2015 was another year of change for me personally. The many many troubles at KPFK finally caused me to leave my show there, and the pre-emptions throughout the year definitely affected my desire to track down as much music as I normally do. All that said, 2015 still had a number of really great new releases, including several from some of my favorite bands, including the following, my top 5 new releases from 2015.
***Honorable Mentions: Kendrick Lamarr – To Pimp A Butterfly (Top Rank Dawg/Aftermath/Interscope), Hiatus Kaiyote – Choose Your Own Weapon (Flying Buddah), Nicole Willis & the Soul Investigators – Happiness In Every Style (Timmion), Holly Golightly – Slowtown Now! (Damaged Goods), Oddisee – The Good Fight (Mello Music)
5. Annabel (Lee) – By The Sea…and Other Solitary Places – Ninja Tune
One of the first real surprises of the year was this record, technically the debut album from Annabel and Richard E as Annabel (Lee). Released on Record Store Day and a bit of a mystery until we were lucky enough to have the band perform on Melting Pot (as it turns out, the final performance on Melting Pot at KPFK). My thoughts on this album from back in May still ring true, “Annabel’s vocals don’t quite sound of this world, and the production work behind her, sparse, dark and at times downright ghostly, keeps the sound floating into the kind of space you’d think a dream-time collaboration between Billie Holiday and Geoff Barrow, both at their most melancholy, would produce.” A gorgeous listening experience from start to finish.
4. Ibeyi – Ibeyi – XL
Much of the first part of 2015 was spent in anticipation of the full-length from Lisa-Kaindé Diaz and Naomi Diaz, French-Cuban twin sisters whose music perfectly bridges the seemingly far distance between traditional Yoruba chants and songs with 21st century production. After a teaser of an EP, we got it just after Valentine’s Day and that timing couldn’t have been better. One of my biggest musical crushes of the year and a group that absolutely delivers the same brilliant sound in live performance as on record. With the Diaz sisters only being 20 years old, we should have many more albums to marvel over in the years to come.
3. The Sandwitches – Our Toast – Empty Cellar
With the great anticipation of future music from Ibeyi as their career just takes off, 2015 marked the end of one of my favorite bands, Frisco’s The Sandwitches. The women of the Sandwitches will likely keep making money in their separate projects (Grace Sings Sludge, Roxanne Roxanne and Pruno Truman), but there was a truly special sound when the trio came together and especially in the harmonies from Grace and Heidi. The loss perhaps wouldn’t sting so much if Our Toast wasn’t such an exceptional album, the best the band produced and one of my faves of 2015.
2. Dungen – Allas Sak – Mexican Summer
I’ve said it many times, Dungen is my single favorite band of the 21st century. It’s been almost 5 years since the release of the last bands album and with the talent and musicianship of this quartet it was impossible that their latest album wouldn’t be on this list. Allas Sak continues a trend that’s happened since Tio Bitar, what might be described as a “mellowing” of the band’s sound. In our interview with Dungen, Gustav discussed how the changing sound might have to do with changes that happen as we age and mature. This period of time also marked changing dynamics with the group, as it moved from being primarily based around Gustav Ejstes and Reine Fiske to truly being a band, rounded out with Matias Gustavsson and Johan Holmegard. The closeness that the members have created, playing music together for almost a decade, is really on display on Allas Sak, a record that I enjoy as much as any other in this band’s discography.
1. Kamasi Washington – The Epic – Brainfeeder
Kamasi Washington – Henrietta Our Hero
When you decide to name your album “The Epic,” you better deliver with some epic sounds. Kamasi Washington delivers the goods in creating an album that showed that despite seemingly constant arguments to the contrary, jazz music appeals to contemporary audiences. Washington’s sound remains true to the larger spiritual jazz ensembles of the 60s & 70s, while never sounding derivative of those collectives and incorporates a variety of newer styles and sounds as if they were always a part of this genre. At the same time that I think it’s important to view this record as a “Jazz record” The Epic is an album that in some ways defies categorization. As Duke Ellington used to say, there really are only two types of music, “good” and “bad,” and Kamasi’s music is very very VERY good.