One of 2010’s most overlooked albums belonged to Lloyd Miller, whose collaboration with the British funk outfit Heliocentrics yielded a particularly fruitful and unorthodox union. Released by Strut Records, the combination paired the 72-year old musician and ethnomusicologist with a band fluent in the music he despises: funk, rock and hip-hop.

A jazz purist averse to anything opposed to euphony, Miller is old school in the most thorough way conceivable. Over the last several years, as his seraphic and exotic tunes have received a critical revival (thanks in no small part to Stones Throw), he’s achieved a reputation for whip-smart cantankerousness, critiquing the ills of pop culture with an acidic pen -- see this infamous e-mail exchange between Miller and Now-Again Records maestro Eothen “Egon” Alapatt.