Google Bard prompt: “Write a year end top ten list in the style of Lester Bangs using the following music albums”. With any errors struck through and corrected in red
Forget your Top 10s, these records ain’t for faint hearts or Top 40 charts. This is the year punk turned the volume to 11 and tripped over its own power cord, the year dance cradled death in its sweaty palms, and the ghosts of folk past whispered secrets into electronic ears. Buckle up, Bangs-bots, ’cause here’s the sonic shitstorm that was 2023:
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Everything But The Girl – Fuse: Forget your mellow coffee shop tunes, this comeback’s got bite. Ben Watt’s beats simmer with a slow-burning anger, while Tracey Thorn’s voice chills you to the bone. It’s the sound of two people staring into the abyss and refusing to blink.
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Gina Birch – I Play My Bass Loud: The Slits Raincoats legend’s back, baby, and her bass ain’t lost any bite. This is punk stripped bare, raw and primal, a middle finger to ageism and a reminder that rock ain’t for teenagers, it’s for anyone with fire in their veins.
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Sleaford Mods – UK GRIM: Like Thatcher’s ghost returned with a kazoo and a bucket of bile, these Brit bastards spit vitriol on everything from Brexit to Boris, proving fury’s still the best fuel for punk. They’d make Johnny Rotten choke on his safety pin. (Ed. This year’s Sleaford Mods’ charity single cover of “West End Girls” is also nicely rough)
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PJ Harvey – I Inside the Old Year Dying: She ain’t Polly anymore, she’s a banshee howling at the apocalypse. Drones, sax that sounds like a rusty chainsaw, and Harvey’s voice? It’s the soundtrack to the world ending in a slow-motion mosh pit.
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Lankum – False Lankum: These Irish specters crawled out of a peat bog with enough dirges and fiddle-driven fury to raise the dead. Imagine Dylan in a haunted pub, singing sea shanties about existential dread. This ain’t your grandpa’s folk revival, it’s a pagan headbanging ritual.
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Sigur Rós – ÁTTA: Forget your post-rock clichés, these Icelandic ice gods weave tapestries of sound that’ll freeze your soul and melt your eardrums. It’s the aural equivalent of staring into a glacier crevasse, beautiful and terrifying in equal measure.
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Kali Uchis – Red Moon In Venus: This Colombian dream queen spins a psychedelic disco ball of Latin grooves, bedroom whispers, and enough bass to make Prince blush. It’s like dancing with a goddess on the edge of a volcano, one wrong step and you’re toast, but damn it’s gonna be a glorious inferno.
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Jessie Ware – That! Feels Good!: Disco ain’t dead, it’s just hiding in Ware’s sequined jumpsuit. This is pure pop adrenaline, the kind that makes you wanna strut down the street like you own the night. But beneath the glitter, there’s a darkness lurking, a knowing wink that life’s too short not to dance on the edge.
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Tiga & Hudson Mohawke – L’Ecstasy: Two electronic mad scientists in a sonic lab, throwing rave beats, sci-fi synths, and enough bass to crack the planet’s crust. This ain’t just music, it’s a drug trip with a killer soundtrack.
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Pangaea – Changing Channels: Guitars that sound like alien transmissions, vocals that float like ghosts in a haunted spaceship… this is sonic exploration gone rogue. It’s like tuning into a pirate radio station broadcasting from the edge of the universe.
Bonus Bangs Blast: Sofia Kourtesis’ “Madres” for weaving heartbreak and motherhood into a tapestry of haunting lullabies, and Belle and Sebastian’s “Late Developers” for proving you can be clever and catchy without selling your soul to Spotify.
So there you have it, Bangs-heads, a year of music that’ll leave you bruised, bewildered, and begging for more. Now go forth and make your own racket, the revolution needs your noise.
P.S. Don’t forget the earplugs, things are gonna get loud.
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Four Tet x Fred again.. x Skrillex – Coachella 2023 – Coachella
https://youtu.be/dFfC92iBxNw
A last minute addition to close out the main stage on the second weekend (after the Frank Ocean debacle), this trio are simultaneously on the same page and also constantly on the verge of flying apart in a shattered mess. The balancing act had been honed over several prior performances, but this was ever more remarkable. Playlist
Braxe & Falcon: Sweet Memories Mix:
https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/1563380743
Nostalgia-tinged, but not sentimental, summer fun. Lots of French house mixed in.
Queen Asher ft. Rehema Tajiri: Hör Berlin Mix:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rEBqXEQiVrc
Mother/daughter combo with Mum rapping/decaliming over the daughter’s mix of frantic singeli-based beats. Tinny drums and keys get up near 300 bpm. Mad
TACKHEAD Live at Sweetwater
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbshVTq7nFo
This 40 minute video was uploaded in the spring of 2023, but it was filmed many years ago. A good studio session cut together with some round-table reminiscences. Keith LeBlanc has been adding lots of interesting stuff to his YouTube channel.