Vieux Farka Touré, Brooklyn, New York 2023
This is the first time in the eleven years that I have been carrying on this project that I am writing anything about the music in the roundup. I’m a bit nervous and rusty, but I hope you find some value in it.
In lieu of a missive that attempts to sum up the ups and downs of the year 2023, I will just say that I find the world, and life, both sublime and tragic. I hope that you, dear reader, are safe and contented wherever you are.
We always have music.
As in years past, my list is broken into three sections, listed alphabetically: (1) my favorite releases of the year, (2) albums released in previous years that I happened upon in the past year, and (3), albums that I discovered by reading other peoples’ Best-Of lists and enjoyed but haven’t been able to sit with for long enough to determine whether they make it into the “favorites” bucket.
I hope you find something here, and, as always, I appreciate any recommendations you might have for me.
(1) My Favorite Releases of the Year 2023:
André 3000 - New Blue Sun (Epic)
Stream it here
I don’t care what the critics say—this 90-minute journey through André 3000’s journey of spiritual discovery, or whatever it may be, is an absolute pleasure to experience. Recalling sounds from the likes of Pharoah Sanders, Laraaji, and Terry Riley, the album features collaborations with some favorites of mine, Sam Gendel and Mary Lattimore. It’s encouraging to see people—even those with the ample resources to do so without much personal or financial risk—step out of their comfort zones and try something new.
Arooj Aftab, Vijay Iyer, Shahzad Ismaily - Love in Exile (Verve)
This album is a live recording of an improvised studio performance, and those moments of spontaneity are so tangible, clear, and serene. Over the past couple of years, I have been making an effort to familiarize myself with the classical music of my Indian heritage, and to hear the many echoes of what I have been studying appear in a contemporary mode is an experience that helps me to feel further rooted in my identity. Vijay Iyer tends towards jazz piano in his solo career, Berklee alum Arooj Aftab employs experimental Urdu ghazal to create transcendent sounds in the vein of Hindustani Classical, and Shahzad Ismaily, who I’m admittedly the least familiar with, is a collaborative artist well-known for working with experimental composers throughout the US. What follows from this collaboration between these three artists is a sublime journey through each of the artists’ diverse disciplines converging into a reflective meld of diasporic sound.
B. Cool-Aid / Pink Siifu / Ahwlee - Leather Blvd. (Lex Records)
Buy it here
I’ve always been a sucker for Guru’s (of Gang Starr) Jazzmatazz series. Leather Blvd. transported me to that funky place in which hip-hop plays with and reflects on its origins. With the resurgence we’re seeing of so many 90’s-era trends, I have yet to come across many projects that rekindle the flames of the boombap sound. Ahwlee’s J Dilla-recalling production relies heavily on the 1-2, infusing the tracks with homemade arrangements through his choice to not lean heavily on samples, instead favoring his own loops and stems. It’s a sound that brings to mind Coltrane’s jazz and D’Angelo’s R&B. Siifu, for his part, leans more D’Angelo crooning than Guru staccato. This is one sexy record.
Bar Italia - Tracey Denim (Matador)
Buy it here
Another fantastic album that harkens back to the ‘90s, evoking the bare guitar riffing of Sonic Youth, nodding to the ‘60s pop references of Broadcast, and calling to mind moments of My Bloody Valentine’s noise and Slowdive’s downtempo approach to shoegaze. The album is decidedly minimal, even raw. Tracey Denim’s vocals are shared between the band’s three members, Nina Cristante, Jezmi Tarik Fehmi, and Sam Fenton, each bringing a distinct cadence and style to the record’s 15 post-punk-inspired tracks.
Bill Orcutt - Jump On It (Palilalia)
Buy it here
I was torn between listing Orcutt’s two 2023 releases. His electronic record, The Anxiety of Symmetry, for which he developed his own software, is unlike anything I’ve heard from him before. It recalls Schoenberg and Philip Glass, and I absolutely recommend it. Jump On It made the list simply because I found myself listening to it more. For this record, the former Harry Pussy guitarist uses only acoustic guitar for his reverberant creations and creates a style that is, for me, distinctively American. In it, I hear folk stylings reminiscent of John Fahey and Jack Rose. It is a more primitive, calm, and harmonic work than other recent albums like Music for Four Guitars, which relied heavily on the dissonance created between the many different electric loops. Jump On It is a serene journey.
Blue Lake - Sun Arcs (Tonal Union Records)
Buy it here
Much like Daniel Bachman’s When the Roses Come Again or Orcutt’s Jump On It, Copenhagen-based musician Jason Dungan aka Blue Lake elicits a distinctly Americana ethos. Blue Lake’s Sun Arcs are aptly evoked through shimmering ripples of guitar and gentle, driving melodies.
Daniel Bachman - When the Roses Come Again (Three Lobed Recording)
Buy it here
Is Folk Ambient a genre? Because if it isn’t, Bachman created it. When the Roses Come Again is an incredible fusion of guitar, field recordings, a de-fretted banjo, and an Appalachian mouth bow, and while many of the pieces lean more atmospheric, they still manage to capture elements and moments of the most magestic Americana.
DJ Danifox - Ansiedade (Principe)
Buy it here
I’m a big fan of the Principe record label out of Lisbon. They continue to release genre-bending, structure-defying dance inspired by the global sounds of Lisbon batida, Angolan kuduro, Brazilian baile funk, Cabo Verde funaná, East Indies soca, and more. On Ansiedade, DJ Danifox leans batida, weaving an understated club & downtempo record that layers syncopated tin-drum and panpipes over textured, dank basement club rhythms.
Fever Ray - Radical Romantics (Rabid Records)
Buy it here
I was a freshman in college when I heard The Knife’s “Heartbeats” for the first time, and to say that it defined an era of my life would be an understatement. Radical Romantics is the third album by Fever Ray, the solo project of The Knife’s Swedish frontperson, Karin Dreijer. While I have enjoyed their previous releases, nothing has come as close to the The Knife-era nostalgia I’ve ached for for all these years. Produced with help from Principe’s Nidia, Radical Romantics recalls the textured and stabbing synths from 2003’s Deep Cuts but brings it into a new era. Maintaining thematic focuses of love and heartbreak, this cavernous record manages to dig deep into the expanse of human experience while remaining upbeat and eminently danceable.
Fridge - Happiness (Text Records)
Buy it here
Technically, this album first came out in 2001. It was re-released this year, however, to mark its 22nd anniversary, and I discovered it this year. Fridge is a pseudo-post-rock/kraut/jazz trio helmed by Kieran Hebden, who would later go on to be better known as Four Tet (lately experiencing somewhat of a renaissance himself.) On Happiness, Fridge created a record that is sprawling, minimal, and exploratory. Its track names leave little to the imagination when it comes to their instrumentation: “Drum Machines & Glockenspiel” is a 13-minute foray into the gradual buildup of layers upon layers of both these instruments. “Harmonics” conjures early Aphex Twin and uses a guitar and accompanying harmonics to create a playful yet somber atmosphere. In “Cut Up Piano & Xylophone,” a colorful landscape is created with digitally chopped piano and xylophone samples. This meditative album offers a lot of insight into what would later become staples of Four Tet’s sonic style.
Gunn/Truscinski/Nace - Glass Band (Three Lobed Recordings)
Buy it here
How could a record with two of the best guitarists out there not make this list? I’ve loved everything that Gunn/Truscinski Duo have put out—their last record Soundkeeper made my best-of list in 2020—and on Glass Band, the duo of Gunn on guitar and Truscinski on drums has expanded to include guitarist Bill Nace, the experimental guitarist perhaps best known for his work with Sonic Youth’s Kim Gordon as Body/Head. The result is a meeting of musical minds recorded in one session, a meandering, guitar-driven record of ambient psychedelia.
Marina Herlop - Nekkuja (Pan)
Buy it here
Barcelona-based musician Marina Herlop released the incredible album Pripyat in 2022, and for whatever reason that didn’t make it on last year’s list. Really, the two are both otherworldy, and I am going with Nekkuja here simply because it was released in 2023. What can I say—I’m the one that makes these arbitrary rules for myself, so I guess I have to follow them! Herlop infuses spindly, harp-driven melodies with the sharp stabs of sound that I have come to associate with so many Pan releases. At times reminiscent of Björk, Marina Herlop layers vocals upon vocals, creating both rhythm and melody. What follows is a dreamlike trip with sharp ups and downs.
Mick Jenkins - The Patience
Stream it here
Mick Jenkins is one of the best rappers out there right now. His album Elephant in the Room was on my 2021 list. Although The Patience was released without much fanfare, the record spans Jenkins’s signature, mellow bars style and extends into the harder, angrier flows that are bolstered by a host of guest rappers. The stacatto flow of Freddie Gibbs is featured on the heavy-hitting “Show & Tell,” and the soft, disarming soft attack and long sustain of “Roy G Biv” is emblematic of the record’s dynamism.
Purelink - Signs (Peak Oil)
Buy it here
First of all, listen to this with decent headphones, or ideally a good sound system. If you are someone privileged enough to be able to, sit in your Audi or whatever, lock the doors, and blast it with your car’s Bang & Olufsens. This is an experience. RA called Purelink an “ambient boyband,” presumably because there are three young gentlemen, Tommy Paslaski (aka Concave Reflection), Ben Paulson (aka Kindtree), and Akeem Asani (aka Millia), behind this absolutely delightful and divine project. A friend of mind recommended it for a psychedelic experience recently, and I took him up on the suggestion. This dubby, ambient journey is often formless—pad and texture heavy—but it finds moments of drummed pulse, and I guarantee it will leave you floored.
Tara Clerkin Trio - On The Turning Ground EP (World of Echo)
Buy it here
This may have been my favorite release of the year. This five track EP was only released in November, but I have probably listened to it at least 20 times. The trio creates this heady, bubbly rhythm that underlies each song, and then layers on a dublike bass to anchor the piece. On “Brigstow,” one of the album’s instrumental tracks, a dissonant violin moves the music forward over a syncopated, reverberated drumbeat. “Marble Walls” features Clerkin’s ethereal voice above a minimal guitar loop that soon transforms into an almagam of orchestra-backing and an ‘80s fat and funky slapped bass line. Other songs like “The Turning Ground” feature breakbeats with a plucked acoustic guitar that give way to a dubstep wobble and bitcrushed inflections. There is just so much going on, and it all comes together in a simple and clean way. The Bristol trio’s incredible EP somehow manages to draw on a range of artists like Portishead, Broadcast, Stereolab, (maybe even early PJ Harvey???), without sounding derivative. Incredible.
Tha God Fahim w/ NicoJP - Chess Moves
Stream it here
For some reason, this release dropped with little notice and a lot of complaints. I don’t get the criticism, frankly. NicoJP is a clear grandchild of RZA and The Alchemist; his boombap beats are folded into new forms with smooth piano samples and elegiac saxophone wails. Fahim, for his part, does not shy away from overt Wu-Tang references. The album name aside, he invokes the shogun and the war spear. A diligent and dedicated Wu-Tang disciple, Fahim owes much of the inspiration of his style to Raekwon.
(2) Albums Released in Previous Years That I Happened Upon in the Past Year:
Boris / sunn O))) - Altar (Southern Lord 2006)
Buy it here
I don’t know how I didn’t manage to come upon this earlier: Boris and sunn O))) have been mainstays in my rotation for almost 20 years. Nonetheless, I was very pleased to come across this split/collab. Like any sunn O))) record, expect long, consuming and excruciating dark drones. What makes this record stand out is that it is teeming with Boris’ own dark drones and thrashing guitars, but is also punctuated by unexpected—and rather uncharacteristic—moments of melodic order. In “The Sinking Belle (Blue Sheep),” we even hear a piano backing up a soft and ever-building melancholic anthem. Somehow, despite each band’s penchant for discomfort, Altar is a dark, yet calming record.
Cole Pulice - Scry (Moon Glyph 2022)
Buy it here
To scry is to foretell. In or around the year of 2010, I proclaimed that the saxophone would be a resurgent instrument in the years to come. I was kind of right, only 13 years later it is not necessarily the saxophone that is causing the musical tremors, but the breath-operated MIDI controller. (An exception to this would be Sam Gendel, of course—see my best-of 2022 blueblue). Like André 3000, Pulice is using “digital woodwinds” to create vast soundscapes, though Pulice’s may be a bit more pointed than the Outkast member’s. Pulice’s song “City in a City” is a touching and bright piano and “sax” piece that showcases the record’s lighthearted approach. Like the album’s artwork, a wind carries a song towards a colorful, and comfortable, destination.
Fishmans - 98.12.28 Otokotachino Wakare (Live) (Universal)
You can’t buy this rare shit
Ok, so apparently this album is so difficult to procure that one can’t even find a decent Google image of the album art for a review on a rarely frequented music blog. I discovered this album on a drive back from CubeSmart Storage™, listening to WFMU. This lovely disc jockey was playing this album in its entirety, and I was struggling to figure out who the hell the band was because this lovely fellow didn’t think to mention the band’s name after his show’s intro, which I had evidently missed. So, here I am, fresh off a joyous trip to Maspeth, Queens, swerving around the BQE while trying to Shazam some obscure live recording of a ‘80s/’90s Japanese outfit, which, it turns out, is named Fishmans. Also, as it turns out, this outfit has an online cult following unlike anything I’ve seen, and with reason.
This little review warrants a paragraph break. This Fishmans discovery was one of the greatest I’ve made in recent years. This band, which has a storied history, only ever recorded one studio album. A couple of live albums exist, but by all accounts—including my own, it must be said—Otokotachino Wakare is Fishmans’ acme. The band’s lead singer, Shinji Sato, died at the age of 33, just three months after the performance.
What does it sound like? Everything. It is a dub band; it is a post-punk band; at times, it is the Japanese Talking Heads. In “In the Flight,” Sato’s alto transcends the unaffected guitar, bouncing bass, and aching violin to deliver a fragile yet substantial ballad. In “Oh Slime” we hear everything from Fugazi to David Bowie to Broken Social Scene. I can’t recommend this enough.
(3) Albums That I Discovered By Reading Other Peoples’ Best-Of Lists and Haven’t Been Able to Sit With for Long Enough to Determine Whether They Make it Into the “Favorites” Bucket
a.s.o. - a.s.o. (Low Lying Records)
Buy it here
The ‘90s trend, which I quite appreciate, continues. One of the most important bands in my life has been Portishead, and a.s.o. would not exist were it not for their influence. But Berlin-based trip-hop Australians Lewie Day and Alia Seror-O'Neill don’t stop there. This album is a pastiche that draws from the likes of Massive Attack, Air, Tricky, and plenty of others in the pioneering days of trip-hop, and it’s a fantastic homage to the craft. This album is meant for the afters; for smoke-filled rooms where no one is quite yet ready to go home.
Drazek/Fuscaldo/Drake/Aoki/Jones/Abrams - June 22 (Feeding Tube Records)
Buy it here
I haven’t had any formal jazz training, but I am a long-time acolyte. This improvisational Chicago recording from the duo of Drazek & Fuscaldo, who are joined by Thymme Jones, Hamid Drake, Tatsu Aoki, and Joshua Abrams, floored me when I first heard it. On “Blossoming,” Fuscaldo’s rounded and resonant basso vocals—which are disarming on their own—echo over Aoki’s plucked shamisen, which is reinforced by Drazek’s vibrato guitar picking. The recording lies somewhere between jazz and krautrock, and at times reminded me of The Velvet Underground’s “Venus in Furs.”
The Necks - Travel (Northern Spy Records)
Buy it here
From time to time (and evermore-so, increasingly) I come across a certain type of record that I enjoy, and because I find myself surprised to be enjoying it, I think to myself, “wow, I am getting old.” Travel does that for me. It is, quite literally, white boy jazz. The Necks are a trio of experimental gents from down under who formed the unit in 1987, and Travel is their 19th studio record. Drawing inspiration from the likes of Can, Lamonte Young, and Philip Glass—three foundational musicians in my own journey through music, and perhaps why I have been enjoying this album so much—the trio stirs together minimal, sprawling jazz concoctions that defy typical genre definitions: not entirely minimal in the sense of Lamonte Young; lacking the sometimes ambient leanings of Philip Glass; not quite reaching levels of pure krautrock à la Can. Whatever it is, it’s a joy to experience.
Honorable Mention
Drake - For All The Dogs (Scary Hours Edition)
Don’t give this man any more money
I was apprehensive about putting this on the list. This may be a controversial opinion, or one that is akin to the edgelords who proclaim they “hate the beatles” (🙋🏽♂️), but Drake is severely, incredibly overrated. Most often he is outright bad. However, the last record, For All The Dogs (this album title abhorrent), has been amended with an edition entitled “Scary Hours Edition,” and it’s great. That is *purely* because the certified beat LORD Alan the Chemist aka The Alchemist provided the production for all six tracks on the amendment edition. The Alchemist has been on an incredible run lately. This year, some of his silky-smooth but chopped-up throwback style collaborations included solo-produced records with Earl Sweatshirt (stellar album, though, unlike some previous releases in recent years, not quite best-of material), Roc Marciano, Larry June, Domo Genesis, and a whole host of other projects with established and up-and-coming rappers. Though it’s still distinctively his, his style has shifted over the years, becoming something more fluid and less measured. He works with a lot of the Griselda crew who I think embody this new wave. It’s safe to say that Alan the Chemist is back in the building, and he gonna make it. Also throwing this video in for good measure.
Best wishes for peace and love in the year 2024.