This was an amazing year with a number of innovative and revolutionary releases that made it very difficult to choose. I spent many days narrowing the best records of 2014 down to fifteen: Josh Sinton’s Ideal Bread – Beating the Teens (Cuneiform) Travis Laplante’s Battle Trance – Palace of Wind (NNA Tapes) Rodrigo Amado Motion
Ross Hammond’s Humanity Suite – self-titled (Prescott, 2014) [LP] Dave Rempis & Tim Daisy – Back to the Circle (Okkadisk, 2005) Dave Rempis Percussion Quartet – The Disappointment of Parsley (Not Two, 2009) Kendra Shank & John Stowell – New York Conversations (Montreux Jazz, 2013) Thumbscrew – self-titled (Cuneiform, 2014) Collective 4tet – Live at
Tatsuya Nakatani – Nakatani Gong Orchestra (Taiga, 2013) [vinyl] Ras Moshe – Live Spirits, vol. 3 (Utech, 2006) Ingrid Laubrock/Tom Rainey Duo – And Other Desert Towns (Relative Pitch, 2014) Dylan Ryan’s Sand – Sky Bleached (Cuneiform, 2013) Landon Knoblock’s CACAW – Stellar Power (Skirl, 2013) Wheelhouse – Boss of the Plains (Aerophonic, 2012) Ras
Record Release Thumbscrew (Mary Halvorson, Michael Formanek, Tomas Fujiwara) is set to release its first record on Cuneiform January 21! Thumbscrew is absolutely dynamite in the live setting, so this studio record is sure to be incredible. The music just builds and builds in intensity. Live Review Check out my review of their live performance
