Showing posts with label best albums of 2019. Show all posts
Showing posts with label best albums of 2019. Show all posts

Dec 31, 2019

Best electronic albums of 2019: one

1 – Plaid – Polymer (Warp Records)

I've plopped on about Plaid on this website many times in the past. They're no stranger to this end-of-year listing, appearing at number three in 2011, at number six in 2014 and at number two in 2016. In 2019, they finally take the title of Best Electronic Music Album of the Year. Congratulations, boys, you did it. You can finally retire. Pipe and slippers.

Polymer is modern Plaid's masterpiece. In recent years, they've tended towards the pastoral, but now they've descended into a valley of darkness. They've scuffed their shiny bits, sandpapered their synths, creosoted their balls and given melody a good old duffing up. It's spiky enough to deter casual listeners, but if you don't mind a few scrapes during repeated listens, it's their most rewarding album for many years.

As the synthetic hairiness of their album artwork suggests, this work is a true polymer: part organic and part android. Los squeaks and snarls as if snapping at the bars of cage and yet it's bedded by the blinking lights of robotic synth patter. The disembodied vowels of Ops spill from some unknown belly but when the track soars, its chimes skitter with clockwork regularity. The detailed patter of the beautiful Dancers is both flesh and machine in extremis.

Each track has its 'thing', as each tangled motif stretches its shoulders. Drowned Sea gets so het up, at the three-quarter mark it collapses into sparkles. All To Get To Her quickly locks into a classic looping Plaid pattern. The shuffly Nurula revives The Bee's nifty guitar-work from The Digging Remedy. And Dust is their version of a lullaby despite ubiquitous synth blaps constantly threatening to bite off your hand.

So many times during Polymer, I find myself holding my breath as the band raise Hitchockian levels of tension, and they know exactly when to press the release valve. Only on the percussive attack of Recall does there seem to be no hope, but even that track melts into ambience after two minutes, which makes sense in the context of the album's softer second half. It all fits.

Best of all, this is a Plaid album that feels angry, raising their complicated post-IDM noodlings to the heights of justified emotion, and in turn adding even more heart to the more traditional Plaid melodics. I don't need to tell you the reasons to feel furious in 2019, but I'm glad this album was here for some psychosynthetic succour.





Thanks for reading this mega list, and for reading my blog in 2019. Fifteen years and counting! Scroll the full best-of-2019 list here.

Best electronic albums of 2019: two

2 – Pelada – Movimiento Para Cambio (Pan)

Let's listen to the opening track together. There's the thump-thump of a bass drum. It's joined by a stuttering synth. Here come some finger snaps, but wait, something's happening. Are they speaking Spanish? Yes, I think it's Spanish. They're not stopping for breath. The beat drops. They start yelling. Oh my crap, the voice.

This is Pelada.

There is no album in 2019 that has side-swiped me more than Movimiento Para Cambio, which means "movement for change". Politics runs through Pelada's veins, as any lazy google-translating of their lyrics will attest to. Proper slacktivist, me.

It's also musically a rich experience. I love the snap of Habla Tu Verdad, the soft melt of Granadilla and the glorious stadium techno reverb of Aquí.  I flipping love everything. It's Canadian Chicago house in Spanish, via New York punk and 1990s dance music.

Put the production and politics together and you get this strange Robin S-tinction Rebellion pairing. And what a pair. The fierce vocals of Chris Vargas are alarming and may send some running for the hills, but their arresting energy constantly delights. Producer Tobias Rochman clearly bathes daily in dance music history: the album has the same try-it-and-see bedroom production vibe that made, for example, Bjork’s Debut so charming.

Now let's stop listening to the opening track together. Why are you even sat on my lap? Weirdo.



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Best electronic albums of 2019: three

3 – Loraine James – For You And I (Hyperdub)

For You And I is the sound of London bustle, of coming out of basement clubs, of tube stations shuttering their doors, of a queer life in a contemporary capital. Apparently. I don't live in London. In Manchester, we don't go on tubes, we just swagger with our maracas.

This freewheeling collage of broken bass music gets more compelling with every listen. The drum sounds are as loose as a bag of nuts: cheese-grated cymbals and strangled toms collide with precarious snares that rattle the walls of the album.

It's like being parachuted into a leftfield techno metropolis without a map, but that's not to say there aren't familiar touchpoints as we hear Loraine's story. Scraping My Feet has some serious Aphexian melancholy. There's something Autechresque about the scrunched rhythms of So Scared. And London Ting is pure grime bravado – "look at my skin!" – told through a tough techno lens.

All this on a debut album. Remarkable. As broad as London itself, it's one moment brutal, the next moment tender, all of it uneasy, all of it compelling. A boundary-breaking statement that's queer by nature and queer by noise. *shakes maracas*



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Best electronic albums of 2019: four

4 – Chemical Brothers – No Geography (Virgin EMI) 

Of course No Geography's in my top five. Of course! It's the best Chemical Brothers album for ages. It's full of pow-pow and chug-chug and build-build and wooh-wooh and slam-slam and Tian Tian. Actually, that last one might be a panda. You get the idea, though.

It's moment after moment of sheer clubbing energy. The robo-electro of Free Yourself! The power-snare roll on Gravity Drops! The old block-rockin' Chemicals showing themselves on the acidic We've Got To Try! Don your gold pants and get on that dancefloor and/or coffee table.

The album is accompanied by a spectacular live show which has Tom and Ed at their career best. MAH's Network-style rant of "I ain't gonna take it no more!" is all the more powerful because I can picture the big arm-wavy guy from the show. But you don't need the visuals: just on its own, for example, the "you and me" speech on title track No Geography rattled my heart strings.

There are no big guest vocalists: just the pow-pow and the build-build. It's pure uncut Chemicals. See what I did there? That's a drugs reference. Not that I know: the most I can manage these days is an extra spoonful of hot choc in my Highlights. If I know anything, it's how to make my drinks claggy.



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Best electronic albums of 2019: lovely earworm soup

For the last time in this best albums countdown, let's park the rollercoaster for a moment and smell the candyfloss. Here's a longlist of music heavyweights who failed to make the final cut: they're totally good and brilliant, but I kicked them to the kerb like a sassy Simon Cowell.

First up in this best-of-the-rest is Kornél Kovács and the thoroughly likeable Stockholm Marathon (Studio Barnhus). What starts as sugar-sweet vocal pop becomes a sun-glazed soup of instrumental  earworm after instrumentalearworm. Not that I'd drink a soup filled with worm ears. It sounds disgusting.

Jacques Greene got his epic on for Dawn Chorus (LuckyMe), which balanced the bright boldness of Jamie Xx and the scuzzed darkness of Clark. Jenny Hval dived into some sparkly electronics on The Practice Of Love (Sacred Bones Records), a seventh studio album fired off while writing a novel – hashtag multitasking. And Signals Into Space (Les Disques du Crépuscule) was the soft-focus return of Ultramarine, techno's answer to Channel 4's Watercolour Challenge.

The ever-filmic Amon Tobin was in an ambient mood on the intricate Fear In A Handful of Dust (Nomark). Flying Lotus was as generous and as overwhelming as ever on Flamagra (Warp Records), a work pepped up with a strange appearance by David Lynch. And although I thought Modeselektor's Who Else (Monkeytown Records) was a mixed affair, there was enough fried gold to make this longlist.

And finally here are some giants of electronic music who I've consumed in small portions in 2019, but haven't absorbed enough to include in my final list. Because I can't knowingly give full recommendations, I shall describe each album with a meaningless simile. James Blake's Assume Form (Universal Music) was like a hot toaster on a day trip to a dog-strewn beach. Hot Chip's A Bath Full of Ecstasy (Domino) was like a hovercraft balancing atop the concept of green. And finally, Metronomy's catchy Metronomy Forever (Because Music) was like a metronome catching the metro with a, er, gnome, um, er, jeez, this is worse than the fruit puns. *destroys computer with chainsaw*





Scroll the full best-of-2019 list here.

Best electronic albums of 2019: five

5 – Special Request - Vortex (Houndstooth)

In 2019, Special Request released a billion albums. He fired them at our faces like a tennis ball cannon. There were albums everywhere: on the floor, down our trousers, down the back of the sofa, down the plug hole. Someone get me a plunger: SR's fired out another one.

In October, he released the galactic r'n'b of Offworld, and a stonker it was too. In June, he gave us the brilliant Bedroom Tapes, taken from old cassettes he found in a house move. But since I'm only allowing him one album, it's May's storming Vortex that makes the list.

Vortex is a speed-fuelled hymn to BPM: the breakbeats trip over each other to see who can get to the finish line fastest. You think things are hectic, but then tracks like Fett and (deep breath) A Gargantuan Melting Face Floating Effortlessly Through The Stratosphere join the speedway and kick everything else to the hard shoulder.

There's a line to be drawn from peak smash 'n' grab 1990s Prodigy to Special Request's wonderfully futuristic visions. Vortex will leave you gasping — but don't gasp too much or he'll fire another album at your gob.

(While this blog post was hovering in my drafts, Special Request dropped the fourth of his promised 2019 albums. Too late for consideration here, but click here to have a listen: the title perfectly summarises his balls-out attitude to music production this year.)



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Best electronic albums of 2019: six

6 – Nathan Macay – Blue Spring (LuckyMe)

In this Picky B*stards piece, I refer to Nathan Micay as a "weightlifting producer who chugs protein shakes during DJ sets." I joined a gym for a year once. The place was sweaty and full of posers and I never want to go there again.

However, if Nath had a gym, I'd definitely go. He's already won the gold-plated accolade of album of the year on this very website under his Bwana alias. Can you imagine how many treadmill miles you'd clock up with his quality beats pouring from the speakers?

Blue Spring threw me at first. It's no Bwana mark two, despite him still being in thrall to the amazing manga artist Katsuhiro Otomo. There's only one full-on house track here (The Party We Could Have): everything else is dialled back to feel introspective and cautious.

What elevates this many levels above being nice-enough rainforest electro is simply how darn good the ideas are: the swagger of Moon Scepter Elimination, the wide-eyed voices of He Has The Key, the synthy drama of Blue Spring. You'll go back to it again and again. Most unlike a sweaty gym.



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Best electronic albums of 2019: seven

7 – Octo Octa – Resonant Body (T4t Luv Nrg)

Resonant Body takes us on a trans journey, which is a bit like a bus journey only there are loads of Twitter warriors running alongside trying to cancel out your existence. It's tough enough coming out as trans, even tougher to produce an album this good.

Here we have a party album bursting with breakbeats, acidic lines, sloshy snares, buoyant bass and choppy synths. It has depth too, such as in the plunging junglism of Ecstatic Beat and the misty ambient ripples of My Body Is Powerful.

There's even a bit that reminded me of Orbital. I can't remember which bit. That's good, isn't it. Quality music journalism. I've basically just told you there's a bit that sounds like something somewhere on the album. Nice and specific.

The climax of 'Body (as it's known to its friends) is almost bizarre as the final track is overtaken by an awkward crowd chant, but it feels deserved: Octo Octa's brilliant album isn't just a celebration of the body, but of a community. An unqualified joy: probably the most celebratory thing in this top 20.



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Best electronic albums of 2019: eight

8 – Janus Rasmussen ‎– Vín (Ki Records)

It's him. Y'know. That bloke. The guy from Kiasmos, the band that had the best album of the decade. No, you're confusing him with the drummer from Genesis. No, that's Frank the window cleaner from number 42. Oh never mind.

Janus 'Kiasmos' Rasmussen's first solo album Vín is incredibly pretty. It's as pretty as a nice vase that has a really pretty design on it. I'm not good at describing vases. The melodies are simply layered, the beats driving: it's an attractive journey from A to B.

What lifts it is the IDM warmth to the drums and the dual sensibility of classical and club that made Kiasmos so compelling. Here, the energy is almost euro-beat; sequences in primary colours that feel made for a truly international audience. And it's delicately dynamic: listen to the way the summery eight-bar melodic loop of Lilla splits into layers as the track progresses.

A fine-sounding work. Unlike Frank the window cleaner who looks the offspring of a bin lorry that's mated with the scraggy dog that hangs outside the launderette. At least trim your forehead hair, Frank.



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Best electronic albums of 2019: mine's a 99! Mooo!

As my top ten favourite 2109 electronic music albums thunder across the internet like a pack of cows chasing an ice cream van, let's take a look at some ambient, classical-ish and pastoral albums that didn't quite make my final list.

Leading this longlist is A Winged Victory for the Sullen: the elegiac ambience of The Undivided Five (Ninja Tune) constantly reached for a perfect fifth chord: extra points for a track-title dig at Jacob Rees-Mogg. I liked what previous Fat Roland champion Clark was doing on his television theme album Kiri Variations (Throttle Records) – all a bit fancy. This year saw the joyous return of Telefon Tel Aviv with Dreams Are Not Enough (Ghostly International). Its track titles were to be read as a poem, but the true meaning came from the ever-expansive production design.

Also in my best-of-the-rest is Nils Frahm's All Melody (Erased Tapes), whose seventh studio album was classic Frahm with added trumpet. Parp! Tim Hecker gave us the rather coy Anoyo (Kranky), a brief ambient sojourn in which he was inspired, not for the first time, by Japanese gagaku music. And Nine Inch Nails keyboardist Allesandro Cortini picked up a guitar for the first time in his solo career and drowned it with spine-tingling analogue fuzziness on Volume Massimo (Mute).

The ever-reliable Bibio went back to bucolic on Ribbons (Warp), with strings so lovely I'd wear them as a vest. The fact that Panda Bear guests on Teebs' lush Anicca (Brainfeeder) tells you exactly what that album sounds like: dreamy and exquisite. And the delicate glitches of Leif's Loom Dream (Whities) made me feel like I was getting razzed on fazoomy on a glacier's edge. Whatever the heck that means.



Best electronic albums of 2019: nine

9 – Caterina Barbieri – Ecstatic Computation (Editions Mego)

Aargh. Aaaargh. Yaaaaargh. This is the sound of my brain being melted by the gamma rays created by the extraordinary mathematical synthesis from the latest album by former classical guitar student Caterina Barbieri. Aaaargh, Yikes. Oof!

I normally like my music with a big fat beat, in the same way I can't eat lasagne without a load of Maltesers being thrown in. But like fellow Italian Lorenzo Senni, Barbieri has chucked the beats in the bin, and it's up to the restricted palette of synthesisers to do the work.

Don't get me wrong. Ecstatic Computation is no meandering slouch or Steve Reich tribute. On Fantas, the synths spit and quiver. Closest Approach To Your Orbit is a whirlwind of spiralling melody. The portentous Pinnacles Of You sounds like every cathedral in Italy singing on the breeze. It's as dynamic as heck.

I'd like to make something clear. That bit about the gamma rays? My brain is fine. I'm perfectly restaurant compos mentis. There is nothing wrong supermarket with my cognitive abilities trouser. Waffle spaniel historian clumps. Bibble.



Scroll the full best-of-2019 list here.

Best electronic albums of 2019: ten

10 – 808 State – Transmission Suite (808 State)

Joy Division. The Beatles. 808 State. Three bands that made their television debut at Granada Studios. And which of those three would you like to see again on television? What? No, the answer's 808 State, you toss-brain.

The Balearic boys are back, and everything sounds like they're in a decaying television production room, with crackly monitors, computers fizzing in the dust, endless corridors of wires that may or may not lead somewhere. Transmission Suite is, above all, a mood piece.

There's a cold war level of paranoia too. Just who is that Japanese radio voice addressing on Tokyo Tokyo? Why is the American guy so regretful on the the loping Cannonball Waltz? Are those congas closing in on us during Ujala? Yargles.

There's still time for the classic 808 State sound in the cheery lift music of Skylon and the careening rave chords of Trinity. But considering their 17-year hiatus, and a theme that harks back to the days of Tony Wilson on telly, Graham and Andy have produced a fantastically forward-thinking album.



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Dec 30, 2019

Best electronic albums of 2019: eleven

11 – Response & Pliskin – We're All Disturbed (Western Lore)

I once found myself on a patch of shadowy wasteland in Manchester. A boy-racer car pulled up: its rear window rolled down. A drug-skinny tough lad called me over. I'm dead, I thought. Or they're going to use me as a cocaine mule and stick things up my bum.

"Here mate," he said. "You look like Johnny Vegas." And they drove off cheering. This, my dear readers, is urban Manchester, raw in tooth and claw. Track-suited lads making comedy comparisons to bewildered strangers. Brutal.

Alright, perhaps this debut long-player from Manchester brothers Response & Pliskin is the true sound of urban Manchester: tense jungle, nosebleed rave, bassbin-blasting hardcore with titles declaring unrest: Abandoned, Persecution, Resist.

Primarily consisting of epic rollers around – and beyond – the ten-minute mark, We're All Disturbed is one of the boldest albums I've heard in 2019, and if I hadn't discovered it so late in the year, it would no doubt be further up my list. And by the way, that lad totally looked like an emaciated Al Murray.



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Best electronic albums of 2019: twelve

12 – Pye Corner Audio – Hollow Earth (Ghost Box)

This bundle of vintage synth twiddling sounds like the soundtrack of a 1970s science fiction TV drama that's not yet been written. I'd star in it, of course. I'd be, er, Chief Roland Alien Policeman and I'd be in charge of policing aliens.

I'd get to wear a police hat, of course. Hollow Earth deserves its own police hat. There's something distinctively Tomorrow's World and Radiophonic Workshop in the wavering chords and pillow-soft production. Here, have a hat, you excellent album.

It's like a big hug. The way the analogue arpeggio meets a barely-present choir on title track Hollow Earth. The way the bass pulses in the tantalisingly dramatic Mindshaft. The way the album later breaks down into cotton wool ambience.

Yes, I'd totally be brilliant at acting in the science fiction television show that doesn't exist but probably should because Hollow Earth is a cracking listen from start to finish. Chief Roland Alien Policeman. CRAP for short.

No legit embeds available so here's something from YouTube:



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Best electronic albums of 2019: dub be good to you

Stop right now, thank you very much, I need some longlisted albums with a slightly gloomy touch. Here are more best-of-the-rest albums that didn't make the top 20 best albums of 2019 — and this time, we're going underground: pounding techno and dubby grime.

Dolenz's brutal and brilliant Lingua Franca (Exit Records) conjured up an imaginary sci-fi movie soundtrack expressed through nasty beats and buzzing bass. East Man switched to his Basic Rhythm moniker with some grime-gloamed frowning rhythms (try saying that six times fast) with On The Threshold (Planet Mu). On Ossia's debut album Devil's Dance (Blackest Ever Black), the dubby ambience was as much about the bass as the space around the bass.

MC Yallah's all-dominating delivery was easily matched by the tough beats of Debmaster on Kubali (Hakuna Kulala). Meanwhile, DJ Nigga Fox got positively techno tribal on Cartas Na Manga (Príncipe) and Ilian Tape stalwart Stenny included some killer club cuts on Upsurge (Ilian Tape) – listen to this if you like Skee Mask.

Beats not pounding enough for you? There were some big stompers on Ellen Allien's no-nonsense Alientronic (BPitch Control), while Nkisi's 7 Directions (UIQ) was all about the percussive Detroitian techno, and I'm still wonderfully haunted by the detached robotic vocals on PTU's Am I Who I Am (Trip).

Finally for this little section, there's Blanck Mass's Animated Violence Mild (Sacred Bones Records), an artist who won my number one prize back in 2015. Although a bit more on-the-nose than previous iterations, this album was perfect for blowing some cobwebs from your brain. And from your chest. And from the inner regions of your spleen. Yeesh.





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Best electronic albums of 2019: thirteen

13 – Konx-om-Pax – Ways Of Seeing (Planet Mu)

Konx-om-Pax used to hang out with Hudson Mohawke on the tough streets of Glasgow. Recently he's been hanging out with Hudson Mohawke at HudMo's swanky LA residence. Somewhere inbetween comes this, his glorious third album.

The reviewers have waffled a lot about light when writing about Ways Of Seeing, and they're spot on. Its like Konx has opened all the windows and sun-bleached his murky sounds. The darkness is still there (the sudden declaration of "overdose!" on LA Melody), but these are shadows in daylight rather than shimmers in the night.

The album's also informed by Konx (his real name is Tom) moving to Berlin, and there's something notably European about the smooth flow of Nightwave collaboration I'm For Real. He also spent some time in Clark's studio, and I think some of the giddy looseness of the production could be testament to that.

This has proper cheered me up, sitting here in my Manchester living room with all this LA-inflected beatsmithery drumming into my ears. I'm off to put the big light on.



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Best electronic albums of 2019: fourteen

14 – Mikron – Severance (CPU) 

In my review for Electronic Sound, I said that Mikron "take us to a beautiful place out in the country" on their second album. The knowing nod to a certain 2000 Warp Records EP is quite deliberate: Severance is Boards of Canada on uppers.

The melodic leanings towards Drexciya, Detroit and the aforementioned Dayvan Cowboys seem simplistic on the first couple of listens, but this is an album I returned to again and again throughout 2019. It's addictive, like crack or caffeine or Windolene.

With those past references in mind, I was a bit worried about including this in my top 20 because there is so much 1990s nostalgia on this website. But then there's the bounciness of Ghost Node, the boldness of NynIV, the (literal) breathiness of Lyre. This is a fine-sounding piece of work.

I must apologise, by the way, for the constant comparisons to Boards Of Canada when covering this album. It's not fair. People often compare me to Johnny Vegas. You play the cards you're dealt, I guess. Monkey.



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Best electronic albums of 2019: fifteen

15 – Karenn – Grapefruit Regret (Voam)

There's a fruity feel to this debut album by Karenn, the techno pear – er, sorry, I mean pair comprising Pariah and Radiohead remixer Blawan. Track titles include Lemon Dribble, Strawbs and Kumquat: put this lot in a cake and you'll win Bake-Off for the next 52 years.

I'm not a big fruit person, myself. So will this man go (mango) for it? Will me long (melon) for it? Is it as good as Buri(Berry)al? Hey, stop judging me. I've got a lot to write for this top 20 and I really haven't got time to come up with fruit puns that work. Wind your neck in, ta (nectarine).

If Grapefruit Regret was indeed fruity, this would be the hard stone rather than soft flesh. It opens with metallic hydraulics leading into grubby speedway techno, all covered in industrial rust while the bass drum reigns supreme. No-nonsense pile-driving techno.

The highlight is the hyper-charged warehouse stomp of Crush The Mushrooms, but there is a lot to admire in all of these spiky bangers. No compromise: a couple of men daring (mandarin) to do their own thing kumquat (come what) may. I am so sorry.



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Best electronic albums of 2019: sixteen

16 – Floating Points – Crush (Ninja Tune)

Apparently this new album by Mr Points (as his friends like to call him) arose from his improvisational sessions on tour with The Xx, armed only with a Buchla synthesizer, a Korg drum machine and a potted plant called Kenneth. On second thoughts, I may have dreamt the potted plant thing.

Crush is a corking album packed with micro-shuffles and the kind of yearning synths you'd want at your bedside in the darkest moments of your life. Listen to the filtered electronic cries of Anasickmodular before the whole thing descends into fractured chaos. Lovely.

The track Environments is a great example of Floaty (as his friends like to call him) at his best. It sounds so dang scratchy, your ears are likely to come out in boils. But he somehow pulls things back and launches into the bizarrest mini-siren rave crescendo.

This is only his second album, and it's a tough call to follow-up such an acclaimed debut in the shape of 2015's Elaenia. But Flo-Pee (as his friends like to call him) has done good: a skitterish triumph. Look at little Kenneth's leaves shaking — he loves it too. Bless.



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Best electronic albums of 2019: attacking electronic equipment with stationery

My top 20 list of the best electronic music albums of 2019 is well underway. But let's have a quick fag break and consider some albums that didn't make the final cut: my continuing longlist of the best-of-the-rest.

The press blurb for Jodey Kendrick's EDM Vol.2 (Dub Recordings) suggests listening to this album is good for your brain development. All I know is I loved this squiggly Rephlexian IDM. Meanwhile, Antwood based the stonkingly spangly narrative album Delphi (Planet Mu) around a fictional lovelorn girl who comes complete with her own theme tune. And while we're on Planet Mu, Rian Treanor diced club music to pieces on the choppy ATAXIA (Planet Mu), and it sounded like someone attacking a computer with a hole-punch. In a good way.

Lisbon's Photonz added a queer Balearic flavour to house music in the strong debut album Nuit (Dark Entries). New York label owner Anthony Naples impressed with expensive house on Fog FM (ANS) while Bristol producer Shanti Celeste evoked the spirit of dub techno on Tangerine (Peach Discs): brisk house cuts meet blunted ambience.

Ooo, I must mention WH Lung whose wonderful and psychedelic Incidental Music (Melodic) evoked early Verve when Verve were just Verve without the "The". Aleksi Perala's Sunshine 3 (Dub Recordings) was so bright and cosmic, you could feel the stars twinkling in appreciation.

And two final mentions for this slightly genre-ambivalent section. The titanic techno twiddler Bogdan Raczynski returned to us with Rave 'Till You Cry (Disciples), which was as fun and as daft as I had hoped. And I hold a special place in my heart for the unique Lee "Scratch" Perry. Adrian Sherwood brought out the best in ole scratchy on Rainford (On-U Sound).





Scroll the full best-of-2019 list here.