90 best electronic music albums of 2021: Flying Lotus, Helm, Herbert, Humanoid & Jana Rush

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

Flying Lotus – Yasuke (Warp)

It's really nice to see Mr F. Lotus get his teeth into something as chunky as soundtracking a samurai series on Netflix. The telly programme evokes 16th-century feudal Japan, but this album feels much more modern. Trop hop beats, nostalgic analogue synths and fat computerised beats nestle up against its anime inspiration with the greatest of ease: lounge bar music by way of Tokyo. There's even a track (War Lords) which is Very Pink Floyd Indeed. A very different Flying Lotus experience, and we're all the better for it.

Helm – Axis (Dais Records)

"Fractured clanging, hissing steam, granular haze," says the blurb. Wait, don't go. Luke Younger's returns to his low-fi noise roots for this debut on Dias Records. Its scratched industrialisms and pained clanking rhythms are certainly matched by its track names: Moskito, Repellent. But actually, it's surprisingly tuneful if you're okay with the whole apocalyptic building site thing: there's beautiful ambience to be found in this end-times EBM. And hey, if I'm going to have a haze, I want it to be a granular one.

Herbert – Musca (Accidental)

Here's a bit of my review for Electronic Sound magazine of this latest instalment in Herbert's ‘domestic house’ series. "Each track is ever-so-neosoul, new jazzy standards made for a Gilles Peterson playlist... This is Herbert exploring his commercial rather than experimental side, the purported – and very Herbert – grunting pig and chatty fox cub samples kept largely under the radar." Forgot about the pig bits. Anyhoo, it's all very smooth and Radio 2, but Herbert always delivers everything with a wink and I love him for that.

Humanoid – 7 Songs (De:tuned)

I admit, this was a very last-minute addition to my list. This is the act that brought us Stakker Humanoid from back in the day. I'd just assumed it was some old rerelease. How wrong I was. The chap from Future Sound of London slaps us across the chops with chunky acid madness: listen to it squeal and bleep and yelp. Absolutely gorgeous. Nothing complicated: just an old drum machine and some significantly squelchy sonics. Just listen to Pyramid 17 go. 7 very good songs.

Jana Rush – Painful Enlightenment (Planet Mu) 

This album is everywhere. It's the most hyped thing since Pogs or Betamax or that time I told Charlie Norridge I could balance a bunsen burner on my willy. For her second album, this Chicago producer moves from footwork into abstract experimentalism: chopped loops get caught in powerful cycles of shuddering bass, ecstatic vocal samples and ever-present urgent drums. Like looking at a jazz club through a kaleidoscope through insect eyes. Genuinely unique. Oh and always make sure the burner's switched off first.

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

90 best electronic music albums of 2021: The Bug, Calibre, Clark, Fatima Al Qadiri & Floating Points

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

The Bug – Fire (Ninja Tune) 

The Bug is back! Not an actual bug. I get loads of them all the time, trying to climb on my knees and stuff. No, Kevin Martin has returned and he's angry. "You'd better run from me," go the vocals amid teeth-gnashing bass and barometer-blowing heated atmospherics. The speaker-wobbling badboy loops brilliantly match the sheer ferocity of the ragga and dancehall vocals – take a bow, MC Irah. As good an expression of our pressure cooker society as anything else on this list, and rightly already topping other people's best-of-2021s. 

Calibre – Feeling Normal (Signature Recordings) 

Despite the chirpy dubstep and sassy half-step rhythms, this is Calibre in a mood. He's drum ‘n’ bass royalty, but this 16th album (!) is among his slowest, the BPMs reigned in to produce one his more introspective works. As I wrote in Electronic Sound magazine: "Dominick Martin delivers an umpteenth album of coffee-table drum and bass that’s a smooth as a buttered puppy.... ever-decreasing circles of frowning, thoughtful electronica." Not what I expected at all, in a good way.

Clark – Playground In A Lake (Detusche Grammophon) 

It has been fascinating watching the career of this Warp alumnus, er, warp into something totally new, moving from his barnacled techno beats into something much more neoclassical. This is a "concept" album, whatever that means these days, and is his first appearance on classical label Deutsche Grammophon. Clark's 12th album isn't just classical, though: it's folk and weird horror, with vocals from Clark himself, Afrodeutsche and a choir boy. As atmospheric as heck and very much following on from his Daniel Isn’t Real original soundtrack.

Fatima Al Qadiri – Medieval Femme (Hyperdub)

You can always expect something special from this Californian Kuwaiti. On Medieval Femme, we find ourselves somewhere between ancient Arabian history and some far-flung future chill-out night. Sung vocals hang lazily amid heavy reverb, an elegiac organ melts against misty half-beats, harps hang in the air quivering with anticipation. The Middle Ages meets the Middle East. This is possibly Al Qadiri's most accessible album to date, so consider it an excellent starting point. 

Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders & The London Symphony Orchestra – Promises (Luaka Bop)

This is a biggie. Sweep everything else off the table, cancel the milk, hang up on grandma. Floaty, as I like to call him, has always been classical adjacent, his shuffling house beats always feeling grand. He's got his own electronic "ensemble", for goodness sake. Here, he teams up with the LSO and jazz saxophonist Sanders for what might be his grandest project to date. It's slow and bluesy and a little too jazzy for my tastes, but still, its a landmark release whatever you think of stupid saxophones.

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

90 best electronic music albums of 2021: Aleksi Perälä, Alva Noto, Amon Tobin, Anthony Naples & Arovane

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

Aleksi Perälä – Spectrum Analysis (Repetitive Rhythm Research) 

I want to avoid reissues and repackages in my best albums list, but this triple vinyl compilation of Perälä's Spectrum Analysis minimal techno series was too much of a treat not to include. The mathematical simplicity of his micro-house loops are made to move your feet and soothe your brain. The Finnish Rephlex veteran is so prolific, this entire list could have just been him. You're only allowed one per end-of-year list, Alekksi. Reader, do yourself a favour, and spend some time dangling in the laser web of his music. It's quite something. 

Alva Noto – HYbr:ID (NOTON)

There will be a few albums in this list that were written for choreography. You don't want me writhing in my leotard, so you'll just have to imagine the dance moves that accompany this low-key electronic scree written for ballet bloke Richard Siegal. Synths hum, static leaks, ambience drones. It's ASMR in its attention to detail, its little landscapes of electronic experimentalism building into a sonic experience that seems to occupy every inch of the room. Its inspiration is astrophysics and cinema, but it sounds like the atoms between the two. 

Amon Tobin – How Do You Live (Nomark) 

25 years after his debut, Amon is still going. It's testament to his talent that he continues to be uncategorisable. Buzzing synth cycles meet swooping strings, end-of-the-pier organ lines spiral over hippy guitar noodlings, shimmering half-grooves follow breathy folk vocals. It's scratchy and sketchy, glitchy and groovy, always with a cinematic bent. Albeit a curious indie film than a sweeping blockbuster. A vision of Sergeant Pepper appearing in a cloud of spliff smoke. 

Anthony Naples – Chameleon (ANS)

This New York label owner created his latest album by jamming out the tracks on real instruments first rather than, say, start with the software or bashing kittens with a mallet. So where I'd normally expect driving house music, instead we have something much more organic and experimental. In these late-nite ambient instrumentals, blues-style drums meet chill lounge chords and unhurried melodic loops. Its lack of urgency belies the fact this is a producer at the top of his game. A soundtrack for sleepy parties.

Arovane – Reihen (12k)

Uwe Zahn is back, and this time he joins Taylor Deupree’s 12k label for a bunch of noise wafflings produced in early 2021 using a limited range of gear. The blurb mentions pointillism and etherealism, with Zahn citing "intermodulated oscillators, amplified and distorted". This is tiny sound writ large: cascading ambient mirages reflect playfully against the resonating harmonics of fuzzy analogue synth lines and hammer-dulled piano chords. It's almost church-like in its stillness.

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

Best electronic music albums 2021: an introduction

Welcome to my top massive brilliant albums countdown for 2021. I'm going to drizzle you with so much great electronic music, your earlobes will become towels.

I've done this end-of-year list since before Jesus was a twinkle in a donkey's eye. See all my previous best-of blogging here. 

This year will be a little different. I've grown uncomfortable with the arbitrary nature of a numbered countdown. I'm not sure that format suits someone as fickle as me. I can't even decide every morning whether to brush my teeth with toothpaste or Primula. It's time for a change. I'm going to try pile cream instead.

I have 90 favourite albums to tell you about. I have collated those 90 albums into the following groups: none of these albums will have specific numbers allocated to them, other than being in their wider grouping.

Top 90 Electronic Music Albums – what would have otherwise been numbers 90 to 61

Top 60 Electronic Music Albums – what would have otherwise been numbers 60 to 31

Top 30 Electronic Music Albums – what would have otherwise been numbers 30 to 11

Top 10 Electronic Music Albums – what would have otherwise been numbers 10 to 1

In each group, instead of having the albums counted down Top of the Pops-style, they will be listed alphabetically by artist. The one exception is, I will still have a number one best album. I still like the idea of having one "winner" even though I will have changed my mind two weeks after publishing it.

I hope that makes sense. If numbers confuse you, please play Kraftwerk's Pocket Calculator until you understand.

The other thing to know is that I like every single album on this list. It's not designed to be comprehensive, and I will have missed some obvious things off, but chances are if I've appreciated an album, it will be included here. Every dang note of music I'm about to link to is worthy of your attention, whichever group it's in.

Ready? Let's go. The list will appear as hourly blog posts throughout December 30th and 31st, with several albums in each post, with the final number one bestest album revealed on the evening of the 31st. I haven't written a single word of any of this yet, so I'd better knuckle down.

Stand by...

Everyone's an artist, including Fat Roland

I will be one of many artists showing work in the 2022 Manchester Open exhibition, launching in a few weeks at HOME.

The idea of the Open is that anyone can display artworks, regardless of background or experience. Their slogan is "Everyone's An Artist". I suppose I have some experience, having illustrated Edinburgh Fringe shows and my columns for Electronic Sound magazine. But the exhibition is very much a level playing field. With painted flowers on. And little marker pen faces on every blade of grass.

The first Manchester Open in 2020 displayed over 500 artworks. If you stacked 500 Mona Lisas on top of each other, the pile would be a bit taller than the Empire State Building. That's quite the elongated edifice of enigmatic smiles.

I love the idea of my piece, which is called Daft Punk At Home With R2-D2, nestled among tonnes of other framed pictures. I hope it'll be overwhelming, like walking into the Louvre and having a hundred masterpieces pelted at your head at once. Ouch. Those frames are sharp. Stop it. OUCH.

My piece was originally produced for an Electronic Sound column about Daft Punk. It was fortuitous that (a) the illustration was produced within HOME's calendar guidelines and (b) it stood on its own as an artwork. Without the writing attached, much of the illustration won't make sense. Which is great. Look out for the little fluff of blue lint. And a Henry hoover (pictured).

I'm hoping the exhibition will catapult me into the highest echelons of artistic genius, and the name Fat Roland will be uttered in the same sentence as famous British artists like Damon Hurst, Tracy Ermine, David Hockey-Stick and the one made of bacon.

The Manchester Open will open (geddit?!) to the public on January 24th, and will keep being open to the public until it stops being open to the public on March 27th. There's an opening weekend from January 21st, but I believe this is just for artists, so if you try and get in and you're not an artist, they cattle-prod you. However, "Everyone's An Artist" so I'm hoping they cattle-prod everyone just to be on the safe side.

More about the Manchester Open here.

Further Fats: Like New Years Day to the sound of Autechre (2009)

Further Fats: Is my Boards Of Canada mash-up art? Don't answer that (2019)

Jesus and me in issue 84 of Electronic Sound magazine

In issue 84 of  Electronic Sound magazine, I talk to Jesus about how he invented big beat. 

No really. The actual Jesus. He was pretty easy to track down because he's always leaving his contact card in phone boxes. Landline number, of course. He's pretty old school.

As the first paragraph goes:

“It started shortly after the sermon on the mount. I was banging on about peacemakers and being salt of the earth, but people still were sinning and blaspheming and fornicating. Right there in front of me. In front of the mount.” Jesus Christ munches another finger of his Kit Kat. “So that’s why I invented big beat.”

As you can see from the excerpt above, I took a photograph of Jesus while being farted at by a camel. That's a sampler he's holding there. He's always holding some kind of electronic music equipment. Michelangelo was always painting them out. 

In my regular column, I also launch my new social media network Fatr. It involves a Cornish pasty and Shane MacGowan and willy pills and this:

Please identify all the spiders in this gridded photograph of the Taj Mahal. Now click the box that says ‘I am not a robot’. Exactly what a robot would click: you will now be disconnected from the internet.

This is all completely serious, by the way. Please don't be laughing at it. It's not as if Electronic Sound would print a load of hot nonsense from me every month. This is a serious publication.

You can get this edition of Electronic Sound alongside previous editions - their previous issue was made of actual gold or something - on their internet website.

Selected tweeted works: bagel, beards, bungs and beaches

An end of a month is a time to take stock. To think about our regrets. To consider the endless void. To paint our toenails cherry red and hide inside a trifle.

Here are some recent tweets from my FatRoland account. It's a way of creating blog content with as little effort whatsoever. I suggest you put an equal amount into reading this.

Regrets. The void. Trifle. It's all here. Yes, including the trifle: each tweet will be accompanied by a trifle ingredient, which I suggest you eat at the same time as reading.

Bon apetit.

1. Breakfast
Been around the cinnamon whirl and I I I, I can't find my bagel.
Ingredient: custard

2. Appointment
I am delighted to announce I am the new CEO of Twitter. Character length increased to 20,000. Only cartoon avatars. Scratch and sniff. 5p per retweet. Cats with beards.
Ingredient: jelly

3. Grift
If any health companies or meat distributors want to give me £100,000 to ask questions in parliament, please get in touch. "Do you like ham?" "What's your fave rash?" I'd be really good at it.
Ingredient: strawberries

4. Festive
Just so people know where I stand on this, I think Christmas should be aggressively enforced all year round. Everyone to dress as Santa every day. Only trees allowed to grow are Christmas ones. Cars have baubles instead of wheels, etc etc.
Ingredient: chocolate

5. Location
Movin' to the country, gonna eat a lot of beaches.
Ingredient: prune juice

6. Hope
Okay gang, it's a new day, fresh start, new goals, we can achieve amazing things together. You get the butter and I'll start asking round for funnels.
Ingredient: sponge (food)

7. Breakfast again
Omicron? OMICROISSANT, more like. Yeah? Think about it, sheeple.
Ingredient: sponge (bathroom)

8. Anniversary
On this day 24 years ago, all five members of the Sneaker Pimps climbed into Robbie Williams's mouth and were never seen again.
Ingredient: wafer-thin ham

9. Elevator pitch
Pitch to publishers: A book based on themes in well-known palindromes. "Murder for a jar of red rum" (crime novel). "Mr Owl ate my metal worm" (science fiction dystopia). "Go hang a salami, I'm a lasagna hog" (recipe book).
Ingredient: hummus

10. Despair
The inappropriate fade-out on the Spotify version of Orbital's Lush 3-1 is why the world's gone to hell in a hand dryer.
Ingredient: baking tray

11. Etymology
Today is Halloween, which as we all know comes from the phrase "Hello, Ian".
Ingredient: armchair(s)

12. The big question
Who was the renegade master, what were they trying to damage, and were they behaving ill so they could bunk off work?
Ingredient: the 18th century

Further Fats: Come on my Selected (2006)

Apart from the music, there is one thing wrong with Ed Sheeran's Tiny Desk Concert

Here's a screenshot of the pop music artist Ed Sheeran performing one of those NPR Tiny Desk Concerts.

I can't remember what he performed. One of his pleasing ditties, I suppose. A warm guff of mainstream melodies. Maybe he performed a six hour homage to kittens being drowned in a vat of Monster energy drinks. I don't know. I could barely listen to more than a few seconds of his Tiny Desk Concert.

No, the music is not the point here. Take a look at that screenshot. Go on. Take a look. Take a close look. Can you see what's wrong? It's there, glaring you in the face.

Here is Ed.

Look at his cute hamster face. He's holding that guitar deftly. No doubt he's good at holding other things, like potted plants, soft cheese or ransom letters. Ed is standing in the middle of the room, light from the windows gushing through his legs. He is, right at this moment, probably singing the word "spatula".

Next. Here is the concert.

The musicians stand around Ed because standing around the singer is the minimum requirement to create a concert. I wonder what their names are. Malchom. Guffery. Kendoolix. Colin. Although we can't see a drummer, I reckon there are seven musicians. That's a lot of people to fit into a room, especially when it's a home library where half the books seem to be missing. Nevertheless, good concerting, musicians.

Finally. Here's the desk.

YOU'RE MEANT TO BE BEHIND THE DESK, ED. Not around the desk. Not near the desk. Not, as in this case, not only standing next to the desk, but facing the wrong way so you can't even shuffle sideways and open the drawers.

Look at Lizzo doing her Tiny Desk Concert. It appears to be a reception desk, slightly shallower than usual. Lizzo is behind the desk. Therefore Lizzo is doing a Tiny Desk Concert.

Look at Miley Cyrus doing her Tiny Desk Concert. She's clearly positioned in front of a child's make-up desk. Therefore Miley is doing a Tiny Desk Concert.

Even flipping Coldplay get the desk thing right. Look at how many people are behind that desk. There's even a poster on the left showing someone sat at a desk. 

Ed Sheeran is doing it wrong. The desk, which may or may not be tinier than usual, is not being interacted with. It is separate from the performance, as if a desk thief has dropped it by mistake while running from the dining room to the billiard room.

This isn't a Tiny Desk Concert. This is a Tiny Desk Next To A Concert.

The fact that it took me ten minutes of scrolling through Tiny Desk videos to find those desk-performance links because it turns out hardly anyone doing Tiny Desk concerts has a desk in their video therefore rendering the series a total con IS ENTIRELY IRRELEVANT. I just wanted to have a go at Ed Sheeran.

Stupid Ed and your stupid desk.

Further Fats: What was your first concert? (2019)

Further Fats: Story: A meeting regarding new material by the electronic music producer Aphex Twin (2020)