Contains moderate pretentiousness
- For the Birds, Lumiere 2019, Botanic Gardens. Installation art work in Durham Botanical Gardens part of Lumiere 2019.
- Land of Honey, Flying Lotus, Flamagra 2019.
- Variation III, Masashi Kitamura + Phonogenix, 管渠音がこ Kankyo Ongaku: Japanese Ambient, Environmental & New Age Music (1980-1990), 2019. Fantastic double CD set from Light in the Attic Records, bringing together Japanese ambient minimalist tracks recorded in response to Brian Eno’s Music for Airports
- Firesmoke, Kate Tempest, Book of Traps and Lessons, 2019. Awesome, I’ve seen her live twice but missed her touring this year. Amazing album
- We Gathered Apples in a Graveyard Freshly Mowed (Richard Dawson cover), The Unthanks, 2019. Live performance at this years Gordon Burn Prize ceremony
- Lest We Forget, Esperenza Spalding, 12 Little Spells, 2019
- Elegua, Moses Boyd Exodus feat Kevin Haynes, Displaced Diaspora, 2018. MBE played Redhills in Durham this year during the Jazz Festival
- Passeio, Boogarins, Sombrou Dúvida 2019
- Con Altura, ROSALÍA & J Balvin, 2019, “Fuck Vox”. Quite right too.
- Fists of Fury, Kamasi Washington, Heaven and Earth, 2018. Kamasi played the Sage, Gateshead this year. Best gig I’ve seen in years.
- Final Form, Sampa the Great, 2019
- Wiggle Waggle, Herbie Hancock, Fat Albert Rotunda, 1969. 50 years old, and still sounds amazing
- Isivunguvungu BANTU CONTINUA UHURU CONSCIOUSNESS (feat. Saul Williams), The Healing, 2019
- Mumbay Sarathy Korwar (feat. MC Mawali), More Arriving, 2019
- Reactor, Go Go Penguin, Humdrum Star 2018
- Nobody Knows, School of Language, 44 2019. School of Language have been around for years under different names; Golden Virgins, Field Music. 44 is an album of Donald Trumps tweets set to music
- Jogging, Richard Dawson, 2020 2019 Best album of the year by miles. I’ve seen him live twice, once acoustic, the second time electric. Unique musically and lyrically
- When I think of…., Jiha Park 박지하, Philos, 2019
- Jersusalem, Arun Ghosh, But Where Are You Really From, 2017. Another highlight from this year’s Jazz Festival
Not music, but an honourable mention to the BBC Audio adaptations of The Case of Charles Dexter Ward and Whisperer in the Darkness this year.
Superb radio.