90 best electronic music albums of 2021: Flying Lotus, Helm, Herbert, Humanoid & Jana Rush

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

Flying Lotus – Yasuke (Warp)

It's really nice to see Mr F. Lotus get his teeth into something as chunky as soundtracking a samurai series on Netflix. The telly programme evokes 16th-century feudal Japan, but this album feels much more modern. Trop hop beats, nostalgic analogue synths and fat computerised beats nestle up against its anime inspiration with the greatest of ease: lounge bar music by way of Tokyo. There's even a track (War Lords) which is Very Pink Floyd Indeed. A very different Flying Lotus experience, and we're all the better for it.

Helm – Axis (Dais Records)

"Fractured clanging, hissing steam, granular haze," says the blurb. Wait, don't go. Luke Younger's returns to his low-fi noise roots for this debut on Dias Records. Its scratched industrialisms and pained clanking rhythms are certainly matched by its track names: Moskito, Repellent. But actually, it's surprisingly tuneful if you're okay with the whole apocalyptic building site thing: there's beautiful ambience to be found in this end-times EBM. And hey, if I'm going to have a haze, I want it to be a granular one.

Herbert – Musca (Accidental)

Here's a bit of my review for Electronic Sound magazine of this latest instalment in Herbert's ‘domestic house’ series. "Each track is ever-so-neosoul, new jazzy standards made for a Gilles Peterson playlist... This is Herbert exploring his commercial rather than experimental side, the purported – and very Herbert – grunting pig and chatty fox cub samples kept largely under the radar." Forgot about the pig bits. Anyhoo, it's all very smooth and Radio 2, but Herbert always delivers everything with a wink and I love him for that.

Humanoid – 7 Songs (De:tuned)

I admit, this was a very last-minute addition to my list. This is the act that brought us Stakker Humanoid from back in the day. I'd just assumed it was some old rerelease. How wrong I was. The chap from Future Sound of London slaps us across the chops with chunky acid madness: listen to it squeal and bleep and yelp. Absolutely gorgeous. Nothing complicated: just an old drum machine and some significantly squelchy sonics. Just listen to Pyramid 17 go. 7 very good songs.

Jana Rush – Painful Enlightenment (Planet Mu) 

This album is everywhere. It's the most hyped thing since Pogs or Betamax or that time I told Charlie Norridge I could balance a bunsen burner on my willy. For her second album, this Chicago producer moves from footwork into abstract experimentalism: chopped loops get caught in powerful cycles of shuddering bass, ecstatic vocal samples and ever-present urgent drums. Like looking at a jazz club through a kaleidoscope through insect eyes. Genuinely unique. Oh and always make sure the burner's switched off first.

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