Tape Op Staff Picks 2023

Happy New Year! Now that the dust has settled from the holidays, and most of us are in the 2024 groove, we thought we'd offer a quick look back at some of our favorite releases from 2023. There was a staggering amount of great music released this past year, so this is just a sampling of what was in rotation! We'd love to hear what some of your favs were as well! -GS

Larry Crane

These are all people or situations I have interviewed for Tape Op at some point.

John Cale
Mercy
An awkward Zoom connection with no camera on John and still an intriguing chat. He seemed to want to discuss mixing in quad!
Read the John Cale Interview

Peter Gabriel
i/o
A batch of journalists in a booth at an AES Show in NYC. My recorder jammed up and Tom Kenny of Mix Magazine loaned me his audio. Peter was wonderful to be around.
Read the Peter Gabriel Interview

Robyn Hitchcock
Shufflemania
Backstage at The Aladdin in Portland, OR. Robyn was gracious and patient with my dumb questions.
Read the Robyn Hitchcock Interview

Speedy Ortiz
Rabbit Rabbit
Over Zoom in the early Covid times with bandleader Sadie Dupuis, who has now done some articles for Tape Op!
Read the Sadie Dupuis Interview

Porcupine Tree
Closure/Continuation.Live

Steven Wilson
The Harmony Codex
Possibly the most nervous I have been interviewing someone over Zoom, and one of the earliest in the morning interviews as he was in the UK. Turned out to be so fun to talk to and quite eloquent!
Read the Steven Wilson Interview

Panda Bear, Sonic Boom, and Adrian Sherwood
Reset in Dub
Sonic Boom/Pete Kember and I had a great chat over Zoom, and worked on a Moon Duo album together as well. Adrian Sherwood felt distracted, I swear he was in the middle of a tracking session! His recent dub work, like Spoon's Lucifer on the Moon and this one are fabulous!
Read the Sonic Boom Interview
Read the Adrian Sherwood Interview

Sparklehorse
Bird Machine
Read the Mark Linkous Interview
Read about Sparklehorse's Bird Machine

Wilco
Cousin
I interviewed Jeff Tweedy at his studio, The Loft, in Chicago on one of the coldest days ever. Went back the next day to interview engineer Tom Schick and have lunch with most of Wilco. Amazing, and thanks to Spencer Tweedy (also interviewed)!
Read the Jeff Tweedy Interview

John Baccigaluppi

2023 was a great year for recorded music. Some of my favorite established artists released really great mid/late career albums. Sufjan Stevens released Javelin, PJ Harvey released I Inside The Old Year Dying, and Wilco and The National released two great albums each in 2023. But, even though those six albums are some of my 2023 faves, I'm trying to not list any artists I've listed in previous years so I can mostly spotlight some newer, younger artists. Here's a dozen great new records from 2023.

Lucinda Chua
Yian
Mixed By Nathan Boddy

Sigur Ros
Átta
Read the Sigur Rós Interview

Roger Eno
The Skies They Shift Like Chords
Read the Roger Eno Interview

Modern Nature
No Fixed Point in Space

Daughter
Stereo Mind Game

Fenne Lilly
Big Picture
Produced by Brad Cook

Ratboys
The Window
Produced by Chris Walla

Slow Pulp
Yard

Keaton Henson
House Party

Anna B Savage
In/FLUX

Geoff Stanfield

It's not often that you get to have two albums from the same band from the same year on your year end favorites list, but when one of your favorite bands is King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, it's less hard to imagine. The first, PetroDragonic Apocalypse; or, Dawn of Eternal Night or Annihilation of Planet, is a compact, fuzzy metal joyride of an album and the second on the list, The Silver Cord, is a 2 disc synth-heavy electronic offering with whispers of Kraftwerk, Radiohead, Steve Reich, Massive Attack, and Air. The second disc is alternative/extended mixes.

1. King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard
   PetroDragonic Apocalypse; or, Dawn of Eternal Night or Annihilation of Planet
   Read the KGLW Interview
   Listen to the KGLW Podcast

2. King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard
   The Silver Cord

3. Frankie and the Witch Fingers
   Data Doom
   I love a good psych-rock banger and this is good one. More refined, and not quite as lo-fi as some of their earlier releases, but a treat regardless.

4. Beirut
   Hadsel
   Hadsel is a refreshing listen and somewhat of a meditation on space, time and place. A perfect winter listen that is full of hope.
   Listen to the Beirut Podcast

5. 

   Panda Bear and Sonic Boom
   Reset
   This was in heavy rotation this summer and keeps finding its way to the stereo. The dub version that includes Adrian Sherwood is also awesome.
   Listen to the Panda Bear and Sonic Boom Podcast

6. Arooj Aftab, Vijay Iyer, Shahzad Ishmaily
   Love in Exile
   Read the Arooj Aftab Interview
   Listen to the Vijay Iyer Podcast
   Read the Shahzad Ishmaily Interview

7. Thandii
   A Beat To Make It Better EP
   My daughter turned me on to this band and I was immediately drawn to the blown-out dirty bass sound, Jess Berry's groovy vocals and the interesting alt-soul-trip hoppy production. "Not Just One" is a stand out track.

8. Doja Cat
   Scarlet
   The living room and kitchen dance party is on. The Herb Alpert sounding horn hook on "Paint the Town Red" is a killer.

Scott McChane

The Replacements
Tim (Let It Bleed Edition) Box Set: reassembled/remixed by Ed Stasium

I confess with pride that my musical origins (and misplaced aspirations) began in my birth town of Minneapolis. For all of us never quit / die-hard Replacements fans, we wanted more than anything – and could hardly wait – to show the world how our Twin Cities heroes were so fucking special. Unfortunately, much in the same way that The Replacements' live sets could be unpredictable (and quickly go off the rails), Tim took a sonic turn down the wrong road. This record was supposed to be "the one" for us, but it ended an era for The Replacements. Now, like a mythical comeback from six stumble-down drunk codas of "Help Me, Rhonda," Ed Stasium has resurrected these songs by stamping his remixed version of Tim as The Replacements' best album – it's definitely now "the one." I selfishly bought the Tim (Let It Bleed Edition) Box Set for myself as a holiday gift. It's almost an anthology that includes previously unreleased recordings, live performances, and demos, plus a cello version of "Can't Hardly Wait."

Anthony Sarti

1. Codeseven
   Go Let It In

2. Cannons
   Heartbeat Highway

3. 100 gecs
   10,000 gecs

4. Eliminate
   Playing With Fire

5. 

   Crosses
   Goodnight, God Bless, I Love U, Delete.

Andy Hong

Here are my Top 5 YouTube videos and performances of 2023!

1. Lily & Madeleine
   "Windowless Bedroom"

2. SOFI TUKKER
   Full Performance (Live on KEXP)

3. Heo Hoy Kyung
   Live Clip | 'Memoirs' 1-5

4. Hadrien Feraud
   'The Bass of Doom Sessions'

5. EBTG
   Rare Archive Footage, Part 1 & 2

Corey Reidy

The following albums brought me a lot of joy over the last twelve months, each leading me to the doorway of the ever-so-important world of fiery inspiration and incalculable imagination. They allowed me to float around in a Corey-sized bubble for a few minutes at a time, viewing it's heights. Some I just played really, really loud.

1. Jeff Rosenstock
   HELLMODE

2. AJJ
   Disposable Everything

3. OFF!
   Free LSD (2022)

4. Lil Yachty
   Let's Start Here

5. 

   Peso Pluma
   Génesis

6. Kara Jackson
   Why Does the Earth Give Us People to Love? (Kara Jackson is the former U.S. National Youth Poet Laureate)