Tell me, what do you crave?

Continuing my trip up The Guardian's Best Albums of 2020 list...

#22 : Workaround - Beatrice Dillon

There’s been a loose school of electronic producers to emerge in recent years including Objekt, Laurel Halo, Call Super and Minor Science, who, informed by jazz, dub, techno, jungle and ambient, create a kind of maximal minimalism: richly detailed productions that nevertheless drape elegantly. Beatrice Dillon is another, whose sense of rhythm is so trim, balletic and playful. Her debut solo album is actually highly collaborative, with tabla, cello, pedal steel and kora players alongside dance producer peers such as Batu and Untold. The resulting arrangements are a spring clean for the mind.

An interesting one - for once, I almost understand what The Guardian are talking about with their review.  "A kind of maximal minimalism" sounds nonsense, but what we have here are some stripped back sounds which combine to produce something which could be described as simple, yet complex.  Or, alternatively, you could just describe it as simple - and wonder if she knocked the whole thing up in an afternoon.  I imagine that people more knowledgeable than me would scoff at the very suggestion - but I do have to wonder at the point of working so hard to produce something that makes it sound like you've done nothing.

I was going to scratch around the internet for some facts about her or the album, but Google  describes her as a "musical artist" and I thought "I'm not having any of that nonsense" and left it there.  The sounds are nice enough on the album but the chances of me ever going back to it are slim to none, my friend - and slim just left town. 

#21 : Heaven To A Tortured Mind - Yves Tumor

Anyone longing for a pop star in the tradition of Prince or David Bowie – someone so sexually intoxicating, musically flexible and supernaturally individual they remind you how bland and mortal you really are – should make haste towards Yves Tumor. This album pinged from ecstatic Lenny Kravitz shredding (Kerosene!) to carnal vintage funk (Super Stars), Ariel Pinkish psych pop (Strawberry Privilege), and a really blockbuster lead single in Gospel for a New Century. This was the biggest and best statement yet from the sort of irreverent, box-resistant talent that makes pop culture truly pop.

Never heard of him, so I was expecting it to be pretty much as described.  And it pretty much is - he's definitely been listening to Prince and Lenny Kravitz (I didn't hear so much Bowie in there).  Tbh, it's not really my sort of thing but I didn't generally mind it and I can hear a reasonable amount of skill involved.   Listening to the album did annoy me, but only because he really sounds like someone else and I can't for the life of me remember who it is.  I'm getting old, I guess.  Sigh.

Wikipedia tells me that Yves Tumor (which is a slightly odd choice of name for Sean Bowie to run with) has cited Throbbing Gristle as a major influence and one good thing about being old is that I'd completely forgotten about Throbbing Gristle - Genesis P. Orridge was certainly an "interesting" character.  "Customers also listened to" a load of people I've never heard of - which doesn't overly surprise me.  I can see that a lot of people will love this but unfortunately I merely found it OK.

#24/23 - One good, one not so much (again)
#20/19 - Two strong women