This Is How to End the Year!
Some favorite bands giving 2023 a proper send-off
Every year is filled with new artists and new music. Still, it feels as though this year was almost too much to absorb. Perhaps it was the pent-up energy from two years of pandemic and lockdowns, but there is a lot of energy flowing right now, seemingly in every genre and style.
Trying to compile “Best of” lists became an impossible task for me, so I’m not going to try. Kudos to those of you who have given it a shot — I am particularly gobsmacked by my friend Steve Goldberg, who compiled a list of 75 favorites from 2023, covering a dozen genres.
Rather than try to compile “Best of” lists, I’ve decided to wrap the year up by highlighting a few last-minute presents from favorite bands: songs that were released in December, and which particularly surprised or moved me. Most are from relatively young artists or bands.
I like to think that these songs are harbingers of great things to come. The fourth one is from a band that has been around for over a decade, but it captures why they have gradually become one of my favorites.
Nemophila: “Odyssey”
Nemophila were founded in 2019 and spent their formative period in lockdown. You would never know it. I was lucky enough to see them live this past spring, and they are as crisp and tight as any band I’ve seen. I’ve featured them a few times in this column, and they did not disappoint.
Nemophila are hard to describe, but “explosive” comes close. They can go as hard as any of the classic hard rock and metal bands you want to name. Their vocalist, Mayu, has a gorgeous singing voice but can also scream like a banshee. They have all the tools and use them.
No matter how hard they go, they never lose their sense of what sounds pretty. It makes for a weird effect — beautiful, melodic songs, some of which could be lullabies, sung over instrumentation that can singe your hair off. They themselves refer to their style as “fluffy hell.”
Still, it’s one thing to be able to thrash. It’s another to be able to pull the reins in and produce a truly beautiful ballad. Very few of the classic hard rock and thrash bands ever pulled it off. Nemophila have now done it three times. The third one, “Odyssey,” was their Christmas present to us, or so I like to think. And oh, what a gorgeous present.
“Odyssey” is from the soundtrack to a movie which is due to be released soon. I don’t know the words, and it doesn’t matter. In fact, I prefer it this way. Whatever your hopes, dreams, or regrets, you can project them onto this song, and it works.
Otyken “Belief”
I’ve been obsessed with this band since discovering them earlier this year. Their music is both wild and entrancing. Their back story is a tragedy very much of our era — the impending, inexorable extinction of an entire culture.
From my original writeup on the band:
“Otyken are a group from remote central Siberia. They are all members of small tribes (Chulym, Ket, Selkup, Tuvan, etc.) There are just over 200 native speakers of the Chulym language left in the world. Like other tribes in the region, they were decimated by centuries of invasion and war, and more recently by the rampant environmental destruction starting in the Soviet era.
They are fully aware that their language is dying. Part of their purpose in performing and recording their music is to leave behind a record of their culture before they disappear. To date, they have released tracks mainly in Chulym, but also in Khakass, and one song in Russian, addressed to the people who took their land.
As they say in “Paradise Lost”: “The land is yours now, but the sky is ours.”
Here is their wish for the New Year. The message is clear: Forgive. Put your trust in love and in music.
Jazz Avengers “Michel Tokyo”
The Jazz Avengers were my pick for Best New Band of 2023. They are channeling and re-energizing jazz of all styles, from big-band and swing to progressive and free jazz.
They aren’t snobs, either. They have also done some great funk and cool-jazz covers. What links all their work is that they are polished, highly accomplished musicians who work seamlessly together, without ego or selfishness getting in the way.
Bandmembers:
Ami Nakazono (S. Sax)
Miho Terachi (A.sax)
WaKaNa (A. Sax)
Miku Yonezawa (T.Sax)
Chizuru Segawa (G)
Marie Takeda (Keys)
Juna Serita (B)
Senri Kawaguchi (D)
Senri, the band’s founder, is a genuine global superstar with several international tours under her belt at the ripe old age of 26. All of them write for the Avengers. This piece was composed by Marie Takeda, the keyboardist. If you like what you hear and want to find more, there is plenty posted on YouTube. Most of the members also tour as solo acts and have their own youtube channels.
Orbit Culture “Sound of the Bell”
Orbit Culture are a Swedish band founded in 2013. I only discovered them a couple of years ago, but they have become one of my favorite metal bands. Again, like so many virtuoso European bands, they don’t get the attention they deserve in the U.S.
They have been classified as “melodic death metal” for their overlay of harsh vocals over rich, melodic instrumental lines. Lead singer Niklas Karlsson also does traditional “clean” vocals, which you will hear in this song.
Orbit Culture touch on some themes that set them a little apart, including pointed social protest. I will be featuring them in an upcoming post in the “Beginner’s Guide to Heavy Metal” series which is being helmed by Anthony Overs. For now, if you are not familiar with them, just consider this an introductory New Year’s present from Orbit Culture.
Lovebites: “Swan Song”, live in 2023
I will be doing a whole series on Lovebites, whom I view as one of a handful of transformative bands reshaping the entire concept of metal. They are first and foremost a live band, and when the pandemic shut down their ability to tour, it was like hitting a brick wall.
Their founding member, already battling depression exacerbated by the death of her father, quit the band. There were other indications the band might not be able to come back.
They persevered, eventually recruited a replacement for their departed founder, and began releasing new material. The big moment was a pair of live performances this year, their first such in two years.
This song is one of their older songs, but it is a mainstay of their set-list, for good reason. Play it through the end — for people unfamiliar with this band, the finale is positively mind-blowing.
They just released this a few days ago — I see it as a statement that they intend to be here a long time. Oh, and Dec 29 was the drummer’s birthday!
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Coming soon: Part VI of the Beginner’s Guide to Heavy Metal!