Listening Clark :: Class Of 2023 :: Module Ten
And hello to you too…
Well, it’s been a busy, hectic, where-did-my-life-go run, but I’ve cracked 500 new albums/EP’s/compilations/mixtapes/what-have-you’s in my 2023 listening schedule!
And getting in the spirt of the music festival season getting fully underway in after Glastonbury’s massive coming-and-going, I’ve devised a my own dream Summer 2023 outdoor music conference lineup featuring artists responsible for the top thirty albums of the last three months.
Have a listen below and to see if any of your favourites have made it onto the final roster (or not, most likely, I’m guessing):
Also, with Pride month drawing to a close, it only feels right to commemorate it with another annual mix consisting of the finest music-making members and allies that the LGBTQIA+ community has to offer, so feel free to dip into my Spectrum mix below too:
Oh, and if that wasn’t content-heavy enough, please find below the final round up for Quarter 2 of 4 in 2023:
Listening Clark :: Class Of 2023 :: Module Ten
3213123 – Bored Lord
DJ/Producer Daria Lourd supplies some classy nostalgic hedonism on her second album, dropped on her birthday back in January but arriving at my schedule just in time to provide some serious summer vibe-age.
ANIMALS – Kassa Overall
Though the jazz drummer’s third album comes complete with probably the most impressive guest artist roster of the year so far, there’s no denying the sheer amount of soulfully disturbed swag from the progenitor himself throughout.
Fountain Baby – Amaarae
One of R&B’s genuinely exciting new stars from the last decade returns to the sonic fray with their second album, which is as mercurially sinuous and intoxicatingly strange a summer jam record as you will likely hear this year.
Last Man Standing – Jake Shears
The Scissor Sisters frontman takes a potentially-life-threatening stab at the crown of disco-pop with his second solo album, the second half of which elicits the best kind of retro-fitted late-night sleaze and sweatiness particularly well.
Max Bruch & Florence Price: Violin Concertos – Randall Goosby, Yannick Nézet-Séguin & The Philadelphia Orchestra
Violin prodigy Goosby teams up with famed conductor Nezet-Seguin and the latter’s trusted former orchestra to deliver a spellbinding set of concertos that puts his gorgeous playing through a constantly thrilling test.
Off Planet – Django Django
Formerly a project that would have seen four equal parts released separately, the London art-rock band decided to just bundle the enterprise together, thereby delivering their most quantitively and boppily consistent album to date.
On The Romance Of Being – Desire Marea
The experimental artist utilises their recent spiritual journey becoming “sangoma” (a healer, according to their Zula heritage) to create a most heart-meltingly transcendent album of faith and connection, equal parts fervent and sensuous.
PARANOÏA, ANGELS, TRUE LOVE – Christine And The Queens
With their fourth album, Héloise Letissier confirms their status as one of the most challenging, confident, wounded and idiosyncratic figures of the current pop world, this ninety-minute-plus opus as galvanizingly grand as it is recklessly revealing.
Sus Dog – Clark
Once you realise that Thom Yorke worked extensively on what is ostensibly electronic/classical composer Christopher Clark’s latest album, it only makes more and more sense as you listen to what is surely his most pop-oriented work yet.
Talisman – Slowspin
And finally we close this module out with the debut album from Zeerak Ahmed’s Slowspin project, which combines influences from her Pakistani heritage with modern electronic ambience to truly swoonsome effect.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to have a lie down… will probably chill and listen to some music, you know how it is. 😉
xxxo
