Electronic
Reviews
Secret Dad
Speaker Music follows up the brilliant "of desire, longing" with absolute sonic emotional devestation.
Gryme
2020 saw massive worldwide protests against white nationalism and for the lives of black folk. Cut from the sounds and spirit of Detroit techno this album speaks to that anger and grief like no other this year.
Amy
Manages to be consistently absolutely lovable and danceable throughout it's amazing 3 hour runtime, seriously feels like this one was made for me as a huge house and longform music fan.
Amy
An archival release full of previously unheard mixes from my favourite Muslimgauze album, this was absolutely made for me, as every mix has lots of time to truly submerge you in it's amazing atmosphere. Particularly the extended mix of Effendi here is absolutely great.
Gryme
Inspired by his family's history in Angola's civil war and the fast tempo sounds of kuduro. Guerilla is jagged and menacing but keeps it's dance roots at heart.
TalkingTechno
It is my album of the year, so why would I not include it?
Phoenix
For an artist that I value primarily for their fantastic sound design, PLUS might have Autechre's best since Confield, and might even surpass it in some regards! On top of that, some of AE's most vulnerable pieces and sounds lay in the midst.
TalkingTechno
One of the tracks made me feel emotional, a first for Autechre. Also it's their best album.
Amy
Autechre's most ambient work since Oversteps almost manages to top it for me, particularly the tracks M4 Lema and metaz form8. There is clearly much more of an emotional and melodic focus here, and it is a truly welcome return to my favourite era of theirs, I much prefer it to PLUS because ambient Autechre has always been my style.
Phoenix
While not as diverse and focused on sound design as much as it's sister album, SIGN still manages to leave a lasting impression by giving some of Autechre's most vulnerable and emotional works, which perfectly reflect the quarantine of 2020.
Freddy
This album caught me off-guard in the best way. Autechre went for a more emotive sound on this album while still progressing their sound in a way I didn't expect, and it absolutely paid off. As a fan of their more conventionally structured albums, I can't wait to see where they go from here.
Amy
Absolutely amazing tech house stuff, Fantasy and If Loving You is Wrong are some of my favourite songs of the year. Much prefer this to the first AAL project, it's more unique, less derivative and absolutely chock full of creativity and earwormy melodies and sound design.
TalkingTechno
Hard trance is baller.
Secret Dad
Luis Pestana combines gorgeous acoustic instrumentation with samples and synthesis for an unpredictable, highly satisfying audio narrative experience.
Secret Dad
more eaze & claire rousay come together to combine longform ambient with pop and create a wholly engaging experience.
Gryme
This year saw a lot of compilations released for good causes but this is amomg my favourite. Bangers end to end.
Freddy
This release combines elements of IDM and African electronic music to create an album that bounds along at a breakneck pace and doesn't let up until the very end.
Honourable Mentions
Amy
Squarepusher - Be Up A Hello (Although not one of my favourites of the year, it's definitely a return to form for SP and a pretty enjoyable release)
Phoenix
C'est La Key - Metamorph
Coming at the end of the year, CLK releases another incredible radio drama that might
actually be his best yet. Who can deny any album that name drops RYM?
simon
upsammy - zoom
gryme
HAUS of ALTR - HOA010
Tomu DJ - Transwoman Techno
Loraine James - Nothing EP
Space Afrika - hybtwibt?
NKISI - Peeling
FRKTL - Excision After Love Collapses
John FM - American Spirit
Russell Ellington Langston Butler - Emotional Bangers Only