Favourites,
The Ones That Got Away 2022 - Jazz, World & More
Unsurprisingly the end of the year offers us much time for reflection, and we’ve done plenty of it over the past month or so as we collected our favourite jazz albums of the year – but what about everything else? There’s a ton of music that Matt and I listen to outside of what we cover for Presto Music, from world, electronica, and beyond – so we’ve rustled up a few recommendations of our favourite alternative releases this year, as well as a couple of jazz releases that we missed.
As always, many thanks to everyone who takes the time to read the things we publish here and supporting the Presto Music jazz department – we wish all of our readers a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Matt's picks
Trying to pin down what makes the largely instrumental music of Khruangbin so special is tricky because they draw on such a wide variety of (very cool) influences that change subtly from album to album. At the heart of their sound is stripped down funk drumming, dubby basslines, and psychedelic guitar riffs filtered through obscure Thai psych bands of the ‘60s and ‘70s (the word “khruangbin” is Thai for “aeroplane”). It could be described as modern day lounge music, as it can sit sublimely in the background, but that doesn’t do justice to just how intricate and memorable their songs are.
Let’s just say that no matter how cold this winter gets, popping on a Khruangbin album won’t fail to warm you and anyone in the vicinity up by at least a few degrees, and never more so than on this year’s gorgeous collaboration with Malian guitarist Vieux Farka Touré. Dedicated to (and based on) the music of his legendary father Ali Farka Touré, ‘Ali’ is a near perfect collaboration. I’ve had it on constant rotation since it was released back in September, and it’s still yielding fresh delights.
Available Format: CD
South Africa-born, Manchester-based cellist Abel Selaocoe made his debut on Warner Classics this year with Where is Home (Hae Ke Kae). The title, written in English and Sesotho, reflects the album’s diverse program which draws from vibrant European and African influences: pieces inspired by South African and Tanzanian musical tradition share a space with works by J.S. Bach and Giovanni Benedetto Platti, some of which are renewed with instrumental and lyrical improvisations.
The performances are captured in a superb recording that puts you in amongst Selaocoe’s cello and voice and his many guests, guaranteeing goosebumps from the opening hymn-like ‘Ibuyile I'Africa / Africa Is Back’.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
In the Spirit of Ntu is something of a milestone for South African pianist Nduduzo Makhathini, being his tenth studio album, and also the inaugural release for the brand new Blue Note Africa imprint. His 2020 Blue Note debut, Modes of Communication: Letters from the Underworlds was released during the earliest days of lockdown, and as a result arguably received less attention than it deserved, showcasing Makhathini’s more straight-ahead, often quite fiery compositions performed by an 11-piece ensemble.
In the Spirit of Ntu seems to be drawn more towards the heritage of Afro-centric spiritual jazz, taking a cue from Alice and John Coltrane, as well as the thick rhythms of Miles Davis’s Bitches Brew seventies era. The album is peppered with several standout vocal tracks, starting with the soothing ‘Mama’, a song written and sung by Makhathini’s wife Omagugu, as a memorial to her mother who recently passed away. Drawing on the Ntu tradition, the song pays tribute to the spiritual earth mother, and Makhathini has described the way the textures accumulate as the song progresses as akin to a baby growing in the womb.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Josh's picks
British multi-reedist Courtney Pine’s latest album, Spirituality, acts as a follow-up to his previous duet album with pianist Zoe Rahman – the pair previously recorded together back in 2015 on Song (The Ballad Book).
Accompanying the pair on half of the tracks is a string quartet, lending the already rather subdued pieces a certain chamber-like quality, with Pine offering a small handful of originals including the gospel-influenced opener ‘Black Water’ and the tribute to Queen Elizabeth II, ‘Your Majesty’, which closes out the album. It’s certainly on the intimate side, and serves as a quietly confident return for Pine after 5 years since his last record.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
No doubt best known to many as the mind behind the landmark tape-music record series The Disintegration Loops, avant-garde ambient artist William Basinski’s latest record is a collaborative effort with the similarly experimental composer Janek Schaefer.
Comprising five pieces of ambient piano and electronic drones – fittingly dedicated to the late Harold Budd – ...On Reflection is the product of eight years of collaboration between Basinski and Schaefer. An antidote to the end-of-year bustle and a meditation on the concept of reflection itself, Basinski and Schaefer’s collection of shimmering textures and scattered piano melodies deserves an attentive listen.
Available Format: CD
The ‘& More’ in this article’s title is doing a lot of work with this recommendation, but seeing as we happen to stock one of my favourite record labels – American alternative imprint Sargent House – I feel somewhat obliged to shout-out something that’s been on heavy rotation for me throughout this year, the latest album by instrumental rock trio Russian Circles, Gnosis. Known for their enveloping, dark atmospheres and bulldozer-heavy riffs, Gnosis marks a first for the trio in that the record was written entirely remotely during lockdown, each song composed by individual members separately before being shared with the rest of the band.
Dynamics are kind of Russian Circles’ bread and butter, so it’s good to hear none of that was lost with this new process the band found themselves in, and with the final tracks produced in collaboration with master metal producer Kurt Ballou, there’s plenty of distorted ear candy for those with their ears attuned for it.
Available Format: CD
West Midlands-based multi-instrumentalist and music producer Bibio (aka Stephen James Wilkinson) hasn’t exactly been known to pin himself down to a singular style. Take a look at his back catalogue and you’ll find he likes to dabble in a number of different yet cohesive musical styles – from the eerie lo-fi ambient of Phantom Brickworks, to acoustic-electronic releases like Ribbons, and the blissful English folk-meets-ambient sounds of 2020’s Sleep on the Wing – but manages to weave it all into his overarching aesthetic of homemade, honest, and ultimately earthy music.
For BIB10, his tenth full-length album, Wilkinson surprised us again with a record that’s dripping with analog synthesiser and drum-machine goodies, from the atmospheric opener ‘Off Goes the Light’ featuring a pseudo-motorik beat, to the lovesick ‘80s electro-ballad ‘Potion’ (complete with a shredding guitar solo), or the coolly funky ‘Rain or Shine’. Yet as always, there’s still that signature melodic and aesthetic footprint that marks BIB10 as nothing if not a characteristically Bibio release.
Available Format: CD
Joshua Lee - Jazz Content
