30 best electronic music albums of 2021: µ-Ziq, Posthuman, Proc Fiskal & Proswell

Fat Roland's Best Electronic Music Albums of 2021 presents four more brilliant albums:

µ-Ziq and Mrs Jynx – Secret Garden (Planet Mu) 

Melodic IDM of the highest order. Please insert a smiley face emoji here. Inspired by the death of their parents. Please replace the smiley face emoji with a sad cry emoji. Gorgeous bubbly acid, feather-light electronic rhythms, hammock-lazy melody lines, glistening synth perfection, AND tracks called The Ballad Of Darth Vader and Philip Steak. Please cross out all existing emojis, replacing them with a crazy eyed emoji listening really hard to tiny headphones. This collaboration between an IDM legend – head of the Planet Mu label, no less – and a fully respected Manchester music maker paid off in buckets. All the happy faces.

Posthuman – Requiem For A Rave (Balkan Vinyl)

I don't often quote PR blurbs, but get a load of this. "We’re of the generation that saw the Criminal Justice Bill force the raves from the fields into the clubs, we caught the tail end of the convoys soundtracked by cassette recordings of pirate radio stations from far-off London and beyond. Every week a new musical discovery, every mixtape a revelation." From the rude boy shoutouts, to the choppy synth lines, to the car-speaker busting bass, this glow-stick guzzling dancefloor workout does what it says on the tin. Throwback? No way. This is a fast-forward because the spirit of rave lives on hard with Requiem.

Proc Fiskal – Siren Spine Sysex (Hyperdub)

Apparently, Proc Fiskal's family was big in folk music. Not, like, giants. They didn't have to use massive guitars or anything. But, like, there's a real heritage there. It's an interesting historical note because of the use of vocal samples in this super-glazed second album of tingling and detailed electronica. It rather sounds like he's grabbed an acapella folk band and spiralised them all over his music. Or maybe just meat-minced a carolling choir. In a gorgeous way. "Like Elizabeth Fraser cut into a UK Garage lilt," says the blurb. The result is enchanting: never has Gaelic sounded so futuristic.

Proswell – People are Giving and Receiving Thanks at Incredible Speeds (Central Processing Unit)

A veteran Chicago producer and format experimentalist nails his first album for Sheffield's CPU Records. Am I going to cut and paste from one of my Electronic Sound reviews again? Of course I can. I'm writing everything at breakneck speed in an attempt to keep ahead of my blogging schedule. So... This album "throws us into an imaginary computer game where the pixels are broken and the only glow in the distance is a low-battery light." This is Rephlexian IDM on happy pills. And it must get a bonus point for one of the best album ack titles of the year. "Game over," I wrote. "Play again? Most definitely yes."

This is part of a series of the Best Electronic Music Albums of 2021. Read it all here.