Miles Davis: Get Up With It - Most folks, jazz fans or not, are familiar with Miles through "Kind of Blue". Maybe some more are familiar with "Sketches of Spain" and "Bitches Brew" or a handful of other albums that are indicative of his different periods. I don't get the sense that this record generally bubbles up to the top in his sizable oeuvre, though it rightfully should. It's like a smoothed out Bitches Brew that just hits you in the face like a satin bulldozer. I picked it up on a lark just to get a little more comfortable with some more of his albums but wow was I impressed! The sound was hip and timeless.
Helios: Eingaya If you're a fan of "The Album Leaf" or "Dead Texan", etc... this album is right up your alley. It's super-chilled out but not too slacker in its presentation. Nice and tight and one of my favourite in the genre.
Alva Noto: Vol 1. Xerrox Very hard to find or expensive (at least for this amateur), his albums are well worth it. He deftly takes white noise and turns it into someting really clean and compelling.
Frank Bretschneider: Rhythm As the title suggests, it has rhythm, but it's in a more minimalist variety. It's kind of like lower case hip-hop if that makes sense.
Mad Lib: Beat Konducta Vol 3-4: In India - remixed and reimagined Bollywood source material. It took me a couple of listens before I could get into it - but it's pretty amazing and original stuff.
Raekwon: Only Built 4 Cuban Linx - I didn't grow up listening to Wu-Tang and it's been hard (for me) to go backwards in time to appreciate some of their earlier work. I have enjoyed some of the more recent offerings from those rappers and this one in particular really impressed me.
Panama! Latin, Calypso and Funk on the Isthmus 1965-75 Another Sound Way collection, this time it relies heavily on a band called the Exciters. It's not as good as the Columbia! disc but it still has an eclectic mix of some really unique and funky Latin music.
Cesaria Evora: The Very Best of I'm kicking myself for buying a 'best of' album. I try and avoid it whenever possible...but this is the CD I bought. Now I wish that I tried to assemble more of her catalogue on my own. Evora, who is from Cape Verde, is fairly popular in the world music scene, but hasn't broken through to pop consciousness. I recommend her music to friends whom I know play the same Gypsy Kings CD at every wine and cheese party they throw.
Django Reinhardt: Swing De Paris - this is a best of collection I don't regret. It's four discs of almost everything early that Django did. The recordings are...um...of their time...which I kind of like. Old radio-style recordings but that include such priceless moments as his yelps while playing a particularly hot version of "minor swing." If you're not familiar with Django, he was a legendary gypsy guitarist who was sort of the Glen Miller-esque band leader of occupied Paris. Despite or because of his high profile he never got sent away by the Nazi's. His unique style is much imitated and I'm told that at Django conventions people tape up their fingers to simulate the technique he used with his fire-damaged hand.
Dexter Gordon: One Flight Up I previously bought "ballads" without realizing it was a collection. I am now slowly building up most of his albums and this is my favourite to date. At 6'5", he was known as the tower of power, but is actually capable of great subtlety. From reading up on him, he apparently influenced and learned from Coltrane and vice versa throughout their career. Many of his albums feature the same backing band as appeared on Coltrane's more famous albums. Really quite interesting stuff. Small piece of trivia - he's also Lars Ulrich of Metallica's Godfather due to a stint of living in Denmark and befriending his parents. Odd, huh?
Evelyn Glennie & Fred Frith: The Sugar Factory Recorded, not surprisingly, in a sugar factory. An abandoned one in East Germany to be exact. This is the soundtrack to a documentry on Glennie called "Touch the Sound" by the same director who gave us "Rivers and Tides: the art of Andy Goldsworthy" (with music by Fred Frith - see how it all ties together?) Anyway - Glennie's story is an amazing one - she's deaf. She's also the world's most sought after percussionist. She has tought herself to hear through her sense of feeling - pitch, volume, etc... I recommend watching the movie first (and Rivers & Tides before that if you haven't seen it) but the music is both noisy and musical, ethereal and in your face. It's really grown on me.
Nick Cave: And No More Shall We Part - this is in my car right now. I really love this album. Stylistically, it's a shade apart from Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds' other work but I feel as though it's some of the best songwriting and lyrics of his career. (that may be a controversial statement to big Nick Cave fans - not sure).
