Top 50 electronic music albums of 2022: Kuedo, 96 Back, Robert Ames & Ben Corrigan

   

Let's get into the top 50 bestest favourite electronic music albums of 2022. Although they're not presented in any particular order, this next series of blog posts feature albums inside my top 50 but outside the top 20. The kind of chart position that would have been disappointing for Lisa from Steps, but would have been brilliant for H from Steps. I'll blog a few at a time. Here goes!

See the full countdown here.

Kuedo: Infinite Window (Brainfeeder)

I’m not sure an infinite window would work. Where would you put the walls? Despite its architectural impracticality, Jamie Teasdale delivers a stunning selection of keyboard wizardy. From beatless synth shininess to bass-heavy slo-mo electro, this first Kuedo album in six years crosses the full spectrum from noon-bright prog electronics to, er, more noon-bright prog electronics.

96 Back: Cute Melody, Window Down! (96 Music)

I always thought 96 Back was some moody anonymous geezer, until I saw him in Manchester recently and he chatted excitedly between tracks like a wedding DJ. Lovely guy. He follows a productive 2021 with further forays into synth fun. An ever-inventice collage of beat-bustin’ bangers and Lorenzo Senni-style synth noodles. Plus a more responsible attitude to windows.

Robert Ames & Ben Corrigan: Carbs (Nomad Music Productions) 

There’s a touch of Kiasmos to this collaboration between two esteemed contemporary classical composers. Or perhaps Rival Consoles or Max Cooper. It’s a synth album, but these graceful pieces could easily have been played on a church organ. Listen to the swells, the emotion, the rich dynamics that could only come from a couple of classical kids. Gorgeous.

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

30 best electronic music albums of 2021: 96 Back, Anz, Basic Rhythm & The Black Dog

The Top 60 becomes a Top 30. The excitement! Fat Roland's Best Electronic Music Albums of 2021 presents four more brilliant albums:

96 Back – 9696 Dream (Local Action)

Sheffield's Evan Majumdar-Swift has turned in a corker of a rave album, and there's barely a phat drop in sight. This is techno written in neon and hydrogen. Lines of melody have all the woozy weightlessness of waking from sleep, and even when it slaloms into a steady groove on, say, Freepass For Them, it still feels light on its feet. Incidentally, this was mastered by Warp Records founder Rob Gordon, so there's some serious heft behind the buoyancy. Hat doff to his other works this year, including the move into vocals on the compelling Love Letters, Nine Through Six.

Anz – All Hours (Ninja Tune)

Another EP has sneaked its way onto my list. Whaddaya gonna do? Report me to the list police? This unashamedly poppy collection of bass music feels like that moment in a movie when all is resolved and the protagonists just need to let their hair down. Stereo on, disco ball spinning, and let's not think too much about granny whose storyline was left unsolved. Did she escape the kidnappers? Who cares. Let's boogie to the glistening r&b, the funky electro jams, the gentle acid, the shuffling wub-wub techno. This is a Ninja Tune debut for this Manchester producer: the world is watching. Maybe granny was one of the bad guys. We'll find out in the sequel. Roll credits!

Basic Rhythm – Electronic Labyrinth (Planet Mu)

I've been watching East Man's output with interest, so it's pleasing to see Anthoney Hart's other alter-ego drop such a compelling album. As suggested by the East London landscape of the album cover, his second album under this name for Planet Mu, this is tower-block tough. Hunch-shouldered rhythms provide a base for a series of tributes to his pirate DJ days on Rude FM. Beats crumble, basslines bend, and euphoric rave lines are subsumed into the grittiness of it all. Hayward Road soars the highest, but its freewheeling arpeggio belies the fact that we barely leave the basement of modern UK bass music. Proper.

The Black Dog – Music For Photographers (Dust Science)

Brutal. No, literally. Dusty legends The Black Dog spent two years photographing Brutalist architecture, and this compendium of deep, hazy ambience has an intention as cemented as the structures that inspired it. "It should be played in full when visiting any location," say the Dogsters. So whip out their Brutal Sheffield book, Google Map your way to one of the buildings, and let this album consume you in situ. Chords are elongated, beats are reigned in, and bulldozers put on hold as we celebrate a quickly disappearing aspect of UK cities. A window into some serious concrete soul.

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