Council Meeting Memo #082 — Louis Pattinson’s Top 10 for 2023

Not exactly a best-of-the-year list, but 10 albums that feel worth evangelising for as 2023 limps to a sorry close.

1. Goat (jp): Joy In Fear (NAKID)
Forensically complex woodwind and percussion skitter from the elusive Japanese group. Their show at King’s Place was outrageously good, so is this.

2. Universal Harmonies & Frequencies: Tune IN (Yeyeh)
Cosmic jazz philosophy meets acid trax groove, courtesy of Jamal ‘Hieroglyphic Being’ Moss and the Warsaw-based saxophonist Jerzy Maczyński.

3. Drifting: Dream Autopsy (Förlag För Fri Musik)
The Gothenburg microscene around Discreet Music and Förlag För Fri Musik kept on giving. Especially this — dreamy pop songs drifting through thick layers of noise-concrète.

4. Quade: Nacre (AD93)
I know next to nothing about this group, but their debut LP for AD93 reminded me of that UK post-rock wave — Fridge, Crescent, et al — with a dash of mid-’70s Eno for good measure.

5. Various Artists: Always + Forever (Do you have peace?)
Decent comp of dreamy dub and sound system mutations on Amos Childs of Jabu’s do you have peace? imprint — contemporary Bristol Sound (and beyond).

6. Cheval de frise: Fresques sur les parois secrètes du crâne (Computer Students)
Lavish reissue of this second album from French avant-rock duo. 20 years on their high-wire collision of classical guitar shred and outrageous drumming still sounds unique.

7. Various Artists: Klar!80 (Bureau B)
Furtive post-punk electronics from the Düsseldorf cassette underground of the early 1980s, restored by Bureau B.

8. Mariam Rezaei: BOWN (Heat Crimes)
Saw Mariam Rezaei play a great set with fellow turntablists Victoria Shen and Maria Chavez at Rewire earlier this year. Her solo album is well worth a listen too: nine tracks of dissembled jazz, jagged noise and elastic time-stretching with input from a cast of collaborators.

9. Karate: Complete Studio Recordings (Numero Group)
Karate’s cerebral fusion of slowcore, jazz and Dischord-y punk felt a little… smooth to me back in the day? But hitting different in 2023 for sure.

10. Trym Søvdsnes: Trym Søvdsnes (Smalltown Supersound)
Lush analogue techno from a Bergen producer on Smallsound Supersound that sounded great as a soundtrack to a soggy schlep up to Glastonbury Tor earlier this year.

Louis Pattison is a writer, journalist and designer. He lives just outside the London borders.