last tracks of the year, feat. BIG|BRAVE, BRUTUS, CHAT PILE and NERVER

Yeah, let's wrap this motherfucker up with a bunch of Bandcamp stuff!

Of course I expected a new digital release from Dead Neanderthals here, as it is annual tradition. But since that one is a tape this time, I'll just postpone the review to the next part of my cassette craze chronicles. Laziness wins. Yay!

BIG|BRAVE - Audiotree Live

Haven't watched or listened to any Audio Tree Session for a while, even though they always deliver a great production quality. That is until a couple of days ago, when I discovered that they had done a session with one of my favorite recent live bands, droning Noise Rockers Big|Brave. Their three songs here - all from the latest album "Nature Morte" make a great EP very representative of their crushing live power and emotional impact.

They could have cropped that interview sample at the end of the second track for Bandcamp though. Probably just an oversight.

BRUTUS - Audiotree From Nothing

Similar story, different band. Also three tracks, naturally a little bit shorter than the Big|Brave EP. But that's fine. Brutus are great, so this is a neat little piece of amazing Alternative Post Hardcore Post Punk Post Whatever Rock. With Stefanie's magnificient raw vocal and drums performance at its heart these around seventeen minutes absolutely slay.

CHAT PILE & NERVER - Brothers In Christ

Filthy brutal disillusioned Noise Rock deconstructivists Chat Pile are getting drunk in the afternoon and don't want us to know ("King"). Well you boys do you - as long as you keep yanking out tracks like this or "Cut"  from your gloomy Oklahomian desolateness, ok?

Their Brothers in Christ Nerver, who they share this EP with go further into a sludgy Post Metal direction and absolutely share Chat Pile's sentiment of being seriously pissed about something, oneself, everything. Nope, this split EP doesn't want you to be happy.

In this spirit let's all have a crushingly miserable new year!

OAKFARM - Oakfarm

Wir bleiben beim Thema originelle Präsentation. Genau wie beim neuen Album von Glimmen handelt es sich hier um ein in Hunderter-Auflage erschienenes, einzigartig in Handarbeit enstandenes Objekt.

Hier enden die Gemeinsamkeiten jedoch, da diese Erstauflage des Debuts von Oakfarm erstens auf CD erschienen ist und zweitens statt auf hundert verschiedene Varianten zu setzen ganz auf ein Cover im herkömmlichen Sinne verzichtet.

OAKFARM - Oakfarm (CD) (2023)

Tatsächlich bekommt man hier einen mit dem Bandlogo bestempelten Umschlag, in dem sich ein echtes kleines Stück Baum befindet. Auf einer Seite befindet sich eine Halterung für den Tonträger sowie die Credits, die andere wird nur von den Jahresringen und dem Logo - diesmal nicht gestempelt, sondern eingebrannt - geziert. Alles in allem ein sehr nices Objekt, wie man es selten zu Gesicht bekommt. Kein Wunder, zumal es ein ziemlich langwieriger Prozess gewesen sein soll, jeden Schritt zur Umsetzung der Idee zu verwirklichen. Hat sich aber gelohnt!

Oakfarm kommen aus Kiel und sind zu zwei Dritteln aus ehemligen Mitgliedern von Bone Man besetzt. Doch nach einem kurzen Intro verrät schon der Opener "What If", in dem man so ein bisschen erwartet, dass jederzeit der Refrain eines gewissen The Moody Blues-Hits geschmettert wird, dass sich die musikalische Ausrichtung mit Sänger/Gitarrist Tobias Lemberger geändert hat.

Der immer noch sehr raue, ehrliche Klang der Band ist weniger heavy, aber vielleicht etwas präziser im Detail. Wo die Knochenmänner musikhistorisch eher bei Grunge und Stoner Rock ansetzten, da wurzelt die Eichenfarm nun noch tiefer in der bluesgetränkten Vergangenheit, während die naheliegendste moderne Referenz bei melodischen Motorpsycho zu verorten ist. Was natürlich in sich auch schon wieder frühere Vorbilder aufgreift.

Oakfarm live @ Woodbunge Festival 2023

Man kann also durchaus je nach Laune von einem Vintage-Sound, Dad Rock oder zeitloser Musik sprechen. Entscheidend ist, dass die Umsetzung auf tadellosen Songs basiert, mit viel Charakter und Können erfolgt und dabei sehr frisch und rostfrei klingt. Großartig groovende Arne/Ötzi-Rhythmussektion, geile ausufernde Soli, tolle Melodien und super Gesang. Was will man mehr?

Dieses Alben haben natürlich! Aber woher bekommen?

Tatsächlich wird das Ding in dieser Edition bisher nur von der Band direkt auf Konzerten verkauft. Wenn man ihnen freundlich im Internet nachstellt, schicken sie einem aber auch eine reguläre Jewelcase-CD. Vinyl und digital kommt vermutlich auch noch, da würde ich einfach sowohl Oakfarm als auch Pink Tank Records verfolgen.

OAKFARM auf PINK TANK RECORDS

GLIMMEN - DOS

Musikalisch ist es vielleicht nicht der logischste nächste Schritt nach Sulphur Aeon. Doch wenn wir schon bei bemerkenswert verpackten Scheiben sind, dann komme ich am neuen Album von Glimmen einfach nicht vorbei. Ist es das handwerklich perfekteste und praktischste Cover? Die annähernde Funktionslosigekit des Gatefolds (keine Hülle im eigenlichen Sinne), sowie deutlich sichtbare Knitterkanten und Verklebungen sagen nö. Durch die stark reflektierende Außenschicht ist es noch dazu sehr schwierig vernünftig zu fotografieren.

Das zählt in diesem Fall allerdings auch gar nicht, sondern ist nur Teil des Charmes, handelt es sich doch bei jedem Exemplar um ein Unikat, eine vierseitige Collage aus original Zeitschriften, Werbekatalogen und Büchern aus dem amerikanischen normanrockwellschem Zeitalter. Dazu jeweils eine historische Flugzeug-Postkarte, auf welche die Credits geklebt wurden.

Ganz klar bestes Cover des Jahres! Oder kann man zu dieser süßen Miezekatze etwa nein sagen?

GLIMMEN - DOS (LP with individual collage artwork) (2023)

Ok, ich muss zugeben, dass es sich hier um das Backcover handelt. Ich bin aber insgesamt sehr zufrieden mit der Kopie, die ich erwischt habe. Insgesamt gibt es von dem Ding nur hundert Stück. Von diesen wiederum bekommt man - sofern noch erhältlich - 25 Stück nur in Wisconsin, 25 weitere im Rest Nordamerikas und den Rest über Drummer Jörg Schneider aus Deutschland.

Wer auf individuell überraschende Vinylkunst steht, der sollte also nun schon einmal mit dem Einkaufsklickfinger zucken! Für alle anderen sage ich natürlich auch gerne ein paar Worte zur auch rein digital erhältlichen Musik:

Glimmen ist ein gemeinsames Projekt von Schneider mit Jason Wietlispach und einer Reihe von weiteren amerikanischen Gastmusikern. Im Vorjahr erschien ihr selbstiteltes Debut auf CD mit einem - bei weitem nicht so aufwendigen, jedoch ebenfalls schönen - handgemachten Cover. Ja, ich finde so etwas einfach immer toll.

Musikalisch bewegt man sich hier im von Schneider an sich häufig bespielten Feld zwischen Ambient, Drone und experimentell frei jazzender Improvisation.
Das nimmermüde hyperaktive Drumming ist somit schon leicht als Markenzeichen erkennbar. Dadurch dass aber auch stets eine nicht komplett spezifizierte Vielzahl an Instrumenten aktiv ist, erweitert sich das Klangspektrum z.B. im Vergleich zu den meisten Duo-Kollaboartionen des Schlagzeugers erheblich. Auch dass die sechs Stücke im Vergleich zu den drei Tracks des Vorgängeralbums kürzer geworden sind hilft dabei, einen noch größeren Abwechslumsreichtum zu etablieren.

Gitarren, Vibraphon, Saxophon, Kontrabass, zusätzliche Perkussion und elektronische Klänge mischen sich auf "DOS" zu einer lebensgefährlich riskanten Abfahrt durch atmosphärisch dichten Nebel. Irgendwie schafft es dieses Album wie eine rasend anwachsende Lawine zu rollen und einen doch im entspannt entrückten Superheldenmodus darüber schweben zu lassen. Ganz faszinierendes Zeug, das ich auch ohne Einschränkungen Einsteigern in die Welt des Free Jazz empfehlen würde. Kontemporäre Experimentalgewursteloberklasse mit unbedingter Kopfhörerempfehlung!

Und wo wir schon beim Klang sind: Nicht nur die optischen Schauwerte und die Musik an sich stimmen hier, sondern auch die Pressung ist tadellos.

Ich könnte jetzt wie bei der Hälfte der dieser Tage noch rausgehauenen Rezensionen wieder das Hätte-auch-in-die-AOTY-Liste-gehört-Gejammer anfangen, aber ehrlich gesagt habe ich meine noch reichlich mehr Veröffentlichungen einschließende Post aus Hückelhoven gleich unberücksichtigt außen vorgelassen, weil man irgendwann einfach eine Deadline ziehen müssen, nach der die Vorauswahl nicht mehr erweitert werden kann.

Als beinahe-katastrophale Anekdote sei noch erwähnt, dass mein Postzusteller das Paket mit diesem glimmenden Schatz in die Empfangskistee gepackt hat, obwohl in diese reich getauter Schnee geraten war. Eine Hälfte des Kartons war also komplett durchnässt - und zum Glück war es die richtige, auf der eine Künststoffhülle die LP erfolgreich vor der Pitschnässe geschützt hat. Die andere Seite - auf der sich mehrere CDs befanden - nach unten gepackt und diese wären alle hundertprozentig in Mitleidenschaft gezogen worden! Puh... Großes Aufatmen.

SULPHUR AEON - Seven Crowns and Seven Seals

Dass einer der am schönsten verpackten Tonträger des Jahres aus dem Hause Ván Records kommt, sollte niemanden überraschen - zumindest nicht, wenn man mitbekommen hat, dass Sulphur Aeon eine neue kosmische Horrorapokalypse auf die Menschheit losgelassen haben.

SULPHUR AEON - Seven Crowns and Seven Seals (Red/Black Corona Effect vinyl LP) (2023)

Ja, die Death Metaller pflegen ihre liebgewonnenen Traditionen: edle extra Außenhülle, ein detailreiches aberwitziges Weltuntergangsmotiv auf dem Cover, Gatefoldhülle, doppelseitiges Poster, liebevoll gestaltetes LP-formatiges Textbooklet - und alles ohne Zögern den deutschen Lovecraftkultisten zuzuordnen.

Klar, konzeptionell geht es auch auf dem vierten Werk von Sulphur Aeon einzig und ausschließlich um Cthulhu, Azathoth und all die anderen Großen Alten. Gibt es irgendwo da draußen eine Band, die sich noch konsequenter, totaler dem Werk eines Autors verschrieben hat? Man fragt sich ja schon, wie lange sich das noch fortsetzen lässt. Sind vielleicht sieben Alben insgesamt das Ziel?

Hier wird jedenfalls sieben Kronen und sieben Siegeln gehuldigt, natürlich in sieben Tracks.

Ich spreche ja ungern von Melodic Death Metal, da ich die meisten derart gelabelten Gruppen eigentlich immer eher ähm... uninteressant fand. Tatsächlich haben Sulphur Aeon in diesem Segment aber zugelegt, hauptsächlich um noch grandioser, überlebensgrößer zu wirken, denn klar, vom Konzept ausgehend kann diese band ja eigentlich niemals monumental genug klingen.
Leider birgen ein paar der melodischen Passagen auch den einzigen Schwachpunkt des Albums. Nicht alle cleanen Gesänge können hier mit dem Niveau des Gesamtwerks mithalten.

Aber keine Sorge, diese Momente gehen schnell vorüber! In erster Linie haben wir es hier immer noch mit auf Höchstniveau gespieltem, brutalem und allesverschlingend gigantischem Death Metal zu tun. Und das mit meisterhaftem Songwriting, dass genau weiß, wann überwältigendes Geblaste, mächtiges Midtempo  mit bombastischen Doppelleadgitarren oder jenseits des menschlichen Verstandes wütendes Chaos angebracht ist.

Sulphur Aeon haben wieder einmal alles gegeben und einen mit urzeitlichen Runen bedeckten Genremonolithen geschaffen, der unter etwas anderen Umständen leicht in meine TOP 23 Alben des Jahres 2023 hätte einziehen können. Das Niveau war dieses Jahr einfach schwindelerregend und andere Alben haben halt mehr Ausfmerksamkeit bekommen, während ich mich von diesem Monstrum erst so richtig in den letzten Wochen habe verschlingen lassen.

Auch wenn man aktuell ja fantastische Death Metal-Alben aus jeder Straßenpfütze angeln kann, ist an diesem aus tiefster Tiefsee beschworenen Giganten für Fans kaum vorbeizukommen.    

procrastinated promos feat. 100 GUITARES SUR UN BATEAU IVRE, ERLAND DAHLEN, NYRST and SARKH

Viewed realistically I've constantly had way too much new music to properly process in my physical and digital collection for several years now. So naturally I'm quite picky (and admittedly also a bit random) in which of the promo invitations I receive almost daily I even open and read.

I often listen to good stuff, which I still thankfully decline. And sometimes I will actually download a promo - but that is only when I'm sure that I'll buy the release later anyway - or at least write something about it.

And here I am - looking back at the almost done year again and realizing that I somehow forgot / didn't find the time to write about a couple of those.
And of course I'm feeling a little bad about that, so now I quickly give you my procrastinated promos 2023:

Jazz drummer Erland Dahlen released "Racoons" on Is It Jazz? Recortds. It's a short but sweet instrumental album, which very dynamically combines Ambient synths with the sounds of organic instruments, which provide further textures and many rhythmic layers. A lot of those instruments are custom-made (like a zither bass or log drums) or just objects (like metal serving plates) "misused" to create music. As a result this work isn't only gripping and atmospheric, but also features a subtly unusual sound palette.

100 Guitares Sur Un Bateau Ivre is a project by experimental musician and guitar teacher Gilles Laval with a premise that sounds like a video idea of some famous music YouTuber: Let's bring hundred electric guitar players together to play!

Fortunately "Bateau Ivre" excels the sonic image this premise paints by far with a very interesting collection of compositions centered around the idea of the ocean and spanning a wide range of ideas from Ambient sound exploration over Classical arrangements and complex harmonic layering to thankfully never cheesy Rock riffs and licks.

And even though it cannot completely shake of the smell of guitar nerd food and surely is hard to sell in terms of defining what and for whom this is, this album is actually pretty brilliant and I'd say no matter where you come from, this is worth checking out!

Ok, I don't have to be too harsh with myself concerning "Völd" by the Icelandic Black Metal band Nyrst here, because this one has only just been released in early December.

As we all know every Icelandic family has at least one Black Metal sheep in it, so an extra kicker to motivate me to listen is recommended. In this case it was the artwork. If the music is only half as cool as the cover I'll take it! And indeed Dark Essence Records don't lie when they claim this is for fans of Misþyrming, Sinmara or Auðn.
Raw and tasty Black Metal with mostly mid-range and deep vocals, which allows itself epic melodic elements without sacrificing its unpolished aesthetics and ferocity. Killer stuff!

This last one's a little bit different, because I actually received this preview EP of Sarkh's next album as a promo CD - yes, those still exist! - from Worst Bassist Records. "Helios" is meant as a precursor of the upcoming - then complete - vinyl album of the same name, but so far it's still not known when that will be released. However, over half an hour as an appetizer is a very generous amount.

The EP starts with a Black Metal attack, but then the German instrumental trio switches gears and turns the opener "Zyklon" into a both beautiful and very energetic Post Rock / Post Metal piece.
If you already know the band from their debut "Kaskade" you certainly won't be disappointed, since they're still never standing still, constantly changing gears and moods, making time fly by. Russian Circles with Motorpsycho flavours also still works as a reference. Last time I also mentioned the  defunct Northern german band Moewn, which is a creative spelling of "seagulls". And now guess what birds we can hear in the middle of "Kanagawa"!

So all in all it's still the same thing, but both songwriting and production have improved. What should already be reason enough to give it a listen. Ad be it only to hype you up for the full-length.

ZAHN - Adria

Mein Musikkonsum der letzten paar Wochen war u.a. davon geprägt, die Reihenfolge meiner TOP 23 Lieblingsalben des Jahres festzulegen - und natürlich zu entscheiden, wer es überhaupt in diese erlesene Auswahl schaffen sollte.

Bei einem so schwierigen Prozess nimmt man natürlich gerne jede Gelegenheit wahr, die große Anzahl der Kandidaten irgendwie zu minimieren. Zahn beispielsweise habe ich ohne großes Nachdenken schnell und gnadenlos aus dem Rennen geschmissen, ganz einfach weil mich ein sehr unschöner Pressfehler auf den Seiten C und D des ansonsten so hübsch geratenen Doppelalbums gewurmt hat.
Nun ist "Tabak" ja eh nicht gesund, was vielleicht eine ganz sinnvolle Eselsbrücke darstellt, um sich zu merken, dass der so betitelte Song auf Schallplatte übersprungen werden sollte. Für "Velour" allerdings habe ich leider keine Merkhilfe dieser Art parat.

Rezension Ende. Nee Quatsch, so ein A*** bin ich dann auch nicht.

ZAHN - Adria (Apricot Edition 2LP) (2023)

Das Instrumentaltrio war schon eine Weile als "interessant, muss aber nicht zwingend in die Sammlung" auf meinem Radar. Mit "Adria" hat sich dies allerdings bereits beim ersten Hören geändert, denn der weiter gereifte, eingängige originelle Sound, den die Band hier präsentiert, zündete sofort.

Wie das Coverfoto schon suggeriert, ist durchaus eine Wesensverwandtschaft mit dem Duo Jegong gegeben. Auch hier wird Post Rock auf eine es Schubladenliebhabern schwer machende Weise mit Krautrock vermischt. Zahn allerdings lassen diese Kombination trotz immer wieder auftretender Heaviness in den Geschmacksrichtungen Noise, Grunge und Post Metal insgesamt noch sonniger - um nicht zu sagen poppiger - klingen.

Über meist organischen, machmal jedoch auch elektronischen Grooves bestimmen analoge Synthieklänge, mal luftige, mal schwere Gitarrenmelodien und eine leichtfüßig proggige Verspieltheit, die ab und zu auch beinahe die Grenze zum Jazz überschreitet, das Bild. Von der Stimmung her erinnert mich hier einiges an die israelischen Experimentalinstrumentalisten Tiny Fingers, an Gallops und diverse Synthwavekünstler, ohne annähernd tatsächlich nach einem dieser Beispiele zu klingen. Und mit Assoziationen aus der Welt der Siebziger Jahre, Bumsfilmmusik und modernen Qualitätsgitarrenrocks fange ich am besten gar nicht erst an. Da gibt's einfach zu vieles, was irgendwo als Referenz passt, im nächsten Track aber schon als Vergleich absurd erscheint. 

Das Fazit ist ohnehin immer, dass man letztendlich selbst reinhören muss. (Was ich als Schreiber ja eigentlich gar nicht sagen darf, da es mein ganzes Tun hier obselet macht.)

Zahn sind zwar schwer in eine Formel pressbar - dafür aber im Grunde sehr leicht zu verstehen. Urlaub für die Ohren.   

cassette craze chronicles XXXI feat. ÅRABROT, NEKUS and 夢遊病者 (Sleepwalker)

No, even if I only solely concentrate on this task and let my fingers run like hell now, I certainly won't be able to write a review for all remaining 2023 releases in my collection before the year closes.

But cassettes at least? Yes, after this little bunch I'm good. Since I benefitted from promo access to all three of these (mini) albums, I even could have written about all of them a long while ago. And in the case of the first one -  I actually did!

NEKUS - Sepulchral Divination (2023)

Yes, I've already covered this Sentient Ruin release in a German Death Metal double review back in April, but as so often with this stuff from overseas I rather waited until this tape was finally available at a European seller until I purchased it.

With a very dark cover (don't trust my picture above!) and low readability it surely isn't the most spectacular packaging, but hey, I wanted this for the music! And on that side the band from Marburg provides us with some quality ghoulish cavernous Blackened Doom Death. The slower they get the more intrigued I am, which is good for the dramatic curve of the whole album, because especially the B side sees Nekus  stepping onto the breaks.

夢遊病者 - Skopofoexoskelett (2023)

And again: Yes, I have also written about this one before, and that has actually been very recently, because I named the EP as my seventh favorite non-album release of 2023. So let me just lazily parrot myself by saying that Sleepwalker once again made it almost impossible to pin them down in terms of genres or even music-historical time frame or continents associated with their inspiration. With a plethora of Classical, Jazz and ethnic instrument guest musicians and singers the enigmatic Far Beyond Post Black Metal trio takes us on an unfathomable journey between completely bonkers chaos which seemingly unites Blut Aus Nord and Mr. Bungle, and relatively relaxed Western and Doomjazz passages, while always maintaining a spellbinding atmosphere.

Even though the tape version looks great, it cannot make up for the only flaw of this release: It seriously just runs way too short.

ÅRABROT - Of Darkness And Light (2023)

With their previous album "Norwegian Gothic" scoring high in my TOP 21 albums 2021 it's admittedly hard to explain while the new work from Kjetil Nernes' and Karin Park's Church of Imagination didn't make it into the list this time. The main reason is simply that other stuff was just a little more important to me and that "Of Darkness And Light" somehow isn't as grandiose and multifarious as is predecessor.

On the other hand this new collection of Post Punk New Wave Noise Rock'n'Roll tunes really has no weak link; be it "Hangman's House", "Horrors of the Past", "We Want Blood", "Skeletons Trip the Light Fantastic" or "Love Under Will"... all memorable hits with strong hooks. As long as you like the vocals, which I know are a deal breaker for many listeners - luckily not at all for me -, this is a fantastic album even without that special Norwegian Gothic flavour. You know what? I probably f***ed up on that one. Guess I was just a little sulky, because the Årabrot / Jaye Jayle / Karin Park tour didn't come to Hamburg.

The cassette looks great. I mainly chose it over the LP version, because I think that the upright format suits the cover better - and it's also an artwork which doesn't need to be huge to work.

MUSIC 2023: top 23 albums

Albums which I play in the car all the time. Albums which are way too long to listen to every day. Albums which I already listened to too much. Albums which I unjustifiably neglected. Albums with a profound message. Albums which are just pure fucking fun. Albums from bands I've been a fan of for ages. Albums I only just got in the last couple of weeks. And so on and so forth...

So many different albums with so many criteria coming into play. So many different moods and styles. What is more valuable? An album which calms me down? And album which makes me think? An album which puts me into a cathartic rage?

I feel that it's getting harder to come to a satisfying result when putting together my favorite studio releases of the year every time I'm doing this. My usual practice of only considering studio albums which I own as physical copies narrows the list down a little (obviously not always in a way that's fair), but the task still remains impossible. At some not too far point in the future I will inevatibly look back on some choices I made or missed and shake my head in disbelief.
How couldn't I with all those varied great releases that just didn't fit in anymore? When I had settled on 22 (or really 24, because I bent the rules twice) I still had a competition of names like Årabrot, Crawl, Edena Gardens, Fleshvessel, Jegong, John Zorn, Les Nadie, Onkos, Sulphur Aeon and more battling for that last spot. And that's good! As long as it's a pain the ass to put together a ranking like this it means that I've been exposed to an abundance of great music.

In this spirit: Here are - cast in stone for all eternity, or at least until tomorrow morning - my personal...

TOP 23 albums of 2023:

1. BELL WITCH - Future's Shadow Part 1: The Clandestine Gate
   
   
   
   Even though the one eighty-three-minutes song album (their second in that specific format after "Mirror Reaper"!) cannot even be conclusively judged yet, because it is only the first part of a trilogy, I already predicted back in July that I would probably crown this glacially moving Funeral Doom behemoth as album of the year. And how could I not? Dylan Desmond and Jesse Shreibman have even improved their songwriting and arrangement skills and expanded their sound palette to appeareantly score the sorrowful fading of existence as a whole. Stillstand beyond the laws of time has never felt as crushing as floating here, in the void behind the Clandestine Gate.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
2. LAIBACH - Sketches of the Red Districts
   
   
   
   Yes, the Slovenian collective has made it into top positions of four different MUSIC 2023 lists now! One answer to how they can pull this off lies in several writing teams. "Sketches of the Red Districts", an Industrial / Ambient / Electronic historical recontextualization of Laibach's birth myth in 1980 in connection with a bloody conflict between Yugoslav fascists and the local labour movement of Trbovlje in 1924, saw the current drummer and guitar player step forward to create an atmospheric masterpiece, which is one of the most classic sounding Laibach releases post the 1980's, but still presents a fresh new take on their aesthetics.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
3. POIL UEDA - PoiL Ueda / Yoshitsune
   
   
   
   Bending the list rules, part one: This spot inevitably had to be shared by two equally brilliant albums, on which traditional Japanese vocalist and satsuma-biwa player Junko Ueda tells epic stories from the Far Eastern Middle Ages with the aid of the absolutely bonkers Magma- and King Crimson-inspired French Avantgarde Prog Rock group PoiL. Both albums of their joint cross-cultural project PoiL Ueda burst with boundless creativity in stunningly intense virtuosic performances. Undoubtly one - err, two - of the wildest and most exciting musical adventures of the year!
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
4. BIG|BRAVE - Nature Morte
   
   
   
   Once again the Canadian Noise Rock trio crushes our hearts, souls and bodies with the deeply satisfying Drone of monolithic guitars and the honest rawest emotion in Ronin Wattie's piercing heartfelt vocal  performance. In a discography that has never shown any sign of weakness "Nature Morte" sees Big|Brave broadening their compositional toolset by drawing lessons from the previous collaboration with The Body without sacrifing their principles of maximalist minimalism.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
5. HEALTHYLIVING - Songs of Abundance, Psalms of Grief
   
   
   
   While it's impossible to pin this band down on one specific reference like (old) Gggolddd, Brutus, Dool or Chelsea Wolfe, because every track shows a different side of their Post Rock/Punk/Hardcore/Doom/Noise/etc. mix and showcases another facet of Amaya López Carromero's amazing voice, which you might also know from her solo project Maud the Moth, one thing is for sure: Their amazing debut album is filled to the bursting point with strong songs which won't leave your head anytime soon.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
6. THE KEENING - Little Bird
   
   
   
   After the rest of Salt Lake City's sadly disbanded Doom Metal giants SubRosa have already released an album as The Otolith in 2022, it was now time for front woman and main songwriter Rebecca Vernon to also step into the light again. And be it as singer and lyricist or as a composer, arranger and multi-instrumentalist - she has so much to say on this genre-transcending full-length of wonderful Alternative Gothic Doom Folk greatness! The epic closer "The Truth" alone in truth is one of the greatest songs of the year. Gorgeous!   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
7. ESBEN AND THE WITCH - Hold Sacred
   
   
   
   "I am down here, in my chapel, where I'm safe from the evils of the world." Esben And The Witch's goodbye before an undetermined long break due to living far apart from each other now, is a magically intimate beauty I cannot stop listening to. Never has the trio's music been so stripped-down Ambient, so centered around Rachel Davies' mesmerizing voice and words. "Hold Sacred" goes right to the soul. This album is a soothing, consouling embrace in the darkness.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
8. DYMNA LOTVA - Зямля Пад Чорнымі Крыламі: Кроў (The Land Under The Black Wings: Blood)
   
   
   
   A Belarusian Post Black Metal band fleeing from the regime - right into Ukraine before Putin's  invasion - releases an anti-war album based on both the horrors of WWII in their home country and their personal experiences. Even after that serious premise you're hardly prepared for the gut-wrenching storytelling and adamant earnest stance of "Land Under The Black Wings: Blood". Musically Dymna Lotva's Black Metal incorporates Doom as much as influences from Folk, Classical music and even Jazz in a similar way artists like Dordeduh or White Ward are doing it. Very haunting and unfortunately so significant!
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
9. GILDED FORM - Gilded Form
   
   
   
   Hardly even moving synths, the halting heartbeat of minimal drums and a guitar slowing down the Blues to tectonic lentitude pay homage to Dylan Carlson's Earth with a coat of bohrenish Doomjazz. Besides Bell Witch no album here will let you hover in a world-withdrawing state of timelessness like Dead Neanderthals (Otto Kokke, Rene Aquarius) and Nick Millevoi are achieving it on their joint project, debut release and forty-minute track "Gilded Form". Even though this is as conceptually reduced as ever it ranks among the most  powerful things the prolific Dutch duo has done so far.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
10. THE END - Why Do You Mourn
    
    
    
    Is it the chaotic baritone guitar and drums rhythm section of Anders Hana and Børge Fjordheim? Is it the double saxophone force of Mats Gustafsson and Kjetil Møster? Or is it the mind-boggling vocal craziness of Sofia Jernberg? Each of these elements alone would already make the dynamic experimental Heavy Jazz Fusion on "Why Do You Mourn" special. Together however The End are capable of anything - even super-slowing down the Sudan Archives Trip Hop track "Black Vivaldi Sonata" to thrice of its original length. 
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
11. SWANS - The Beggar
    
    
    
    How to summarize two hours of Swans in just one paragraph? Yes, Michael isn't done yet at all, so here's another ginormous, existential offering, which combines the recent sound and wordiness of "Leaving Meaning" with the reverb aesthetics of "The Great Annihilator". This huge meditation on decline, decay, dissolution and Death even contains an album within the album with the forty+ minutes of the studio collage "The Beggar Lover (Three)". With all those larger than life works of the past it's unlikely that many Swans fans will crown "The Beggar" as their all-time-favorite. Yet of course the usual scale of operation alone still lets "The Beggar" tower far above most other music releases out there easily.
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
12. AUTOPSY - Ashes. Organs, Blood and Crypts
    
    
    
    Fuck yeah! No deep analytical thoughts necessary for this one - it's a bloody gory new Autopsy album. Starting with the title it's a completely accurate what you see is what you get situation - that goes literally for the sick album cover and just as much for its rotten content. Last year's first album with new bassist Greg Wilkinson "Morbidity Triumphant" was already old school rancid Death Metal bliss at its best like only Chris Reifert and Co. can deliver it. But somehow the legends got even darker and filthier now. Gut-splashing, grave-desecrating Autopsy - they just always know how to throw the greatest parties.
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
13. GODFLESH - Purge
    
    
    
    JK Broadrick and BC Green added only one letter to the title of their 1991 classic, and indeed the new Godflesh album is an open throwback to the sound and mindset of "Pure". While the guitar sound is fuller and sludgier now, the sawing riffs and screeching leads complimenting Broadrick's nihilist vocals are as similar as the rumbling bass sound and the Hip Hop inspired programmed and sampled drums. Due to its referential nature "Purge" isn't Godflesh's most experimental or original album by far, but with this execution - damn, it's a monstrously grooving cold and heavy Industrial Metal beast.
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
14. SARMAT - Determined to Strike
    
    
    
    Recorded before, but released after their "Dubious Disk", which already made it into my TOP 7 non-album releases 2023, the album debut of Sarmat starts more on the Technical Dissonant Death side, before spreading wider into all kinds of Exreme Metal / Avantgarde Jazz Fusion insanity. "Determined to Strike" brings together brutality and classy brass with natural ease. This short but highly entertaining brainmelter for sure is a peak exemplary I, Voidhanger Records release and definitely one of the finest works in the current wave of Jazz Metal!
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
15. KING GIZZARD AND THE LIZARD WIZARD - PetroDragonic Apocalypse; or, Dawn of Eternal Night: An Annihilation of Planet Earth and the Beginning of Merciless Damnation /
    The Silver Cord (Extended Mix)
    
    
    
    
    Of course! With Joey Walker instead of Stu Mackenzie wearing the main composer's helmet this time, the hyper-prolific Australians released an unlikey pair of twin albums based on related song ideas - and who am I to seperate them? "PetroDragonic Apocalypse" is King Gizzard's longer, more refined and more relentless second Thrash Metal album after "Infest The Rats' Nest", which also calls back to the Psychedelic Prog greatness of "Polygondwanaland".
    
    
    
    
    "The Silver Cord" on the other hand is their first completely (vintage) electronic work, which bounces between Klaus Schultze Synth Kraut, 90's Euro Dance, Beastie Boys raps and many more influences. Both albums can easily look eye to eye with the top tiers in the band's always growing discography - at least if you don't count the regular twenty-six minutes version of "The Silver Cord" and go for the vastly superior hypnotic one-and-a-half hour Extended Mix instead!
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
16. REVEREND KRISTIN MICHAEL HAYTER - Saved!
    
    
    
    This album was the hardest to place in this ranking. It's just so hard to decide whether this incredibly fervent exploration of worship songs by the artist formerly known as Lingua Ignota is creepy, barely listenable - or an addictive, completely transfixing experience. How can these old and new blatantly religious hymns be so eerily alienating yet comforting, so ambivalently non-judgemental and still so powerful? Presented more detached from personal experiences than her previous work, with an analogue low-fi production simulating the decayed quality of unearthed, worn out historic recordings "Saved!" lays open the ecstatic core of congregational songs and deliberately leaves it up to us what to make of it. I guess I'm still in that process.
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
17. COLD DEW - Yuyu 欲欲
    
    
    
    Released in early February the debut record of Cold Dew starts out so sugary and schmaltzy that I almost dismissed it immediately. And now look where we are eleven months later! "Yuyu 欲欲" still remains my favorite Krautrock album of the year - if the term is even sufficient enough for the boundlessly creative journey through East, West, mind and cosmos these Taiwanese Psychedelic Rockers allow us to share with them, as they confidently step into the space between the void which the departure of Kikagaku Moyo has left and Acid Mothers Temple, without trying to copy either of them.
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
18. P/O MASSACRE + ALEX BUESS & MERZBOW - Aural Corrosion
    
    
    

    Best Harsh Electronics is a subcategory I probably wouldn't even have been able to fill every year since I've been doing these annual rankings. The double album of exile Russians Anton Ponomarev and Anton Obrazeena - featuring collaborative longtracks with Swiss experimental musician Alex Buess and Japanese Noise legend Merzbow - however must be included here. Made of Electronic Noise, guitar, saxophone and trumpet P/O Massacre is fighting fire with fire, as this unsparing "Anti-War" music sounds just like propaganda, invasion, occupation... war! Someone should melt the wannabe-czar's face with this!
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
19. DIVIDE & DISSOLVE - Systemic
    
    
    
    Black Native American and Maori girls unite against the state of the world! A ridiculously over-amplified duo playing instrumental Sludge / Doom / Noise Rock with interludes of looped Jazz saxophones and keys against the white supremacist system. It's a good sign that a band with this specific niché premise can even exist in today's Metal environment. The actual execution of Divide and Dissolve's raw and real fourth album however is even better. Crushing!
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
20. NI - Fol Naïs
    
    
    
    Is Benoit Lecomte the MVP of this TOP 23? The bass player did not only play the acoustic four strings on both PoiL Ueda albums, but is also plugged-in member of the absolutely loony Avantgarde Math Noise Metal band Ni. Their delightfully heavy new coo-coo complex instrumental album sounds pretty much like its hilarious cover looks and totally fits its Old French title, which translates to "Born Mad".
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
21. THE NECKS - Travel
    
    
    
    The great mysterious question lingering on my mind when listening to The Necks is whether the Australian trio even needs to prepare or concentrate on a certain mood before they press record, or if this kind of almost spiritually hypnotic Post Jazz just comes out naturally in up to over twenty minutes long jams when you put these seasoned players into one room. Piano/organ, upright bass and drums - plus some overdubs and post production - forming transcendent signals and imprinting it into your bloodstream. (Look how I snuck all song titles into that sentence!)
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    


22. CAZAYOUX - Cazayoux
    
    
    
    My number one exclusively uplifting feel-good studio release of the year hails from Texas. The self-titled debut album of drummer Forest Cazayoux'  big band is grooving with a many-layered, rich and smoothly produced amalgam of infectiously funky instrumental Psychedelic Latin Afro-Beat Jazz Rock Fusion. This sweet and spicy record bursts with amazing individual performances from innumerable instruments, yet noone steals the spotlight too much from the ensemble as a whole, which is the sparlking star of the show.
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
23. HENRIK LINDSTRAND - Klangland
    
    

    

    Need a score to turn any everyday situation into emotionally complex, melancholically longing arthouse cinema? Swedish composer Henrik Lindstrand's sat down at his piano and composed a roundel of achingly beautiful melodic pieces, which accompanied by a sixteen-piece string ensemble will give you exactly that. Contempory Classical music which captures the fugitiveness of the moment in genuine purity.
    
    
    
    
    
    
    

    favorite MUSIC 2023 - all my lists:

    TOP 23 albums   |   TOP 7 live albums   |   TOP 5 reissues
    TOP 7 non-album releases   |   TOP 23 live shows