Cardi B - Invasion of Privacy (Atlantic, 2018)

Couple of good moves - first, putting "Bodak Yellow" and "Bartier Cardi" even if we've all heard them a million times by now. Reinserted in the context of an album, it just drives home what gems both those tracks are. The other - keeping it mercifully short. Few things are a bigger drag than a bloated first LP after a string of short, sweet, successful mixtapes. Don't know why rappers suddenly think we want to hear a 23-track, 80-minute affair. This is 13 tracks (2 of which as I've said are already burned in your brain) and 48 minutes. I wouldn't go as far as to call it a classic per se but it's a very good album and a great debut. The only real missteps here are "Be Careful" and "Ring" (feat. Kehlani). It's Cardi taking overtly obvious stabs at pop success, and it just feels unnecessary. You don't need to be Beyonce, just do what got you here. "I Do" (feat. SZA) and "Thru Your Phone" are on the poppier side but both work well. "Best Life", which Chance the Rapper is ALL over, is great, and "I Like It" is almost shameless as a prime example of the Cardi recipe - pure hook, great rapping. "Drip", with Migos, is also a standout, and I wasn't a huge fan but I could see "Money Bag" taking over the world next. All that to say there's plenty here to show that Cardi isn't done yet, or wasn't just a two track fluke.

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MKWAJU Ensemble - KI-Motion (We Release Whatever the Fuck We Want, r. 2018)

DOPE re-ish of Midori Takada's 1981 debut album as MKWAJU Ensemble - you may recall last year WRWTFWW released Takada's Through the Looking Glass LP, but this one's even better - a wild mix of Japanese ambient and African rhythms played on marimba, vibraphone, synthesizer and percussion. RIYL Terry Riley or Tubular Bells, or even more new age-y weirdness like Vangelis, but these rhythms are so wild I wouldn't bat a lash at all if you told me the Animal Collective bros stayed up nights listening to these. Check out "Angwora Steps", totally out of pocket. "Hot Air" is a spacious breather, the other tracks pile up the rhythms in slowly-shifting crescendos...crazy stuff.

Albums of the Year 2017 // New Releases

//40 Migos Culture (300 Entertainment) //39 Kyle Dixon & Michael Stein Stranger Things 2: A Netflix Original Series Soundtrack (Lakeshore) //38 Unsane Sterilize (Southern Lord) //37 Hans Zimmer & Benjamin Wallfisch Blade Runner 2049: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (Epic/ASG) //36 Ricardo Villalobos Empirical House ([a:rpi:r]) //35 Brockhampton Saturation II (Question Everything Inc./Empire) //34 Fire-Toolz Drip Mental (Hausu Mountain) //33 Clams Casino Instrumental Mixtape 4 (no label) //32 Yves Tumor Experiencing the Deposit of Faith (no label) //31 Lil Yachty Teenage Emotions (Virgin/EMI) //30 Thriftworks The Feather and the Sword (no label) //29 Paul White & Danny Brown Accelerator (R&S) //28 Keiji Haino, Jim O'Rourke & Oren Ambarchi This Dazzling, Genuine "Difference" Now Where Shall It Go? (Black Truffle) //27 Nazoranai Beginning to Fal...

Abstracter - Cinerous Incarnate (I, Voidhanger, 2018)

I was not aware of these guys, who formed in 2010 as a noise duo, and slowly evolved and added more members and turned into a kind of death/blackened doom metal project. They've got ties to other noise acts I don't know (Sutekh Hexen) and other industrial acts I don't know (Only Now). Quite a stew and the band pulls of something that sounds truly different. It's got a tentacle in each of the aforementioned genres but blends them really well. It's quite hard to pin them down in fact. Big, heavy riffs with a production level along the lines of a sludge/black metal record but sharp instrumentation and just a dirty atmosphere...ambient noise passages separate a couple tracks as a nice diversion...very cool

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