She wears the Jamaican flag like a cape, like she’s a superhero. That’s before the party starts in front of Eddy’s Food Center in the Hill. Next, people are jammed on the steps of a house, pulling moves as they walk down the street.
They move to a gritty beat, chiming chords, murmurs bouncing in the background.
Above it all is Snowprah’s voice, edgy and confident. It carries just enough emotional heaviness that she can concentrate on celebrating. The final line of the chorus — “this is the Yank riddim / this is the Yank” — feels like a mission statement, a declaration of independence, and a call to the dance floor all at once.
That’s what makes “Yank Riddim” our song of the year.
As usual, the New Haven music scene was full of new releases this year. Some of them were released to packed houses on some of the city’s most popular stages. Others came out almost like a sigh, just let loose into the world to stand on their own. Some were years in the making. Others took only weeks to create.
All in all, they helped us see, at the end of 2018, where we’re at. Here’s one critic’s list of favorites.
Ryxno: Drowning
With its debut album She Called, Ryxno came on like a band ready to make its mark on the world, and “Drowning” — the first cut on the album — leapt into the ears ready to fight. It was fast and fun and ready for a good time, but it wasn’t all young-lad swagger, either. With lead singer Frederic Kaeser scorching his vocal cords to belt out the chorus — “I am drowning” — amid a squall of noise from the rest of the hard-charging band, Rxyno made a sound mirroring how many felt, dancing out their desperation and determined to not just survive, but thrive.
Ibn Orator: Pandemonium
Four years after his debut album, Vat in Perspective, Ibn Orator dropped his second full-length, The Fishbowl Syndrome, a dark, energetic album that swung from angry and paranoid to bitterly funny. Using, to chilling effect, audio from footage of the rout of a white nationalist protest on the New Haven Green, “Pandemonium” put its finger on the city’s pulse and showed how sometimes it could seem like it was on the verge of a heart attack, while feeling deeply personal at the same time. It asked us to take a step back and look at the bigger picture, even if we don’t like what we see.
An Historic: Celsus’ Brood
New Haven musician Adam Matlock, under many musical guises, unleashed over a dozen albums this year, ranging from dungeon synth to ambient to solo piano. But with Something We Could Never Live Without, Matlock, writing as An Historic, offered a short yet deep dive into his straight-up songwriting, if straight-up it could be called. Clear-eyed and consoling, full of sadness and hope, “Celsus’ Brood” and the other songs on Something were a shelter from the storm that always acknowledged that the storm was still there. True to the songwriting project’s name and years in the making, Matlock’s music took the longest view around.
Ports of Spain: Able Archer
Coming in just under the wire in December, Ports of Spain returned to the public eye with Able Archer, a full-length album full of twisty, catchy pop. Its title track, like its accompanying video, is, in a couple words, altogether charming. Smart and funny, “Able Archer” excites the brain and moves the feet, thanks to relaxed and confident playing from Ilya Gitelman and Sam Carlson and knotty lyrics that reward the ear sharp enough to untangle them.
Tiny Ocean: Bang Bang
Tiny Ocean’s Sometimes You’re Right was a debut that sounded like a fifth album, with sharp songwriting and pared-down arrangements that created a thick atmosphere from the first note. “Bang Bang” has the interesting meter to intrigue music nerds and the vibe to please everyone, like the hit song from a long-lost spy movie. It gives a taste of the noir that suffuses the rest.
Mountain Movers: This City
Mountain Movers’ Pink Skies felt like a step forward in the band’s evolution, and “This City” in particular packed a lot of what makes the band work into a (relatively for them) short few minutes. There are the elliptical, compelling lyrics. The churning rhythm section. And that uniquely caterwauling guitar style. Like what you hear? There’s an entire catalog to explore.
Cam Kashier: Chances
Cam Kashier is an artist who pingpongs between party bangers and meditation with dizzying speed, but on “Chances” he seemed to reach extra deep. Bursting with ambition and yearning, the song has a way of sticking in the brain on a single listen, using hip hop as a means to explore the thing that’s hungry for more inside us all.
Phat A$tronuat: Motherland
Phat A$tronaut quickly joined the ranks of New Haven’s best neo-soul bands with a string of live dates around town — a streak reinforced by The Fifth Dimension, which captured the band’s live sound and showed why Phat A$tronaut is able to draw a crowd. The album is full of big, head-bobbing grooves, but “Motherland” finds the group heading toward something more African, with thoroughly joyous results. In case you’re wondering if the song gets feet moving when it’s played live: It does.
Swamp Yankee: Oeuvre de Oggins (in F)
Swamp Yankee’s final album turned out to be its best. With the benefit of warm, lush production, the cello-guitar duo expanded its American Primitive guitar sound to create something that felt both old and startlingly new. “Oeuvre de Oggins” proved to have staying power not for a particular melodic hook or rhythm, but for the sweeping emotions it produced — a fitting sendoff for a band that made politics personal and put its heart in every note.
