Figured now's a good time to post this, as well as anyone else wanting to post highlights from this year. Here's my top 10 with links of some tracks in the spoilers (although #10 is a dj mix)
10. 40ozLuv - Hard Dance 183 (Hard Dance)
9. Bibiza - Wiener Schickeria (Falco for zoomers)
8. Jungstötter - One Star (Zoomer Scott Walker)
7. Wicca Phase Springs Eternal - Wicca Phase Springs Eternal (Emo rapper emulating Kate Bush)
6. VVV - Vaciador (A goth band changing to early 90s EDM)
5. Lankum - False Lankum (Avant-Garde Irish folk with mostly industrial and noise)
4. Panopticon - The Rime of Memory (GY!BE doing black meta)
3. Taichu - RAWR (Bimbo rap/EDM. The weed listen of the year)
2. Ikd-sj - 死んだ雪白中毒者にキスを (I'm Kissin' Dead Snow Junkies) (An absolutely insanely talented, and... well insane Japanese post-punk vocalist with avant-garde metal)
1. HEALTH - Rat Wars (This generation's The Downward Spiral)
i don't really listen to albums, just tracks, but what i've heard from these has been good or amazing:
Ella Ion - Waiting
The Japanese House - In the End It Always Does
Jess Williamson - Time Ain't Accidental
Big Thief - Vampire Empire (7")
Yaeji - With a Hammer
King Krule - Space Heavy
almost only listen to albums, but rarely newer ones, so most of this is a gluttonous run through recent critical favorites (and albums by artists i find interesting) over the last month or two, which is probably not the best way to engage with anything. but still...
not ranked -
maps, billy woods & kenny segal - have hears this (lightly) mocked for being really middle aged, but that's kind of why i liked it. detailed, melancholy, that this is my favorite rap album of the year probably says more about where i am in life than the slate of 2023 rap music.
la baracande - doomy, drony folk music of sorts, from 18th century working class texts. found this much more convincing than the "progressive" folk music coming out of dublin and centered around lankum, and the guitar relationship to the voice and ensemble made me think about fairport, in a sideways sort of way.
carnaval, lucy antunes - classically trained percussionist who i think i only know through work with the proggy ground aquaserge doing a kind of a dance album.
red moon in venus, kali uchis - her spacy, pop r&b album. has the misfortune to fall in between her two spanish language albums, both of which i think are stronger than this.
abstract concrete - charles hayward's new rock band, more camberwell now than this heat. a big enough fan of that work that they'd have to work hard to mess this up for me, and there is a stiff attempt at funk partway through that nearly does it, but this is probably my favorite "band playing together" record of the year.
raven, kelela - the best of the progressive r&b records. took a few attempts before it opened up; like all too much from this year it suffers from being way too long.
fuse, everything but the girl/mercy, john cale/the girl is crying in her latte, sparks - department of i'm too much of a longtime fan to not love these. but all are what i want from late period work.
source of denial, nihiloxica - ugandan percussion collective gets fucked over by british immigration, collaborate with a bunch of electronic musicians on an angry, harsh/lovely, mostly rhythm focused record.
xande canta caetano, xande de pilares - very good interprations of a bunch of very good caetano songs.
Since Time Is Gravity - Natural Information Society
Beyond the Margins (Live) - Rodrigo Amado The Bridge
We Buy Diabetic Test Strips - Armand Hammer
Capacious Aeration - Anna Webber
touched by an angel - Klein
Sueños Paralelos - Laura Schuler Quartet
Why Does The Earth Give Us People To Love? - Kara Jackson
10,000 Gecs - 100 Gecs
Voices of Bishara Live at "Mu" - Tom Skinner
Heavy Heavy - Young Fathers
