This mix is less of a best jazz recordings of 2017 and more of a mix of jazz that I enjoyed in 2017. I don't listen to nearly as much jazz as I do ambient and indie music. But I liked enough releases to come up with an end of the year jazz mix. So here it is. The year was anchored by two spectacular recordings - Aytche by Joseph Shabason and All This I Do For Gloryby Colin Stetson. I saw Stetson at a small club and was blown away by his sound and technique. If you get the chance to see him up close definitely go. There are two albums that I discovered while compiling tracks for my mix, Rhythm of the Rails. Those two are Eternal Storiesby Michel Portal & Quator Ebene and Simultonality by Joshua Abrams & Natural Information Society. Both excellent recordings. Another highlight of 2017 was ECM records putting their entire catalog up on Spotify. I listened to nothing by ECM for a few weeks this fall. This will probably be my last mix for 2017. I've already started on a guest mix for liftedicons.com that will be fun to put together. Music definitely helped me get through a messed up 2017. Here's to a great 2018. Cheers! [ s t r e a m ][ d o w n l o a d ][ i t u n e s ] T R A C K L I S T :
00:00 Joseph Shabason - Aytche(Aytche)
03:40 Vijay Iyer Sextet - Wake(Far From Over)
08:03 Ben Allison - Magic Number(Layers of the City)
14:38 Bjorn Meyer - Provenance(Provenance)
20:30 Quatuor Ebene - City Birds(Eternal Stories)
27:55 Colin Stetson - Spindrift(All This I Do For Glory)
33:36 Portico Quartet - Endless(Art in the Age of Automation)
37:46 Kamasi Washington - Desire(Harmony Of Difference)
42:07 Phronesis - Ok Chorale(The Behemoth)
45:50 Joshua Abrams & Natural Information Society - Maroon Dune(Simultonality)
54:48 Dorothy Ashby - Pawky(Hip Harp/In A Minor Groove)
It's that time of the year again - end of the year Best Of list time! It's always a difficult task to pick albums for one of these lists. But it's also fun because I get to sort through a bunch of music and it's definitely cool to have a look at other lists and discover a ton of things I missed. There is no way these lists are close to being definitive. A lot of ambient releases can tend to blur from one into the next and the difference between making the list and not making it can boil down to what mood I was in when I first heard the album. There's so much excellent music being released on a weekly basis it's impossible to keep up so this list and mix is just a bunch of stuff that I liked this past year. Here are a few other good year in review lists: http://www.astrangelyisolatedplace.com/blog/2017/12/5/asip-reflection-on-2017
https://acloserlisten.com/tag/acl-2017/ https://irregularcrates.com/2017/12/12/end-of-2017-a-list-and-mix-by-harry-towell/ http://ambientmusicguide.com/best-of-year/best-albums-of-2017/ https://www.popmatters.com/best-ambient-instrumental-albums-2017-2513144740.html?page=2 https://diveintosun.wordpress.com/2017/12/11/best-albums-of-2017/ http://textura.org/archives/articles/2017top10s.htm#10ambient My best of list is more of a best instrumental music list than just straight ambient. The mix is mostly ambient but the list contains jazz, instrumental & ambient. According to my Spotify data I played a lot of 36 last year so it's appropriate that he's got two albums in the top ten. I guess I'm too lazy to write up comments about all the music except to say that there's a lot of good stuff there. So take some time and hunt down these releases, you won't be disappointed. BEST INSTRUMENTAL ALBUMS 2017: 1. 36 - Tomorrow’s Explorers 2. Delia Derbyshire Appreciation Society - Delia Derbyshire Appreciation Society 3. Colin Stetson - All This I Do For Glory 4. Bing and Ruth - No Home of the Mind 5. Joseph Shabason - Aytche 6. Ruven Nunez - Altar of Sunlight 7. Benoit Pioulard - Lingnin Poise and Slow Spark, Soft Spoke 8. Chuck Johnson - Balsams 9. 36 - Black Soma 10. Bibio - Phantom Brickworks 11. Dungen - Haxan(versions by Prins Thomas) 12. Vijay Iyer Sextet - Far From Over 13. Penguin Cafe - The Imperfect Sea 14. Arovane & Hior Chronic - Into My Own 15. Christopher Willits - The Art of Listening 16. Vermont - II 17. High Plains - Cinderland 18. Roedelius and Arnold Kaspar - Einfluss 19. Tonepoet - N/E/W/S 20. Halftribe - Daydreams in Low Fidelity 21. Taylor Dupree - Somi 22. Kamasi Washington - Harmony of Difference 23. Loess - Pocosin 24. Hior Chronic - Our of the Dust 25. Tale of Use - Endless 26. Saltland - A Common Truth 27. Quatuor Ebene - Eternal Stories 28. Aware - The Book of Wind 29. Grails - Chalace Hymnal 30. The Prairie Lines - Eyes Down Slowdown If you have a list of your own feel free to leave it in the comments. Or if you just have a favorite or two that you want to recommend please let us know in the comments. Here's to a, musically, great 2017 & a better 2018. Cheers! [ s t r e a m ][ d o w n l o a d ][ i t u n e s ]
T R A C K L I S T :
00:00 36 - Poekhali(Tomorrow's Explorers)
06:33 Delia Derbyshire Appreciation Society - Cloudface(Delia Derbyshire Appreciation Society)
10:25 Bing & Ruth - Scrapes(No Home Of The Mind)
15:10 Bibio - Capel Celyn(phantom brickworks)
20:50 Benoit Pioulard Same Time Next Year(Lignin Poise)
25:10 Tonepoet - The Moment You Were Swept From My Memory(N.E.W.S.)
30:00 The Prairie Lines - Calm Landing(eyes down slowdown)
36:00 Hans-Joachim Roedelius and Arnold Kasar - Asco(Einfluss)
40:30 Dungen - Aladdin och lampan(Haxan (versions by Prins Thomas)
47:10 Vermont - Langholmen(Vermont II)
50:35 Island People - Ember(Island People)
55:10 Saltland - To Allow Us All To Breathe(A Common Truth)
59:10 Penguin Cafe - Cantorum(The Imperfect Sea)
1:06:10 High Plains - Ten Sleep(Cinderland)
1:09:05 Arovane & Hior Chronik - The Return(Into My Own)
1:11:35 Chuck Johnson - Labradorite(Balsams)
1:16:30 Ruven Nunez - As Above, So Below(Altar of Sunlight)
1:26:00 Taylor Deupree - Autumn(Somi)
1:31:40 Loess - Striae(Pocosin)
1:37:00 Halftribe - Aphotic(Daydreams in Low Fidelity)
1:40:55 Christopher Willits - Ama(The Art of Listening)
1:44:10 Aware - But God Was Not in the Storm(The Book of Wind)
Being a science fiction & electronic music geek, it's no surprise that I'm a big fan of the soundtrack for the original Blade Runner film. When I heard that they'd tabbed Johann Johannsson to do the score for the 2049 film I was very excited. But then he was pulled from the project & replaced with Hans Zimmer. While I've actually liked a few of Zimmer's recent scores, I wasn't overly impressed with his music for 2049. It wasn't that I disliked it. I think I was just disappointed that it wasn't Johannsson. My son, however, liked the soundtrack much more than I did. So much in fact that he went home after seeing the film, created his own track in the 2049 style and sent it to me the next day. I was impressed with the track and immediately made plans for a Blade Runner mix. The music here is a collection of tunes that sounds like it fit perfectly in Blade Runner 2049. In searching for music I was happy to have rediscovered Xerrox, Vol. 2 by Alva Noto, such a great album. I was also excited to find music and artists I'd not heard before like Ital Tek, Floating Machine & Island People. Here's a link to my son's track which appears in the mix as track #3 - "Blade Running" by Just a Human.
