SurgeonCrash RecoilTresor
Anthony Child forged Crash Recoil from the improvisational approach of live performances. The record frequently mimics the flow of a Surgeon DJ set, structured around measured builds, momentum and surprise. The eight six-minute tracks of the record contain all the hallmarks of Surgeon’s classic releases for Berlin’s Tresor label: the discipline and precision his alias suggests, amid a relentless skitter of programmed drums. He labours under the usual adjectives — industrial, brutalist — but that fails to acknowledge his ability to coax lightness out from percussive pummel. Opener ‘Oak Bank’ is typically fleet-footed, moving from tinny bounce to sweaty-room techno. Equally satisfying is the tactile clatter of ‘Metal Pig’.
La TneEcorcha / TailléeLes Disques Bongo Joe
Ecorcha / Taillée is La Tène’s most engaging album to date. When I spoke to the group’s Alexis Degrenier for a past interview, he was keen to point out that La Tène’s music isn’t fundamentally about improvisation – rather the focus is on incremental change within a strict framework. You can hear this immediately on ‘Ecorcha’, which starts as a wheezy waltz, like a dusty clockwork mechanism springing to life, draped with ribbons of drone and with Guilhem Lacroux’s 12-string (I think) picking out an endlessly cycling eight-note motif. New elements drop in as the piece progresses, the rhythm is filled in and cabrettes (bagpipes) start to lead the dance. New territory is opened up by ‘Taillée, it’s Rosalía-inspired reggaeton beat gelling perfectly with plangent folk instrumentation. At under 15 minutes, it’s as close to ‘pop’ as La Tène have got so far, and it’s also a stroke of genius.
Bill OrcuttThe Anxiety Of SymmetryFake Estates
The Anxiety Of Symmetry could scarcely be more different to the ragged guitar music for which Bill Orcutt is best known. On the face of it, there’s almost nothing to it – just programmed voices counting: “One, two, three, four, one, two, three, four…” and so on ad infinitum. But as the piece progresses, it gets more and more complex, with different times and tempos overlapping with and counterpointing against each other, finally reaching this almost unbearable harmonic richness that would make Thomas Tallis blush. There are similarities with some of Tom Johnson’s Predictables or the ‘Knee Plays’ from Einstein On The Beach, but it’s also not quite like either of those things, possessing a strange beauty that is all its own. It is, by some distance, the thing I have spent most time listening to this year and I can’t see myself getting sick of it any time soon.
PoiL UedaPoiL UedaDurt Et Doux
PoiL’s latest adventure finds them teaming up with Japanese singer and satsuma-biwa (a type of Japanese lute) player Junko Ueda to form PoiL Ueda. Born in Tokyo but based in Europe as far as I can tell, Ueda is steeped in the epic storytelling style associated with the instrument, and this debut collaboration with the French band is based on the 13th-century text The Tale Of The Heike (or Heike-Monogatari), about rival clans vying for power. No such struggles are apparent in the music though; this new pairing seems like a marriage made in heaven. PoiL’s usual jazzy heaviness anchors the music but there are many moments of delicious disorientation, as you lose your bearings in the whooshing and rattling transition from ‘Kujô Shakujô – Part 1’ to ‘Part 2’, or the passage in ‘Kujô Shakujô – Part 3’ when the tricky-but-lithe groove and reptilian riffs suddenly give way to a blizzard of bleeps and wubs and rattling percussion, before the track ascends to a Magma-like climax of massed vocals.
Rn Cp ui*1Nhạc Gãy
*1 is a free-flowing, freewheeling listening experience, almost like a four-deck ambient DJ set where textures are layered scrupulously, coming in and out of the mix – a kaleidoscopic collage of fantastical aural events. In ‘What Cherubs’, cascades of shimmering pads and birds chirping give way to acoustic guitar-tuning which then bursts into clanging deconstructed club beats and Skrillex-esque sound design brushes, concluding with mellow IDM beats and angelic vocals. ‘Pressure’ is a nostalgia booster that takes me back to my time obsessing over post-rock outfits like 65daysofstatic. At the core of their blend of psychotropic electronic deconstructions, celestial soundscapes, cherubic choruses, experimental rock and free improv digressions, is the drive for unpretentious experimentation. *1 is a venturesome affair, and like a transformative mushroom trip, it’s impossible to guess where it will take you next.
Slauson MaloneExcelsiorWarp
On Excelsior, Slauson Malone 1’s debut for Warp Records, layers of knowledge on genre and form are combined with an openness that offers an unexpected level of intimacy. It’s an album made up of varying sketches; a collection of personal essays that provide an insight into specific lived experiences. The title of the record itself is a reference to continuous growth, Slauson Malone 1 turning the lens on himself to allow a rare look into an ever-changing and mutating exploration of self. It’s purposely chaotic and skeletal in places, but when the disjointed pieces are viewed as one, you get an album that is a fascinating and hypnotic listen.
Brghde ChaimbeulCarry Them With UsTak:til
Carry Them With Us is mostly instrumental, but its tracks tell stories. ‘Banish The Giant Of Doubt And Despair’, for example, is a reel that starts quick and spins out of control, reflecting the tale of the princess of an underwater kingdom and the giant of the Western Isles who cannot stop dancing to her song, faster and faster until he falls into the sea and drowns. Melodic cascades flow from Brìghde Chaimbeul’s pipes as though she can barely restrain them, while a bass drone and subtle, breathy saxophone, courtesy of Colin Stetson, combine seamlessly to set the scene. Despite the unconventional pairing of instruments, they often seem to make a single sound.
The Inward CirclesBefore We Lie Down In DarknesseCorbel Stone Press
Richard Skelton built the sprawling, slow-motion soundscapes of Before We Lie Down In Darknesse from one six-second note that rings into the run-out groove. There are no two ways about it: this is a ghostly album. Rolling waves of sound ring out through misty white noise like foghorns, hanging sluggishly then fading, as if they only have the capacity for two or three notes before collapsing under the strain. The frequent use of glissando suggests a kind of grand, swooning emotional release – it’s one of the reasons why the record seems forever sinking or rising.
Shit And Shine2222 And AirportThe state51 Conspiracy
To fresh-faced Shiners, this might sound scuzzy, rough and ready but, if you’ve already acclimatised to Craig Clouse’s maximal, clipping-as-a-way-of-life approach, 2222 And Airport will appear relatively buffed, chamois-ed and gleaming. Previous works have run the gamut from grindcore treachery to kosmische techno equipped with gently fuzzed edges like the soft eyes of a hung-over lush. Clouse’s releases from the past few years can usually be split between one of these states: those of a more metal bent, and those drifting towards the dance/electronic spectrum, whilst never settling comfortably in either the mosh pit or on the dance floor. This one definitely leans towards the latter, dripping layers of funk, techno, acid house, big beat, electro, and all manner of intentions, references and happy accidents into the overflowing cauldron.
Mariam RezaeiBOWNHeat Crimes
BOWN is the final part of a triptych, so it might be tempting to frame it as some sort of culmination or expected conclusion. In reality, each of Rezaei’s work is marked by perpetuity, left to be rejigged and resequenced as needed, much like the act and philosophy of turntablism itself. Regardless in which order you listen to them, they feel as if they are flowing from and into one another, conveying the same sense of anger, elation, spite and optimistic acceptance. On BOWN, these practices and emotions alternately take the form of boiling attacks, near ambient meditations, and moments of avant awe.
Danny BrownQuarantaWarp
Translated to ’40’ in Italian, the album’s title refers to Brown’s 40 years but is also a nod to the experience of quarantine and the isolation of that period that forced so many of us to come face to face with our demons. For Brown, there have forever been personal demons bubbling directly below the surface that have long threatened to emerge and fully eclipse the audaciousness and comedic cheek commonly associated with his character. But as we hear on this album, it was lockdown that provided the ideal breeding ground for such an internal battle. Without a doubt Brown’s most personal work to date, it’s equal parts confessional and curative in its mission statement.
Abstract ConcreteAbstract ConcreteThe state51 Conspiracy
There are a lot of different elements in the mix on the group’s debut album – prog, reggae, folk, loungecore, even a little disco – and perhaps some listeners may initially feel a little inclined towards indigestion. However, the vision behind it all is singular and persuasive and balances its more unconventional aspects with strong harmonies and vivid lyricism. These are memorable songs with irresistible hooks, wonderfully heartfelt vocals expressing a deep empathy and humanity that nevertheless maintain a disarming sense of humour (as in their slightly groan-worthy but apt avant-garde musician joke of a name), as well as thrilling, improvisation-derived passages during which the band take off into outer space.
KhanateTo Be CruelSacred Bones
To Be Cruel is an incredible record, with three tracks of 20 minutes each pushing the Khanate template outwards in weird and affecting new ways. The production is exquisite. Having had the luxury of living with it for several weeks, I realised that I came to subconsciously appreciate it much in the same way I appreciate a dub album recorded at the Black Ark such is its depth and spatiality. It is a record of fractal depth that bristles with detail at the very borders of perception. But most importantly it achieves all of this without short-changing listeners on caustic vitriol, despondent awe and unquenchable agitation.
Musta HuoneValosaasteen sekaanPaa Jotaki / This Is Not A Dog
From there, it’s all downhill. Or, to put it in more pointed terms: it is a downfall from there on, a descent that keeps getting weirder and weirder. The highlights in this thing are many. The second track, ‘Heijasteet’, is a dirge-y kosmische cavalcade. Minimal, tense, loud – it keeps you on the edge of your seat the whole seven-minutes through with squawking noises assaulting you from all directions. And, just when you think that things couldn’t get any more tense, ‘Aika Valuu Sormien Läpi’ comes on with its ghostly demeanour and out-of-the-blue explosions.
John Francis FlynnLook Over The Wall, See The SkyRiver Lea
The album also includes a version of ‘Dirty Old Town’, probably the best known folk revival track of them all, where everyone from The Dubliners to The Pogues have staked their claim. Flynn, true to the traditional milieu where he draws his music, returns to the simplicity of Ewan MacColl’s original version. There is soft brass in the background, French horn and trombone, and a quietly distorted finger-picked guitar. It is beautiful and hallucinatory, transformed from social realism – an account of an actual walk, a real kiss by the factory gates – to a dream in which the past arrives as a visitation.
La BaracandeLa BaracandeLa Nòvia
At the record’s other end, ‘Qui Veut Entendre L’Histoire’ is a vortex of controlled noise that reaches a furious pitch, Bremaud’s vocals delivered in a ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’, chanting-from-a-mountain-top style. Brémaud’s more appeased solo album – called Basile Brémaud Solo, in case there was any doubt – makes for a lovely companion piece.
Teeth of the SeaHiveRocket Recordings
Following their last album, Wraith, the band were invited to live soundtrack the Apollo’s Moon Shot documentary at London’s Science Museum. It would not have been unusual for them to then turn that work into a full album release, but typically the band seem to have considered it too obvious a move. So they’ve just reworked some of it, editing down from longer pieces. Three tracks (‘Artemis’, ‘Æther’ and ‘Apollo’) mark the beginning, middle and end of Hive, offering appropriately spacious and tranquil atmospheres that are easy to imagine drifting on far longer. ‘Artemis’ opens the album with the feeling of heading out into the endless, Sam Barton’s trumpet winding outwards above the clicks and bleeps of launching machines. At the midway point, ‘Æther’ glides weightlessly into a cloud of dubbed-out trumpet, punctured by a distant voice which, distorted beyond comprehension, emphasises a sense of isolation. Finally, ‘Apollo’ closes the album with a melodic and melancholic vision of the earth from the moon.
PJ HarveyI Inside The Old Year DyingPartisan
It’s a loose, nimble work of neo folk that pokes its head into desert blues, experimental rock and country, then has a good nose around. It manages to sound both mediaeval and futuristic, with big hollow kick drums booming underneath queasy loops and staticky textures, the tales of "milchi seeps heady in the meadows" ringing over boinging, squelching electronics. At a push, we might term this intelligent folk dance music. Or acid alehouse. Or… breakwheat? Field recordings (courtesy of Adam Bartlett) and strange, blustery frequencies also contribute to the mulch and oomska of the music (helped in no small part by Harvey’s creative partnership with Flood and John Parish, who provided production and additional instrumentation). The lived-in sogginess of this music seems to be a way of accessing hitherto-siloed wells of emotion and intensity. Thrumming thickets of rhythm in ‘I Inside The Old I Dying’ evoke perfectly the movement through the forest described in the lyrics, while on ‘Prayer At The Gate’, the audible rushes of breath are of equal importance to the accompanying pained vocalisations.
LankumFalse LankumRough Trade
There has been much talk over the last year or two of a ‘revival’ in modern folk music. This ignores the fact that boundary-pushing, experimental, avant-garde approaches to traditional songs have been present under the surface for as long as the songs themselves. Experimentalism, in fact, is integral to them. It is what has kept them alive through the centuries. Exciting as it is, the current scene is undergoing less of a ‘revival’, more a moment of attention from the music world at large; a lifting of a rock to reveal the life that has long been thriving underneath.
The astonishing False Lankum has received a hitherto-unseen amount of mainstream acclaim, but it is also the result of many decades that the band’s members have spent exploring the outer limits of folk and trad music, whether as a foursome or in their individual practises. Its vast swings of emotion have always been present in their work to some degree, the juxtapositions more and more pronounced with each record (not least thanks to the influence of producer John “Spud” Murphy). Here – from the overwhelming gothic horror of ‘Go Dig My Grave’ and the tempestuous melodrama of ‘The New York Trader’, to the swooning romance of ‘Newcastle’ and the gorgeous melancholia of ‘Lord Abore And Mary Flynn’ – they supercharge that aspect, taking their music to unparalleled levels of extremity.
The risk, of course, is that extreme mood swings often come at the expense of consistency across an LP. Lankum, however, avoid that pitfall. Recorded in a Martello Tower off the coast of Ireland, they’re tied together by a running theme of the ocean that emerged subconsciously in that location, as well as by a number of abstract instrumental ‘Fugue’ pieces dotted throughout. Cut from the same lengthy experimental jam session, instruments clatter and float around as if suspended in mid-air, providing a binding agent as they gradually arrange themselves into the shape of whatever song comes next. The immediate experience of listening to False Lankum is intense; one minute you’re barraged like a raft in a tempest, and the next floating along serenely in a stretch of calm, warm water. Zoom out, however, and you’ll find a record that captures the sublimity and scale of an entire ocean.
The Quietus Albums Of The Year 2023
- 1: Lankum – False Lankum
- 2: PJ Harvey – I Inside The Old Year Dying
- 3: Teeth Of The Sea – Hive
- 4: La Nòvia – La Baracande
- 5: John Francis Flynn – Look Over The Wall, See The Sky
- 6: Musta Huone – Valosaasteen sekaan
- 7: Khanate – To Be Cruel
- 8: Abstract Concrete – Abstract Concrete
- 9: Danny Brown – Quaranta
- 10: Mariam Rezaei – BOWN
- 11: Shit And Shine – 2222 And Airport
- 12: The Inward Circles – Before We Lie Down In Darknesse
- 13: Brìghde Chaimbuel – Carry Them With Us
- 14: Slauson Malone 1 – Excelsior
- 15: Rắn Cạp Đuôi Collective – *1
- 16: PoiL Ueda – PoiL Ueda
- 17: Bill Orcutt – The Anxiety Of Symmetry
- 18: La Tène – Ecorcha / Taillée
- 19: Surgeon – Crash Recoil
- 20: Babybaby_explores – Food Near Me, Weather Tomorrow
- 21: Philip Jeck & Chris Watson – Oxmardyke
- 22: L’Rain – I Killed Your Dog
- 23: Shirley Collins – Archangel Hill
- 24: Lost Girls – Selvutsletter
- 25: Annelies Monseré – Mares
- 26: Gazelle Twin – Black Dog
- 27: Moundabout – An Cnor Mór
- 28: Apostille – Prisoners Of Love And Hate
- 29: MC Yallah – Yallah Beibe
- 30: James Ellis Ford – The Hum
- 31: Lunch Money Life – The God Phone
- 32: Nabihah Iqbal – Dreamer
- 33: Lisa O’Neill – All Of This Is Chance
- 34: UKAEA – Birds Catching Fire In The Sky
- 35: Hey Colossus – In Blood
- 36: Alexander Tucker & Keith Collins – Fifth Continent
- 37: Yaeji – With A Hammer
- 38: Aho Ssan – Rhizomes
- 39: Benefits – Nails
- 40: Nuovo Testamento – Love Lines
- 41: Kelela – Raven
- 42: Babau – Flatland Explorations Vol. 2
- 43: EP/64-63 – EP/64-63
- 44: ØXN – CYRM
- 45: Sleaford Mods – UK GRIM
- 46: JAAW – Supercluster
- 47: Skull Practitioners – Negative Stars
- 48: Raphael Rogiński – Tálan
- 49: Polobi & The Gwo Ka Masters – Abri Cyclonique
- 50: Enola Gay – Casement
- 51: Matana Roberts – Coin Coin Chapter Five: In The Garden
- 52: Bell Witch – Future’s Shadow Part 1: The Clandestine Gate
- 53: Algiers – Shook
- 54: O Yama O – Galo
- 55: Ruth Anderson & Annea Lockwood – Tête-à-tête
- 56: KMRU – Dissolution Grip
- 57: Mendoza Hoff Revels – Echolocation
- 58: Fever Ray – Radical Romantics
- 59: James Holden – Imagine This Is A High Dimensional Space Of All Possibilities
- 60: Billy Woods & Kenny Segal – Maps
- 61: Noname – Sundial
- 62: a.P.A.t.T. – We
- 63: Natalia Beylis – Mermaids
- 64: Cassandra Miller – Traveller Song / Thanksong
- 65: Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs – Land Of Sleeper
- 66: Sourdurent – L’Herbe De Détourne
- 67: Flesh & The Dream – Choose Mortality
- 68: TORPOR – Abscission
- 69: Årabrot – Of Darkness And Light
- 70: Sparks – The Girl Is Crying In Her Latte
- 71: Yfory – Yfory
- 72: Mozart Estate – Pop-Up! Kerching! And The Possibilities Of Modern Shopping
- 73: Synthfreq – Vol. 1
- 74: Nihiloxica – Source Of Denial
- 75: House Of All – House Of All
- 76: One More Grain – Modern Music
- 77: Colin Stetson – When We Were That What Wept For The Sea
- 78: Nicky Wire – Intimism
- 79: Jellyskin – In Brine
- 80: Reverend Kristin Michael Hayter – SAVED!
- 81: Kevin Richard Martin – Black
- 82: Yossari Baby – Inferiority Complex
- 83: Zhao Cong – 55355
- 84: Stephen O’Malley & Anthony Pateras – Sept duos pour guitare acoustique & piano préparé
- 85: Spirit Possession – Of The Sign…
- 86: KASAI – J/P/N
- 87: Godflesh – Purge
- 88: Anjimile – The King
- 89: Moussa Tchingou – Tamiditine
- 90: DeVon Russell Gray / Nathan Hanson / Davu Seru – We Sick
- 91: MXLX – Saint
- 92: Maxo – Even God Has A Sense Of Humor
- 93: Dodo Resurrection II – A Treatise On Ceremonial Magic
- 94: The Stargazer’s Assistant – Fire Worshipper
- 95: Rezzett – Meant Like This
- 96: John Zorn – Homenaje A Remedios Varo
- 97: ANOHNI And The Johnsons – My Back Was A Bridge For You To Cross
- 98: Oozing Wound – We Cater To Cowards
- 99: Niecy Blues – Exit Simulation
- 100: Call Super – Eulo Cramps
