What a year for music. I’ve stated that I watched too much television this year, and that I watched too many movies this year, but I can never get enough music. There’s always another album to check out or a new artist to discover. Going through my Spotify favorites and Bandcamp saves and SoundCloud likes and listening to the many projects on rotation throughout 2023, I was overwhelmed by the quality and quantity. Narrowing this list to 50 was nearly impossible. But we did it. It’s featured below. It’s more or less in order. I didn’t include any write-ups or outside links but this list is a fine mixture of hip-hop albums, instrumental beat tapes, bedroom pop, lofi folk, dub, isolated piano, isolated guitar, retro soul, jazz, and more. You know how to Google, and if you want my full list of 143 projects from 2023, you know where to find me.

St Francis Hotel & Liam Bailey

Enfant Terrible

kerri

Finish What You Started

Bunnyhug (EP)

Hurting (EP)

ICECOLDBISHOP

Generational Curse

Puma Blue

Holy Waters

Ours Samplus

Bepolar

Afternoon Bike Ride

Glossover

Twit One

18 Steps Below

Canossa Ave

The Questions (LP as part of trio Syrup)

Kitty (EP w. Clbrks)

Obijuan

Bimini Road

Mangrove Maze (w. Wino Willy)

Xodex Gigas (w. Argov)

Wavonomixx

Xaonabo (w. dylantheinfamous)

Babylon Garden (w. Wino Willy)

Pinky Ring Parliament (EP)

Apoxalypso [Raw & Unxut] (w. dylantheinfamous)

CA$H4GOLD (EP w. Yungmorpheus)

Mounika

Don't Look at Me

Somni

Gravity

Fog Lake

Midnight Society

b-sides (vol 1)

AJ Suede

Indica Music

Parthian Shots (w. Televangel)

Ark Flashington

Reoccuring Characters (w. Steel Tipped Dove)

What Them Dogs Don't Know They Know (as G’s Us w. RAP Ferreira)

Orchid Mantis

there is one place we're all going

a field with no edges

b-sides & ephemera vol. II (2020-2023)

Jadu Jadu

mada (EP w. hnylmn)

follow the birds (w. hnylmn)

Astro Beats & Galactic Treats (w. apltn & TAMBALA & Dwyer

Sergio Diaz De Rojas

Muerte en una tarde de verano

Suite Botanique (EP)

Oh No

Good Vibes / Bad Vibes (w. Roy Ayers)

Heavy Vibrato (w. Elzhi)

Pink Siifu

It's Too Quiet..'!! (w. Turich Benjy)

Leather Blvd. (as B. Cool-Aid w. Ahwlee)

billy woods

Maps (w. Kenny Segal)

We Buy Diabetic Test Strips (w. Elucid as Armand Hammer)

ommood

Apricot Letters (EP)

Bosatsudo (LP w. Takada Fu)

Monsoon Flavour (LP)

Agua Es Vida (EP w. Cengiz Aygun)

Flow Fellows (EP w. Gaya Police)

SkipOnDaBeat & Tommy Revenge

Scholar

Bisk

Samosh!t (Deluxe Edition)

Dioretix (w. Spectacular Diagnostics)

Delicafe (w. dylantheinfamous)

Phat Chants (w. Pertrelli)

brown (EP w. Immi Larusso)

C4

El Michels Affair & Black Thought

Glorious Game

The Rollin' Deep

Showtime

Poncho's Summer Jamz Volume 2

Boomer's Lo Fi Reflections Volume 2

La Cantina

Postcard (w. Boztown)

The Last Sherpa (w. Spectateur)

YUNGMORPHEUS

From Whence It Came

The Chalice & the Blade (w. Real Bad Man)

Will Van Horn

San Luis Pass

The Alchemist

The Great Escape (w. Larry June)

Voir Dire (w. Earl Sweatshirt)

Chester Watson

fish don't climb trees

Pale Jay

Bewilderment

North Posse

Trippy Series II

Ten Nights Up North (w. Ryan Celsius Sounds)

Evil Days (w. Blubear & Cassyb)

Northern Death (EP w. GUCCIGARETTTE)

Alexander Spit

Exotix

Jam (w. Sideshow)

Basement Shit Vol. 3

$tarter_Pack (w. lojii)

additional mentions (in alphabetical order)

40 Winks

Dad's Rehearsal Tape (1973)

Big-8

Seeds

Drip

Summer Romance pt.2

After

boxboys

sacramento mori

Conway the Machine

Pain Provided Profit (w. Jae Skeese)

Won’t He Do It

Drumwork: The Album

Speshal Machinery (w. 38 Spesh)

Palermo (w. Wun Two)

Hall & Nash 2 (w. Westside Gunn & The Alchemist)

Crimeapple

Kilometros

El Cantante

YDFWC?3

Cacio & Pepe (w. Clovid Ochin)

Kilometros 2

DJ Muggs

Soul Assassins 3: Death Valley

Notes & Tones (w. Sun Ra)

Gotts Street Park

On the Inside

Habe

Here, Look

Hector Morlet

The Variety Show

Jenny Owen Youngs

from the forest floor (w. John Mark Nelson)

Avalanche

Laptop Funeral

something blue

Les Imprimes

Reverie

Lord Jah-Monte Ogbon

I've Really Never Been Better

Highly Favored

Michael Nau

Accompany

Moondoe and His Fox

Hi

Are You Real

The Offline

La couleur de la mer

Shabazz Palaces

Robed in Rareness

Skinshape

Craterellus Tubaeformis

T. F.

Feelin The Power

Skanless Levels 4 (w. 2 Eleven)

Will Van Horn

San Luis Pass

in addition

Not included in my top 50 because I worked directly on these projects, so I’m perhaps biased, but I wanted to include them because 1) these are fantastic projects worthy of your eyes and ears and 2) shameless self plug

Alaskan Tapes

Who Tends a Garden

To compliment his fantastic nine song ambient album, Alaskan Tapes and I developed a limited edition multimedia book. Featuring his photography and my prose poems (written while listening to his LP), we wanted to give it the look and feel of a coffee table book. Lo and behold, it looks like only one copy is left before being sold out for good.

Afroham

Quantum Love (EP)

Afroham’s debut EP, Quantum Love, is not only a strong audio project from start to finish (featuring Misha, cocabona, Ian Ewing, Ginge, and Birocratic), but it also includes an immersive environment and unique visual world. Afroham inserted VHS footage into Blender and made a short film to go with the EP, complete with laptop dialogue that I helped to write.

lastly