2023 turned out to be a bit of a bumper year for post-punk-alt-folk starting in January (as years usually do, to be fair) with This Is The Kit bassist Rozi Plain’s enchanting fifth solo album ‘Prize’.
Things then got much louder in February with the debut album from the already-legendary Ukrainian metalcore/riot grrrl trio Death Pill, who we welcomed on stage in June in London and Brighton.
At the other end of our musical spectrum, Emily Breeze released her excellent third indie-noir-pop album, ‘Rapture’, Feral Five delivered a “glistening electropunk masterpiece” with ‘Truth Is the New Gold’ and Gina Birch (ex-Raincoats) released her solo debut with the terrific ‘I Play My Bass Loud’. Sadly, February also delivered two farewell records: final album ‘Desire Pathway’ from the always remarkable Screaming Females and The Franklys’ ‘Dogma’, a LOUD WOMEN Album Of The Month.
March brought us Brix Smith’s fantastic solo-proper album and Hercury Award nomination, ‘Valley Of the Dolls’, the debut EP from ‘queer, Black genre-bending afrofuture’-star King Isis, and ‘Ride Or Die’ from ARXX, “a mighty juggernaut of a record” and another LW Album Of The Month, while Canadian garage-pop duo Miesha & the Spanx released banger-packed fifth LP ‘Unconditional Love In Hi-Fi‘ in April.
May saw three key EP releases: ‘A Thousand Times’ by the brilliant Hotwax, ‘You’re Welcome’ by the all-conquering Lambrini Girls (which shared joint LW EP Of The Month), and the ‘Et Cetera‘ EP from teenage power-pop sensations the Dollheads. Album releases included polyrhythmic post-punks Pozi’s second LP ‘Smiling Pools’ and Bar Italia’s excellent third long-player ‘Tracey Denim’.
In June, Dream Wife released third album ‘Social Lubrication’, another LW Album Of The Month. Other highlights included Hex Poseur’s ‘Stunning’ debut, This Is The Kit’s sixth album ‘Careful Of Your Keepers’, Fräulein’s second, ‘Pedestal’ EP, and my personal fave (surely a shoe-in for a Quebecois Hercury Award?) La Sécurité’s ‘Stay Safe!’.
PJ Harvey reclaimed her crown in July with tenth album ‘I Inside The Old Year Dying’, a month which brought the debut ‘Coming Up Roses’ EP from Taxi Girls and the first-and-only long-player ‘Off The Tongue’ from the sadly-departed Current Affairs (relax, no-one died and they’ve probably all got new bands already). New life also arrived in the form of Snõõper’s splendid ‘Super Snõõper’ album: 14 tracks of rerecorded chaos, all but one under two minutes long.
As if to balance the aforementioned farewells, August saw the triumphant return of Be Your Own Pet, whose third album ‘Mommy’ was genuinely worth its 15-year wait.
The unstoppable Coach Party delivered another triumph in September with their longplaying debut ‘Killjoy’, its ten tracks including five brilliant singles; other highlights included “arguably the most exciting album of 2023”, CLT DRP’s ‘Nothing Clever, Just Feelings’, prolific rave-punks Killdren’s “inimitable” fourth album ‘The Illuminaughty’, a brand new ‘EP3‘ from Brighton’s Snoozers, the ‘Loud‘ debut from alt-RnB London duo Deuxes, and latest LP ‘I Don’t Want You Anymore’ from the increasingly polished but still peerless Cherry Glazerr.
October brought us the debut ‘Scum’ EP from the irresistible Bex, its deluxe edition expanded to album length, and two experimental debuts in the form of ĠENN’s ‘unum’ and ex-Sink Ya Teeth frontwoman Maria Uzor’s ‘Soft Cuts’, while Hotwax released their ace second EP ‘Invite Me Kindly’. Teen Jesus & the Jean Teasers garnered international affection with first album ‘I Love You‘, Problem Patterns charmed our socks off with belter debut ‘Blouse Club’, Vernon Jane blew our minds with epic second LP ‘Chestpains and Sidepieces‘, and Chroma made us an album we couldn’t refuse with their debut, ‘Ask For Angela’.
Serafina Steer’s post-punk-alt-folk project Bas Jan continued to delight in November with third album ‘Back To The Swamp’ while Marnie Stern returned with superlative fifth album, ‘The Comeback Kid‘, her first for ten years.
December dispatched the debut ‘Go To Hell’ EP from new indiepop supergroup Felicette before the year was helped to a close with the long-awaited fourth LP ‘Streams and Waterways’ from London noise-pop ex-pats Witching Waves.
Not a bad year then, listening wise, and if I may I’ll finish with a quote from (Derek Jarman’s) ‘Jubilee’ that just came to mind:
“As long as the music’s loud enough, we won’t hear the world falling apart”.
Tune in and turn it up.