It’s that time again, kids, time for the obligatory year-end lists!
Top 5 New Releases In 2023
1. Tears In Berghain EP – Bjarki (Iceland)
2. DanceOrama – Gusgus (Iceland)
3. The Seashell And The Clergyman – Jóhannes Palmson & Hálfdán Árnason (Iceland)
4. God Games – The Kills (US)
5. Both Men And Wild Beasts Listened To The Harper In The Glade / Live In Poland – Nest (Finland)
The very first time I heard Tears In Berghain I knew it was going to make it onto the Top 5 list, and I had a sneaking suspicion it would take down the top spot. That being said I figured Gusgus and The Kills would give it a run for its money, and indeed both DanceOrama and God Games earned their spots on the list. But at the end of the day Bjarki crafted a near-perfect EP, and while it’s shorter than the other releases on the list, I can (and do) listen to it over and over and over again, and that’s really the most important criteria.
The soundtrack to the 1928 silent film The Seashell And The Clergyman was simply brilliant, and I strongly encourage you to listen to it while watching the film. The list is rounded out by a super limited (edition of 40) live cassette by the Finnish performer Nest, something I bought in support of the label and came to love the first time I hit “play”. I even ended up connecting online with the artist and have another of his cassettes on its way here from Finland.
Top 5 “New To Me” Bands/Performers
1. Fyield (Iceland, Czech Republic)
2. Yard Act (UK)
3. Monikaze (Lithuania)
4. Nest (Finland)
5. Psychic Hood (US)
The first three bands on this list were performers I “discovered” for the first time at one of their live performances. I cover the Fyield show in a bit more detail in the Top 5 Live Shows below. Yard Act (right) owned the stage at the Reykjavik Art Museum, which is not always easy to do in that space. We had no experience with them prior to the show, and came away impressed. The same is true for Monikaze. Nest and Psychic Hood came my way via the dungeon synth cassette scene and both surprised me with their unique takes on the genre, Nest through his use of the kantele and Psychic Hood by merging the genre’s traditional feel with the sounds of a far-distant dystopian future. There are a lot of tremendously talented artists out there toiling away in near-obscurity, and there’s a special feeling that comes with finding and falling for someone out there finding ways to get their music into the world.
Top 5 Purchases/Acquisitions
1. Motörhead – No Remorse with leather jacket
2. The Chronicle Of The Order Of The Weeping Willow 12XCD
3. Space Odyssey live cassettes
4. Throbbing Gristle records
5. Listen 2 Daze 39XCD box set
I coveted the leather jacket version of Motörhead’s No Remorse since the first time I laid eyes on it in the late 1980s in the collection of my best friend’s older brother. I had a few chances to buy it over the years but never pulled the trigger – it always seemed a bit too extravagant of a purchase, and there was always something else to spend my money on. At least not until I found a near-perfect UK pressing at Sister Ray Records in London. I just had to take it home with me.
For the life of me I can’t remember where I first read about The Chronicle Of The Order Of The Weeping Willow, otherwise I’d post the link (OK, after writing the initial draft of this post I found it!). Long story short, the label Order of the Weeping Willow put out super limited dungeon synth cassettes, but the only way to buy them was basically to solve the puzzle as to how to track down the label, then answer a riddle to get on the physical mailing list. Very much a “if you know, you know” kind of situation. Well, they partnered with Malfortune Discs to put out a 12 CD collection of all the label’s prior releases. I managed to track down the listing online and as soon as I read about it grabbed a copy. I have no idea how many copies were made, and as near as I can tell it’s sold out.
While in Reykjavik I spent some time with my friend Pan, who puts out cassette releases of live ambient performances done within his shop Space Odyssey. I brought back about a dozen of these and each one gives you something new. The entire series is up to about 60 tapes at this point. Also while in Reykjavik I came across a small collection of Throbbing Gristle records, most of which I grabbed.
As for Listen 2 Daze? Well… it’s a 48-hour-long concept album by a guy from my town, put out as a 39 CD box set. I have to confess I have yet to start working my way through this – it’s a bit daunting. But if and when I finally do, you can expect at least some kind of post about it.
Top 5 Live Shows
1. Fyield – Conor Byrne Pub, Seattle
2. ex.girls – Iceland Airwaves Center, Reykjavik
3. Revenge of Calculon – Lucky Records, Reykjavik
4. Yard Act – Reykjavik Art Museum
5. Monikaze – Gaukurinn, Reykjaivk
After Iceland Airwaves I was sure that ex.girls was going to be my top live show of the year. But then we made the last-minute decision to see our friend Pan Thorarensen perform at a small club in Seattle during a month-long tour he was doing as part of Fyield (above, at Conor Byrne Pub), and that show blew us away. Fyield as a project is a combination of documentary film exploring climate change by using ambient sound collection and live avant garde musical performance. It was so earnest and honest, and the guys were absolute class. Such a tremendous evening.
We were looking forward to both ex.girls and Revenge of Calculon going into Airwaves, and both groups delivered. Yard Act was new to us, though they clearly have been making a name for themselves this year, and they brought a ton of energy and fun to what can at times be a hard room to play. Monikaze was our big surprise of the festival, blasting us with beats and energy and passion, keeping the bodies in a packed Gaukurinn moving and head-bobbing. We also met a super nice guy from Alaska at that show, whose name escapes me and to who I was a bit standoffish. So guy, if you’re out there reading this, my apologies – it was good chatting with you and feel free to drop me an email so we can connect if you go back to Airwaves in 2024.
Top 5 Artists On Spotify
1. Gusgus
2. Van Halen
3. Mötley Crüe
4. BLOND:ISH
5. Creedence Clearwater Revival
OK, so I get how Gusgus was #1 on my Spotify Wrapped. After all, they’re one of my favorite groups, and they put out a new album in 2023. According to the app, I spent 1,769 minutes listening to them on Spotify, which is about 29.5 hours and honestly seems reasonable. It also put me in the top 0.5% of Gusgus listeners, so I got that goin’ for me, which is nice. But after that… I’m not sure what the hell is happening here. Don’t get me wrong – I like hair metal and classic rock, but I can say with confidence that I never, not even once, specifically played an album by Van Halen, Mötley Crüe, or Credence in 2023. They were definitely in some rock playlists I listened to from time to time, but man, I wouldn’t have expected them, or any bands on those lists, to rank that highly. As for BLOND:ISH, well, that had to be playlist related too. It’s definitely a weird Top 5, even to me.
Top 5 Places To Buy Records
1. Lucky Records – Reykjavik
2. Sister Ray Records – London
3. Phonica Records– London
4. Space Odyssey – Reykjavik
5. Crypt of the Wizard – London
I was fortunate enough to do a LOT of record shopping in 2023. Beyond the confines of Seattle, I visited shops in Osaka, Kobe, London, and Reykjavik. When I travel outside the US (and often even when I travel within the US) I do my best to focus on buying local artists and/or labels, and for the most part I stayed true to this approach. That being said, I couldn’t pass up the Japan-only re-release of Nirvana’s Bleach when I found it on RSD at a small shop in Tokyo – they literally only had five RSD titles in stock, which I suspect they might have bought retail from the Tower Records (yes kids, Tower Records is still alive and well in Japan!) located in the same building, so I was stunned to find it. I also stumbled onto a group of a half dozen Throbbing Gristle records in Reykjavik that I couldn’t pass up.
Coming up with a Top 5 list was tough in that I probably visited at least 20 record stores this year – in fact I may have gone to 20 outside the US. And everywhere I went, we met cool people, people who wanted to talk about music and records and their local scenes, and it was a blast. Every time I go to a shop I try to buy at least one thing if for no other reason than it’s important to me that we support our independent businesses and keep these record stores open.
Top 5 Music Books Read
1. Re-Sisters: The Lives and Recordings of Delia Derbyshire, Margery Kempe and Cosey Fanni Tutti by Cosey Fanni Tutti (2022)
2. Sonic Life: A Memoir by Thurston Moore (2023)
3. Mud Ride: A Messy Trip Through the Grunge Explosion by Steve Turner (2023)
4. No Machos or Pop Stars: When the Leeds Art Experiment Went Punk by Gavin Butt (2022)
5. First Floor Volume 1: Reflections on Electronic Music Culture by Shawn Reynaldo (2023)
I did a fair amount of music reading in 2023, including a number of books in the new 33 1/3 genre series. But these five were fairly easy choices. I loved Cosey Fanni Tutti’s first book Art Sex Music, and her new one Re-Sisters showed that her earlier effort was no fluke. Tutti interweaves parts of her own life story with those of pioneering electronic musician Delia Derbyshire and 15th century mystic Margery Kempe. The memoirs Sonic Life and Mud Ride were both easy reads, well-told and not afraid to show the less flattering parts of Moore and Turner’s lives. No Machos or Pop Stars was an intriguing look at not only the musicians coming out of Leeds in the 70s and 80s, but also the art school scene that gave them the space to explore. And Shawn Reynaldo, well, Shawn showed me that it is indeed possible to write meaningfully about electronic music, something I’ve struggled to do. He was a bit of an inspiration to me and also got me interested in resurrecting the blog too, so you can blame Shawn Reynaldo for all of this. Sorry Shawn!