It took Depeche Mode only four years to assemble their first singles compilation, but 12 to assemble The Singles 86>98. Appropriately, the second set was much more ambitious than The Singles 81>85, spanning two discs and 20 songs, plus a live version of "Everything Counts." The Singles 86>98 was an album that many fans, both casual and hardcore, waited patiently for, and for good reason -- Depeche Mode were always more effective as a singles band than as album artists. That's not to say that the double-disc compilation is perfect. DM's output fluctuated wildly during those 12 years, as the group hit both career highs and lows. It's possible to hear it all on this set, from "Strangelove" and "Never Let Me Down Again," through "Personal Jesus" and "Enjoy the Silence," to "I Feel You" and "Barrel of a Gun." It's possible that some casual listeners will find that the collection meanders a bit too much for their tastes, but the end result is definitive and, along with The Singles 81>85, ranks as Depeche Mode's best, most listenable album.© Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo

Still on the Dead Oceans label, Khruangbin releases Mordechai, which is set to become one of the flagship albums of 2020. Khruangbin (pronounced "Kroongbin", which means "plane" in Thai and which they chose simply by saying “why does it matter, nobody’s going to care”) is a wig-wearing Texan trio with Laura Lee on vocals and bass, the central element of their music. The two other members, Mark Speer and Donald Johnson, met in Houston in a Methodist church where the former played guitar while the latter played the organ. A fascination for the Middle East led them to Laura and after a tour where Speer and Lee opened for Bonobo, the three decided to jam in a barn in Burton, a small town of 300. There, the insatiable diggers recorded the extraordinary album The Universe Smile Upon You, which drew on 60s Thai funk with long psychedelic instrumentals, then Con Todo El Mondo with its Caribbean sounds and Middle Eastern harmonies. On closer inspection, their name seems appropriate, as Khruangbin flies from one place to another at a confounding speed. For the third album, the trio goes full throttle. Less hypnotic than the first, less eclectic than the second but still as deep in sound research. Mordechai gives pride of place to its singer whose muffled voice reverberates over the ten tracks. From the Spanish Pelota and its rumba scents and the pop-funk of Time (You And I) to the jazz-dub of One to Remember, from Africa to Korea via Pakistan. It would be futile to label the musical richness of the opus. Sculpted by bass, nourished by sounds from all over the world, the atmosphere reigns supreme; primordial and always soaring. Mordechai is, for Khruangbin, “a celebration of Houston, the eclectic city that had nurtured us, and a cultural nexus where you can check out country and zydeco, trap rap, or avant-garde opera on any given night.” © Charlotte Saintoin/Qobuz

Since 2015, Brockhampton has shaken the world of rap a little like the Californians of Odd Future had done a few years ago. With their fifth “real” album, this prolific Texan group based in Los Angeles and led by Kevin Abstract have retained their fun, wacky style and their kaleidoscopic, funky take on modern hip hop and R&B. Once again, it is impossible to not be reminded of Outkast throughout Ginger. Abstract recognizes the influence of the cult tandem made up of André 3000 and Big Boi and here Brockhampton have concocted an orgy of sounds, beats and punchlines (often humorous), an alliance of underground R&B and minimalist rap that moves at leisure into gospel, dancehall, rock, pop and electro. An extremely addictive concoction. © Marc Zisman/Qobuz

Conductor Riccardo Muti has gained plaudits for his support of Chicago sports teams, and it is notable that his last release as permanent conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra is devoted to contemporary composers linked to Chicago. He has sometimes been criticized for neglecting contemporary music, but in his last few years, he seemed to take the criticism to heart, and he goes out on a positive note. The Chicago-associated composers include Philip Glass, who attended the University of Chicago as an undergraduate. He is represented by an unusually strong entry in his catalog of symphonies, which now number 14. The Symphony No. 11, Glass told The New York Times, is about "taking little repetitions and making them into structural gestures." This works itself out in various ways over the course of the three movements, but particularly interesting is the finale, which opens with percussion (something unusual for Glass); the composer's trademark repeated orchestral figures seem at first to smooth out the percussion rhythms but then go on to interact with them to generate a finale that, in Muti's hands, is positively boisterous. This work has been recorded once before by the Bruckner Symphony of Linz, Glass' primary European champion, but this reading may be superior, and it will be worth the money or time for many listeners. The Glass is preceded by two smaller works, the luminous, COVID-inspired Hymn for Everyone by the Symphony's composer-in-residence, Jessie Montgomery, and a set of three dramatic, rather tumultuous orchestral song settings by Max Raimi, to poems by Lisel Mueller. The CSO Resound label captures the distinctive acoustic in the orchestra's hall, and its fabled brass still sound great. An honorable note for Muti's departure, although he'll still likely be around as a guest conductor on recordings. © James Manheim /TiVo

Isao Tomita is a brilliant interpreter. He has transcribed several classical and orchestral works for the synthesizer. Kosmos is a slick album of those works that translate well to Tomita's spacescapes and his visionary style. These pieces had acoustic atmospheric resonance in their original formats. Tomita's synthesized versions have all of the original bravado and essence and he has added ambient atmospheres to give each piece new meaning and depth. The modernized pieces are genuine spacescapes. The disc opens, somewhat predictably, with John Williams' "Star Wars Theme." Tomita's lighthearted version adds humor to the piece. Track two, "Space Fantasy," just might be Tomita's best work. He combines elements from "Thus Spake Zoroaster" by Richard Strauss and "Ride of the Valkyries" and "Tannhauser Overture," both by Richard Wagner. The depth of this performance on this is amazing. Arthur Honegger's "Pacific 231" is an excellent transitional piece. Experimental sounds give it an avant-garde feel. "The Unanswered Question" by Charles Ives is pure atmospheric minimalism in both its original and electronic form. Ives was a risk-taker and one of the foremost avant-garde composers of his time; he would like this treatment. Rodrigo's "Aranjuez" takes on new beauty and character in Tomita's translation. Teamed with Ives' piece and the next piece, this is the travel and exploration leg of the journey. Edvard Grieg's "Solveig's Song" from "The Peer Gynt Suite" has tremendous atmospheric qualities also. While the journey continues, so does the beauty. "Hora Staccato" represents an end or a milestone of the journey. This Grigoras Dinicu/Jascha Heifetz piece is brisk and energetic. "The Sea Named Solaris" is based on Johann Sebastian Bach's "Three Part Invention, No. 2" and"Ich Ruf zu Dir, Jesu Christ." Tomita also wrote some of the music for this piece. It is a beautiful finish to a wondrous journey. This is one of the strongest albums in Tomita's discography. Only the work of Wendy Carlos can compare to Tomita's work.© TiVo

What a treat to have a first solo album from Philippe Pierlot, the Belgian viola da gamba player best known for being the director of the Ricercar Ensemble, and what a double treat for it then to sound so absolutely ravishing. In programming terms alone, “Meditation” is a joy for its combination of variety and musicological storytelling. A charting of the viola da gamba’s time in the sun via the music of its finest exponents, it opens with a selection of airs from Tobias Hume’s (1579-1645) The First Part of Ayres of 1605, which was the first complete collection of pieces for solo viola da gamba to be published on British shores. From there it’s a hop over the Channel to celebrate the instrument’s heyday in France. First for a handful of sarabandes and courantes, plus a chaconne, from Monsieur de Sainte Colombe (1640-1700). Then Les Voix humaines by Marin Marais (1656-1728), before returning to British shores for a few pieces by Carl Friedrich Abel (1723-1787), whose love for the fast-becoming-unfashionable viol saw him adapt his own pre-Classical style to something closer to that of his family friend and onetime teacher Johann Sebastian Bach. Pierlot then winds things up with his own transcriptions of two German works – the Prélude, Sarabande and Menuet from Bach’s Cello Suite No. 1 in G major, and a Meditation for harpsichord piece that Johann Jakob Froberger wrote on a trip to Paris in 1660. Recorded in Santa Maria di Micciano, the performances themselves have been captured with vibrant-toned intimacy, and a nice amount of church acoustic in the mix; and while there’s audible breathing, I’m inclined to think that it’s worth it for the pleasure of being really able to appreciate the timbres of hair catching – and of subtle mid-bow modulations in weight and attack – on gut string. Pierlot’s Thomas Allred 1635 viola da gamba meanwhile fully lives up to the viola da gamba’s ‘ambassador’ nickname with its mahogany’s sweetness, and Pierlot’s actual playing is as beguiling in the rhythmic rise and fall of an up-tempo Sarabande as in his programme’s many slower-spun lyrical moments. As for the album title, this refers to the programme’s first and last pieces, which serve as an ear-pricking way to finish by coming full circle, while having moved to an altogether different and more exotic place in stylistic and harmonic terms. Don’t leave too soon either, because as the Froberger’s final chord dies away there’s an inspired postscript in the form of far-off church bell chimes. © Charlotte Gardner/Qobuz

Jean-Luc Ponty, who at the time was still with the second version of the Mahavishnu Orchestra, is heard playing his own brand of fusion on this excellent recording. Upon the Wings of Music set the standard for his music of the next decade. With keyboardist Patrice Rushen, Dan Sawyer or Ray Parker on guitars, bassist Ralphe Armstrong and drummer Ndugu, the violinist performs eight of his highly arranged but spirited originals. His early Atlantic recordings (of which this is the first) remain underrated for their important contributions to the history of fusion.© Scott Yanow /TiVo

The aptly titled Cleansing offers a cleansing of Prong's sound, tightening up their trademark drilling guitars while adding some slight techno and industrial touches, which only heightens the tension. Thankfully, none of this compromises the band, but only strengthens their already muscular metallic roar. In fact, it helps makes Cleansing their most varied and best record yet.© Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo

When the Siberian-born pianist Ekaterina Litvintseva heard Blumenleben for the first time, she immediately resolved to find out more about the life and music of Dora Pejačević (1885-1923). This resolution prompted her to investigate an extraordinary corpus of music, remarkable not least for its sheer diversity, which she has attempted to convey in this selection of Pejačević’s piano output. Among 57 extant works, 24 are scored for solo piano; there would surely have been many more in both categories had she not died of kidney failure on 5 March 1923, aged 37, having suffered complications in giving birth to her first child. Pejačević was born in Budapest in 1885 into the Croatian aristocracy. She grew up on the family estate of Našice (in the region of Slavonia in Croatia) before taking her musical studies more seriously in Zagreb. Her early output shows how well she had mastered the Romantic idiom of character pieces by Mendelssohn, Schumann and Grieg, but her voice begins to emerge in the Six Fantasiestücke, Op. 17 of 1903. From two years later, the Blumenleben bring the character of each chosen the innocent snowdrop, the erotic rose, the mournful chrysanthemum – with a refined melodic imagination and rare economy of thought: her Mendelssohnian sympathies lead her only to use as many notes as are needed. Even more succinct (none longer than two minutes) are the nine Waltz-Caprices, Op. 28 (1906), ranging in expression from the grace and charm of their heritage to a sideways and even grotesque view of the genre (such as the slower No. 3, "in the tempo of a Ländler"). A more sardonic vein of expression emerges in the Capriccio, Op. 47 (1919), which jumps about the keyboard with dazzling glissandi and diabolical shifts of mood which belong to their time no less than French keyboard innovators such as Debussy and Ravel. The album’s final piece is also the most substantial: the second of Pejačević’s two piano sonatas, which became her penultimate work in any genre. The Sonata’s expressive key signature is established from the outset by the marking of Allegro con fuoco, and the writing is cast on a much grander scale than anything else here, resembling a work in the German or Russian schools more than the French-tinged colours of the miniatures. This newly recorded recital should attract the attention of pianophiles everywhere. © Piano Classics

Several of Ives' compositions have been reconstructed from his complex sketches and notes. The brilliant pianist John Kirkpatrick (largely responsible for Ives' initial fame through his performance of the Concord Sonata in the 1930s) worked on several of the piano works, and composers Henry Cowell and Lou Harrison collated and completed the score of the Symphony No. 4 in the 1950s. Composer Larry Austin spent over twenty years to realize and complete the myriad materials for the Universe Symphony, faithfully and brilliantly performed here by the Cincinnati Philharmonia Orhestra, conducted by Gerhard Samual. Ives left a note inviting other composers to add to the work following his initial ideas. The first fifteen minutes of this almost 40-minute work is given over to the idea of a slowly growing and evolving "life pulse" music in which 20 percussionists play to a headphone "click track" that coordinates the simultaneous 12 different prime number meters. This is the first of three musical macro-layers. The others are: the Heavens, for four orchestras, each in different meters and tempos; and the Earth, with its "Rock formation" and "Earth chord" orchestrations. These orchestral layers appear in different combinations within the three sections or movements: Past -- from Chaos, formation of the Waters and Mountains; Present -- Earth and the Firmament, evolution in Nature and Humanity; Future -- Heaven, the rise of all to the spiritual. The second and third movements are the most similar to the "Ives' sound" of orchestrally dense works like the Fourth Symphony or the Robert Browning Overture, and sweepingly dramatic, with an almost indescribable emotional flow. In the climax of the work, all of the material sounds rush headlong to the heavens, into silence broken only by the sound of one solitary chime. © TiVo

What started as a home-recorded solo project for Alabama native Katie Crutchfield, Waxahatchee moved to Philadelphia and gradually expanded in terms of sound and assertiveness, a trend continued on LP number four, Out in the Storm. Contributing factors to its more muscular disposition include the fact that it was recorded in a studio and was co-produced by John Agnello (Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr., Kurt Vile), who encouraged Crutchfield and her band to capture much of it live as a group. That band also happens to include her sister and Merge labelmate Allison Crutchfield, Sleater-Kinney touring guitarist Katie Harkin, former P.S. Eliot bandmate Katherine Simonetti on bass, and Pinkwash's Ashley Arnwine on drums. Last but not least, the album also finds Crutchfield reflecting on a breakup that's provided fodder for prior releases, but here she's looking at it in the rearview mirror. The tone is that of "good riddance," but not without having been through some stuff. It opens with the churning guitars, feedback, and meaty hooks of "Never Been Wrong," which regrets putting energy into the art of arguing with an expert manipulator. Later, on the fuzz-reinforced "No Question," she refers to "An invisible race/We'll be in it 'til one of us dies." "Brass Beam" has a wearier Crutchfield singing "I don't want to fight/I just want to sing my songs and sleep through the night." She slows things down on tracks like "Recite Remorse," where organ tones are accompanied by more ornamental, atmospheric guitar. The more intimate "A Little More" and "Fade" rely on acoustic guitar, so it's not all rowdy, but it is all raw. She doesn't code her stories here -- there are references to diving into the Coosa River and a car trip to Brooklyn. With Crutchfield as forthright as ever and collaborators suited to drive home her position, Out in the Storm hits with as much strength as emotion. © Marcy Donelson /TiVo

On her luminous and sometimes piercing sophomore LP, Jenn Wasner struggles through the overwhelming nature of heartbreak, coming to grips with the conflicting roles of both the breaker and the broken. Written in quarantine and recorded with a trusted cadre of collaborators, Head of Roses builds on the singer/songwriter's growing canon of intimate yet approachable art-pop which she releases under the name Flock of Dimes. Ultimately more layered and complex than Wasner's work as part of Wye Oak, Flock of Dimes' material manages to express an acute vulnerability without becoming stuck in the quagmire of deflated confessionalism. As on her excellent 2016 debut, Wasner tackles painful subjects with a sense of wonder, as if she's marveling at the complexities of human nature rather than being crushed by them. The clamorous "Price of Blue" ripples with wild energy as, in between epic guitar solos, Wasner examines the ruins, singing "and I can wander the wreck amazed and shivering." There is certainly sadness and regret in her lyrics, but on standouts like "Two" and "Lightning," they drift across the landscape in cloudy mists of skittering percussion, sparsely picked guitar, and saxophone as if rootless. This meeting of poignancy and sonic uplight is one of Wasner's personal hallmarks and a big part of what makes her music so effective. More transformative than dour, Head of Roses is a journey toward healing and marks another strong entry in Flock of Dimes' growing catalog of work.© Timothy Monger /TiVo