Chromatics founder Adam Miller followed up his 2022 solo debut Gateway with the Illusion Pool EP last month. The record features more of Miller’s distinct brand of atmospheric synthpop as well as contributions from Lol Tolhurst (The Cure), Cold Beat’s Hannah Lew, and Heidi Saperstein.
“As I was working on Gateway, I had reached a point where I never wanted to write or hear music with vocals or drums ever again,” Miller says, “but little by little every time I picked up my guitar, melodies, little bits of songs, and lyrics would keep on revealing themselves to me.” You can listen to the EP below.
With 2023 almost on the books, we asked Adam to tell us about his favorite albums of 2023. His list includes Everything But the Girl, André 3000, his former Chromatics bandmate Ruth Radelet, Mary Lattimore, and more. Read his list and commentary below.
ADAM MILLER – TOP 10 ALBUMS OF 2023
Everything But The Girl – Fuse
EBTG’s entire catalog only gets better and feels more relevant with time. I don’t know of any other music that ages as well as theirs. I’m a huge fan of both Tracey and Ben’s work together, their solo work, and literary output. At first it took me a little while to get used to how the timbre of Tracey’s voice had changed for this record. Once I got over that it made me love and respect them even more for defying my expectations and embracing the aging process, instead of trying to conceal it. As a creative person, EBTG has long shown me a roadmap of possibilities for how my life could go, and this album adds more possibilities to that map.
Delphine Dora – As Above So Below
I’m not saying this to namedrop but when Chromatics performed at the Chanel runway show Karl Lagerfeld told us afterwards that our music was “divine.” I could go on and on about this album. I just find it divine, and that’s the only word I can use to accurately describe it. Do yourself a favor and check out the last song “Contrée du dedans” and you will understand what I mean. This record makes me feel the same way I felt when I first ever heard Nico’s “Desert Shore.”
Oko Ebombo – Free Emotion
I’ve known Oko since 2007. You might not know Oko but you’ll know who he is when you see him because his presence is large. He’s dancing around, singing, and laughing wherever he goes. I’ve always been very inspired by the way in which he writes his songs, basing them on just the concept, the lyrics, and the singing first. It feels very pure. Many artists I know, myself included, usually begin their songs from a different point of inspiration. I often need to be inspired by a sound, a beat, or a chord progression in order to write vocal parts. Over the years I’ve known Oko I’ve heard many of these songs in their early stages just walking down Franklin Avenue in Los Angeles as Oko sang them to me, the passing cars, and passing strangers on the street, so it makes me happy to finally be able to play these wonderful songs on my stereo instead of having them exist only as memories inside my head.
Fawn – Flamboyant Nonviolent
Ida No (Glass Candy) and Nat Walker (Chromatics)’s first album together as Fawn. The best phrase I can come up with to describe their music would be “Tropical Acid,” because it sounds like how it might feel to drop LSD on a tropical beach on a sunny afternoon. Or at least that’s what it sounds like to me. This album is all over the place in the best way. It’s playful, deep, bursting with life force energy and all the things we loved about Ida in Glass Candy and more. I was lucky enough to play bass guitar on the track “Anemone Tattoo,” which is one of my favorite songs of the past few years.
Martin Rev – The Sum Of Our Wounds
This is a compilation of Martin’s home cassette recordings from 1973-1985. You can hear how some of these evolved later into Suicide or Rev solo tracks. There’s a warm, comfortable blanket of tape hiss to wrap yourself inside. At times it reminds me of the Harmonia & Eno home recordings, in how intimate and immediate it feels. This compilation is superbly sequenced, assembled, and mastered as well. A lot of care went into it. You feel like once the last song “Whisper” finishes playing somehow you’re in a different place than you were when you started the album.
Ruth Radelet – Shoot Me Down
It’s feel great to see former bandmates blossom creatively on their own terms. This song is so well written and put together in only the way my friend Ruth could do it. Music supervisors looking for an opening theme song to the next big teen drama, look no further, because it’s right here.
Kraków Loves Adana – Feels Like Heaven
I am a big Kraków Loves Adana fan. Deniz writes such incredible melodies. I know that this track is a cover but she really tapped into something emotionally with this song and made it her own. I probably have played it over 200 times this year. Feels like heaven, sounds like heaven too.
André 3000 – New Blue Sun
I just love this album so much, since it was released there have been some days where it’s been on repeat in our home all day long. The only album I’ve listened to for days on end. I really respect how this album came out and that this was the record nobody expected or knew that they wanted from André 3000. I watched his GQ interview on youtube and was left feeling so happy and inspired. Just happy and inspired to be alive. I’ll probably watch it again next time I’m feeling bummed out or depressed because what he had to say was so authentic and uplifting. At moments this album feels like a beautiful fusion of some of my favorite mid 70’s Pharoah Sanders tracks like “Greeting To Saud” with Light In The Attic’s Kankyô Ongaku compilation of early 80’s Japanese ambient and new age music. I love every minute of it.
Kevin McCormick – Sticklebacks
For most of my life I’ve usually put on an album to fall asleep to at night. This past year most of those nights have been spent with Roedelius or Kevin McCormick’s “Sticklebacks.” This album is a compilation of Kevin’s ’80s home recordings of minimal, dreamy, mostly instrumental, guitar music. There’s an open heartedness to these recordings. It sounds to me like the music doesn’t seek to be anything other than what it is and there’s a comfort in that honesty. It’s easy to get lost inside these shimmering delay trails. I dream to them. Smiling C, the label that released these recordings, also reissued Kevin McCormick and David Horridge’s immaculate album from 1982 “Light Patterns.” Another album that I adore and have dreamed many a little dream to. One could also file this one under the “divine” genre.
Mary Lattimore – Goodbye, Hotel Arkada
I’m a fan of everything Mary does. I put this album on in the morning and watch as the sun rises over the San Jacinto mountains. It’s a great way to start the day. I finally got to see Mary perform live at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery a few months ago and it was an ethereal experience. 10’s across the board.
