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aya’s album - im hole
Album: Quite unlike any other LP of the last 12 months or longer, this highly experimental work by Huddersfield-raised artist is avant-garde electronica splattered with wittily odd disembodied vocals resulting in psychedelic states of poetic “transient psychosis”
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Favourite selection part 2.
Favourite albums of 2021 – Part 2: Welcome the second instalment, following Part 1, which can be found here. A huge number of excellent releases, of which again this is just a selection many of which were written during, and about lockdown, but also saw many outstanding voices emerge as well as innovative sounds developed
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Take your pick. Are your favourites here? Also check out Part 2 coming soon.
Favourite albums of 2021, part 1: Another difficult year for everyone, but from soul and jazz, electro-pop the experimental and avant-garde, an outstanding one for music releases, perhaps in part because out of diversity comes great art. Also feel free to explore Part 2, which is now available to view here.
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Mario Batkovic: taking the accordion to new places on Introspectio
New album: A mesmeric, magical fusion of boundary-pushing electronica, saxophone and organ by the Swiss virtuoso solo accordion player born in Bosnia now based in Bristol, with guests including saxophonist Colin Stetson
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Laura Cannell & Kate Ellis
Multiple release: Less an album more a uniquely special project of 12 monthly EP releases of beautiful, ghostly folk and experimental instrumentals, vocals and spoken stories by the violinist and cellist, with guests, capturing the changing seasons
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Island of Noise cover
New album: Released only as a deluxe double vinyl box set with a 36-page booklet and second instrumental companion LP titled Island Of Silence, this fascinatingly experimental album by Jack Cooper is inspired by Shakespeare’s The Tempest
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Houeida Hedfi’s debut album Fleuves De L’Âme
New album: A gorgeous, entrancing debut by the Tunisian percussionist joined by fellow violin player Radhi Chaouali and Palestinian bouzouk player Jalal Nader in a brilliant fusion of North African, Middle Eastern and western styles to evoke the voices of rivers
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Ichiko Aoba’s Windswept Adan is now available in a deluxe double LP edition
New album: A gorgeous album that received an initial release last year but now on a deluxe double LP, this is a conceptualised soundtrack album for an imaginary film by the Japanese singer-songwriter that floats and ripples with delicate instrumentation and her beautifully gentle voice
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Arca’s Kick ii album, one of four visually arresting covers
After 2020’s Grammy-nominated KiCk i Venezuela-born, Barcelona-based cyber-looking trans electronic artist Alejandra Ghers doesn’t do things by halves – returning with a daunting but fascinating quadruple release of albums of various styles with 47 songs across 147 minutes
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Richard Dawson and Circle’s collaborative album Henki
New album: An entrancing, uplifting, brilliantly crafted and epic-feel mix of folk, prog and krautrock through tales of seeds, botany, history and myth by the Newcastle artist in collaboration with the Finnish metal band in a fabulous album unlike any other in 2021
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They Might Be Giants’ John Flansburgh and John Linnell
New album: New York’s original alt-rockers John Flansburgh and John Linnell return with their 23rd studio album of clever, whimsical, absurd and amusing songs, part of a project with an 8-track tape, another EP, and a bumper book of lyrics set in concrete poetry
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Radiohead’s KID A MNESIA
Reissue albums: An anniversary edition of two landmark albums, Kid A (2000) and Amnesiac (2001) combined, but with a difference, with added tracks and alternate versions, harking back when the band expanded from rock into more experimental, krautrock and electronica territory
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Darkly beautiful: Damon Albarn’s new album
New album: The frontman of many bands from Blur to Gorillaz returns with a new solo album suffused with slow beautiful, tender melancholy, falling piano chord progressions, jazz elements, electronica, gentle beats and wistful images
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New album: Perfect for long, dark, wintry nights, a beguilingly beautiful mix of medieval, folk, ghostly tales and fables mixed with the modern by Katharine Blake of Mediaeval Baebes and Miranda Sex Garden, collaborating with multi-instrumentalist Michael J York
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Going back to go forward: Nation of Language
New album: The follow-up to Introduction, Presence (2020), the Brooklyn trio continue in very likeable new wave synth vein, but dipping more into style of the 70s pioneers such as Kraftwerk and Neu! as well as early Human League and OMD
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Marta Del Grandi’s debut album Until We Fossilize
New album: This delicate, beautiful debut by the Italian singer from Milan with a jazz background infuses her songs with folk and classical and eastern elements in an LP inspired by the Greek myth of Amethyst who defies the patriarchy
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Sam Evian’s third album, Time To Melt
New album: Warm, woozy and fluid, an appropriate title for this super smooth third album by Sam Griffin Owens, the Brooklyn based artist, decorated with light funk, 70s psychedelic soul and lush, orchestral instrumentation
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Mysterious beauty: Fun House by Hand Habits
New album: New York-born Los Angeles-based artist Meg Duffy returns with her own distinctive form of electro-pop and Americana folk with very refined, dreamily sung songs that build on her excellent single Aquamarine
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La Luz, self-titled, is the band’s fourth studio album
New album: LA’s Shana Cleveland and co return with a fourth, self-titled LP of wonderful, atmospheric numbers of gentle, surf-noir folk-psychedelia of tremendous melody, rich vocal harmony, and guitar and sitar-pedal sheen
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Rebecca Taylor’s back
New album: Rotherham’s Rebecca Taylor returns with a second LP under her liberated moniker after Compliments Please with an even greater triumph of darkly humorous and caustic honesty topped with glorious gospel harmonies, big drums, orchestration and a celebration of emancipated womanhood
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