Albums of 2023

[tragabigzanda]

[psychobain]

and my AOTY goes to:

[Ms Harmless]

great choice Psychobain

[epilogue]

[psychobain]

this one popped at my spotify randomly
sounds like a darker Cut Copy with a lot of pre-Black Celebration era (Depeche Mode)

[kreng]

Forgot to add Sydney Spann – Sending Up A Spiral Of in the TOP TIER category

here's my list of 2023. I only count albums where I have the physical edition, usually vinyl. All in alphabetic order and just new music, no reissues or archival

Albums

TOP TIER

David Toop & Lawrence English - The Shell That Speaks The Sea
Fire! Orchestra - Echoes
Joshua Abrams Natural Information Society With Ari Brown - Since Time Is Gravity
Lonnie Methe - Maybe Tomorrow
Sonmi451 - The Eighteen Minute Gap
The Necks - Travel

GREAT

Aaron Leaney, Guy Thouin - Lockdown
Arnold Dreyblatt, The Orchestra Of Excited Strings - Resolve
Bill Callahan - Reality
Brandon Lopez - vilevilevilevilevilevilevilevile
Eivind Lønning / Espen Reinertsen / Romke Kleefstra / Jan Kleefstra - It Deel II
Gerald Cleaver, Brandon Lopez, H Prizm - In The Wilderness
Jaimie Branch - Fly Or Die Fly Or Die Fly Or Die ((World War))
Jake Meginsky - Trinities
Lise Barkas, Lisa Käuffert - Lo Becat
Matana Roberts - Coin Coin Chapter Five: In The Garden
Maurizio Nannucci - Sound Anthology
Mike Majkowski - Coast
Nicole Lachartre - Mundus
Phill Niblock, Rhys Chatham, Martin Bouch, Gregory Reeve - Boston III / Tenor / Index
Sam Gendel - blueblue
Susana Baron Supervielle - Vida
Uboa - The Origin Of My Depression
Valentina Magaletti - La Tempesta Colorata
Valentina Magaletti & Laila Sakini - Cupo
Various - Hani Polyphonic Singing in Yunnan China
Water Damage - 2 Songs
Zoh Amba & Chris Corsano & Bill Orcutt - The Flower School


GOOD

Acid Twilight - Shadow Wrangler
Alabaster DePlume - Come With Fierce Grace
Alva Noto - Kinder Der Sonne
Amon - Akh
Anna Clock - Umbra
Damien Jurado - Sometimes You Hurt The Ones You Hate.
Dario Calderone - Isolario
David Edren & H. Takahashi - Flow | 流れ
Earth - Earth 2.23: Special Lower Frequency Mix
Ensemble Dedalus - Performing Brian Eno: Discreet Music / Music For Airports / Thursday Afternoon
Fantasy Sex - Fantasy Sex
Gavin Bryars, Massimo Bartolini - In Là
Idea Fire Company - Bathroom Electronics
James Brandon Lewis Trio - Eye Of I
Joe Hollick - Rest Lessness
Lea Bertucci - Of Shadow and Substance
Leda - Neuter
Lingua Ignota - Let The Evil Of His Own Lips Cover Him
Little Skull - Untitled
London Brew - London Brew
Lori Goldston, Greg?? Kelley - All Points Leaning In
Loris S. Sarid - Music for Tomato Plants
Lukas Traxel - One-Eyed Daruma
Morthound - Death Time
Ned Milligan - Considerable
Not Waving - The Place I've Been Missing
Pieter Verlinden - De Komst Van Joachim Stiller
Riccardo Sinigaglia, Mario De Leo - Lettera Cosmica
Saint Abdullah, Jason Nazary - Evicted In The Morning
Shakali - Aurinkopari
Steven Wilson - The Harmony Codex
Valerio Tricoli - A Circle of Grey
Zoh Amba Featuring William Parker & Francisco Mela - O Life, O Light Vol. 1

OK

Helen Money, Will Thomas - Trace
Kali Malone - Living Torch
Murmer - Tether
Nils Vermeulen - Variations
øjeRum - Coiled Souls
Patrick Shiroishi - I was too young to hear silence
Pearl Jam - Give Way
Razen - Hier l'An 4000
Sitar Outreach Ministry - EMBRYONIC MEMORIES
Thijs Troch - Stilleven
Troekurovo Recordings - Arbores
Zachary Walter Jetter - Drinking Flowers
Zaliva-D - Misbegotten Ballads


TOP EPs

Elegiac - Meet My Stalker
Material Objects - Passing Through
Szemzó Tibor - Invisible Story
Vladislav Delay - Hide Behind The Silence EP (1 through 5)

[contamination]

redacted's most snatched (by far) lp from 2023 so far, Ryuichi Sakamoto (坂本龍一) - 12

I've been spinning this for the past week. Such a beautiful album.

[Higgs]

I've been doing a bit of a catch up on some albums from late 2023 and came across Jeffrey Martin's "Thank God We Left the Garden" from November.

Its one dude and a guitar but its done really well and the lyrics touch nerves at every turn. Gotta be something to do with my age I guess, but yeah.

Here's him doing a live version of Garden that is...something.

[LetMeSleep]

Nice.

I'll check out that album

[Higgs]

Nice.

I'll check out that album

Garden (above) is great but the lyrics to "I Didn't Know" just hit me right in the guts. One for the parents out there.

[Higgs]

So, continuing my much delayed 2023 catch up, I checked out Portland Oregon instrumental band Grails album Anches En Maat. This is really good listen and much subtler/mellower than earlier stuff from them. Someone commented it was "Cinematic in a noirish sci-fi kind of way, slowly unfolding in a restless way, beautiful and mysterious".

It fits straight into my "Workday Certified" category and I've spun it a lot this past week.

Here's Evening Song:

[Higgs]

Will Johnson released an interesting alt-country rockish album in 2023 called "No Ordinary Crown". Spinning it at work today and I enjoy the variety of styles he runs through. This one in particular caught my attention for its almost "Tool-esque" take on alt-country (don't yell at me - I am not at all Tool-knowledgable, that's just what came to mind when I listened).

Alta (Warped Kite)

[Higgs]

^^ Almost forgot, Will Johnson also happens to sound very very much like Paul Dempsey from Something for Kate. And Paul Dempsey could sing the phonebook and keep me enthralled, so that's no small thing.

[Higgs]

So Pale Blue Eyes are a "young electro-modernist guitar group" (so they tell me) out of Sheffield in the UK. They released a delightful poppy/shoe-gazey/dreamy album last year called "This House" and it is really something. I enjoy the upbeat moments throughout but my fave bits are the more shoe-gazey stuff.

In that vein here's album closer Underwater:

[Higgs]

Still stuck in 2023 for now...

Sun June hail from Austin Texas and released their 3rd album in 2023 Bad Dream Jaguar. Checking their wiki page it says the album was influenced by Feist and Frank Oceans, and that's about as good a description as I can give. Lot's of blissed out americana-ish stuff, it sat happily in the background of my workday today and I found myself at times unconsciously swaying along to the slow grooves.

Here's album closer Lightning:

[zeb]

Will Johnson released an interesting alt-country rockish album in 2023 called "No Ordinary Crown". Spinning it at work today and I enjoy the variety of styles he runs through. This one in particular caught my attention for its almost "Tool-esque" take on alt-country (don't yell at me - I am not at all Tool-knowledgable, that's just what came to mind when I listened).

Alta (Warped Kite)

Higgs, I have a lot of time for this guy. He makes terrific music.

If you haven't gone further than this record, try these three songs on for size:

Lenore's Lullaby
Cornelius
Heresy and Snakes

Lenore's Lullaby is an alltimer.

I need to find time to dig into his old band Centro-matic.

[Higgs]

I'll make a point of checking those out. I enjoyed that album a lot.

[dad]

Still stuck in 2023 for now...

Sun June hail from Austin Texas and released their 3rd album in 2023 Bad Dream Jaguar. Checking their wiki page it says the album was influenced by Feist and Frank Oceans, and that's about as good a description as I can give. Lot's of blissed out americana-ish stuff, it sat happily in the background of my workday today and I found myself at times unconsciously swaying along to the slow grooves.

Here's album closer Lightning:

yessir...good album. good band.

[zeb]

The 2023 records that had the greatest impact on me:

Mitski - The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We
The Beths - Expert in a Dying Field
Protomartyr - Formal Growth in the Desert
Geese - 3D Country
Sufjan Stevens - Javelin
Wilco - Cousin
Thee Oh Sees - Intercepted Message
Kevin Drew - Aging
Blur - The Ballad of Darren
Office Dog - Spiel
Queens of the Stone Age - In Times New Roman
King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard - PetroDragonic Apocalypse

[LoathedVermin72]

My favorite releases of 2023 (unranked):

Akatumamy - GATA PISTOLA
Annalisa - E poi siamo finiti nel vortice
Aluna - MYCELiUM
Better Lovers - God Made Me an Animal
bludnymph - DROOL
Heavenward - Pyrophonics
Helmet - LEFT
Ice Spice - Like..?
Lola Indigo - EL DRAGON
Johnny Booth - Moments Elsewhere
La Favi - Para Ti
Ava Max - Diamonds & Dancefloors
mclusky - Unpopular Parts of a Pig / The Digger You Deep
Metallica - 72 Seasons
MJ Nebreda - Arepa Mixtape
RUIM - Black Royal Spiritism - I.O sino da igreja
Siiickbrain - My Masochistic Mind
Slayyyter - STARFUCKER
Snow Wife - QUEEN DEGENERATE
Taichu - RAWR
Teenage Wrist - Still Love
Lola Young - My Mind Wanders and Sometimes Leaves Completely