2023 Picks by DJ Rushton
My favorite new music of 2023 in a Spotify public playlist, in somewhat of an order
This is my 10th yearly playlist on Spotify of “new music”. It’s a playlist I build publicly throughout the year.
Most tracks are here because I listen to my Release Radar playlist, which Spotify electronically curates and sends every Friday. Release Radar is far from perfect, but it has a good batting average for me.
A lot of this is ambient, instrumental, shoegaze, jazz-ish, psychedelic pop, dub, and drone metal. There’s even a country song.
I’ll comment on some of the tracks:
Theme of “Life is Climbing” - Chihei Hatakeyama - he’s been in my yearly Picks for several years now. Normally he’s guitar-based and heavily effected, but this is piano-based. I haven’t seen the movie as of 1/1/24, but it’s about a blind Japanese mountain climber.
Night Walking and Yes, You Are Asleep - Daniel Diaz - another repeat favorite artist. I happened across Diaz as a fellow contributor to the Disquiet Junto. He’s got huge catalog of excellent, jazz-inspired, instrumental music. If you like these two, take the deep dive. He definitely deserves a bigger audience.
Start a New Life - Pantha du Prince (Kuniyuki Takahashi remix) - Pantha Du Prince has a very recognizable rhythmic style. If you like this, chances are you’ll like a lot of his past work. 2010’s “Black Noise” is a great place to start.
Karadeniz 2 - Punkt, stillefelt, Jan Bang, Erik Honore - Reminds me of the Alvo Noto / Ryuichi Sakamoto / Ensemble Modern collaboration called Utp_ about 15 years ago. If I ever made “live music” again, it would be something along these lines.
Bara to Yaji (Live at the Mayan Theatre) - Haruomi Hosono - The last living member of Yellow Magic Orchestra (and the grandson of a Titanic survivor!) - “The Crown” remade this song from his 1973 solo debut a few years ago in a style I can only describe as “too bad he couldn’t have made a duet with Prince” - here, in a live setting, it’s a little more jazzy, almost Steely Dan-like. Yes, the lyrics are in Japanese, but it’s a great tune.
Once something good shows up in 2024, I’ll start a new public playlist on Spotify and mention it here, and likely on my other mailing list.