2023: Your favourite music

[cruising for burgers]

in no particular order:

mgmt - 11.11.11

afx - london 19.08.23

afx - blackbox life recorder 21f

afx - new soundcloud dumps

afx - barcelona 16.06.2023

liturgy - 93696

el khat - albat alawi op.99

 

funny how all of them have numbers in the title...

surprised to see that some of you didn't include the new afx stuff on your lists...

Edited December 8, 2023 by cruising for burgers

[WurstPLUS]

Except some exm releases, there was really nothing in 2023. Ae live and RDJ blackbox rather disappointing. I continued exploration in the field of classical music. 

[zazen]

Posting a list of a billion things is cheating, you have to choose top 5 or top 3 or something

Imagine This Is A High Dimensional Space Of All Possibilities - James Holden

^ founds lots of new stuff this year but this is the only one that was actually, like, new

[X4creek]

2 hours ago, zazen said:

Posting a list of a billion things is cheating

i suppose but its also very nice to see what people enjoyed this year overall than a very small list imo

[tokn]

 

[Boxus]

rough top 10:

• otay:onii - 夢之駭客 Dream Hacker (my favorite discovery of the year, this along with her previous albums, I love it so much)
• Surgeon - Crash Recoil
• Rrose - Please Touch
• Alva Noto - HYbr:ID II
• Sofia Kourtesis - Madres
• JPEGMAFIA, Danny Brown - SCARING THE HOES
• isolee - resort island
• James Blake - Playing Robots into Heaven
• Matmos - Return to Archive
• KNOWER - KNOWER FOREVER

Honorable mention to Aphex and Slowdive - love those albums but they didn't really surprise me and just didn't define my listening as much as the above. And the Autechre live sets were huge for me but I wanted this to be an albums list and I don't consider them albums. Also shout out to Patricia Taxxon - TECHDOG 1-7, a staggering, enormous collection of tracks which is really impressive and sounds great but I haven't listened to it nearly enough yet to really rate it.

[beerwolf]

2 hours ago, Boxus said:

Honorable mention to Aphex and Slowdive 

Yep I enjoyed the Slowdive album but it could have done with a little more experimentation. Some of it was a bit....middle of the road?

Edited December 12, 2023 by beerwolf

[IDEM]

ABC -- The Look of Love

The Alan Parsons Project -- I, Robot

a-ha -- Hunting High and Low

The Blue Nile -- A Walk Across the Rooftops

Flowers -- Icehouse

The Human League -- Reproduction

Icehouse -- Primitive Man

Madonna -- True Blue

OMD -- Dazzle Ships

Peter Gabriel -- So

Real Life -- Heart Land

Spandau Ballet -- Parade

Visage -- Visage

Edited December 12, 2023 by IDEM

[toaoaoad]

On 12/1/2023 at 10:19 AM, scumtron said:

PJ Harvey - I Inside the Old Year Dying

Interesting to see PJH mentioned on watmm lol... I was a huge fan long ago but she lost me with White Chalk. Was this any good? Stretches between albums seem to get longer and longer, last time I checked in it seemed she was more interested in writing/reading poetry than doing music anymore.

Edited December 12, 2023 by toaoaoad

[WurstPLUS]

On 12/12/2023 at 4:28 AM, Boxus said:

• otay:onii - 夢之駭客 Dream Hacker (my favorite discovery of the year, this along with her previous albums, I love it so much

I'm currently listening to "Good Fool" and I'm thinking "!". I instantly like her singing.
After listening a bit more on YTM, bought her albums on Bandcamp. Couldn't already get past "Loading" from the first album because... beautiful
You may have saved my year

Edited December 13, 2023 by WurstPLUS

[kichiguy]

Damn 2023 has been a rewarding year for music. Some of my beaty favourites:

[bronchuseven]

That Sunken Foal record definitely makes the list for me, even if the album consisted solely of Esmeralda - what an incredible track! 

[Turbo Zwanengestuif]

On 12/12/2023 at 9:55 PM, toaoaoad said:

Interesting to see PJH mentioned on watmm lol... I was a huge fan long ago but she lost me with White Chalk. Was this any good? Stretches between albums seem to get longer and longer, last time I checked in it seemed she was more interested in writing/reading poetry than doing music anymore.

I did not like White Chalk at first. But somehow in time it clicked with me. Let England Shake is my favourite.

[Key]

The new PJ Harvey was ok, sort of quite folky and eerie - better than her last record anyway which was standard generic rock. Not up to the level of White Chalk/Let England Shake tho for me.

[WurstPLUS]

https://daily.bandcamp.com/best-of-2023/the-best-electronic-music-of-2023

[taphead]

Here are 50 that I think are really cool, in image format.

[scumtron]

On 12/12/2023 at 9:55 PM, toaoaoad said:

Interesting to see PJH mentioned on watmm lol... I was a huge fan long ago but she lost me with White Chalk. Was this any good? Stretches between albums seem to get longer and longer, last time I checked in it seemed she was more interested in writing/reading poetry than doing music anymore.

I love most of her stuff. As menyikoner by others, Let England Shake is very good. Hope six was kind of a letdown, but check out the track called «The Wheel». One of her best, IMO.

[scumtron]

As MENTIONED by others. Go to bed Norwegian spellcheck. You are drunk!

[playbynumbers]

well okay, time for my annual single post on WATMM lol.  hope everyone is doing well, not sure how many old folks like myself are still here haha.  

 

1. lucinda chua - yian
2. m83 - fantasy
3. olan mill - half sea over
4. alexandre bazin - innervision
5. george clanton - ooh rap i ya
6. nitewind - midi drift [edit: technically a vinyl pressing of a cassette album that came out a couple years ago . . . ]
7. black rain - obliteration bliss
8. travis scott - utopia
9. lana del rey - ocean blvd
10. aphex - blackbox life recorder
11. olivia rodrigo - guts
12. clark - sus dog
13. sigur ros - atta
14. boygenius - the record
15. tyler, the creator - estate sale
16. city of dawn - liminal space

Edited December 17, 2023 by playbynumbers

[Rubin Farr]

this one was a grower

[chenGOD]

11 of my favs from the year in no particular order:

Killer Mike - Michael

Aphex Twin - Blackbox Life Recorder 21f

Ryuichi Sakamoto - 12

Omni Gardens - Golden Pear

Luke Vibert - Machine Funk

Celer - Gems, 16

Rainforest Spiritual Enslavement - Gray Eucalyptus Tranquility

Demetrio Cecchitelli - Infinite Gesture

Midori Tanaka - MSCTY XV&A Dundee

The Black Dog - My Brutal Life/Music for Airport Lounges

Alva Noto - HYbr:ID II

 

Special mentions:

Aleksi's output was fucking immense and I listened to so much of it I have to put COLUNDI in a separate category that doesn't adhere to the usual bounds of time and space.

AtomTM's Wavetable releases were challenging and interesting and brought some lovely moments.

A Winged Victory for the Sullen put out a beautiful single early in the year (All Our Friends Are Vampires) that I hoped meant a new album was forthcoming but alas, not to be this year.

Edit: I was pretty switched off from hip-hop but others have mentioned the JPEGmafia/Danny Brown ish which was great, also really liked "Faith is a Rock" from MIKE, Wiki, & The Alchemist

 

[ARPA]

Stuff I enjoyed this year:

+ Also this stuff not released in 2023, but discovered and played a lot this year:

+ more 
 

[ARPA]

I forgot this one...

[iococoi]

[ARPA]

damn it... OK, that's it... I think.