My online presence has been lower than ever during 2024, which I'm sure has helped me to end up in a better place mentally than at any time over the previous few years, though it's had the knock-on effect of having a drastically reduced engagement with the blogging community. I'd like to find a way to ease my way back into the game to some extent in 2025, if I'm at all able. I'll certainly give it a go anyhow.
Meanwhile, a handful of my favourite albums of 2024 have only put in an appearance very late in proceedings. Indeed one of them hasn't actually arrived yet and another isn't even scheduled for a physical release until March, but more of that in due course, all being well. Looming large in my heart and ears over the past couple of months has been 'The Way Out of Easy', a new double LP from Jeff Parker & ETA IVtet. Parker is perhaps most widely known as the guitarist with Tortoise since the late 1990s, though he's a prolific collaborator, having worked with the likes of Isotope 217, Joshua Abrams and Bill Callahan over the years.
The four side-long tunes on 'The Way Out of Easy' were recorded in a single day and although largely improvised, exhibit a meandering accessibility, thanks to an unhurried inter-band familiarity between the four musicians involved. It's a sublime thing.
Wishing you and yours a happy, peaceful festive season, however you choose to spend it.
Jeff Parker &ETA IVtet - Freakadelic
