Soundtrack to the Collective Meltdown (2021) :: A Holiday At The Sea (MEGA) Playlist

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The next time you’ve got nearly 5 hours to kill, I’ve got the mix for you! These are not necessarily my “favorite songs of 2021.” Instead, these are choice cuts; one representative track from each of my favorite 50 albums of the year. Regardless of length.

Get ready for a ride.

Tracklist:

  1. Pray for Peace by Ustad Saami from East Pakistan Sky

  2. Recessinater by Birds of Maya from Valdez

  3. The People vs. the Rest of Us by Damon Locks Black Monument Ensemble from NOW

  4. Bell Song by 75 Dollar Bill featuring Barry Weisblat from Social Music at Troost Vol. 1

  5. Ya Rossoul by Khaira Arby from Khaira Arby In New York (Live In 2010)

  6. Movement by Bell Orchestre from House Music

  7. Broken Mirror (A Selfie Reflection)/Composition 9 by Matthew E. White and Lonnie Holley from Broken Mirror: A Selfie Reflection

  8. Riddim Rek Sa Niouy Mom by Wau Wau Collectif from Yaral Sa Doom

  9. All That They Left You by Six Organs of Admittance from The Veiled Sea

  10. Days Like These by Low from Hey What

  11. VBS by Lucy Dacus from Home Video

  12. Brothers by Phil Cook from All These Years

  13. Dark In Here by the Mountain Goats from Dark In Here

  14. Djougoh by Nahawa Doumbia from Kanawa

  15. The Call by Madlib from Sound Ancestors

  16. Beat Up Born Where I Come From by Ghost of Vroom from Ghost of Vroom 1

  17. Dovetail by Girls in Airports from Leap

  18. descension (Out of Our Constrictions) III by Natural Information Society and Evan Parker from descension (Out of Our Constrictions)

  19. Beowulf’s Trip by Jeffrey Alexander and the Heavy Lidders from Jeffrey Alexander and the Heavy Lidders

  20. World is Turning by Rose City Band from Earth Trip

  21. Disposable Thumbs by Endless Boogie from Admonitions

  22. Staggering With a Lantern by Mountain Movers from World What World

  23. Albuquerque by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis from CARNAGE

  24. OUR SIDE HAS TO WIN (for D.H.) by Godspeed You! Black Emperor from G_d's Pee At States End!

  25. Juvenescence by Yasmin Williams from Urban Driftwood

  26. Invisible Map by Derek Piotr from Making and Then Unmaking

  27. You Can Regret What You Have Done by Matt Sweeney and Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy from Superwolves

  28. This Old World by Billy Strings from Renewal

  29. Kelp Highway by Drew Gardner from Drew Gardner

  30. Jnoun ! by Bachar Mar-Khalifé from Ghost Songs

  31. In Remembrance Of Those Fallen by Sons of Kemet from Black To The Future

  32. Bertha The Cool by Marc Ribot’s Ceramic Dog from Hope

  33. Give Me Back My Loving by Leo Nocentelli from Another Side

  34. Don’t Let The Tears by Howlin’ Rain from The Dharma Wheel

  35. Tree of Tule by Daniel Lanois from Heavy Sun

  36. Way To Cairo by Native Soul from Teenage Dreams

  37. Ethiopian Sunshower by Adrian Younge And Ali Shaheed Muhammad from Brian Jackson JID008

  38. Zengadyw Derekou by Hailu Mergia from Tezeta

  39. Ya Habibti by Mdou Moctar from Afrique Victime

  40. Tropicale Moon by Mouth Painter from Tropicale Moon

  41. Natural Facts by Wet Tuna from Eu’d To A Fake Boogie Volume 4

  42. Shrinks the Day by Ryley Walker and Kikagaku Moyo from Deep Fried Grandeur

  43. Musungu Elongo Paints His Face White to Scare Small Children by Kasai Allstars from Black Ants Always Fly Together, One Bangle Makes No Sound

  44. Trap Life by Sault from Nine

  45. Désert by Dobe Gnahoré from Couleur

  46. Part 1 by Elkhorn from The Golden Lag

  47. If It Comes In The Morning by Hiss Golden Messenger from Quietly Blowing It

  48. Morning River by Steve Gunn from Other You

  49. Shiva With Dustpan by Ryley Walker from Course In Fable

  50. Cortez the Killer (live) by Neil Young and Crazy Horse from Way Down In The Rust Bucket

  • Browse my favorite albums of the year

  • Browse my “2021 Yearly Wrap-it-Up” which is really a ramble about seeing Phish

  • Browse my favorite books of 2021

  • Browse my favorite movies of 2021

  • Browse my favorite television of 2021

  • Listen to a nearly 5-hour very low quality mix of one song from each of my favorite albums of 2021 called “Soundtrack to the Collective Meltdown”

2021 Year In Review :: Favorite Albums

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Here’s the dealio, my coolios.

Each year, I keep a running diary of sorts of all of the things I liked each year. If you’re interested (which I doubt you are), you can follow along with my real-time unedited yearly bookkeeping here.

At the end of each year I try to cull down the music section to what really defined my year musically. No ranking. Just great music. Here are 50 of my favorite 2021 albums in alphabetical order.

Albums In Visual Alphabetical Order:

Albums In Alphabetical Alphabetical Order:

  1. Social Music at Troost Vol.1 by 75 Dollar Bill

  2. Jeffrey Alexander and the Heavy Lidders by Jeffrey Alexander and the Heavy Lidders // Elixor of Life by Jeffrey Alexander and the Heavy Lidders

  3. Khaira Arby in New York (Live in 2010) by Khaira Arby

  4. House Music by Bell Orchestre

  5. Valdez by Birds of Maya

  6. Carnage by Nick Cave & Warren Ellis

  7. All These Years by Phil Cook

  8. Home Video by Lucy Dacus

  9. Kanawa by Nahawa Doumbia

  10. The Golden Lag by Elkhorn

  11. Admonitions by Endless Boogie

  12. Drew Gardner by Drew Gardner

  13. Ghost of Vroom 1 by Ghost of Vroom

  14. Leap by Girls in Airports

  15. Couleur by Dobet Gnahoré

  16. G_d's Pee At States End! by Godspeed You! Black Emperor

  17. Other You by Steve Gunn

  18. Quietly Blowing It by Hiss Golden Messenger

  19. The Dharma Wheel by Howlin’ Rain

  20. Brian Jackson JID008 by Brian Jackson, Ali Shaheed Muhammad, Adrian Younge

  21. Black Ants Always Fly Together, One Bangle Makes No Sound by Kasai Allstars

  22. Heavy Sun by Daniel Lanois

  23. Now by Damon Locks & Black Monument Ensemble

  24. Hey What by Low

  25. Sound Ancestors by Madlib

  26. Hope by Marc Ribot’s Ceramic Dog

  27. Ghost Songs by Bachar Mar-Khalifé

  28. Tezeta by Hailu Mergia

  29. Afrique Victime by Mdou Moctar

  30. Dark In Here by the Mountain Goats

  31. World What World by Mountain Movers

  32. Tropicale Moon by Mouth Painter

  33. Teenage Dreams by Native Soul

  34. descension (Out of Our Constrictions) by Natural Information Society/Evan Parker

  35. Another Side by Leo Nocentelli (1971)

  36. Making and Then Unmaking by Derek Piotr

  37. Earth Trip by Rose City Band

  38. East Pakistan Sky by Ustad Saami

  39. Nine by Sault

  40. The Veiled Sea by Six Organs of Admittance

  41. Black to the Future by Sons of Kemet

  42. Renewal by Billy Strings

  43. Superwolves by Matt Sweeney and Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy

  44. Deep Fried Grandeur by Ryley Walker And Kikagaku Moyo

  45. Course In Fable by Ryley Walker

  46. Yaral Sa Doom by Wau Wau Collectif

  47. Eau’d To A Fake Boogie Volume 4 by Wet Tuna

  48. Broken Mirror: A Selfie Reflection by Matthew E. White and Lonnie Holley

  49. Urban Driftwood by Yasmin Williams

  50. Way Down in the Rust Bucket by Neil Young and Crazy Horse

  • Browse my favorite albums of the year

  • Browse my “2021 Yearly Wrap-it-Up” which is really a ramble about seeing Phish

  • Browse my favorite books of 2021

  • Browse my favorite movies of 2021

  • Browse my favorite television of 2021

  • Listen to a nearly 5-hour very low quality mix of one song from each of my favorite albums of 2021 called “Soundtrack to the Collective Meltdown”

2020 Year-End Music Round-Up Wrap-Up Extravaganza

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No one could have predicted a year like 2020. The live music industry is on life support. Bandcamp came through just about better than anyone else to support music. And there was a ton of great music released this year.

Per the norm, I do not rank albums. Music is not a competition and my taste is not your taste. So, after lots of thought and list-shuffling and winnowing, these are the 75 albums that really stood out for me. My original list was quite a bit longer (and you can always keep up in real-time by following the Yearly Bookkeeping page), so I can tell you that this list provides a great overview of my music listening for this crazy year.

Here are my favorite 75 albums of 2020.

The Visual List:

The Alphabet List:

  1. Live at Tubby's by 75 Dollar Bill Little Big Band

  2. Shaman! by Idris Ackamoor & The Pyramids

  3. Time is A Gift Which We Share All The Time by Afriquoi

  4. Rejoice by Tony Allen and Hugh Masekela

  5. Live by Angel Bat Dawid & Tha Brothahood

  6. Fu Chronicles by Antibalas 

  7. Fetch The Bolt Cutters by Fiona Apple

  8. Roy Ayers JID002 by Roy Ayers, Adrian Younge and Ali Shaheed Muhammad

  9. Ex-Voto by Jamie Barnes

  10. Please Advise by Beauty Pill

  11. Crash Test Kid by Sammy Brue

  12. Long In The Tooth by the Budos Band

  13. Regresa by Buscabulla

  14. Shadow Talk by Café Racer

  15. Echo Mine by Califone

  16. Gold Record by Bill Callahan

  17. Have We Met by Destroyer

  18. I Just Wasn't Made For These Set Times by Dire Wolves (Just Exactly Perfect Sisters Band)

  19. Rough and Rowdy Ways by Bob Dylan

  20. Afternoon Tea at Six by Eishan Ensemble

  21. Acoustic Storm Sessions by Elkhorn

  22.  Kahil El’Zabar’s Spirit Groove by Kahil El'Zabar & David Murray

  23. Wake Up! by Hazel English

  24. Shore by Fleet Foxes

  25. A Hero’s Death by Fontaines D.C.

  26. Peoples Motel Band by Chris Forsyth and Garcia Peoples

  27. SOURCE by Nubya Garcia

  28. Nightcap at Wits' End by Garcia Peoples

  29. Big Dark Bright Futures by Growing Concerns Poetry Collective

  30. Women In Music Pt. III by Haim

  31. Infinity Of Now by the Heliocentrics

  32. National Freedom by Lonnie Holley

  33. Muerto, Carcel o Rocanroll by Huntingtons

  34. Beginners by Christian Lee Hutson

  35. Reuinions by Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit

  36. Babani Koné by Babani Koné

  37. Mutation by Les Freres Smith

  38. 2020 by Magik Markers

  39. Eno Axis by H.C. McEntire

  40. Joshua Massad & Dylan Aycock by Joshua Massad & Dylan Aycock

  41. Microphones in 2020 by the Microphones

  42. Circles by Mac Miller

  43. Dimensional Stardust by Rob Mazurek/Exploding Star Orchestra

  44. Annual by Modern Nature

  45. Getting Into Knives by the Mountain Goats

  46. Staunch Honey by David Nance

  47. Three by the Necks

  48. Rob Noyes & Sam Moss by Rob Noyes & Sam Moss

  49. We No Be Machine by Onipa

  50. Jams From The Sun by Oregon Space Trail of Jazz

  51. High Upon The Mountain by Pacific Range

  52. Suite For Max Brown by Jeff Parker

  53. Summerlong by Rose City Band

  54. RTJ4 by Run The Jewels

  55. Landwerk demos by Nathan Salsburg

  56. Acoustic by Oumou Sangaré

  57. Untitled (Black Is) by Sault

  58. We Are Sent Here By History by Shabaka and the Ancestors

  59. The Don of Diamond Dreams by Shabazz Palaces

  60. Ocean Bridges by Archie Shepp, Raw Poetic & Damu the Fudgemunk

  61. Companion Rises by Six Organs of Admittance

  62. Shall We Go On Sinning So That Grace May Increase? by The Soft Pink Truth

  63. Optimisme by Songhoy Blues

  64. Swirling by Sun Ra Arkestra

  65. Oh Yeah? by Sunwatchers

  66. Wooden Flower by Tambourinen

  67. Folklore by Taylor Swift

  68. Nomad by Tengger

  69. Sun Racket by Throwing Muses

  70. Siftorde by Tidiane Thiam

  71. New Vanitas by William Tyler

  72. The Great Mountain by Waterless Hills

  73. Eau’d To A Fake Bookie Volume 3 by Wet Tuna

  74. Strange to Explain by Woods

  75. Homegrown by Neil Young

  • Browse Volume 01 of my 2020 favorites playlist

  • Browse Volume 02 of my 2020 favorites playlist

  • Browse Volume 03 of my 2020 favorites playlist

  • Browse Volume 04 of my 2020 favorites playlist

  • Browse Volume 05 of my 2020 favorites playlist



Holiday At The Sea's Favorite 2020 Music Mix (Volume 02)

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Volume 02 of some of Holiday at the Sea’s favorite 2020 music. I chose 75 albums this year and the playlists total 74 songs since “Microphones in 2020 by the Microphones” is 45 minutes long and I didn’t want to include the whole album as part of a mix.

Anyways, enjoy!

Tracklisting:

  1. “Single For The Summer” by Christian Lee Huston

  2. “Off My Mind” by Hazel English

  3. “Crimson Tide” by Destroyer

  4. “NTE” by Buscabulla

  5. “We Don't Smoke It No More” by Neil Young

  6. “If The Truth Ever Shows Up” by David Nance

  7. “Die Before You Live” by Sammy Brue

  8. “Not Penny’s Boat” by Huntingtons

  9. “Empty Bottle” by Rose City Band

  10. “Out The Window” by Café Racer

  11. “Nektar” by Kahil El'Zabar & David Murray

  12. “Jams From The Sun (Part III)” by Oregon Space Trail of Jazz

  13. “F&N” by 75 Dollar Bill

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75 Dollar Bill and Natural Information Society, Together At Last (2019)!

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I actually don’t know if 75 Dollar Bill and Natural Information have played together before or not, it just seemed like a fun headline.

Back in July, Jesse Jarnow posted a link to this live set from the Roulette Concert Archive at Soundcloud and I just now had a chance to put it on and listen, and, OH MAN!!!!!

Aside from being two of my favorite bands (see posts tagged 75 Dollar Bill here or Natural Information posts here), the sound on this recording is phenomenal.

Sit back and let it unwind.

The Roulette Concert Archive says:

“75 Dollar Bill return to Roulette to celebrate the release of their new double album I Was Real (Thin Wrist Recordings / Black Editions). With guests Joshua Abrams & Natural Information Society.

Having emerged as a vibrant musical force with their previous effort WOOD/METAL/PLASTIC/PATTERN/RHYTHM/ROCK (Thin Wrist 2016), 75 Dollar Bill have spent the last few years bringing their music to new people and places, delivering what NYC locals have had the chance to hear for years, and experimenting with the ever-deepening set of musical ideas for which they are known. The fruits of this work can be heard on their expansive new double LP I Was Real. Recorded over a four year period, in four different studios, with a range of ensemble configurations featuring the band’s closest friends and collaborators, I Was Real is the band’s most ambitious album yet. The music that unfolds on the album’s four sides doubles down on the group’s penchant for sprawling, unusual grooves and blown out microtonal guitars, while at the same time introducing textures and tonalities that point in completely new directions. For this event, the group will present a set of new and reimagined material from the album, with a special soon-to-be-announced group of guest musicians. 75 Dollar Bill is pleased to be joined this evening by Joshua Abrams & Natural Information Society, whose own double LP, Mandatory Reality, was released by Eremite Records in April.”

Holiday at the Sea's Favorite Music of 2019

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2019 has been a great year for music. From 30-minute mind-melting jams to Tuareg guitar and all kinds in between. I LOVE year-end lists. I love seeing what other people loved, especially if I can find something I hadn’t heard before. And to a lesser extent, who doesn’t like having their tastes confirmed by people much cooler?

But I don’t necessarily like ranking everything. After all, every list is subjective. And is there really any music that is “best”? Maybe you preferred one album to others, but does that really mean it’s “better”? Excuse me while I step off of my soapbox.

And I don’t like not hearing what people recommend. So, as you already know, I made a four-volume mix of some of my favorite music of the year, which I hope you’ve already checked out. If not, feel free to do so here and here and here and here. Also, just one more time of review, I chose 50 songs this year but only 49 albums since ‘Sideways’ by Seryn was released as a single.

Now that you’ve had a chance to to hear the songs, here is the complete list in alphabetical order.

  • I Was Real by 75 Dollar Bill

  • Mandatory Reality by Joshua Abrams & Natural Information Society

  • Ancestral Recall by Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah

  • U.F.O.F. by Big Thief

  • Sahari by Aziza Brahim

  • RE_CORDIS by Bruno Bavota

  • i,i by Bon Iver

  • V by The Budos Band

  • African Giant by Burna Boy

  • Shepherd In A Sheepskin Vest by Bill Callahan

  • Ghosteen by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds

  • All My Relations by Cochemea

  • A Good Time by Davido

  • Grow Towards The Light by Dire Wolves

  • Sun Cycle / Elk Jam by Elkhorn

  • Pianoworks by Eluvium

  • Blue Values by Eamon Fogarty

  • All Time Present by Chris Forsyth

  • Gold Past Life by Fruit Bats

  • One Of The Best Yet by Gang Starr

  • One Step Behind by Garcia Peoples

  • The Unseen In Between by Steve Gunn

  • Back At The House by Hemlock Ernst and Kenny Segal

  • The Gospel According to Water Joe Henry

  • Terms of Surrender by Hiss Golden Messenger

  • More Arriving by Sarathy Korwar

  • Miri by Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba

  • Sauropoda by L'Eclair

  • Ilana (The Creator) by Mdou Moctar

  • Stars Are The Light by Moon Duo

  • Three Chords and the Truth by Van Morrison

  • All Mirrors by Angel Olsen

  • Desire Path by One Eleven Heavy

  • Phoenix by Pedro the Lion

  • Rainford by Lee “Scratch” Perry

  • Purple Mountains by Purple Mountains

  • Rose City Band by Rose City Band

  • ‘Sideways’ by Seryn

  • Out of Darkness by Some Dark Hollow

  • Illegal Moves by Sunwatchers

  • Amankor / The Exile by Tartit

  • Amadjar by Tinariwen

  • Preserves by Matt Valentine

  • Father of the Bride by Vampire Weekend

  • Remind Me Tomorrow by Sharon Van Etten

  • Come On Up To The House: Women Sing Waits by Various Artists

  • Water Weird by Wet Tuna

  • Ode To Joy by Wilco

  • The Sisypheans by Xylouris White

  • Walk Through The Fire by Yola

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  • Listen to Volume 01 of my 2019 Year-End Playlist

  • Listen to Volume 02 of my 2019 Year-End Playlist

  • Listen to Volume 03 of my 2019 Year-End Playlist

  • Listen to Volume 04 of my 2019 Year-End Playlist

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Holiday at the Sea’s Favorite Music Label of 2019

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My Favorite music label of the year would have to be, without a doubt, Brooklyn’s Beyond Beyond is Beyond. Self-describes as: "“Music for Heads, by Heads,” which just about sums it up. More a vibe than a genre. A way of thinking than a particular style.

With five out of my favorite 49 albums of the year; (Dire Wolves, Garcia Peoples, L'Eclair, One Eleven Heavy, and Matt Valentine (plus, if I had expanded my list or included an “Honorable Mentions” section, this list would have expanded even more. That De Lorians is really good to mention only one more), no other single label presented as much music that I wanted to hear this year.

I can’t wait to hear what’s next.

  • Visit the Beyond Beyond is Beyond website

  • Visit Beyond Beyond is Beyond’s Bandcamp page for all the goodies

  • Follow the label on Facebook

  • Follow them on Twitter

Holiday at the Sea's Favorite 2019 Music Mix (Volume 01)

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I love year-end lists.

I love to see what other people loved. Especially people I respect who can introduce me to new music (and to a lesser extent, have my tastes validated by people cooler than me). But I don’t dig ranking everything. After all, it’s all subjective in the first place. You may not like what I like, and I probably don’t like what you do, and that’s OK. The past couple of years, I’ve done unranked, alphabetical lists. But this year I’d doing something different. (though there will still be an unranked, alphabetical list at the end).

Over the next several days, I’ll post four different playlists of some of my favorite music of 2019; selections from my favorite albums. Each mix is as close to an hour as I could get it. There are 50 songs, but if you want to be specific, there are only 49 albums represented since ‘Sideways’ by Seryn was released as a single and not part of an album. After lots of finagling, I just decided to leave it that way. It is what it is and it is all great. I hope you enjoy. Here’s the first installment.

Volume 01:

Volume 01 Tracklisting:

  1. ‘Out Of The Blue’ by Bruno Bavota from the album RE_CORDIS

  2. ‘Cuatro Proverbios’ by Aziza Brahim from the album Sahari

  3. ‘Tetuzi Akiyama’ by 75 Dollar Bill from the album I Was Real

  4. ‘All My Relations’ by Cochemea from the album All My Relations

  5. ‘Family and Loyalty’ by Gang Starr from the album One Of The Best Yet

  6. ‘Harmony Hall’ by Vampire Weekend from the album Father of the Bride

  7. ‘Taqkal Tarha’ by Tinariwen from the album Amadjar

  8. ‘Tomorrow Might as Well Be Today’ by Chris Forsyth from the album All Time Present

  9. ‘Wiwasharnine’ by Mdou Moctar from the album Ilana (The Creator)

  10. ‘Slabs of the Sunburnt West’ by Hemlock Ernst and Kenny Segal from the album Back At The House

  11. ‘Fall in Your Love’ by Moon Duo from the album Stars Are The Light

  12. ‘I Need a Teacher’ by Hiss Golden Messenger from the album Terms of Surrender

  13. ‘Gold Past Life’ by Fruit Bats from the album Gold Past Life

  14. ‘Sideways’ by Seryn // Released as a single

  15. ‘Afous Dafous’ by Tartit from the album Amankor / The Exile

  16. ‘Fear Song’ by Rose City Band from the album Rose City Band

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  • Listen to Volume 02 of my 2019 Year-End Playlist

  • Listen to Volume 03 of my 2019 Year-End Playlist

  • Listen to Volume 04 of my 2019 Year-End Playlist

Live Celebrations of Deep Listening With 75 Dollar Bill, Dire Wolves, and Joshua Abrams And Natural Information

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Today I wrote Deep Listening by pointing out three of my favorite 2019 releases: I Was Real by 75 Dollar Bill, I Control The Weather by Dire Wolves, and Mandatory Reality by Joshua Abrams And Natural Information. To accompany that release and to help you understand if you’re not familiar with those artists, here is a live video from each artist.

First, here’s 75 Dollar Bill with an expanded lineup at Roulette, Brooklyn 7/1/2019 performing the title track to their newest album I Was Real. Believe it or not, this lineup features Joshua Abrams!

Linuep from left to right:

  • Karen Waltuch - amplified viola

  • Talice Lee - amplified violin

  • Sue Garner - electric bass guitar

  • Che Chen: electric 12-string guitar

  • Rick Brown - plywood crate, percussion

  • Joshua Abrams - double bass

  • Lisa Alvarado - harmonium

Next up, we feature a 2018 live set from Dire Wolves (Just Exactly Perfect Sisters Band) at the 17th Annual Outsound New Music Summit (7-27-18). This video documents three live pieces, and this particular lineup features:

  • Sheila Bosco - drum kit

  • Brian Lucas - bass

  • Jeffrey Alexander - guitarmagoria + moog + wooden sax

  • Arjun Mendiratta - violin

And rounding out the set, we feature a live performance by Joshua Abrams And Natural Information Society. Believe it or not, the shortest video today features the artist who usually features the longest pieces. Here is Joshua Abrams And Natural Information Society, at “ICA Philadelphia.” No other details were provided about this performance.

In Celebration of Deep Listening: Three 2019 Albums to listen to, not just hear

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I have loved music for as long as I can remember, even though I have not talent at it myself (which I believe helps me appreciate those that do all the more). And I listen to a lot of different kinds of music. Many years ago, I went through a phase of really trying to expand my palate. During this phase, my friend and I used to refer to some music as “intentional listening.” In other words, you had to work to get through it. It required your attention and engagement. It also referred to a lot of music that our wives sometimes referred to as “racket.”

Somewhere along the line during those musical excursions, I came across Pauline Oliveros and the idea of “Deep Listening” and that changed things for me. The idea of “intentional listening” implies forcing one’s self to listen. It doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re actually engaging with the music itself, just getting through it. In hindsight, “intentional hearing” or “intentional music” might have been better descriptors of what I was doing during that phase. I was certainly expanding my musical horizons to include things like free jazz, drone, “freak-folk” and lots of other stuff like that, but I’m not sure how much I gleaned.

As Oliveros points out “We know more about hearing than listening.” I was hearing a lot of challenging music but I’m not sure I was up to the challenge. Oliveros describes “Deep Listening as a way of listening in every possible way to everything possible to hear no matter what you are doing. Such intense listening includes the sounds of daily life, of nature, of one's own thoughts as well as musical sounds.” If you are interested in hearing Oliveros explain some of this a bit further herself, you might want to watch her TED talk: ‘The difference between hearing and listening.’ Oliveros points out in that TED talk:

“Scientists can measure what happens in the ear. Measuring listening is another matter, as it is involves subjectivity. We confuse hearing with listening . . .

. . . I differentiate to hear and to listen. To hear is the physical means that enables perception. To listen is to give attention attention to what is perceived, both acoustically and psychologically.”

Like any skill, Deep Listening requires practice, patience and persistence. But it also has its payoffs that not everyone can understand. I still listen to all kinds of music and I often find myself at odds with family who does not. Much modern music requires very little of its hearers; certainly not deep listening. It is packaged in tiny shiny nuggets and treated as a product. As much as I wish my family loved the same music that I do, they will often come home and say things like “What are you listening to?!” This is no slight to them. But it doesn’t fit their expectations. They are not practicing Deep Listening (which is not to say that everyone who does will enjoy the same music).

It should come as no surprise, then, that three of my favorite albums so far this year require a listener’s participation. They ask for engagement and while they can be simply “heard,” each album opens itself up further and further with each “listening.” These three albums are wildly different from one another, but I think of them as kindred souls in the pursuit of Deep Listening.

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75 Dollar Bill: I Was Real

75 Dollar Bill is the core duo of Rick Brown who plays the plywood crate and homemade horns, and Che Chen, who plays microtonal guitar. Sometimes as just the duo and oftentimes with a revolving cast of guest musicians, 75 Dollar Bill plays hypnotic drone/trance/desert-blues/rock that swirls in and out of itself, often in long-form pieces. The unconventional percussion patterns and guitar tunings may be a bit jarring for some, but once you allow yourself to dive in, the songs are somehow primal, guttural, meditative, and joyous all at once.

Album opener ‘Every Last Coffee or Tea’ originally appeared on 2011’s Cassette and is presented here with an expanded lineup, laying out a fine template for what to expect from the rest of the album. Starting off with washes of viola drone, jangling bells, and minimal, searching percussion, the guitar plucks about, finding its place, and then everyone locks into the groove. And the groove is undeniable. Listeners might be reminded of Malian Blues, Saharan Desert rock, and/or Thai psychedelic rock. 75 Dollar Bill’s music certainly includes elements of all of those things but it is somehow more than the sum of its parts.

‘Tetuzi Akiyama’ (named after Japanese guitarist, violinist, and instrument-maker) further shows that Deep Listening can have a good beat that you can dance to. Swirling, repeated patterns build upon driving percussion, continually moving us forward until stopping abruptly, opening to the drones of the title track without jarring the listener. It’s all part of the same musical journey, tied together by Brown and Chen’s interplay.

The album drones and grooves. It challenges and rewards, inviting listeners to confront their preconceptions without ever coming across as pretentious. 75 Dollar Bill’s music invites listeners to cross borders, including genre, and find the sounds underneath. It is at once transcendent and immediate.

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Dire Wolves Just Exactly Perfect Sisters Band: Grow Towards The Light

Often known simply as Dire Wolves, welcome to the musical universe revolving around San Fransisco’s Jeffrey Alexander. The musical collectives makes music their website introduces as:

“a sound of ecstatic improvisation, each member documenting coordinate points in the higher dimensions of cosmic free-rock. The music lies somewhere near the nebulous intersection of psych, kosmische beat and spiritual jazz. These are exploratory journeys, transportive trance-based experiments in vertical listening, totally collaborative and often forming spontaneous compositions. The focus is more about feeling than any specific approach to playing. Psychic rock for the mind and body: breathe deep and grow towards that light, dig.”

That’s about as an apt a description as one is likely to come up with. Consisting of an often rotating lineup, the newest album ‘Grow Towards The Light’ finds the group including vocalist Georgia Carbone who sings in an invented language which accentuates the notion that this music is “more about feeling than any specific approach to playing.” There is a visceral nature to the trance-like tunes, driven by almost-tribal, immediate percussion and flourishes of of violin and skronking saxophones (courtesy of Sunwatchers Jeff Tobias) the music builds on repeated rhythms evoking both Krautrock and hippie fireside drum circles all at once without sounding contradictory or lost. This is confident music chasing a mood as much as technical precision.

The music comes in pulsating waves and sometimes resembles “freak folk,” sometimes “free jazz,” sometimes Krautfolk (is there such a thing?) and yet always sounds immediate and urgent without being stressful or repetitive. The soaring vocals float above the earthy rhythms and the violin and saxophone sometimes jar you back to reality and sometimes help transport you into the ether.

The longing search of spiritual jazz lies at the center of what Dire Wolves are about and may help us tune in to their frequency, but this is not a jazz record, even if it is a spiritual record. With an album title of ‘Grow Towards the Light’ and song titles like ‘Every Step is BIrth,’ and ‘Crack in the Cosmic Axis,’ Dire Wolves remind us that, with those for ears to hear, even wordless music (as we recognize it; this is not quite instrumental music because there are vocals) can still be a soundtrack for the journey of discovery for those willing to listen.

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Joshua Abrams And Natural Information Society: Mandatory Reality

Another musical collective featuring a rotating cast of players, the core of this one features prolific and influential Chicago bassist and guimbri (a three-stringed percussive African bass) player Joshua Abrams. Having played with the Square Roots (later becoming the Roots), Tortoise, and Fred Anderson among many others, Abrams has centered his newest ensemble around the “ecstatic minimalism” of repeated guimbri patterns and assorted accompaniment. The band’s most recent release, the sprawling 81-minute (with none of them wasted) Mandatory Reality consists of four long-form pieces (the shortest of which is just over six minutes) proves not only the necessity but the joy of “Deep Listening.”

Like other minimalist music, the music pulses with slowly repeating but slowly unfolding patterns that transport the listener from one place to another almost imperceptibly, requiring attention and patience, but there is also a sense of yearning towards something (shared ecstatic experience?) the us from losing interest. The gradual tempo shifts reflect the rise and fall of the deep ocean more than the crashing of the waves on the shore. But you have to be willing to travel to get there. The music requires focus but never seems tedious. It music shimmers with hypnotic waves and the long-form pieces call attention to the spaces between as much as the notes being played themselves.

These slowly unfolding pieces stand not only as a testament to Deep Listening, but to the idea that we are more than our schedules. We needn’t always feel rushed, and when we do, this music asks us to pause, take some deep breaths and pay attention; to listen and not just hear. There is much detail and beauty that may initially escape us if we’re not paying attention.

As Oliveros urges: “I invite you to take a moment now to notice what you are hearing and to expand your listening to continually include more.”

75 Dollar Bill Y'All

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You know how I keep trying to describe some of my favorite undescribable bands? Well, here’s another one. 75 Dollar Bill is the musical duo of guitarist Che Chen and percussionist Rick Brown. who plays a custom plywood crate. This core is often orbited by other musicians but Chen and Brown are the constants.

The band’s Bandcamp page begins to introduce them by saying:

“Rick Brown was born in San Francisco, CA and is a clerical worker at a law school in NYC. Che Chen was born in New Haven, CT and works for a cancer diagnostics company in Stonybrook, NY. They met via myspace and started playing together as 75 Dollar Bill approximately eight years later. Brown plays percussion and homemade horns and Chen plays electric guitar.”

But this doesn’t begin to do the group’s unique perspective any justice. One of their records comes with a sticker describing them as “Trance-inducing desert blues.” Pitchfork describes them as “blurring genres and record-store categories” and, while that’s correct, it still doesn’t help pinpoint the sound. The Guardian says the music is: “placeless, gripping grooves” and that’s also true but unhelpful. Many will point to Chen’s time in Mauritania as being pivotal for the band, but as Johny Lamb writes for Quietus:

I have noticed that there’s stuff online concerning the influence of Moorish modal music with 75 Dollar Bill, but as far as I can tell, Chen spent only a short time in Mauritania and he acknowledges the impact as inevitably “superficial”. Besides, I think I hear as much John Cale here as I do North West Africa.

Sometimes it is the artists who confound description that best capture the human element of what makes us connect so deeply with music in the first place. It is guttural. Moving. Enticing. Entrancing. It makes us meditate and move and groove. All at once. Swirling guitar meditations float above urgent and insistent percussion. This is what it means to be alive.

Best just to listen for yourselves.

Here’s "WZN#3" live at WFMU in 2016:

Here’s a half-hour live set featuring Steve Maing on guitar and Sue Garner on bass and percussion. This set was wad live at Reverb in Baltimore, 09.04.16.