Già da da decenni la musica ha smesso di essere collante sociale della collettività: è da tempo, per molti (tanti), solo rumore di sottofondo tra un brano e l’altro di una playlist random. Il 2020, causa pandemia, ha ucciso ulteriormente la musica intesa come testimonianza condivisa di vita, di storie, di luoghi: concerti rimandati (a data da destinarsi), uscite di dischi posticipate. Tempi duri, durissimi. Non si smette, però, di fare musica. Tanti gli album e gli EP interessanti pubblicati negli ultimi dodici mesi.
Arriva, anche quest’anno, puntuale la mia lista di fine anno.

Foto del 2020: io negli studi di Contatto Radio i primi di Gennaio, ospite di The Magic Sugarcube, programma radiofonico fatto con cuore e passione insieme. Ancora di salvezza musicale in questi mesi, insieme a Kalporz, Goingunderground.it (sito da me creato, curato e che è pure stato premiato con mio sommo piacere al MEI).

Top 10 dischi

1. Luke Stewart – Luke Stewart Exposure Quintet
2. Enrique Rodríguez & The Negra Chiway Band – Fase Liminal
3. Nick Storring – My Magic Dreams Have Lost Their Spell
4. Mong Tong – Mystery 秘神
5. Mourning [A] BLKstar – The Cycle
6. Jeff Parker – Suite for Max Brown
7. Liv.e – Couldn’t Wait To Tell You
8. Jon Mckiel – Bobby Joe Hope
9. Thiago Nassif – Mente
10. Penza Penza – Beware of Penza Penza

Top 5 EP

1. Dummy EP
2. Holy Tongue – Holy Tongue
3. Lucky Brown & The S.G.’s – Pecan Trees Speak To Each Other
4. Qur’an Shaheed – Process
5. Karaba – Pheremon Crumble Wax

Altri Dischi

In ordine sparso e divisi per macro-categorie (solo per non fare un listone troppo
caotico):

Folk, Chamber Pop, Sperimentale, Kraut, Space, Psichedelia, Art Rock, Post Punk, Industrial, Soundtrack music…
Josh Kimbrough – Slither, Soar & Disappear
Tidiane Thiam ‎– Siftorde Fateliku Souvenir Remember
Bobby Lee – Shakedown in Slabtown
J.H. Guraj – Introspection / Migration
Aksak Maboul – Figures
Vovô Bebê – Briga de Família
Sam Burton – I can Go With You
Cut Worms – Nobody lives here anymore
Spencer Cullum – Spencer Cullum’s Coin collection
Stuart Moxham & Louis Philippe – The Devil Laughs
Bill Fay – Countless Branches
Tré Burt ‎– Caught It From The Rye
Misha Panfilov – Rain (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Little Barrie & Malcolm Catto – Quatermass Seven
Les Robots – Project World Control
Bertrand Burgalat – Les apparences (Bande originale du film)
Chassol – Ludi
Military Genius – Deep Web
Sven Wunder ‎– Wabi Sabi
Trees Speak – OHMS
João Lobo – Simorgh
Malojian – HUMM
Aoife Nessa Frances – Land Of No Junction
Wendy Eisenberg – Auto
Laura Marling – Song for our daughter
Kevin Morby – Sundowner
Philip Parfitt – Mental Home Recordings
The Apartments – In and out of the light
Cabane – Grande Est La Maison
The Cool Greenhouse – The Cool Greenhouse
Holy Wave – Interloper
Rose City Band – Summerlong
Garcia Peoples – Nightcap at Wits’ End
Them Airs – Doped Runner Verse
TVII SON – TVII SON
Jon Hassell – Seeing through Sound
Ricardo Richaid – Traveissero Feliz
Marcelo Callado – Saída
Gunn-Truscinski Duo – Soundkeeper
Negro Leo – Desejo de lacrar
Cyril Cyril – Yallah Mickey Mouse

Jazz
Błoto – Erozje
Le Deal – Jazz Traficantes
Lemon Quartet – Crestless
Charles Rumback, Jim Baker, John Tate ‎– June Holiday
Chicago Underground Quartet – Good Days
Kahil El’Zabar Ft. David Murray ‎– Spirit Groove
Luca T. Mai ‎– Heavenly Guide
Irreversible Entanglements – Who sent you?
The Jahari Massamba Unit ‎– Pardon My French
Anasyrma – Tell no Lies
Nicole Mitchell & Lisa E. Harris – EarthSeed
Rob Mazurek – Exploding Star Orchestra – Dimensional Stardust

Territori di confine (i non catalogabili in un genere)
Andrew Wasylyk – Fugitive Light And Themes Of Consolatio
Trrmà ‎– The Earth’s Relief
Jyoti – Mama, You Can Bet!
Calibro 35 – Momentum
Yves Tumor – Safe in the Hands of Love
Mary Lattimore – Silver Ladders
Christine Ott – Chimères (pour ondes Martenot)
Siti Muharam – Siti of Unguja (Romance Revolution On Zanzibar)
Elsa Hewitt ‎– Citrus Paradisi
Tara Clerkin Trio ‎– Tara Clerkin Trio

Elettronica
Nihiloxica – Kaloli
Romeo Poirier – Hotel Nota
Domenique Dumont – People on Sunday
Sepehr – Shaytoon
A. G. Cook – 7G
U-I – Enter The Garden

Soul, Funk, R’n’b, Hip Hop
Surprise Chef – Daylight Savings
Karate Boogaloo – Carn The Boogers
SPAZA – UPRIZE! (Music from the Original Motion Picture)
Idris Ackamoor and The Pyramids – Shaman!
Sault – Untitled (Black Is)
Lightning Orchestra – Source And Deliver
Jason Joshua & The Beholders – Alegría Y Tristeza
Eddie Chacon – Pleasure, Joy and Happiness
Witch Prophet – DNA Activation
Jenna Camille – The Time is Now
Ego Ella May – Honey for Wounds
Don Bryant – You Make Me Feel
Monophonics – It’s only us
Lianne La Havas – Lianne La Havas
keiyaA – Forever, Ya Girl
Marlowe – Marlowe 2
Pa Salieu – Send Them To Coventry
Run The Jewels – RTJ 4
Armand Hammer – Shrines
Freddie Gibbs & The Alchemist – Alfredo
Manonmars – In colour
Clipping – Visions of bodies being burned

Garage Punk, Punk
Movie Star Junkies – Shadow of a Rose
Erik Nervous – Bugs!
Tony Dork – Struggle Street
Stiff Richards – State of Mind

Power Pop, Jangle Pop
RVG – Feral
Exploding Flowers – Stumbling Blocks
Disq – Collector
Dead Famous People – Harry
The Reflectors ‎– First Impression
R.E. Seraphin – Tiny Shapes
Smokescreens – A Strange Dream
European Sun – European Sun
Eggy – Bravo!

Sentieri squisitamente pop e leggere divagazioni – in giro per il mondo
Pedro Pastoriz – Pingue-Pongue com o Abismo
Ítallo – O Time da Mooca
Baxter Dury – The Night Chancers
Julien Gasc – L’appel de la forêt
Benjamin Biolay – Grand Prix
L’Albero – Solo al Sole
Kate NV – Room for the Moon

Pop Yé-Yé nel 2020
Fleur – Fleur
Juniore – Un, Deux, Trois

Retro sounds con stile
Young Silver Fox – Canyons
Mildlife – Automatic

Old but gold
Marcos Valle – Cinzento
Jane Birkin – Oh! Pardon tu dormais…
Brigitte Fontaine – Terre Neuve
Rodolphe Burger – Environs

Live album
Angel Bat Dawid & Tha Brothahood – LIVE
The Premonitions – A Night With The Premonitions

The Sound of 2020

(Guitar)Poplandia 2020

Top 5 Ristampe/Recuperi (dischi)

1. Nora Orlandi – A Doppia Faccia (Four Flies Records)
2. Nancy Priddy ‎– You’ve Come This Way Before (Modern Harmonic)
3. Priscilla Ermel – Origens Da Luz (Music from Memory)
4. Red Lights – Red Lights (In the Red records)
5. Carlo Rustichelli – Sei Donne per l’assassino (Spikerot Records)

Video dell’anno

Benjamin Biolay – Vendredi 12:
Monica Vitti vive. Il video, un collage di spezzoni di film italiani anni settanta (“La Supertestimone” del 1971 e “Gli Ordini sono Ordini” del 1972), è atemporale. Potrebbe essere di ieri, oggi e domani.
Speciale.