Apologies for the lack of an Album of the Year post this week; assorted personal and/or current-event circumstances got in the way and I wasn’t able to focus much on it. But ‘83 should be good to go by next week, and in the meantime, here’s some links to a few reviews I wrote for The Shfl recently:
One of my favorite MPB albums of all time -- one of those cult classics that, despite its initial commercial failure, not only has a great rep now but actually feels like a good starting point for people new to the genre.
DJ Manny, Signals in My Head (2021)
A great junglist/house-informed take on footwork from one of the titans of the genre; there's a lot of stuff on here that makes the most of the frenetic rhythms but also reinforces that the music's not just exciting on those terms but on emotional ones, too.
"guy from Portishead does Krautrock" is a gimme to end all gimmes vis a vis What Nate Likes but this is an affectingly strange and bleak album, structurally and lyrically minimalist yet infused with some deeply felt and expressed ennui and sorrow and dread.
Alright, now see you next week for my next AOTY entry — I’ll leave you with a spoiler on the next installment.