Monday, January 01, 2024

My most played music of 2023

Because no one asked for it, here are lists of my most played music from 2023, according to iTunes. Please note these are my most played pieces of music, not my favourites.

First of all, music released in 2023, in reverse order by how often I have played these tunes.

10. Unthank | Smith "Red Wine Promises"

This is from the Nowhere and Everywhere album released by Rachel Unthank (of the Unthanks) and Paul Smith (of Maxïmo Park). The song is a cover of Lal Waterson's song from the criminally unavailable 1972 album Bright Phoebus.

9. Natalia Beylis & Eimear Reidy "Pour upon the Sky"

This is from the album She Came in Through the Window to Stand by the Door, which was recorded in a church in Leitrim, with Beylis on organ and Reidy playing cello.

8. Roger Doyle"This The Way To The Museyroom"

And this comes from Finnegan's Wake | Suites of Affection volume 2, the second of albums on which veteran Irish electronic music star Roger Doyle combines music to actors reading sections of James Joyce's widely read novel. This track features the voice of Dearbhla Crotty.

7. Brìghde Chaimbeul "Banish The Giant of Doubt & Despair"

From Carry Them with Us, Chaimbeul's album of music for the Scottish small pipes.

6. Lankum "Go Dig My Grave"

The opening track on False Lankum, Lankum's wildly successful third album under that name.

5. The Anchoress "Love Will Tear Us Apart"

A cover version of the popular Joy Division tune, downloadable from Bandcamp.

4. Blanca Paloma "Eaea"

Spain's weirdo pop entry for the 2023 Eurovision Song Contest. It didn't win.

3. Orbital "Ringa Ringa (The Old Pandemic Folk Song)"

The opening track from Optical Delusion sees the Hartnoll brothers joined by The Mediaeval Baebes, an outfit I had always written off as belonging to the "Lovely Girls" end of folk music.

2. Mombi Yuleman "Fellowship of Heretics"

From the compilation album Music for Abandoned Monasteries.

1. Ursa Major Moving Group "Reverse Invisible"

This is opening track to the self-titled album by Ursa Major Moving Group, the trading name of multi-instrumentalist Ursula Russell. I think it was hearing this or another track from the album being played by John Kelly or Bernard Clarke on Lyric that turned me onto UMMG. As yet their appeal remains selective.

And here are the 10 pre-2023 tunes that I added in that year and I listened to the most in 2023.

10. The Free Music "Free Music I"

From the Habibi Funk album Free Music (Part 1), this is a reissue of funk music originally released at some point in the past in the band's native Libya.

9. Roger Doyle "Chalant"

From his 2014 album Time Machine, on which Doyle combines newly composed music with old answering machine messages.

8. D-Shake "Techno Trance (Paradise is Now)"

A 1992 classic I tracked down after hearing snippets of it in Jeremy Deller's Everybody in the Place documentary. Come on!

7. DEHD "Control"

From their 2022 album Blue Skies. I was impressed by Dehd when I saw them supporting Dry Cleaning, but have been a bit underwhelmed by them on record.

6. Richard Pinhas "Metatron/Shaddaï/Chabbataï"

From the 2006 album Metatron. Not sure how I first of this record… I suspect it was recommended by one of my Frank's APA buds.

5. Desire "Black Latex"

From the Italians Do It Better artists' 2022 album Escape.

4. The Incredible String Band "Chinese White"

From the 1967 album The 5000 Spirits Or The Layers Of The Onion.

3. Pankisi Ensemble "Deli Rezi Khilva Shuna"

From the 2022 Ored Recordings album Music of Kists, Chechens of Georgia. I'm no anthropologist, but I understand the Kists to be a Georgian resident community related to the nearby Chechens. They are particularly associated with the Pankisi Gorge area of Georgia.

2. Weyes Blood "A Lot's Gonna Change"

This is from Ms Blood's 2019 album Titanic Rising.

1. Aoife Wolf "The Woman Who Shot Andy Warhol" The Wetlands

From her 2022 mini-album The Wetlands. Aoife Wolf has the air of someone who might break through into the kind of minor fame that people I like sometimes enjoy, so perhaps I will turn out to be ahead of the curve.

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