Top ten best electronic music albums of 2021: Ross From Friends – Tread

Fat Roland's Best Electronic Music Albums of 2021 presents another brilliant album:

Ross From Friends – Tread (Brainfeeder) 

Rachel from Friends walks into a room. "Hello everyone, I have hair," she says, and already Joey from Friends is humping the sofa.

Monica from Friends shoos Joey from Friends away from the sofa. "That's not a neat thing to do," says Monica from Friends because she likes things neat.

Phoebe from Friends sets fire to the flat because it's a whacky things to do. "Could I *be* anymore on fire?" says Chandler from Friends as he's reduced to smoking ashes.

"Hey guys, I made an album," says Ross From Friends, but they're not listening because they're too busy making lazy jokes tinged with homophobia.*

And what an album. We've spent the best part of two years not clubbing much, so it has been a pleasure to mainline Tread into my stupid brain. Boogie in the discotheque of my imagination. Felix Clary Weatherall built his own Ableton plug-in for the album to allow for a freer form of recording. The result is a work that sounds truly live.

Highlight follows highlight. The Daisy's trippy IDM is a waterfall of tumbling sadness. Love Divide takes a more straight Bonobo route, while filtering power pop vocals into passing fractals. The slow hip hop beats of Spatter/Splatter background what sounds like a choir prepping for war. Run is pure 80s pop chewed up and spat out by Boards of Canada. Life In A Mind is a microphone-brandishing diva riding a sonic spaceship like a skateboard.

For me, Revellers is the crowning glory, but that accolade will be different for everyone. I recommended this track on my Twitter a month ago because, and I quote, "I just put it on, instinctively made a furrowed 'tuuuune' face, and whacked the volume right up." Actually, maybe XXX Olympiad is my fave: those skippy drums land so nicely.

Ross from Friends walk into a room and says sadly, "hey, let's talk about dinosaurs". Get lost, Ross from Friends. We've already got a Ross From Friends. He's a keeper.

*I am aware that I'm criticising lazy writing while making the hackest route-one reference I could think of when talking about the music artist Ross From Friends. Oh dear.

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

Best electronic albums of 2018: nine

9 – Ross From Friends – Family Portrait (Brainfeeder)

I think if I was to pick a nuclear family off the shelf, as if I was shopping at some kinda trafficking Ikea, I would pick:

(a) a robot child who would do all the washing up and chimney sweeping;
(b) a robot grandad who would puff a pipe all day long and grumble about what’s on telly;
(c) a robot creepy uncle who I would just keep in a corner with his hands where I could see them;
(d) a robot elephant who would—

Hold on, I’m getting sidetracked. What was I doing? Oh yes. The countdown for the bestest electronic albums of 2018.

Ross From Friends digs into his familial history to add heart to his debut album. It’s a wise move that lifts Family Portrait above the glut of usual house music albums.

The Knife sounds like Burial transplanted into a future century. Thank God I’m A Lizard, named after it’s opening bedtime prayer, is a wafer-thin house beat that lifts into heavenly jazz.

He allows vocal sprinkles to humanise the Four Tet-snappiness, whether that’s a soulful song or spoken snippets, and he’s not afraid to let a track break down into introspection.

It’s a grower. Like a robot family equipped with mechanical reproductive organs, let your love for this album multiply over time. And stop thinking about android willies. Stop it.



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