Culture Cypher Radio December Chart: Revisiting the radical and revolutionary music of 2021
It’s a bit strange for me to look back and make an assessment of the past year because it feels like 2020 never really ended. A lot has changed in this second year of producing Culture Cypher Radio remotely: live shows have come back locally, my friends are touring again and a lot of our loved ones, heroes and inspirations are no longer with us. Despite all of these changes, we still find ourselves in the midst of a global pandemic that has visited immeasurable grief and pain upon too many of us.
It is against this historic/social/emotional backdrop that these past 12 episodes of Culture Cypher Radio have been produced. 2021 was an inspired year for music with many artists offering works of art that have explored the highest heights of joy, the greatest depths of our worst fears and sorrows and the broad space in between. As always, the music that CCR has tried to highlight throughout 2021 has covered a wide range of moods and genres.
This year CCR has enriched airwaves with Emma-Jean Thackray’s utopian jazz-psychedelia, Femi Kuti’s revolutionary Afrobeat, Moor Mother’s radical Black poetry and more. I don’t know what the next year will hold for us and I won’t try to predict the ways in which music will document it. What I will offer is my faith in the creative genius and resilience that surrounds us in these times. That is the engine that drives this show, a deep belief in the value of music and it’s ability to heal, direct and comfort us, even when the world feels cruel, dangerous and confusing.
Lushlife (feat. Dälek & Irreversible Entanglements) – Depaysement (Fortune Tellers)
Khan Jamal – The Known Unknown (Jazz Room)
Figmore – Jumbo Street (Fresh Selects)
Uncle CrimSon – SLOTH (Uncle CrimSon)
maassai – Grace Jones (maassai)
Femi Kuti – As We Struggle Everyday (PTKF)
Emma-Jean Thackray – Venus (Movementt)
Moor Mother (feat. lojii) – Shekere (Anti)
Reef the Lost Cauze & Calph-Now – Eat You Alive (Reef the Lost Cauze & Calph-Now)
Little Simz (feat. Cleo Soul) – Woman (Age 101)
Statik Selektah feat. Lil Fame, Smoke DZA & Rim Da Villain – No More
Madlib & Fourtet – The New Normal
Madlib & Fourtet – Hopprock
Verb Tec & Vanderslice – Open Bars
Breeze Brewin – The Application Hindsight
Premrock feat. ELUCID – Remorse Load Bearing Crows Feet Backwoodz
maassai – Grace Jones
The Lasso (feat. A Billi Fee & Rachele Eve) – Amber Prisms
Uncle CrimSon – GREED?
Uncle CrimSon – SLOTH
Figmore – Rosie
Figmore – Wormhole
Figmore – Home
Lushlife (feat. Dalek & Irreversible Entanglements) – Depaysement
Aesop Rock & Blockhead – All Day Breakfast
Aesop Rock & Blockhead – The Sea
AKAI Solo & Navy Blue – Ocean Hue Hours
Fresh Daily (feat. Scienze & Ivan Ave) – The Quiet Life 2
Reef the Lost Cauze & Calph-Now – Ok Corral
Reef the Lost Cauze & Calph-Now – Eat You Alive
Shortie No Mass – Tragic Charade
Shortie No Mass – Sunday In October
Femi Kuti – As We Struggle Everyday
Irreversible Entanglements – Open The Gates
Butcher Brown (feat. Fly Anakin) – For The City
Butcher Brown – #King Butch
Butcher Brown – Gum In My Mouth
Georgia Anne Muldrow – Old Jack Swing
Georgia Anne Muldrow (feat. Shana Jensen) – Shana’s Back!
Georgia Anne Muldrow (Feat. Ayun Bassa) – Ayun Vegas
Yasuhiro Kohno Trio + One – Song Of Island
Hideo Shiraki – Groovy Samba
Sleep Sinatra (feat. Sekwence) – Prize Fighters
Khan Jamal – The Known Unknown
Mach-Hommy – Folie A Deux
Mach-Hommy – The Stellar Ray Theory
Mach-Hommy – Blockchain
Nelson Bandela (feat. Illingsworth) – Teach The Babies
Atmosphere (feat. Anwar Highsign, Black-liq, Sa-Roc, Haphduzn & Lateef) – The Truth
Curly Castro – Bleek Shadows
Curly Castro – Raynathan And Romello
AZ – Ritual
Common feat. PJ – A Beautiful Chicago
Common feat Black Thought – Seun Kuti When We Move
Emma-Jean Thackray – Venus
Emma-Jean Thackray – Say Something
Moor Mother (feat. ELUCID & Antonio Gabriela) – Mangrove
Moor Mother (feat. lojii) – Shekere
Little Simz (feat. Cleo Soul) – Woman