Best electronic albums of 2020: seventeen

17 –  Minor Science – Second Language (AD 93)

I love editing. I love manhandling a bulging mess of words then chopping until it's as good as it can be. These blog posts are not that: they are largely first draft. This countdown isn't just a mess: it's its own ecosystem of circuitously prolix overwriting and needlessly unnecessary adverbs.

However, there is something of the editor's eye in Minor Science's debut album. This former Resident Advisor writer has precision-cut every section of Second Language: each growl, each rolling chord, each echoing chime, each vocal grunt.

The sudden cough in the filmic intro gives us notice of what is to come. This is a hugely listenable melodic IDM album, dripping with atmosphere, and full of complex trills and stops. Equally beguiling yet immediate.

The album also gives us For Want Of Gelt, one of the best tunes of 2020. A slow build-up leads into pneumatic shimmers and finally the most furious – and funniest – drum-fills. You see: structured, like writing. That was a loop back to the opening paragraph, by the way. It's what proper writers do. I thank you. *takes a bow*

 

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