Issue #33.2 ~ Dec 2023
A Story Or A Thousand
If you’re just joining us, this is the second half of a year-end review covering my favorite albums released in 2023. The first half is here. Prior to these instalments, in November, I did a special focusing on reissues and archival material released this year. You can check that out here.
What more to say? These albums changed the way I think about music, allowed me to live my life with a greater sense of connection, and encouraged comfort, curiosity and excitement. As a listener, it doesn’t get any better. I’m forever grateful for the artists who continue to create, express and challenge in times where it seems harder and harder to do so in ways both genuine and innovative. If you feel financially able, please consider supporting some of these fine working people with an album purchase. As someone who works a lot with musicians, trust me, it means a lot.
Many blessings to you, my fellow listeners, thanks for keeping yours ears open! See you next year.
click the cover to listen or go your own way ~~
ML Buch - Suntub
There’s nothing quite like an artist who can take an idea, a tone, a touchstone, and flip it inside out to extract entirely new dimensions. So it is on this glorious sophomore album from Danish composer ML Buch, who transforms chuddy 80s rock tonality (à la Dire Straits) into visceral, reflective art music. Suntub is transfixing and oddly comforting; it resonates in a rigorously hazy fashion.
billy woods & Kenny Segal - Maps
I’ve written about billy woods and Kenny Segal before. Their first album as a duo is quite likely the best, and most unlikely, rap-rock record ever produced. They return here with a multi-dimensional meditation on home and how we get there (if ever). Segal, who handles all the production, is such a sneaky, unpredictable sculpture, building beats that bristle with micro moods and macro narratives. woods, for his part, continues to be the best rapper of the moment, no qualifier: “People don’t want the truth, they want me to tell ‘em grandma went to heaven”.
DJ Danifox - Ansiedade
Príncipe Discos, the Lisbon label who released Ansiedade, is an unwavering force in the taught, forward-thinking dance music from the Portuguese capital known as batida. I had sorta forgotten about them sometime since being introduced to their world in 2017. This absolutely magnificent new LP from Danifox, brimming with lush and brooding details, is a great reminder that batida is a genre wherein restraint translates into urgency like no other.
Eddie Chacon - Sundown
Sundown’s central figure is, evidently, Eddie Chacon, who was one half of 90s one-hit soul-pop duo Charles & Eddie. The album’s secondary figure is composer/producer John Carroll Kirby, whose neo-soul midas touch has supported the likes of Frank Ocean, Solange, Miley Cyrus, Harry Styles, etc etc… The whole thing is a study in the wonders of understatement; r&b as a koan-like container of the gentle wisdom that comes with age.
Kalia Vandever - We Fell In Turn
I don’t wanna be the guy who can’t tell avant-trombonists apart, but this is what I’ve secretly hoped Peter Zummo’s solo music would sound like all along. There’s a suppleness here that’s immediately rewarding. Vandever manages to tap into a wide array of emotions, without the work feeling too directional or overplayed. Just veil upon veil of delicately balanced, diaphanous reflection.
Hana Stretton - Soon
A deeply affecting, homespun folk record that melds songform and spaciousness. The meaning in Stretton’s music appears like hidden indentations left by handwriting on a notepad, less as direct messages and more as subtle repositories carved by dint of intimacies faded. Soon is a quiet record, but I’d say go ahead and crank this bitch up to 11. Live in it.
Dane Law & Chants - Gurum Triads
On first listen, Gurum Triads hit me direct, yet felt rather sideways. It’s a guitar + drums album that starts off in a relatively straightforward-sounding way, then proceeds to unfurl into terrifically unlikely forms. The music has a beguiling quality to it, similar to the effect a reversible figure. Like, is it a vase floating in space or two people sitting face-to-face? Is this heady contemporary electronic music, or plain ol’ mid-aughts post-rock? Yes.
Brendan Eder Ensemble - Therapy
Maybe I’m afraid to go to “real therapy”, but this’ll do won’t it? Los Angeles composer Brendan Eder presents an absolutely gorgeous collection of lulling works for a woodwind-heavy ensemble. Just totally melts away all the trash of the world. Plus, it features not one but two improbably serene Aphex Twin covers. Brendan, if your reading this, can we talk about my teenage years?
CAN CON
Here are my fave albums from so-called Canada in 2023. There’s lots to explore here and I encourage you to take the time: jazz-inflected poptones , mutant house jamz, honeysweet country, spatial trumpet explorations, bracing death metal, art-damaged song, psychedelic downtempo, time-stretched hymnals and so! much! more!
Beverly Glenn Copeland - The Ones Ahead
Freak Heat Waves - Mondo Tempo
Helena Deland - Goodnight Summerland
Joseph Shabason - Welcome To Hell
Masahiro Takahashi - Humid Sun
Mira Martin-Gray - Hen’s Teeth
Thantifaxath - Hive Mind Narcosis
Tomb Mold - The Enduring Spirit
ADDENDUM
In the spirit of The Roots’ sophomore studio album, I ask: Do You Want More?!!!??!
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Amber Meulenijzer - Saab Fanfare
Anohni & The Johnsons - My Back Was A Bridge For You To Cross
Ascended Dead - Evenfall Of The Apocalypse
Black Taffy - Six Arrows For Nadyra
Brighde Chaimbeul - Carry Them With Us
Cassandra Miller, Laurence Crane, Linda Catlin Smith - Folks’ Music
Chanel Beads - Ef / Shining Armor
Fondation Petya Sasser Rike - CCCC*
Gonubie - Signals At Both Ears
Gravesend - Gowanus Death Stomp
Johanna Orellana - Las Camelias
Josiah Steinbrick - For Anyone That Knows
Kara Jackson - Why Does the Earth Give Us People To Love?
Kyoko Takenaka + Tomoki Sanders - Planet Q
Lisa Lerkenfeldt - Halos Of Perception
Liv.e - Girl In The Half Pearl
Nourished By Time - Erotic Probiotic 2
Outer Heaven - Infinite Psychic Depths
Paul St. Hillaire - Tikiman Vol. 1
Plume Girl - In The End We Begin
Rowan Coupland & Eirini Fountedaki / Ceri Rhys Matthews - Betwixt & Between 9
Steve Gunn & David Moore - Let The Moon Be A Planet
Steve Lehman w. Orchestre National De Jazz - Ex Machina
Yaya Bey - Crying Through My Teeth / The Evidence
ICYMI, I started a donations page for Regular Readers. All the money I receive will go back towards music (eg. purchasing physical/digital music, merch, concert tickets, supporting other music outlets, etc.). If you’re not able to support the newsletter financially (no presh!), you might also consider liking / sharing / following on Instagram.
ALSO, I started a ~*fun*~ tracking sheet that provides transparency on donations and spending. It also includes links to my Bandcamp + Discogs profiles. This is as much about accountability as it is an experiment in tracking my own financial investments in music over a calendar year.
I’m super interested in feedback / dialogue / suggestions. If you have ideas about the newsletter, want to share music with me, have specific questions / requests, don’t hesitate to get in touch. And please: share this newsletter with a pal if you feel so inspired!
Yrs.,
Andrew P.
andrewdanielpatterson [at] gmail [dot] com
Already spun “Rasa” from the first half of this post upwards of seven times. Can’t wait to dive into this one! Great work Andrew “F” Patterson.