90 best electronic music albums of 2021: Ripatti, Robert Ames, RP Boo, Sarah Davachi & Sedibus

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

Ripatti – Fun Is Not A Straight Line (Planet Mu)

Vladislav Delay, real name Sasu Ripatti, joins Planet Mu for some fearsomely frantic footwork beats. "Ever shoved a rapper through a mincer?" said my review of the album in Electronic Sound back in the summer. "Vladislav Delay cleaves hip hop into stuttered vocal shards, pelting them with frenetic drums... rushes of glorious techno, underpinned by bass deep enough to blow your mincer’s electrics. Dissected dopeness of the highest order." Dizzying and fragmentary, yet it all makes sense.

Robert Ames – Change Ringing (Modern Recordings)

What a CV. Co-founder of the London Contemporary Orchestra. Conducting for Jonny Greenwood and Little Simz. Playing strings for Frank flipping Ocean. It's remarkable, then, that this rich ambient classical album is Ames' debut. Think Sigur Ros filtered via Philip Glass. Amazingly, he recorded a bunch of music, slowed it down, then annotated the slower version on sheet music for the purpose of rerecording. A proper old-school approach to something that turned out symphonic and distinctly sistine.

RP Boo – Established! (Planet Mu) 

Let's get one thing out of the way. Yes, that's a sample of Phil Collins' voice on All Over. You know what? It works. This is the only acceptable use of Phil Collins ever. maybe with the exception of Luke Vibert's I Can Phil It. The fourth solo Planet Mu album from this massively influential Chicago producer explores his early experiences with footwork and ghetto house. The result is an accessible collection of vocal slices, choppy rhythms and stuttering beats: a great primer on Boo even with the Collins.

Sarah Davachi – Antiphonals (Late Music)

I always thought a mellotron was something you could eat. Turns out its a mini-keyboard that operates with magnetic tape. The instrument was a key component in this latest work from Canada's favourite electroacoustic experimentalist. From horns to harpsichords, Davachi uses all the skills in her musical arsenal to come up with an ethereal collection of ambient meditations. It almost sounds like the echo of folklore past: stories of ancestors drifting on the wind. And it's definitely not edible, so don't chomp it.

Sedibus: The Heavens (Orbscure Recordings) 

Alex Paterson teams up with his old Orb mate Andy ‘Ultraworld’ Falconer for a debut release on his new Orbscure label. "Welcome to a wonderful evocation of classic-era Orb," I said in Electronic Sound. "Over four sprawling tracks, liquid chords curl around portentous piano, then rise into post-club euphoria that would make Sabres of Paradise proud." It's dead Orb-y. No, really. Cut it in half, and you'll find ORB written down its middle. Enjoy this adventure right back into the ultraworld.

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

Five great tracks from the Artificial Intelligence album

Hacienda-era ravers eventually had to take it easy - and that happened in 1992.

Warp Records' Artificial Intelligence was a series of post-rave albums designed for "long journeys, quiet nights and club drowsy dawns". The series began in 1992 and furthered the nascent work of Plaid, The Orb, Aphex Twin, The Black Dog and Richie Hawtin.

Perhaps most significantly. its seventh release was Incunabula, the debut album by Autechre.

The first Artificial Intelligence album, cleverly called Artificial Intelligence (released in the US the following year on Wax Trax!), is one of most influential compilation albums in any genre. Here are my five favourite tracks in no particular order. Enjoy.

Musicology - Telefone 529

Otherwise known as the massively important IDM duo B12. They later scooped up a whole bunch of their limited coloured-vinyl 12-inches for the Electro-Soma Artificial Intelligence album.



Autechre - Crystel

One of the Rochdale band's earliest tracks.



The Dice Man - Polygon Window

No doubt named after the Luke Rhinehart book, The Dice Man would later become Polygon Window, which is the name of this track. Confused? Polygon Window would release Surfing On Sine Waves as part of the Artificial Intelligence series. What became of this particular artist, I have no idea.



UP! - Spiritual High

An early appearance by Richie Hawtin, aka Plastikman - someone who would go on to conquer the DJing world. A touch of Detroit via Canada.



Dr. Alex Paterson - Loving You Live

The Orb kingpin was already top of the ambient world and didn't really need the Artificial Intelligence exposure. Indeed, this live version of Loving You was just a segment of A Huge Ever Growing Pulsating Brain That Rules From The Centre Of The Ultraworld, its original Millie Riperton sample long since exorcised. Still... flipping great track, right?