The New Year is a trap designed to make you give up on life around the end of November. You start winding down, sacking off useful and healthy enterprises there is no reason you couldn't start before January, and you look forward to one last blast of festive indulgence which your brain and body will be paying for until well into February. It also encourages the curious custom of reviewing the year's best releases like they're about to go stale with the changing of the final digit in the date, as if an album that came out in January is somehow fresher in December that same year than an album that came out in late December would be a couple of days into January.

As you've probably guessed from the liquid Scrooge above, here at n0teeth industries we have reluctantly started making some lifestyle changes in advance of 2024's bleak pre-Spring months, but on the upside, we've also heard more hot new gear in 2023 than we can keep track of. So for anyone who wants to cram in over 11 months of musical discovery before Big Ben bongs in the next 12, or wants to squirrel away some treats to listen to during the annual comedown season, here, in no particular order, is n0teeth's official but by no means exhaustive list of 23 releases in 2023 that were pretty decent:

1. Comfort Cure - Design International
I don't know what I thought Comfort Cure sounded like. Maybe coldwave, maybe straight up EBM, but in any event n0teeth is delighted to report that on this, their second release of the year, the results are a perfect combination of the two. EBM's boisterous aggression is kept in check by a stark minimalism and enriched by a faintly psychedelic swirl round the edges; the beats eliciting a response on the dancefloor through hypnosis rather than command. n0teeth will be paying much closer attention to this lot in 2024.

2. Blitzkrieg Baby - Morbid Militarism
One has to be in the right mood to receive Norway's most viscerally nasty industrial export. Their morbidly humorous celebration of all of humanity's filthiest and most degrading aspects can, on a dark winter's evening, catch the listener off guard with its unremitting bleakness and gleeful nihilism. Fortunately for those of us with a limited supply of happy brain chemicals, the latest addition to the Baby's catalogue of horrors is largely instrumental, letting well-crafted scrapes and drones do the talking. Most BB releases thus far have balanced martial industrial workouts with equally doom-laden dark ambient soundscapes, and it's the latter style that wins out here.

3. Broken English Club - Puritan EP
After a somewhat formulaic drift across the White Rats trilogy, more recent BEC releases have shown Oliver Ho becoming more adventurous with his by-now instantly recognisable brand of surgically precise industro-technoid beatcraft. Never the kind of guy to rest on his laurels for long, the West London producer has had a busy few years since the end of lockdown, releasing two more occult-influenced albums as Slow White Fall and joining forces with Autumns to explore the dissonant possibilities of dub as Vacant Heads, as well as keeping the BEC soundmachine oiled with new and interesting song structures. Puritan caught this listener completely off-guard - not because it sees Oli embellishing the Broken English formula with shredding black metal guitar work, or guest UK drill MCs, or a big band horn section (all of which I hope he considers in future), but because it is pure, simple, straight-up techno. And I do mean techno techno, not the polished tribal sounds Ho was known for back in the day. These four tracks don't exactly form the most revolutionary contribution to the genre, but Oli sounds like he's having fun and I'm happy for him.

4. UKAEA - Habibi / La Stessa Croce
Speaking of techno, here's a fresh salvo from a long time n0teeth favourite and associate of what we're gonna tentatively call the Harringay Warehouse Scene. Regular readers will know we do love a bit of "live" techno here at n0teeth, and UKAEA's raw, experimental approach shines through on both sides of the release. The "techno" part of this simplistic categorisation is immediately put to the test from the opening helicopter-blade-rattle and metal scraping of the title track, but techno fans whose synapses light up when the genre escapes its 4/4 constraints will definitely find a lot to love here. Silvia Konstance, a new name to n0teeth, peppers the track with cries of anguish and despair, begging the listener to "senti la mia voce!" ("hear my voice"). Far from being a self-indulgent modular hardware noodler, UKAEA mostly allows his crunching machine music to be in service of the rave: even at their most arrhythmic, the two original tracks and accompanying remixes on Croce give you something you can shake at least one body part to. Your man is also as gifted a selector as he is a producer/musician: if you've ever been to New River Studios and wondered who kept putting on banger after banger in the main seating area, chances are it was UKAEA on the ones & twos (aka the laptop behind the bar).

5. The Lunacy of Flowers - The Lunatic
Mr David Hedges esq. really has been spoiling us this year, with two full length releases and an EP sandwiched in between. Following September's Heave A Sigh and April's How Could You Let Me Grow To Then Just Let Me Die?, November's The Lunatic continues to explore the dark, abstract, angst-ridden inner world of The Artist Formerly Known As Dave.I.D. (n0teeth's New Year's resolution: stop referring to the artist known as Lunacy of Flowers since at least three years ago in this way). LoF's trademark crisply programmed drums dominate over the haunting synths this time around, with rhythms that switch from martial grandiosity to deliberately tinny electro minimalism; however, if it's synths you're after, they are still present and correct, but giving more space for Hedges' voice to carry the emotional weight of these dozen songs. Said voice is flexed in a variety of interesting ways here, from bitter semi-spoken snarl to mournful echo and delay. Samples appear for what, if I'm not mistaken, is the first time in this artist's decade+ career, but are used sparingly enough to startle the listener with their suddenness. Highlights for n0teeth include driving lead single "He's A Man", the barely-restrained menace of "The Lunacy", and the almost (but not quite) traditional post-punk tune "Last Night". This album is sure to soundtrack some brooding late afternoon walks into the winter gloom in the coming months.

6. Scaler feat. Daniel Avery - Loam / New Symbols
It was perhaps inevitable that, by the end of 2023 at the latest, we would see dashing superstar DJ Daniel Avery team up with the Bristol quartet formerly known as Scalping. By his own admission, Avery was an indie kid for much of his life before he finally "got" dance music, while at least one quarter of Scaler comes from a metal background: both acts must surely remember how to speak the same rockist language in the studio, regardless of the acclaim they've received from the dance world. Of the two tunes on offer here, "New Symbols" is, in n0teeth's opinion, the stronger cut. It sounds less like a textbook demonstration of what Scaler and Avery do best and more like an alchemical creation of something original from the sum of its parts. But more importantly, it fucking slaps. And then a clattering Manni Dee remix reminds us exactly how Dee earned his stripes as one of UK techno's reigning dons.

7. PC World - Infinite Dream Weapon
To avoid repeating ourselves, here's what your favourite electronic music blog had to say about this release when it came out:

"The lads have pulled it off again...PCW sound like they're trying to fight their way out of hypercapitalist disappointment, seizing the technology and bashing their way through the smoked brown glass that seeks to imprison us in a permanent 1989...it can trigger all kinds of things in the listener's imagination...imprinted on our collective subconscious like arcane hieroglyphs on a circuit board."

8. Slot - Limbo
This filthy, noisy, bile-spewing, awkwardly spasming, bass-guitar-n-drum-machine-grinding Baltimore duo describe their sound as "industrial pop", which I cannot find fault with as a genre label. With an instrumental setup so basic it could make Big Black (a clear influence) look like an overly self-indulgent prog rock band, Slot shove short sharp shards of aural havoc into your face and offer only gloriously spiteful, sneering vocals by way of apology. From their recorded output alone (never mind the chaotic live scenes they share clips of on Instagram) this sounds like a band that puts on one hell of a show, for which n0teeth will be happy to cancel all plans should they bring it across the water in the near future.

9. Autumns - Still In The Thick Of It
Much like Broken English Club, Christian Donaghey has perfected a distinct sound that in recent years was starting to run the risk of becoming a bit formulaic. Fortunately, collaborating with BEC seems to have rejuvenated Derry's Vacant Head as much as it has London's one, and this album (among a release schedule so prolific that it's almost impossible to keep count) takes all the reassuringly familiar Autumns sound design tics and reshapes them around previously unheard rhythmic configurations. At the same time, old tricks are performed using new dogs; for example, "Even When Spoken To" sounds like a classic 4/4 Autumns EBM stomper in which he's taking a newly discovered cowbell preset for a joy ride. It's still the same Autumns attack, but with sharper new weapons.

10. TVAM - Costasol
One-man krautrock-synthwave band TVAM built up hype for this four-tracker by teasing the odd tune here and there throughout the year. The finished product doesn't disappoint: the title track is perhaps the smoothest and most melodic TVAM has ever sounded, but when 99% of n0teeth's time is spent deliberately seeking abject cacophony to drown out the world, it's always a welcome relief to stumble across something that merely dips the world in a warm bath for a bit. Closing song "VHF" could almost be "Are "Friends" Electric?" if Numan had grown up on Nirvana. There is scarcely a moment on the whole release that isn't hummable or at least danceable. An all-round very pleasant listening experience.

11. Black Asteroid - New Flesh
Yes my friends, n0teeth is once again back on our techno bullshit. Not quite as clinical as Oliver Ho but certainly less "live" and more digital sounding than UKAEA, sometime industrial rocker, Motor man & former sound designer for Prince Bryan Black kicks things off with the spectacularly dirty, sleazy, mid-paced title track, featuring his trademark processed robo-voice gargling "this is Black". Next, the Asteroid captures some industrial star power - the vocals of elder statesman Bill Leeb from Front Line Assembly, regrettably heard not long ago on a horrendous Rock Me Amadeus cover that somehow nobody at Metropolis Records was willing or able to veto - and puts it to work on an electro-rock number called "Methane Rain". A pleasingly diverse twist only two songs in! According to the track listing, every one of these six selections is an original, which makes the digital release feel impressively un-bloated as far as dance records go (honestly, unless you're a DJ, do you really want two remixes per track?). "Control Voltage" (very original name mate, did you get it from your equipment?) brings the New Flesh EP to a close with some of the most gratifying angry wasp noises ol' Bryan has put his name to since his London days. It's as if Black Asteroid has just realised he'd accidentally established himself as A Serious Techno Producer(tm) and is now flipping over tables before the other Serious Techno Producers get too comfortable around him. Good lad.

12. The Empire Line - SPEED
Danish anarcho-industro-techno-punks are back at it with breakbeats and bile! Both tracks on here reveal an old school UK rave/hardcore influence that I don't recall hearing in TEL's earlier work, and one which it wouldn't be unfair to say follows a broader trend in dark European techno (and adjacent genres) in recent years. However, the breakbeats deployed here are just a touch faster and harder than the token (& occasionally infuriatingly insincere) nods to jungle or hardcore you might have heard elsewhere in the eurotechnoverse, and stepping back from SPEED for a moment it occurs to the listener that these lads have basically made digital hardcore. And with old man Atari losing the plot and getting into NFTS and god knows what other balderdash, there surely couldn't be a better time for angrier, younger angry young men to take his place as the EU's official representative for hi-tech punk. Make way for the (Alec) Empire Line!

13. Gum Takes Tooth - Recovery Position
GTT are an old favourite electronics & percussion unit of ours, and by "old" I mean n0teeth first became aware of them about five years ago. They've been variously labelled as noise rock or industrial but not strictly fitting into either category. On this album the Gums make neat categorisation even more difficult with more interesting percussion and slightly less noise than before. What noise does make the cut sounds like it was improvised for the sheer joy of experimental knob-twiddling rather than as a tool for sonic abrasion. Meanwhile, vocals are semi-whispered over the squeaking and squelching, and every track feels rhythmic and dynamic without necessarily being designed to elicit a physical response. The most straightforwardly floor-oriented number is closing stomper "Octavian Eclipse", which kind of acts like a release valve for letting off the album's accumulated steam on the dance floor. It's still some distance shy of fitting a comfortingly recognisable genre bracket however, and that's how Gum Takes Tooth still grabs n0teeth by the teeth to this day.

14. Pelada - Ahora Mas Que Nunca
"Now more than ever", declares the title of Pelada's latest album. n0teeth's Spanish is rusty but we caught a snatch of anti-capitalist sentiment in the opening lines, delivered in Chris Varga's inimitable snarl, with the political stance confirmed soon after by Backxwash's (English) guest verse. This is the Pelada that was hinted at on 2016's venomous but ludicrously catchy No Hay: not just angry at the world, but itching to fight back at specific systems that make it such a miserable rock to live on. This fighting spirit would, of course, not be enough to make a satisfactory listen without tough beats to match, but never fear, Tobias Rochman is on hand to lace every second of this album with stripped down, neck-snapping electronic fury. The variety of styles on display here speaks to a wide taste in electronic music and a keen ear for underused sounds. You've got Backxwash rapping on the aforementioned opening track, you've got scuzzy synthpunk on "Callate La Jeta" ("Shut The Fuck Up", according to Google Translate, but I'm gonna assume it's even ruder and funnier in its idiomatic Spanish form), you've got electro and techno and synthpop and carnival-friendly bass music, throughout all of which Vargas makes her presence (and rage) felt in spades. I'll be frank: none of these songs immediately leaps out as a contender for the jaw-dropping impact "No Hay" had on my first (and second, third, fourth…) listen, but Pelada have made an album to be proud of and I certainly wouldn't turn down a chance to see them perform any of it live. Now more than ever.

15. Blac Kolor - Weltenbrand
Hendrick Grothe got us hooked on his dark electro jams ten years ago with the release of the appropriately icy and sinister Kold single. Every release since then has taken his sound - described somewhat Americanly as "IDM infested EBM" by Side-Line - one or two steps darker and colder. The EBM component is, in fairness, more prominent on this new album, but then so are lashings of minimal wave and trans-continental rave miscellanea. The parts that aren't in lockstep with EBM certainly aren't pure electro, and all the better for it. What Black Kolor and his guest vocalists have got here is something that is at once EBM and dark electro, without ever fully committing to either genre (or becoming that horrible "dark elektro" garbage, also known as aggrotech or harsh EBM). Did this artist come from electro and go dark, or did he start dark and go electro? Or is he simply part of an underlying darkness electro has always carried with it ever since the first 808 cowbell went plink? When the end result is this original and re-playable, it probably doesn't matter either way.

16. An-i - Rabble
n0teeth fires up every new An-i release expecting (and then usually getting) some combination of industrial and techno, but we're happy to admit being thrown by the order in which these elements manifested on Doug Lee's latest joint. "Rabble" rumbles and rattles with tightly wound percussive malice while disembodied and distorted voices mutter in tongues overhead - it's a fine lesson in how to be static yet rhythmic; your body wants to move but isn't sure which part, or in what direction. "Rubble" is more of the same, but even nastier. Finally, "Chapel Perilous" ventures a bit closer to the edges of what the man on the Clapham Omnibus might confidently label as "techno" but on the edges is where it stays, the claustrophobic beats only just giving a rasping synth hook room to breathe. Cards on the table: n0teeth had sort of forgotten about An-i for a while, but is now very much invested in where the project goes next thanks to this vicious little record.

17. Soft Riot - No.
With an arsenal of synths, Soft Riot's musical travels have spanned several continents and, at last count, at least five different UK cities (crossing paths with n0teeth in London a decade ago). That's a hell of a lot of different influences - cultural, musical and otherwise - to absorb. Electro, Italo disco, cosmic prog rock, French coldwave, you name it - if it can be synthesised, Soft Riot will synthesise it. On the gnomically titled No. album the Riot is sounding punchier and crisper production-wise than ever before; not a single detail, not one beat or melody, is lost in the mix. This finessed sound will serve cuts like "It Never Takes Long To Say No" rather well in the dry ice filled basement clubs such a darkwave bop surely belongs in, where today's PA systems are occasionally unforgiving in their treatment of "vintage" (read: older than 2000 AD) sounds. "Just A Vapour" is another strong contender for club play, driven by a Suicide type beat and a no-nonsense arpeggiated bass line and laced with sneering vocals from the more rock n roll end of the goth spectrum. We're hyped to hear how this new material will sound live!

18. Maelstrom & Louisahhh - Sustained Resistance
If, like n0teeth, you're a graceless rivethead who drools Pavlovian & gormless at the faintest ringing of certain musical bells, you may have noted and enjoyed a growing "industrial" (read: dark, abrasive and experimental) tendency in this collaboration, at least since 2017's superb A Trap I've Built EP. Sustained Resistance takes all that darkness, abrasion and experimentalism and cranks up the volume while still being an album that a fan of sultry jams like Nightclubbing can put on and instantly go "yup, that's Maelstrom and Louisahhh alright". Same people, different sounds - they'd deserve credit just for pushing the boat out even if it didn't sail with any conviction. But n0teeth can hear no such issue here - Maelstrom sounds as confident probing the machine for grime and grot as he does turning out polished and sophisticated dance music; Louisahhh's brooding vocals sound no less at home in the chaotic din than they do on any club tunes they've graced. Sometimes she appears to tap into something quite raw, primal and unscripted, as on monster of a closing track "Enough". So is this industrial, just because it features a lot of distortion and occasionally goes "clang"? Maybe not, but any industrial nerd worth their salt can surely find something agreeable about this album. Such as "America", a HIDE-esque spoken interlude about the state of the nation. Or the fact that, while Resistance is certainly endowed with some powerful dance floor crunchers that would go down a storm in your Slimelights or your Das Bunkers, it avoids always resorting to an easily digestible 4/4 techno approach, choosing the more crooked rhythmic path instead. All this in under 40 minutes!

19. Identified Patient - Elevator Music For Headbangers
If you're unfamiliar with the work of Dutch producer/selector Job Veerman, you may be disappointed to learn that this record doesn't do anything it might suggest on the tin (if you were genuinely thrilled by the prospect of evil, borderline satanic big band music, don't lose hope, remember we've still got Foetus for that). If you've been following the queasy scent of his warped EBM arpeggios and oddball acid-fried beats up to this point, however, what it actually does might surprise you. In a move that, as mentioned previously, is no longer all that unprecedented for mainland European producers, Veerman has got in touch with his UK junglist side and brought the amen breaks rolling in on a wave of sickly acid squelch. A couple of tracks in, however, it dawns on the listener that we're now well shot of UK 'ardcore Donnington '91 rave nostalgia here and being plunged into the darker, grimier corners of (post-) dubstep. The beats skitter with ket-sick mutant two-step paranoia; the bass looms ominously like shadows in a stairwell. The absolute madman is joining the dots between 90s jungle, 2000s dubstep, 2010s techno and everything that lurked in the cracks in between, without the faintest hint of a smile bothering the corners of his mouth along the way. That's what I especially like about Identified Patient's approach here: unlike other producers who sprinkle their dark techno productions with old school UK touches - an amen break here, an orchestral stab there - to lighten the mood and make everything a bit more bouncy or "fun", the Patient seems to have grasped that the British are fundamentally not a happy people, even when we're three pink Rolexes deep in the rave. Would Mark Fisher or Simon Reynolds allow Elevator Music a place on the hardcore continuum? I don't know, but Spotify put one of his tracks (oddly enough, an earlier, more conventionally Patient-sounding jam with Sophie du Palais) on its surprisingly well-curated Industrial Bass playlist, and that's good enough for n0teeth.

20. Total Leatherette - Dappled Shade
There was a rumour going around the n0teeth break room (aka that sweet spot behind Mr Internet HQ's document incinerator where staff can discreetly have a cig without being marched back to work at taser-point) that Glasgow's finest purveyors of amyl-drenched industrial sleaze had hung up their leather chaps and call it a day. To our immense joy, a chance discovery of a new EP while checking to see if any more of their discography had been added to Spotify (it has; go buy it off Bandcamp anyway) revealed that this wasn't the case. Dappled Shade is light on the live percussion and bass guitar that propelled earlier releases such as the thrillingly seedy and menacing Fist & Shout across a darkened dance floor and experiments more with the electronic side of the Leatherette sound. On a track like "Silhouette" you can be forgiven for thinking that you're listening to an O.G. Industrial Records tape recorded by one of Gristle's contemporaries but lost in an ill-informed raid on Martello Street by the Clubs and Vice Unit before it could see the light of day. But on the following track and in n0teeth's humble opinion the EP's high point, "Blunt Swell", you realise that maybe this hypothetical early 80s industrial act held onto the tape for another decade before being inspired to revisit it in the context of making a rudimentary techno record. More than a sound, Total Leatherette have a vibe, and that vibe permeates everything they do regardless of what it is they're doing or how they're doing it.

21. Bestial Mouths - R.O.T.T. (inmyskin)
Without wishing to damn LA's finest purveyors of industrial darkness with faint praise, I'd just like to say that Lynette Cerezo's vocals have definitely grown on me since I was first introduced to the band by their (excellent) cover of Being Boiled. Aside from that, I still wasn't entirely sure what to make of them: they were decidedly a goth thing, yes, but a unmistakably industrial-influenced one. Slowly but surely, I have been drawn into the Mouths by their refusal to plant their flag firmly on one side of the fence or the other. The atmosphere is gothic, the vocals doubly so; the nuts and bolts of the production show an original and well thought-out approach to electronics that puts clear blue water between Bestial Mouths and Johnny Rent-a-Synth tritely trotting out the same old coldwave-by-numbers routine. To summarise how high a regard I hold this band in, I can't think of a single legacy goth/industrial band they sound like, not even tangentially. So, what of 2023 studio excursion R.O.T.T. (inmyskin)? We're in less rushed, more atmospheric territory than 2022's Resurrectedinblack, and repeated listens have failed to throw up anything as dancefloor-ready as Resurrected… cuts like Lain To Rust. That's not to say R.O.T.T. is lacking in rhythm, but what beats exist here splutter forth in undanceable spasms, almost as if one could trace a very faint line to some Warp Records stalwart I won't try to name specifically for fear of inspiring a load of guys in London Modular Alliance t-shirts to explain to me exactly why I'm wrong. "Road Of Thousand Tears" (that's where the title comes from, see?) closes the album on a sprawling, epic note reminiscent of Shallow Tears or, to a lesser extent, Tormentor's Song.

22. Cyberplasm - First Emanation
Have you ever felt that perhaps L.O.T.I.O.N. could be just a wee touch more fucked up and deranged? That their music - the sound of RoboCop freebasing the entire contents of Detroit Police narcotic squad's evidence locker and merrily embarking on a bath-salted killing spree through the New York hardcore scene - wasn't quite frenzied or rabid enough? Well, my friends, fear not, because here comes Cyberplasm, a sentient (and decidedly evil) drum machine with a punk band strapped onto it like dummy explosives on a hostage, firing out short, fast & unbelievably vicious salvos of noise at anything that farts. Any mug can say they're going to slap some guitars on a dance track, or sprinkle a bit of electronic MSG into their dishwater rock n roll, but to fuse pummelling electronics with 100mph D-beat/borderline thrash and create something that not only works as an organic whole but absolutely whips…well, that's an impressive feat which even Atari Teenage Riot struggled to pull off at times. And ATR's guitar work was all sampled anyway! There is something almost cartoonish about Cyberplasm's wholehearted embrace of street punk cliches, taking the "short and sweet" trope to its logical conclusion with five tracks flying past in under ten minutes (n0teeth got at least two complete re-listens out of First Emanation before even completing this paragraph). The band's 2000AD-ish aesthetic is a pleasing touch as well, and one that compliments the radioactive mutant racket of the music. With two other EPs and the blistering, Motorhead-on-research-chemicals album The Psychic Hologram under their belt, it seems fairly safe to assume that Cyberplasm aren't just a gimmick and will be walking the toxic wastelands of this earth for a while yet.

23. Choke Chain - Mortality
Bringing the 23 best of 2023 full circle with another "CC"-initialled EBM band (honourable mention to my boys Chrome Corpse, who had a relatively quiet year save for a re-issue of a 2018 joint), this sucker has everything you want: screams of barely-controlled rage, synths til Tuesday, and massive, hard, dry-as-hell kick drums. Not content with simply meeting the average EBM fan's requirements, however, the Chain drag the listener out into darker waters where you're not entirely sure what just brushed against your feet. There's a dungeon-like claustrophobia to the production that evokes a genuinely sinister atmosphere even in the brisker, more aggressive songs, but especially in "Sorrow" and the Skuppy-esque title track. Gone is the stainless steel stutter of Choke Chain's previous EPs and in its place is the creaking of rotted coffin wood, the musty air of a long-forgotten cellar, the uncertain surface of a lonely backwoods road under your wheels. That the band conjures such imagery purely through the mixing desk - with no obvious reference to horror films in the lyrics, titles or artwork - is impressive enough in itself, but doubly so when you remember that the whole record is still identifiably EBM. It's still an array of arpeggiated aggro, still music to stomp to, but outside the party the night is drawing in and things are about to get spooky.