2023: It's all just content.

"Something like the Ramones, which means so much to you and me, to a young person now, is just content. It's content they like or don't like. It doesn't have the significance like it does for us. That's a part of why even music itself doesn't have the significance that it used to have. When I was in high school, if one of your friends would get a new record, everyone would flip out and go to their house and listen to it together. Now, music is just the background of a video game. People's lives don't revolve around it anymore. And if you notice, people who are the big stars now, are always sort of these multimedia people, so you know them from their video. Look at a guy like Drake. He was a sitcom actor and now people take him seriously as a rapper. It boggles the mind. At this point, it's just all content. It doesn't have the same cultural resonance that it had for people our age. That doesn't mean that you can't still make great music, it means that it won't have the same resonance." 

[Blag Dahlia of DWARVES via Punknews.org] 

// We're all content creators!

Just a few weeks ago I was at work and mistakenly logged into my private YouTube account and not the one from my company... and there I discovered a few videos (shorts) uploaded by my 8-year old daughter. One of them got like 500 views. For once I was surprised, but me and my workmates laughed it off. At home, I checked out the videos and what confused me was the fact, that she more or less imidated the content by some of these "creators" or acted like she was one of them. I mean, why should I be surprised? She's watching those videos all the time. I made peace with it and think she kinda "bettered" herself, watching guys who play video games instead of young girls talking about make-up and stuff. 

I still think those videos are funny and cute, but it also made me think of the circumstance, that young people are growing up with those creators. They are their stars. They want to be like them. And to some extend they already ARE creators themselves. And that makes me scratch my head! Hell, I was a creator myself at a very young age, participating as an editor on a website at the age of 16 and running my first blog at the age of 18. Times were different back then, and not everybody and your neighbor put out content. I think we created something with our own thoughts, put in a lot of work, and inspired a handful of people. Nowadays it's all fast food and mass goods.

We're too much of it now! Basically every idiot posting on the Socials is a creator, and too much of them try to make a profit out of their bullshit. What's irritating is, how many really succeed!! Another thing is, that the ratio of creators/consumers is somehow fucked. But maybe, we're all consumers AND creators?! But... which content really matters to us??

// Content Overkill

I'm sometimes wondering if it's these hurry times that make me kinda undedicated myself or if it's the fact that I got older. Spending my youth from the Mid-90s to the Mid-2000s, I'm probably part of a "special" generation. We still remember how childhood and youth worked without the internet, but we also were upon the first ones "growing up" in the internet. Personally I or my family never were that tech-geeky, thus I entered the internet a bit later than others, in late 2001. I just turned 16 back then, and was at the beginning of a pretty revolutionary phase in my life, where basically everything mattered. Surfing the internet, as well as video games, music, smoking or making first experiences with girls, alcohol and drugs. HC/Punk/Emo became a big part of my life, from going to the first HC-shows to relentlessly spending every penny on CDs to finding all those legendary bands that -more than 20 years later- are still a part of me. Maybe all this mattered more, because there weren't as many "creators"? Or maybe cause you had to make an effort yourself? It wasn't as easy to discover all those bands!

We're living in an overkill and are dealing with over-stimulation, that's for sure. Being a habitually driven music aficionado is a constant race against time, and against bands or labels that are releasing great music. Just a few days ago I read a post by Sascha Kie (one of the key figures in the Facebook group "Twin Cities Screamo"), in which he reported, that he has a 12 (!) page long Word document, with all interesting Screamo releases from 2023. Damn, and I'm complaining about lack of time or over-stimulation!

What's clear is, the more you're engaged with a certain style of music, the more you discover. And it get's even deeper, when you're open-minded. Therefor something like Screamo is a curse and a blessing. A curse, cause you get shitloads of releases bombarded at you, a blessing cause you always can rely on it. My own personal "filter bubbles" works wonders in that regard and keep me from checking out too many releases in genres I don't really follow  (like Indie-Rock) or just follow on the surface only (Hip-Hop).

The content in recent years kept me busy, just like 2023's content did, but what will I truly remember in a few years? Which of the many records I'll hype in the next few days will have a lasting impression? Experience says, it's just a handful of artists and records. There are no real "big names" anymore that will stuck in your mind for the rest of the decade. In HC as well as in Metal or Rock-music in general (I was already phantasizing about the status of a "rock star" in my RID OF ME-review a few weeks ago). And also in Pop-music. Sure, some reach the superstar status every once in a while, but they wouldn't be able to survive as a musician alone. They have to be those "multimedia people". Just like Blag Dahlia of DWARVES (say what you will about the band itself) stated, it's all just content now. Eat. Shit. Repeat.

// Rationality vs. Carelessness

Back to my daughter, the young content creator! A year ago, I bought her her first CD and she was pretty confused, holding a CD in her hands for the first time, at the age of 7. Yes, different times and such. She didn't bother to give it many spins, but can I blame her? Do I listen to my CDs or Vinyls as often as to my smartphone?! Our attention span is shockingly short and the industry serves us what we need. If you want to make it as a Pop-star nowadays you better write twelve 30-seconds-songs suitable for TikTok as opposed to a well rounded album.

And then there are the streaming services, turning everything upside down in the last couple of years. It's a big part of music consumption, just as my bachelor thesis this year proofed. I can't get around it myself, though I'm feeling how it changed my own listening habits for worse. I never before was the guy who made playlists for myself (maybe 5 or 6 up to the boom of the streaming services), but with the streaming services I'm now regularly listening to it. Thankfully I grew up in a time where a classy album is the most special thing about music and I think it hasn't changed as much for me and hope it never will. Still, the algorithms of the streaming services push you into your filter bubble. It's just too easy to get lost in a playlist, even when you're listening to a full album. Cause when it's over, any of those playlists will get you at whatever cost and try to make you stay. Sometimes, when I get lost in those endless playlists, I have to warn myself to quickly get back to an album. It's a battle of rationality vs. carelessness. And the rationality should better win, most of the time. Playlists are sexy, but I'll hopefully be married to my albums til death does us apart...

// It's worth more!

At the end, let's get to the state of the music industry! 2022 marked the eigth year in a row with a slight upward trend for the whole branch, at least in terms of revenue. Still, the growth is pretty small, when compared to the gaming industry, that is 10 times as big. The focus of the consumers shifted, and basically everything adapted to it. From the way music is released to our consuming habits to the status of musicians. It's clear that in the eyes of the youth a YouTuber or Twitcher that's playing games is a bigger star than the guy who would've been a rock star 30 years ago. We -as the older generation and even everyone that's an adult- can't understand, but we eventually will get used to it. 

Even if there are no real stars in music anymore, even if physical records get more and more redundant, even when we get served a shitload of releases week in week out, even if all those trends make parts of it extremely superficial, even when I don't know what's right and what's wrong, as a consumer and as a creator.... the one thing I know is, that music will always connect people and it will always spread love.

I am once again grateful for being a part of the scene, whichever scene, over the past year and proud of delivering content that entertained or inspired, even if we're talking about a handful of people. Yes, it's all just content. The shitty track you wrote last Thursday at 3 AM in your dimly-lit room as well as the comments you'll leave on Instagram or those loosely connected thoughts I wrote in the last couple of hours. Will it matter in 5, 10 or 20 years? Do I know? Do you know? Do we know?

What I know is, that all this mattered in the last 365 days and therefor I'll once again cherish the hell out of it. Here are my favorites of 2023. Enjoy it or don't, and: Let the content contend!

/// LABELS: The providers of the content providers.

Zegema Beach Records

Oh, hello again! Last year I was toying with the idea of naming this category the "Zegema Beach memorial award". However, 2023 wasn't their best year, but damn, the stakes are really high with ZBR. Still, they put out some of the best Screamo stuff, namely that OLTH-LP and the NEW FORMS-LP. The CLOSE WITCH-LP was also pretty good, as well as the OBROA-SKAI-LP and for sure the RIVERSLEEM-EP. And don't you forget about NHOMME's awesome 3-tracker!

Tomb Tree
Part of why ZBR got a bit "weaker" is the fact that Tomb Tree (their sister label) got stronger. This label was red hot in 2023, with LPs by EXCRUCIS, MY HAIR IS A RAT'S NEST & ONEWAYMIRROR, EPs by TAUBENHUND, SEAR, YUKI, LLEWELYN & CARRION SPRING and three of the best Splits this year with ORBIT CINTA BENJAMIN/FLIRT, WIDOWDUSK/IHUNTMONSTERS and CONSTRAIN/LOOSE TEETH.

BSDJ 
Given the fact that this was the first full year for BSDJ as a label, 2023 was mindblowing for them. The EP format was all theirs with releases by HEDONIC, MPTMK, TIMES TABLES, KIANDE AMEDHA, LETSMAKENOTHINGHAPPEN, DEAD BUTTERFLIES or ABBEYS GARDEN and they also released some cool demos, especially the ones by DORIS & TWOBOYSKISSING. Now, if they manage to put out a few more killer albums, than the Godzilla from the picture below will not even show up for a fight. That being said, they had two nice full lengths by FLOWERGUTS & GIRL GOES TO GREENLAND. 

Ephyra Records
Another new label that put out their first record in late 2022, just like BSDJ. Ephyra Records specializes in all sorts of 90s Metalcore and they released some of the best of it this year, with EPs by ADRIENNE, XNOMADX & BALMORA. What's nice is that they also drift away from their formula, with releases like the ALLWARM-EP or the SINEMA-EP.

Oliver Glenn Records
And we have another pretty fresh label here, founded in 2021. Oliver Glenn Records from Michigan quickly became one of the most important labels in all of Skramz and this was their best year so far with great releases by PICKPOCKET, GRAVESS, NORFAIR, ONEWAYMIRROR, BLACK TEETH and MT.IDA, among some other noteworthy records. Hats off!

Honorable mentions:

Counter Intuitive Records

Sunday Drive Records
Flowerpot Records

/// DEMOS: The first sort of content.

05 / EYES OF SALT

Very solid, metallic Hardcore with melodic undertones and a driving groove. [Stream]

04 / TWOBOYSKISSING (BSDJ)

Nice new Emo/Emocore-band out of Rhode Island. This sounds like it came out on Troubleman Unlimited, Gern Blandsten, Old Glory or Ebullition Records, somewhere between 1992 and 1995. In the vein of POLICY OF 3, JULIA, GARDEN VARIETY or DAHLIA SEED. [Stream]

03 / DRIVE YOUR PLOW OVER THE BONES OF THE DEAD (No Funeral)
Gut-wrenching, yet beautiful Screamo/Emoviolence out of Vancouver, Canada. [Stream]

02 / DORIS (BSDJ)
Interesting stuff by this five-piece. Lo-Fi-Emo with lots of ambition, somewhere between MERCHANT SHIPS and SLINT. May sound stupid, but it's really fresh! [Stream]

01 / ACHERS

It's only two songs by these lads from London, UK, but they stole my heart at first glance. 90s Post-Hardcore and Emo at its finest. For anything else, check out my write-up! [Stream]

/// SPLITS: The collaborative content.

05 / PAINFUL CHOICE/SUGAR COAT/THE ARRIVAL NOTE (Sunday Drive Records)

THE ARRIVAL NOTE continue their way with two more quality tracks in the vein of the EPs before. The other two bands were new to me and especially PAINFUL CHOICE, with their Revolution Summer-sound, are promising to me. SUGAR COAT play Indie-Rock. Meaning, you have three different styles with small overlapping. Nice! [Stream/Stream]

04 / WIDOWDUSK/IHUNTMONSTERS (Semi Collective Records)

Screamo is pretty strange and f'n mystical sometimes. Despite a short run and no studio album released, WIDOWDUSK somehow became a cult favorite in the blink of an eye. These are quite possibly their last two songs released. They're very good indeed and the reason you should check out this Split. I like what IHUNTMONSTERS do too, though it's hard to judge with two 30-second-tracks and a slow, instrumental outro. [Stream]

03 / CONSTRAIN/LOOSE TEETH (Tomb Tree)

How to sound fresh these days? Well, take the sound that didn't sound fresh anymore 15+ years ago. CONSTRAIN go with that 2000s-Post-Hardcore/Mallcore/Fake Screamo style and they do it exceptionally good. Think "The Changing of Times"-era UNDEROATH or lesser known bands like BELOVED, GLORY OF THIS and MIKOTO. LOOSE TEETH on the other side could be from the same time period, though they're more keen on melodic, slightly metallic Hardcore. [Stream]

02 / ORBIT CINTA BENJAMIN/FLIRT (Tomb Tree)

When I tripped over this release somewhere on Social Media I was thinking of some sort of unreleased ORBIT CINTA BENJAMIN-material, but damn, this is something new. They're together again for a few years now, playing shows, but I lost track of them. It's cool, oldschool stuff, as they continue where they left off in the late 2000s. The big surprise of this release is FLIRT from Leipzig, Germany. This resonates extremely well with me, just because the great days of German Screamo are over and bands like FLIRT are few and far between. A terrific output and normally my Split of the year... [Stream]

01 / SNAG./COMA REGALIA (Middle Man Records)

...if it wasn't for SNAG. going totally crazy on their side of this Split. I liked what they did so far, but with these five songs they reach a new level of creativity and intensity. It's definitely the best stuff they did so far and upon my favorite Screamo in 2023. I'd love to hear a full length by them in the same manner. With SNAG. killing it, COMA REGALIA can't quite hold up, though their side is really good too. These five songs are in the vein of their last album. They're longer and quite melodic and just like "il evectes", I like COMA's part of this Split. [Stream]

/// COMP: The multitude content.

Lots of good compilations this year, especially by BSDJ, but also by Not Just a Phase & Miss the Stars. And don't you forget about the COMA REGALIA-tribute-comp! Though it was RealoEmo's act III of "Emotive Songs for Emotional People" [Stream] that resonated extremely well with me. It's a cool portray of the current Indie-Emo-landscape and the tracklist was put together in a thoughtful way. Check out my write-up on it!

/// VIDEOS: The visual content.

Actually nothing that totally blew my mind this year, but I liked these three pretty much... especially the second one!

/// MOST WANTED 2024: Even more content.

ALAN LUETH - LP
FADING SIGNAL - LP
FLIGHT MODE - T​ø​yen '13 (EP)
GARDEN HOME - LP
INFINITY LAND - LP
"mEMOries"-compilation (for sure, hell yeah!)
MT. ORIANDER - LP
RUN THE JEWELS - RTJ5 (it's time!)
SPITE HOUSE - LP
WALKING RACE - ? (fingers crossed)

/// DISAPPOINTMENTS: The content that hurt.

Being a long time music lover, one good thing is, there aren't much "disappointments" in terms of new records. Gosh, I remember how often I was disappointed by a band/record when I was young. Nowadays I know my own taste and for sure, I'm also more relaxed when it comes to expectations. That's why this category was non-existent in the last few years, though 2023 had a handful of albums that kinda disappointed me...

05 / SOCIAL CATERPILLAR - Alphabet Crown

SOCIAL CATERPILLAR's second album is nowhere near a bad album, in fact it's a good one, somewhere inbetween Indie- and Post-Rock. Though I couldn't get into it from the start and felt that the magic of "When you woke up to Dances of Light" went missing.

04 / AS FRIENDS RUST - Any Joy

This is the kind of record that was no real disappointment to me, but I'd have loved to like this as much as their stuff from the late 90s/early 2000s. I wasn't into their 7inch from 2020 and "Any Joy" is even more bland.

03 / GREAT FALLS - Objects without Pain

I know, I know, I know, this ends up on top spots in many year-end-lists and GREAT FALLS are talented musicians, no doubt. Yet, this album is really pretentious in my ears. The songs are too long and drawn out and always take another curve and another curve on top of it. Now, you'd probably like to tell me, that this is their style?! Yeah, maybe. But they proved how exciting they can be with streamlined songwriting just a few months prior to it, on the EP "Funny what survives".

02 / SAD PARK - No more Sound

Maybe I'm an ignorant person, but damn, I gave this album three spins at max. Therefor I can't even say in detail what bothers me about it. The thing is, that SAD PARK delivered my favorite and most listened to album in 2021. Yet, I just couldn't feel "No more Sound". I think that they left much of what made "It's all over" such a great record behind and got way boring.

01 / MILITARIE GUN - Life under the Gun

This has some of my favorite songs of 2023 on it, still it takes the top spot in this category. The stakes were high as fuck, as MILITARIE GUN probably were my most-listened-to-band of the last three years. I LOVE both of their EPs from 2021 and the one before is also pretty neat. "Life under the Gun" sees them aim at a broader crowd, leaving some of the Punkrock behind in a favor of Pop(?)-Rock and Alt-Rock. That's ok, as they did this blend from the start and sometimes it also works wonders on this record. But what cripples "Life under the Gun" is the incosistent tracklist (from two or three amazing to okay-ish to downright lame songs) and the tame mix/production. Just listen to the new version of "Big Disappointment" and say no more. A "big disappointment", indeed.

/// SONGS: The snackable content.

A RISE (AND FALL) OF A DILAPIDATED HOME - "Reunion Scenes"
ADRIENNE - "Summer's Beginning" / "Rebirth"
AGAINST REALISM - "funkopolis called, they want their funk back"
ALAN LUETH - "Something Sweet" / "Midwest Celebration" / "Monuments"
BEDTIMEMAGIC - "Turn down Service"
BUDS - "Slide"
COMIC SANS - "Comic Sans"
CONSTRAIN - "Troubleshoot"
DEPECHE MODE - "Never let me go"
FACED OUT - "Running" / "Final Nail"
FEVERCHILD - "See through Wedding Gown"
HEART ATTACK MAN - "C4" / "Like a Kennedy" / "Late to the Orgy"
THE HEAVY FORGIVENESS - "Tonight I'll break Bottles about you" / "Saturday Morning"
HEDONIC - "I still don't like you" / "Self Hate" / "Childhood"
HIDDEN BY THE GRAPES - "Immer mehr"
HOME IS WHERE - "Skin Meadow" / "Lily Pad Pupils"
ICECOLDBISHOP - "Candlelight"
JEROMES DREAM - "Conversations: In Time, on Mute"
JOLIETTE - "Lemus"
KID LIGHTNING - "Blue"
KITES AND PAPER TREES - "Kiss & Ride"
LAKES - "Cut and Run"
LETSMAKENOTHINGHAPPEN - "YOU SHALL NOT PASS!"
MAAFA - "Filha da Luta"
MASSA NERA - "Anchored" (Manikineter-Remix)
MSPAINT - "Acid" / "Think it through"
NAS - "Superhero Status" / "Speechless Pt. 2" / "Never Die" / "Black Magic"
OLTH - "sOng fOr jOrdan" / "sOmebOdy TeLL me I'm aLOne"
PAINT IT BLACK - "Dominion" / "Safe" / "Exploitation Period"
PHONY - "Chinatown"
SALEM'S CORYDALIS - "Crying Cliffside"
SCOWL - "Opening Night"
SEXLESS MARRIAGE - "Harsh Light"
SNAG. - "A Familiar Feeling"
SPRING 2005 - "The Prison at the Bottom of the Crater" / "Something Whirl"
STARSHIP - "Close up"
THE STREETS - "Troubled Waters"
TIME SPENT DRIVING - "Deep Blue" / "False Fluff"
TURNSTILE & BADBADNOTGOOD - "Mystery" (Remix)
VILLAIN OF THE WAR - "In Clover" / "Rent#" / "June Knife" / "Something felt before"
WELCOME TO BERLIN - "(Forward) Invertor" / "Dance Song"
WRONG MAN - "Wait"
ZULU - "From tha Gods to Earth"

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Thanks for hanging on 'til the very end. Here you can find the rest of my recap:
Extended Play 2023
(Top 44 EPs of the year)
2023: Album of the Year
(Top 44 LPs of the year)