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here's what i wrote about kassa overall on my personal blog:
1. Kassa Overall - I Think I’m Good: “I think I’m good”–a phrase that’s ran through my head throughout this shitstorm of a year. Sure, I postponed a wedding, cancelled trips, and saw my friends and family much less often than I would like, but I count myself among the lucky ones. Still breathing, still sane. Though it was recorded and released before the pandemic started, Kassa Overall’s I Think I’m Good became a lodestar of sorts for me. It’s a brilliantly introspective and deeply personal album about existing in enclosed spaces–whether a jail cell, an NYC subway car, or the inescapable prison of your own body.Kassa Overall made his name as a jazz drummer, touring with icons like Geri Allen, but his solo music incorporates elements of hip-hop, classical, and trap to create a wholly original milieu. The album features contributions from over 30 accomplished voices, ranging from luminary Vijay Iyer, to Kassa’s saxophonist brother Carlos Overall, to virtuosic pianist Sullivan Fortner, to venerated activist Angela Davis. But all the disparate elements come together in service of Kassa’s deeply personal and engrossing vision.
Taking partial inspiration from Kassa’s struggle with manic depression, the music fluctuates between meditative calm and unbearable tension, mimicking the patter of an unquiet mind. Album opener “Visible Walls,” is a mesmerizing prayer for salvation soundtracked by fluttering harps, piercing woodwinds, and heartbeat percussion. “Find Me” buries a plea for help within a cacophony of sampled voices and rattling piano notes. Fortner’s piano guides us through the hauntingly devastating “Halfway House” and the Chopin-indebted “Darkness In Mind,” each highlighting a different stage of grief (despair and acceptance, respectively). The arc of I Think I’m Good concludes with the hopeful “Got Me A Plan” and “Was She Happy (For Geri Allen),” a Vijay Iyer-assisted tribute to his late friend and mentor.
It’s ironic that an album that so deeply explores the feeling of isolation vibrates with such a collaborative spirit. I Think I’m Good feels like an answered prayer–a community coming together to check on a beloved friend who’s gone through a tough time: “You good, man?” “I think so.”
― tiwa-nty one savage (voodoo chili), Friday, 5 February 2021 20:47 (two months ago) link
Short list this year. Hive mind must be growing in size and homogeneity?
I remember the days when I would be the sole voter for one of my big albums, but the hivemind has shifted a lot more towards African pop since then. my highest sole vote this year was my #7, De Mogul SA’s
Lessons.
of this list I’ve only heard the Summer Walker, which was solid, but I didn’t found terribly exciting.
most curious about ShariVari’s entry, the Monetochka/Монеточка. I often like the stuff he posts on the Eastern European/Central Asian Pop threads.
Links + quick comments (written by others)
Anna Högberg Attack - Lena (1st) There are moments which feel as though the ensemble is as much punk band as it is jazz sextet
https://annahogberg.bandcamp.com/album/lena
Kassa Overall - I Think I'm Good (1st) The work of an artist whose voice has ripened to its own hard-earned, provocative conclusions, erasing the need to talk about dissolving barriers between hip hop and jazz because he has begun a new conversation.
https://kassaoverall.bandcamp.com/album/i-think-im-good
Maria McKee - La vita nuova (1st) An homage to Dante’s opus on unrequited love. The production is orchestral and operatic and takes it cues from McKee’s lexicon of icons - John Cale, Scott Walker and David Bowie.
https://mariamckee.bandcamp.com/album/la-vita-nuova
Nation of Language - Introduction, Presence (1st) perfectly captures the feeling of the German-influenced synth wave of the early 80s.
https://nationoflanguage.bandcamp.com/album/introduction-presence
Pulse Emitter - Swirlings (1st) Ambient FM-style tones that swim around.
https://pulseemitter.bandcamp.com/album/swirlings
Reuben Vaun Smith - Warm Nights (1st) The sound of warm nights, lapping oceans and a young man, in a Yorkshire shed, wrapping himself in layers of musical warmth and shimmering sonic landscapes.
https://reubenvaunsmith.bandcamp.com/album/warm-nights
Yuko Araki - Live Recording 2019-2020 (1st) Harsh noise drones layered by analog synthesizers, cymbals and samples of Japanese traditional instruments creating abstract rhythms and dissonant harmonies that sound like a noise orchestra.
https://gerpfastkolektif.bandcamp.com/album/live-recording-2019-2020
Lauren Bousfield - Palimpsest (2nd) Brings a new found expertise in orchestral arranging from her other work as a cinema composer, and puts vocals to the front
https://deathbombarc.bandcamp.com/album/palimpsest
Marta Zapparoli - Sonata Per Eterna (2nd) A composition for electromagnetic radiations
https://glisteningexamples.bandcamp.com/album/sonata-per-eterna
Monetochka - Декоративно-прикладное искусство (2nd) (translated) Filled with allusions and highly social, satirical sketches of contemporary Russian life. Nevertheless, the album marks the transition from the electronic pop sound of Coloring Books for Adults to the musical aesthetics of 20th century Russian pop.
https://lisamonetka.bandcamp.com/album/-
Summer Walker - Life on Earth EP (2nd) A couple sultry strip club joints, a couple guitar-led ballads, a playful reunion with PARTYNEXTDOOR
https://areyoulost.bandcamp.com/album/summer-walker-life-on-earth-ep-chopped-screwed
Windy & Carl - Allegiance and Conviction (2nd) Turning their atmospheric soft focus on everyday life, this is as close as the Detroit dream-pop duo has come to making a pop record
https://windyandcarl.bandcamp.com/album/allegiance-and-conviction
Exquisite Corpse - ∀∃ (3rd) A coherent document of the free-flowing experimentation and musical symbiosis shared between Robbert and Debbie. Created for each other, now to be shared.
https://isla.bandcamp.com/album/xqst
Half Waif - The Caretaker (3rd) A ballsy pop record that often uses restraint and delayed payoff to create a deeper connection
https://halfwaif.bandcamp.com/album/the-caretaker
Jean Dawson - Pixel Bath (3rd) Touches on themes of belonging, power, and death. Be it garage rock delivery over 2000's alt-pop production, synthwave homages, or a brief foray into industrial rap
https://open.spotify.com/album/121Hqnfr9tMBdL0LJuIstL
Noveller - Arrow (3rd) Feels as if it is filled with dreamscapes and contemplation intersecting with tension and drama, a journey that plays out over it’s dynamic sequence
https://noveller.bandcamp.com/album/arrow
Sightless Pit - Grave of a Dog (3rd) Perfectly binds the very best features of these three artists and crushes the resulting amalgamation of sound and structure into a sticky, icky doomy nectar
https://sightlesspit.bandcamp.com/album/grave-of-a-dog
Sofie - Cult Survivor (3rd) Deceptively unassuming, yet nuanced and adult pop influenced by 60s, 70s and 80s pop and filled with staccato piano, warming analogue synths and languid guitar
https://sofiefatouretchi.bandcamp.com/album/cult-survivor
Various Artists - Anthology of Experimental Music from Mexico (3rd) A secret place where the sound is deep, wide, and treated as a living entity; where live performances feel more like processions, liturgies, or mediums between this realm and the unknown, rather than simple entertainment
https://unexplainedsoundsgroup.bandcamp.com/album/anthology-of-experimental-music-from-mexico
― octobeard, Saturday, 6 February 2021 01:14 (two months ago) link