Music Spotlight: My Top Album 2022

The hype is real. I only recently wrote last years, so I bet your hype + is nonexistent but for me I was writing that knowing full well there were + some bangers waiting to be unleashed in this year end review!

If you hadn’t read my previous post for 2021 the link is at the + bottom:

+
The winner was “KANGA - You and I Will Never Die”
+

The album pool

As always the criteria:

it was released in 2022
it wasn’t a single
if it was an EP it has to be substantial and intentional

And the albums are…

Amining for Enrike - The Rats and the Children
And So I watch You from Afar - Jettison
Astronoid - Radiant Bloom
Carpenter Brut - Leather Terror
Cult of Luna - The Long Road North
Dance With the Dead - Driven to Madness
Elder - Innate Passage
Emma Ruth Rundle - EG2: Dowsing Voice
Giraffes? Giraffes! - Death Breath
God Mother - Obeveklig
Jay Hosking - Celestial spheres (and various other releases)
Long Distance Calling - Eraser
Ludovico Technique - Haunted People
MWWB - The Harvest (Mammoth Weed Wizard Bastard)
MØL - Diorama (Instrumental)
Psychostick - … and Stuff
Russian Circles - Gnosis
SIERRA - See Me Now
Starcadian - Shadowcatcher
Tina Dickow - Bitte Små Ryk
Toundra - Hex
Waveshaper - Forgotten Shapes

2022’s playlist (+ 2 albums from bandcamp not on Spotify):

The Top 5

In alphabetical order:

Carpenter Brut - Leather Terror
Elder - Innate Passage
Emma Ruth Rundle - EG2: Dowsing Voice
Jay Hosking - Celestial spheres (and various other releases)
Tina Dickow - Bitte Små Ryk

Carpenter Brut - Leather Terror

Some metal infused synthwave, Carpenter Brut managed to release a + catchy and heavy banger of an album. Featuring a few guest performers, + each of these tracks are unique and catchy in what I would consider a + very “same-y” genre. It’s nice having an infinite supply of retro synth + tracks to drive to, but sometimes it’s hard for one to really break + through into “oh shit yes!”. Typically, Starcadian is the one to do that + for me, as they add an extra layer to their tracks through their music + videos (each track being an “ear movie”).

Throughout the year I found myself coming back to a few tracks over + and over - especially when I was showering or doing some other short + activity and I just wanted something upbeat and fun as heck!

Some call out featured songs are The Widow Maker featuring Gunship, + Imaginary Fire featuring Greg Puciato, and Lipstick Masquerade featuring + Persha. I looped these three songs quite a bit. But there are quite a few + more to checkout.

Favorite Track

This is tough, as I looped those three songs quite a bit - each + bringing their own unique energy. So I’ll pick all three - my list my + rules:

+
The Widow maker - feat. Gunship This track is representative of + the genre. It’s synthwave to the core.
+
+
Imaginary Fire - feat. Greg Puciato This is a metal track with + synths. Greg Puciato (of The Dillinger Escape Plan fame) is one of my + favorite vocalists and is immensely talented. This is probably my + favorite because I can’t get enough of his vocal style - the screams + and the clean vocals!
+
+
Lipstick Masquerade - feat. Persha This is a modern 80s track. + This is what retrowave was designed around and while tracks like The + Widow Maker are more typical of the genre, this is the song they all + are basing their sound off of. This is kill pop song.
+

Special Commendation - Non Stop Bangers

You throw this album on and it hits you with just banger after banger. + I can’t keep myself from dancing. Even as I listen back as I write this + gemlog I am grooving in my chair! Like Kanga last year, this is just a + series of tracks that just make you dance.

Album Link

+ [spotify] Carpenter Brut - Leather Terror

Elder - Innate Passage

I toot’d a bit about this album, a later release in the year, this + took this year end review and flipped it on its head. I thought it was + wrapped up already with a separate release this year, but this makes the + decision so hard.

Elder came at us with what feels like a return to form. Having + previously released Omens in 2020 and a collaboration album in 2021, + Innate Passage takes the best parts of those two albums and builds on-top + of more “classic Elder” albums like Lore. Elder has carved out their own + niche in the genre making a blend of psych rock and stoner metal, with + each release leaning harder and harder into psychedelic realms. Innate + Passage has this almost ethereal feeling - especially in their opening + track Catastasis.

I think, however, they’ve left the doom and stoner metal behind. Dead + Roots Stirring and Elder (self titled) were certainly “Doomy” and in that + “doom/stoner” metal overlap. Lore, Reflections of a Floating World are + both still very “stoner metal”. But is playing psychedelic-metal with a + big muff automatically stoner metal? I think since Omens they’re + probably, as a band, firmly outside of the stoner metal field - and more + soundly in some psychedelic/prog metal genre?

They introduce themselves as such in their website actually!

+
genre-pushing rock band that melds heavy psychedelic sounds + with progressive elements and evocative soundscapes.
+

+ — https://beholdtheelder.com/elder-bio/ +

+ +

“Merged In Dreams - Ne Plus Ultra” is the track that flips this whole + argument on its head and shows that regardless, they’re still very much a + metal band and one that you’ll absolutely be head banging too, horn up + \m/.

Favorite Track

I think “Merged In Dreams - Ne Plus Ultra”. A nearly 15 minute track + that has everything in it you expect from Elder.

Special Commendation - Excellent Vinyl Record Cover

I LOVE their record covers when they do the circular inserts. You can + display this vinyl with having 3 separate views through the port, which + while purely aesthetic - it’s very nice!

The quality of the vinyl release was great, though I find any + non-black Vinyl has a 33% chance of being slightly warped upon arrival. I + am going to stick to traditional black vinyls from now on sadly. It’s too + freaking often

Album Link

+ [spotify] Elder - Innate Passage

Emma Ruth Rundle - EG2: Dowsing Voice

Her second album in her “Electric Guitar” series - Emma Ruth Rundle + (ERR from here on out) has released “Dowsing Voice” a haunting follow-up + to last years Engine of Hell. Holy holy HOLY hell, this album is an + impactful, artistic, just WOW. It’s hard to describe. I was listening to + it for this review and my partner, sitting behind me relaxing, said “What + the hell are you listening too, this is scary!”. And scary, emotional, + and difficult it is. ERR stretches the use of the “electric guitar” + title, as the focus here is the additional layers and voices added on-top + of the main tracks.

An experimental release that, at this time is only available on + bandcamp, is one I don’t put on frequently, but when I do am fully + captivated. If you like artistic records - please check this out.

Favorite Track

Probably: Keening into Ffynnon Llanllawer - I love the guitar(?) part + and the wailing/vocalization. It’s haunting. As a recording is + amazing.

Though “In the Cave of The Cailleach’s Death-Birth” is the /best/ + track. Put some headphones on and give this a listen! Just amazing.

Special Commendation - Album Art

This album, IS ART, but the album art is just… really suiting the + music.

Album Link

[bandcamp] + Emma Ruth Rundle - EG2: Dowsing Voice

Jay Hosking - Celestial spheres (and various other releases)

This is an interesting pick. Having released JUST in time for this + year, this is an album I have been engaging with in many, many ways. + Firstly, I am a patron of this performer via Patreon. They make music + videos (audio only performance videos of the songs) that they compile + into albums. Last year’s album is probably my actual favorite and likely + SHOULD’VE snuck into the top 5 because of the final track alone, which + was an emotional and just epic banger of a track (Linked at the bottom of + this review).

Celestial spheres is a compilation of 8 synth jams. Jay bills these as + semi-improvisational, and while the YT channel is a synth nerds dream of + these informative performances, the songs stand on their own. This one is + no exception. Using various different pieces of hardware synths, + grooveboxes, drum machines and traditional instruments - each track is + unique while still carrying this /energy/ and style. It’s so easy to hear + Jays tracks and know it’s him.

I’ve been following him for years and really enjoy the music he makes, + and the community he’s built up around his music. Due to the disconnected + nature of the singles (releasing effectively as YouTube videos prior to + the album drop) it’s difficult to ultimately rate these in these lists + since I don’t get a chance to really enjoy them /as an album/ until the + end of the year (the past two times happened like this where they came + out around the end of the year). And on my playlist “Future, Tense” is + present as it’s a “2022” album according to Spotify, but was out on + bandcamp in 2021, and that’s when I was gifted it by Jay.

So yeah - this whole section is like “disclaimer disclaimer” but if + you like groovy, typically instrumental synth music - check it out.

The various other releases

This year Jay released a few albums actually which I didn’t want to + include separately. If you enjoy this album (which was mostly comprised + of 2022 music, so was the primary focus) check out the other albums:

https://jayhosking.bandcamp.com/album/cinematic-works + https://jayhosking.bandcamp.com/album/away-music-for-a-productive-day + https://jayhosking.bandcamp.com/album/home-music-for-a-productive-day

Favorite Track

Without out a doubt it’s Nychthemeron. It’s truly a wild track, with + so much happening in it. I suspect it was his favorite too since he made + an actual music video for it:

[youtube] Jay + Hosking - Nychthemeron (Official Music video)

Special Commendation - Each track has a live performance attached to + it!

If you enjoy videos - these each have a corresponding YT video linked + at the bottom of the bandcamp page.

Album Link

[bandcamp] + Jay Hosking - Celestial spheres

Tina Dickow - Bitte Små Ryk

Tina Dickow (sometimes credited as Tina Dico, depending on the + release) is a fantastic Danish singer songwriter. Since her first solo + album she’s really found a way to elevate what is just folk indie pop. + Her songwriting, arrangements, and performances are always so rich. She + knows when to strip the song back - like Chefen Skal Ha' Fri - while, + has certainly a lot happening beneath the lyrics - mixes them back a bit + to let the layered vocals cut through as the song builds. Each song has + so much to listen to! Picking out various instruments, layers, yet every + song would work performed just her and her acoustic guitar. I find her + style of pop music to be very engaging for that reason. I don’t often + listen to this style of music, but the production behind each track is so + good it hooks me in. That and her beautiful voice - which drew me in + first.

It’s a bit harder to talk about this album given the language barrier + (I do not speak Danish!) Which is a shame, since her lyrics are often + what I love about some of her previous albums. I’ve read the translations + and done my own as a learning exercise, but there is a layer missing + which is a shame given how strong this album is as whole.

I’ve spoken about Tina before in two previous gemlogs (Music + Spotlight: Awesome EPs and 5x5 + Playlists (both gemini:// links)) and is one of my absolute favorite + artists of all time. I’ve been slowly collecting her entire discography, + which can be tricky, given a lot of copies are out of print and the + remaining stock/used copies are often in Europe. (And that 5x5 playlist + is very telling given most of those artists have been featured in my top + albums lists and were winners! Is this foreshadowing?!)

Favorite Track

I shouldn’t have introduced this section - it has been so hard each + time! I think the title track, Bitte Små Ryk. It’s got everything there, + and is representative of the albums sound.

Special Commendation - Lovely

This whole album is lovely. There is emotion here too, and while I + don’t speak the language its often very clear. But I love Tina and her + music. It’s lovely and hits this spot in me thats just warm.

Album Link

+ [spotify] Tina Dickow - Bitte Små Ryk

My Top Pick

This year has been especially hard, since I spent so much time + listening to 2021s releases which are some of my favorite of all time. + And between 2021 and 2022 (and mentioned in my 2021 spotlight) nearly + every one of my favorite artists released an album. So I have been + blessed with a lot to listen to.

Anyone following me on mastodon may have seen Tina Dickow just owning + my entire wrapped campaign, but with Elder releasing their album after + the data collection stops for wrapped, that certainly isn’t telling the + whole story.

And it wouldn’t be a top album list if I didn’t mention Starcadian + being consistently in the top 10 year after year, just narrowly missing + the top 5 - though technically, this release was in my 2020s list, as it + was available then, but had since been pulled, and was released + “officially” in 2022. Looking at what I can see it’s the same tracklist, + but the “inspired by” credits are entirely gone from the 2022 + release.

Elder - Innate Passage

Each year picking the winner is hard. Part of the reason I do this is + I don’t really add stuff to the list I don’t like. A LOT of music comes + out each year, and I add what I listen to. I don’t listen to music I + don’t like - so by nature of the process - each album is a “top album” + for me.

But the top 5 is usually a mix of “omg obvs” and “yeah turns out I + threw that on way more than I expected” (Carpenter Brut). But its really + always a fight between those “obvs” - this year was Elder and Tina + Dickow. Their releases were seriously top tier and repeat listens.

Tina came in with the advantage of releasing in April, and Elder JUST + released theirs at the end of November. But I did some math on my + mastodon breaking down the comparison. Elder came at us with a longer + albums, under half as many tracks, and over 2x the average song length + (about 10min/track).

They didn’t waste a single second (neither did Tina) but just being + such an accessible album - just direct pure energy and power - BOOM! It + was great.

This should’ve been a tie

Honestly, I was ready to call it a tie. I am actually writing this + minutes before posting it, because that’s how undecided I am and how + close this is.

Tina Dickow deserves the number one slot any other year, and both her + and Elder’s albums I hope to see more of in the next few years! Both are + classic albums in their discographies (both albums of which I own and + spin regularly). I forced myself to pick, and just knowing me, my tastes, + and all the stuff I said above - I went with Elder. But seriously, listen + to this record - Tina manages to pack so much musicality in carving out a + unique sound and just amazing style. I love her <3 :)

And if her music isn’t your jam - check out her guest tracks on the + Zero-7 stuff - angelic voice.

Conclusion

I am REALLY disappointed I had to choose between Elder and Tina Dickow + this year. Similarly, last year I had Raised by Swans, ERR, and Kanga! + And our winner in 2020 was Bell Witch. These ARE my top six favorite + musical artists currently active.

I’ll talk about music trends and my tastes later on. But I just wanted + to emphasize how much of a banger these last 3 years have been musically + and I am grateful I get to share these with you here.

I am really excited for 2023!

This year’s playlist (2023)

+ [spotify] senders' Releases 2023 Playlist

How I Generate My RSS Feed

I only just now started supplying an RSS feed to you fine people! You + can subscribe to it at www.senders.io/blog/feed.rss!

I decided rather than manually generating the file contents I’d hook + into my pre-existing publish scripts to be able to generate the RSS + file.

Publishing blog posts - shell scripts ftw

In My Markdown -> HTML Setup I + touch on how I publish my markdown files into HTML for this blog. But + what I don’t really touch on is the shell scripts that tie the + whole process together.

What I have is two, now three, scripts that feed the whole + process:

publish-blog.sh - the main script
compile-md.sh - generates the HTML output
update-feed.sh - generates/appends the RSS feed

The update-feed.sh script is the new one I just + added.

publish-blog.sh is the primary interface, I supply the + date of the post and the path to the md file and that calls compile and + update to automate the entire process.

Without going into TOO much detail you can view the latest versions of + the scripts at git.senders.io/senders/senders-io/tree/.

But the gist of the scripts is I parse out the necessary details, + find/replace some tokens in template files I have setup for headers and + footers, and concat the outputs into the final output HTML files, and now + RSS feed.

update-feed.sh

Source File: git.senders.io/senders/senders-io/tree/update-feed.sh

This script is pretty interesting. I didn’t want to deal with any XML + parsers and libraries to just maintain a proper XML rss file and push + items into the tree. Rather, I just follow a similar setup to my markdown + generation. I leverage some temporary files to hold the contents, a + static temp file for the previously generated content, and at the end + swap the temp file with the real file.

I take in an input of the publish date (this is the date from the + publish script), the title, and the HTML file path. These are all already + variables in the publish script, but also something I can manually supply + if I need to publish an older article, or something I wrote directly in + HTML.

The core of the script is found here:

PUBDATE=$(date -d "$1" -R)
+TITLE=$2
+FILE_PATH=$3
+PERMALINK=$(echo "${FILE_PATH}" | sed -e "s,${TKN_URL_STRIP},${URL_PREFIX},g")
+LINK=$(echo "${PERMALINK}" | sed -e "s,${TKN_INDEX_STRIP},,g")
+
+# Generate TMP FEED File Header
+
+cat -s $FILE_RSS_HEADER > $FILE_TMP_FEED
+sed -i -E "s/${TKN_BUILDDATE}/${BUILDDATE}/g" $FILE_TMP_FEED
+sed -i -E "s/${TKN_PUBDATE}/${PUBDATE}/g" $FILE_TMP_FEED
+
+# Generate TMP Item File
+
+cat -s $FILE_RSS_ITEM_HEADER > $FILE_TMP_ITEM
+sed -i -E "s~${TKN_TITLE}~${TITLE}~g" $FILE_TMP_ITEM
+sed -i -E "s/${TKN_PUBDATE}/${PUBDATE}/g" $FILE_TMP_ITEM
+sed -i -E "s,${TKN_PERMALINK},${PERMALINK},g" $FILE_TMP_ITEM
+sed -i -E "s,${TKN_LINK},${LINK},g" $FILE_TMP_ITEM
+sed -n "/<article>/,/<\/article>/p" $FILE_PATH >> $FILE_TMP_ITEM
+cat -s $FILE_RSS_ITEM_FOOTER >> $FILE_TMP_ITEM
+
+# Prepend Item to items list and overwrite items file w/ prepended item
+## In order to "prepend" the item (so it's on top of the others)
+## We need to concat the tmp item file with the existing list, then
+## we can push the contents over the existing file
+## We use cat -s to squeeze the blank lines
+cat -s $FILE_ITEM_OUTPUT >> $FILE_TMP_ITEM
+cat -s $FILE_TMP_ITEM > $FILE_ITEM_OUTPUT
+
+# Push items to TMP FEED
+cat -s $FILE_ITEM_OUTPUT >> $FILE_TMP_FEED
+
+# Push RSS footer to TMP FEED
+cat -s $FILE_RSS_FOOTER >> $FILE_TMP_FEED
+echo $FILE_TMP_FEED
+
+# Publish feed
+cat -s $FILE_TMP_FEED > $FILE_RSS_OUTPUT
+
+echo "Finished generating feed"
+

Some key takeaways are:

sed lets you do regex with delimiters that AREN’T / so + you can substitute something that shouldn’t actually ever show up in + your regex. For me that is ~.
I always forget you can use sed to extract between tokens - which + is how I get the CDATA for the RSS: sed -n + "/<article>/,/<\/article>/p"
mktemp is really REALLY useful - and I feel is under + utilized in shellscripting

The obvious cracks are:

I rely SO much on sed that it’s almost certainly going + to break
I don’t have much other flag control to do partial generation - so + if I need to do something either starting partway through or not finish + the full process, I don’t have that.
Sometimes things can break silently and it will go through, there + is no verification or like manual checking along the way before + publishing the feed.rss

The final two can easily be managed by writing the feed to a location + that isn’t a temp file and I can manually do the cat -s + $FILE_TMP_FEED > www/blog/feed.rss myself after I check it + over.

But for now I’ll see if I ever have to redo it. I don’t think anyone + will actually sub to this so I don’t really need to care that much if I + amend the feed.

Where to put the feed URL

I never intended to provide an RSS feed. I doubt anyone but me reads + this, and from my previous experience with gemini feed generation was a + bit of a headache.

A quick aside: I really only decided thanks to Mastodon. I was + thinking during the Twitter meltdown “what if twitter but RSS” (I know + super unique idea). But basically like a true “microblog”. And some OSS + tools to publish your blog. This got me reading the RSS spec and looking + into it more - which then lead me down the using the RSS readers more (in + conjunction with gemini, and Cortex podcast talking about using RSS + more).

But I’ve decided to just put the RSS feed in the blog index, on my + homepage, and that’s it. I don’t need it permanently in the header.

Conclusion

I didn’t have much to share here, it doesn’t make too much sense to + write a big post on what can be explained better by just checking out the + shell scripts in my git source. The code speaks better than I ever + could.

I really, really like shell scripting.

Music Spotlight: My Top Album 2022

The album pool

The Top 5

Carpenter Brut - Leather Terror

Favorite Track

Special Commendation - Non Stop Bangers

Album Link

Elder - Innate Passage

Favorite Track

Special Commendation - Excellent Vinyl Record Cover

Album Link

Emma Ruth Rundle - EG2: Dowsing Voice

Favorite Track

Special Commendation - Album Art

Album Link

Jay Hosking - Celestial spheres (and various other releases)

The various other releases

Favorite Track

Special Commendation - Each track has a live performance attached to + it!

Album Link

Tina Dickow - Bitte Små Ryk

Favorite Track

Special Commendation - Lovely

Album Link

My Top Pick

Elder - Innate Passage

This should’ve been a tie

Conclusion

This year’s playlist (2023)

Links

How I Generate My RSS Feed

Publishing blog posts - shell scripts ftw

update-feed.sh

Where to put the feed URL

Conclusion

How I Generate My RSS Feed

Publishing blog posts - shell scripts ftw

update-feed.sh

Where to put the feed URL

Conclusion

Music Spotlight: My Top Album 2022

The album pool

The Top 5

Carpenter Brut - Leather Terror

Favorite Track

Special Commendation - Non Stop Bangers

Album Link

Elder - Innate Passage

Favorite Track

Special Commendation - Excellent Vinyl Record Cover

Album Link

Emma Ruth Rundle - EG2: Dowsing Voice

Favorite Track

Special Commendation - Album Art

Album Link

Jay Hosking - Celestial spheres (and various other releases)

The various other releases

Favorite Track

Special Commendation - Each track has a live performance attached to + it!

Album Link

Tina Dickow - Bitte Små Ryk

Favorite Track

Special Commendation - Lovely

Album Link

My Top Pick

Elder - Innate Passage

This should’ve been a tie

Conclusion

This year’s playlist (2023)

Links

Blog Index

Music Blog?!

Reworking my THR100HD

Dual Amping

Results after one night

Thoughts

Future