The (ironically?) good folks at Bad Elephant Music have just released their year-recapping sampler for 2019 at a pay-what-you-want (i.e., free) price. Get it, listen, love it, let it show you the way to more great music for you to listen and love.
I’ve spent a lot of time with the naughty pachyderm this year, even if I didn’t always manage to review an album. This is a fantastic, independent label in the UK releasing international, progressive and prog-adjacent music. These artists run the gamut and run it again for good measure. The new one from We Are Kin folds in jazzy R&B with its prog; Introitus offer heavy, atmospheric rock; then you’ve got the comedy-folk of Tom Slatter, the oh-so-very-Zappa weirdness overload of The Bob Lazar Story, the impeccable ‘just call it rock’ musicianship of The Fierce And The Dead, the gorgeous but song-focused chamber prog of Charlie Cawood (the song on the sampler features vocal goddess Marjana Semkina of Iamthemorning), the proggity-prog-prog of Brighteye Brison and The Far Meadow, and the psyche-folk-watch-out-it’s-gonna-get-ya of Duke 72 (which, if I were making a Top 10 list for 2019, would make that list both as a Top 10 album and a Top 10 album cover). That’s about ⅔ of the sampler, representing just the initial intoxicating taste of the listening pleasure awaiting if you check out the respective albums.
I like good music. You like good music. Bad Elephant has good music, now free for you.