| As always, everyone's doing it, so I made a list of my choices for the best New Releases of 2004. Better year than last year, i think. Still not great. Not a lot of activity by Bay Area up-and-comers (though there are new Graham Connah and Lost Trio releases coming soon). Here tis: 2004 Top 10 New Releases new: 1. GOOD FOR COWS - Bebop Fantasy (asian man) 2. MARC DUCRET - Qui Parle? (sketch) 3. TREVOR DUNN'S TRIO CONVULSANT - Sister Phantom Owl Fish (ipecac) 4. CHRIS POTTER QUARTET - Lift (sunnyside) 5. DEERHOOF - Milk Man (kill rock stars) 6. TIM BERNE - Souls Saved Hear (thirsty ear) 7. WILCO - A Ghost is Born (nonesuch) 8. MARILYN CRISPELL TRIO - Storyteller (ecm) 9. JOHN ZORN - Magick (tzadik) 10. BRAD MEHLDAU TRIO - Anything Goes (warner) also damn good: Hilmar Jensson - Ditty Blei, Gubbish - Notations in Tonations, The Moore Brothers - Now is the Time for Love, Dave Douglas - Strange Liberation, Craig Taborn - Junk Magic, John Zorn - Electric Masada, Secret Chiefs 3 - Book of Horizons, Uri Caine Trio - At the Village Vanguard, Fantomas - Delerium Cordia, & Steve Cardenas - Panoramic. * * * 2003 List: 1. TIM BERNE - The Sublime And (thirsty ear) 2. GOOD FOR COWS - Less Than Or Equal To (free porcupine) 3. MARC RIBOT - Scelsi Morning (tzadik) 4. DANIEL CARTER & REUBEN RADDING - Luminescence (aum fidelity) 5. CAT POWER - You Are Free (matador) 6. JOHN ZORN / V.A. - Voices in the Wilderness (tzadik) 7. BRAD SHEPIK TRIO - Drip (knitting factory) 8. ART ENSEMBLE OF CHICAGO - Tribute to Lester (ecm) 9. RADIOHEAD - Hail to the Thief (capital) 10. CARLA KIHLSTEDT - Two Foot Yard (tzadik) Honorable mention: GERRY HEMINGWAY - Devil's Paradise; JUSTIN MORELL - Triorange; DAVE DOUGLAS - Freak In; STEPHEN MALKMUS & JICKS - Pig Lib; JOHN ZORN - Masada Guitars; SCOTT AMENDOLA BAND - Cry; JOHN ZORN - Chimeras; WYCLIFFE GORDON - Dig This!; MICHAEL BLUESTEIN - Ambient Soul; and JON MADOF - Rashanim. Reissues/vault shit: 1. BROTZMANN/BENNINK/VAN HOVE - FMP 130 (atavistic) 2. ANDREW HILL - Passing Ships (blue note) 3. MILES DAVIS - Complete Jack Johnson Sessions (columbia) 4. SCHLIPPENBACH TRIO - Pakistani Pomade (atavistic) 5. UNCLE TUPELO - Anodyne (rhino) See my lists from 2002 & 2001. |