2023 AOTY So Far

Matthew Halsall - An Ever Changing View
spiritual jazz going on ambient, nature and trumpet

but also The Clientele, Eddie Chacon, Hayden Pedigo, North Americans, Mac DeMarco, Rogê and Blue Lake

Just heard the new Deena Abdelwahed, absolutely brilliant. Will be up there.

good call on the Hayden Pedigo. i should add a list of folk/country/acoustic/etc stuff. busy w/ "real" work at the moment, however.

The Kara Jackson is phenomenal I agree. I still haven’t listened to the Julie Byrne in full.

PG Six "Murmurs & Whispers"

Matthew Halsall - An Ever Changing View

this is great, thanks!

I had missed the earlier Tubs enthusiasm, thanks for the reminder — good album.

been meaning to start a Tubs thread

Defcee - The Golem of Brooklyn Soundtrack

https://defcee.bandcamp.com/album/the-golem-of-brooklyn-original-soundtrack

really cool/unique project:

The Golem of Brooklyn Original Soundtrack is a companion piece to Adam Mansbach's new novel of the same name. Defcee uses the book and its characters to examine Jewish-American culture in all its beauty, ugliness, and the spaces in between. The album is fully produced by Messiah Musik, who worked hand in hand with Defcee to execute the vision sonically and thematically. The album will be released on September 29th via Closed Sessions.

Hamish Hawk, Angel Numbers - terrific Scottish sophistipop which has grown on me a lot since my initial disappointment.

this didn't really grab me but I checked out his 2021 album Heavy Elevator and really digging it, they are fairly similar actually these songs seem better imo

I'm finding it difficult to keep in my head, let alone order into a hierarchy, all the good new music I've heard this year, so this is very provisional/incomplete, but here's an off the cuff top ten:

Corinne Bailey Rae - Black Rainbows
Amaarae - Fountain Baby
Sarina Bellaouel - Al Hadr
Flesh and The Dream - Choose Mortality
Julie Byne - The Greater Wings
Kesha - Gag Order
Tinashe - BB/ANG3L
Baaba Maal - Being
Bullant - Late Life Circ
Sarathy Korwar - KAL (Real World)

Need to give that Baaba Maal a go -- dug the track I heard. Thanks for the reminder. Haven't heard much positivity about the Kesha album -- what's it like?

Fractured confessional modern pop I guess - like trying to make a version of My Teenage Dream Ended that is less stressful to listen to (though still a little bit stressful) and works as more than a curio.

Based on first listen, add the new Call Super album to the above list

The preview tracks on bandcamp sound great

I'm finding it difficult to keep in my head, let alone order into a hierarchy, all the good new music I've heard this year, so this is very provisional/incomplete, but here's an off the cuff top ten:

Corinne Bailey Rae - Black Rainbows
Amaarae - Fountain Baby
Sarina Bellaouel - Al Hadr
Flesh and The Dream - Choose Mortality
Julie Byne - The Greater Wings
Kesha - Gag Order
Tinashe - BB/ANG3L
Baaba Maal - Being
Bullant - Late Life Circ
Sarathy Korwar - KAL (Real World)

― Tim F

Yay for Tinashe and Amaarae, hope they make the rounds come eoy lists… I haven’t heard the rest but read good things about them. Cool looking list.

Amaarae - Fountain Baby
Kelela - Raven
Romy - Mid-Air
Laura Groves - Radio Red
Lucinda Chua - YIAN
Hannah Jadagu - Aperture
Kah-Lo - Pain/Pleasure
Julie Byrne - The Greater Wings
Susanne Sundfør - blómi
Christine & the Queens - PARANOÏA, ANGELS, TRUE LOVE
Gayance - Mascarade
Jessy Lanza - Love Hallucination
Victoria Monét - Jaguar II
Corinne Bailey Rae - Black Rainbows
Tennis - Pollen
DJ Sabrina the Teenage DJ - Destiny

Great list monotony. Lots of my favourites there, especially Romy, Susanne Sundfør, Christine & The Queens, Victoria Monét, Laura Groves, Corinne Bailey Rae and Tennis.

Other albums I've played a lot:

Caroline Polachek
Carly Rae Jepsen
Paramore
Mitski
Olivia Rodrigo
Anohni & The Johnsons
Kali Uchis
Jessie Ware (think I'm one of the few on here who didn't think this was a major disappointment)
Sparks
Koleżanka
Eddie Chacon
Avalon Emerson
Kylie
Jake Shears

Feels like it has been a stronger year than the last couple overall.

thanks. Should've added Say She She to my list as well.

I like-to-love all the other albums on monotony's list (esp. Kelela, Laura, Lucinda, Hannah and Jessy) except the Kah-Lo and Gayance which I haven't heard. Nice to see someone/anyone big up Hannah Jadagu.

bunch of stuff I love on monotony and KP's lists, adding a couple of EPs I've enjoyed:

NewJeans - Get Up
Patrick Wolf - The Night Safari

Yay for Tinashe and Amaarae, hope they make the rounds come eoy lists

I'd be very surprised if they don't. Both will certainly be high up on my ballot

Mary Lattimore's new album is out today and already looks set to feature on my eoy list.

Recent great ones for me:

Daniel Villarreal (w/Jeff Parker & Anna Butterss) - Lados B
Barker - Unfixed EP
John Zorn (Brian Barsella / Ches Smith / Jorge Roeder / Julian Lage) - Full Fathom Five
DJ Znobia - Inventor vol. 1 (Nyege Nyege)
Autechre - Sydney 8/27/2023 bootleg

Haven't seen it mentioned on this thread yet but deserves to be:

Jonny Nash - Point of Entry

Shoegaze ambient-folk? Anyway, sublime album from the Melody As Truth head honcho and Gaussian Curve member

yes!

Seeing more and more support for the DJ Sabrina the Teenage DJ album, which will rank high for me. Great interview here:

https://last-donut-of-the-night.ghost.io/dj-sabrina-the-teenage-dj-interview/

liquid mike

In this entire thread there's only one mention of Meshell Ndegeocello??????????

the new Corrine Bailey Ray is up there for me now

no mention of ANOHNI + the Johnsons yet?

Others for me:

Billy Woods / Maps
Daniel Villarreal / Lados B
Yussef Dayes / Black Classical Music
Aaron Dooley / International Disassociation of

Daniela Pes - Spira is my top pick so far.

Also on my list: Caroline Polachek, M Sage and Raymomd Zander, maybe the new OPN (but I'll need more time with that one).

3 standouts this year are sufjan, jim legxacy, and corinne bailey rae

i have been bad at keeping up with things this year but it feels a bit weaker than most years. plenty that's good but little that i've really loved and listened to obsessively

Gevaudan - Umbra

Man, this goes to show that there's still so much you can do with Sabbath-esque slow/doomy/sludgy/Sabbathy metal. It's brimming with riffs and ideas. Rocketed into my top albums this year

Huh, hadn’t heard about that one dog latin, but sounds up my alley.

that’s $12.09 USD, plus $18.13 shipping for United States.

Yikes. Guess I'll stick with streaming.

no mention of ANOHNI + the Johnsons yet?

― fetter, Friday, October 20, 2023 1:51 AM (six days ago) bookmarkflaglink

First of theirs I've swooned over.

Tirzah album is so so good, rocketed straight to the top, thank you ilm

it's high up my own rankings, to illustrate how pan-ILM it truly is

Craven Faults "Standers" is probably my favourite, so far. Lana Del Ray's "Did You Know ..." also played a lot. Excited for the Tirzah album, too.

DewSoCozy & Tubesock Cam - The Adventures of Tubesock Cam and the Green Bandit

super fun, energetic and oddball rap record, classic era feel without feeling retro

Clearly a man of excellent taste

ok best of 2023

piotr kurek peach blossom
7038634357 neo seven
dane law gurum triads
sydney spann sending up a spiral of
tirzah trip9love...???
ml buch suntub
jim legxacy hnpm
ragana desolation's flower
catherine christer hennix solo for tamburium
joanne robertson blue car

more

— tom (@HowToDressWell) November 6, 2023

that's a cool list!! been looking those up on bandcamp

Love ML Buch, still digging into this latest one

Yeah, love to see ML Buch mentioned. New one perhaps not as good as Skinned, but still lovely. Good writeup in Pitchfork today too.

Album of the year is still Fire-toolz to me. Danish album of the year is Fraads.

ml buch album is sounding wonderful, thanks for the heads up

Hennix is also on my albums list, great stuff

Thanks for the heads up re: new ML Buch! Had already heard and loved "Fleshless Hand"--her approach to my ears is kinda like a PC Music take on His Name Is Alive uncanny valley deadpan singing and guitar playing/production

I'm cooped up in COVID self-iso, so I just resigned myself to tabulating my EOY lists super-early, apologies for their length but they're not as extensive as past years' have been:

POP/ROCK
1) THE JAPANESE HOUSE - In The End It Always Does
2) TIRZAH - trip9love...???
3) BLAKE MILLS (W/ CHRIS WEISMAN) - Jelly Road
4) feeble little horse - Girl with Fish
5) HOTLINE TNT - Cartwheel
6) WESTERMAN - An Inbuilt Fault
7) WRAITH OF KHAN - Slow Drain
8) on4world - In Rainbow Roads

REISSUES/ARCHIVAL RELEASES
1) THE REPLACEMENTS - Tim: Let It Bleed edition (Ed Stasium mix)
2) ARTHUR RUSSELL - Picture Of Bunny Rabbit
3) NANA VASCONCELOS/NELSON ANGELO/NOVELLI - Nana, Nelson Angelo, Novelli
4) AD HOC - Corpse
5) NO-NECK BLUES BAND - Niente Piu Canzoni
6) RICK WHITE - Eric's Trip Demos (92-95)
7) JOHN McGUIRE - Vanishing Points/A Cappella

METAL
1) INCANTATION - Unholy Deification
2) WORMHOLE - Almost Human
3) CONJURETH - The Parasitic Chambers
4) VOIDCEREMONY - Threads Of Unknowing
5) ULTHAR - Anthronomicon

JAZZ/FREE IMPROVISATION/MODERN CLASSICAL
1) THOMAS BANGALTER - Mythologies
2) NATURAL INFORMATION SOCIETY - Since Time Is Gravity
3) CHRIS SPEED TRIO - Despite Obstacles
4) TRICKSTER - Live In Brooklyn
5) GEORGE WINSTONE (W/ BEN MONDER) - Odysseus
6) SAM WEINBERG TRIO (W/ CHRIS LIGHTCAP & TOM RAINEY) - Implicatures
7) DAVID LORD - Forest Standards, Vol. 3
8) JOHN EDWARDS/ANDREW LISLE/DIRK SERRIES/COLIN WEBSTER - Out Of Nowhere
9) TED CROSBY - Stationary Movements
10) KIND MIND - S/T (2023)
11) SHOO - Horn
12) SANDY EWEN - Solo

ELECTRONIC/EXPERIMENTAL
1) MM/KM - Ich sehe Vasen
2) REZZETT - Meant Like This/Boshly
3) SUN ARAW - Super Coracle
4) MOUFANG/CZAMANSKI - Recreational Kraut
5) OFF WORLD - 3
6) ARP - The Enormous Room
7) SAM GENDEL - Pass If Music
8) TIM HECKER - No Highs
9) NONDI_ - Flood City Trax

Rezzett’s live at stand by also from this year is really great too