Holy heck, it's top of the God pops

Today is Easter Sunday, which is an annual day of celebration for that time a chocolate egg fell from heaven and killed the Easter Bunny to forgive our sins.

The UK singles chart is a pretty godless place. A quick scan of the current top 40 singles chart and I can see songs about Dracula, swimming, dancing and loving each other, all of which sounds terribly non-Christian. Erm. Probably.

To celebrate the day Jesus rose from being cross and ascended to Heaven nightclub – I really need to brush up on my Bible knowledge – here are the ten most successful Jesus-themed songs in the UK singles chart.

Disclaimer: I looked up the words “Jesus” and “Christ” and didn’t go much beyond that, so if I’ve missed something, feel free to condemn me to all seven circles of hell. Oh and they're in order of chart success, so we'll be ending on a couple of number one smashes.

10 – Longpigs: Jesus Christ (number 61, 1995)

While there were more prominent proponents of the Sheffield’s Britpop scene, the ‘pigs were absolutely brilliant. Jesus Christ was full of their typical yearning and the lead singer looked a bit like a future Matt Smith. Their guitarist went on to be in Pulp and their original drummer used to play for Cabaret Voltaire, which makes them the most Sheffield band ever.

9 – Delirious: White Ribbon Day (number 41, 1997)

An obscure choice here, but this did precede a four-year run of top 40 singles for this Christian praise & worship outfit. White Ribbon Day is proper religious – there’s praying and the cross and hallelujah and all that kind of thing. The gospel truth is they sounded like U2 from the late 1980s, which ticked boxes for people that found 1990s U2 too MacPhisto-ish.

8 – Green Day: Jesus Of Suburbia (number 17, 2005)

“Everyone's so full of shit,” preaches Billie Joe Armstrong on this nine-minute epic beloved by Green Day fans. This is, apparently, Green Day doing a Bohemian Rhapsody,  and the track is split into five movements, like me after a bowel exam. I was never a massive ‘Day follower, but it feels like we need their agit-angst more than ever now. 

7 – Kanye West: Jesus Walks (number 16, 2004)

Before things went south for West, he made tracks full of braggadocio and brilliant beats. Jesus Walks was super militaristic, but this was okay in the mid-2000s because the US army had definitely never done anything bad ever. Ahem. These days West is just full of braggadocio and bullcrap. Shame because his College Dropout years were banging.

6 – Ash: Jesus Says (number 15, 1998)

The video for Jesus Says has the camera spinning around and around, like you’re inside a washing machine. The effect prompted protests from fans who complained of nausea, but they needn’t worry coz they could just pop their vom-splattered t-shirt into said washing machine. “God give me strength,” sing Ash on Jesus Says. Fair comment.

5 – Depeche Mode: Personal Jesus (number 13, 1989)

For far too long, I thought a Personal Jesus was a personalised Christ service in which He followed you around all day and made bitchy comments like ‘You look fat in that jumper’ and ‘That blusher’s far too gay’. Anyhoo, this is Depeche Mode at their peak, and it gave the impending 1990s permission to blend rock and synths and change music forever.

4 – Marilyn Manson: Personal Jesus (number 13, 2004)

For far too long, I thought a Personal Jesus was a– oh hold on, we’re already done this. I’d lost track of Marilyn Manson and where the allegations were up to, so I googled “is marilyn manson a wrong 'un” and Google’s AI bot responded by saying that the truth is “subjective”. So that’s settled then. I do not want Marilyn Manson to reach out and touch me.

3 – Morrissey: I Have Forgiven Jesus (number 10, 2004)

Oh holy hassocks of hell. Am I in some kind of purgatory? Is writing this blog post punishment for my multitude of sins? Here comes another person I would not to choose to be stuck in a lift with. I wouldn’t even follow behind him on the stairs. I much preferred Mozza when he was a lyricist and not a polemicist, although maybe he has always been both.

2 – Cliff Richard: Saviour’s Day (number 1, 1990)

Finally. A perfectly normal pop star. Cliff’s religious output is universally awful, and his triptych of Christian chart-toppers – Mistletoe And Wine, Saviour’s Day and The Millennium Prayer – have the same linear drop-off as the Godfather trilogy. Still, I’m glad Cliff exists. If he wasn’t around to be God’s representative in the pop charts, we’d have to choose Ye and that wouldn’t do at all.

1 – George Michael: Jesus To A Child (number 1, 1996)

You’ve got to have faith, and you’ve got to have this caramel-smooth cheese-fest from king George. Without telling anyone, George Michael donated the royalties from Jesus To A Child to the ChildLine charity. That makes this paeon to a lost lover the most Christian track in this list.

Not much electronic music in this list. Jeez, get it together Jesus.

Further Fats: Delirious' bid for number one: the rock delusion? (2010)

Further Fats: Warning! Dinosaurs are taking over the UK album chart! (2021)

Name me a better remix album list than Daniel Avery's remix album list

“Alright, name me a better remix album than this,” says Daniel Avery to the camera as he brandishes a CD copy of Nine Inch Nails 1992 release Fixed.

Avery has just released Tremor (Midnight Versions), a reworking of his own album Tremor which came out last autumn. The remixes have a bit of a boogy about them – as he puts it, these are “club edits aimed squarely at the strobe light”.

Remixes are clearly on his mind, because he recently posted on his socials a tribute to his favourite remix albums. He leads with the Nine Inch Nails album, and the artwork for Midnight Versions seems to be inspired by the Nails artwork.

But he then mentions another batch of remix albums that he loves. Let's go through them.

The Human League / The League Unlimited Orchestra: Love And Dancing (1982), a dubbier take on their Dare album

The Cure: Mixed Up (1990), various twelve-inch bits and related bobs

Massive Attack V Mad Professor: No Protection (1995) – ain’t no Protection from this level of dub wizardry

Björk: Telegram (1996), various remixes of her Post tracks

Primal Scream: Echo Dek (1997), with Bobby’s band reimagining their Vanishing Point album, and oh my word how good was this era of Scream

Two Lone Swordsmen: Peppered With Spastic Magic (2004), although please can we let that word die

Aphex Twin: 26 Mixes For Cash (2003), which I wilfully misunderstand in this blog post

Soulwax: Nite Versions (2005) – they “reshaped my brain as a teenager” says Avery

That's a cracking selection, my favourites being Mad Professor, Primal Scream and Aphex Twin. I'd throw in Dangermouse and maybe Pet Shop Boys too, and I know James's Wah Wah doesn't count but it pretty effectively remixed my brain. 

What is your favourite remix album? Write your answer on a postcard and immediately remix it into a shredder.

Daniel Avery's Tremor (Midnight Versions) is out now.

Further Fats: Music Order Remixed New (see what I did there) (2017)

Further Fats: Cover me bad – Block Rockin' Beats by the Chemical Brothers (2021)

It's all about the Electronic Sound podcast

It's All About Vinyl is a new podcast in which Mark Roland and Push, the guys that founded Electronic Sound magazine, bring their favourite vinyl into a podcast studio and smash it all with hammers.

Oh. Apparently they don't smash the vinyl with hammers. Instead they just talk about it. That's disappointing. Chaps, if you're reading this, can you please return all those hammers I posted to you? Cheers.

These fellas know what they're talking about. The pair did electronic music stuff for Melody Maker before moving on to Muzik magazine, for which Push was founding editor. One of them once edited a fanzine called 'Happy Cheese'. I won't tell you which of the two, but you can see it in his eyes.

So far in their podcast series, they've had delightful waffle-chats about The Damned, Tin Machine ("horrible"), Hawkwind, Harry Styles (!), Kraftwerk, Suzanne Ciani losing her synthesiser, the history of Melody Maker, and why the first 19 editions of Electronic Sound didn't quite work. They've even had snookerist and bleepy music head Steve Davis on.

Electronic Sound has been running for 135 issues. That's a big number. It's about twice as many people that were in The Fall, or about as many weeks Fleetwood Mac's Everywhere has spent in the UK charts since it debuted in 1988, or exactly the same height as the London Eye in metres.

It does mean that there's plenty of material for them to plunder. Anecdotes, interviews, favourite records, memorable gigs, music industry bashes, awful columnists. Wait. No. Not that last one. Ignore that last one.

I rarely get to meet my editors in person, so it's a pleasure to see their digital faces poking out of my internet. You can listen to It's All About Vinyl on that new-fangled Spotify thing or on the YouTubes.

Further Fats: Fat Roland Bangs On... as an Electronic columnist (2012)

Further Fats: This is a journey into Electronic Sound 2.0 (2016)

Here are my hot tips for the 2026 Brit Awards and if I'm wrong, I'm moving to Mars

On the day that the Brit Awards come to the Co-op Live in Manchester, here are my hot Brit tips. For each category, I have chosen who I think will win. I was passing the venue last night and a gang of the Brits production crew got on the tram. One of them was impressively beardy and very London. Anyway, I shouted this entire blog post at them until they crawled out of the windows to escape.

Album of the Year: Dave – The Boy Who Played Harp

I’ve not really listened to Dave since his Psychodrama album. I enjoyed that one, with its introspection and all that. Can he win Album of the Year again? I reckon he can, as long as the title of this album lives up to its promise and it’s one hour of Dave playing a harp. Like a proper big one you’ve got to straddle. If any other instruments are involved, I’m not interested.

Artist of the Year: PinkPanthress

I wanted to choose Self Esteem for this one, or Little Simz. But Ms Panthress sampled Underworld for her track Illegal, and that earns her a life membership to Fat Roland’s List Of People That I Think Are Alright. In fact, if anyone ever samples anything from Underworld’s 1994 album Dubnobasswithmyheadman, they should automatically win 12 Brit awards.

Song of the Year: Fred again.., Skepta, PlaqueBoyMax – Victory Lap

I’m not that inspired by the tracks in this category. Lola Young’s Messy was fun, and I liked that one song Raye did a while ago. Skepta’s a great match for Fred again, though, going together like cheese on toast, or beans on toast, or trifle on toast. The track was used on EA Sports FC 26, which I think is a video game of footballers eating fried chicken.

Group of the Year: Sleep Token

In an era of solo stars, is this category even relevant? I nearly went for Pulp. Nearly. But I would love Sleep Token to win this. It would create a seismic wave, like the solar flare in the movie 2012 or like the Greens in Gorton & Denton. Of course, if a metal or metal-adjacent act wins this category, it would be a bitter blow for this electronic music blog, and I reserve the right to whinge about it for the next 12 months.

Breakthrough Artist: Barry Can't Swim

This is a pretty strong category. I've chosen Barry Can't Swim for two reasons. One: he's great. Two: his name contains an apostrophe. This would be the first Brits win for an apostrophe-containing act since Rag 'n' Bone Man, who inexplicably won Best Song for Human in 2018. Yes, we've had Beyoncé with her acute accent and confident comma use from Tyler, The Creator. But big up Barry Can't Swim, who bossed the apost.

International Artist of the Year: Bad Bunny

I can't give two hoots about Bad Bunny's music. Not my cup of tea or, to give it a Latino twist, not my cup of té de hierbas. However, his performance at that big American sports thing was legendary. Even Cardi B turned up, and you know it's a party when Cardi B turns up. The Maga petrol-snorters lost their minds, crooning about jingoism and fishing - it was meant to be wholesome, but you can't spell 'wholesome' without 'ole!'. 

International Song of the Year: Taylor Swift – The Fate of Ophelia

Really, Swift is a placeholder here. The song is fine, but just fine. Better than some of the others. However, if Alex Warren wins with his global megahit Ordinary, I will saw off both of my ears with my snapped copy of his CD single. And if you think that metaphor is weird, check his lyrics: “I'm on the edge of your knife, stayin' drunk on your vine.” What?! If this wins, I’m moving to Mars. No. Uranus. I'm moving to Uranus because it's funnier.

International Group of the Year: Geese

It’s not easy being a group. Cramped tour buses, endless rehearsals, and there’s always an ego in the gang. That’s why I’m backing Geese to win. No disrespect to the human nominees, but if a gaggle of geese bag this award, I’d be stoked. Imagine the podium speech: honking like a feathered berk, beaking canapes out of people’s fat hands. Brilliant.

Alternative/Rock Act: Wet Leg

Is rock still a thing? I thought we’d killed it off with dubstep or when Oasis stopped. I’ve chosen Wet Leg because (a) I like that song they did ages ago about a futon or a pouffe or whatever it was, and (b) I got puddle-splashed by a car the other day, soaked from head to toe the absolute gits, and I spent much of the morning with an actual wet leg.

Hip Hop/Grime/Rap Act: Little Simz

Hmmm. She’s won before, so this might be what the modern internet youth call a ‘bad take’. But I think Simz is still critically acclaimed, and I can’t see why she can’t bag another Brit. It’s a strong category, though: she’s up against Vanilla Ice, Kid ‘n’ Play and PJ & Duncan. (I may need to update my notes.)

Dance Act: Sammy Virji

If I had told 1990s Fat Roland that UK Garage would be dominating the charts in the 2020s, I would have thrown me out of the house. What was I even doing in my house anyway? Get out of my house, me. Anyway, doff of the hat to Virji and the rest of the UKG lot for constantly reinventing a once-underground movement. Wait. This is meant to be a silly blog post. Erm… poo bum willy.

Pop Act: Raye

You'd like me to be silly about Raye's name, wouldn't you. Oh look, he's talking about a stingray or a ray of sunshine, how funny. Oh look, he's comedically mistaken her for a bricklayer called Ray, oh ha ha. I'm not your performing monkey. Anyway, Raye swept the board at the 2024 Brits and I haven't really listened to her since then, so maybe she should win everything again, I dunno.

R&B Act: Sault

Sault are probably the most successful household seasoning alongside Salt from Salt-N-Pepa and Pepa from Salt-N-Pepa. Here's a fact for you: Sault have released as many studio albums as Robbie Williams. Do what you will with that fact; maybe bring it up at a family meal or when you're visiting your cousin in prison. Anyway, Sault are due a Brits win, and the fact they eschew the limelight would make that win even more hilarious.

Critics’ Choice

This has already been awarded to Jacob Alon (pictured above, photo credit James Klug/Getty Images), so there's no point in writing about it. Here's some hold music instead. Dum-de-dum dingy dah doo-doo dah tingle ingle dum-de-dum. Boing boing. Whaaaaang. Tssst tsst tssst tsst doo-be-doo clunk. Actually, this is a brilliant tune. I hope I win a Brit Award for it.

Further Fats: We need a new Mercury Music Prize for people that give a crap about electronic music (2009)

Further Fats: Brits 2010 – a prejudiced review from someone who doesn't give a damn (2010)

These ghost sounds from Suzanne Vega's Tom's Diner are the spookiest thing you'll hear today

 

Until now, I have been pretty convinced that ghosts can't make music. Something to do with temporal forms not being able to strum a guitar, or no-one from Rentaghost becoming a chart-topping pop star.

And yet, have a listen to that YouTube video. Ghosts! Actual ghosts!

It's actually a remarkable bit of audio detritus that arose from when Suzanne Vega's 1987 a cappella Tom's Diner got transferred from high-quality audio to MP3.

This may be news to some, but MP3s are low-resolution. They are compressed in size and quality, balancing storage space and audio fidelity. It ensures that your cool and trendy iPod (!) isn't the size of Battersea Power Station.

MP3s are a lossy format, so when converting from a high-quality format, bits of the sound are chopped out. The lost sound has to go somewhere, I guess. There was a terrible Doctor Who episode once in which people lost fat, and the fat formed into blubber aliens that everyone wanted to kick in the face. It's exactly like that. Probably.

In a brilliant feat of reverse-engineered psychoacoustics, that video is the sound of that lost audio when Tom's Diner was converted to MP3. Developer Karlheinz Brandenburg used the song's clean vocals to test the parameters of MP3 compression, and this is the studio offcut.

This also mean that Tom's Diner was the first MP3, christening Vega as the "Mother of MP3". Which is impressive, and a damn sight better than being the Uncle of AIFF or the Second-Cousin of Spotify. 

This is part of the Museum of Portable Sound, which collects non-musical noise. It contains field recordings, old hi-fi gear, 1960s television commercials, urban soundscapes, the sound of Sigmund Freud’s toilet, and the sound of me grunting when I get up from a sofa. Alright, the last one was a lie. But it really does contains Freud's bog.

"This is one of the most revelatory and inspiring things I've heard recently," said Robin Rimbaud, a who releases spectral ambience as Scanner. If Scanner is impress, you know it's brilliant.

Pictured above: Vega in the video for Luka, which is the wrong song, but hey.

Further Fats: Ghost written – podcasts, music, Buffy and emails (2015)

Further Fats: Delia Derbyshire Day – even more original than the Atari (2017)

Best electronic music albums of 2025: all of the featured albums

In the five days it has taken me to post my 2025 albums list, the US has invaded Venezuela, Bulgaria got rid of the lev, and Raye scored the first number one single of the year, something she also did in 2023.

My end-of-year blogging is always intense. I wrote thousands of words about a shedload of electronic music albums, and now my brain is fried. Some of those words were good words, and some of those words were really average words.

A summary might be useful. So here is a list of all of the albums featured in my Best electronic music albums of 2025 blog series. Each one links to the summary it was featured in. The ones labelled "🏆Top 20" have their very own dedicated blog post.

I should do a playlist. Suggestions of good, accesible Spotify alternatives would be welcome.

µ-Ziq: 1979 & Manzana (Balmat)

Adrian Sherwood: The Collapse Of Everything (On-U Sound)

Aleksi Perälä: Vortex 1–4 + Cycles 0 (AP Musik)

Anthony Naples: Scanners (ANS)

Barker: Stochastic Drift (Smalltown Supersound)

Barry Can’t Swim: Loner (Ninja Tune)

Bicep: CHROMA 000 (CHROMA) 🏆Top 20

Biosphere: The Way of Time (AD 96)

The Black Dog: Loud Ambient (Dust Science Recordings) 🏆Top 20

Black Sites: R4 (Tresor Records) 🏆Top 20

Blackploid: Cosmic Drama (Central Processing Unit)

Blawan: Sick Elixir (XL Recordings)

Bogdan Raczynski: Slow Down Stupid (Disciples)

Bruise Blood: You Run Through the World Like An Open Razor (Rocket Recordings) 🏆Top 20

The Bug vs Ghost Dubs: Implosion (Pressure)

Cain: Lineage (Fine Grains) 🏆Top 20

Call Super: A Rhythm Protects One (Dekmantel) 🏆Top 20

Carrier: Rhythm Immortal (Modern Love)

Charles Webster & The South African Connection: From The Hill (Stay True Sounds South Africa)

Charlotte de Witte: Charlotte de Witte (KNTXT)

Clark: Steep Stims (Throttle Records) 🏆Top 20

Cosey Fanni Tutti: 2t2 (Conspiracy International)

Dale Cornish: Altruism (The Death of Rave)

Daniel Avery: Tremor (Domino Recording Co)

Debit: Desaceleradas (Modern Love)

DJ Babatr: Root Echoes (Hakuna Kulala)

DJ Bone: DJ Bone XXXV: The End of Never (Further)

DJ Koze: Music Can Hear Us (Pampa)

Djrum: Under Tangled Silence (Houndstooth)

Ehua: Panta Rei (3024)

Facta: Gulp (Wisdom Teeth) 🏆Top 20

FKA Twigs: EUSEXUA (Young)

The Flashbulb: Papillon (self-released)

Hieroglyphic Being: Dance Music 4 Bad People (Smalltown Supersound)

Hieroglyphic Being: The Sound Of Something Ending (Mathematics)

Ikonika: SAD (Hyperdub)

In Transit: In Transit (Felt)

Introspekt: Moving The Center (Tempa)

James Holden & Waclaw Zimpel: The Universe Will Take Care Of You (Border Community)

Jeremy Hyman: Low Air (JH Recordings)

John Tejada: The Watchline (Palette Recordings) 🏆Top 20

Josef Tumari: JANNAT YURTIM (DSL System)

Kaytranada: Ain't No Damn Way! (RCA)

K-LONE: sorry i thought you were someone else (Incienso)

Lila Tirando a Violeta: Dream of Snakes (Unguarded) 🏆Top 20

Lindstrøm: Sirius Syntoms (Feedelity Recordings)

Los Thuthanaka: Los Thuthanaka (self-released)

Loscil: Lake Fire (Kranky)

Low End Activist: Airdrop II (Peak Oil)

Lynyn: Ixona (Sooper Records) 🏆Top 20

Lyra Pramuk: Hymnal (7K!)

Marie Davidson: City Of Clowns (Deewee)

Mark Pritchard & Thom Yorke: Tall Tales (Warp Records)

Mark Van Hoen: The Eternal Present (Dell'Orso Records)

Nadah El Shazly: Laini Tani (One Little Independent) 🏆Top 20

Nazar: Demilitarize (Hyperdub)

Nick León: A Tropical Entropy (TraTraTrax)

Noumen: Altum (Central Processing Unit) 🏆Top 20

Ø: Sysivalo (Sahko Recordings)

Oneohtrix Point Never: Tranquilizer (Warp Records)

The Orb: Buddhist Hipsters (Cooking Vinyl) 🏆Top 20

Paul St. Hilaire: w/ The Producers (Kynant Records)

Ploy: It's Later Than You Think (Dekmantel)

Polygonia: Dream Horizons (Dekmantel)

Powell: We Do Recover (Diagonal Records)

Purelink: Faith (Peak Oil)

Pye Corner Audio: Lake Deep Memory (Quiet Details)

Rainy Miller: Joseph, What Have You Done? (Fixed Abode) 🏆Top 20

Real Lies: We Will Annihilate Our Enemies (Tonal)

Rian Treanor & Cara Tolmie: Body Lapse (Planet Mu Records Ltd)

Rival Consoles: Landscape From Memory (Erased Tapes) 🏆Top 20

rRoxymore: Juggling Dualities (!K7 Recordings)

Sandwell District: End Beginnings (Point Of Departure)

Shed: Towards East (The Final Experiment)

Sherelle: With A Vengeance (Impressed Recordings) 🏆Top 20

Ship Sket: InitiatriX (Planet Mu)

Slikback: Attrition (Planet Mu)

Soulwax: All Systems Are Lying (Soulwax) 🏆Top 20

Squarepusher: Stereotype (Warp Records) 🏆Top 20

Steve Hauschildt: Aeropsia (Simul Records)

Surgeon: Shell~Wave (Tresor Records)

Tim Reaper: sfs (self-released) 🏆Top 20

TurquoiseDeath: Guardian (Phantasia)

Valesuchi: Futuro Cercano (Discos Nutabe)

Verses GT: Verses GT (LuckyMe)

Voice Actor & Squu: Lust (1) (Stroom)

Wagon Christ: Planet Roll (De:tuned)

Whatever The Weather: Whatever The Weather II (Ghostly International)

Top 20 electronic music albums of 2025: Squarepusher plays to (Stereo)type

This is part of a series, posting between 30th December 2025 and 3rd January 2026

Squarepusher: Stereotype (Warp Records)

80-plus albums later – probably closer to 90 but no-one’s counting – and we finally come to my last entry of Fat Roland’s Best Electronic Music of 2025, subsection Top 20 Bangers. Except this next album is not from 2025. It’s a cheat. Don’t tell anyone.

In July 1994, Wet Wet Wet were wedged at the top of the UK singles chart with Love Is All Around. Somewhere in the Essex suburbs, Tom ‘Squarepusher’ Jenkinson was recording two albums. One of them was Feed Me Weird Things which would be released on Rephlex Records two years later. The other one, originally released under the artist name Stereotype, was this.

Whooshki is a beefy 16-minute opener, gliding from silky, spiralling IDM into a clumping 909 tantrum. 1994, which I suspect is named after the year 1994, is a scratchy home-knit of tangled hi-hats and dystopian ambience. O'Brien sounds like Clark slipping off a cliff.

There’s early Aphex feel to Greenwidth, with its muffled rhythmic charge drizzled in oily ambience. Falling is drum ‘n bass compacted and tarnished by weighty, wistful analogue chords. We finish with O’Brien again, this time remixed and sounding like it’s come back for a sulk.

I don’t know how people remaster old tapes to make them sound better. I asked William Basinski this about his remaster of The Disintegration Loops. Surely a muffled old analogue tape is a muffled old analogue tape. Anyway, I’m none the wiser, but thank the gods for 1990s Squarepusher, redone and refreshed 32 years later. Old is the new new.

If you've been reading along, this is the last blog post for my 2025 album highlights. Excellent reading, well done. Someone tell Jools Holland that 2026 can now officially start.

See all of my Best electronic music albums of 2025

Top 20 electronic music albums of 2025: Central Processing Unit do it again with Noumen

This is part of a series, posting between 30th December 2025 and 3rd January 2026

Noumen: Altum (Central Processing Unit)

My top 20 albums of the year wouldn’t be a top 20 albums of the year without an album from those ever-reliable electro selectors Central Processing Unit. In previous annual lists, I have featured their artists Maelstrom, Silicon Scally, S>>D, Nadia Struiwigh and Proswell.

So here we have Noumen from Ukraine, who returns to CPU with an album of scrummy ambient techno. Let’s get the obvious out of the way first: There are definitely nods to old Autechre, particularly on the clatter of Telemask, the dark musicality of Fate Carette, and in the concrete snares of Far Wind.

With that out of the way, let’s see what makes Noumen so Noumen. On that latter track, the cold mechanics of the rhythm section are joined by layers of shiny synths until it becomes more about the melody than the Ae (it's what the cool kids call Autechre). And tracks like Splutter and Centrip are so brilliantly detailed and spidery.

The opening track Oion – and this is bold – runs for 15 minutes. It’s an airy ambient dub chug-a-long, really wonderful, its endless electro rhythm never giving up. It’s a real statement starting with a track that long. The message is clear: strap in or bugger off.

Can I just say, by the way, that I love Central Processing Unit’s commitment to binary. The catalogue number for this record is 10000010, binary for 130, and you’ll notice elsewhere in my end-of-year list Blackploid’s Cosmic Drama, which was their release before this one (10000001, or 129). I give then 1010 out of 1010.

See all of my Best electronic music albums of 2025