Top 10 electronic music albums of 2022: Brainwaltzera – ITSAME

Here's another blog post about music. What? A blog post about music? I know, right. I invented the idea of blog posts about music. The top 10 continues with a lovely red album. 

See the full countdown here.

Brainwaltzera: ITSAME (FILM)

After a slew of EPs, the waltziest braindancer releases a long-awaited second album. With 17 tracks, it’s long, clocking in at 92,000 hours. Probably. I haven’t counted. The project is barely more than five years old, so it’s inevitable that echoes of the past can be heard in his work. Rotten One Note-era Squarepusher. The widescreen analogue vision of Tycho. The classical oomph of Aphex Twin. Heck, the title of the album is a throwback, assuming it’s a reference to Mario.

Despite all this, and I’m not sure what voodoo Waltz is working, it feels immediate and fresh. Distant vocal samples fade amid depressive synth fuzz; glitchy beats stumble and yaw; the LFO-woozed ‘evening narcomnastics [DON'T_POST!]’ is more earwormy than any IDM classic. The album also has the most delicate tribute to Formula One safety systems than any other track in this countdown. I could take 92,000 hours and then some.

Curious track: Consent has people saying "yeah" to acid, which is something I would encourage all kids to do.

Album feels: That moment when I get arrested for encouraging children to take acid.

Cover art: Red and geometric, like a fire truck or an embarrassed triangle.

From another website: There’s so much detail you can practically hear the artist think through each track as the album unfolds... One thing not up for debate: ITSAMASTERPIECE. (Monolith Cocktail)

This is part of a series of the Best Electronic Music Albums of 2022. Read it all here.