Albums

Uhlmann Johnson Wilkes is proof that you don’t have to forsake traditional aesthetic notions of melody to make something experimental…this is music deep and alluring enough to get lost in and sparse enough to find yourself in. 

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.

It is still early days for nominating a “best debut album of year”, but Kin’Gongolo Kiniata’s debut album ‘Kiniata’ which successfully ploughs a bold new furrow through the world of Congolese music and beyond, will surely be up there in the mix.

Macie Stewart’s ‘When the Distance is Blue’ feels even more cerebral than her debut, more improvisational, and more rooted in landscape. But for all the meditativeness and all the improvisation, there is a single-minded artistry at work behind these pieces. 

With Te Whare Tīwekaweka, Marlon Williams turns to the Māori tongue of his ancestors for inspiration. In nurturing his cultural and spiritual ties, Williams has found a way into his most expansive and majestic album yet.

Delivered with eloquence, fire and an impressive eye for poetic detail, Lonnie Holley’s ‘Tonky’ is a work of multitudes. It follows unlikely trails, expands on themes other artists would pass over, and invites a depth of thought and engagement rarely found in contemporary music.

Musically, lyrically and thematically, a fire rages through the Brown Horse’s sophomore album, All The Right Weaknesses. It’s a stupendous follow-up that should see it easily featured on many year-end best-of lists.

With lightness and an ear for a concise and cutting phrase, Clara Mann alchemises her experience into a universal emotional reaction on ‘Rift’. In the space of a debut, she has gone from ‘one to watch’ to one of the best songwriters in the country.

‘no floor’ is more eaze & claire rousay’s most organic and free-flowing record to date. With not a wasted note to be heard, it’s full of ideas, using the collage form to its full potential; an impeccably crafted album and highly recommended.

Cameron Knowler’s “CRK” is a pivotal and adventurous album that feels both timeless and forward-looking. With its diverse and engaging character and mature and assured arrangements, he’s crafted a fine and highly recommended album.

Experimental, trippy, fiercely creative and quite mesmerising, Whitney Johnson & Lia Kohl’s ‘For Translucence’ is a tricky album to pin down, but you’ll be glad you gave it the time and space to reveal itself.

On ‘Come Into the Garden’, Natalie Wildgoose conjures a strange world submerged in sweet, subtle sound and rich in the unlearnable language of dream and memory.