On the Fat Roland radar: a sunset, a head-spin and a marshmallowy James K

October is often busier than a wild ferret building its igloo for the autumn. Does that metaphor work? Pretty sure I saw that on a David Attenborough documentary once.

I haven't had much blogging time, so before the month is out, before we discard October onto the laundry heap of forgotten month-pants (really need to work on those metaphors), let's listen to some music.

Here are some tunes I have recently enjoyed. Five tracks that are worth a pause in your day, when you stop to listen and decide that these tracks are "yeah, okay I suppose". That's enough for me.

Let's go.

Alexander Kulikov – Sunset

A foggy offering from this LA producer signed to Scotland's Soma Records. This is murky stuff, and although the bass drum is a real pile-driver, it's so incredibly distant - maybe even absent without headphones. Minimal, ambient and a perfect autumnal meditation.

This is from a recent EP. I don't think it includes this track, but look out for the new album Radio Edit out later this month on Greyscale.

Blawan – NOS

Yorkshire producer Blawan is turning heads at the moment. Then making those heads spin and go all vomitty. One review called his new headphone-exploding album SickElixir "a victory lap against his demons". 

See what you think. Razor-bladed ASMR electro. 

Djrum –  Three Foxes Chasing Each Other

Let's get pastoral. This tropical groove starts light, with a playful picturesque patter emphasising the "OK" in "evoke". And then comes the staccato charge of the machine-gun bass. A really interesting piece of work: tropical, tribal and ever-so teasing.

This is taken from the Oxford experimentalist's upcoming new album Under Tangled Silence. 

James K (pictured) – Hypersoft Lovejinx Junkdream

A breathy swoosh-gaze meditation from this New York producer's third album Friend. It's a song about disappointment, I guess, but it's disappointment cushioned by marshmallows, clouds and teddy bears made of marshmallows and clouds.

This pairs quite well with the Djrum piece, although it's a lot more silky.

Kneecap + Paul Hartnoll – Sayōnara

Well this was fun, wasn't it. Let's do it again sometime. We finish with subversive euphoria from Kemi Badenoch's least favourite rabble rousers Kneecap, with a little help from one half of Orbital. The video is worth a look-in: they're having a ball(gag).

Further Fats: Student's guide to new music (2010)

Further Fats: New musical excess (2015)

Bang-on electronic music releases in January 2023

Hello, you. You're looking wonderful today. I love that tartan eyeliner, and those designer galoshes really compliment your knee pads.

It's 2023, and if the progression of previous years is anything to go by, we'll be swallowed by burning lava or eaten by locusts within weeks. Still, there's lots of music to enjoy, and I am going to bang on about some of that music now.

All these January 2023 releases are proper bang-on.

The Black Dog: Music For Dead Airports (Dust Science, EP, pictured above)

These four tracks are atmospheric spatial electronics, at least in part recorded in Sheffield airports. The work is inspired by Sheffield's troubled history with airports, including the doomed Sheffield City Airport which had a runway too short for popular budget airlines. Also Sheffield's really hilly and planes hate hills. Music For Dead Airports is released alongside the band's 2010 field recordings album Music for Real Airports.

Rian Treanor & Ocen James: Saccades (Nyege Nyege Tapes)

A remarkable listen, this. Arising from a residency in Kampala, Rotheram's Rian Treanor produces folk techno with Acholi fiddle player Ocen James. Think super rhythmic Ugandan techno using real instruments. This follows 2020's Treanor album File Under UK Metaplasm, which I described previously as "a rave in the middle of Mike Teavee's fractal transfer in Charlie And The Chocolate Factory".

Oceanic: Choral Feeling (Nous'klaer Audio)

We've had an artist from Rotherham. Now let's have one from Rotterdam. For this debut album, Oceanic asked his friends to sing for him. Simple. The resulting vocal melee is mesmerising, with the rhythmic vocals sounding fully human yet so alien. The repetitive and blossoming Sunshine, Dear is a banger. Oceanic is not to be confused with the early-1990s rave act signed to Cheshire's Dead Dead Good Records.

Ryuichi Sakamoto: 12 (Milan Records)

No Bandcamp preview for this one. This is a selection of musical sketches to mark the revered composer's 71st birthday. He's approached it as a kind of diary, and it tracks a long battle with cancer in which he found himself "reaching for the synthesiser". The track titles are all numbers, and look like a Sudoku grid has glitched because Elon Musk sacked all the puzzle setters. There's a super minimal album teaser on YouTube, although it doesn't give much away. I'll bang on more about this album in Electronic Sound.

Eat Static: Abduction (Planet Dog) 

And finally, look out for this reissue of a 1993 ambient trance classic by the Ozric Tentacles offshoot. It's on double vinyl and comes with added John Peel session tracks. Psychedelic trance that is very druggy, very snappy, and very Planet Doggy.

Top 50 electronic music albums of 2022: everything in one list

Here's my countdown of the best electronic music albums of 2022.

Here the introduction to my countdown, which sets out my parameters.

And for those of you without thumbs and are therefore unable to scroll, here's it all again as a dry, lifeless, boring old list. No links*, no nothing, just words. Horrible, horrible words.

*Update: I've now added links, so jab away.

Number 1 album of the year:

Real Lies: Lad Ash (Unreal)

The rest of the top 10:

Björk: Fossora (One Little Independent)

Brainwaltzera: ITSAME (FILM) 

Hudson Mohawke: Cry Sugar (Warp)

Lynyn: Lexicon (Sooper)

Mall Grab: What I Breathe (Looking For Trouble)

Max Cooper: Unspoken Words (Mesh)

Mu-Ziq: Hello (Planet Mu) + Mu-Ziq: Magic Pony Ride (Planet Mu)

O'Flynn and Frazer Ray: Shimmer (Technicolour)

Plaid: Feorm Falorx (Warp)

The rest of the top 20:

Bot1500: Surreal (Lith Dolina)

Daphni: Cherry (Jiaolong)

DJ Travella: Mr Mixondo (Nyege Nyege Tapes)

Elektro Guzzi: Triangle (Palazzo Recordings)

Luke Vibert: GRIT (Hypercolour)

Model Home: Saturn In The Basement (Disciples) 

Moderat: More D4ta (Monkeytown)

Shelley Parker: Wisteria (Hypercolour)

T-Flex: No Comment (DINAMPLATZ)

Working Men’s Club: Fear Fear (Heavenly)

The rest of the top 50:

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

Ani Klang: Ani Klang (New Scenery)

Biosphere: Shortwave Memories (Biophon)

Bogdan Raczynski: ADDLE (Planet Mu)

Bonobo: Fragments (Ninja Tune)

Civilistjävel!: Järnnätter (FELT)

Clark: 05-10 (Warp)

Daniel Avery: Ultra Truth (Phantasy Sound)

Deepchord: Functional Designs (Soma Records)

Frantzvaag: Solo Super (Fuck Reality)

Gabe Gurnsey: Diablo (Phantasy Sound)

Galcher Lustwerk: 100% GALCHER (Ghostly International)

Jared Wilson: From A Different Time (Altered Sense)

John Tejada: Sleepwalker (Palette Recordings) 

Kelly Lee Owens: LP.8 (Smalltown Supersound)

Kuedo: Infinite Window (Brainfeeder)

Maxime Denuc: Nachthorn (Vlek)

Noda & Wolfers: Tascam Space Season (L.I.E.S.)

Pye Corner Audio: Social Dissonance (Sonic Cathedral)

Rival Consoles: Now Is (Erased Tapes)

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

Salamanda: ashbalkum (Human Pitch)

SCALPING: Void (Houndstooth)

Silicon Scally: Field Lines (Central Processing Unit)

T. Gowdy: Miracles (Constellation)

Tangerine Dream: Raum (Kscope)

Warrington-Runcorn New Town Development Plan: Districts, Roads, Open Space (Castles in Space)

Whatever The Weather: Whatever The Weather (Ghostly International) + Loraine James: Building Something Beautiful For Me (Phantom Limb)

Wordcolour: The trees were buzzing, and the grass. (Houndstooth)

Zaliva-D: Misbegotten Ballads (SVBKVLT)

Commended albums:

33: 33-69 (C.A.N.V.A.S.)

3Ddancer: new exciting toys (3Ddancer)

Ailie Ormston and Tim Fraser: It Changes (Bison)

Brassfoot: SWEAT (NCA)

Caterina Barbieri: Spirit Exit (light-years)

Chouk Bwa & The Angströmers: Ayiti Kongo Dub (Les Disques Bongo Joe)

Coby Sey: Conduit (AD 93)

Decius Lias Saoudi: Decius Vol. I (The Leaf Label)

The Ephemeron Loop: Psychonautic Escapism (Heat Crimes)

HiTech: Hitech (FXHE Records)

Kakuhan: Metal Zone (NAKID)

Kemetrix: Here and Now (100 Limousines)

Michael J.Blood x Rat Heart: Nite Mode Vol.1 (BodyTronixxx)

Nosaj Thing: Continua (LuckyMe)

Pacced Rock: Chapter One - Sonic Levitation (Ilian Tape)

Pole: Tempus (Mute)

Rat Heart Ensemble: A Blues (Shotta Tapes)

Richie Culver: I was born by the sea (REIF)

Romance & Dean Hurley: In Every Dream Home A Heartache (Ecstatic)

Soichi Terada: Asakusa Light (Rush Hour)

Stephen Mallinder: tick tick tick (Dais Records)

Ulla: Foam (3XL)

Walton: Maisie By The Sea (Lith Dolina)

Waves: Low Altitude (self-released)

Zombie Zombie: Vae Vobis (Born Bad)

See all the write-ups for Best Electronic Music Albums of 2022.

Number 1 best electronic music album of 2022: Real Lies – Lad Ash

It's time to announce my favourite album of 2022. I say "announce". You can already see the title, or you linked through from a social media post telling you what the album is. Look, this isn't the Oscars, I haven't got a gold envelope. Jeez, leave me alone. 

This year's top LP will join the following Fat Roland Albums of the Year:

2021 Koreless  |  2020 DJ Python  |  2019 Plaid  |  2018 Rezzett  |  2017 Clark & Jlin  |  2016 Bwana  |  2015 Blanck Mass  |  2014 Aphex Twin  |  2013 Jon Hopkins  |  2012 Andy Stott & Lone  |  2011 Rustie  |  2010 Mount Kimbie  |  2009 Clark  |  2008 Hot Chip  |  

See this year's full countdown here.

Real Lies: Lad Ash (Unreal)

In some ways, I detest my annual album countdown. How can all the rich complexities of music fandom be contained in a list? My rundown is always far too blokey, and my fickle tastes spin like a weathercock in a washing machine. That said…

Phwoar. I bloomin’ love Lad Ash. A brilliant album at the top of a brilliant countdown! No matter how hard I yanked my tombola handle to shuffle my options for favourite album of the year, time after time these London lads’ second album kept popping out. It’s an impressive musical summary of this entire countdown in a way: the light-footed beats of Bonobo, the accessible melodies of Moderat, the laddishness of Working Men’s Club, the electronic emotion of μ-Ziq. It spins through a rolodex of dance music influences, from 90s house to two-step to ambience and generally excellent boogie music.

The bedtime-muttered vocals are oh-so yearning. “I wish I could do better, burn money like the KLF.” “I'm trying to come of age, can we change the subject?” “I felt like I was part of something.” Aside from the personal narration that sounds like Mike Skinner’s moody brother, the almost-choral use of vocals is a delight, thanks in no small part to vocalist Zoee.

The sultry attitude isn't enough, though, and it needs instrumentation to back it up. Oh boy. We get hissing synths on Dream On, urgent snares on Dolphin Junction, widescreen ambience extending the trippy vocals on Since I, a washed-out Born Slippy stomp on Your Guiding Hand. So. Many. Tunes.

Following their 2015 debut ‘Real Life’, the band talked about Lad Ash’s songs being a “farewell to something”. They had scrapped an earlier version of this second album and were newly pared down to a duo, so it was indeed borne of creative loss.

But the loss they evoke here is deeper. There's talk of “wide-eyed teenhood” and “suburban dust”, the sound of two guys hurtling through life and trying, helplessly, to grasp onto the past. Maybe that’s why I connected so hard. I started this blog in my early 30s, and next year I’ll be 50. I’m not the same person I was, and every so often I have to correct my vision of myself. Lad Ash nails that spinning carousel of life in its lyrics and in its rose-tinted/tainted musical glasses. 

As it says on An Oral History Of My First Kiss:

“There's an awkward gap between childhood and being properly teenage. A peripheral shadowland of not quite being enough.”

Same for us middle-agers. Nothing’s never quite enough. I never achieve enough. I never blog enough. This countdown is not enough. You've not read enough words on this page: I'm pretty sure you skipped a couple earlier on.

But, and this is the important bit, this is all we have. It will do, and we'll be happy with it. Congratulations, Real Lies, you are my favourite electronic music album of 2022.

Curious track: The breezy breakbeat on Dream On feels like something you could actually ride, like a car made of audio or something. Seriously. A journalist for 31 years and I come up with this.

Album feels: Wanting to be young again, but definitely not wanting to be young again.

Cover art: Statue snogging. Absolutely disgusting.

A final word: Firstly, an honourable mention for Ceephax Acid Crew, who released an album on Christmas Day, which is far too late to be absorbed for this countdown. Also, apologies to the 92 million album producers I forgot to include. Secondly, thanks to everyone for reading my blog in 2022. I warn you now: 2023 is going to be IMMENSE. 

From another website: On Lad Ash, Real Lies are alchemists – making music that is in equal part for the head, the heart and the gut. (Narc.)

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

Top 10 electronic music albums of 2022: μ-Ziq – Hello

This is the penultimate album in my 2022 countdown. This brings to an end my Top 10 countdown, indeed my countdown of 75+ albums, bar one important final blog post – the number one electronic music album of 2022. So nearly there.

See the full countdown here.

μ-Ziq: Hello (Planet Mu)

There’s a lot to unpack here. There was an EP called Goodbye and now an album called Hello, and there was three-part magical pony prancing, and indeed his other 2022 album Magic Pony Ride (Planet Mu) should be considered as part two of this top ten inclusion. Pardon? You might want to read that again. 

It seems reworking his classic 1997 album Lunatic Harness triggered in Mike Paradinas a period of fertility worthy of post-brain tumour Anthony Burgess or post-brain frying Jack Torrance. Hello is melodic beyond words. There’s waveform-wobbling choirs, moth-bitten acid, junglist breaks suspended in pea soup gloom. It's like raving to drill and bass but the drills are blancmange and the bass is even more blancmange. Paradinas being Paradinas at his most Paradinas. Absolutely wonderful.

Curious track: Magic Pony Ride (Pt​.​3) is a deliriously happy conclusion to his various Pony Rides.

Album feels: Like a fairground with more candy floss stands than it necessarily needs but no-one's complaining.

Cover art: A conceptual evocation of early Warp Records vinyl artwork. 

From another website: Загадочный IDM/DnB-эмбиент от радующего нас уже тридцать лет британского ветерана электронной сцены. Вполне мог бы быть саундтреком к восьмибитной компьютерной игре в жанре фэнтези. (AOTY)

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

Top 10 electronic music albums of 2022: Plaid – Feorm Falorx

We're almost there. The countdown is nearly complete. Over 70 albums later, and we have a final two Top 10-ers then... drum roll.. the album of the year. You could cut the tension with a sausage. Next up is a band I saw recently at the White Hotel and they were flipping brilliant.

See the full countdown here.

Plaid: Feorm Falorx (Warp)

When I declared Plaid’s previous album Polymer as the best album of 2019, I wrote: “This is a Plaid album that feels angry”, pointing out their descent “into a valley of darkness”. I still think that’s their magnum opus, their chef-d'oeuvre. Feorm Falorx is quite the mood change, shining a light into the shadows. The concept is that we’re enjoying a Plaid gig at the Feorm festival on the planet of Falorx. Bear with me, now. The festival is infinite and Plaid are made of light beams. Before you dismiss this as fanciful nonsense, I’ve actually been there. It’s a lovely planet with: attractive hedgerows; thrumming baroque melodies; fluffy headnod rhythms; Plaid’s trademark seductive spiralling melodies multiplied by a thousand; a fully functioning network of motorways and b-roads; epic highs soaked with anxious ambience; characterful guitar work from Mason Bee; and a splendid visitor’s centre gift shop. Even better with the beautifully designed accompanying graphic novel by Emma Catnip.

Curious track: The pairing of C.A. and Cwtchr is one of the bestest ever Plaid moments.

Album feels: Light beams. Aliens. Basically like visiting Mars with your phone light on.

Cover art: That bit in Arrival where they're talking to aliens inside the floaty baked bean. 

From another website: If there’s anything to find comfort in these days, then it’s the fact that Plaid are still around, ready to provide another door to escape through – at least for a fleeting moment. (The Quietus)

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

Top 10 electronic music albums of 2022: O'Flynn and Frazer Ray – Shimmer

You are reading Fat Roland's favourite albums of 2022. Fat Roland: that's me. You might remember me from Fat Roland's favourite albums of 2022. Let's chug on.

See the full countdown here.

O'Flynn and Frazer Ray: Shimmer (Technicolour)

I’m live-blogging this 2022 album countdown, so I don’t have an awful lot of time for research. I know that Frazer Ray is also known as Soundbwoy Killah and produces a neat line in bass-burning breaks. I know that O'Flynn was responsible for Otomo, the Bulgarian choir-sampling highlight of Bonobo’s latest album. And I know they’ve produced a killer collaborative album in the shape of Shimmer. In a wild ride from start to finish, it funnels rave culture into fractals of Burial, Joy Orbison and UK bass. 

The two were inseparable in the making of this album, with Frazer sleeping on O’Flynn’s floor, and O’Flynn adding richly to Frazer’s minimal production set-up. The result is super tight, stretching deep into urban-inflected bass explorations and high into peaks of euphoric techno. A superb work. Worth knowing.

Curious track: Call For Noise, which feels like Bicep with biceps.

Album feels: It's like being inside a rave that's made only from the memory of that rave.

Cover art: I think someone's spilled some paint. I'll get a mop.

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

Top 10 electronic music albums of 2022: Max Cooper – Unspoken Words

Insert text here about the ongoing Top 10 blog posts. Note to Fat Roland: don't forget to replace this placeholder text with something more meaningful.

See the full countdown here.

Max Cooper: Unspoken Words (Mesh)

Max Cooper is the first techno act to play the Acropolis in Greece. Don’t say you never learn anything on this website. I don’t know what the Acropolis is. An ice cream parlour or something? The YouTube trailer for Unspoken Words displayed a giddy collage of surrealist images, presumably taken from the film project that accompanied the album. Microscopic organisms skittering, a skull made of flashing landscapes, petals spreading with mathematic precision. It was a decent reflection of the rich tapestry of sounds on the album.

Minimalistic synths creep through glitches of percussion, surging into emotive melody. Gleaming cinematic washes rise into heavenly ambience. It’s detailed and engaging, and was so very nearly my album of the year. I’ve looked up acropolis in a dictionary. Apparently, it’s an intense fear of heights. See, youre brain learnin intelliganse things while you read my blog.

Curious track: Ascent, which is more Eno than an Eno-shaped Eno at an Eno convention.

Album feels: It's like having a massage but it's clouds instead of hands, which you can get these days in modern parlours, I've checked.

Cover art: That princess woman's fascinator hat thing. 

From another website: Repeated listens are a must as you can see where he drops these hints of what’s to come. This is everything, and more, that we have come to expect from Max Cooper. (Clash Music)

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

Top 10 electronic music albums of 2022: Mall Grab – What I Breathe

We're about halfway through the Top 10, so you can stop bleating "are we nearly there yet". Presenting the latest of my Top 10 electronic music albums of 2022: a man with six dogs!

See the full countdown here.

Mall Grab: What I Breathe (Looking For Trouble)

Something was bugging me about Mall Grab. A needle in my memory. After days of pondering, the penny dopped. I’d tried to write a review of the Australian producer’s debut album back in the summer, and no-one got back to me with the information I needed. That pinprick of memory was frustration, a feeling in absolute opposition to this brilliantly refreshing album. 

Low-burning electronic jams, warm flowing chords, bass-heavy armchair techno loops. And in Love Reigns, a sunny piano house stormer worthy of a Confidence Man video of people pratting about in a hot air balloon. Taking influences from a history of house, this album is jolly, populist, festival-friendly and a real palate cleanser in this dense album countdown. 

Pitchfork hated it, so it must be good. There. I finally published my review.

Curious track: I Can Remember It So Vividly steals all of Nintendo's bleeps and turns them into something uber cool.

Album feels: An all-you-can-eat buffet, without the bloated feeling afterwards.

Cover art: Dog, dog, dog, man, dog, dog, dog. 

From another website: It's all held together by great pacing, frankly amazing production and a lack of cynicism that feels refreshing, open-hearted to the very last moment. (Resident Advisor)

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

Top 10 electronic music albums of 2022: Lynyn – Lexicon

Let's have more tantalising Top 10 treats. A reminder that all this is live-blogged, written as first drafts, so don't blame me if handbag I get all my words cheeseboard wrong.

See the full countdown here.

Lynyn: Lexicon (Sooper)

Electronic Sound: “It’s kinetic stuff. His compositional pedigree shows in the ecstatic cymbals and descending strings of the emotional highlight ‘vnar rush’. It’s fully the brain half of braindance.” 

Talented fella, Lynyn. When he’s not making waves on the Chicago experiment jazz scene or composing for classical bassoon, he’s killing it as a techno producer. In his crunching beats and blurping synths, you can hear Squarepusher and Clark. Pizzicato plucks add drama, spiralling basslines add depth, and his classical nous adds maturity to the whole thing. More classical music folks should become dance music producers. Mozart would have been brilliant at EDM. Probably. 

I’ve had a listen to his postrock band Monobody. Lynyn’s band, that is, not Mozart’s. You can see how the twists and turns make him a natural techno talent. After all, it’s not a huge jump from bassoon music to bass music.

Curious track: Vnar Rush melts into your brain, like spiders giving you a head message then melting into your brain. That's a thing that happens, yes?

Album feels: To be honest, I can't quite shift the melting brain spiders metaphor. That.

Cover art: Something that looks like a Mini Metro has mated with the Alien alien. 

From another website: There’s a very futuristic, almost dystopian vibe to Lexicon, something that’s actually reinforced by the odd math-y beats and intricate arrangements. (Sputnik Music)

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

Top 10 electronic music albums of 2022: Hudson Mohawke – Cry Sugar

My top 10 countdown of the best electronic music albums of 2022 continues. This isn't opinion, by the way. It's fact. Look up "Fat Roland's favourite albums" in the dictionary and you'll get a picture of this blog. Fact. 

See the full countdown here.

Hudson Mohawke: Cry Sugar (Warp)

Electronic Sound: “Smooth soul samples chopped and diced, nuclear bass drums, buttery trumpets, carpet bomb sequencing, and, on the strangulated banger ‘Behold’, giddy vocals flattened into a pancake… Utter mayhem in every good way. Expect to hear this everywhere.” 

Welcome back HudMo, or to give him his full name, Huddleston Morecambe Bay Discount Store. Cry Sugar is daft. The vocal samples are cut using blunt scissors, the bass drums land like a parachuting walrus, the EDM bursts like a glitter bomb. And it’s hugely entertaining. I get the sense that some of the beats are necessary because the soup of samples underneath are barely under control: the machines are having a block party of their life.

16 years into his record releasing career, no-one has a right to sound this energised, this frantic, this gloriously epic. You’ve done well, Hudson River Mountaineering Equipment.

Curious track: The Timbaland-style Dance Forever that morphs into The Prodigy and then an electric razor.

Album feels: Partying on and on until the break of dawn and/or until the sausage rolls run out.

Cover art: A marshmallow man getting his booty on. No really. 

From another website: Just succumb to its unique invention, curious shifts in tone and plethora of weird juxtapositions: something that’s easy enough to do. (The Guardian)

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

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.

Top 10 electronic music albums of 2022: Björk – Fossora

Hurrah! It's time for my Top 10 album countdown, blog post by blog post until we get to the Bestest Fave Top Mega Best Album of 2022. (I may not actually call it that.) 

See the full countdown here.

Björk: Fossora (One Little Independent)

Electronic Sound: “It’s happened. Bjork has finally become a mushroom... the organic matter she’s absorbing is deeply personal. The loss of her mother, but hope for the future. Fagurt Er í Fjörðum features a poem by Latra-Björg, an 18th-century fisherwoman who believed she could cast spells with words. There are millions of species of fungi. Some will poison you, some are indeed magic. Bjork does it all here.”

The astonishing thing about Bjork is that no-one could invent her. You could imagine someone coming up with a Coldplay or a Drake. But where do you start with Bjork? She’s fully choral and fully techno and fully alien and fully human. Fossora manages to be completely industrial and ethereal at exactly the same time. She is everything everywhere all at once. With extra clarinets. I’m so glad she invented herself.

Curious track: Allow because Bjork keeps saying Allow and I like it when Bjork says Allow.

Album feels: It feels like that bit in the Matrix when Keanu's inside that soggy space pod getting sucked off.

Cover art: A perfectly normal picture of the Queen of Fungi with a plasma globe hairdo.

From another website: Fossora is not her mushroom record, her grief/hope opus, or even her Iceland album as she put it. It’s the sound of Björk building her home as the mother of it all. (Pitchfork)

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

Top 20 electronic music albums of 2022: Working Men’s Club – Fear Fear

This is the last Top 20 album in my mega music countdown. The next blog post will be a Top 10 album. Think of this as a Top of the Pops countdown but much slower and with fewer numbers. Here comes Todmorden's finest...

See the full countdown here.

Working Men’s Club: Fear Fear (Heavenly)

I’m proud to say that earlier this year, Working Men’s Club hellraising frontman Syd Minsky-Sargeant and I went to an artisan bakery together. You can read all about it in (of course) Electronic Sound. The band impressed with their debut album, and this seething, lava-spitting follow-up doesn’t disappoint.

Bright shiny synth lines lead 80s-inflected pop, the machines conjuring memories of Depeche Mode or Japan. And yet it’s all soaked in a dour Yorkshire attitude, despite their proximity to delicious baked goods. The lyrics are as depressed as heck, all death and despair. The best misery lyric? “Why would thy care, thou must just be bluffing.” Mark E Smith, eat your heart out. 

From another website: The chaotic palette does justice to the devastation and confusion faced in recent years. Working Men’s Club certainly wear the trauma well. (NME)

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

Top 20 electronic music albums of 2022: Moderat – More D4ta

The countdown of the best electronic albums of 2022 continues, this time with a big name in dance music. Well. Their name is only seven letters long. You know what I mean, shut up. 

See the full countdown here.

Moderat: More D4ta (Monkeytown)

Words on a screen? Pah! Who needs words on a screen. You can get my full take on Moderat’s surprise comeback album in episode 55 of the Picky Bastards podcast. That’s right. Words can be audio too. It’s the future!

If you can’t be bothered with that, here’s my take on More D4ta, which is an anagram of Moderat 4 because it’s their fourth album. It’s blummin’ lovely. Bulging with nostalgic synths, swelling emotion, melodic whimsy and bits that sound like Radiohead. Apparat really nails the vocals, making us all sad and wistful and teary-eyed. Sigh. Not necessarily a step forward from previous work, but you know what they say: all things in Moderat-ion. And Neon Rats is an absolute spangly banger. Welcome back, Moderat.

From another website: the sound of a group creatively recharged and at the height of their power... In almost every conceivable way, it's the Moderat album that fans have waited six years for. (The Line of Best Fit)

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

Top 20 electronic music albums of 2022: T-Flex – No Comment

This is another album in my list of 20 best electronic albums of 2022. There's loads more - in fact, there's a whole Top 50 plus another 25 commended albums. So many albums, so many words, all live-blogged. Here's an album that sounds a bit like a dinosaur.

See the full countdown here.

T-Flex: No Comment (DINAMPLATZ)

According to the blurb, T-Flex started his career in 2019 all cerebral and brain-thinky. Sounds like hard work. After a contemplative ambient start on this debut album, he’s clearly stuck a pair of dancing shoes to his brain. Flowing electronic beats meet filtered bass bubbles, tight junglist rhythms glide along understated ebbing and flowing chords, squirrelly Squarepusher acid lines waltz drunkenly with skittering Amen breaks.

The highlight is Way You Are, a giddy and addictive tribute to 808 rave. This is one of several retro touchpoints, including some significant head-nods towards Metalheadz. Very nearly made my Top 10, and will be many people’s number ones. Made all the better for the presence of Tim Reaper and Datassette remixes.

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

Top 20 electronic music albums of 2022: Shelley Parker – Wisteria

Choo choo! The albums of the year train chugs on. All aboard! Wait, sorry, this service is cancelled. You'll have to get on the replacement coach service of bloggery. Here's another instalment in the Top 20. 

See the full countdown here.

Shelley Parker: Wisteria (Hypercolour)

I’m never quite sure what wisteria is. A plant? A disease? My neighbour’s pet cockatoo? I feel a sense of uncertainty, which is quite appropriate considering the unease of Parker’s second album. From the threatening gasps that open the album to the tense drum and bass ducking beneath industrial clanging, it’s a troublesome listen. Even when delivering rolling breaks, the album crumbles and sags until its own audio weight. In short, it’s delightful fun. 

The Royal Horticultural Society website tells me it’s a climbing plant. This album doesn’t just climb. It crawls up from the deep, melting yet rising, pulsing yet decaying; building layers and layers of subterranean techno. It’s making me feel all… um… wisteric. That’s a thing, right?

From another website: It’s an album which celebrates and contextualises the heritage of rave while offering a different way to experience it. (International Orange)

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

Top 20 electronic music albums of 2022: Model Home – Saturn In The Basement

This is my countdown of the best electronic albums of 2022, according to my brain, ears and opinion. So far I've mentioned about 60 albums, and we're speeding towards the Top 10. Not before we read about one of the most divisive albums in my list.

See the full countdown here.

Model Home: Saturn In The Basement (Disciples) 

My friend Ben tells me the Model Home album is so awful, he may never trust my music taste again. So in true divisive modern-day Twitter style, let me double down on my recommendation.

This is a collection of Bandcamp mixtape sounds that don’t just borrow influences as kidnap them at gunpoint. Scuzzy hip hop beats, broken noise experiments that sound like they’re being funnelled through your vacuum cleaner, weird and twisting vocals that make no sense. It’s tough, it’s confusing, it’s inexplicably got a 13-minute scree of moans and clanks. And once it gets under your skin, you’ll be annoying your friends with your frustratingly abstract musical opinions too. 

Should have recommended The 1975. You know where you are with The 1975.

From another website: There is something certifiably ’21st century’ to this kind of sound. It is queasy, anxious and misunderstood and deserves your attention. (Louder Than War)

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

Top 20 electronic music albums of 2022: Luke Vibert – GRIT.

The live blogging continues, and this time I feature an artist I first mentioned on this blog in May 2007.

See the full countdown here.

Luke Vibert: GRIT. (Hypercolour)

Electronic Sound: “Well-oiled electro, slippery acid, the rasping hi-hats of his ever-present TR-909, bits that sound like ghosts. What more could you want? Screwfix Typeface is a subdued funk stormer, its strangulated acid sounding like Josh Wink having a coughing fit.” 

You know what you’re getting with Luke Vibert, in the same way you know what you’re getting with a washing machine or a 5,000 piece jigsaw of my left nipple. Thankfully, Vibert’s 18th album is more rewarding than both of those things. He lets the acid take centre stage, yet isn’t afraid for a bit of melancholy and minor-key mystery in his sassy electro. Hence the bits that sound like ghosts. I get paid to write this stuff, you know. Outrageous.

From another website: Twelve pieces of precise and expert acid dance that really highlights just how low-key something can be and still have a magnificent impact. (Igloo Magazine)

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

Top 20 electronic music albums of 2022: Elektro Guzzi – Triangle

My album countdown continues, and it's all getting a bit noisy. *bangs ceiling with a broom handle*

See the full countdown here.

Elektro Guzzi: Triangle (Palazzo Recordings)

Electronic Sound: “The three points of this ‘Triangle’ are energy, energy, energy. The Vienna outfit’s ninth album brings us jackhammer beats humming with electric bass... Even as the rhythms splinter into shredded half-beats towards the end, this acoustic techno is angry. Soma in a sulk. Berghain with a beef.” 

My magazine review made this sound like a right miserable album, but there’s definitely a cheeky glint to the production. The perky hi-hats, the cheerfully buzzy synths, the sheer gasping strength of it all. The speed of Okra would be happy house if it wasn’t for all the, y’know, apocalyptic sounds. 

This would be the fiercest, fieriest album featured in the Top 20, if I hadn’t just written up the DJ Travella album.

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