Welcome to our selection of our favourite records of 2023. As you might expect, it is the discovery of new, exciting records that makes life rewarding at Phonica, as we open boxes from labels and distributors to find mind-blowing music from all over the world.
Albums are a little easier to choose for a year best-of than singles & tracks, there is some consensus as to what constitutes a ‘good’ album and there was far more agreement here than in other categories. Here you will find staff favourites, bestsellers and those records we just couldn’t get enough of, both in appetite and physically, no doubt, due to small vinyl runs of some of these great releases……
Sitting at the top of our Best of 2023 round-up, and many others too, is the outstanding debut album ‘Black Classical Music’ from Yussef Dayes on Gilles Petersen’s Beechwood Recordings label – easily our jazz release of the year, the album is littered with featured guests (Shabaka Hutchings, Tom Misch, Chronixx to name a few) and is influenced by Miles Davis & Rahsaan Roland Kirk. A visionary album from the multi-instrumentalist.
It has been hard to choose between the top albums as we are huge fans of James Holden‘s rave opus ‘Imagine This is a High Dimensional Space of All Possibilities’ – its his fourth album but he has created the vintage rave soundtrack we have all been wanting…..And as rave soundtracks go, you can’t do bigger than Overmono‘s ‘Good Lies’ – the sound of 2023 as the Russell Brothers combine UK garage, rave, drum & bass and electronica to create the best stadium sound of the year. Our favourite ambient album of 2023 is Anthony Naples‘ stunning ‘Orbs’ as the New York house & techno producer channels 90s chillout and dub for this year’s downtempo album of choice. Also worthy of a mention is Pangaea‘s ‘Changing Channels , available on vinyl in 2 parts (both listed below), it’s a ribcage rattling, bass-heavy club soundtrack that still sounds intricate in its production….
Sault may have given us the live perfomance of the year (at Drumsheds) but its their main vocalist Cleo Sol who leads the way with her excellent Badu-like ‘Heaven’ – and yes, we are still waiting for the vinyl – it’s been so long that she’s even snuck out a new album, ‘Gold’, digitally in the last month….and not to mention all of Sault‘s 5 albums which got a vinyl release in 2023 !!
There’s a lot of records here for you to check for yourself but the hidden gems that have been played a lot on the Phonica decks include Martinou‘s dub deep house delight ‘Chiral’, Eli Escobar‘s opus ‘The Beach Album’ (which includes the Phonica single ‘Find A Way 2Day’), Valerie from the Galerie‘s Larry Heard-esque ‘Long Time Listener First Time Caller’. Further down the list, you will find a multitude of artists, styles and genres from pure pop to hip hop, jazz to electronica. We hope this introduces you to some gems from 2023….
Rather than focus on particular tracks, we prefer to focus on entire singles here at Phonica, be they 7inch, 10inch, or 12inch – there has to be a physical release for it to be included in our chart. It’s the hardest chart of all to compile, as these short tracks or EPs are far more subjective than an album and far less consensus amongst us. So here, we are looking at those singles or tracks that made an impact, that provided us with the soundtrack to nights, those that sold a lot at the shop, and, most importantly, those loved by our staff members here.
The floorfiller of the year – and a UK Top 10 hot – was Jorja Smith‘s ‘Little Things’ – if only they had done a 12inch mix of this as that last minute of the track could be looped forever, there just isnt enough of this track! Extended mix please.. Shed returned under his Head High alias for the big-room banger that is ‘Break Away’ appealing to both house & techno heads… whilst the sleeper hit of the year is Payfone‘s ‘I Feel You’ both in its original and Mudd remix….. Noodles aka Groove Chronicles gave us an anthem with the broken beat track ‘Soul N Mind’ using the same samples as Pal Joey with additional soulful vocals – a sure-fire winner..whilst both Aphex Twin & Floating Points returned to the 12inch format with exquisite floorfillers…..if only there were more copies of the limited Floating Points…. And, of course, we couldn’t help but feature the limited viny samplers from Phonica’s own 20 Years compilation with all those exclusive tracks from Daniel Avery, Paramida, Nyra, Dauwd, Tim Reaper and many more, of course we were going to feature them… Needless to say the list could of gone on forever but this list is in our opinion some of the finest moments of 2023.
Although there are far fewer compilations around these days, those vinyl compilations that do get a full release have been elevated: lavish artwork, extensive histories, and sleeve notes all showing off the hard work put into the art of the compilation. Playlists and mixes have become the standard way for DJs to show off the gems that lie in their sets, so these days, there is no need for a commercially produced mixed CD with only the established series such as Fabric, Late Night Tales and DJ Kicks still releasing mix CDs these days.
Although this year, we have produced a compilation! It’s been a lot of hard work but ’20 Years of Phonica’ features exclusive tracks from Paramida & E-Talking, Daniel Avery, Dam Swindle, Dauwd, Nyra, Shy One, Willow, Gene on Earth, Huerta and many more in both vinyl and triple CD.
Alongside the Phonica release, our favourites this year cover many genres. The stunning Gonza Goa comp covers those early tracks soundtracking the beaches of Vagator & Anjuna, proto-trance, Italian house, New Beat and techno combine for an ear-opening collection, everything a compilation should be…
Sadly, Jamie Tiller, co-founder of the excellent Music from Memory label passed away earlier this year but his legacy lives on in the label’s consistently brilliant output. Jamie compiled the 10 Year anniversary compilation, newly released just before Christmas and this makes our top releases, alongside the previous Dream Dolphin comp…..Rest in Peace Jamie and Thank you for the music.
Another comp worth mentioning comes from the Don of genre-based collections, Sam Don himself. He follows up his lovers rock covers ‘For The Love of You’ series with the UK street soul compilation ‘Just A Touch’.
Highlights this year A deserving mention goes to Fabric, London’s most famous club who have given us yet more excellent compilations this year from celebrated Palestinian DJ Sami Abdulhadi, Ireland’s Saoirse, Chaos In The CBD and Helena Hauff!
Reissues continue to shine a fresh spotlight of records that were overlooked when they first surfaced or were so limited that they instantly became sought-after. In 2022, we are back with another collection of outstanding albums, lovingly re-issued and repressed, saving us from those Discogs sharks or listening to these records only on YouTube. The number of quality reissue albums doesn’t seem to be abating despite the high cost of vinyl manufacturing and still seems to span across many genres.
Top of the pile (and a no-brainer as to what would be our No.1 reissue album) is De La Soul‘s ‘3 Feet High & Rising’ – it took a long time for the album to get an official re-issue, thanks to all those samples contained within, but finally got a full release on many different colours !
Another lavish re-issue was the box set of Pharoah Sanders‘ 1977 classic ‘Pharoah’ – at times ambient and serene, at others funky & modeal, it would become one of the artist’s most beloved records and one of the great works of the 20th century !
And what could be more Phonica than Ricardo Villalobos‘s ‘Alcachofa; probably one of our best selling albums ever and containing the gems that are ‘Easy Lee’, ‘Dexter’ and now, with the added bonus of the Tools 12inch, my favourite ‘Waiworinao’.
Reissues continue to shine a fresh spotlight of records that were overlooked when they first surfaced or were so limited that they instantly became sought-after. In 2023, we are back with another collection of outstanding singles, lovingly re-issued and repressed, saving us from those Discogs sharks or listening to these records only on YouTube. The number of quality reissue singles doesn’t seem to be abating and seems to have spread vastly across many genres including several very hot dance reissues.
Top of the pile is the excellent ‘Spiritual Ideas for Virtual Reality’ from Hole In One – immortalized as the opening track in Andrew Weatherall’s seminal 1993 Massive Mellow Mix. But, close to the top, and Nick’s favourite is the reissue of ‘Law of Grace’ from Soul Capsule. While 1999’s ‘Lady Science’ might be their most famous offering, this EP from 2001 on Aspect Music is no less vital- and was fetching £250 on Discogs before this reissue hit the shops!!
