Triple-guitar Tuareg wedding music, which doesn’t mean they rock harder than the Agadez average, but allows the rhythm to cast a shadow over the lead by hanging one chord high in the air; an A flat, I think (“Agrim Agadez”, “Mon Amour”, “Tenere Maliat”)
Spillage Village: Spilligion
Largely good-natured quarantine house posse album, with stand-out rapper JID not always good-natured about economic anxiety and overshadowed only by Chance in double-rhyme mode (“End of Daze”, “Judas”, “Ea’alah”)
New adventures in lo-fi as affect, lacking only maybe four more fast-tuneful-louds, though appending their recent “Spanish Bombs” cover makes up a quarter of this deficit (“Just Like Kids (Miau)”, “Waiting for You”, “Boy”)
Moska Apresenta Zoombido: Tom Zé
Eight minutes of Zé on guitarist Paulinho Moska's Canal Brasil TV show in weird old man mode (his best mode apart from all the others), snorting his way through “Minha Carta” until he falls asleep and meshing well with the host on “Tô”, a song that’s easy to have fun with no matter how respectful one is (“Minha Carta”, “Tô”)
Mix Master Mike & Steve Jordan: Beat Odyssey 2020
The Beastie Boys’ turntablist and a veteran jazz and session drummer improvise at an extremely high level of skill and a fairly high level of fun (“Meltdown Sequence”, “Balco”, “Hybrid Bloodline”)
Sa-Roc: The Sharecropper's Daughter
As skillfully self-righteous as any of the men on Rhymesayers—“I’m not your typical rap chick”, oh heavens no—she sticks doggedly to her (not just self) righteous themes, while old school scratcher Sol Messiah brings hooks that work as foreground and background (“Rocwell’s America”, “Hand of God”, “Lay It Down”)
Zeropunkt: Clap Your Hands Say No
Dublin avant-improv rock without a great deal of groove in either the Krautrock sense or the actual groove sense, but with plenty of ideas and noise, sometimes approaching the hypnotic (“Psychoanalysis of Fire”, “All Most Nothing”)
Kemba: The World Is Watching EP
Nine minutes of post-George Floyd responses with real emotional range, most notably in his startling calmness when planning a peaceful protest that reserves the right to escalate into something warmer (“The Get Back (Riot)”, “6 Million Ways”)
Eclectic Surinamese-Dutch DJ duo, best when they’re recontextualizing time-tested Roland kick, squelch, kick, squelch, coast (“Sexy Acid”, “Chemistry - Till the Break of Dawn Mix”)
Aesop Rock: Spirit World Field Guide
“Users should skip to whatever section most directly applies to their impending scenario”, so pick out the quarter with foods in the title, though be aware that “Pizza Alley” is about his trip to/in Peru (“Pizza Alley”, “Boot Soup”)