My favorite albums of 2017

Nathan Hubbard ER Quartet - Lattice Trust

This is a recent purchase. I discovered it through the Avant Music News Best of 2017 list. I think it was number 2. Very good free improv. It's real a group effort, but with a drummer and the leader being a percussionist, it's heavy on the percussion which I like.

Nathan Hubbard - vibraphone, tone bells, bell lyre, toy piano, circuit bent keyboard, mbira-frame, radio, samples/field recordings
G.E. Stinson - electric guitar, electronics + implements
Steuart Liebig - electric bass, electronics + implements
Alex Cline - drumkit, percussion

No video but you can listen to the album on Bandcamp
Lattice Trust, by Nathan Hubbard ER Quartet

 

Hear in Now (Mazz Swift/Tomeka Reid/Silvia Bolognesi) - Not Living in Fear

More improvised music, this time a string trio. Tomeka Reid is the only one of these artists I'd heard of before but they're all great. The music isn't very dissonant and it's not as free as Lattice Trust so it's an easier listen.

Mazz Swift – violin, voice
Tomeka Reid – cello
Silvia Bolognesi – double bass
-with-
Dee Alexander – vocals (on "Not Living in Fear")

Bandcamp: Not Living in Fear, by Hear in Now (Mazz Swift, Tomeka Reid, Silvia Bolognesi)

 

Craig Taborn and Ikue Mori - Highsmith

This was discounted on some web site and I like both artists so I gave it a shot without sampling first. Piano and electronics free improv. I like one of the reviews on Amazon "Great - for the initiated".

No videos and the best samples I can find are on boomkat Craig Taborn and Ikue Mori - Highsmith - Boomkat

 

Tony Conrad - Ten Years Alive On The Infinite Plain

Whoops, evidently this is a reissue, originally released in 72. It's either early ambient or out there minimalism. With Rhys Chatham playing a home made instrument, Long String Drone - a six-foot strip of wood with bass strings and electric pick up, prepared with tuning keys, tape and metal hardware; and Laurie Spiegel on bass

 

The Necks - Unfold

I'd find it impossible to exclude The Necks from these lists, In fact, as I'm listening now, it should be higher on the list although I don't know what I'd bump down.

This is one improv chopped in to four tracks. The intention is that there is no particular order to the tracks. It was originally issued as a double LP with no side numbers. Since I bought it as a download, I've always listened in the same order. Other than four tracks instead of one long one, it's a pretty typical The Necks album.

 

Simulacrum - John Zorn: The Garden Of Earthly Delights

Organ based heavy metal from Zorn, inspired by Hieronymus Bosch. This is Zorn's heaviest ensemble.

Trevor Dunn: Bass
John Medeski: Keyboards
Kenny Grohowski: Drums
Matt Hollenberg: Guitar
Sara Serpa: Voice

 

Garth Knox/The Saltarello Trio - Leonard: John Zorn's Book Of Angels Volume 30

More Zorn. This is the last of the Masada Book 2: The Book of Angels. This could be considered classical music. It's arranged for a trio of early music stringed instruments and percussion.

 

Charlemagne Palestine - The Lower Depths

Originally released in 77. A 3 CD set, each CD is a minimalist improv on Bösendorfer grand piano. The Bösendorfer has lower notes that other pianos and a lot of the improv is down in those lower notes.

 

Franz Zwartjes - Zwartjes. Tapes 1

First release from the archive of a Dutch art-house film director. I hope there's more. It's music, sounds and dialog spliced together In some ways, this sounds like it could be and inspiration for Félicia Atkinson's album. It's not as sparse or subtle as Atkinson's album, just a similar style.

 

Los misterios de Eleusis, by Nau Aletheia (instrumental symphonic rock, Buenos Aires, Argentina)



Favourite track: Fotofobia

 

Faces, by Tohpati Bertiga (instrumental jazz-rock, Jakarta, Indonesia)



Favourite track: Extraordinary

 

Alpha-Omega Man, by Napier's Bones (progressive rock, England)



Favourite track: Physics Driving

 

Moon Issues, by Comet Talk (space-rock, Portland, Oregon)



Favourite track: Slice the Bool

 

El tiempo del sol, by Francisco Valdivia (prog-folk, Seville, Spain)



Favourite track: Restitución

 

Divulgence, by Organized Chaos (progressive metal, Belgrade, Serbia)



Favourite track: The Mask

 

vortex, by mouth (progressive psychedelia, Cologne, Germany)



Favourite track: Vortex

 

Controlled Freaks, by Nooumena (experimental rock, Caen, France)


Favourite track: Seeds, Needs

 

Cerulean Skies, by Alpha Wave Movement (electronic music / space ambient, USA)



Favourite track: Organic Metamosphosis

 

SAMPHA .....'Process'.
Last time I heard an album this good from an R'n'B type artist was ANTHONY HAMILTONS breakthrough 'Comin' From Where i'm From '.
The two artists have similarities , in as much that they served their time with best selling artists in either a writing or performing capacity , before achieving their breakthrough efforts.

 

The Archinauts, by Isproject (post-progressive, Andria, Italy)



Favourite track: Between the Light and the Stone

 

Kaiho, by KAUAN (ambient rock, Kiev, Ukraine)



Favourite track: Siiville Nousu

 

Fourhands, by Sorato (instrumental progressive fusion, Venice, Italy)



Favourite track: Moon With the Mum

 

Great thread!!

This reminds me a lot of Robert Ruttmans bowed saw music, certainly different instrumentations, but ends up with a similar feel

 

Ahmi, by Ahmi (math-rock, Detroit, Michigan)



Favourite track: Muted Root

 

I’ll have to look that up. I’ve seen people played bowed saw twice. Once it was folkish and the other time it was a street musician playing Bach. It’s a fascinating instrument and one that looks hard to play. I think it would be great for experimental music.