom, Priests, Propaganda, This is the Kit, Roberto Gonzalez, Integrity, American Lips, Sudan Archives, Tuba Skinny, The Expanders, Benjamin Booker, Kelly Moran, Irreversible Entanglements
Deep In the Music 