Top ten best electronic music albums of 2021: Eris Drew – Quivering In Time

 

Fat Roland's Best Electronic Music Albums of 2021 presents another brilliant album:

Eris Drew – Quivering In Time (T4T LUV NRG)

Let's start this review by widening things out a little – in a rather unexpected direction. The KLF's gonna rock ya.

In 2017, Eris Drew revealed her belief in a healing goddess power she called The Motherbeat. She did this in a YouTube video which pinpointed her revelation as coming "23 years after the fire". Which fire? Stay with me...

In the same year, 2017, writer Daisy Eris Campbell directed the KLF's art show comeback. The KLF's big return was massive news for us electronic music heads. And what the KLF lads do 23 years previously? They burnt a million quid, to the shock of tabloid naysayers everywhere. One of the most famous pop music fires after Jacko's Pepsi hair shocker.

So in 2017, Eris revealed the Motherbeat and another Eris helped the KLF return to the art world, both of which happened "23 years after the fire". 23 is also a number associated with Eris, the goddess worshipped in the satirical religion of Discordianism. The KLF built their situationist publicity mongering around the world of Eris the goddess – it's where "The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu" comes from. Erises everywhere!

Phew. Let's get back to the most important Eris, namely the one who here presents her debut album on the label she runs with partner Octo Octa, also an amazing producer. Quivering In Time is brilliant. Recorded in rural New Hampshire, there's a joyful spirituality here that expresses itself as pure dancefloor mayhem. Poppy house beats! Rolling breaks and perky melodies! A rogue clavichord! 90s vocal interjections! 

If Eris Drew was hoping to channel the wild spirit of the KLF in her work, it's here in spades. The Loaded-sampling The Message / Ride Free is pure pop, the shimmering vibes on Quivering In Time is straight from Trancentral, and Pick 'Em Up's melody is as direct as any horned mu-mu chant.

It's just so damn fun. The Motherbeat is pumping loud and clear.

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