The No Badger Required Top Ten Tracks and Albums of the Year – #1

And so we finally reach the top.  The peak, the pinnacle, the pointy bit.  The career highlight.  The accolade that all musicians want.  Damn it, this is the reason most people pick up a guitar, or plug in a keyboard or yelp into a microphone to tell us about how their love life is , or manipulate a machine to make an incredible noise, in the first place, because if they don’t they will never ever be awarded the No Badger Required Track of Album of the Year accolade.

Which, clearly, is what makes life so fulfilling. 

Oh, by the way, both the track of the year and the album of the year were released by the SAME label.  That label is Matador Records and right now its probably the most important record label we have.  I’m pretty sure this is the first time that different acts from the same label have topped each side of the poll.  Might be wrong. 

So without further ado, lets give it up for the track of the year, which, if you were paying attention, I sort of gave away last Wednesday.

No Badger Required Tracks of the Year – #1 – Nurse – Bar Italia (2023, Matador Records, Taken from ‘Tracey Denim’)

I think I must have played ‘Nurse’ about six times in a row when I first heard it.  It was on a download of a Steve Lamacq radio show and each time as it reached the end I’d stop it and rewind it (digitally, of course, I don’t have it on cassette) and play it all over again, to make sure I’d heard it right. 

 ‘Nurse’ starts out innocently enough – a simple guitar riff, a whispery XX style female vocal and a scratchy snare.  It teases you to carry on listening.  Around 45 seconds in, the songs bursts (sort of) into life, the drum is pounded – just the once mind, twice would be excessive – a different vocalist kicks in,  a chap this time  – the guitars get a bit fuzzy, suddenly we’re in an early Ride single  and it all sounds wonderful and the song is taking you somewhere else, or so you think.

Because thirty seconds later, the girl is back, the familiar riff that opened the song is back as well and we are back where we started until the over stuff starts up again, slightly differently, because this a third vocalist can be hard singing through a distorted mic.  Its wonderful, all of it, the interplay between the three vocalists, the scratchy drums, the refrained beats,  the whispered bits, the reflective lyrics, the way it swaggers knowingly, basking in its own coolness, the way it quickens and slows without really any warning, the way the guitars jangle, the distortion that shuts it all down – all of it.  Just magic.

F.O.B – Bar Italia (2023, Matador Records, Taken from ‘Tracey Denim’)

Of course, I gave away the Album of the Year winners a bit earlier, somewhere around the 7th December if I remember rightly because I described this record as phenomenal and that’s not a word I band around willy nilly.

No Badger Required Albums of the Year – #1 – Everyones Crushed – Water From Your Eyes (2023, Matador Records)

‘Everyone’s Crushed’ is something like Water From Your Eyes third album), the first two crossed so many genres (synth pop, post punk, noise pop, shoegaze….), and concepts (hip hop cover versions, ballads….) that people had trouble describing their music.  It appears that it was all part of the masterplan.  That masterplan being ‘Everyone’s Crushed’ where all those ideas and concepts are welded together, into a wonderfully chaotic and brilliant album.

Barley – Water From Your Eyes (2023, Matador Records)

‘Everyone’s Crushed’ is such a good record, full of squealing, distorted guitars which stops to allow some digital squelching to kick in and then starts again, regardless as to whether the squelching has stopped or not.    Its full of guitars that sound like they have been deliberately detuned – in a way that sounds amazing (and as such sound like Sonic Youth in a way that not even Sonic Youth managed in the later parts of their careers).  But then when you scrap away all of that there are still simple pop songs waiting for you, like ‘Out There’ which has synths on it that sound like they’ve been nicked from an Art of Noise record.

Out There – Water From Your Eyes (2023, Matador Records)

The chaotic nature of it, is part of its charm.  Track six ‘True Life’ for example starts with guitars that blast away all screechy and in your face – but then all that stops and the band sing “Neil, let me sing your song”, a request aimed solely at Neil Young (or rather his lawyers), who refused to let them use a line or two from his ‘Cinnamon Girl’ song – and so forced the band to re-record a section.  It’s jumbled and messy but frankly who cares because when the music on offer is this good it really doesn’t matter.  ‘Everyone’s Crushed’ is utterly awesome.

True Life – Water From Your Eyes (2023, Matador Records)

And that folks is that.  2023, is done.  We’ll have a Nearly Perfect Album tomorrow, a 12 inch from the cupboard on Sunday, and then next week – I’ve arranged for two very famous people* to take charge of the blog for four days, whilst I stuff myself full of chocolates, sprouts and nut roasts.

* By famous, I mean, entirely made up and not famous at all. 

The No Badger Required Top Ten Tracks and Albums of the Year – #2

Today we will explore the track and the albums that are the runners up – the second bests of the year, and again they represent, two very different musical genres  On the one hand we have some breakspeed, in your face electronic rap and on the other hand we have the dirtiest, scuzziest garage rock that I’ve heard in a long time – but before then we have the little matter of the final two Musical Jury recommendations.   Here’s the first or rather the fifth, from JC.

The Candle and The Flame – Robert Forster (2023, Tapete Records)

“He’s been around for decades, but 2023 saw him hit a creative peak.  A reflective album, celebrating the good and happy things in life, past and present alike.  It was partly his response to the news that his wife, Karin Baumler, who has recorded and toured alongside him since the 90s had been diagnosed with cancer.  By the time it was finished and released, the album was, without question, the most uplifting and rewarding of 2023.  Oh, and his live shows were marvellous too.”.

He’s right, of course. 

And here is the last and possibly the best recommendation of the lot (although the David Holmes album might just pip it) from Khayem from the wonderful  Dubhed blog.

“My favourite song of the year is ‘Confession of An Aging Party Girl’ by Emily Breeze”

Confession of An Aging Party Girl – Emily Breeze (2023, Sugar Shack Records)

It might seem an easy choice, going for an artist based in my birthplace Bristol.  A bit of a cheat too, as the single was originally released in 2020 and re-released in February 2023, this time with a remix by Daddy G vs Robot Club.

What was a great song in the first place is taken to another place entirely, starting off with a pulsing electro vibe before sidestepping into a showboating second half both giving space for Emily’s half spoken half sung lyrics, dripping with metaphor and ennui. 

Or…a real banger in the indie disco sense. 

The remix and Emily’s third album ‘Rapture’, also out in February, has been on constant rotation at home and on the daily commute and shows no signs of fading. “

It’s ruddy marvellous that track….Thanks Khayem, and JC and all the Musical Jury not just for these recommendations but for all of your help over the year.  Genuinely couldn’t write this blog without you.

Ok, let’s look at track and the album that sit at number two on my list.

No Badger Required Tracks of the Year – #2 – Backwards – H31R (2023, Big Dada Records, Taken from ‘Headspace’)

We’ll do the introductions first if you like.   H31R are New Jersey based producer JWords and the Brooklyn based rapper maassai, who combine club rhythms and breakbeats over the top of unfiltered rap that have this almost otherworldly feel to them. 

I’ll do the musical comparisons next if that helps, although you might have to go with me on this a bit – but you know all those noises, scratches, bleeps and Spectrum computer game sounds that Radiohead then played guitars and stuff over when the released ‘Kid A’ that we all now think is some form of experimental genius….Well H31R (its’s pronounced ‘Heir’ by the way) have sort of done that but they have removed the needs for guitars and just put expansively brilliant rap over the noises, sounds, and (what I think are, at least) Chuckie Egg samples.  Lyrically ‘Backwards’ builds over this refrain of maassai asking “Why You movin backwards?”.  It confident, its understated and whilst some might want to call it experimental – I’ll just settle for amazing.   The album that followed ‘Headspace’ is also well worth a listen.

Down Down Bb – H31R (2023, Big Dada Records)

Ok, that’s the electronic rap, here’s the dirty, scuzzy garage rock.

No Badger Required Albums of the Year – #2 – Rat Saw God – Wednesday (2023, Dead Oceans Records)

We have of course been here before.  About ten years ago, I lost my voice shouting as loud as I could about how marvellous Hop Along and their dirty scuzzy guitars were (and they are).  Then in 2019, I said the same thing about Great Grandpa and before them I think I said the same thing about Speedy Ortiz.  Well, strap in because we have another one – but this one is different, because if you take all the bits that make Hop Along, Great Grandpa and Speedy Ortiz so essential you still don’t really scratch the surface on how utterly incredible the fifth album by North Carolina’s Wednesday is. 

Like all good scuzzy garage rock records, ‘Rat Saw God’ is powered by an incredible vocal.  That being courtesy of Karly Hartzman, who at the start of the record wants you to think that this is a folk record – but two songs and nine minutes in, all pretensions of a sing a long around the honky tonk piano are kicked firmly out of the window, as the end of the eight minute epic ‘Bull Believer’ is met with screams and some furious guitars that tell that this isn’t just a garage rock record, it’s a garage rock record that has its roots in DIY punk rock.  It is extraordinarily good.

Bull Believer – Wednesday (2023, Dead Oceans Records)

I say punk rock, well, I’ll dilute that a little because there is an element of alt country to it, there is also a smidgeon of shoegaze and a heck of a lot of urban torture. ‘Rat Saw God’ has this untouchable quality running through it – partly due to the vocals which take in emotional high and lows but also down to the music which runs through it.  At times Karly’s voice is buried under the wave of guitars that build into an abrasive kind of shrill that do their best to silence Hartzman in the best kind of way. 

‘Rat Saw God’ might be a bit bleak, but it works and above everything else it is a beautiful record.

Got Shocked – Wednesday (2023, Dead Oceans Records)

TV In the Gas Pump – Wednesday (2023, Dead Oceans Records)

The No Badger Required Top Ten Tracks and Albums of the Year – #3

Yesterday saw us look at the track and the album that sat at Number 4 in this rundown.  As fate would have it, and unlike, number 6, where I fudged it a little to make things work easier for me,  it was a genuine coincidence that both acts who sat at Number4 were from Dublin.   What I should have done is swapped JC’s third album recommendation around with his second, because his third recommendation is yet another Dublin band – a band who I have already mentioned in this countdown and one that a lot of the Musical Jury are raving about.  Here’s JC to tell us more, and there is some hideous NBR back slapping here in the first sentence – which is almost guaranteed to make me publish anything you have written.

Back Catalogue LP – SPRINTS (2023, City Slang Records)

“The Dublin based, garage punk band came to my attention via a No Badger Required recommendation in late 2022.  The debut album is due in early 2024, but as the title of this release indicates, all the early singles and Eps have been brought together on one slab of vinyl (albeit I only have the digtal version as I was too slow off the mark).  Manically energetic – the sort of music that makes me wish I was about to turn 21 and not 61.”

Seriously, if you haven’t explored SPRINTS yet please do so.  They are tremendous.

Our Swedish correspondent, also has a single of the year to tell us about and again it is a track that had I heard it before November 28th – would have probably made the Top 20 with some ease.

“The best song of the year for a long time was one of the 7” singles released during the year by Swedish synth duo Kite, and Turn On the Light (b/w the magnificent ‘Remember Me’).  That all changed when I was trying to decide my album of the year and listened to ‘Chris Black Changed My Life’ by Portugal.  The Man and their track ‘Summer of Luv’ made me realized in had to be that.  It is just an irresistible indie pop song, made for the dancefloor,  a sing a long tune catch as fuck (I apologise for the language but is truly catchy, as well yes, fuck).  It also has the best use of saxophone for a very long time.

Summer of Luv – Portugal.  The Man (2023, Atlantic Records)

In case you are wondering (and you should be) – Martin’s album of the year is All Of This Will End by Indigo De Souza – and it is all sorts of astonishing.

Right, lets move on with the track and album that are superglued into the big space reserved for The No Badger Required Track and Albums at Number 3.

No Badger Required Tracks of the Year – #3 – This Here Ain’t Water – Big Special (2023, SO Recordings)

On paper, Big Special shouldn’t be anywhere near the No Badger Required Top Ten.  Two burly , heavily tattooed West Midlands chaps who smash together punk rock with a love of soul records.  The result of that being lots of reviews that compare them lump them somewhere in the gap between The Streets (because of the West Midlands accent) and Royal Blood (because one sings and one drums) – that quite a big gap by the way.   On paper that sounds terrible, they may as well as called them the Smethwick White Stripes (or insert your own West Mids town). 

Luckily, this blog ain’t written on paper because Big Special are marvellous and might just be the best thing to happen to music in a long time (and they need to do a tour with Fat Dog as soon as possible and watch the utter carnage unfold.

There are several wonderful things about ‘This Here Ain’t Water’.  You have the way that it feels raw yet it still manages to soar musically (that tiny twang of a synth near the start is brilliantly subtle), you also have the way that the lyrics feel confrontational with its messages about the lack of options and the lack of cohesions amongst social classes but yet still manage to eek out a pop melody to sit behind a pretty stark message of feeling stuck and worthless.   Best of all you have the way in which their singer manages to sound like a mad evangelical preacher who has decided to do his sermons in the guise of the singer of AC/DC and that folks is worth hearing. 

Shithouse – Big Special (2023, SO Recordings)

Talking of uncompromising -here’s one of the acts who feature in both Top Tens.

No Badger Required Albums of the Year – #3 – Sundial – Noname (2023, AWAL Records)

I’ve waited about five years for the second Noname album.  It very nearly didn’t happen.  Around the time of Covid (or just after it perhaps) Noname retired from the music industry, bored of playing gigs to mainly white audiences of disinterested kids.  In 2023, she returned determined to change things from the inside, with ‘Sundial’, an album that is as brilliant as it is eye opening, full of icy lyrical barbs that take aim at the industry, the people in it, the people around it, singers, rappers, sportstars, well, just about everyone really.  Which probably makes it sound like another ‘preachy record by an arrogant rapper’ – well, no not on this occasion, it isn’t.  She’s not trying to be controversial or different, because its also full of self reflection, soul searching and deliberate contradiction. 

Let’s talk about the vocals first, Noname’s voice is gentle and dynamic.  Both work, the gentleness allows a cosiness to flow on ‘Sundial’ the dynamic nature allows the bluntness to come across as deliberately provocative and when the songs are interspersed with laid back beats, scratchy basslines and some stunning samples, they are merge together – and its nothing short of genius.

Namesake – Noname (2023, AWAL Records)

‘Namesake’ is incredible, a fiery rap take issue at amongst others, Beyonce, Kendrick and Jay Z.  Each lyrics hits harder and harder and whilst its shocking to hear these icons being dissed in this way but its honest and all the better for it.

Gospel – Noname (2023, AWAL Records)

The No Badger Required Top Ten Tracks and Albums of the Year – #4

We start as we have done for all of the last two weeks with a recommendation from the Musical Jury. Today we have the second album recommendation from JC and we have TWO recommendations from Swiss Adam over from the Bagging Area blog. 

First up, here’s the JC with his second album recommendation of the year.

Brothers and Sisters – Steve Mason (2023, Domino Records)

“Steve Mason’s fifth solo album under his own name was required listening in 2023.  There is a great deal of anger and angst underpinning the lyrics, but at almost all times the music delivers a rhythm and groove that will have you, at the very least, shuffling your feet with many moments that will lead you to dance like a maniac and shout along at the top of your voice”.

And here is Swiss Adam with of one his tracks of the year

Necessary Genius – David Holmes and Raven Violet (2023, Heavenly Records)

“David Holmes’ ‘Blind On A Galloping Horse’ has been two years in the making, led by two great singles – ‘It’s Over if We Run Out Of Love’ and ‘Hope Is The Last Ting To Die’.  ‘Necessary Genius’ is the third in that run of great songs, synths and keys and drum machines.  It is a tribute to the mavericks and outsiders, the dreamers and radicals, who make the culture, who inspire and agitate.  The album is an emotional, political, philosophical, and mycological trip.  ‘Necessary Genius’ is too.  The Phil Kieran remix stretches it out for nine minutes of krauty/acid techno magnificence”.

That David Holmes album is a belter as well and one that I should have included in the top ten, if I had listened to it before I’d decided on the Top Ten – still – What’s that I hear you say….You want more Swiss Adam….

Oh go on then…..

No Badger Required Tracks of the Year #4 – Cello Song – Fontaines D.C (2023, Partisan Records)

Sometimes there is synchronicity between the Musical Jury and myself.  Swiss Adam also expressed his love for Fontaines D.C’s marvellous version of Nick Drake’s ‘Cello Song’ and frankly what he wrote about it was far better than what I wrote about it so I’ve used his words.

“Fontaines D.C take one of Nick Drake’s loveliest and most poetic songs and turn it into a rockabilly post punk guttersnipe excursion, a complete change of tones that loses none of Nick’s emotion and adds a great deal, making both profound and rocking.  Exactly how a cover version should be done.” 

Yup all of that.  It’s a brilliant track and as I’ve  gone there, ‘Chaos for the Fly’. the debut solo album by Fontaines’ frontman Grian Chatten is also well worthy of your attention.

Last Time, Every Time Forever – Grian Chatten (2023, Partisan Records, Taken from ‘Chaos for the Fly’)

Talking of albums that have come out of Dublin that are well worth your attention, here is the album that has parked itself at Number of the NBR countdown.

No Badger Required Albums of the Year – #4 – Gigi’s Recovery – The Murder Capital (2023, Human Season Records)

The Murder Capital’s second album, ‘Gigi’s Recovery’ was the first great guitar record of 2023.  An album that found itself full of anger but then instead of raging against whatever machines it needed to – it took a step back and questioned that anger and drew strength from such things as love and friendship.   It is a brilliant experience this record.  One that takes the listener on a journey of self reflection, discovery, addiction and recovery amidst a blazing cascade of sound that is unravelling around it.  At times that dark post punk, gothic-y gloom rock that that underpinned their first album, ‘When I Have Fears’ has been finely tuned a little more.  On tracks like ‘A Thousand Leaves’ they come a like Radiohead with a punky edge.  They sound fantastic, the music is all cascading drums and searing guitars along a desperate vocal.

A Thousand Lives – The Murder Capital (2023, Human Season Records)

But the album really soars when the soaring guitars and crooning vocals that made up the first album come back into play and when that combines with the new almost cinematic approach undertaken on the ‘Gigi’s Recovery’ is when the record is really excellent. 

Return My Head – The Murder Capital (2023, Human Season Records)

The No Badger Required Top Ten Tracks and Albums of the Year – #5

I think have bitten off more than I can chew with all the tracks and albums of the year that are coming in from the musical jury –  still loads to get through – so we are going to start today with not one but two albums recommendations one from JC and one from Jez. 

Here’s JC with one of the five albums that he has recommended – so expect to see a lot of JC on here this week- well it is (nearly) Christmas.

“Eyes of Others is the recording named used by Edinburgh based musician John Bryden.  He describes his stuff as ‘post clubmusic for people can’t get into clubs.  In the year when I voluntarily decided that my DJing and dancing days were over, this record proved to be very timely.”

Eyes of Others – Eyes of Others (2023, Heavenly Records)

And here is Jez

“My favourite album of 2023 is ‘Get Real’ by CVC.  I’ll probably get slagged of to hell, round the chip shop, behind the bus stop and back again for making this comparison but to these ears there’s  peak Steely Dan vibe going on here.  Recommended tracks: album opener ‘Hail Mary’, ’Sophie’ and ‘Mademoiselle’, the latter of which doesn’t sound much like The Dan at all now I come to revisit it.  Still pretty great though”

Get Real– CVC (2023, CVC Recordings)

Thank you chaps, both of those albums are excellent Eyes of Others were completely new to me, which is part of the reason why I asked the Musical Jury for their recommendations.  CVC are a band that are on a fairly regular rotation on the stereo at home and I sort regret not sticking them in the Top Ten Albums now. Anyway, lets get on with the countdown shall we and the track that opens the Top Five tracks of the year.

No Badger Required Tracks of the Year – #5 – Off With Ya Headz – Nia Archives (2023, Nia Archives Records)

I am of course well qualified to predict this, standing as I do, at the very cutting edge of music, but I have a feeling that 2024 might well be the year that drum n bass and jungle makes a very welcome return to the big time.  I mean its not really gone away it just doesn’t get talked about as much as it used to – or maybe the radio stations I listen to, just don’t play it as much.   Anyway, one way to get jungle music back on our radars would be if some up and coming act took an indie disco staple, stuck some scorching beats over the top of it and turned it into an altogether different sort of dancefloor smash.

Nia Archives is a Bradford born producer and ‘Off With Ya Headz’ was just one of a number of brilliant tracks that she produced last year as she spearheaded the new jungle scene in the UK.

Bad Gylaz – Nia Archives (2023, Nia Archives Records)

Next up, some music from the album that opens the Top Five

No Badger Required Albums of the Year –  #5 – The Record – Boygenius (2023, Interscope Records)

In the old days a supergroup would consist of hackneyed old rockstars who basically in pique of drug addled madness make a record together in order to squeeze a few more shekels out of the record buying public who are conned into thinking that a group consisting of several people that they have heard of, might be quite good.  They rarely are.

Thank heavens then for Boygenius, who are considered a supergroup, because the band features three brilliant female singer songwriters to have emerged in the last decade, something I suspect that the band baulk at – but – here’s the twist.  Boygenius are a super group, in that they are very good indeed and ‘The Record’ is an exquisite album full of droll lyrics that look at the male ego and other things.   The vocals of the three of them (and in case you are in the dark – that is Lucy Dacus, Julien Baker and Phoebe Bridgers) compliment each other perfectly.  At times ‘The Record’ is stark and stripped back but it is never short of elegant and extraordinary – it maybe a bit of a cheat, but its also the highest ranked debut album of the year, make of that what you will folks, but ‘The Record’ is absolutely essential listening.

Without You, Without Them – Boygenius (2023, Interscope Records)

Leonard Cohen- Boygenius (2023, Interscope Records)

50 Twelve Inches – #23

Renegade Master (Fatboy Slim Old Skool Mix) – Wildchild (1997, Hi Life Records)

The finger of fate needs a helping hand to get the record out of the cupboard this week as it has been commanded to stop of the thick double twelve inch promo of Wildchild’s dancefloor classic ‘Renegade Master’ which was given the Fatboy Slim (and others) treatment in 1997.  It’s a great track, if not one that I get bored of very easily – especially if I end playing eight different versions of it – like I have today.  Then again, my daughter liked it and danced like a mad person to the drum and bass version of it that I dug out of the music library.

Whilst I was university between 1994 and 1998 it felt like every week a new track that had been remixed by Fatboy Slim was arriving.  When you place all those tracks alongside some of his own monster tracks that came out in the same period it all added up to Fatboy Slim being a very busy boy.  I could (and still might) do an entire series next year just on Fatboy Slim and his thousands of remixes. 

The formula used by Fatboy Slim seemed to work time and time again, take the song, speed it up a bit, add a few bleeps and tweaks and then his piece de resistance, add a gallon or two of massive beats.  Beats so big that they bounce and boom out of your speakers.  Then slow it all down again before working the crowd up by letting in all crash in again towards the end.  It was massively successful.

His version of ‘Renegade Master’ stuck to the formula and sent the track hurtling into the Top Three and onto nearly every dancefloor in the land in the process.  Then again, Fatboy Slim could have remixed Roger Whittaker whistling in his shed and turned it into a chart smash in the mid to late nineties. 

Fatboy’s mix was the third version of ‘Renegade Master’ to actually chart, Originally, ‘Renegade Master’ went by an entirely different name.  Back in the early part of 1995 it was called this,

Legends of the Dark Black Part 2 (renegade master mix) – Wildchild (1995, Hi Life Records) and it was a minor hit.  

According to review it was “A furious blend of house beats and hip hop influences “.  Roughly six months later a remix appeared.  It was fundamentally the same song with a quicker beat and a new name.  

Renegade Master – Wildchild (Radio Mix) (1995, Hi Life Records) – that came with a host of remixes from a host of superstar DJs and took it up the charts to Number 11.

Renegade Master (Dimitri Vegas Mix) – Wildchild (1995, Hi Life Records)

And then in 1997, Fatboy Slim took it over and confusingly called it ‘Renegade Master ’98’ and sent it all the way to number three.

There are a whole host of remixes of this on my twelve inch most of which are only available on You Tube I’m afraid  – but you get another Fatboy Slim Mix – the New skool one – as opposed to his old skool one – the wag – which is less beaty and more techno influenced and actually not bad at all.

Renegade Master (Fatboys New Skool Mix) – Wildchild (1997, Hi Life Records)

The other one worth mentioning is the astonishingly good jungle mix of it courtesy of Urban Takeover.  Which adds a sampled trumpet, slows the voice down and lets a whole host of craziness unfurl.

Renegade Master (Urban Takeover Mix) – Wildchild (1997, Hi Life Records)

Here is the five word review – “Great to Dance too, once”.   Again, that’s spot on, kid.

And here is her recommendation of the week, and I can only apologise for the amount of pop music my daughter appears to be listening to at the moment. I’ll add some indie to her play lists and see what happens.

Roar – Katy Perry

(which to be fair I quite like in non offensive its raining outside and there is cake in the cupboard kind of way)

Nearly Perfect Albums – #90

Oracular Spectacular – MGMT (2008, Columbia Records)

I wasn’t sure what to make of MGMT when they first surfaced towards the end of 2007.  They’d had already been hyped by the music press and their debut album ‘Oracular Spectacular’ was already being hailed as the best record of the noughties weeks before it had even been released, and whilst it’s not quite that (ooh, that might a series I look at next year sometime), it is a superb album full of psychedelic electro tinged alt rock and some absolutely huge tunes.  

Kids – MGMT (2008, Columbia Records)

It is perhaps the record that Wayne Coyne should have been making with the Flaming Lips instead writing songs about Japanese robots and stuff.  Possibly. 

Let’s start with ‘Time To Pretend’ shall we with its much quoted lyrics about “Moving to Paris, shooting heroin and fucking with the stars” – which sets the scene for the whole album.  That is one in thrall to huge seventies records by the likes of TRex and Fleetwood Mac.  Which normally would be enough to send anyone running to hills with a hacksaw attached to your ears, but here, it really works.

Time To Pretend – MGMT (2008, Columbia Records)

The second half of ‘Oracular Spectacular’ delves more into those seventies influence, ‘The Handshake’ wants to be a track on Elton John’s ‘Goodbye Yellow Brick Road’ album so much (although strangely it’s better than anything on that record) that it almost ruins the song.  The more the album progresses, the more ambitious and deliberately extravagant it gets.  ‘The Youth’ for instance sounds like Sparks in their early pomp. 

The Handshake -MGMT (2008, Columbia Records)

It’s not all 70s glam and radio friendly pop though – although there is a lot of that – ‘Electric Feel’ sounds like what the Bee Gees would sound like if David Bowie was their singer and not that bearded bloke with the squeaky voice – something, which as it happens turns out to be pretty damn good, additionally the bassline in ‘Electric Feel’ is awesome.

Electric Feel – MGMT (2008, Columbia Records)

Lord no.  This MGMT, they may want to be rockstars, but deep down they want to live in a commune and lace daisies into each other’s hair (albeit wearing clothes bought for them with the reputed million dollar deal from a major label).  Take ‘4th Dimensional Transition’ for instance – I mean just the title is enough for anyone to perhaps suggest that enough acid has been dropped – but leaving that to one side – ‘4th Dimension….’ Is all tribal drumming and mystical brilliance.

4th Dimensional Transition – MGMT (2008, Columbia Records)

Elsewhere, Pieces of What’ is an unexpected acoustic gem, that sounds like Suede around the time ‘Dog Man Star’ came out (yes it does, listen to it again). 

Pieces of What – MGMT (2008, Columbia Records)

‘Oracular Spectacular’ for its all tales of excess and tongue in cheek lyrics in a record rich in musical depth and whilst it may not everything that the media said it would be, it is pretty damn close.

The No Badger Required Top Ten Tracks and Albums of the Year – #6 (LIVE!!)

By a sheer stroke of luck, in November I saw the band who have released the sixth best track of the year supporting the band who have made the sixth best album of the year.  I definitely didn’t relegate the album by billy woods down one place to make this all fit.  It was a lucky coincidence and I’ll be behind the Dog & Duck with a bike chain at 7pm if you want to disagree with me.

Idle threats out of the way, here’s a live review

Damefrisør/bdrmm @ Thekla, Bristol, Sunday 19th November 2023

I’m not sure I like gigs on a Sunday evening.  You have to start things earlier than normal, because the curfew is about 10pm.  Which is why regular No Badger Contributor Mr L and I are virtually jogging through the puddles along Bristols dockside in order to get to the marvellous Thekla in time to catch post punk art disco sensations Damefrisør amble on stage at the unearthly time of 7.30pm. 

The Thekla for those of you who live north of Junction 19 of the M5 is a venue inside a boat that is moored on the River Avon.  The hull of the boat hosts a bar and a stage and it has gone straight into the Top Five of my personal ‘Best Gig Venues’ chart (hmm series…?).  It features in the TV Series Skins quite a bit (if you can remember back to the episode where Crystal Castles played a gig in a club, that’s the Thekla) if you need a cultural reference point, I imagine you are all well over the age of 25 so you probably won’t understand Skins anyway.

Anyway, Damefrisør are a band that I have been very excited by for a while now, they were of course the winners of last years Track of the Year with the marvellous ‘2 Heh V’ which epically closes the performance tonight.  They sound even more impressive live than they do on record. Tonight they are all stuttering electronica, taut basslines and soaring urgent guitars alongside a wonderful vocal from their singer Kahzi Jahfor who jerks and twitches onstage in manner that Ian Curtis would have been proud of.

No Badger Required Tracks of the Year – #6 – D.O.D – Damefrisør (2023, Permanent Creeps Records)

There is so much to love about this band, you’ve got the widescreen vision of Echo and the Bunnymen, a touch of shoegaze in the vein of perhaps My Bloody Valentine, a smidgen of the krautrock ethics of The Horrors, a little piece of Joy Divisions, ‘gothic disco’. It’s all there and tonight it is utterly marvellous.  As they wander off into the darkness I lean over to Mr L and say “Top that bdrmm”.

2-Heh-V – Damefrisør (2022, Permanent Creeps Records)

No Badger Required Albums of the Year – #6 – I Don’t Know – bdrmm (2023, Sonic Cathedral Records)

Live bdrmm appear to be a much different sort of beast than they are on record.  On record they are signed to Sonic Cathedral Records and therefore a certain amount of dreaminess and My Bloody Valentine-esque feedback influenced sounds can be expected.  Tonight, however there appears to be a shift in their sound, because tonight instead of creating a heady swirl of gentle noise, the guitars roar and instead of the vocals being a raised whispery glow they are at times, especially where their bassist is concerned shouted, screamed and roared.  They open with three tracks from their second album ‘I Don’t Know’ which when beefed up sounds huge, muscular and effortlessly brilliant, especially this,

It’s Just A bit of Blood – bdrmm (2023, Sonic Cathedral Records)

The last 45 minutes or so of this gig is breathlessly good, almost as if the band had heard my challenge to them and decide to crank everything up another level, the guitars roar that little bit more, the bassist does his best to whip the crowd into a frenzy, kids down the front throw themselves and their fringes around with gay abandonment as the band make a hell of a noise.  A beautiful ear blasting noise.  It is very very good indeed.

Pulling Stitches – bdrmm (2023, Sonic Cathedral Records)

The No Badger Required Top Ten Tracks and Albums of the Year – #7

Today’s guest best track of the year comes from JC, who prior to his 914th holiday of the year, put pen to paper to give us this,

“Its genuinely impossible to narrow things down to having one particular favourite track from 2023, as my mind will change depending on the sort of mood I’m in.  There’s been a fair number of excellent new records that I’ve picked up, and inevitably, given that I use the festive period to go in and check various end of the year recommendations from other bloggers, it will take me until sometime, next year to find all sorts of great stuff, so there’s a fair chance that I still haven’t heard what history will later record as my favourite track of the year.

But until then, I’ll offer up this two minute burst of energetic electro pop as the one which made me smile more than any other.

Pigs – Brenda (2023, Last Night From Glasgow Records)

Brenda is a band, not an individual.  The three members are Litty Hughes on guitar, Apsi Witana on drums and Flore de Hooge on synths.  The eponymous debut album was released on Last Night From Glasgow back in the summer.  It’s a short but near perfect effort, with its 8 songs having a total running time of 23 minutes.  Pigs is the opening track.”

Near Perfect you say….I know a blog that does an entire series about Nearly Perfect Albums.  I’ll put you in touch….

Here is the track that sits are Number 7 on the No Badger Required Countdown

No Badger Required Tracks of the Year – #7 – Superpower – hük (2023, Self Released, Taken from ‘Friction EP’)

You will note of course, the umlaut (been a good year for Umlauts) which means I think that instead of being called simply Huk (pronounced Huck), hük are actually H -ooh-k, (it sounds best if you are say it with a Northern accent) but I’m sure one of our German correspondents will correct me if I have that wrong.  Anyway, hük are not from Germany or any of the other European countries that might use an umlaut.  They are from Brighton and I say ‘they’ but I mean ‘he’ for it is the work of one man.

The press reviews say that this is brooding post punk electronica that is heavily influenced by the likes of Ministry and Nine Inch Nails, which it might well be, but if I read that I would have legged it as fast as I could in the opposite direction.  ‘Superpower’ actually sounds like LCD Soundsystem wrestling with Killing Joke over the controls to the distortion pedal and that makes it darn close to essential listening.

‘Superpower’ is taken from the ‘Friction EP’ which I believe is the second self released EP by hük, here is another track from it . 

Norton Caines – hük (2023, Self Released)

Marvellous stuff, as is the album that sits at number 7 on the countdown

No Badger Required Albums of the Year – #7 – Maps – billy woods & Kenny Segal (2023, Fat Possum Records)

A musician I know called Seth (he releases 18 minute tracks which contains music made with just a cymbal, there is avant garde and then there is Seth) told me to check out the billy woods and Kenny Segal album.  He’d sent me an email after I’d featured Public Enemy on the Nearly Perfect Album Series.  The email was short but useful “Like hip hop?  Check out ‘Maps’ by billy woods”.  As Rule 11 in the No Badger Manifesto states “Never ignore a recommendation”, I checked it and him out.

Like Bar Italia yesterday, billy woods (note the small case) has shunned publicity for most of his career, in fact he’s hidden his face for most of his career.  On stage he would wear a mask, photos would be blurred – and as such he has remained somewhat unknown, despite making several albums of high quality hip hop in that time.

‘Maps’ is however so much more than just high quality hip hop, it’s a journey, a chapter in his life where he has changed from being a near broke (but talented) rapper to one who is in demand.  It is a chapter (or a series of maps) about life on the road, in strange countries, tracks about being in hotel rooms, jet lag, and it is astonishing.  If like me you can remember the first time you heard Kendrick Lamar, lay out his life in the hood in small stories as part of his ‘M.a.a.D City’ album, and remember how incredible that sounded – well that how ‘Maps’ sounds the first time you hear it.

Hangman – billy woods (2023, Fat Possum Records)

It is full of wonderfully written tracks, (and having explored billy’s back catalogue over the summer, nearly all of his releases are) like ‘Hangman’ and ‘Soft Landing’, and Kenny Segal provides some wonderfully sounding instrumentation over the slightly blunted beats.  There are some ace guest stars too, Sam Herring from Future Islands pops up in the albums lead single ‘Face Time’

Face Time – billy woods & Kenny Segal (2023, Fat Possum Records)

He may now be an international man of mystery, one that is growing more and more content with his growing fame, but personally if secrecy makes him happy and that allows him to make music as brilliant as ‘Maps’ then long may it continue.

The No Badger Required Top Ten Tracks and Albums of the Year – #8

Before we continue our countdown here’s the second of Matt’s tracks of the year.

Preset – Lichen Slow (2023, Rock Action Records)

“There’s probably something a bit meta about having a favourite song of the year that has a chorus that goes “Oh my god, shit bands singing shit songs are everywhere” or maybe it’s a profound statement on the state of modern music, except Malcolm Middleton, for it is he, says “It’s a daft wee song.  Cynical and stupid, but good-natured. A shit tribute to shit bands singing shit songs, by what could be perceived to be another shit band”.

So maybe its just that it careers along happily, largely acoustic with vocals overlaid across each other with a trumpet burbling away in the background.

Or maybe I just like all the swearing”.

I like all swearing personally, and I like the word ‘burbling’ and have made a note to use it more on this blog. Thanks Matt, excellent as ever.

Right, back to my countdown and on to something, which I think might cause a few eyebrows to be raised and a few finely manicured beards to be stroked.

No Badger Required Tracks of the Year – #8 – Suley’s Ablution – Balimaya Project (2023, New Soil Records, taken from ‘When the Dust Settles)

I’ve often thought that the one thing this blog needs is more leftfield djembe inspired jazz from London via West Africa.  Which is lucky because the track at number eight is exactly that.  Welcome if you are new to their sound to the Balimaya Project who are led by Djembe player Yahael Camara Onono.  They blend wonderful jazz sounds with traditional West African rhythms and they are all sorts of awesome.

Now I know what you are thinking.  Oh god, No Badger Required has purchased a coffee table and has started leaving glossy photography books on it alongside a printout of its renewed subscription to Beard Strokers Weekly. We are not quite there yet – but believe me this track is awesome.

I heard ‘Suley’s Ablution’ on the radio about three months ago and I’ve been hooked ever since, I think of all the songs in this top ten it might be the one I’ve played the most this year.  There is something quietly magical about it as a track, they way the piano softly plays away as lyrics about not giving up (which follow a theme surrounding grief and family that runs through the album) are sung beautifully alongside it – but best of all it’s the way that the djembe comes in towards the end like a towering beast. 

Here is another track from the ‘When the Dust Settles’ album, which is more stemmed in that West African/jazz blend.

Red Oil – Balimaya Project (2023, New Soil Records)

Right, now for something totally different,

No Badger Required Albums of the Year – #8 – Tracey Denim – Bar Italia (2023, Matador Records)

Bar Italia released two albums (their third and fourth) this year – the second one of those ‘The Twits’ would, if I was compiling beyond the Top Ten for the albums be about 20th, they are also the other band who feature in both tracks and albums top ten.  It’s been a good year for Bar Italia. It is the year that they by and large stepped out from the shadows, although they still appear to insist on using dim and grainy publicity photos, but for the time being the ban on giving interviews, making videos and doing radio sessions seems to have been lifted.

‘Tracey Denim’ is a swaggering album full of energetic post punk tracks that speed up, slow down, swap vocalists, has jangly guitars, distorted guitars, hip hop beats, punk song, shoegaze effects, XX style drums, and that just the first few tracks and its breathlessly brilliant, all of it.

Punkt – Bar Italia (2023, Matador Records)

No song demonstrates Bar Italia’s sound better than ‘Punkt’, here all the best bits of the album appear to converge at once, the differing guitars, the slight intensity to the lyrics and the feeling of just something excellent unfolding in front of you. Its that kind of record.

Another track ‘Friends’ underlines the punky ethic to the group – albeit one that its mixed with a melodic pop element, its rapid and pulsating (and brilliant).  The album closes with ‘Maddington’ which creates this (sorry but it’s the best phrase) a sonic cathedral of sound whilst some gentle singing shines through it.

Maddington – Bar Italia (2023, Matador Records)