Best electronic albums of 2020: special mentions to make you go mmmm

Alright. I can see that you're tense. There are even more special mentions on the way, but it's stressing you out. Here, lie on this sofa. Let me fluff up these cushions. Put on this soothing face cream. Let Igor give you one of his aggressive massages.

And now let's listen to the ambient-flecked sounds of some more albums that didn't quite make the final Top 25.

The Soft Pink Truth's Shall We Go On Sinning So That Grace May Increase? (Thrill Jockey) had critics raving, and I can see why, with its ambient house tantalisingly preserved in amber then washed across a million tides. A less intense and more synthy version of this could be found with the hypnotic Erratics & Unconformities (The Leaf Label) from Craven Faults: its 17-minute opening loop Wacca Wall was a giddy trip.

Com Truise dug out a bunch of old, sepia-washed tracks for In Decay, Too (Ghostly International), a follow-up to a similar retrospective back in 2012: let that fuzzy neon tickle your analogue taste buds. If someone switched Com Truise off, and all we had was a momentary glow of what had been before, then we'd have The Spectral Isle (Castles in Space) by Field Lines Cartographer – an ambient masterpiece that had the best textures of 2020 and was also the year's best phantom island-themed album.

While we're in an ambient mood, it's worth listening to Eartheater's Phoenix: Flames Are Dew Upon My Skin (PAN), a gorgeous swell of classical ambience workshopped at an artistic residency in northeastern Spain. Or if you want to get really spaced out, then opt for the short choral apparitions of Healing Is a Miracle (Ninja Tune) by Julianna Barwick.

And finally let's lift things up again with John Beltran's brilliant The Season Series (Delsin Records), which takes ambience as its starting point but then spreads wings fashioned from shards of Detroit techno and crystalline percussion. Mmmm, feels relaxing. HARDER, Igor, HARDER.

 

Browse the rest of the Best Electronic Albums of 2020