Rabshakeh

This is great. Didn't know about this.

Don Cherry - Brown Rice Back from Rome for three minutes and already playing the Don Cherry record. I miss the days of Agharta being the kids' favourite. At least that had four sides.

Fred Anderson - The Missing Link

Art Ensemble of Chicago - Les Stances a Sophie Sadly not the Nessa version.

On the basis of this performance, I question how much AI knows about 2023... At least one of those five albums exists, so that's a step, I guess.

I accept that the top-linked page is just thumbnails, but the underlying reviews are no better. No doubt, this is a feature of Bandcamp's editorial preferences. I'm sure that Mr Sumner could write better reviews than the original reviews. I would not presume to judge a writer by the copy that he or she generates for a platform like Bandcamp, which is essentially a corporate copyrighting job, no different to "Top 5 Best Footbaths in Yekaterinburg". I certainly don't expect Mr Sumner to appear here and start to slag off Bandcamp's editorial process. Overall, I appreciate anyone bringing records to my attention, and I like the fact that these are a different set to those that have appeared on other lists. But whatever the case may be, it is not true at all that it is rare to encounter a good album review or that criticism of these particular album reviews reflects the impossibility of pleasing everyone.

If you want to read a series of reviews that is simultaneously breathless but also bland, please follow the link in the initial post. The reviews neither give the facts nor paint a "word picture". The reviewer just strings together exaggeratedly positive adjectives in a way that transfers no meaning to the reader. It is just garbage copy. The reviewer shows no personality. The reviews might as well have been written by AI as by a human reviewer, and may well have been, in this case.

William Parker and Ellen Christi – Cereal Music William Parker's new spoken word record. I found it embarrassingly poor. Looks very interesting. I didn't know about this one.

A good review is an art. My favourite is reviews that contain wider information. A lot of what I know about music has been hints I followed from well-written reviews: names referenced, etc.

Yes me too.

I find these bandcamp reviews a bit useless. Not only are they breathless but they are also bland to the point where it isn’t really possible to identify characteristics of what is being reviewed. That said, I take was Rostasi says and will give these a go.

Ada Rave – In Search Of A Real World

Arooj Aftab – Night Reign This is charming. I have no idea why it appears in the jazz year end lists. Lots of major jazz musicians do appear but basically it is an orchestrated Richard And Linda Thompson type folk record. I like it a lot more than her recent co-headliner with Vijay Iyer which I thought was po faced and dull.

Gianni Basso Quartet - Hit

That's right. He does a sort of RnB one note rhythmic honk that builds excitement and rhythm. (At least he does on tracks two and three, that's as far as I have got.)