[ bluegrass ]
As Stephen Wade explains in the 44-page booklet accompanying his new Banjo Diary (Smithsonian Folkways), this is a fond remembrance of his teachers and their teachers and others along the way who helped form the subtitle, Lessons from Tradition. Mike Craver, playwright and former pianist with the Red Clay Ramblers, adds a theatrical touch to pieces like “Alabama Jubilee/Down Yonder” and “Cotton Eyed Joe,” even some pump organ to set a properly somber mood on a few, including “Home Sweet Home.” —Mary Armstrong
[ soul/funk/brazilian ]
With Nobody Can Live Forever: The Existential Soul of Tim Maia, Luaka Bop Records pays tribute to a Brazilian icon who was his country’s answer to Sly Stone in more ways than one. (Well, with acid instead of cocaine.) Culled from his extensive 1970s output but leaning heavily on the two-volume Racional — cult albums in a very literal sense, recorded while Maia was deep into the Rational Culture sect — this comp is bursting with Tropicalia-infused soul and searing organ-led funk, sung (in both English and Portuguese) with varying degrees of coherence but infectious sincerity. —K. Ross Hoffman
[ electronic ]
With a spaciousness and sophistication recalling fellow 2011 breakout producer Nicolas Jaar, Andy Stott’s Luxury Problems (Modern Love) would make a fine coffee-table soundtrack. But its grayscale expanse also invites deeper, not-so-easy listening, evoking a burnt-out, post-industrial landscape with slabs of foreboding, low-BPM house, torpid dub techno, ambient field recordings and a stray drum ’n’ bass detour. The chill is tempered, just slightly, by the vocal presence of Alison Skidmore (Stott’s former piano teacher), ranging from sultry to airily operatic, and from forlorn solitude to thrumming, Julianna Barwick-like layering. —K. Ross Hoffman
[ rock ]
Look, I can be as twee as the next elf in the Keebler Village, but all the puny sweetness in indie rock these days is turning us to Nerf, America. I recommend a dose of Lost Songs (Superball Music), the latest by Austin’s mathy post-hardcore dudes ...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead. When it’s not a straight-up adrenaline rush of chugging guitars and shouty choruses, it’s at least a jolt of caffeinated power-punk. They play Johnny Brenda’s on Sunday (Nov. 18, johnnybrendas.com). —Patrick Rapa
