2020 in Review // Mix by Tiny Red Dragons Radio

Misc Music Discussions without categories

A Radio show formerly on 91.3 WVKR, now on MixCloud. Join us on our adventures in the musical wilderness. New episodes available now!

Tracklist

Irreversible Entanglements – No Mas (International Anthem Recording Company / Don Giovanni Records)

A five-piece collective, Irreversible Entanglements feature the voice and texts of Camae Ayewa, aka Moor Mother. An artist and activist from Philadelphia, her other works include the album Fetish Bones (Don Giovanni Records, 2016) which combined dark rap with analog buzzings and resolute lyricism. Black history and identity are crucial to her writings, but Who Are You? paints these elements onto a broader, even subtler landscape. There are four other Irreversible members, all of whom bring vital and distinct components. Each musician adds percussion to their own specialty, but full due must be paid to drummer Tcheser Holmes, whose haunting restless rhythms truly enhance Ayewa’s scattered narration. The two of them performing as a duo would be some event. – All About Jazz

Alan Braufman – Home (Valley Of Search / P-Vine Records)

The Fire Still Burns is a truly a group effort with an appealing balance of moods and tempos. It’s the sound of a band packing as much in a recording as tight and grooving as possible. The mostly live recording sonics accentuate the band’s dynamics. Braufman and the others make ebullient music that fuses talent and jazz touchstones to create a deft tapestry of sound and soul. – The Free Jazz Collective

Sun Ra Arkestra – Rocket no. 9 (Strut Records / Art Yard Records)

Perhaps in deference to Ra, or maybe just out of a love of word play, Allen calls Swirling “Beta music for a better world.” You may feel “Alpha music for an alternative world” is closer to the mark.

Arkestra fans should also make sure they catch another off-planet autumn 2020 release, Berlin-based composer and multi-instrumentalist King Khan’s The Infinite Ones (Khannibalism), which features Marshall Allen and Knoel Scott as guests of another space-travelling ensemble. – All About Jazz

Angel Bat Dawid & Tha Brotherhood – The Wicked Shall Not Prevail (International Anthem Recording Company)

If you love free jazz, free speech and believe that Black lives really do matter, you have to check out LIVE from Chicago’s Angel Bat Dawid and her band Tha Brotherhood.

Taken mostly from live recordings in late 2019 in Germany, this album is incredibly powerful, fascinating and so good.

If only we could go see her live in concert. – All the Young Punks

Gil Scott-Heron / Makaya McCraven – New York is Killing me (XL Recordings)

Part of Heron’s wider legacy was his fusion of funk and jazz musicality with rhythmic poetry, which, along with the Last Poets, ultimately laid the groundwork for what would be known as hip-hop. With I’m New Here, the decision was made to move towards a more minimal, electronic sound; more Kid A than ‘Children’s Story’. While this decision was a massive boon for the songs, there’s been a lingering question as to what the record might have sounded like had the conversation gone differently. Makaya McCraven has given an answer to this question which is immensely satisfying. – The Thin Air

Fundrazers – Double Stretch Ache (Muteant Sounds)

This is a wonderful, free and easy experimental jazz dialogue by a group of seasoned musicians playing traditional jazz instruments like drums, horns, flute, guitar, and, well, ukulele. And when I call it a dialogue, that’s exactly what it feels like. – Albert E. Trapezoid

Archie Shepp, Raw Poetic, Damu The Fudgemonk – Professor Shepp’s Agenda 6 (Redefinition Records)

That practice, attentive listening, resides deeply within Ocean Bridges. A collaborative project from 83-year-old Shepp, 17 years away from becoming a centenarian, who still refuses to leave the house without a formal suit on, his nephew Jason Moore aka Raw Poetic and producer Damu The Fudgemunk. This entirely improvised session, where you can practically see the sweat rolling down the walls of the studio, has everybody listening and mixing it up with no clear endpoint in sight. – Treble

Asher Gamedze – Interregnum (On The Corner Records)

The music here has been described as a blend of free jazz with South African protest music, but more elements are included in its rich urgency and subtle variations, a continuation of the great tradition of African music fused with what was known as American “New Wave” jazz. – Jazz Journal

Moor Mother – Act 3 – Time of No Time (feat. Elon Battle) (Don Giovanni Records)

This Friday, Moor Mother is releasing “Circuit City” on Philly’s Don Giovanni Records. Based on her first-ever theatrical work – premiered at FringeARts in 2019, and now including the contributions of her ensemble, Irreversible Entanglements – the Ntozake Shange-inspired musical touched on the inequities of gender, of race, of how and where Black America can live, and how corporations and governments are designed to crush Black male and female souls, along with their drive and creativity. – Dosage Magazine

Aquiles Navarro and Tchesser Holmes – Pueblo (International Anthem Recording Company)

“It’s a celebration of life, the coming together of the people, el pueblo, a celebration of who we are, where we come from,” Navarro said in a statement of their new album. “It’s our pueblo, our people, a feeling of openness, hope, and a future of unity from el pueblo, the people.” – lab.fm

King Britt – A Discovery Movement (The Buddy System Project)

Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra – Little Africa

The Comet Is Coming – Imminent (Impulse!)

Scream Time – Dawn of the Purple Moon

Beans – $4 (Hello L.A.)

Cunabear – Atlas (BearTooth Collective)

Hprizm – Sonny and Marshall

Soul Glo – 2K (feat. Archangel) (Secret Voice Records)

Sly and the Family Drone – Shrieking Grief (Feeding Tube Records)

For this release, the league of extra-noisy Englishmen, have opted to tackle the listener into submission with full-on blasts, but they haven’t lost their more serene side: Walk it Dry is hard, harsh and livelier than its predecessor, but no less nuanced. – Denisidad 20.25

Moses Boyd – B.T.B (Exodus)

Bab L’Bluz – Gnawa Beat (Real World Records)

Idris Ackamoor and the Pyramids – Dogon Mysteries (Strut Records)

Alabaster DePlume – Visit Croatia (International Anthem)

Ilya S.