90 best electronic music albums of 2021: Mouse On Mars, Nala Sinephro, Nightmares On Wax, Perila & Rat Heart

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

Mouse On Mars – AAI (Anarchic Artificial Intelligence) (Thrill Jockey) 

I had a fascinating chat with Mouse On Mars earlier this year about their science fiction-ish project with scholar Louis Chude-Sokei. As I wrote in a review of the album, it's "an inspired work that, thanks to the very human inspiration of Chude-Sokei’s cyborgian studies, has more interesting things to say than 'bleep bloop'." A very entertaining listen. A special mention too for Jan St. Werner's other album Imperium Droop, which was a great collaboration with improvisational drummer Kid Millions.

Nala Sinephro – Space 1.8 (Warp)

Raised in Belgium and now based in London, Sinephro is a classically-trained musician who just happens to have produced one of the nicest sounding, folksy ambient albums of the year. This is technically a jazz work, a genre for which I have very little love. However, armed with sultry piano and mad skills with a pedal harp, Sinephro strays expertly into electronics and effects to produce a woozy meditation more akin to a field recording album. 

Nightmares On Wax – Shout Out! To Freedom... (Warp)

George Evelyn's energy is incredible: a one-man consciousness guru. It's no surprise one of the track titles here is Imagineering, this album having arisen from "life-affirming realisations". Actually, it doesn't necessarily stray from the car-boot soul he's known for, but the truly smokin' delight is the input from his many collaborators: Greentea Peng's flouride warning on Wikid Satellites is superb. Head-nodding beats, smooth soul vocals, Nightmares On Wax doing Nightmares On Wax. Nice one, George.

Perila – How Much Time is it Between You and Me? (Smalltown Supersound)

I once dropped a can of WD-40 lubricant. The can burst and the resulting high-powered instant fog of oil created an all-consuming fluid miasma that coated the room I was in and the two rooms adjacent. This glassy, glacial ambient album is that miasma. Tectonic plates of delicate instrumentation float endlessly in what Perila calls a "silence prism". I'm calling it a quietness can. An all-flooding, all-fogging quietness can.

Rat Heart – Rat Heart (Shotta Tapes)

Subterranean spookiness. Aaargh! Corroded hip hop beats. Woooo! Machine-gun electronic glitches. Lawks! Manchester / Wigan DJ Tom Boogizm’s superbly lo-fi album of crushed beats sits somewhere between RP Boo snoozing under his duvet and Actress having an especially grumpy session with a steel plate folding machine. Certainly one of this year's more pleasant surprises, and the winner of the Best Sudden Scream On An Album award 2021. AAAAAAAAARGH. Love it.

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

Best electronic music albums of 1995: Aphex Twin versus Nightmares On Wax

Welcome back to the battle to become the best electronic music album of 1995 in which I play judge, jury, executioner and toilet attendant. This is the sixth of eight first-round contests (I won't spoilt the results, so see the series so far here). The winner goes through to the quarter finals. See the 16 albums I started off with here.

The randomly chosen tie for today is:

...I Care Because You Do by Aphex Twin
Smokers Delight by Nightmares On Wax

We have the 13th best IDM album of all time (say Pitchfork) versus the 15th best trip-hop albums of all time (say Fact). Let's talc this pair up and throw them into the ring. Kamaete mattanashi! Let this bout begin.

Criteria one: which album would make a better biscuit?

Great question. If Smokers Delight was a biscuit, it would be something you'd get from Waitrose: it would be caramel flavoured or perhaps infused with fennel. I can't be more specific because the place scares me. I fled from a Waitrose once after seeing eighteen flavours of breadstick. The Aphex album feels more biscuity, even though it will never move beyond the levels of a custard cream or a jammy dodger.
Winner: ...I Care Because You

Criteria two: which album has more bangin' choons?

The Nightmares On Wax has an earworm so large, it looks like a giant dong: the descending strings of Nights Introlude have swirled around my head for 25 years, partly thanks to their reprisal on Les Nuits. That said, Aphex's follow-up to his Selected Ambient Works albums is a triumph of melody: the gentle steeliness of Alberto Balsalm, the waning flows of The Waxen Pith, the shimmery sadness of Start As You Mean To Go On, the off-kilter insistence of Wet Tip Hen Ax. Neither album especially bangs, but Mr Twin has the most choons.
Winner: ...I Care Because You

Criteria three: which album's track titles better remind me of cute animals?

This is another straight win for Aphex Twin. Imagine a messed-up Wombles in which the common is made of drugs and instead of picking up litter, they pick up unicorns. And all the Wombles are mauve and made of anti-matter. Yes? Let's introduce the characters. Here comes Ventolin on his skateboard made of rainbows. Running behind him is little Mookid, the Womble with the fifteen udders. Cow Gud Is A Twin is his twin. And there, shuffling behind them while brandishing his walking stick, is old Alberto Balsalm. Wombles of Wimbledon, techno are we.
Winner: ...I Care Because You

Criteria four: which of the two would Jesus listen to?

While Aphex Twin has spent much of his career looking a bit like Jesus, there is something undoubtedly spiritual about Nightmares On Wax. When you speak to NoW's George, you get the feeling he's trying to connect to a higher power – hence later album titles Mind Elevation and Shape The Future. He'd make a great cult leader. Maybe George is the Holy Spirit, while Aphex is Jesus. And Jesus definitely listens to the Holy Spirit. Does that make me God? Lawks. I hate wearing white.
Winner: Smokers Delight

Criteria five: which is the better album to sing songs about eggs to?

A write-off. I tried some egg songs, but none of the lyrics could fit. There's a background vocal in Nightmares' Stars which could pass for "eggs" but I think they're saying "hedge". And hedges are not eggs: I know because I've tasted them. If my heart was an egg, Aphex and Wax have broken it, and they didn't even made a heart omelette or a heart cake out of it. Very dis-egg-pointing.
Winner: No-one

Criteria six: which album has the better cover design?

Smokers Delight's cover is a jumble of strange totems topped with graffiti-style text to symbolise the dualities of spirituality and urbanity contained within the album's music. Meanwhile, the cover of ...I Care Because You is Aphex Twin's big face. That's right. He drew his own face. Have you ever tried to draw your face? Half the time, I don't know where my face is. I've tried opening my eyes really big but it's still difficult to see my face. Sometimes I pass a mirror, and the mirror reminds me where my face is, but then I turn round to take a good look at my face and it's gone. How can you draw that? It's impossible, but Aphex Twin managed it.
Winner: ...I Care Because You

Criteria seven: miscellaneous and worryingly random

As if this project wasn't silly enough already, this final set of criteria is guided by the random article function on Wikipedia. Let's jumble up some pages and pick a winner. Which of the two albums is the most science fiction? Nightmares totally has his mind on otherworldly things. Which album would most protect you in a hailstorm? Aphex because he cares (because you do). Which album would be listened to by 19th century cartographer Émile-Fortuné-Stanislas-Joseph Petitot? Nightmares because his track titles reference Venice, Groove Street and a beach. Which album would get baptised with a two-edged sword? The dualities of Nightmares On Wax. Which album is a sanatorium? Aphex because Ventolin will make you better.
Winner: Smokers Delight

Overall winner and going through to the quarter-finals: A relatively easy victory. Aphex, Aphex, Aphex. Twin, Twin, Twin. You can chant that if you want.

Stay tuned - two more albums will battle for the title of best electronic music album of 1995 as decided by me. See all the riders and runners here.

Further Fats: See the whole Best Albums Of 1995 series here.

Best electronic albums of 2018: unsafe in the hands of Fat Roland

Time to shoot some more sonic ducks off the funfair wall of sound. Here is another selection of the many albums that didn't make the final top 20 – there are some big names here.

Warp Records' longest-serving act Nightmares On Wax returned with Shape The Future (Warp Records) for a mainstream take on trip hop spiritualism. Jeff Mills turned in a murder-thriller soundtrack on And Then There Was Light (Axis Records), giving us everything from Detroitian stomping to plaintive Rhodes. And considering its experimentalism, there were plenty of little hooks on Yves Tumor’s Safe In The Hands Of Love (Warp Records).

Leon Vynehall finally cracked open a debut album with Nothing Is Still (Ninja Tune), a fascinating ambient reflection on his grandparents. The 81-year-old Jon Hassell evoked strange technological spaces on Listening To Pictures (Pentimento Volume One) (Ndeya). And there was never a dull moment on the box of tricks that was Syclops’s Pink Eye (Bubble Tease Communications) with its pick-and-mix attitude to dance music genres.

If you want something more robust, try these three. Blawan produced club thumpers with bite on Wet Will Always Dry (TERNESC). Grime has never sounded so glistening as on Wen’s EPHEM:ERA (Big Dada). And Helena Hauff was as downright dirty, as ever, on Qualm (Ninja Tune) – no, that’s not your speakers distorting.

I hope you like these little side-visits as I count down the top 20 best electronic albums of 2018. Don't worry, we'll be back on the main tour bus shortly.





Scroll all of the best 2018 electronic albums by clicking here.

Suspended puppies: an absolutely genuine review of Warp20 Sheffield

What kind of skrunk-flapped piffoon would profess to run a blog on electronica then not bother to go to the most important electronica night in the history of the bleepiverse?

At the weekend, Warp Records celebrated its 20th anniversary with an absolute doozer of night. Warp20 Sheffield (logo pictured) featured smash-n-bassmaster Squarepusher and a hatful of classic Warp artists.

Because I couldn't go (and my diary clash really was unavoidable, like trying to walk past a pedestrian who's swallowed a house), I'm going to have to make up a fictitious review. Here goes...

Harmonic 313 came on before anyone had arrived; he was only playing to one man and an ill horse. To be honest, this took the pizzazz out of his set, and all he did was whip his keyboards with a wet towel. A disappointment all round.

Hudson Mohawke didn't begin his set because Kanye West stormed on stage and told everyone how he loved Beyonce. HudMo was later spotted crying in the corner sobbing his way through the lyrics of Single Ladies. Instead, Nightmares On Wax filled in with a unique set of tracks alternating between bland soundtrack chill-out and gabba nosebleed techno.

It is difficult to describe Squarepusher's set without using the following words:

- slap;
- krunk;
- Ogden Nash;
- visible beard growth;
- suspended puppies;
- Middle East peace process;
- Celine.

Then came Clark, who took his cue from old Top Of The Pops and performed all his song titles literally. So Totems Flare had him setting fire to things dressed as a Native American and he wore a bear suit for Ted. He went too far with that operation he did on an audience member during Empty The Bones Of You, but at least it was different.

After Andrew Weatherall's DJ set, which was mainly him shouting "does anyone remember me, I used to be important", it was time for Forgemasters.

Everyone who knows about the history of Warp Records will know about Forgemasters. They invented music back in the caves of 70,000 BC and if their music ever stops being played, the Earth will die.

So it was a delightful surprise when they closed Sheffield's Warp20 with a gushing rendition of Somewhere Over The Rainbow. Everyone simpered; it was lovely.

Shame it was spoilt by Clark who, now horrifically drunk, stumbled onto the stage as Tinman and crashed sideways into their keyboards. That really upset Hudson Mohawke, who forgot the lyrics to Independent Women. Bastard.

All that Ritornell jazz trumped by a wonky Shitkatapult

This week's award for the jazziest electronica to come out of Austria goes to Ritornell, whose debut album Golden Solitude is out in a few days.

The duo comprise a jazz pianist called Richard and a sound experimentalist named Roman, the latter most famously having drummed with Patrick Wolf. It's a CV that doesn't pump my purist electronica heart.

The album is sparkle full of mellow washes, sparse drumming, and sound structures that refuse to be rushed. I'm less enamoured with the ladles of jazz saxophone that dominate the album toward the beginning, and more impressed with the found-sound metallic echoes of later tracks like Disappearing City.

Ritornell sounds like the kind of music Nightmares On Wax ought to be making, and I guess I'm too much Roman and not enough Richard to thoroughly enjoy the record.

Wonky techno label (and John Peel favourite) Shitkatapult have churned out their 100th release, and it's the best thing since sliced eyeballs.

Strike 100 is a triple-vinyl collection of the best of Shitkatapult, and it's all rather mellow. Which is astonishing, considering the craziness this label has released in the past. A number of artists have written stuff especially for the album, including T Raumschmiere (pictured: photo by Kika Da Silva) in a rumbling minor key mode, and The Orb on remarkable form with some serious big fat chords.

The stand-out for obvious reasons is Apparat's shimmering remix of Johnny Cash's I Heard The Lonesome Whistle Blow. Not the best track, but most def the coolest.

Listen to bits of the whole dang album on the Shitkatapult website - you'll notice one of the tracks is by Felix. I'm pretty sure it's not this Felix.

"No. No. You've still lost me. Could you rewrite it with just the facts and about 50% less nonsense?"

Them's that's got eyes upon to see, them's not hatheth the brains wot to unnerstand whath the heck they're looking ath with them eyes eth th thth.

This famous quote by Lord Something-Of-Somethingorother, who was afflicted with an appalling lisp, reminds me of the most common criticism of my blog: "it makes me laugh, but I have absolutely no idea what you're saying most of the time".

So let me make this simple:

This is a blog post. It is a review of some recently released records. The records are not well known, because I'd rather punch the panda of pop into next week's zoo and crack open a sparkling giraffe of dubstep instead.

Clear? Good.

Nightmares On Wax is back. thought so... is his annoyingly titled new album which plays havok with those of us who like our ellipses at the end of sentences and our capitals at the start.

There, the havok stops, because this is the earhole equivalent of soft furnishings, of magnolia, of a shop assistant's smile, of baked beans without the chilli powder, of food in a university refectory.

In short, it is not an Affleck's Palace: it is an Arndale Centre.

A tastier take on chill-out comes from Araya, whose debut LP Bridge Of Hesitation is grounded with tinkling synths and guitars, not unlike Lemon Jelly's more comatose moments, before being kicked up the arse with a more wiry version of the Boards Of Canada production ethic.

I can only review the mp3 version, which is a glitchy, meaty platter that pleases from the opening Plaid-ish chimes of The Mast to the panicked cut-up vocals of the stomping closer Child, Let's Stop.

The CD edition has more tracks, and even has a cut called Murakami's Kangaroo Zoo. For haruki's sake, what next - Ishiguro's Badger Super-Collider?

Finally, it's time to mirror, signal and (Roots) Manuva. I'm not sure what that means: but I do know that the best British rapper of the past decade has a new album called Slime And Reason. If you don't buy it, the super-collider will explode and we'll all be turned into purple semolina.