These are the seventy-five albums of 2021 that have meant the most to us, alongside our compilations & archives of the year
So, 2021. Weird year, maybe we shouldn’t talk about it. I think it’s probably enough to let the music do the talking, because with the world burning down the soundtrack was seriously on fire. Of course pressing plant delays meant that getting the music out to people was more challenging than ever, with physical release dates often pushed back from the digital launch. None of it ideal by any stretch of the imagination, but musical creativity remained the brightest beacon in the enveloping darkness. Music saved us.
Speaking of the healing power of music, I’ve got to give a shout out to Charlie Dark and his Peace, Positivity and Blessings Friday morning show on Worldwide FM, which has been appointment radio with seriously therapeutic value for me in 2021. As well as being a fantastic DJ, he’s uniquely able to communicate his generosity of spirit on air; a genuinely wonderful human being then. If you haven’t listened to his show, then I strongly advise you to do so – you’ll feel better for it.
I’d also like to thank all of our readers on behalf of the Concrete Islands team. We’re a small DIY operation, so every single word you read means the world to us. You are appreciated.
Everything listed has a link to a review/feature on the site or (if we didn’t write about the album already) to Bandcamp or other artist/label resource. Additionally for the top forty albums and top five compilations & archives, a quote from the review/feature has been extracted (with quotation marks) or a new blurb written (without quotation marks).
In a category of its own:
These Tapes Are Made for Walkin’ – Optimo Music mixtape series by JD Twitch
Emma Warren has written about documenting your culture and surely JD Twitch’s series of ten mixtapes made over the course of 2021 is a living, breathing example of that. Optimo’s early DIY spirit might be as influential as their boundary-less approach to music, and it is certainly something that Twitch has embraced on this project, with thrilling results. Each tape explores a theme or idea, Walkman-tested on long walks through different areas of Glasgow, resulting in a diverse range of music from the Optimo-defined ULTRAGOTH and E-musik concepts, via dub, drums and Timothy Leary. But the highlight for me is the Crate of Jamaica tape, named after a mysterious wooden crate of 7″ records next to Twitch’s turntable. There’s something magical surrounding this, even in the name of it – akin to The Box of Delights or the blue box from Mulholland Drive. Each tape as a box with the potential to take you somewhere else then. That feels like a genuine gift in these troubling times. (Stewart Gardiner)
Compilations & archives:
25. The Beach Boys – Feel Flows: The Sunflower and Surf’s Up Sessions 1969-1971 (Capitol/UME)
24. Good Shepherd – Let’s See What the East Wind Brings… (Rusted Rail)
23. Various Artists – Molten Mirrors: A Decade of Livity Sound (Livity Sound)
22. H.E.A.D. – EFS (Optimo Music Archiv)
21. Electric Moon – Phase (Worst Bassist)
20. Sennen – Widows (Sonic Cathedral)
19. New Life – Visions of the Third Eye (Early Future)
18. Don Cherry – The Summer House Sessions (Blank Forms)
17. Come – Don’t Ask Don’t Tell (Fire)
16. John Coltrane – A Love Supreme Live in Seattle (Impulse!)
15. Nancy Sinatra – Start Walkin’ 1965-1976 (Light in the Attic)
14. Various Artists – La Ola Interior: Spanish Ambient & Acid Exoticism 1983-1990 (Bongo Joe)
13. Various Artists – Holding Hands in the Dark: A Second Language Confluence (Second Language)
12. Leo Nocentelli – Another Side (Light in the Attic)
11. Jeff Parker – JP’s Myspace Beats (International Anthem)
10. Various Artists – Undulating Waters 6 & 7 (Woodford Halse)
9. Various Artists – Journeys in Modern Jazz: Britain (Decca)
8. Andy Bell – Another View (Sonic Cathedral)
7. Alice Coltrane – Kirtan: Turiya Sings (Impulse!)
6. Lee Perry & Friends – Black Art from the Black Ark (Pressure Sounds)
5. Various Artists – Club Coco (Bongo Joe)
Club Coco is an Afro-Latin dreamscape hosted by DJ, selector and purveyor of the finest Latin grooves, Coco Maria, who offers up the sound of a tropical party with space for the occasional trip to the hammock-populated chill out room. Pour a caipirinha, put on your dancing shoes and prepare for outernational take-off. (Chris Bateman)
4. Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band – The Legendary 1979 No Nukes Concerts (Columbia)
What was happening on E Street in 1979? Darkness on the Edge of Town, a Bruce Springsteen masterpiece, had dropped the year before and the band were back in the studio recording what would eventually become The River. But for two nights, the E Streeters descended upon Madison Square Gardens to headline the MUSE benefits concerts. This is the composite document of those two shows and it’s a powerhouse rock ‘n’ roll affair of the heart. Their typical three-hour fever dream gigs were distilled into ninety minutes, which lends proceedings even more urgency. Opening with a double-punch of “Prove It All Night” and “Badlands”, it’s as if Springsteen & the E Street Band are ascending into the Great American Night, taking the audience along for the ride. (Stewart Gardiner)
3. Rogér Fakhr – Fine Anyway (Habibi Funk)
A rare foray into hippy folk-rock saw Habibi Funk release these graceful and mystic 1970s recordings from Lebanese troubadour Fakhr. (Gareth Thompson)
2. Various Artists – Drifts & Flurries: A Second Language Collectanea (Second Language)
“Revisiting some of the distinctive bucolic settings that characterised the enterprise’s earlier catalogue, a significant portion of Drifts & Flurries conjures up mindful mood pieces ripe for home fireside reflections or crisp frost-coated country walks. Mutual fans of the Second Language and Clay Pipe Music oeuvre will find much to embrace within.” (Adrian)
1. Ron Everett – Glitter of the City (Jazzman)
In its 1977 incarnation, Ron Everett’s Glitter of the City was a private pressing sold from the sidewalks of Philly. Jazzman Records should certainly be given whatever medals are awarded for extraordinary services to crate-digging, because this is an endearingly oddball work of outsider DIY jazz imbued with lopsided blues, Latin moves and roughed-up soul that deserves all the new ears it can get. Beautifully played but with lo-fi production, it’s slightly out there and completely addictive. (Stewart Gardiner)
Albums of the year:
75. Fuzzy Lights – Burials (Meadows Records)
74. Orchestra Tout Puissant Marcel Duchamp – We’re Okay. But We’re Lost Anyway. (Bongo Joe)
73. Steve Gunn – Other You (Matador)
72. Orquestra Afro-Brasileira – 80 Anos (Day Dreamer)
71. Mücha – Fall (Frequency Domain)
70. Vels Trio – Celestial Greens (Rhythm Section)
69. Melinda Bronstein – In Reverse (Objects Forever / Metaphysical Powers)
68. Guedra Guedra – Vexillology (On the Corner)
67. The Home Current – Not Our Kind of Vertigo (Polytechnic Youth)
66. Polypores – Crystal Shop (Waxing Crescent)
65. Emeka Ogboh – Beyond the Yellow Haze (A-TON)
64. Marisa Anderson & William Tyler – Lost Futures (Thrill Jockey)
63. Loner Deluxe – Field Recordings (Rusted Rail)
62. Hawksmoor – On Prescription (Spun Out of Control)
61. Eat Lights Become Lights – The Romance of the Stars (Polytechnic Youth)
60. Stellarays – L’Orchestra Pop Le Stelle (Modern Aviation)
59. Jaubi – Nafs at Peace (Astigmatic)
58. Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders & the London Symphony Orchestra – Promises (Luaka Bop)
57. D. Rothon – Memories of Earth (Clay Pipe)
56. Joan as Police Woman / Tony Allen / Dave Okumu – The Solution Is Restless (Play It Again Sam)
55. CLAIR – Earth Mothers (Hot Gem / The Dark Outside)
54. Merope – Salos (Stroom)
53. Colleen – The Tunnel and the Clearing (Thrill Jockey)
52. Rupert Lally – Beyond the Night (Subexotic)
51. Apta – Vignettes (Woodford Halse)
50. Pye Corner Audio – Entangled Routes (Ghost Box)
49. Madlib – Sound Ancestors (Madlib Invazion)
48. Emanative & Liz Elensky – The Volume of the Light (Home Planet)
47. Rosie Turton – Expansions & Transformations (Self-Released)
46. Lady Blackbird – Black Acid Soul (Foundation)
45. Mind Maintenance – Mind Maintenance (Drag City)
44. The Heartwood Institute & Hawksmoor – Concrete Island (Spun Out of Control)
43. Modern Nature – Island of Noise (Bella Union)
42. Ben Chasny – The Intimate Landscape (Drag City)
41. David Ornette Cherry – Organic Nation Listening Club (Spiritmuse)
40. Cahill//Costello – Offworld (Gearbox)
“Minimalism is the path taken, but that isn’t to suggest that nothing much happens. Indeed, the album’s moods and textures seem to imply narrative structures imbued with mythic qualities.” (Stewart Gardiner)
39. Hattie Cooke – Bliss Land (Castles in Space)
“Bliss Land is a choice exemplar of someone truly finding their own voice and sound in a crowded field. It joins the dots between Kraftwerk, The Human League, OMD, New Order, The Cocteau Twins, One Dove, Piano Magic and more.” (Adrian)
38. Crowded House – Dreamers Are Waiting (EMI)
Whether Crowded House are in any way cool or not matters very little at this stage, especially when Neil Finn and co. deliver a semi-comeback collection – with precision-cut hooks sublimely set inside sumptuously crafted yet crucially not over slick arrangements – that just demands near-endless repeat listens. The band’s best since 1993’s career-high Together Alone LP in short. (Adrian)
37. ToiToiToi – Vaganten (Ghost Box)
“Germany’s ToiToiToi returns to Ghost Box with Vaganten, an LP of wayward electronics, Medieval plunderphonics and Chaucerian machine music.” (Stewart Gardiner)
36. DJ Format – Devil’s Workshop (Project Blue Book)
“Miles away from the somnambulist tone of DJ Shadow’s debut LP and with a more cut and paste hip-hop aesthetic up front, the two nonetheless share a beautifully realised everything-but-the-kitchen-sink approach to sampling. Devil’s Workshop boasts a surface immediacy that’ll have you hooked from the outset.” (Stewart Gardiner)
35. The Pop Group – Y in Dub (Mute)
“Dennis Bovell produced the LP the first time around, but here he unlocks the doors of perception and pulls everything into further spaced-out realms. Y in Dub is the sound of falling asleep and wakening up as society crumbles. Climb into the echo chamber to get out of your echo chamber.” (Stewart Gardiner)
34. Amanda Whiting – After Dark (Jazzman)
“Night-time music in the mode of Dorothy Ashby from Welsh harpist Amanda Whiting. Alongside the soul jazz vibrations are high cinematic evocations: the deadly sensuality of Black Narcissus and the spiralling obsession of Vertigo.” (Stewart Gardiner)
33. Theon Cross – Intra-I (New Soil)
“Theon Cross pushes the tuba to the next level with his righteous LP of forward-thinking jazz, taking in Afrofuturism, grime and even dub along the way. Intra-I is a sonic landscape uniquely his, with shades of mood and socially conscious party bangers aplenty.” (Stewart Gardiner)
32. Carlos Niño & Friends – More Energy Fields, Current (International Anthem)
“Ambient and New Age flow, bubbling beats, third-eye-opening electronics, and spiritual jazz leanings come together to form an ever-shifting entity with depths to spare. In other words, high vibrations for lucid dreamers.” (Stewart Gardiner)
31. Stellarays – Cosmopollinators (Castles in Space)
Joining the dots between Mercury Rev’s Deserter’s Songs, Broadcast’s early singles gathered on Work and Non Work, Brian Eno’s Another Green World, Kraftwerk’s Radio-Activity and plenty more choice touchstones in between, the first of two tremendous albums released this year by Portugal’s new finest export proved to be worth the admission price to Castles in Space’s Subscription Library series alone. (Adrian)
30. Scrimshire – Nothing Feels Like Everything (Albert’s Favourites)
“A series of excursions in new jazz, soul and downtempo beats, producer and songwriter Adam Scrimshire’s latest is accomplished without being polite and structurally sound while feeling completely organic.” (Stewart Gardiner)
29. David Boulter – Lover’s Walk (The Spoken World)
Following on from last year’s still much-loved Yarmouth LP for Clay Pipe Music, David Boulter’s self-released sequel is equally as essential. Skilfully stitching a starkly personal spoken word tale into deeply evocative musical settings, Lover’s Walk taps beautifully into English melancholy and European romanticism. (Adrian)
28. The Hologram People – Sacred Ritual to Unlock the Mountain Portal (Woodford Halse)
“Veering through the vintage acid-kosmische contours of Amon Düül II and Ash Ra Tempel, sublime shades of Pink Floyd’s More soundtrack LP, soaring near-symphonic pastoralism, voodoo space-funk and Brian Eno-meets-Tangerine Dream swirling atmospherics, Keen and Parkes clearly have great record collections to influence them.” (Adrian)
27. SAULT – Nine (Forever Living Originals)
Nine by SAULT will leave less cultural footprint than its zeitgeist shaping predecessors Untitled (Black Is) and Untitled (Rise) (our top two albums of the year 2020), but that is partly by design. They made their new album available for only 99 days and although physical copies apparently don’t self-immolate on shelves, the transitory nature of the digital realm is at least put into perspective. Nine is as much a return to the more under the radar single-disc sets 5 and 7 as it is a postscript to the aforementioned double albums. SAULT here document black London life, exploring memory, grief and anxiety as they relate to racial injustice, with Inflo as usual delivering seriously dope hooks. At the end of the day, a fleeting SAULT record still has more permanence than most. (Stewart Gardiner)
26. Makaya McCraven – Deciphering the Message (Blue Note)
Operating somewhere between live jazz drumming and programmed hip-hop beats, Makaya McCraven is as open to the potential of now as he is to that of the past. An IARC alumni now signed to Blue Note, the self-professed ‘beat scientist’ was given the keys to the legendary jazz label’s back catalogue and the first result of that sanctioned crate-digging is Deciphering the Message. The record is a textbook example of how to reinvigorate what has gone before without tarnishing what made it special in the first place. (Stewart Gardiner)
25. Lindsey Buckingham – Lindsey Buckingham (Reprise)
Like Tango in the Night remade for Guided by Voices and Spoon fans, the currently-exiled Fleetwood Mac maverick serves up a record so unpretentiously but inventively stuffed with hyper-melodic mid-fi earworms that it should come with a health warning for its ridiculously high infection rate. (Adrian)
24. Tara Clerkin Trio – In Spring (World of Echo)
“Bristol’s Tara Clerkin Trio further recombine outsider downtempo pop, soundsystems and forward-thinking jazz on In Spring. Like the season of the record’s title, they continue to blossom miraculously.” (Stewart Gardiner)
23. Ben LaMar Gay – Open Arms to Open Us (International Anthem / Nonesuch)
“Rooted in jazz movements, outernational sounds and hip-hop rhythms, Open Arms to Open Us channels lo-fi soul, topsy turvy future-retro electronics and lopsided beat-head jams to craft new forms of American folk music. Something like Money Mark imbibing the strongest Chicago vibes or else Sun Ra quantum leaping into Beck.” (Stewart Gardiner)
22. Jack Cooper & Jeff Tobias – Tributaries (Astral Spirits)
Cooper and Tobias have recorded together as Modern Nature, but this mysterious meeting of sax and guitar sets a new bar for haunted minimalism. (Gareth Thompson)
21. Plankton Wat – Future Times (Thrill Jockey)
“An eclectic soulful psych odyssey subtly refracted through the prism of Portland’s microcosmic pandemical and environmental geopolitics, the album refines much of its creator’s sonic palette to date but also forges a new found sense of purpose and a broader vision.” (Adrian)
20. GLOK – Pattern Recognition (Bytes)
“There’s a lot to digest over its ninety epic minutes yet Pattern Recognition never feels bloated or indulgent. Instead, it feels like an adroit craftsman further cementing in place a personal artistic renaissance.” (Adrian)
19. Andrew Wasylyk – Balgay Hill: Morning in Magnolia (Clay Pipe)
“Surely a meeting of artist and label that was destined to happen. Some sort of alchemy at least occurred, for Balgay Hill is an intoxicating work of psychogeographic tenderness and a powerful pastoral narcotic. It’s a world of sound rooted in a specific place that allows listeners to travel elsewhere in their consciousness.” (Stewart Gardiner)
18. UNKLE – Rōnin I (Studio:UNKLE)
Although Rōnin I is billed as “an original UNKLE mixtape” rather than an album proper (it is made up of reworked tracks from The Road: Part II, Music Inspired by the Film Roma and 20 Years of Fabric, alongside two brand new cuts), it might just be the perfect recorded realisation of James Lavelle’s UNKLE project. The format certainly plays to Lavelle’s strengths as a curator, collaborator and DJ, with an album experience as hybrid club set that includes fresh takes on the crate-digging days of That’s How It Is and Mo’ Wax. (Stewart Gardiner)
17. Sons of Kemet – Black to the Future (Impulse!)
Caribbean brass funk blasts of tuba and blaring horns are brilliantly melded with lyrics reflecting upon BLM, colonialism and white supremacy. Black to the Future is a furious, high energy jazz response to these turbulent times. (Chris Bateman)
16. Ishmael Ensemble – Visions of Light (Severn Songs)
“Ishmael Ensemble’s horizon-expanding new album Visions of Light is a brilliantly conceived, out there take off from jazz. But that only tells part of the story, for this is a Bristol record at heart, a spiritual heir to soundsystems, Massive Attack and New Forms.” (Stewart Gardiner)
15. Space Afrika – Honest Labour (Dais)
The city, in this case Manchester, is of course many cities at the same time, sitting atop one another like some geographical anomaly trying to contain the multiverse. Space Afrika convey this idea as sonic tapestry on Honest Labour, weaving together a series of beginnings, endings and interludes in service of their post-soundsystem experimental night-time music. (Stewart Gardiner)
14. Emma-Jean Thackray – Yellow (Movementt)
“Emma-Jean Thackray is shaping up to be a latter-day Sun Ra or Alice Coltrane, with her music increasingly without boundaries. Yellow is the most fully realised manifestation of this to date. Spiritually nourishing, community-minded, introspective, celebratory and enlightening.” (Stewart Gardiner)
13. Cubs – River of Amber / Frozen Waterfall (Rusted Rail)
“Leaning into outré rustic environs and nineties-to-noughties left of the dial reference points, River of Amber / Frozen Waterfall is ripe for the ears of those that enjoyed the successive US indie, post-rock, Americana and acid-folk revival scenes through that timeframe.” (Adrian)
12. Dean Wareham – I Have Nothing to Say to the Mayor of L.A. (Double Feature)
“Full of equitably-balanced pacy and laidback melodicism, lushly textured ensemble arrangements, as well as wordplay richly-infused with literary inspirations, historical character studies and subtle political polemics, I Have Nothing to Say to the Mayor of L.A. reconfirms Wareham’s role as an artist still charmingly adept at marrying the reassuringly familiar with the shrewdly shapeshifting.” (Adrian)
11. Little Simz – Sometimes I Might Be Introvert (Age 101)
On her follow up to Grey Area, Little Simz outmanoeuvres the rap star competition, (em)powering through inventive rhymes that ignite the epic productions from frequent collaborator Inflo. Despite the scale, these world-beating cuts add up to an intimate portrait of the artist as a young black woman. Sometimes I Might Be Introvert is herstory as hip-hop soul evangelism. (Stewart Gardiner)
10. Jeff Parker – Forfolks (International Anthem / Nonesuch)
A magnificently low key set of plucked and looped guitar excursions on IARC/Nonesuch from the quietly chameleonic Jeff Parker, Forfolks is roots music for a scorched earth present which nods to a future where we can dream again. Here Parker digs deep into his varied musical heritage with jazz, blues, folk and post-rock stylings subtly realised for these times and beyond. Think Stephen King’s post-apocalyptic Americana vision of The Stand, with Parker a wandering troubadour gradually returning magic to the world. (Stewart Gardiner)
9. Madteo – Head Gone Wrong by Noise (Honest Jon’s)
Get your brain rewired by Madteo’s inspired concoction of mad machine funk, outer reaches bass music and under the kitchen sink Detroit techno. It’s as if an alien intelligence intercepted Luke Una evangelising about Carl Craig and Herbie Hancock, then created what they understood the music to sound like from his descriptions alone. This is outsider dance music that could fall apart at any moment. (Stewart Gardiner)
8. Chris Brokaw – Puritan (12XU)
“An adroit exercise in reacquainting with and expanding upon Brokaw’s formative roots. In turns both a rousing and reflective travelogue-themed affair, Puritan is infused equally with the cruising driving speed and the lonesome motel moods of a long open road trip.” (Adrian)
7. Joy on Fire – Another Adventure in Red (Procrastination)
New Jersey jazz-rock trio Joy on Fire continued a prolific run here, proving that structure and melodic might can alter the consciousness with the same abandon as free improv. (Gareth Thompson)
6. José Manuel – Janara (Optimo Music)
“This is a magickal record and makes much use of incantation, with its chants and percussion storing transformative power across eight tracks. Listening becomes akin to slipping on a mask and taking part in ancient ceremonies with the album’s namesakes, witches of Italian folklore. In other words, acid house as pagan ritual.” (Stewart Gardiner)
5. Rebecca Vasmant – With Love, from Glasgow (Rebecca’s Records)
“That the LP is Rebecca Vasmant’s debut as a producer makes it even more special – there’s nothing tentative here, just an artist who has found her own sound and communicated it beautifully. With Love, from Glasgow takes a hip-hop approach to spiritual jazz and offers oceans for a listener to get lost in over time.” (Stewart Gardiner)
4. Nala Sinephro – Space 1.8 (Warp)
Like Alice Coltrane’s investigations into the zone between spiritual jazz and twentieth century classical, Nala Sinephro keeps her eyes wide shut and conjures dream realities on her wonderful debut album Space 1.8. Taking harp and electronics as improvised starting points, Sinephro leads players from the London new jazz scene (including Nubya Garcia) in creating sonic worlds within worlds for listeners to inhabit. Space 1.8 avoids the trappings of making jazz that might also be considered ambient, as Sinephro doesn’t confuse meditative, devotional beauty with politeness and keeps things forward-thinking rather than backward-looking. This is not your coffee table music. (Stewart Gardiner)
3. Eleventh Dream Day – Since Grazed (Comedy Minus One)
“It probably requires climbing to the top of a mountain to properly proclaim how transcendental the double-length Since Grazed really is. The album visits some very deep personal places whilst simultaneously unfurling as a graceful and stirring suite of soaring elevations. Focusing eloquently on loss, love, camaraderie and redemption, with virtually no note or word feeling out of place, the intuition, integrity and invention of the ever-evolving EDD family unit only feels refortified by age.” (Adrian)
2. STR4TA – Aspects (Brownswood)
“There are always new paths to take. It might be the case of following a hip-hop sample back to its source, hearing an old track for the first time or indeed encountering a new record made in an earlier mode. These moments become gateways, to step through and explore unfamiliar musical landscapes. This is certainly the case for me with Aspects by STR4TA, which intentionally evokes end of the seventies to early eighties Brit-funk in true to form DIY style and makes it feel like the sound of 2021.” (Stewart Gardiner)
1. Damon Locks – Black Monument Ensemble – NOW (International Anthem)
Jazz may be the starting point of Chicago’s International Anthem label, but the final destinations of their artists remain thrillingly open – and what a year they’ve had. But it’s NOW, the second album from Damon Locks and his Black Monument Ensemble (which includes Angel Bat Dawid and Ben LaMar Gay) that truly stands out as one of the most complete musical and philosophical statements IARC has yet ushered into the world. A sign of the times record where the sound of tomorrow’s jazz today meets the hip-hop expressionism of sampled collage and righteous electronics, NOW dispenses uncomfortable truths as well as celebrates black life and culture.
Take the earthbound activism of the AACM, the cosmic explorations of Sun Ra, sampler as time machine, avant-garde performance art and the most life-affirming gospel, then perhaps you’ve arrived somewhere close to the glorious sound that Damon Locks has realised here with this group of astonishing talents. There’s a literary ability at play throughout – from the poetic use of sampled dialogue (“Time is just the difference between knowing now and knowing nothing. Because if you know now fully, it’s past, present and future.”) to the elegant structure, the album bookended as it is by the immersive improvised journeys “Now (Forever Momentary Space)” and “The Body Is Electric”. All this in thirty minutes only speaks to the ensemble’s visionary power.
NOW gets under the skin and into the soul, reminding us that there is yet beauty in this harshest of possible worlds; there is still life to be lived. Damon Locks – Black Monument Ensemble are making vital music that is free, visceral and empowering. The future looks a little less bleak through the looking glass of NOW. (Stewart Gardiner)
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