First Floor's Favorite Tracks of 2023
a.k.a. The songs I enjoyed the most this year, both on and off the dancefloor.
As I said last week, 2023 hasn’t been an especially great year for dance music, but that sentiment has a lot more to do with the current state of the culture (and the industry around it) than the actual quality of music on offer. It’s always easy to point at the trash—and, make no mistake, there was a whole lot of it this year—but during the past 12 months, a lot of great club tunes also found their way into the world. And if we widen the lens to include the entire electronic spectrum, there was more than enough top-shelf material popping up each week to keep even the most demanding listeners extremely satisfied.
Rounding up my favorite tracks of 2023 actually proved rather difficult, simply because there were so many options to choose from. In the end, I managed to narrow it down to 46 songs in total, and while my selections have not been ranked or listed in order of preference, they have been grouped into four (admittedly loose) categories, just to make things a bit more orderly.
Before we begin, I do have a quick scheduling note. Although First Floor usually goes out on Tuesdays and Thursdays, this week I will be putting together an additional mailout highlighting my favorite releases of 2023. That will be published tomorrow (i.e. Wednesday), and will be followed on Thursday by a “normal” First Floor digest, which will also be the final newsletter of the year.
Alright, let’s get into these tunes.
Note: You can click the track titles to hear each song individually, or you can also just head over to this convenient Buy Music Club list to find them all in one place.
BIG AND BANGING
Was 2023 the year that dance music officially re-embraced the anthem? Some people thought so, and while I’d personally argue that only a handful of tracks legitimately reached the required level of ubiquity to be recognized as anthems, there’s no denying that dancefloors this year had a appetite for big (and often gregarious) bangers. Thankfully, some of those bangers were actually quite good, and regardless of whether or not DJs will be caning any of them in 10 years, there’s a good chance they’ll get your adrenaline pumping and put a smile on your face right now.
Hudson Mohawke & Nikki Nair & Tayla Parx “Set the Roof” (Warp)
The one club tune that pretty much everyone could agree upon in 2023, “Set the Roof” has been popping up on nearly every publication’s single year-end list—I myself already wrote about the song for Pitchfork—and for good reason: the track is just so damn fun. With its fortified UKG beat, the song has been constructed for the dancefloor, but that’s ultimately just a Trojan Horse, one that Hudson Mohawke and Nikki Nair have stuffed with a bevy of intensely catchy hooks. Between the plinky xylophone melodies, wonky 8-bit synths and the deliriously tweaked vocals of Tayla Parx, “Set the Roof” is going to find its way into your head somehow, and once it’s there, there’s a good chance you’ll be delighted by its presence.
Verraco “Escándaloo” (Voam)
When I interviewed Verraco earlier this year, he demonstrated why he’s one of electronic music’s most thoughtful and articulate artists, particularly when it comes to issues of Latin identity and how they intersect with the wider electronic music industry. That said, the Colombian producer and TraTraTrax co-founder is also an A-level talent, and he reached new heights with “Escándaloo,” a bonkers cut whose buzzing synth blasts and galloping beats run roughshod over uptight techno orthodoxy.
Doctor Jeep “Push the Body” (TraTraTrax)
After years of being your favorite producer’s favorite producer—at least within the bass music realm—NYC’s Doctor Jeep had something of a breakout year in 2023, with his TraTraTrax debut Push the Body leading the charge. Part dubstep and part techno, the title track is the kind of tune that drops the low-end hammer without rupturing listeners’ spleens in the process, its cybernetic vocals providing some retro-futuristic flair as the track’s groove-laden underbelly bops across the dancefloor.
Mor Elian “Double Dip” (Fever AM)
Having spent a few years largely focused on more laid-back and experimental sounds, Mor Elian recommitted herself to the rave in 2023, with “Double Dip” dropping like a bold statement of intent. A bass-techno hybrid that’s bubbly, booming and packed with details—the vocal chops are particularly good—it’s a reminder that sometimes the best bangers are the ones that aren’t afraid to get a little bit weird.
Bianca Oblivion & ONHELL “Sinais” (N.A.A.F.I.)
Though she hails from Los Angeles, Bianca Oblivion has repeatedly proven herself to be a master of gully UK sounds—and old-school grime in particular. “Sinais,” a collaboration with fellow Californian ONHELL, also folds a bit of Baltimore club into the mix, but its burly basslines would have been right at home on a London pirate-radio broadcast in 2002. (Pro tip: don’t sleep on “Badda,” a VIP version of “Sinais” that features the scorching vocals of London MC Logan.)
Slimzee, Boylan + Riko Dan “Mile End” (FWD>>)
Speaking of old-school UK bass, the FWD>> club night has been around for more than 20 years now, and yet it waited until 2023 to launch an affiliated label. Living up to that legacy wasn’t going to be easy, but “Mile End” is a scorched-earth monster, one whose loping, grime-meets-dubstep riddim inspires visions of Godzilla casually rampaging his way through Tokyo. Add in the fire-breathing vocals of Riko Dan, and this tune is fully ready to lay waste to any soundsystem that tries to contain its fury.
Minor Science “Workahol” (AD 93)
One of the funniest takeaways from my recent interview with Minor Science was that in the run-up to “Workahol” being released, the production process took so long that he began to get worried that dance music’s post-pandemic embrace of manic tempos and unbridled fun might pass before AD 93 could release the record. As it turned out, those fears were unfounded; if anything, the genre doubled down on frenzied euphoria in 2023, creating an environment in which “Workhol,” even with its wailing police sirens and turbo-charged electro beat, wound up feeling “a lot less outlandish” than Minor Science initially expected. That said, it’s still a riotous good time.
Jaymie Silk “Keep Moving” (Sous)
Techno often felt borderline invisible in 2023, especially when it clocked in below 140 bpm, but Jaymie Slik admirably spent this year not only carrying the torch for the genre, but also working to bring back its seemingly lost sense of groove. That effort included a slew of heavy-hitting tunes, but “Keep Moving” was the best—and liveliest—of the bunch, utilizing an MLK sample (in a non-cringey way) alongside the track’s locomotive-like beat.
DJ Cuddles “But You” (Self-released)
Having spent the bulk of his career in the grime sphere, Mr. Mitch reinvented himself as DJ Cuddles in 2023, dropping a string of joyous bangers that openly prioritized the hips over the head. The music wasn’t dumb—far from it—but it was direct, and reached an exuberant high point with “But You,” a galloping speed garage cut with an elastic bounce and a bevy of (soulfully) chipmunked declarations of love.
Soul Mass Transit System “Gonna Be Alright” (Time Is Now)
DJ Crisps “Never Gonna Stop” (Time Is Now)
Is festival garage officially a thing? If so, Time Is Now is unquestionably one of its leading outposts, and the imprint’s deluge of 2023 releases was highlighted by these two tracks. Taken from The Big Speedy G One EP, Soul Mass Transit’s “Gonna Be Alright” is (not surprisingly) a speed garage cut, one whose skippy stomp, zooming bassline, perky piano and energetic diva chops coalesce into what feels like an instant shot of energy. DJ Crisps’ “Never Gonna Stop,” on the other hand, is a little more subdued, but between its R&B sass and Korg M1 melody, it’s 2-step at its “hands in the air” best.
Tzusing “Residual Stress” (PAN)
There’s something primal about “Residual Stress.” Though it’s effectively a techno cut, Malaysian-born, Taipei-based producer Tzusing continuously ramps up the track’s intensity in a way that feels almost dangerous, folding in darting percussive hits, aggressive vocal chants and the sort of marauding guitar riff one might expect to hear on a Metallica record. If only all techno artists were this willing to color outside the lines…
Prof. Stranger “Back 2 Me” (YEAR0001)
“Back 2 Me” isn’t totally primed for the club—its underlying kick drum could at most be described as “intermittent”—but in purely emotional terms, the song is definitely ready for the big room. Prof. Stranger unashamedly cranks the sentimentality, combining his pastel pads with weepy R&B vocal laments (think Usher), yet somehow, all that melancholy coalesces into a rousing bit of pop-adjacent euphoria.
Real Tears “All the Way” (GODDEZZ)
Heavily steeped in the neon traditions laid down by Hudson Mohawke, Rustie and the wider LuckyMe family more than a decade ago, “All the Way” combines Southern rap beats with the technicolor sound palette of vintage video games. (There’s even the sound of Mario grabbing a coin.) What results is a burst of candy-colored glee, an irrepressibly bright tune with an elastic bassline, a speaker-slapping undercarriage and a pitched-up vocal snippet that you’ll surely to be singing to yourself in the very near future.
ALSO FOR THE CLUB
Not all dancefloor-focused tunes need to be full-on bangers. Seeing those words, some readers might already be thinking that this next section will be focused on tracky, faceless miscellania, but there does exist a middle ground, one in which songs can be brilliant without necessarily aiming for club domination. These tunes all fall into that camp, and are among 2023’s most memorable tracks, even if they don’t make you pump your fist with excitement.
Zombies in Miami “Take Me Back” (Permanent Vacation)
Jordan Nocturne “Over & Over (feat. Ready in LED)” (Polari)
Regular First Floor readers likely know that I’m a sucker for Italo, and while the field of neon-streaked, glitter-dusted tunes is crowded each and every year, these two tracks rose to the top of the 2023 heap. Mexican duo Zombies in Miami employ an almost motorik chug on “Take Me Back,” but considering that the song also features dramatic string flourishes and a vamping piano line, there’s also plenty of glamor in the mix. The celebratory “Over & Over” takes things even further, as Jordan Nocturne enlists Ukrainian vocalist Ready in LED to do her best early Madonna impression as he channels the spirit of ’80s freestyle.
Fennec “Fantasy Sweets” (Self-released)
An unsung deep house hero, Fennec has a serious knack for low-key (but not sleepy whatsoever) grooves, and though he grew up in Indianapolis and now lives in Austin, “Fantasy Sweets” taps into the soulful cool of Detroit and combines it with the lo-fi charm of AM radio. In an era of everything-but-the-kitchen-sink production, the track is a comparatively no-frills affair, but its breezy bounce is wonderfully effective all the same.
Mosca “Lashes” (Rent)
Mosca “Laminar Flow” (Rent)
I came very close to giving Mosca his own category—he’s both that good and that unique—and while pretty much every tune he released this year was a winner, “Lashes” and “Laminar Flow” best demonstrate his talents. The former is practically unclassifiable, a track that’s loosely rooted in Brazilian baile funk but also uses no traditional drum sounds whatsoever, relying instead on car doors, bed springs, balloon rubs and a litany of other sound design elements. The end result is something like avant-garde grime (but not really), yet it would absolutely work in an adventurous club setting. “Laminar Flow” is slightly more traditional, taking cues from Autechre but ultimately landing closer to electro, its whipcracking rhythms buffeted by wailing sirens and effervescent bits of sonic detritus.
Patrick Holland “Take It” (Verdicchio Music Publishing)
French touch, filter house, Daft Punk… all those influences are present on Patrick Holland’s “Take It,” but the loopy groover also pulls a bit from the yacht rock canon, particularly once the Montreal artist starts shredding—rather funkily—on the guitar. Somehow it’s both chill and kind of giddy at the same time, which shouldn’t work, but absolutely does.
Kouslin “King” (Livity Sound)
Dancehall continues to be some of the most versatile music on the planet, and Kouslin takes the genre into bashy, quasi-industrial territory on “King,” a hard-hitting stepper whose low-slung grooves have been outfitted with tweaky acid lines and plenty of reverb.
SOMETHING FOR THE JUNGLISTS
I thought about dividing up my favorite drum & bass tunes from 2023 into the two categories above, but given the diehard devotion that the genre tends to inspire—for some reason, there’s a large group of people that seemingly listen to jungle and nothing else—I figured that perhaps it made more sense to present these songs all in one place. If you like Amen breaks and tempos north of 160 bpm, this section is for you.
Halogenix “Lost Friends” (Gemini Gemini)
Is sad jungle the best jungle? Possibly. The title of “Lost Friends” is pretty self-explanatory, and London producer Halogenix leans into the melancholy, enhancing the musical gloom with some moody piano and smudgy textures. This is one for the “heads down, hoods up” crowd.
SEL.6 “MORE THAN YESTERDAY” (Self-released)
Equal parts Photek and Sade, “MORE THAN YESTERDAY” is a supremely smooth roller from SEL.6. For a drum & bass track, there’s actually very little bass involved, but the Miami producer relishes in the song’s grown-and-sexy sound palette, emphasizing its chilled chords and softly cooing vocals.
Calibre “No Stopping” (Signature)
Describing a piece of music as “adult” or “mature” often has a negative connotation, but in the case of “No Stopping,” it’s simply accurate. Coming from veteran producer Calibre, the track has a quiet confidence, its drums calmly bopping below an elegant fog of reverb and falsetto vocal clips. It doesn’t bash anyone over the head, and it doesn’t need to; put your gun fingers away, this one’s better suited to pensively swaying along.
Damian’s Ghost “Voices” (Astrophonica)
Fueled by label founder Fracture’s slow jungle edits and his ongoing 0860 project, Astrophonica quietly had another excellent year, but it was Damian’s Ghost who delivered the imprint’s most immediately memorable tune. “Voices” is a lush, piano-flecked roller, and its recurring vocal (“I hear voices / I hear voices in my head”) proves to be incredibly sticky, landing the song right on the edge of pop territory.
Sully & Tim Reaper “Windswept (Sully Fader Mix)” (Uncertain Hour / Future Retro London)
Sully “Extant” (Uncertain Hour)
Is Sully the most talented producer in all of drum & bass? He certainly has one of the highest hit rates, and on “Windswept,” he teamed up with Tim Reaper, another of the genre’s leading figures. Their original collaboration came out in 2021, but Sully continued to tinker on his own, gradually transforming what was already a potent ripper into an even more banging tune. Dialing up both the drums and the drama—the latter courtesy of some Middle Eastern strings and an array of classic “Hallelujah” vocal samples—the track is a real firecracker, though it’s rivaled in intensity by “Extant,” a song whose percussive onslaught all but invites listeners to duck and take cover. Sully can batter the dancefloor with the best of them, and he’s the rare artist who always seems to be in top form.
POP (NOT THE POPULAR KIND) AND POP-ADJACENT SOUNDS
What constitutes pop music? I don’t know. Countless articles, essays and even books have been devoted to the subject, and yet it’s difficult to even settle on a working definition. I won’t try to come up with one myself, especially since mainstream pop music (i.e. the stuff that’s on the charts, the radio and the most popular streaming playlists) isn’t my specialty and has never gotten much love in First Floor.
That being said, pop forms and techniques are routinely used (and, even better, subverted) by artists all across the musical spectrum, and this section is devoted to my favorite songs from 2023 that in some way dabbled in pop formulas / structures / etc. Some are fun, some are pensive, some have a traditional verse-chorus-verse structure and some are entirely instrumental. It’s admittedly something of a mish-mash—I also considered the heading “Not Quite Ambient, but Not Really Dance Music Either,” but that too didn’t feel quite right—so let’s just dive in. Regardless of how these tracks are categorized, there’s some excellent stuff below.
Nabihah Iqbal “This World Couldn’t See Us” (Ninja Tune)
Nabihah Iqbal was born in 1988, and “This World Couldn’t See Us” makes me think that maybe she was exposed to a steady diet of New Order while in the womb. Although the London artist’s dreamily detached talk-singing doesn’t really line up with Bernard Sumner’s vocal melodrama, the song’s shimmering guitars, post-punky bassline and peppily metronomic drums sound like outtakes from Power, Corruption & Lies (in a great way).
Joanne Robertson “Blue Car” (AD 93)
How did Joanne Robertson, a singer-songwriter whose music borders on folk, wind up on AD 93? I have no idea, but despite the seemingly unusual pairing, her “Blue Car” is one of 2023’s most beautifully haunting songs. A lo-fi recording that features nothing but acoustic guitar, Robertson’s voice and a good deal of echo, the song is relatively minimal, but that only highlights the weight of the emotions being communicated. Regardless of what she’s actually singing about—Robertson tends to improvise on the mic—the underlying sense of longing and melancholy rings out loud and clear.
Tirzah “u all the time” (Domino)
Tirzah could sing a recipe for rice pilaf and make it sound incredible, but “u all the time” showcases the UK artist at her seductive best, her smokey, lovesick vocals hypnotically drifting above the piano-and-trap foundation assembled by long-term collaborator Mica Levi. There are definite shades of trip-hop here, but the song never feels like a nostalgic exercise; on the contrary, it’s the sort of tune that’s likely to sound just as potent in 20 years as it does today.
Marina Zispin “Flowers in the Sea” (Night School)
A collaboration between Bianca Scout and Martyn Reid, the Marina Zispin project is rooted in synth-pop, but rather than mimicking the genre’s familiar ’80s icons, the duo takes a more lo-fi approach that recalls the work of 2000s-era indie acts like Figurine and Casiotone for the Painfully Alone. The (relative) lack of polish suits “Flowers in the Sea” nicely, bathing both Scout’s vocals and the song’s slow-motion swirls in an alluring gossamer haze.
Avalon Emerson “Astrology Poisoning” (Another Dove)
“Dreamliner” seems to be everyone’s favorite tune on the Avalon Emerson & the Charm album—probably because it’s the closest to thing to a club track on the record—but “Astrology Poisoning” is the best reflection of the American artist’s formidable songwriting chops. A twirly slice of indie-pop that contemplates getting older, losing friends and looming climate castrophe, it’s a thematically heavy tune, but its disco bassline and eminently hummable melodies will leave you smiling anyways. (Full disclosure: Emerson is a friend, we work together on Buy Music Club and I was hired to help write the initial press materials for the & the Charm album.)
V/Z “Candles (Version)” (AD 93)
Given that V/Z features drummer Valentina Magaletti and electronic experimenter Zongamin, their debut album Suono Assente was one of those records that plausibly could have sounded like just about anything. In truth, the LP does dip into a few different sound worlds, but “Candles (Version)” is by far its most sublime offering, a song whose post-punk-meets-dream-pop stylings are mesmerizing enough to entice shoegazers young and old—including all the Zoomers who randomly got into Slowdive via TikTok this year.
claire rousay “Sigh in My Ear” (Saddle Creek)
There was a time in my life when I religiously listened to every single Saddle Creek release, but after more than a decade of not really paying attention to what the Omaha outpost was up to, I have to credit claire rousay for bringing me back to the label with her Sigh in My Ear 7”. The LA-based experimental artist has been half-jokingly referring to her music as “emo ambient” for years, but “Sigh in My Ear” is basically just emo, a stripped-down sadgirl lament that could have been written by The Promise Ring—if The Promise Ring had used a whole lot of vocoder.
Not Waving (with Romance) “Running Back to You” (Ecstatic)
Aside from Aaliyah, has any R&B singer been sampled as often as Ashanti? After dominating the commercial radio dial the early 2000s, her voice later became almost inescapable in the electronic realm, popping up on everything from Jersey club bangers to ambient slow jams. While those appearances have gradually declined in recent years, I still would have said that the last thing the world needed was another “Foolish” flip, but after hearing “Running Back to You,” I have to admit: I was wrong. A collaboration between London-based Italian Not Waving and the ever-mysterious Romance, the track sits somewhere between R&B, IDM and techno, its spasming rhythms made silky smooth by the song’s glowing, soft-focus melodies and (of course) Ashanti’s iconic flow.
pmxper “Quiet Night” (Smalltown Supersound)
Post-punk minimalism at its best, “Quiet Night” opens the debut album by pmxper, a long-brewing collaboration between perila and Pavel Milyakov (a.k.a. Buttechno). Populated by little more than a bass and perila’s voice—which alternates between spoken word and ethereal singing—it conjures memories of pioneering acts like Wire and Young Marble Giants, updating their spartan approach for a new generation of artfully disaffected youth.
Klara Lewis & Nik Colk Void “Junk Funk” (A L T E R)
Given its 71-second runtime, “Junk Funk” is a song that even the biggest fans of Klara Lewis & Nik Colk Void’s Full-On album might have missed, but it deserves to be recognized as more than just a brief aside. Dirty and distorted, the song’s gnarled post-punk groove proves oddly compelling, diving straight into the gutter and encrusting its jagged (albeit undeniably funky) bassline with all sorts of muck as it slowly sways to an equally grotty drum machine beat. More songs like this please!
Maral “Setar Rock” (Self-released)
The past several years have been filled with all sorts of ’90s revivalism, yet it feels like grunge hasn’t yet gotten another proper go-round. If that day does eventually come though, Maral deserves to be at the front of the line, as the LA artist routinely fills her tunes with echoes of ’90s alt-rock, with the influence of labels like Sub Pop and Touch & Go looming particularly large. Of course that’s not all there is to her music, which also leans heavily on blown-out beats and traditional Iranian music. “Setar Rock” does more than simply bring those sounds together; it functions as a sort of duet, one centered around a back-and-forth conversation between its moody guitar riffs and the limber noodling of a setar, a Persian stringed instrument. There’s no disaffected vocalist in the mix, but it doesn’t need one; the song’s underlying sense of angst is palpable all the same.
Oceanic “C-Loli” (Nous’klaer)
2023 was a big year for choral vocals, but few artists used them as creatively as Oceanic, who built his own choir after coaxing more than 30 friends and loved ones to individually come over and sing for him. Those recordings formed the building blocks of his brilliant Choral Feeling album, and “C-Loli” might be the best tune on the record, as it not only conjures a techno pulse without so much as a single drum sound, but it does so while clearing a path for its angelic, Enya-reminiscent vocal chops to gracefully—and weightlessly—cruise above the dancefloor and subsequently float off into the heavens.
THE AMBIENT(-ISH) STUFF
Last but definitely not least, we’ve arrived at the music that in all honesty constituted the largest percentage of my personal listening habits this year. Ambient is funny though; it’s perfect as an at-home soundtrack, something you can put on in the background while you’re working, making dinner or just wanting to chill out, but its generally unobtrusive nature also means that individual songs are less likely to stand out. (That’s why this genre / sound world tends to be more robustly represented on my annual list of favorite releases.) “Less likely,” however, does not mean “impossible.” The ambient(-ish) tracks below were the select few that managed to distinguish themselves, and were often looping (quietly) in my head throughout 2023.
Martyna Basta “Slowly Forgetting, Barely Remembering” (Warm Winters Ltd.)
Less than three minutes long and consisting of little more than a delicate guitar loop, some ASMR-style whispers and a smattering of soft static, “Slowly Forgetting, Barely Remembering” is a deceptively simple cut, yet its meditative allure is absolutely tied to the song’s seemingly ephemeral nature. Polish artist Martyna Basta is a classically trained guitarist, but rather than showcasing her virtuosity, she calmly drifts in like a morning fog, briefly blotting out the sun—and inviting all sorts of introspection—before quickly burning off and retreating to the ether from whence she came.
marine eyes “raindrop roof” (Self-released)
awakened souls “waiting” (Past Inside the Present)
Plush textures, reverb-soaked vocals, softly strummed guitar… the primary components of marine eyes’ music will be familiar to anyone with an appetite for ambient pop sounds, yet the LA artist infuses her music with a unique sense of wonder, conjuring the fantastic in the wide-open spaces of her gauzy compositions. “raindrop roof” is something she first wrote as a teenager, and though it didn’t officially see the light of day until more than two decades later, its stormy vistas remain deeply captivating. “waiting”—a song from her awakened souls project with husband James Bernard—is perhaps a bit more sonically robust, but the vibe is similar, with marine eyes’ yearning, fuzz-kissed vocals wistfully stoking thoughts of lost loves and age-old emotional wounds.
µ-Ziq “4am” (Balmat)
Mike Paradinas will likely forever be associated with frenzied, convulsive rhythms—and, for what it’s worth, he’s very good at making them—but “4am,” the arresting lead track from his not-quite-ambient 1977 album, is closer to the likes of Enigma and Deep Forest than anything from the drill & bass sphere. There aren’t many µ-Ziq tunes that could legitimately be played at a spa retreat, but the zoned-out environs of “4am” are something the Planet Mu founder should definitely explore more often.
mu tate “frank’s hublots” (3XL)
3XL released a lot of material this year—much of it excellent—but few tracks embody the woozy spirit of the label’s digital dreamland quite like “frank hublots.” Yes, it involves a Frank Ocean sample, but the R&B crooner has been (sweetly) manipulated to a point where he’s almost unrecognizable, his dulcet tones reverberating like far-away echoes atop the song’s syrupy expanse.
Earth Trax “Understand” (Lapsus)
Having spent most of his career focused on the dancefloor, Polish producer Earth Trax turned toward abstraction on his Closer Now album, and the ominous atmosphere of LP cut “Understand” borrows heavily from the witch house canon. Pairing its crunchy hip-hop beats and spooky synths with a compellingly tortured vocal refrain, it’s the sort of track you’d expect to hear in a stylized film about teenage witchcraft, something that dabbles in the dark side but does so with a stylishly downtrodden sense of panache.
Piotr Kurek “Martin Is Crying” (Mondoj)
On paper, 13 minutes of nothing but glockenspiel and processed vocal melodies might seem like tedium or overkill, but in the case of “Martin Is Crying,” 13 minutes might not be enough. Though Polish artist Piotr Kurek has stripped down his musical toolkit, the song itself doesn’t feel sparse; it’s a bit bizarre, yes, but it’s also elegant and oddly soothing, its plinking tones and not-quite-human vocalizations coming together to function as a sort of mollifying lullaby.
Shawn Reynaldo is a freelance writer, editor, presenter and project manager. Find him on LinkedIn and Twitter, or you can just drop him an email to get in touch about projects, collaborations or potential work opportunities.