Glenn Kimpton

Daniel Bachman’s ‘Moving Through Light’ is a remarkable recording that turns the guitar soli genre inside out…It is a startlingly beautiful, challenging, painstaking piece of work from an artist who continues to push boundaries and create the work that means the most to him.

Inspired by the magic of collaboration and built around the philosophy of minimalism, David Grubbs’ ‘Whistle from Above’ hits so many moods and emotions that it positively demands multiple listens–a bumper crop of excellent mercurial music from an eternally fascinating artist.

With April is Passing, Virginia-based violinist and multi-instrumentalist Mike Gangloff has once again presented us with beautiful, complex, original pieces of music, another excellent example of the unique ability of this fascinating musician.

Park Jiha is a master of creating conceptual soundscapes, and ‘All Living Things’ is humbling, enchanting and sometimes quietly alarming in the starkness of its structure. It is a beautiful, inimitable creation.

Acoustic guitar badass and prolific tourer Liam Grant’s ‘Prodigal Son’ comes in like a thunderstorm, with distorted fingerpicked guitar notes hitting the speakers in a barrage of metal and wood.

In an age of ‘homogenisation and mass amnesia’, Cynefin’s ‘Shimli’ looks to the diversity of the past for answers, a role he’s well placed to comment on as a researcher and cultural historian. Beautifully presented, it is another remarkable release from this unique musician.

While Blue Lake’s ‘Weft’ may be a mini-album, it feels like a major work with the delicate, complex music drifting away after five songs and leaving us grateful for the experience and wondering where this craftsman will take us next.

Within the meticulous nature of the sound of ‘Onilu’ is a paradoxically careful abandon, and the love of the playing and bouncing off of one another shines through brightly. I’ve not come across anything quite like it.

On How to Rescue Things, Bill Orcutt plays his four-string Telecaster over recordings of old RCA easy-listening music…although he often resists going full pelt into his guitar strings, he flirts with the idea, reminding us that he still has plenty of fire in his fingers.

Glenn Kimpton shares his Top 10 albums of 2024, including releases from Charles ‘Poppy Bob’ Walker, Ben Nicholls, Jake Xerxes Fussell, Ava Mendoza, Nathan Bowles Trio, Laura Jane Wilkie, Joshua Massad & Dylan Aycock and more.

It’s somewhat a consensus that the magic of late guitar genius Robbie Basho’s music was best felt in concert. Hence, ‘Snow Beneath the Belly of a White Swan’ is a serious treat featuring several hours of music from a true original, an underrated guitar giant.

From recordings discovered on some dusty tapes in Yuma County Library, Charles ‘Poppy Bob’ Walker’s ‘Dirt Bike Vacation is quietly groundbreaking while containing some of the most modest guitar music you will hear. It’s probably my favourite release of the year.