ILM 2023 Listening Club

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3LepUxNYiFuV00PWeQ3Hap

I really enjoyed listening to songs others ilxors queued on turntable/plug/outloud but it was live so you had to be there to queue songs and there was no easy way to archive and listen later. Would there be interest in a “ilm listening club” in the form of a private, collaborative spotify playlist? Only rules would be to not delete other people’s songs and only post one track before another ilxor adds another, so if there’s at least two people sharing back and forth the playlist keeps rolling…
Idk I’ve discovered some amazing tracks via this year’s noms playlist and get lost in the individual rolling threads so if several ilxors are interested in participating it could turn out into something great.
― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Tuesday, January 24, 2023

I like the idea of a current year listening club starting after the polls with a thread where people comment on latest additions (offhand or Tim F style). I would aim for 3-7 songs per week, either on first-come first-served basis, or people mention when they have a song they want to post and Moka adds it.
― Nabozo, Wednesday, January 25, 2023

Post whatever you want to share here in accordance with the general guidelines above and it will be added to the playlist if it's available on Spotify US.
YouTube, Tidal, Apple playlist copies are welcome and encouraged; please post here.

youtube or just song titles is fine.

starting myself with Royskopp's "There, Beyond the Trees"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbRtVZzR0xg

For the moment, what say we try to keep recommendations here to late 2022/2023 tracks only?

We can change that or start another listening thread for "released whenever" as best meets interest.

(at which point he notices that the royskopp came out in April 22, lol)

Thanks! Looking forward to this.

ok this is good i think? Avalon Emerson working with Bullion - I don't know who did what but it's a fairly unexpected curveball from Emerson, an indie song apparently about our smallness as individuals against the vastness of time. Very pretty and serene but there's also this undercurrent of strangeness and unease. Anyhow, two very disparate artists but both generally liked by ilxors, seems worth mentioning at least...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kutp_SR9QcU
Avalon Emerson - Sandrail Silhouette

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxvhZRtyHV0

Cécile McLorin Salvant’s new album, Mélusine, is due March 24 on Nonesuch; vinyl is due May 19. Mélusine is a mix of five originals and interpretations of nine songs, dating as far back as the 12th century, mostly sung in French along with Occitan, English, and Haitian Kreyòl. They tell the folk tale of Mélusine, a woman who turns into a half-snake each Saturday after a childhood curse by her mother. The track “D’un feu secret,” Michel Lambert’s 1660 air de cour, is available today, along with an animated video by Amanda Bonaiuto that may be seen here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPG4XX_X9rs

New single from Rosalia is seemingly one of her most straightforward pop songs to date, including a chorus sung in English, but still experiments with styles, textures, and tempos.

FWIW, as somebody who counts the new album as a favorite for the year, i really don't like it!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0q9UN5-zNXk
Rian Treanor & Ocen James • Agoya

from the Rolling Club Music (Non-Bobbins, Non-Techno) 2023 thread:

Jordan said:

First great release of the year, Rian Treanor & Ocen James (a Ugandan fiddle player) on Nyege Nyege, really fun and interesting record
https://nyegenyegetapes.bandcamp.com/album/saccades

count me in as well. first album to go in my 2023 Potential EOY Albums playlist.
not all the tracks work for me (I find things like “As It Happens” too ‘experimental’, for want of a better descriptor), but the highs are Himalaya-like (“Agoya” and “Naassaccade”!).

bonus points for occasionally triggering my Palais Schaumburg pleasure centres.

"Old Note" by Lisa O'Neil. I'm not familiar with her work. I know she sung on the first Yorkston/Thorne/Khan album.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQGUYgNhQa4

this avalon emerson is wonderful

Cosign on the Avalon Emerson.
It was the track I was going to post too

Also loving the sound of Agoya, good one!

All of these are good to great to my ears, so a very nice start and proof of concept for the thread.

new Yves Tumor album on the way and this is the (very catchy) first track off it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cxk-QeZ6Rus
Yves Tumor - Echolalia

making me think of outkast for some reason

New Caroline Polachek song “blood and butter” sounds great on headphones and has a very gorgeous 90’s vibe. William Orbit-esque?

https://open.spotify.com/track/1QmWunl2nbV9o9lujiLIDn

This album is going to be the best in her career.

Echolalia is 0 experimental for Yves Tumor! Sounds fun. I’m not quite hearing Outkast… I know it will probably sound insane but the first band that came to mind was Dandy Warhols.

Yeah Caroline Polachek is definitely on my most-anticipated list.

My favorite album of 2023 so far is the new Margo Price. It has lots of good songs, but this one sounds most like Led Zeppelin.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvzRPv23zU0

breaking my own rules again but I'm enjoying drag hip hop duo The Dragon Sisters' 2021 EP The Fine Print
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBqRL50Lb7k

Aiming for Enrike: a Norwegian guitar + drums duo formed 10+ years ago. That lineup may put you (ie me) in mind of e.g. Hella, and their early stuff seems in that vein (or it could just be that I lack better references), but they've certainly gone places from there.

I first heard "Empty Airports" blind, and assumed it was one of those electronica producers/projects that liked their sounds beefy rather than spare; was then happy to find a live youtube video. The thing is split across three tracks on Spotify; I'm not sure how well that fits with playlist policies, but there you are. I'd recommend something else from the album, except I haven't got around to it, being somewhat obsessed by this bit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Em-l1-XcFAE

Song of the month for January was this unofficial Knife reunion track.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HpxEXMIY64c

Morgan Wallen performs country songs well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBkpoTbJAsI

Not playlistable but I want to recommend this killer bandcamp collection of 1920's Shanghai pop
https://deathisnot.bandcamp.com/album/waiting-for-your-return-a-shidaiqu-anthology-1927-1952-pt-i

This piece from Third Coast Percussion composed by Tyondai Braxton is sick:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XE4rN-Xt4M

(album forthcoming, but I believe this is the only Braxton collab)

Some hyper-garbage from Denmark. I'm kinda obsessed with the time signature of this track (apropos the year-end thread)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUbutpdbe5s

The verses are in 6 (3+3) and then the chorus is in 4 (2+2), so the pre-chorus switches back and forth, and is in 8, then 7, then 5 (or rather 3+3+2, 3+2+2, 3+2). Check it from 0:37. It's a great way to connect the two different parts of the song.

The whole album is out today, and is very good, imo.

"Nightstand" - dreamy little ballad from Dev Lemons, who I guess runs a fairly popular music account on TikTok? this was my first exposure to her via spotify recs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5EZre5OC9cA

checked out her other stuff and she's got a bunch of great hyperpop tracks as well

That Dev Lemons song is great! Nice find.

The Avalon Emerson/Bullion is enjoyable in a very The Sundays kind of way, sort of a drastically different direction from what I know of AE.

That Treanor/James track was good enough that I am working through the album. Plenty of keepers!

Lisa O'Neil's "Old Note" is very much a song where I can connect if I'm in the right headspace and otherwise I run screaming. Nice to have those kind of tracks available to help accentuate moods properly.

Aiming for Enrike are another major find for sure. The full Empty Airports cycle is worth bathing in.

Fever Ray's new one is great of course; they're playing at Terminal 5 later this year and I may have to force myself to get over the ticket price and the venue just to have the experience.

Will dig into the Braxton and Aperly High shortly.

Liking that Dev Lemons song a lot

I don’t know when this will be out on spotify - I guess at midnight? - but I stan Men I Trust and their new song “ring of past” sounds good and has a nice archival music video of skating rings to boot

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSGwL5wORJY

i just started a thread for her but I'm adding Anna B Savage's new one, Pavlov's Dog, here too
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NiRT-49MXcI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lT1XdNPCH0Q

Zoran Simjanović - Dvije Polovine Srca

Hopefully being reissued this year

have been really enjoying the new album from abracadabra (a duo from oakland who have been at it for a few years now i think), an enjoyable mix of talking heads/tom tom club/esg/lizzy mercier descloux-style post-punk along with more dubby/psychedelic sounds and some good bloopy synths. bandcamp blurb also references deerhoof and mort garsson, and as the album goes on you do feel there's a richer fusion of influences than your initial impressions might have led you to believe. anyhow this is the lead track from it, the steel pan drums lending a lovely sparkle to things, like sunshine reflecting off a lake:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jT6eesjkSL4
abracadabra - talk talk

Yeh good little album

does it... reach out and grab ya?

i really like the idea of this thread - essentially a non-genre based rolling 2023 thread - and had been trying to get the motivation to start something like it when i saw that this thread was already going. i listened to the playlist so far and there's lots of cool stuff on there. the abracadabra song was the one that jumped out the most.

i'm adding wretched lie by the tubs, from their album dead meat. it is indie rock, kind of halfway in between a new zealand jangle and a more aggressive u.s. sound. their singer sounds like richard thompson and writes some great vocal hooks. fans of the goon sax or the smiths might be into it.

pretty terrible video though

I just got the Tubs and it RULES, haven't loved an indie rock record like this in a while.

Trouble in Mind is such a great label.

the Richard Thompson thing is kind of uncanny but seems like it's just his voice.

another influence that stuck out is Bob Mould, but specifically early solo and some Sugar stuff not Huskers

"wretched lie" might not be the most representative song bc it is on the extreme end of their jangliness/smithsiness but the hooks are undeniable. "i don't know how it works" and "sniveller" are two other favorites but the whole album is good

they've just got the tunes

I really am liking this new collab between Ilxor mainstay, Javiera Mena and the legendary Mexican band Moenia . It definitely takes and samples from other songs, mainly Donna Summer I Feel Love and New Orders Bizarre Love Triangle, but sounds great blasted through speakers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5v9r2vlfrY

I really am liking this new collab between Ilxor mainstay, Javiera Mena and the legendary Mexican band Moenia . It definitely takes and samples from other songs, mainly Donna Summer I Feel Love and New Orders Bizarre Love Triangle, but sounds great blasted through speakers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5v9r2vlfrY

It is actually a cover of a well known 80’s song in spain/latinamerica

Ivan - fotonovela

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XNscCzSL6s

Listening to this 2022 album from Adrian Quesada (Boleros Psicodelicos), the instrumental half of Black Pumas. He's kind of like the the American Inflo, flawlessly retro production & playing, but less idiosyncratic and more pop.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGUGd0m8CxY

I've been digging the Oakland-based Zamrock band Orchestra Gold, whose new album Medicine was released in January. The lyrics are in the Bambara language. I can see some people here dismissing this as sounding too retro, but they know how to kickstart the old sounds in a contemporary, rough-edged but hypnotic way.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0M5lBYBbcC8

I would have believed you if you told me it’s a reissue of an album from 1978. Sounds interesting will give the full album a listen.

This electronic/jazz collaboration between Saint Abdullah & Jason Nazary (drummer who was in Anteloper with Jaimie Branch) is out today and is sounding really interesting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLAQkX_KWf0

Presuming this remains a relatively benign space to make contributions, I figure this might be the one thread I continue posting to on ILX as I almost always have a new song that I want to share and would likely otherwise be abandoning the shared playlist.

Composer/saxophonist Sam Gendel continues his remarkably prodigious, diverse and and excellent recording output with the just released COOKUP LP. It's a clever, loving and suitably twisted selection of 90's/00's R&B covers. I'm only two listens in and my fave cut on the album is still a toss-up, so I'd really recommend exploring the whole thing. It's on the streaming services or Bandcamp.

That said, it's hard not to like this reimagining of "Are You That Somebody?" as a recitation of a Woman-Seeking-Man personal over synths, vibraphone and assorted trippy percussion.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbcLS5tFnAk

was gonna check out the rest of the gendel but i viscerally hated the aaliyah cover

lot of people whose taste i respect like gendel and i loved his 2018 album with sam wilkes, so idk why his recent stuff has been leaving me cold

digging the new album by nyc producer/dj swami sounds. atmospheric, soulful breakbeats, with reflective lyrics.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uP_56TNDAZI

liking that, very nice

wow I'm loving that!

Gendel's a bit hit and miss with me but I will check out anything he releases

I'm fascinated with the whole slowed and reverb / lofi remix trend, on one hand it's an algorithmic cashgrab of functional homework muzak, but sometimes it really hits the spot

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTOoNhM_qgE

Sei Raate Raat Chhilo Purnima - Lofi (Sanjay S Yadav remixing Kishore Kumar)

Woah this swami sound album rules

Enjoyied the last link too!

the cover of "fotonovela" is pretty good but i had never heard the original before (which Moka posted) and it rules

Yeah original “fotonovela” is great. A party staple in Spain and in my house parties lol.

have been really enjoying the new album from abracadabra (a duo from oakland who have been at it for a few years now i think), an enjoyable mix of talking heads/tom tom club/esg/lizzy mercier descloux-style post-punk along with more dubby/psychedelic sounds and some good bloopy synths. bandcamp blurb also references deerhoof and mort garsson, and as the album goes on you do feel there's a richer fusion of influences than your initial impressions might have led you to believe. anyhow this is the lead track from it, the steel pan drums lending a lovely sparkle to things, like sunshine reflecting off a lake:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jT6eesjkSL4
abracadabra - talk talk

― o shit the sheriff (NickB)

This just clicked listening to the playlist. Great one

Woah this swami sound album rules

yeah, this is gorgeous. i'm loving the garage remixes he has up on his youtube too e.g. Ice Spice's "In Ha Mood"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvvaau6E5tE

yes those are really well done

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tdPKlYTWn4

really into "barley" by water from your eyes, weird seasick rock music - makes me think of a less apocalyptic liars

wow they've only ever been mentioned one other time on ILM? weird

i think i was the other mentioner. this new one is excellent. i think i hear in these guys what a lot of other people hear in jockstrap

i listened to a few of their older songs and i was mostly into them (i prefer their noisier/more atonal side to their poppier side). great band name too

yeah the noisier stuff is what sets them apart imo

I love Gendel's whole thing, but the r&b covers album is not really clicking for me either yet.

“Barley” sounded annoying at first but it eventually settles on a groove and it’s great.

Not really hearing Jockstrap. It kept reminding me of Radiohead’s TKOL but it was probably the shaker sound.

40 thieves - don’t turn it off (session victim remix)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0pRy6ztQTU

Original is from 2010 and there was a really good Brennan Green remix from the time, but new remixes from session victim and bella boo were released this year.

very enjoyable

what a good thread this is

Note to forks: you added the 2010 original to the playlist! The 2023 remix is this one:

https://open.spotify.com/track/2BNc3VoxXiotAqBP6C5FV9

Or rather this one as the extended remix is better imho :p

https://open.spotify.com/track/3F1Zz6MvFDIp1dIs98fXpW

That Aaliyah cover by Gendrel is a resounding no, never imagined I would ever get annoyed by that melody but somehow it was accomplished in that track, then to be accompanied by bordering on pretentious lyrics, it managed to omit all the life of the original.

Btw I think it's Bandcamp + physical only, but there's a new Necks album (Travel) and it's always a blessing to hear The Necks.

new Nabihah Iqbal album on the way, the follow-up to her 2017 debut album, and the lead track is very much in the same vein as the best song on that ('zone 1 to 6000') - a driving cure-like number overlaid with Nabihah's spoken word vocal, somewhat sad and wistful in feeling but still hopeful nonetheless. the delay between the two records sounds like it was a rather frought time for her personally, so it's good to see her bouncing back again:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFRIaix41cU
Nabihah Iqbal - 'This World Couldn’t See Us'

https://nabihahiqbal.bandcamp.com/album/dreamer

New Amsterdam Records generally focuses on experimental nu-classical stuff but their artists occasionally dabble in music that crosses over into pop. Percussionist/producer Ben Sloan, who worked with Moses Sumney on his BLACKALACHIA project, has a debut album coming out shortly with the pleasant confection "1e&a" featuring shambhala-esque singer Madeline Kenney. It's a sweet date and a Sesame Street jam.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFJxt7OnRvc

new Nabihah Iqbal album on the way, the follow-up to her 2017 debut album, and the lead track is very much in the same vein as the best song on that ('zone 1 to 6000') - a driving cure-like number overlaid with Nabihah's spoken word vocal, somewhat sad and wistful in feeling but still hopeful nonetheless. the delay between the two records sounds like it was a rather frought time for her personally, so it's good to see her bouncing back again

no idea if you have seen this nickb, but this is from the press release re the delay :

‘DREAMER’ see’s Nabihah reflect on her experiences during the early months of 2020, when her studio was burgled. All her work was lost, including her long-awaited album. Already suffering from a broken hand and a severe case of burnout, she felt helpless. While the forensic police looked for fingerprints in her studio, she received a call. It was her grandmother; her grandfather had suffered a brain haemorrhage. Nabihah got on a plane to Karachi, Pakistan the next day. “Going to Pakistan turned into a blessing in disguise,” she says. “It affected my perspective on music. At the time, being forcefully removed from the whole scenario of the burglary felt frustrating, but it was the best thing that could have happened.” Nabihah spent those months remembering why she made music in the first place. She went back to basics and bought an acoustic guitar and a harmonium.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtUhDoSwOFM

Alec Falconer & Harry Wills - Working On Myself (ft. 2step Bec)

Came for the record stayed for the free pair of socks

Nabihah Iqbal might appeal to the Real Lies contingent

haha that's a wonderful track saer, brings a smile

Still coming around to this but the new Joseph Yano album hits the same-ish sweet spot as the Shabason/Krgovich album from last year.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gD_mc5-E-L8

Jonah Yano!

really enjoyed that album, felt like it was a bit harder-edged and weirder than the s&k album. but lovely nonetheless,

my fav track:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qq_lh61hCk

That Aaliyah cover by Gendrel is a resounding no, never imagined I would ever get annoyed by that melody but somehow it was accomplished in that track, then to be accompanied by bordering on pretentious lyrics, it managed to omit all the life of the original.

― aguzman1990

Yeah, I really connected with "BlueBlue" from last year, but now I'm wondering if I'm actually a Sam Gendel fan, or if i just never before realized that he's such a corndog.

Sam Gendel is good, he’s super prolific so not everything will stick imho. I don’t hate the Aaliyah cover as so many in here lol, but I urge you to check the whole album. There’s some great covers in there.

P4k review of it mentions some of the highlights:

https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/sam-gendel-cookup/amp/

A week out from its release, sorry to inform no other track from the new Karol G album reaches the height of that calypso, afrobeat influenced goodness of Provenza. Still a decent album, albeit a bit all over the place. My pick of the moment would have to be Mercurio.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flhJf94TzPc

Nothing particularly mindblowing but The Beloved’s “sweet harmony” is one of those 90’s tracks that gives me guilty pleasure and this song lifted its chorus and title from it. Any excuse to hear an update on it:

Sirens of Lesbos - sweet harmony
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLIl7Dvzwuc

I'm sorry for spamming this thread with Danish indie, but I absolutely love this one. Probably the best incorporation of uk drill into indie pop I've ever heard. I love the sound of ricocheting hihats at the end. I've got that age where when I was a teen rock was supposed to try and incorporate whatever was going on in hiphop/dance music at the time, and even though it's twenty years since Kid A made everyone else give up on that idea, I still love it when someone makes a truly great fusion.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trlPRV4Um8k

this is some lush asmr songwriting I'm v into

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sN0GuO8uLkY

Lucinda Chua - Echo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSfHelxwj1Q

crisp tees and the dream of a cup run from Boink

really loved lucinda chua’s ep from a few years ago, will check this one out

Rian Treanor & Ocen James

This.
Niche, sure.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsaXwqZ6vts
Pampidoo - Synthesizer Voice (Legowelt Remix)

Ha! Was thinking of posting that one. Fantastic remix.

where do you come across this stuff? love it

gonna start posting rap songs on this thread because nobody reads the rap thread. this one is infernally catchy and lots of fun

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8G6HkkhUxs

Nigerians keep coming up with creative ways to use the amapiano log drum:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMHxgrvdPMQ
Nonso Amadi ft. Zinoleesky • Lock Up

That Nonso tune is grand. Drums amplified in certain parts while not disturbing the general rythim

I posted this to hypergarbage, but this Holly Waxwing EP is sick. It's super dense, rhythmic, and pointillist, but drumless so it's a very relaxing listen for me:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7ORsWAtgJ4