My Favourite Music of 2023
Here is a list of my favourite albums released in 2023 - One top album, and then 25 more in alphabetical order.
Listen to them & support whichever interest you!
Creepy, Seductive, Magickal
The great
South African-Austrian-Swiss-Japanese performance artist/noise
weirdo/schimpfluch king has been taking 'ritual ambient' very literally
on his latest release, and here we have the most exciting one yet - six
tracks of the filthiest witches' brew, convincing invocations of a dark
unknown, documentations of psychomagickal acts that would give the
wicked ghost of Aleister Crowley the creeps.
At the same time there's
an element of cosplay here. It's a work of fantastical imagination
more-so than something to be believed. But, like the climax of any good
horror film, once disbelief is suspended and once the listener closes
their eyes and gives themselves in to the sound and into its rituals,
this music is potent enough to summon the most fearsome of creatures
from your speakers as they drip sticky, black blood, leaving a grotesque
stain which will never be washed clean.
https://rudolfeber.bandcamp.com/album/heimoror
Playful, Creative, Self-Loving
A joyous collection of discordant batshit electronic music, rich with beautiful strings, synthesized mayhem and heart - a truly glorious mess of a record.
https://lovecorp.bandcamp.com/album/next-time-you-get-that-beautiful-moment-thx-urself-4-sticking-around
A joyous collection of discordant batshit electronic music, rich with beautiful strings, synthesized mayhem and heart - a truly glorious mess of a record.
https://lovecorp.bandcamp.com/album/next-time-you-get-that-beautiful-moment-thx-urself-4-sticking-around
Surreal, Depraved, Frightening
A final hurrah for this inexplicable Canadian oddity - a large-form collage that pulls from the artist's entire career, culminating into a deeply elusive mesh of bizarre performance art stylings, fantastical surrealism and disgusting, visceral terror.
https://penultimatepress.bandcamp.com/album/soap-glue
Calm, Friendly, Peaceful
Two men singing, no words, no direction, but a feeling of shared peace that becomes all-encompassing as the awkward & uncanny aspects of the voice lose significance and give into the comfort of the natural sounds of the mouth, throat & soul.
https://erstwhilerecords.bandcamp.com/album/floating-by
Two men singing, no words, no direction, but a feeling of shared peace that becomes all-encompassing as the awkward & uncanny aspects of the voice lose significance and give into the comfort of the natural sounds of the mouth, throat & soul.
https://erstwhilerecords.bandcamp.com/album/floating-by
Harsh, Crisp, Chaotic
A computer pushed to its limits to reveal the heartless, brainless, malfunctioned voice that modern consumer technology tries so elegantly to hide.
https://alwayspartyperfect.bandcamp.com/album/pp-03
A computer pushed to its limits to reveal the heartless, brainless, malfunctioned voice that modern consumer technology tries so elegantly to hide.
https://alwayspartyperfect.bandcamp.com/album/pp-03
Mature, Extraordinary, Artificial
A sequel to a record that was cutting-edge more than a decade ago is of course difficult to execute, but the sheer amount of creativity, attention and sonic understanding at play here makes for a sequel that doesn't disappoint in the slightest.
https://swarming.bandcamp.com/album/supers-dure-2-2
A sequel to a record that was cutting-edge more than a decade ago is of course difficult to execute, but the sheer amount of creativity, attention and sonic understanding at play here makes for a sequel that doesn't disappoint in the slightest.
https://swarming.bandcamp.com/album/supers-dure-2-2
Austere, Mechanical, Tense
An album of improvised music like little I've ever heard before, where everything is tightly restrained and controlled by a computer and the humanity is shaved off, but it's somehow re-integrated through a baffling technological aesthetic so absurd it must have been made by humans.
https://alwayspartyperfect.bandcamp.com/album/pp-05
An album of improvised music like little I've ever heard before, where everything is tightly restrained and controlled by a computer and the humanity is shaved off, but it's somehow re-integrated through a baffling technological aesthetic so absurd it must have been made by humans.
https://alwayspartyperfect.bandcamp.com/album/pp-05
Threatening, Meditative, Occult
Satanic organ dirges to relax/die to.
Satanic organ dirges to relax/die to.
Stagnant, Blissful, Large
The most beautiful noise wall I've ever heard, plain and simple - awe-inspiring rather than soul-destroying, but simultaneously crushing.
https://absenterratum.bandcamp.com/album/what-a-heart-feels-like-when-its-weightless
The most beautiful noise wall I've ever heard, plain and simple - awe-inspiring rather than soul-destroying, but simultaneously crushing.
https://absenterratum.bandcamp.com/album/what-a-heart-feels-like-when-its-weightless
Bright, Celestial, Fun
Bastardized black metal rendered into dancefloor bangers for heavenly witches high on the fumes of their own concoctions - who said Ezekiel didn't know how to rave?
https://gnawtheirtongues.bandcamp.com/album/blessed-hands-touch-the-ophanim-under-the-golden-rainbows
Bastardized black metal rendered into dancefloor bangers for heavenly witches high on the fumes of their own concoctions - who said Ezekiel didn't know how to rave?
https://gnawtheirtongues.bandcamp.com/album/blessed-hands-touch-the-ophanim-under-the-golden-rainbows
Cryptic, Personal, Bleak
Performance, real-world recording, cassette tape re-recording, and a stark sense of dread all folded together into collages of surprising technical simplicity and mysterious enigmatic complexity.
Performance, real-world recording, cassette tape re-recording, and a stark sense of dread all folded together into collages of surprising technical simplicity and mysterious enigmatic complexity.
Fumi Endo - Cold Light in Warm Blue
Restrained, Calculated, Gorgeous
Piano improvisations executed with the utmost sense of care, with each key-press deeply considered and complete attention and control over their spacing - but what's wonderful here is that despite the meticulousness, it doesn't feel cold or detached at all - it feels alive, heartfelt and beautiful.
https://hitorri.bandcamp.com/album/cold-light-in-warm-blue
Piano improvisations executed with the utmost sense of care, with each key-press deeply considered and complete attention and control over their spacing - but what's wonderful here is that despite the meticulousness, it doesn't feel cold or detached at all - it feels alive, heartfelt and beautiful.
https://hitorri.bandcamp.com/album/cold-light-in-warm-blue
Dense, Cruel, Metal
Black metal's rotten corpse, twisted and compressed into an unsavoury field of droning noise, with the guitars dissipated and just the distortion and the screams left behind.
https://gnawtheirtongues.bandcamp.com/album/the-cessation-of-suffering
Black metal's rotten corpse, twisted and compressed into an unsavoury field of droning noise, with the guitars dissipated and just the distortion and the screams left behind.
https://gnawtheirtongues.bandcamp.com/album/the-cessation-of-suffering
Delicate, Mysterious, Unnatural
A slow-morphing collage of intricate tones and hums, improvisations recorded and re-recorded and re-improvised, showcasing a totally enigmatic sensibility that skirts the line between darkness and light while never fully forfeiting to either - very inspiring music.
https://nicemusiclabel.bandcamp.com/album/048-misting
A slow-morphing collage of intricate tones and hums, improvisations recorded and re-recorded and re-improvised, showcasing a totally enigmatic sensibility that skirts the line between darkness and light while never fully forfeiting to either - very inspiring music.
https://nicemusiclabel.bandcamp.com/album/048-misting
Atmospheric, Intimidating, Raw
Simultaneously the most beautiful and the most frightening music Graham's released yet, Aphorisms has a masterful way of casting eerie, demanding atmosphere that unsettle subtly yet profoundly without losing it's natural DIY sensibilities.
https://blankformseditions.bandcamp.com/album/aphorisms
Natural, Graspable, Otherworldly
One of francisco's strongest collections yet, each track a thoroughly engaging perversion of the natural world, twisted into new imaginary worlds for our audiophilic enjoyment
https://franciscolopez.bandcamp.com/album/untitled-2021-2022
One of francisco's strongest collections yet, each track a thoroughly engaging perversion of the natural world, twisted into new imaginary worlds for our audiophilic enjoyment
https://franciscolopez.bandcamp.com/album/untitled-2021-2022
Enigmatic, Evasive, Parasocial
The end of the social media line, a plea to be understood while presenting absolutely nothing and displaying absolutely everything - it's almost certainly a failure, emotionally speaking, but it's a very interesting one.
The end of the social media line, a plea to be understood while presenting absolutely nothing and displaying absolutely everything - it's almost certainly a failure, emotionally speaking, but it's a very interesting one.
[no longer for sale]
Lush, Feminine, Piercing
Feedback improvisations that pry into your ears, make you sick to your stomach, ascend your spirit to the heavens, then leave you naked and alone in the cold - precisely as beautiful as you allow it to be.
https://junktrash.bandcamp.com/album/collected-birdsong-recordings-2020-2021
Feedback improvisations that pry into your ears, make you sick to your stomach, ascend your spirit to the heavens, then leave you naked and alone in the cold - precisely as beautiful as you allow it to be.
https://junktrash.bandcamp.com/album/collected-birdsong-recordings-2020-2021
Slow, Serene, Everyday
Saxophonist Sergio Merce trades in his saxophone for electronic instrumentation and field recordings that are executed with wonderful simplicity and patience, resulting in the sensation of relaxing in a beautiful dream world.
https://hitorri.bandcamp.com/album/traslasierra-expanded-landscape
Saxophonist Sergio Merce trades in his saxophone for electronic instrumentation and field recordings that are executed with wonderful simplicity and patience, resulting in the sensation of relaxing in a beautiful dream world.
https://hitorri.bandcamp.com/album/traslasierra-expanded-landscape
Colourful, Experimental, Silly
MIDI files rendered and played back all wrong, resulting in twisted sounds and rhythms that might leave you cringing, grooving, admiring, or simply laughing at the absurdity - potentially all at once.
https://mrdougdoug.bandcamp.com/album/sos-forks-ai-rem-ii
MIDI files rendered and played back all wrong, resulting in twisted sounds and rhythms that might leave you cringing, grooving, admiring, or simply laughing at the absurdity - potentially all at once.
https://mrdougdoug.bandcamp.com/album/sos-forks-ai-rem-ii
Cynical, Animalistic, Upset
A harsh yet passionate take on contemporary noise, meticulously engineered to leave you feeling sick of humanity and all it's done, and all it continues to do, to this planet, to culture, and to themselves.
https://flagdayrecordings.bandcamp.com/album/human-nature-denied
A harsh yet passionate take on contemporary noise, meticulously engineered to leave you feeling sick of humanity and all it's done, and all it continues to do, to this planet, to culture, and to themselves.
https://flagdayrecordings.bandcamp.com/album/human-nature-denied
Soft, Introspective, Uncanny
An immersive experiment in how field recordings and physical spaces can reflect the self, and how minor alterations to these recordings and subtle human presence can shift your perspective of them entirely.
https://sawyerspaces.bandcamp.com/album/self-portrait-as-a-meditation-on-somewhere-else
An immersive experiment in how field recordings and physical spaces can reflect the self, and how minor alterations to these recordings and subtle human presence can shift your perspective of them entirely.
https://sawyerspaces.bandcamp.com/album/self-portrait-as-a-meditation-on-somewhere-else
Cold, Singular, Erotic
The Rita's trademark noise walls have crumbled leaving just an enigmatic click in their place which, when connected, form a perfect outline of a woman's body in unitard with her hair slicked back.
https://pukepink.bigcartel.com/product/the-rita-kathryn-cd
The Rita's trademark noise walls have crumbled leaving just an enigmatic click in their place which, when connected, form a perfect outline of a woman's body in unitard with her hair slicked back.
https://pukepink.bigcartel.com/product/the-rita-kathryn-cd
Fast, Harsh, Urgent
A very ambitious take on a live album which combines the band's fierce performances with equally fierce remixes of the same material, all flowed together to create the illusion of a single impossibly perfect concert - a proper punk rock overdose.
https://sissyspacek.bandcamp.com/album/live-in-hong-kong
A very ambitious take on a live album which combines the band's fierce performances with equally fierce remixes of the same material, all flowed together to create the illusion of a single impossibly perfect concert - a proper punk rock overdose.
https://sissyspacek.bandcamp.com/album/live-in-hong-kong
Nostalgic, Pleasant, Bittersweet
Heartfelt dictations of unseen images by unknown voices - massively sentimental while wholly detached, but it's wonderful to hear how sincerely the emotions put into these 50+yr old recordings live on even if the specifics have been lost to time.
https://discrepant.bandcamp.com/album/call-back-carousel
Heartfelt dictations of unseen images by unknown voices - massively sentimental while wholly detached, but it's wonderful to hear how sincerely the emotions put into these 50+yr old recordings live on even if the specifics have been lost to time.
https://discrepant.bandcamp.com/album/call-back-carousel
Eclectic, Inspired, Romantic
An onslaught of ideas, colours, feelings and virtuosity, truly all over the place but always coming from the heart, and so so beautiful - the greatest rock album in years.
https://virginbabylonrecords.bandcamp.com/album/resistance-the-blessing
An onslaught of ideas, colours, feelings and virtuosity, truly all over the place but always coming from the heart, and so so beautiful - the greatest rock album in years.
https://virginbabylonrecords.bandcamp.com/album/resistance-the-blessing
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