Link About It: This Week’s Picks

From celebrating failure to Miami Art Week, supermassive black holes, weird animal stories and more

1. NASA Discovered The Most Distant Black Hole The farthest known supermassive black hole has just been discovered—and the “matter-eating beast” is some 800 million times the mass of the Sun. Because it grew to an immense size just 690 million years after the Big Bang, it’s challenging beliefs about how black holes are formed. Not only that, but this discovery will also be crucial …

Vinyl Factory’s 50 Best Albums of 2017

In a diverse and potentially surprising list, the Vinyl Factory’s favorite 50 albums of 2017 traverses all genres, tastes and continents—the only common thread is that they need to have appeared on vinyl within the past 12 months. From well-known names like Kendrick Lamar and Björk, to releases from Visible Cloaks, Golden Teacher and Trio Da Kali and Kronos Quartet, the music is that which …

Nicolas Jaar: Coin in Nine Hands

From a deluxe version of Nicolas Jaar’s 2016 album Sirens comes an excellent, previously unreleased track called “Coin in Nine Hands.” Beginning with a dark and sexy pulsating beat and spoken word lyrics, the song builds and shifts hauntingly across eight minutes—becoming an almost industrial ambient track. Unsurprisingly, considering it’s Jaar, this is a bold, deep cut.