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.