Hello world! Hello universe! Another spin, another list! Better late than never, right? So let’s get down to it, shall we? Welcome to INAUDIBLE’s 14th almost annual BEST OF LIST!
TOP 14 ALBUMS OF 2023 (in stunning random order)
(click on album cover to sample a track)
Tim Hecker – No Highs (Kranky Records)
Montreal ambient drone king, Tim Hecker, released his eleventh full-length album No Highs this year on the stalwart Kranky label, and it’s an unsettling yet soothing listen. It’s a contrasting juxtaposition of sounds and swirls that immediately drew me in and had me playing it every morning for a month while writing.
I remember telling my friend Mike that it kept a low-level anxiety churning in my gut at all times while listening, but it also made me feel calm and allowed me to be super productive. Songs slowly build in mood and depth and there’s barely any release as similar motifs play throughout the duration of the album, but once you allow yourself to get lost in the greyscale ambience, it’s easy to want to stay put.
So good.
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Laurel Halo – Atlas (Awe)
L.A. based artist, Laurel Halo, has released music on Hyperdub and Honest Jon’s, and has resisted classification over the course of five albums, yet over her last two she’s embraced a more ambient modern classical sound, and Atlas showcases her strongest music to date.
The album begins conventionally enough, with a subdued surge of strings that might not sound out of place on a Stars of the Lid record, but as the album expands, it becomes stranger — competing string passages swell and bleed into one another, deep in the murk piano chords clang like far off church bells. It feels like you’re standing outside the venue only hearing the muffle, or in a grand hall wandering about trying to find the room where the music is coming from.
In this sense, it reminds me a lot of The Caretaker’s amazing album, An empty bliss beyond this World from 2011, and I can’t think of a more glowing comparison. Atlas is definitely an album I can put on and decide to pay attention to or not. It can comfortably fade into the background or open up into so much more for the careful listener, however, there are moments such as the crescendo in “Belleville” that demands your attention or makes you pause from whatever it is you’re doing to acknowledge its beauty.
Check it.
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Gonubie – Signals At Both Ears (Métron Records)
Born and based in Cape Town, South Africa, Gonubie is an interdisciplinary artist with a background in fine art and architecture. Known in the Cape Town dance scene as DJ raresoftware, her Gonubie project finds her taking a break from the beats and the dance floor, finding her inspiration in nature (namely the Gonubie River), and crafting a beautiful ambient record.
Like Atlas, I can also tune in or tune out to Signals At Both Ears, but the music ebbs and flows like the soft moving current of a river or stream. Working with short synth loops, melodic chimes, and samples, Gonubie’s music offers calm in a world seemingly in gross disarray. Give it a whirl.
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Sofia Kourtesis – Madres (Ninja Tune)
Berlin-based, Peruvian producer Sofia Kourtesis showed listeners what she was capable of over the course of several EPs on the Studio Barnhus imprint, but with her debut full-length Madres on Ninja Tune it all comes into high relief.
This album has received a lot of hype and praise and I’m happy to say it’s all worth it. I hate terms like “instant classic” so I won’t use it, but Kourtesis hits the ground dancing and she doesn’t let up the whole way through. There is joy in these songs, ready for you to embrace as you close your eyes, tilt your chin skyward, and shake your big fat asssss goddammit. Shake it hard, my friends. Shake it good. No matter where you may be.
There’s lots of talk about embracing spirituality and her mother’s illness online for you to read about which adds depth to the album’s narrative, but from a strictly “house music” standpoint, this album feels timeless to me — I hear Villalobos, Akufen, Luciano, 2000’s Kompakt, Sutekh, Apparat, and early Axel Boman, just to name a juicy handful.
Kourtesis is already on the bill for Mutek Barcelona, so my fingers are triple-crossed that she also makes it to Montreal this year, because to be able to lose myself to “El Carmen” and “Habla Con Ella” on a sweaty dancefloor would be absolutely delightful.
Make it happen Mutek, s’il vous plait, ok merci!
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JPEGMAFIA and Danny Brown – Scaring the Hoes (AWAL)
A Peggy and D.B. collaboration at long last! Revitalizing Danny Brown’s drugboi status and making him sound as stoned and fresh as ever.
JPEG brings a DIY-lofi-asf production style to the project that only makes it sound even cooler in my opinion. There’s a punk rock aesthetic that permeates throughout the whole album. I dare you to listen to those dirty guitars in “Garbage Pale Kids” without hard-bopping your head.
Many have complained that Danny’s voice is too quiet and mumbly in the mix but I don’t mind, you just have to work a bit harder to decipher what the fuck he’s saying (pro-tip: it’s prolly about drugs or pu$$y).
Danny’s debut XXX is still one of my favourite hip hop albums of the last 15 years, and although Scaring The Hoes now feels like an amazing outlier among his recent releases, as his Q-Tip produced album from before and his just released Quaranta don’t feel as urgent to me, Danny Brown is still one of the most unique voices in the game.
I’ve always been impressed with Peggy’s music, but also always found it hard to digest an entire album, but thankfully this one just works. Lots to enjoy and jam out to here, from more soul-based beats to spastic crunk shizzz. Check it.
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Gigi Masin – Wind (The Bear on the Moon)
This album originally came out in 1986, so it’s definitely not a 2023 album, but it’s one that has been on steady rotation since I discovered it this summer. I’ll have to thank the algorithm for this one, because I had never heard of Gigi Masin until I clicked on “Similar Artists” while listening to an album called Light Patterns by David Horridge and Kevin McCormick (more on these guys later).
And as soon as that slow pulse synth beat begins in “Call Me”, I was enraptured. The same synth line is used in the next song “Tears of a Clown” as well, just kicked up a few bpm’s, and it’s even more enveloping.
There’s a meditative quality to this record, while some songs evoke Eno and Budd and New Age, others mix in tenor sax adding an experimental jazz touch. There’s also some definite influence on Aphex’s and BoC synths. After some research, I realized Masin is also in Gaussian Curve, which have two lauded releases out on Music From Memory. He has an enormous discography, so I’ve got loads more to discover, but his debut Wind from 1986 is an absolute quiet stunner and comes highly recommended.
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Actress – LXXXVIII (Ninja Tune)
Darren Cunningham returns as Actress, with the beguiling LXXXVIII on Ninja Tune. Cunningham’s M.O. hasn’t changed much since Splazsh came out over a decade ago, nor does it need to — he’s still deftly using spliffed out eclectic melodies and piano tinkle melded avec uber hazy beats that skirt with the dance floor as well as your favourite spot on the couch.
Covid made a lame comeback into my entire family’s life this Christmas holiday, and while I was isolating (until we realized it was too late and I’d already spread my holiday cheer to everyone), I pretty much listened to LXXXVIII exclusively — while reading, while finishing up some very late grading, while staring out the window or napping, it was my soundtrack.
The percussion, bass, and subtle melodies are all on point, and I love how the album jumps from beat-based tracks to wide-open ambience. With song titles like “Memory Haze”, “Chill”, “Hit that Spdiff”, and “Green Blue Amnesia Magic Haze”, I think you get a solid sense of where Cunningham is trying to take his listeners. He’s playing here in Montreal at Le Ritz in February and I am ready to experience the haze. Yes!
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Yves Tumor – Praise A Lord Who Chews but Which Does Not Consume; (Or Simply, Hot Between Worlds) (Warp Records)
Over the course of their last four albums, Yves Tumor has evolved from amorphous noise experiment to full on glam rock star. Although a part of me still yearns for Safe in the Hands of Love era Yves, this is their most accomplished and fun work to date.
Mining the sound of 90’s rock radio, Prince, and MBV, Praise A Lord is ambitious in scope, but what clinches the deal is that it sounds so fantastic. The guitars sound like James Iha is playing side by side with Kevin Shields thanks to the tight as balls production by Noah Goldstein (he’s worked with everyone from Frank Ocean to Bon Iver to Rosàlia). Praise A Lord is probably my most jogged to album of the year.
This is the third time Yves Tumor has made my end of year list and seeing their live show this year was fantastic. I am interested to see which direction they will push the Yves Tumor sound next…
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Well, you won’t be able to find this album on your preferred streaming service anymore, thanks to an ugly fallout with FXHE label head Omar-S. You can read about his shitty behaviour here, but suffice to say Omar went from Detroit success story to techno tastemaker to cancelled turd. Bleh.
But no worries, King Milo, Milf Melly, and 47Chops, the three rapper-producers that make up HiTech won’t have any trouble finding a new distributor for their gritty, hilarious, ghettotech party record, Détwat.
Détwat is the trio’s second full-length, and it deftly uses frenetic 808s and a grab bag of crate-deep samples to kick off the raunchiest club night since the heyday of Detroit techno. It reveals the steady evolution of the Detroit sound and showcases some of the freshest artists currently reppin’ the D.
You just have to hear it to believe it, but probably my favourite line from any song this year comes from the aptly-named “POCKETPUSSY”, in which the chorus rings: “I think I might . . . I think I might buy a Fleshlight!”
The lyrics are ratchet, grimy, and funny as f. The beats are spastic, catchy, and designed for booty shaking. This was my second most jogged to album of the year. Only up and upwards for these next-gen Detroit ghettotech heroes . . .
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Kokoroko – Could We Be More (Brownswood Recordings)
London based, eight-piece jazz crew, Kokoroko, released their debut full-length in 2022 on Gilles Peterson’s Brownswood label, and I was a little bit late to the party. Glad I made it though, because this band takes me back to my formative undergrad jazz boogie heydays.
The album features Afrobeat, soul, funk, smooth jazz, and highlife all melded into one singular steady ass groove. As a bass player, man, does Kokoroko’s bass player, Duane Atherley know how to hit deep in that smooooth pocket. Not to mention: the horns are so infectious, the guitar and synths absolutely on point, the percussion masterful.
As you may have noticed, my musical tastes are varied, yet what I feel like I stopped listening to the most over the last twenty years is music that made me joyful, or simply made me feel real darn good inside. I was a massive fan of Jamiroquai in their prime, no shame. Why? Because their music made me happy, it had a fat ass groove, Jay Kay’s voice was Stevie and Michael at once, and man, could you ever dance to it.
As a moody indie rock teen, I was a wallflower and shoegazer, too cool to be seen letting my guard down and vulnerably shaking my fat ass. Jamiroquai and acid jazz and hip hop helped bridge the gap to techno and house and all things dance floor. Now, fuck it y’all, the world is my dance floor, and good lord, this old buck’s got some real nice swanging hips! Shiiiit! Watch out! And goddamn, if Kokoroko doesn’t hit that groovy wheelhouse sooo nice.
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Sault – Untitled (Rise) (Forever Living Originals)
Seems only fitting after Kokoroko to talk about this baby banger, Sault’s 2020 release Untitled (Rise). Sault came out of nowhere in 2019 and put out so many albums in such a short period that I felt overwhelmed. Many friends rec’d one album or another, but I didn’t quite know where to start, so I didn’t bother . . . until 2023.
It was actually the new Little Simz album NO THANK YOU that made me want to check them out, since it’s produced by Inflo, defacto head of Sault. So I sort of randomly chose this album to start. It was evening in the kitchen and opening song “Strong” started and within 30 seconds, my kids Sylvia and Simon, were up and dancing around, and then so was I and Kat.
“Strong” is a truly amazing song. Propulsive bass, Quincy Jones guitars, uplifting vocals, and that marching drum breakdown and kick back into the chorus — oh myyyyy — the kids go bonkers! And ding ding ding, there it is! That joy I’m talking about. Pure simple joy for its own sake. Dancing in the kitchen with my kids while the water for pasta boils over on the stove.
Them simple pleasures are becoming the most meaningful.
And shit, that’s just the first six minutes of the album. The rest is equally just as molten hot. So many grooves and emotions packed tight. This is music for the resistance. Music that says fuck you to racism and fuck you to close-mindedness. Music to move your mind, body, and heart. This is a nod to all the great Black musicians that came before and will come after.
And shit, it’s just one of the 10 albums Sault has released in the last five years. Good heavens, this music is fire.
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billy woods and Kenny Segal – Maps (Backwoodz Studioz)
billy woods second album collab with LA beatmaker, Kenny Segal, is a high watermark release for him, and my favourite hip hop album of the year. This is old-head shizz for sure, and it’s not an easy listen, but it sounds positively melodic compared to woods’ heavy Armand Hammer release this year with ELUCID.
Kenny Segal’s beats venture from boom-bap to piano looped jazz to dark apocalyptic. The production on “Year Zero” and “Hangman” is so grim it borders on post-fall dystopic (I just coined a new term lol). It makes the beats on El-P’s Fantastic Damage sound like K-pop.
woods’ songs rarely dole out a hook, and his rhymes are often metaphorical and super cerebral. There’s a creeping sense of paranoia throughout. He remains suspicious of many things: of gentrification, technology, our post-pandemic world, of sell-out rappers, and the true intentions of his friends, but he’s a storyteller who creates laser sharp images that ring as clear as any great poet.
On opening track, “Kenwood Speakers” woods is at a dinner party at a neighbour’s newly renovated apartment, drinking “natural wine”, eating a fancy meal with “capers” and “sprigs of thyme”. He keeps turning the music up little by little during the dinner, and whispering “mischievous lies” in the host’s ear all night. And then the song ends with the host’s fate: “I hear they found him in the morning / Hose run from the exhaust pipe.” Fuck yeah. What an opener.
On album closer, “As The Crow Flies”, the song’s last verse ends with woods wondering about mortality, as he pushes his son on the swing at the park, and fast forwards through his thoughts on the trials and worries of fatherhood, and then he anti-climactically mic drops the closing line: “I watch him grow, wondering how long I got to live” as a light and airy jazz piano tinkles softly in the background and the and the album slowly fades out to nothing . . .
Pure class. Listen to all the songs in between those two tracks and see for yourself how damn good Maps really is. Fire guests on here too: Aesop Rock, ELUCID, Quelle Chris, ShrapKnel, and Danny Brown.
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Kevin McCormick – Sticklebacks (Smiling C Records)
Kevin McCormick put out an album with fellow Manchester musician, David Horridge, called Light Patterns in 1982. It was a quiet success at the time, but slowly disappeared into obscurity. Thanks to Smiling C Records, the album received a much needed repress in 2022 and brought these two musicians back into the light.
2023 sees Smiling C putting out never-released solo material from both McCormick and Horridge, and I enjoy both of their solo albums even more. Sticklebacks consists of a series of bedroom demos McCormick wrote in between 1984-1987, and sheds the acoustic sound of Light Patterns, instead adopting a swelling electric palette to explore different moods. These songs are a shift towards a more sparse and ambient style, and their hazy, repetitive movements create plenty of space for some subtly evocative melodies.
McCormick’s songs are gentle and evoke a feeling of peace, there’s a pastoral countryside motif that runs through his song titles – coves, lakes, mountain tops, church bells, evening drives, and feeling lonely in a crowded room are all inspirations here, as McCormick leans hard on the delay and various sub-octave pedals to make it sound like you’re listening to more than just one guy and his guitar.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve listened to Sticklebacks and David Horridge’s A Journey Within, Wind by Gigi Masin and Surround by Hiroshi Yoshimura as a makeshift playlist while working, reading, and writing this year. The music by these artists basically create my ideal sonic mood — full ambience, a little electronic, a little guitar, deep bass, some synth and soft drone — it all hits my brain cloud jusssssst right.
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David Horridge – Journey Within (Smiling C Records)
Like McCormick’s Sticklebacks, Journey Within, is David Horridge’s unreleased bedroom studio recordings from 1982. The album is barely a half an hour, but it packs quite an emotional punch as every second of the EP is a gem.
Horridge’s playing comes in the form of well-timed melodies and carefully placed bass lines. Nothing is forced or rushed, and each movement really sits with whatever mood he’s trying to build. The album’s greatest strength is in creating a peaceful, hypnotic vibe that allows for a completely relaxed listen. He really knows how to lay down some great bass in the mix, especially in penultimate track “Dark River”, which may be my favourite song of the year. I just love the way it makes me feel like I’m floating a few inches above myself, and each time the little bass lick comes in it pulls me back down to earth.
There’s a bunch of labels out there like Smiling C, Music From Memory, Light in the Attic, and RVNG Intl, that are exposing modern listeners to a treasure trove of forgotten classics, and for me in 2023, 1982-1987 seems to be my aural sweet spot.
So much absolutely wonderful music coming at me this year from several timelines at once. 2023 had me looking back but also ever ahead, stubbornly optimistic that 2024 — the Year of the Dragon — is going to be consistently exciting and incredibly memorable.
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VERY HONORABLE AUDIBLES
Aesop Rock – Integrated Test Solutions (Rhymesayers)
Tinashe – BB/ANG3L (Nice Life)
Andy Shauf – Norm (Anti- Records)
Aphex Twin – Blackbox Life Recorder 21f (Warp)
Beach Fossils – Bunny (Bayonet Records)
Kelela – Raven (Warp)
Armand Hammer – We Buy Diabetic Test Strips (Fat Possum)
Natural Wonder Beauty Concept (Mexican Summer)
Little Simz – No Thank You (Forever Living Originals)
Lusine – Long Light (Ghostly International)
Julie Byrne – The Greater Wings (Ghostly International)
Mondo Tempo – Freak Heat Waves (Mood Hut)
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All right then! We made it to the end! Yesssss! Miss you and love you all. Happy 2024. Be good. Be honest. Be vulnerable. Keep your ears wide open.
xoxo,
ml
INAUDIBLE 