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).





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Best electronic albums of 2019: seventeen

17 – Barker – Utility (Ostgut Ton)

I once went to a Leisure System night at Glasgow's ill-fated Art School and a pilled-up Glaswegian shouted at me and my mate for what seemed like 92 minutes. We didn't catch a word amid the thick accent and pumping beats, bar the phrase "do you like heavy metal".

So Leisure System's great. Its co-founder Sam Barker held off releasing anything for ages, but finally he's plopped out an album. And not for the last time in this top 20 (expect this to become a theme), it's not the club stormer you'd expect.

On Utility, the drums are hardly noticeable, and instead it's down to Barker's exacting synthesis to prove the rhythms. This is a slow album. It's not so much music you dance to, rather it's the echo of the music still ringing in your ears as you leave the dancefloor to go for a widdle.

Stop a moment and let the descending shakes of Paradise Engineering cover you, or succumb to the growing Global Communication-esque fuzzy patches of Models Of Wellbeing. All in all, this is an enchanting work, and a bold step for someone who could have just laid out some fat drums and let his Leisure System reputation do the talking.



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Best electronic albums of 2019: eighteen

18 – J Majik – Full Circle (Infrared)

J Majik made his name with Metalheadz, which contrary to popular belief is not a Cyberman sex club but is instead one of the leading jungle music labels co-founded by everyone's favourite classical music conductor Goldie.

And that pretty much sums up what's on offer. Full Circle offers superbly retro drum ‘n’ bass noises: there are tingly bits which sound like heaven and busy drums that sound like hell and sassy vocals that sound like somewhere inbetween.

As with LTJ Bukem back in ye olden days, this has all the energy of those smoke-filled d'n'b clubs. The chords swell, the amen breaks spiral, the bass shudders, and the result is gorgeous. The beautiful break-down and beat drop in Red Circle is worth the price of the stream alone.

You might not be into drum 'n' bass. This is an excellent starting point because, to slightly misquote Tricky, it's brand new, it's retro. And yes, I am also wondering how Cybermen have sex. Must be something to do with pipes.



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Best electronic albums of 2019: nineteen

19 – Move D – Building Bridges (Aus Music)

You know when you bump into someone outside the post office and you can't immediately place the face because it's Geoff from skydiving club and you've never seen Geoff without his flying cap never mind with a first-class envelope in his hand?

I had a similar experience with Move D. Building Bridges, a nifty collection of light-touch house music, reminded me that perhaps I'd come across ole D before. And as it turns out, I had. Move D had a track on the seminal 1990s compilation series Trance Europe Express. Of course. I remember now.

This all makes sense, because this album, recorded in Heidelberg over the past 20 years, shows all the skills of a veteran producer. The machines don't just run, they dance: the patterns they create will slowly seep under your skin. It's house music for techno fans.

And despite the breezy pace on display, there's something melancholic left in the spaces. Just listen to those echoes on Dots. Or the pause for reflection on Transit. Check out the album's continuous mix if you can, because that's going to be some journey. All the way to the post office and beyond.



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Best electronic albums of 2019: twenty

20 – Cain – The Collection 2014-2019 (Highlife)

I've been anticipating Cain's debut album since this blog post in 2015. "More of this playfulness!" I demanded like a spoilt king firing chicken bones at a jester's feet. And finally, the former bagpipe playing highlander has dropped that much-anticipated debut.

Except it's not what I expected. The Collection, as its title suggests, is a collection of his pan-global dance music that's been piling up over the past few years. I'd rather be reviewing a proper studio album rather than a compilation, but I'll take what I've been given — because this is great.

The beats are metronomic, such as the 4/4 clonks on Eshu. This could be alienating, but a ghostly African chant or a shashaying sitar is never far away. It's a globe-hopping experience, and yet when a snaking acid line drops, such as on Gordito, it never seems out of place.

There's no-one else out there like Cain: it's so damn fun. The jester is dancing and I like it. Now can I get out of these king robes, please? There's some serious chafing going on here, and the crown doesn't match my eyes.



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Best electronic albums of 2019: experimental drop-outs

Before we start the top 20 proper, here are some best-of-the-rest works that didn't quite make my list of top electronic albums of 2019. All of the following longlisted albums can probably be filed under "experimental".

I loved the attention-deficit collage that was Madteo's Dropped Out Sunshine (DDS), which at points felt so tightly wound-up, I thought my ears were going to snap. Berlin artist Ziúr took a similar ear-bending route on ATØ (Planet Mu), an album that chewed up pop music and spat out a tasty techno fusion. This all sounds very Holly Herndon, which is good because she also had an album out this year. Proto (4AD) was superbly enchanting.

For Plastic Anniversary (Thrill Jockey), Matmos made a special edition that was "rendered virtually unplayable by the plastic floating within". The clicks and squeaks of the album itself were welcome, as was its green message. Meanwhile, Boreal Massif took on the theme of climate extinction with the trippy meditations and drony vibes of We All Have An Impact (Pessimist Productions).

Efdemin's New Atlantis (Ostgut Ton) gave us banging hippy techno leavened with dulcimers, hurdy-gurdy and a smidgeon of Francis Bacon. The multi-abstract ambience of Klein's Lifetime (ijn inc) included elements of light jazz, southern gospel and what sounded like a marching band being fed through a mincer.

33EMYBW called the electrotribal Arthropods (SVBKVLT) "limb dance” as she pushed the boundaries of the experimental Shanghai club scene. And finally for this section, I liked the playful beats of Violet's Bed of Roses (Dark Entries) — and yes, it's named after a Bon Jovi song.





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Best electronic albums of 2019: special mentions

Soon, we'll get our teeth into the top 20 best electronic music albums of 2019, like a narwhal savaging an unsuspecting squid. But first let's get some special mentions out of the way.

When I compile my list, I have a set of fuzzy rules in my head. To be included, an album must be in the vein of modern, post-Aphex electronic music, but that leaves things pretty wide open. Nothing too poppy, although the list has pop elements. Don't genre-jump into hip hop, although the list will certainly have elements of this too.

I also try not to include compilations, although watch me break this rule almost immediately with the album I've placed at number 20. This does mean there's no space for Burial's Tunes 2011 to 2019 (Hyperdub) nor for Autechre's Warp Tapes 89-93.

I've also been strict about the definition of an album, so I'm sadly not including the return of Andy Stott on the EP It Should Be Us (Modern Love) nor, controversially, am I including Underworld's spectacular and impressive Drift project because there's so much of it, it would have ground this process to a halt.

And finally, I have a new rule: if I don't like it, I won't mention it. In previous years, I thought it was important to be comprehensive and I included in my longlist albums that I wasn't interested in but were important enough to mention. As if I this site was some kind of electronic music almanac rather than just a daft writer in his underpants mashing a keyboard with his fists. Why recommend something I'm not bothered about?

So from now on, if I'm not keen on it, it doesn't get a mention. Sorry, Tycho. Sorry, DJ Shadow.

Scroll the full best-of-2019 list here (as and when it appears).

Best electronic albums of 2019: an introduction

Welcome to my annual list of the best electronic music albums of the year. Come in. Take a seat. Not that one, that's my seat. Take a stool. Sit in the corner. Face the wall. This is going to be fun!

Rating music seems to be going out of fashion, with Fact refusing to number their lists and Resident Advisor no longer numbering their reviews. However, I have never considered myself fashionable: I'm so out-of-date, I find Crocs sexy, and I mean the reptiles *and* the shoes.

I'm about to foist my top 20 favourite albums of 2019 on you. It will take the form of a series of blog posts throughout the mornings of December 30th and 31st. Numbers 20 to 11 today, then the top ten tomorrow. It will culminate in the reveal of the number one Best Electronic Music Album of 2019, which should be at 1.30pm tomorrow, new years eve.

That'll give you plenty of time before your evening celebrations to nip to Our Price or Woolworths and buy the best album on CD. People still do that, right?

A couple of things to remember:

Firstly, do not take this too seriously: ask me again in a week and I'll no doubt have a different list: top ten household whisks or something. Everyone just chill.

Secondly, it's is only my opinion, but my opinion is also fact, and facts are law, so to avoid jail you must take all of this very seriously indeed.

Throughout the top 20, I will intersperse bonus "best-of-the-rest" blog posts outlining literally billions of albums that didn't make my final list. Okay, maybe not billions. Slightly fewer than billions. Dozens, perhaps. You see, this is why Resident Advisor stopped doing numbers: there are too many of them. Stupid maths.

Are you ready? One blog post every half-hour until lunchtime, then we start again tomorrow with the top ten. Click here to follow the full list of Fat Roland's best electronic albums of 2019 as it builds up or follow my updates on Twitter.