Laurel Halo, Raw Silk Uncut Wood
Leave it to Laurel Halo to ditch her previous style for a new one that’s equally form-fitting. Named after an Ursula K. Le Guin quote, Raw Silk Uncut Wood is as tactile as it sounds: a meditative mini-album merging avant-garde jazz and ambient experimentalism. Halo deconstructs piano notes one at a time, like a lush chord on “Mercury” and maniacal skittering on “The Sick Mind,” while percussionist Eli Keszler and cellist Oliver Coates add volume. It’s the skeletal score of a horror film with a cyclical end. [Nina Corcoran]
Helena Hauff, Qualm
On the follow-up to her celebrated 2015 debut, German DJ-producer Helena Hauff remains wholly unconcerned with outside trends or forces, focused solely on taking her minimalist analog jams to the brink. From front to back, rippling sci-fi synthscapes (“Qualm”) to techno obliterations (“The Smell Of Suds And Steel”), Qualm showcases Hauff’s heavy, resourceful arrangements, and her ability to draw an absurd amount of body heat from cold, decaying machines. [Kelsey J. Waite]
Tim Hecker, Konoyo
The sheer volume and power of Tim Hecker’s music has long forced synesthesia upon his listeners: If you weren’t hearing colors on 2013’s Virgins, you may actually have been listening to Two Virgins. Konoyo, though, is overwhelming in its blankness. Composed in conjunction with a Japanese gagaku ensemble—and at the behest of the late Jóhann Jóhannsson—it’s a stark, only occasionally jarring portrayal of the circular exhausting of mourning and the sad wonder of grief, a place where traditional instrumentation and Hecker’s production process meet in long, pained howls. [Marty Sartini Garner]
Jon Hopkins, Singularity
Singularity is not a concept album, at least not in the traditional sense, but make no mistake, this is a cohesive record intent on conveying the strange beauty of our inner lives. Hopkins’ version of ambient-but-still-throbbing techno is brimming with organic and synthetic sounds alike, from waves of synths to choral harmonies to simple evocations of nature, all of it set to pulsating beats capable of transporting the listener from a solitary meditation to the dance floor and back again. [Alex McLevy]
Jlin, Autobiography
It would be so nice for writers if Jlin were just a brutalist footwork auteur forged in the steel mills of Indiana, but breaking boxes is her whole thing. Her first two albums, all shattered angles and cantilevered planes, were concussive answers to the question “What is music without melody?” And this year, composing for British choreographer Wayne McGregor, Jlin opened passages of haunting ambiance in her collapsing obsidian labyrinths. Autobiography is a sublime extension of footwork’s rococo palpitations into modern-dance space, from a producer who might do anything except the expected. [Brian Howe]
Skee Mask, Compro
Bryan Müller’s second album as Skee Mask splits the difference between jungle and ambient without swerving chaotically in intensity—or floating off into the ether. These are breakbeats heavy with atmosphere, like chase scenes through a vast, imagined city. The hyperactive hi-hats splash like warm synthesizers on “Kozmic Flush”; the pneumatic beat of “Session Add” seems to breathe to life, over the course of minutes. For an exercise in nostalgia, Compro feels decidedly (even creepily) alive. [Clayton Purdom]
Yves Tumor, Safe In The Hands Of Love
How on earth does Safe In The Hands Of Love hold together? The clue’s in the title. Yves Tumor’s third LP contains blown-out hip-hop, screaming noise, walls of ambient pop, and ecstatic drum loops, a multitudinous sound suffused with hurt and terror and sensuousness. Where previous efforts felt like the work of yet another SoundCloud-era polymath, Safe is immediate, even essential, an urgent argument in favor of finding the humanity amid the noise. [Clayton Purdom]
Honorable mentions
Daniel Avery, Song For Alpha
Daniel Avery’s meticulously produced second album throws the doors of the club open at daybreak, inviting in hazy ambient textures and meditative synth washes to cast the British DJ’s driving techno beats in a compelling new light. [Kelsey J. Waite]
Jean-Michel Blais, Dans Ma Main
Blais’ minimalist compositions receive an infusion of electronic experimentation into his gorgeous post-classical piano—sometimes creating abrupt sonic counterpoints to his exacting melodies, sometimes fused to them, but always in service of a spare and profound whole. [Alex McLevy]
Steve Hauschildt, Dissolvi
Now the better part of a decade past the dissolution of his iconic band Emeralds, Steve Hauschildt is exploring territory far from those droning landscapes, discovering a shimmering, minimalistic pulse on the characteristically excellent Dissolvi. [Clayton Purdom]
Rival Consoles, Persona
Perhaps befitting an album named after one of the most absorbing, confounding films ever made, Persona’s a volatile record, with beats that shatter on impact and ambient interludes that pulse with menace. [Clayton Purdom]
Ross From Friends, Family Portrait
The ambient-house maestro evolves beyond his roots to create a pleasingly old-school debut album, one that plays, as we previously noted, “almost like a greatest-hits compilation of retro space-techno pleasures.” [Alex McLevy]
48 Comments
Dubstep gets a lot of hate, but I enjoyed the new albums from Barely Alive and Excision this year, who consistently put out fun and loud records.
They’re more disco but given that it’s the only album I’ve listened to this year that comes close to electronic I’m recommending Jungle ? Quelle jungle ? by Bon Voyage Organisation, they’re too fun not to mention.
Damn that’s a fun song, I love how it has a mix of Eastern sounds with the background/atmosphere of a ‘70s sploitation film, thanks for the recommendation!
I’d put Roosevelt in the same vein. He’s a lot of fun.
So smooth, and totally new to me. Thanks for this.
hey thank you for this rec, I sent it to my gf and she loves it. It’s not electro but I return to you with Khruangbin’s set at Villain, check it out on youtube
Solid list but missing some crucial elements:
AUTECHRE’S NTS SESSIONS! If eight hours of bloop-blorg-hiss is too much for you, then start with my personal favorite NTS SESSION 4. The session is a delicate finale that is active participation ambient listening.A.A.L. (Against All Logic) – 2012-2017! The deep house starter pack: The Album. One of the most soulful and tunefully original releases I have heard all decade.SOPHIE’S OIL OF EVERY PEARL’S UN-INSIDES! Queer and important electronic music.Doesn’t Low’s Double Negative and How to Dress Well’s The Anteroom count if we’re throwing in vocal music like Yves Tumor?Would have given at least given an honorable mention to Oneohtrix Point Never’s Age Of, Dedekind Cut’s Tahoe, Leon Vynehall’s Nothing is Still, William Basinski + Lawrence English’s Selva oscura, and Gas’ Rausch as well.It bears repeating how good this list is because not many major publications are going to give Laurel Halo or Skee Mask the time of day, but you also missed out on recognizing some other 2018 Titans.
Against All Logic hell yes! That album is an absolute blast.
One of my favorite albums this year.
Where’s George FitzGerald? All That Must Be is a great record.Elysia Crampton’s self titled album deserves some attention also.
Agreed, Elysia Crampton is amazing.
No love for Louie Vega’s NYC DISCO? Man’s a legend.
Throwing out Gary Numan’s “Savage: Songs From A Broken World” for anyone interested.
Been hooked on this for a month or so since hearing it on the Dark Wave show on SXM First Wave.
His last album was similar; Splinter: Songs From A Broken Mind. He has a huge backlog of albums and has gone through various musical styles. But the last two (and even back to his “Jagged” album before that) he’s settled on a modern dark EDM sound.
Yeah, I bought Savage and Splinter from Amazon a couple weeks ago. Using Youtube to listen to the other albums to see if I like. If so, I will be back on Amazon. I like the song “Hybrid” a lot as well.
His current style is anything after “Sacrifice” in 1994. Before that he was struggling to recapture early success and varied his style. From interviews my understanding is that he wife told him to stop doing that and just make music HE likes instead of trying for a hit. And that advice led to his current dark electronica —and increasing success once he stopped chasing it. So if you like those two albums you are probably good with anything from 1994 on. Before that it is hit-or-miss.
Savage is excellent, but it was released in 2017.
*D’OH* You are, indeed, correct. As a lifelong fan I should have known better!
My suggestion: Proc Fiskal – Insula, on the Hyperdub label. It sounds like uh, japanese cut-and-paste micro-grime made by a young Scottish dude?
Burial has music sex with Wagon Christ = Proc Fiskal. Beautiful.
I submit Break for consideration
Remember when DJ Koze was part of one of the weirdest (and best) German Hip Hop acts? You probably don’t, unless you lived in Germany during the 90s or are a real hardcore crate digger.
My new favorite Lonely Island sketch!
Justice – Woman Worldwide is a great album and deserves to be on any 2018 best of list. Even though its really just a remix album they combine their music in such interesting ways it feels fresh to me.
the correct answer is Against All Logic (aka Nicolas Jaar)’s 2012-2017.
Everything Nicolas Jaar realeases is pure gold.
preach
Lets Eat Grandma is the best electronic album of the year.
I don’t really think of it as “electronic” (more like proggy pop) but it is a great album.
They’re the artist – the album is called “I’m All Ears.”
Confidence Man – Confident Music for Confident PeopleNo other album lifted my spirits in this dumpster fire shitstorm of a year like this Australian four-piece’s debut album. A mash-up of late-80s/early-90s dance music, cheeky humor, ironic detachment, performance art, great bass lines, and a playful sense of fun in the face of hatred, oppression, and impending disaster.Distilling the summer of 1990 into four glorious minutes, this is the best hymn to the power of E since Primal Scream’s “Movin’ On Up.” (And, yes, Virginia, there is an Andrew Weatherall mix. They know their shit.)
That is Deee-Lite-ful!
I like this debut. Tune and video.
I love when a designer gets hold of a simple plug-in and thinks, “I’m gonna do some elegantly insane shit with this!”
I really, really enjoyed Microshift from Hookworms earlier this year. They probably don’t make the cut for pure electronica, but I dunno if that record fits neatly in any genre.
No Future Funk?Moe Shop is literally one of the best House producers of the year. I really enjoyed his tunes.
I don’t think any EDM year in review isn’t complete without at least touching in WhatSoNot’s “Not All The Beautiful Things.”
Literally only of those albums didn’t feature on my electronic music radio show sometime throughout this year. Great list 🙂
The truth of this sophism is deepening as electronic instruments and idioms overtake every genre. Euro-pop arpeggios twist through country radio. Modular drones whir through folk. Synth rock, once a subgenre, now simply means “popular rock.” It’s getting weird to isolate a swath of music as “electronic,” an anachronism for the future.
I always found it funny when Eminem ‘dissed’ Moby in a track saying “No one listens to techno”, like rap wasn’t already mining electronica styled production for everything it was worth
There’s some pretty big omissions from this list.1. Autechre’s NTS Sessions: 2. Ital Tek’s Bodied :
3. Lorn’s Remnant : 4. Palmbomen II’s Memories of Cindy: 5. S U R F I N G’s Incubo: 6. Windows96’s One Hundred Mornings :
I love it all. but this list is lacking a severe amount of Nicolas Jaar
Sure, self-promotion isn’t cool, but here’s the best electronic music I *made* (so far) this year:From a still-in-the-works album about my cancer year.
If anybody out there is still reading this, and has the kung-fu to get me outta the greys, please know I am not a roboshill, nor do I stand to make $any from this. I’m a back-to-disqus-days AVC type who just wants a little feedback on a record I’m making from folks who (according to these comments) know from good music.
*The best electronic albums
You had me with The Field. I’m hoping Singularity will grow on me, but it didn’t grip me nearly as much as Immunity, which still has a safe spot in my Top 10 albums of the decade list. Skee Mask and Yves Tumor were fixtures on my repeat listen list this year.
you can’t really have a conversation about electronic music in 2018 without mentioning SOPHIE.
I miss Sean O Neal.