Albums I forgot To Mention : Great Records of 2024(Part I)

I never realize just how many albums I’ve listened to in a year until I get to the year-end list season. There’s a LOT of records that have hit my ears this year, and sometimes I don’t get around to a review. I just end up enjoying a record and not sit down to write about it. There’s also albums that I do write about but others may take precedent over others as far as making a list. You know I used to do favorite 50 albums lists, but they are exhausting. Carving it down to 25 feels better to me, more manageable. And a top 100? I don’t think so.

So here are a few albums that aren’t on the main list but I really liked them. Plus there’s one reissued for the first time live album as well. Enjoy. Or, don’t. Up to you.

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McCoy Tyner and Joe Henderson : Forces of Nature : Live at Slugs’

Whenever Blue Note decides to release unearthed live sets I’m all in. Even if it’s not an artist I’m a big fan of, there’s nothing like a live set from a jazz band in the mid-to-late 60s. It’s a stunning display of musicianship and improvisation. With Forces of Nature : Live at Slugs’ it was a no brainer. McCoy Tyner and Joe Henderson are two of my favorites. Tyner’s The Real McCoy is an all out classic album. And Joe Henderson has so many great albums. Page One is early Joe, while Power To The People is Joe’s reaction to late 60s social and political turmoil. Both are masterpieces in their own right. With these two giants coming together for a night of live music, and the rhythm section of bassist Henry Grimes and drummer extraordinaire Jack DeJohnette backing them up this was going to be a special set.

Max Richter : In A Landscape

The latest from German-British composer Max Richter is another stunning work that combines Richter’s knack for narrative composition and melody-driven pieces. It seems Richter is filling that hole that was left when Johann Johannsson died back in 2018. Both were trailblazers in the worlds of both modern classical and film score work. Richter’s In A Landscape is a stunning album that you get lost in. “And Some Will Fall” is a highlight for me.

Umberto : Black Bile

Matt Hill’s long-running electronic project Umberto has evolved over the years. Starting out in the world of imagined scores, Umberto emulated the sordid, eerie worlds of Giallo and horror of the 60s and 70s. He paved the way for an entire genre of music, along with Slasher Film Festival Strategy, Maiovvi, Pye Corner Audio and later Pentagram Home Video. But over the last few years Hill has taken Umberto into new directions, scoring film and with Black Bile entering the world of ambient music. It’s a gorgeous, all-encompassing record that lays out swaths of ethereal sounds and building a mood that is gauzy, hazy, and lays between dream and reality.

Lotus : Synthbuljong

For a slice of progressive, muscular experimental jazz you can’t get any better than the European quartet Lotus. Percussionist Olaf Olsen (Fra Det Onde, Needlepoint), Chris Holm (Orions Belte, Sondre Lerches band), alto saxophonist Signe Emmeluth, and experimental electric guitarist Karl Bjorå lay out three longform works that are as noisy as they are experimental. Released by the always forward-thinking Danish label El Paraiso Records, this is not new territory for the label. If you’ve heard Black Cube Marriage, Chicago Odense Ensemble, Brian Ellis Group, and Psicomagia then Synthbuljong is going to scratch that proggy psychedelic and out there jazz itch. For fans of Abercrombie’s Gateway, late-era Coltrane, and the CTI and ECM labels.

MIDI Janitor : Holy To Dogs

Holy To Dogs is a wonderfully odd and dream-like electronic album that sort of came from out of nowhere. MIDI Janitor(aka Jonathan Orr) emanates nostalgia, even the project name with “MIDI” in the title paints visions of the cold world of 80s digital music. But cold as it may have been, the music here is inviting, off-kilter, and dream- like in that it brings to mind everything from Boards of Canada to the early days of neon-lit library music. Music you’d hear in commercials or PBS specials. For anyone that grew up in the early 80s this is a nostalgic and slightly melancholy listen.

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Part II coming up tomorrow. Then we’ll get back to the main event Friday.