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Los Angeles-based DJ/producer best known for various mashups and remixes. Currently dance & electronic music programmer at Amazon Music. Formerly Pandora, Slacker Radio, and LIVE 105 / San Francisco.
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DECEMBER 27, 2023
STILL ALIVE!
Despite all reports to the contrary. Even though an appendectomy is a pretty in-and-out procedure these days, once you have one, you can't help but ruminate on the fact that 100-ish years ago, a doctor would have given you a radium laxative and a sack of leeches and sent you home to die. Science: it's good, and makes things better! Now, given this gift of life, have I turned over a new leaf, abandoning the corporate rat race to dedicate myself to the betterment of the world or at least creative pursuits or even crossing items off my bucket list? Well, duh, obviously not--as Jack said on his apparent deathbed on "30 Rock": "I should have worked more."
My point being, I somehow find myself busier than ever, but I still seem to, you know, enjoy music, and even though the sheer volume of what I have to listen to in my professional capacity turns my brain into a slush of vaguely remembered bloops, as the year winds to a close I still make a feeble effort to compile a list of a few albums and songs that stood out to me. I'll also say that my job as Guy Who Makes Electronic Playlists means I have kind of lost touch with all those other genres--what was the one called with guitars? "Smock," I wanna say?--and so, if there ever was a time youthful hubris compelled me to make at least an atttempt at a definitive critical appraisal of all music released in a year, that time has long since passed. Bloops in, bloops out, as they say. (They don't say that.) Anyway, the point is, with these lists, I did my best, but I guess my best wasn't good enough. So, behold their deeply flawed nature on the charts page, and glance briefly and skeptically at the top 10s below.
Best Albums of 2023
1. Kelela - Raven (Warp)
2. Yaeji - With a Hammer (XL)
3. James Holden - Imagine This Is A High Dimensional Space Of All Possibilities (Border Community)
4. Mandy, Indiana - i've seen a way (Fire Talk)
5. Fever Ray - Radical Romantics (Mute)
6. L'Rain - I Killed Your Dog (Mexican Summer)
7. Yo La Tengo - This Stupid World (Matador)
8. Overmono - Good Lies (XL)
9. Clark - Sus Dog (Throttle)
10. Sofia Kourtesis - Madres (Ninja Tune)
Best Songs of 2022
1. Yaeji - "For Granted" (XL)
2. Skrillex, Fred again.., - "Flowdan Rumble" (OWSLA)
3. Overmono - "Good Lies" (XL)
4. Jungle - "Dominoes" (Caiola)
5. Hudson Mohawke, Nikki Nair - "Set the Roof" (Warp)
6. LP Giobbi - "Can't Let You Go" (Ninja Tune)
7. Peggy Gou - "(It Goes Like) Nanana" (XL)
8. Thundercat, Tame Impala - "No More Lies" (Ninja Tune)
9. Kelela - "Contact" (Warp)
10. Chan, Kevin McKay - "Emotion" (Glasgow Underground)
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Of course, my job requires me to also sum up the year in music in my chosen genre lanes, which I did in cooperation with my fellow dance & electronic musical experts and afficianados also employed by my corporate overlord. As usual we came up with two song-based lists, which you can check out below:
- Best of 2023: Dance
- Best of 2023: Electronic
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