Danny Neill

Fred Moten & Brandon Lopez’s ‘Revision’ offers a unique hybrid of voice and double bass, intertwined impossibly as one in a recital that lives, breathes, evolves, explores, changes and expresses as one in an impossibly unrepetitive hour of sonic splendour.

Alabaster DePlume’s new LP, A Blade Because A Blade Is Whole, is both a soother, a coping mechanism and a healer. This one might be the State of the Nation address that truly resonates.

Toria Wooff’s sophistically cultivated self-titled debut album is a work of art that demands proper engagement and, in return, promises fruitful payback. The maturity on show points to even more interesting creativity further down the line.

Echolalia is a unique album that repurposes the glory days of English acid folk and pastoral, rural progressive music into a 2025 context. We could use some more of this good stuff in the world right now.

Music that grows out of in-the-moment self-expression such as this can only ever really sound like itself…The Ancients – Isaiah Collier, William Hooker, William Parker – are here to sort the real space cadets out from the pretenders.

Nadia Reid’s ‘Enter Now Brightness’ is an album unfettered by generic pigeonholes and working in complete service to artistic expression. Alongside moments of reflection and introspection, we witness joy, light and a piercing optimism that ruptures this album with vibrant colour.

In the hands of film producer James Mangold, there is a very real probability that the definitive Bob Dylan film has finally arrived, with the man himself nowhere to be seen but his spirit and very essence seeping into every frame.

The Weather Station’s ‘Humanhood’ is a sharp-edged bulletin from the 2025 frontline. Within, hope can be found, not just in the human spirit but also in the boundless forward-motion energy that creativity offers us all…there might yet be light at the end of the tunnel.

We chat with 21st-century renaissance man Sam Amidon about his influences, his love of instrumental music, jazz and folk; and of course, the creation of his sublime new album ‘Salt River’.

Sam Amidon’s Salt River is an album whose full kaleidoscopic experience is revealed through repeated listens. Eclectic is an easily applied word, but here we have an artist releasing a groundbreaking, spirited and adventurous album that is genuinely worthy of the description.

Danny Neill shares his Top 10 albums of 2024, including releases from Leyla McCalla, Josienne Clarke, The Decemberists, Yasmin Williams, Ac Sapphire, Jerron Paxton, Niamh Bury, AJ Woods, Kronos Quartet and Richard Thompson.

I cannot recall feeling the Royal Albert Hall more alive with restless anticipation minutes before Bob Dylan’s arrival, nor can I think of a more joyous roar erupting when the main attraction arrives on stage for a night of plentiful highlights and some revelations.