Jordi Savall/Orpheus 21/Hespèrion XXI: Oriente Lux
The default sound at this Paris fundraising concert for refugees is greater Arabian, while the material is wide-ranging, though with so much distance from Morocco to Mesopotamia, perhaps too much so—a Bengali song to start is fine, some Baroque dance music played none too dancily not so necessarily—with the vocalists coming off best and Syrian-born count-the-octaves countertenor Rebal Alkhodari the obvious star (“’Al Maya, ’Al Maya”, “Seferdin”, “Sadher Lau Banailo More Boiragi”)
Space Laces: Vaultage 001-003
14-, 16-, and 20-minute brostep mixes that capture the platonic ideal of the c. 2011 Skrillex sound—extremely dumb vocal interjections, machine-gun percussion, some chipmunks, and very occasional moments of unexpected beauty—better than the easily distracted Skrillex did himself at the time (“Vaultage 001”, “Vaultage 003”)
Ivo Perelman/Dave Burrell/Bobby Kapp: Trichotomy
Perelman’s hundredth or whatever album as leader unites him with a piano-drum duo who’ve played together on and off since the Sixties; all parties challenge each other rhythmically, and you can work out where the tunes are if you try (“Part Two”)
c0ncernn aka Leroy aka Jane Remover: Grave Robbing
A well-deserved victory lap-cum-jazz funeral, with Remover showing she/they’re still sipping from the pop bleeding edge: the most charmingly staple-gunned samples come from 2022’s other breakout Korean girl group IVE (whose open question is trimmed to “what’s after?”) and the uncrushable Caroline Polachek (“Back Door Exit (IVE Got a Cr*sh on You)”, “Jack’d My Swag (& Those Damn Prices)”, “OMG! ~Cr*sh Desire~”)
Ingrid Laubrock: The Last Quiet Place
Tricky-rhythmed sextet album, about climate change apparently, sometimes a bit too classical-ish but with interesting opportunities for subsets of the performers to meet cute—Tomeka Reid’s cello and Brandon Seabrook’s guitar contrasting in tone, say (“Grammy Season”, “Chant II”, “The Last Quiet Place”)
Istanbul rock star/painter/anthropologist who sings like Nick Cave was a Turkish woman, so like PJ Harvey basically, a bit “psychedelic” but with enough hard beats to prevent those of us scared of that word from running away immediately, and with a few riffs that imply grunge isn’t dead and isn’t even necessarily in 4/4 anymore (“Martilar Opursur, Kediler Sevisir”, “Anadolu Ejderi”, “Yaram Derin Derin Kanar”)
Myra Melford’s Fire and Water Quintet: For the Love of Fire and Water
Super-duper group (Halvorson/Laubrock/Ibarra/Tomeka Reid) riffs on abstract Melford piano melodies inspired by a Cy Twombly show at MOMA, each entering individually on the opener and quickly finding space to do their respective thangs; the more teamworky pieces requires some dialing back of idiosyncrasies, but there’s still plenty of fireworks, and some fleeting groove (“I”, “IV”, “VII”)
Gao Hong & Kadialy Kouyate: Terri Kunda
The first title is “Kora Meets Pipa”, and that’s the gist of it: no unforseen fusion magic, just two compatible pros doing their jobs well (“Sun Rising”, “House of Friendship”)
Barbi Recanati: El Final de las Cosas
Argentinian indie rock veteran who loves reverb—like, really, really loves reverb—sings songs about maturing from a sad twentysomething to a sad thirtysomething, and not all of them are slow (“Arte Arte Arte”, “Lo Que Queda”)
Monika Roscher Bigband: Witchy Activities and the Maple Death
Jazz-electroprog fusion mega-ensemble (over 20 players) with lyrics that aren’t too indulgent by electroprog and maybe even jazz standards; perhaps a bit busy, but at least that means there’s always activity (“Witches Brew: The Summoning”, “8 Prinzessinnen”)
FBC: O Amor, O Perdão e a Tecnologia Irão Nos Levar Para Outro Planeta
Belo Horizonte rapper makes a competent retro-disco album for some reason; it’s not too anal and he’s not a strong enough singer to be truly annoying (“Químico Amor”, “Dilema Das Redes”)