Best electronic albums of 2019: fourteen

14 – Mikron – Severance (CPU) 

In my review for Electronic Sound, I said that Mikron "take us to a beautiful place out in the country" on their second album. The knowing nod to a certain 2000 Warp Records EP is quite deliberate: Severance is Boards of Canada on uppers.

The melodic leanings towards Drexciya, Detroit and the aforementioned Dayvan Cowboys seem simplistic on the first couple of listens, but this is an album I returned to again and again throughout 2019. It's addictive, like crack or caffeine or Windolene.

With those past references in mind, I was a bit worried about including this in my top 20 because there is so much 1990s nostalgia on this website. But then there's the bounciness of Ghost Node, the boldness of NynIV, the (literal) breathiness of Lyre. This is a fine-sounding piece of work.

I must apologise, by the way, for the constant comparisons to Boards Of Canada when covering this album. It's not fair. People often compare me to Johnny Vegas. You play the cards you're dealt, I guess. Monkey.



Scroll the full best-of-2019 list here.