Best electronic albums of 2014: seven

7 – Kassem Mosse  – Workshop 19 (Workshop)

Tinkle tinkle tinkle. Donk. Pootle pootle. Spap.

That’s the sound of Gunnar Wendell’s debut album as Kassem Mosse. Stripped down percussion with trap influences meets techno-infused house with a result that is surprisingly catchy, all underpinned with a club urgency. He works with a limited analogue sound range but still manages massive keyboard riffs, stomping builders*, throbbing acid and tinkling ambience.

The record gets darker the further in you get, so perhaps the tension dissipates, but the result is way more than the sum of its deep house parts. Finally, he has an album to suit his enviable live reputation.

* Not actual builders stomping their feet, obviously. I was going to clarify this within the paragraph, but I'm trying to keep these reviews to exactly 100 words. These words don't count as part of that. Ignore all these words. Ignore them. Move on.

[Click here for the full top ten]



Some also-rans

Here are some more albums that didn't make the top ten. Fhloston Paradigm's The Phoenix (Hyperdub) was cinematic yet erratic, while in contrast, Cooly G's vocal-heavy Wait 'Til Night (Hyperdub) was too straight laced for me. Steffi's Detroit-drizzled second album Power Of Anonymity (Ostgut Ton) was certainly in the running this year. A few house albums: Session Victim's See You When You Get There (Delusions of Grandeur) had way too many bongos; Mr. Oizo's The Church (Brainfeeder) is as head noddy as you remember his yellow puppet being; Mark E's Product Of Industry (Spectral Sound) pretty much sounded like Mark E. The bloke from Shed gave us fantastic bass-heavy simplicity with Head High's Megatrap (Power House), and I had real fun with the horro techno on Gesloten Cirkel's Submit X (Murder Capital). Finally for this segment, I have a real soft spot for Jungle. Their eponymous debut (XL Recordings) was all sorts of pleasant but a bit too thin for a long player.

[Click here for the full top ten]