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User
Soundoffs 20
Album Ratings 412
Objectivity 53%
Last Active 12-18-22 9:45 am
Joined 02-17-18
Review Comments 703
| Best Electronic Albums of 2023
This year has been a strong one for electronic music and maybe half of my favourite albums in an overall weaker year appear in this list. Albums I decided didn't fit the genre but which are in my Top 30 include Jessie Ware, Slowdive, Sleaford Mods, Sufjan Stevens, Yves Tumor, M83, The Clientele, Yeule, Mitski, Sigur Rós, Blur, Tirzah, Young Fathers, Shana Cleveland and Slowthai. | | 15 |  | Nathan Micay
To The God Named Dream
Bright, clubby synths dominate a consistently energetic but occasionally dark album that never stays still long enough to sound repetitive. Traces of trance and trip-hop linger and vocal samples are used throughout very effectively. Best songs include This Is Killing Your Gainz, Fangs and the euphoric title track. Fun. | | 14 |  | Tammo Hesselink
Beam
Immersive techno that endears rather than startles, with moments of melodic gorgeousness sprinkled throughout in tracks such as album highlight Erased and Etseled. And then there’s Sorry About That – a late album surprise that manages to be simultaneously abrasive and weightless. | | 13 |  | Sofia Kourtesis
Madres
Superior house music with a Peruvian flavour. While the opening four tracks make up the strongest run on the album, the quality doesn’t really ever waver. Even the experimental late album Moving Houses, which initially felt like an alienating momentum killer, has evolved into an essential extended interlude. My favourite? Probably the title-track, or else Si Te Portas Bonito with its effortlessly addictive groove. | | 12 |  | Evian Christ
Revanchist
As Revanchist develops it reveals some genuinely thrilling moments – especially if the word “trance” doesn’t conjure up too many negative associations for you. On Embers, Yxguden and Nobody Else, in particular, are absolute bangers. Silence, however, walks the ledge between epic and cheesy and sadly falls on the wrong side, albeit in a less saccharine-affected way than the Tiesto remixed original from the turn of the millennium. The trance revival is gaining momentum… | | 11 |  | Yaeji
With A Hammer
Eclectic, inventive and ambitiously produced, With A Hammer is a stylistic amalgamation of nearly every electronic genre imaginable. Individual tracks are full of mood changes and micro-genre moments, but Yaeji somehow manages to wrap it all up in a cohesive sounding package. For Granted is my favourite, but the title-track is an addictive highlight and the run from Minchin to Happy is blissful. Definitely some angry social commentary on display in some of the lyrics too which gives the project added weight. | | 10 |  | Tim Hecker
No Highs
While not a comforting, easy listen, No Highs belies its title as some of Hecker’s most cerebral and compelling work in some time. The imposing Monotony opens things ominously, while Lotus Light and Anxiety add impetus and menace. Winter Cop may be the saddest two-and-a-half-minute instrumental I have ever heard. No Highs is not background music, it requires investment. | | 9 |  | DreamWeaver (JP)
blue garden
This kept growing as the year came to an end. Opening with dreamy breakbeat (Blue Garden), moving through spacey rave (Last Eden), and into deep ambient (Cloud 9 Hypnotics), the first three tracks are a microcosm of the album as a whole. Sometimes you just need to connect with one song before the rest of the album really hits; for me it was I Love the Rain which hooked me in with its melody and playfully ethereal character. | | 8 |  | Klein
Touched By An Angel
Sounding nothing like anything else released this year that I have heard, Klein is an experimental ambient mashup of R&B, drone and classical that is just plain bizarre in places. Way too long, but also oddly compelling; in the two months I’ve had this I find myself returning repeatedly. Challenging, but intriguing. | | 7 |  | Doc Sleep
Birds (in my mind anyway)
Not saying this is comparable to the The Field, but there is definitely a love of the loop going on here. There’s also a lot going on in the background and it’s easy to picture a lazy summer afternoon relaxing in a lush garden enjoying nature. Titles that reference birds, meadows, flowers, orange groves, branches, the Sun and naps reinforce the open-air, dozy soundscape. But this is a techno record at heart – downtempo, ambient, sure… but still a squelchy little thing. | | 6 |  | Gonubie
Signals at Both Ears
Another grower. What initially seemed an unsubstantial ambient curio developed into an essential regular listening experience as its charms revealed themselves. Repetitive, airy and gentle, Signals… is the perfect accompaniment to a lazy day spent not doing very much at all, or as wind down to a night of drama. Sometimes a little jazzy (as in Cuvier’s) but always delicately blissful. | | 5 |  | Andrea
Due In Color
An early year standout that grew with repeated listens. Due In Color peaks with Remote Working and Silent Now, both of which wouldn’t have sounded out of place on labelmate Skee Mask’s masterful Pool from 2021 (both high praise and a faint criticism). Other favourites include Chessbio and Hazymo which make an impact with what sound like real drums (and piano on the latter) adding vitality to the haze. | | 4 |  | Tzusing
Green Hat
After an interesting mostly spoken-word intro, Take Advantage pounds its way through four minutes of almost-industrial sounding beats in an impressive opening onslaught. Filial Endure Ruthless and Balkanise are driving, urgent mid-album anthems and the closer - blistering techno stomper Residual Stress - is perhaps the best thing here. | | 3 |  | Deena Abdelwahed
Jbal Rrsas
An always engaging and regularly surprising meld of genres with the common threads being a high degree of physicality and her addictive Tunisian Arabic vocals. Highlights include Complain with its sublime denouement, the rave atmosphere of Violence, and Naïve, which pissfarts around for a few minutes before settling into a glorious acidic groove. | | 2 |  | Wata Igarashi
Agartha
The most neglected electronic album of the year. An ominous intro precedes Pounding – a Krautrock-reminiscent highlight that would be the perfect accompaniment to an early dawn bike ride to nowhere. But the highlight is Ceremony of the Dead; Igarashi is a master at building tension from minimal beginnings (recall the monumental Eruption from 2020) and by the time ritualistic chanting assumes precedence in the mix you realise how immense the track has become. It’s all rolling hills from here until Darkness calms and Eternally welcomes you home effortlessly. | | 1 |  | Kelela
Raven
The best album of the year by a long way. It’s likely too long, and even stylistically incoherent, but it’s a behemoth. The ambient bookends frame the album; I still feel tremendous anticipation hearing those first few distinctive notes of Washed Away. The first half is mostly alternative R&B, and the tracks meld together seamlessly. After a few listens the initial notes of each song feel classic – like you’ve heard them since you were a kid. The spacious jazz of Let It Go showcases Kelela’s spectacular vocals, and I've almost managed to accept the jarring rap verse on Closure. After the exquisite rush of album standout Contact, Raven takes a surprising turn towards electronica and there follows a progression of ambient and club tracks that take the album in an unexpected and compelling direction. The run from Fooley through Bruises is just sublime, but nothing at all like what has preceded it – problematic for some, but for me, emblematic of the epic, escapist journey that Raven is. | |
izakaya
12.15.23 | great list - 1 and 5 are awesome and 7, 13, 14, 15 good too. will check out some of the other ones too | Azazzel
12.15.23 | nice effort list, looks like a intriguing bunch of adventurous albums. I like my electronic (do they still call these IDM?) like my (extreme) metal, cerebral but not necessarily punishing so this should be perfect for a change of head space | markjamie
12.16.23 | Thanks. Any electronic recommendations from 2023 I may have missed would be greatly appreciated too. | Hyperion1001
12.16.23 | 3 7 and 14 look cool
check out the new dario zenker, its like 5 but better. | markjamie
12.16.23 | Will do. | jrlikestodance
12.16.23 | Some great picks and stuff I need to check out. +1 for the new Dario Zenker | myri14
12.16.23 | Will check these descriptions and dive into a couple of these in the coming weeks, thanks so much for doing this. Only full on electronic album that came out this year that I got into was Actress - LXXXVIII. | markjamie
12.16.23 | Thanks. Haven't heard the last couple of Actress albums. Will check it out. | izakaya
12.17.23 | earth trax - closer now
traumprinz - blue turtle
forest swords - bolted
martinou - chiral
are some of my faves from the year. (2) for dario zenker as well | Donchivo
12.17.23 | Wow I certainly haven't heard a single one of these, but your descriptions sound intruiging! Will surely czech some of these, especially Wata Igarashi and Sophia Kourtesis | markjamie
12.18.23 | Earth Trax is wonderful - exactly my thing - thank you. Zenker good too. |
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