Women's History Month Listening Project (Fourth Annual) - Music

baystateoftheart
Neil Young as a butternut squash

Age: 29
Location: Massachusetts

I'll be exclusively listening to music by women again this March to celebrate Women's History Month.

I will post weekly summaries of what I've checked out.

If you want to join me in full or in part, this is the thread for you. Or if you want to simply share discoveries, recommendations, and discussion, this is also the thread for you!

*I will be making exceptions as needed to allow me to fully participate in the hip-hop tournament, which unfortunately will have to be significant. Also, I know there's forum stuff going on that conflicts this year, like the ALC, so I'm not expecting anyone else to join me in full. Again, any and all participation is welcome!
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indieshins

Age: 25

Sounds good. I'd like to join - I probably won't go exclusively women, but you never know. Always happy to listen to more. I've been getting into a lot of female-led pop music of late, so this could be fun.
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Top 40 Greatest Music Albums by indieshins

Streams

I'll throw down some stuff for those of y'all feeling abstract classical vibes.

Catherine Lamb's Muto Infinitas, composed for and performed by flautist Rebecca Lane (with contrabassist Jon Heilbron), is one of my favorite things I've heard from 2021; a complex rhythmic latticework in which a chamber melody emerges after a long introduction.

One of my most anticipated releases of the month is Tine Surel Lange's Works for Listening 1-10, out on the 19th. Expect something on the quieter side but have little other context except that it will deal with ambisonic translation.

Most of my favorite music last year was made by women, including:
Ash Fure's Something to Hunt (organic, visceral sound installation);
Ellen Fullman & Theresa Wong's Harbors (using the room as the resonant body of the instrument);
Sarah Hennies' Spectral Malsconcities (complex rhythmic failed failure);
Judith Hamann's Music for Cello and Humming (exploring the many shared resonant frequencies of voice and cello); and
Sylvia Hallett's Tree Time (the characters of materials).

Important Records has been reissuing some early Pauline Oliveros and Eliane Radigue lately too. Beyond this, for an older recommendation, here's Annea Lockwood's Tiger Balm, exploring the physiological response to sound. Finally, this Wednesday, ISSUE Project Room (one of the world's leading incubators of experimental music) is finishing up With Women's Work with a streamed performance from Mariana Valencia; however, all previous performances can be streamed for free from their archive. You wanna hear how women are breaking down barriers in music today, this is a good place to start.

And if you say fuck that to all that mess, here's Wendy Eisenberg shredding it.

indieshins

Age: 25

This probably won't be anything new to people, but I'm really behind on music, so this is what I've been listening to:

Lana Del Rey - Norman Fucking Rockwell
Phoebe Bridgers - Punisher

Liked the Lana album a lot. The increased vulnerability and honesty of the lyrics and more stripped back quality of the music made it feel like a classic 70s singer-songwriter record.

The Phoebe Bridgers record had some cool lo-fi stuff going on, and as always really great songwriting. I need to give it a few more listens.
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Top 40 Greatest Music Albums by indieshins

babyBlueSedan
Used to be sort of blind, now can sort of see

Gender: Male

This is my album of the year so far, really slick neo-soul:

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Collapsed In Sunbeams by Arlo Parks

Also, I saw that this is one of the albums in your canon game list Baystate, and I wanted to recommend it in case it's not picked in the game, or for anyone else reading. Filthy funk that is my favorite thing I've heard from Davis. Someone on RYM called the 3rd track proto-death metal and I don't entirely disagree.

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Nasty Gal by Betty Davis
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Fischman
RockMonster, JazzMeister, Bluesboy,ClassicalMaster

Gender: Male
Location: Land of Enchantment

My jazz journy of the last year has been chock full of great discoveries of jazz from women, including not only vocalists, but also instrumentalists and composers.

Here's my top 10 new finds since last year:

Ayako Shirasaki - Falling Leaves - Live in Hamburg
Nina Simone - Pastel Blues
Mary Lou Williams - Black Christ of the Andes
Valaida Snow - 1937-1940
Hiromi - Spark
Irene Kral- Kral Space
Nubya Garcia - Source
Kathy Stobart - Arbeia
Jessica Williams - And Then, There's This
Anita O'Day - Pick Yourself Up

baystateoftheart
Neil Young as a butternut squash

Age: 29
Location: Massachusetts

Here's what I heard during week 1 (March 1-7). Albums I've heard in full before = *

Great

Dimanche À Bamako - Amadou & Mariam*
Tender Buttons - Broadcast*
At Last! - Etta James*
Poupée De Cire, Poupée De Son - France Gall*
The Velvet Rope - Janet Jackson
Inner Song - Kelly Lee Owens
Notre-Dame-Des-Sept-Douleurs - Klô Pelgag
Fever - Kylie Minogue
Be Altitude: Respect Yourself - The Staple Singers*

Quite Good

Hunter - Anna Calvi*
California Nights - Best Coast*
Big Blood & The Bleedin' Hearts - Big Blood & The Bleedin' Hearts*
The Chordettes - The Chordettes
Escape From Dragon House - Dengue Fever*
Wish Someone Would Care - Irma Thomas*
Miami Garden Club - Kitty*
Primitive Love - Miami Sound Machine*
Never - Micachu & The Shapes*
Bikini Daze (EP) - MØ*
The Marble Index - Nico*
First Take - Roberta Flack
No Cities To Love - Sleater-Kinney*
Last Year Was Weird, Vol. 2 - Tkay Maidza

Pretty Good

Dangerously In Love - Beyoncé*
A Delay Is Better - Pamela Z

~~~~~

Verdict: the best three albums I discovered this week were...

GOLD

The Velvet Rope by Janet Jackson

baystateoftheart in canon game wrote:

Great album! The production is impeccable: butter smooth, varied, and inventive, with near-perfect execution. Jackson's vocals are very strong. The songwriting is quite good as well, covering love and sex from many different angles. No significant negatives, but if I had to nitpick, some of the songwriting isn't top-tier and the album length could use some minor trimming.

SILVER

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Fever by Kylie Minogue

baystateoftheart in canon game wrote:

I had high hopes for this album, and while it doesn't quite meet them, most of these songs are great. Just a really fun, danceable record with great production and high-quality vocals. There are a couple misses with the songwriting, but nothing that derails the groove of the album. I expect it would be even better in a party setting.

BRONZE

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Inner Song by Kelly Lee Owens

Seems opinion is split, but I for one see this as a step up from her debut. The soundscapes are more immersive and the pop elements are more well-developed. I got serious Jenny Hval vibes (high praise from me) on several tracks, which isn't out of the blue given their past collaboration. And there's even a cool John Cale feature for good measure.
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baystateoftheart
Neil Young as a butternut squash

Age: 29
Location: Massachusetts

indieshins wrote:

This probably won't be anything new to people, but I'm really behind on music, so this is what I've been listening to:

Lana Del Rey - Norman Fucking Rockwell
Phoebe Bridgers - Punisher

Liked the Lana album a lot. The increased vulnerability and honesty of the lyrics and more stripped back quality of the music made it feel like a classic 70s singer-songwriter record.

The Phoebe Bridgers record had some cool lo-fi stuff going on, and as always really great songwriting. I need to give it a few more listens.

Glad to have you joining Smile

Those are two good choices. Love Punisher in particular. What other albums if any have you heard from Lana Del Rey and Phoebe Bridgers? I may be able to make some suggestions.

@ everyone else, I have downloaded at least one rec from each of you and will begin reporting back starting next week.
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an-outlaw

Location: Highcoombe

Please listen to Tasmin Archer if not done so yet. She is usually thought of as just Sleeping Satellite although the whole of the first album is fantastic.
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EyeKanFly
Head Bear Master/Galactic Emperor

Age: 33
Location: Gotham

baystateoftheart wrote:

Here's what I heard during week 1 (March 1-7). Albums I've heard in full before = *

Great

Inner Song - Kelly Lee Owens
Notre-Dame-Des-Sept-Douleurs - Klô Pelgag

Glad to see both of these in the "great" category. 2020 had some amazing music written, sung, played, and produced by female musicians. Particularly in genres which tend to be male-dominated (metal, jazz, ambient).

If I may make a few suggestions from 2020 albums:

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Source by Nubya Garcia
The best jazz album of the year for sure, and that's from a year that had a fair amount of great jazz releases. Baystate, I know I suggested the Miles Mosley album for Black History Month and you weren't into that. This is a lot different, a lot more jazz than pop with jazz instruments. Nubya is much less heavy on the vocals, and her tenor sax really shines. The title track has a sort of dueling saxophones moment with Garcia and Cassie Kinoshi (one of a handful of female jazz musicians featured on the album) which blows me away.

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Acts Of Rebellion by Ela Minus
Deconstructed club music but not so deconstructed that it's inaccessible (like Arca is for me). A mix of English and Spanish lyrics, Ela Minus lives in New York and I believe she made this album as a way to experiment with club music when the clubs are closed (though I do also believe that much of the album was written and recorded before the pandemic hit). Depending on where you listen to this, there's a few bonus tracks that have slightly dancier edits of two of the songs. These are worth listening to as well.

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So When You Gonna... by Dream Wife
All female punk band with an all female production crew. I don't think this is something I've ever seen before (other than totally self-produced albums e.g. Adrienne Lenker). Similar to Sleater-Kinney which I saw was in your log from the first week of March. I suppose Dream Wife is slightly more on the punk side than the indie rock side.

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Both Are True by Webber/Morris Big Band
And if the Nubya Garcia album is still too heavy on the vocals and structured for you, this is avant-garde big band jazz led by tenor saxophonists Anna Weber & Angela Morris. Most of the "Big Band" members are male, but the baritone sax by Lisa Parrott is a highlight on some of the tracks. The members are all improv musicians and it definitely shows. Sometimes the structure gets too loose for me haha.

I put these 4 albums roughly in order of "highly recommend" (Garcia) to "sort of recommend" (Webber/Morris), feel free to listen to any that sound interesting to you!

I'll certainly be taking some recs from this thread as well! Just put Tasmin Archer on my to-do list (thanks an-outlaw!)
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