2020 marks the 25th Anniversary of multi-instrumentalist/composer/ producer John Zorn’s founding of Tzadik Records. An incredibly prolific label, Tzadik Records also has an overtly diverse output. Our site initially planned a month-long celebration of some of the label’s releases. However, the chaos of the past year derailed those plans. Before Tzadik, Zorn released a series […]
[Editor’s Note: We are honored to have Anthony Dean-Harris join us as a special contributor for this year’s lists. Several of our staff have worked with Anthony on other projects in the past and greatly respect his insight and skills as both a writer and broadcaster. More information on Anthony can be found at https://www.anthonydeanharris.com/.] […]
Historians will probably remember 2020 primarily for the COVID pandemic, movements for racial justice, and lots and lots of politics. While all of that is true, to me it will also mark the creation of this site. Postgenre was born on February 20, 2020, less than a month before state and local governments would begin […]
For nearly everyone, 2020 has been a time of difficulty. A pandemic. Intense political uncertainty. Murder hornets (?). It has not been an easy twelve months. To help cope, many look to the artist to provide an escape from their current circumstances. Fortunately, we are in the midst of a creative quasi-renaissance in which musicians […]
Black’s Law Dictionary (8th ed.) defines force majeure as “an event that can be neither anticipated nor controlled.” A party to a contract may be discharged of their duty to perform under said contract upon showing the occurrence of some unforeseeable event outside of their control which rendered their performance impossible or impractical. The concept […]
As the PostGenre Team is working on their list(s) of Favorites from 2020, here is a flashback to Brian Kiwanuka’s 2019 list. This list originally appeared at Nextbop. 10. Brandee Younger – Soul Awakening (Self Release) The harp is a spellbinding instrument and throughout Soul Awakening Brandee Younger is a sorceress. The harpist’s playing is […]
As the PostGenre Team is working on their list(s) of Favorites from 2020, here is a flashback to Rob Shepherd’s 2019 list. This list originally appeared at Nextbop. ————————————————————————————————————-Perhaps the most interesting takeaway from 2019 is the number of artists adapting music from the past into something new. Many of the past year’s releases have […]
In both his striking visual art and his eclectic music, Ted Feighan engages in a collage making process. In the former, he does this by surrounding the natural beauty of exotic birds and flowers with vibrant colors and, occasionally, man-made objects like couches, cars, or buildings. In addition to their own artistic merit, they also […]
Geography isn’t destiny, but it might explain some things about pedal steel guitarist Susan Alcorn and her new release, Pedernal (Relative Pitch Records, 2020). Alcorn is based in Baltimore, a place where the strange, unexpected and contradictory thrive. It is the birthplace of Edgar Allan Poe, Frank Zappa and John Waters, who wrote, “You can […]
On January 24, 1975, Keith Jarrett sat, in pain, at the keys of a decrepit and horribly out-of-tune piano. The instrument’s pedals did not function properly, giving both a dampened lower register and a harsh upper one. Even after several hours of adjustments, it was still defective. Anyone rationally analyzing this situation would see these […]
