better late than never.
for various reasons, i totally forgot to post this list of albums that hit the spot in 2023.
as you can see it’s full of the same names as before, with a couple of random swerves.
adrian sherwood and his on-u sound label have continued to make the best of the labels revival and released some amazing new music, the black dog too have persisted in making some of the best ambient techno of their career with the release of two excellent machine music albums.
rucksack records put out a couple of excellent old school backpack sample heavy hip hop albums via their spectacular diagnostics, and stik figa/the expert releases, while jayda g (ninja tune) brought the joy of club music into the home.
flamingosis mixed his downtempo/lo-fi edits with the vocal by ehiorobo to great effect, and revival season dropped a genre spanning mixtape that soundtracked my summer, and obeah released a wonderful ‘end of season’ finale with his ‘dubstance‘ release that combined all the usual elements of the lil obeah sound, i.e. dark dub, spooked out atmospherics, and weird and twisted cover versions.
and yes, the massive swerve is the epic guitars of troller, which soundtracked a mad few weeks with their intense mix of widescreen shoegaze and drones.
the black dog – the grey album
spectacular diagnostics – raw lessons
stik figa/the expert – ritual
african head charge – a trip to bolgatanga
adrian sherwood – space
obeah – dubstance
kid acne – hautology codes
young fathers – heavy heavy
jayda g – guy
flamingosis/ehiorobo – bliss station
revival season – outernational mixtape
the black dog – my brutal life
creation rebel – hostile environment
troller – drain