The continued bleed-through between boundaries can make slotting albums into various genres a challenge. When it comes to this category, I continue to feel that attitude and impact mean more than mere instrumentation. That said, all of these are distinguished by a fluency with synthesis and software that should inspire anyone looking for new possibilities at the intersection of technology and music. Several albums were previously covered so we’ll start with those.
Follow along with this playlist.
Record Roundup: 2023 Quarter Report, Part 2
Tongue Depressor/Weston Olencki - Don’t Tell No Tales Upon Us
“The earth’s crust may be vibrating in response.”
Frederic Oberland - Solstices
“…unafraid of music’s ritual power…”
Ibukun Sunday - Mantra
“…meditative collages of synths, spoken word, and other evocative sounds…”
Morena Leraba - Fela Sa Ha Mojela
“…blends electronic music, dub, hip hop, and traditional music to mesmerizing effect…”
Seabuckthorn - Inlandscape
“The expanded instrumentation adds a new heft and sense of purpose to his emotional explorations.”
Collin J. Rae - Pandemia
“…vignettes of layered noises, each one a static-laden transmission from humanity’s most recent dark night of the soul.”
Ryuichi Sakamoto - 12
“…spare piano notes floating in an ethereous haze…”
Record Roundup: Signals And Synthesis
The Cry - s/t
“So simpatico are the players that you’d never guess it wasn’t all planned out in advance.”
Miss Grit - Follow The Cyborg
“If the cyborg overlords of the future make records as good as this one, I will gladly submit to their rule.”
Alison Goldfrapp - The Love Invention
“…that voice and those melodies reign supreme in a world of chunky synth bass and big beats.”
Kalia Vandever - Fell In Turn,
“…gorgeous…music for solo trombone and electronics…”
Arthur King - Landscapes (Zompopa)
“…essentially an abstract concept album, with immersive soundscapes rooted in field recordings from the rainforest.”
John Atkinson - Energy Fields
“…tracks that move from abrasion to elegy to uplift…”
Ki Oni -A Leisurely Swim To Everlasting Life
“…gently shimmering and billowing waves of sound, occasionally incorporating sounds from his daily life…”
New Reviews
Rainy Miller x Space Afrika - A Grisaille Wedding While the title refers to a monochromatic painting technique, there’s plenty of color and texture to be found on this collaborative album. It’s a mind movie of the highest order, but whether a documentary, space opera, or action adventure flick is up to you to decide. Pulling in tendrils from hip hop and R&B (with help from guests like RezNiro, Iceboy Violet, Coby Sey, et al - no, I’ve not heard of any of them either) and even incorporating touches of earnest indie rock, the collaged approach is the ultimate star of the show.
Yaeji - With A Hammer This came out in April and I spent the rest of the year coming to acceptance that it wasn’t going to deliver the sublime pop pleasures of What We Drew, the 2020 album now downgraded to a “mixtape,” which hit my Top 25 that year. But she is so talented - and fiercely passionate - that the album is undeniable even so. Mixing electronic textures with live instrumentation and bringing a modern chamber sensibility to the proceedings, Yaeji’s journey to self-actualization is never less than fascinating. And if it’s danceable fun you seek, look no further than Easy Breezy, the delightful single she released in November. Maybe it will show up on the next mixtape…
Katie Dey - Never Falter Hero Girl Perhaps as a bulwark from the emotions they express, Melbourne-based singer/songwriter/producer Dey prefers to sheath her Baroque pop constructions in a hard shell of glitch and gloss - while coyly throwing in one of the year’s most exciting guitar solos in Dawn Service. As a trans woman who has experienced her share of tough treatment, the triumphant tone here is well earned. As she sings in Face First, “but you can survive in a song/i won’t be here very long/nothing can hurt me/they don’t deserve me/i’ll stay alive just to kill my own story.” Survival in a song goes both ways so I’ll just say, with gratitude: never falter, Katie Dey.
Molly Joyce - Evolution of Perception Anyone with a disability is likely to be especially sensitive to themes of perception and language. Joyce, a composer and performer whose right hand was permanently disfigured in a childhood car accident, has drawn inspiration both from finding out what she is capable of despite/because of her injury and from her activism around all forms of physical and mental challenges. With song titles taken from John Koenig’s The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows, this latest project builds on both the lighter-than-air art pop of Breaking And Entering, her brilliant album from 2020, and her other, more classically-oriented work. Spoken-word segments (“Does anyone want a coffee? I like to cook coffee.”) shade into Laurie Anderson territory and may relate to the Emotions Project, a collaboration with writer Marco Grosse, artist Galya Popova, and dancer Anna Koblova from which the album is drawn. As a listening experience, if it gets occasionally obscure, it’s never less than intriguingly so. For someone who has been keenly following Joyce’s own evolution, this album repays that attention - with interest.
Danz CM - Berlin Tokyo Shopping Mall Elevator The CM stands for “Computer Magic,” which was this producer, songwriter, and synth historian’s previous AKA, under which she started releasing music over a decade ago. This varied collection is a wonderful place to start if you’re unfamiliar, spanning realms from Raymond Scott-like naiveté and optimism to harder-edged song craft. Everything is treated to a polished production, featuring expert layering of electronic tones and textures, with wry humor and melodic gifts further distinguishing the tracks. Feel free to shop around - but don’t skip any floors.
Vines - Birthday Party After Googling what she would need to make her voice sound like Justin Vernon’s, composer/performer Cassie Wieland created the Vines project, first as a vehicle for cover songs. That led to her signature sound of pillowy keyboards, treated vocals, and deep melancholy, all of which are in evidence here on her first full-length under this name. Combining that sound with lyrics that are beyond telegraphic (the words to January are: “I'm having trouble making it through the year and it's only January” - that’s it), makes for a deeply affecting listen. Further proof of concept is provided in the cover of Modest Mouse’s The World At Large, which finds the great song hidden within Isaac Brock’s lamentable delivery. One thing I love about being a Wieland fan is that I still don’t know what she’ll do next - a symphony? a string quartet? an opera? - but if there’s more Vines to come I’ll be a happy man.
Loraine James - Gentle Confrontation There’s an interior quality to this expansive collection, which touches on avant R&B, ambient, drum’n’bass, and more, suggesting that at least part of James’s confrontation is with herself. But by letting us into her world, including revealing some of her mathy, emo influences and wry humor (in the song titles, especially), she also gives us access to ourselves. A captivating listen.
Carlos Ferreira - Isolationism Through the sparest of means, this Brazilian guitarist, composer, and producer gives us tracks that soar, amuse, and hypnotize on this richly involving collection.
Mario Diaz de Leon - Spark And Earth I’ve been following Diaz de Leon’s work for over a decade and the journey is always gripping. On this latest album, he combines his massive guitar riffing with glassy synth textures, sometimes side by side and sometimes intertwined. As a student of alchemy, he is likely aware of the power released by bringing these disparate forces in contact with each other. Clear some space in your life to bear witness.
Davi Music - Good Morning Deja Vu This latest studio full-length from producer and guitarist David Feddock is well titled as my first few listens were accompanied by a nagging familiarity. Then it dawned on me: Evening Star! Of course, I’m referring to the classic early ambient album that combines Robert Fripp’s guitar with Brian Eno’s treatments, resulting in wonderful sounds that feel like nothing else. Until now. Somehow, Feddock has covered not a song but a mental and emotional state. That’s how it hits me, anyway, and it is MARVELOUS. See also Of Rivers And Lakes, a live collaboration with guitarist Michael Goldstein, which traffics in a shimmering minimalism.
Mary Lattimore - Goodbye, Hotel Arkada Whether collaborating with Superchunk’s Mac MacCaughan or Slowdive’s Neil Halstead, or making sublime sounds with just her harp and a loop petal, Lattimore has dependably delivered sonic wonders to our ears for quite a while now. Working with a variety of people, from songwriter Meg Baird to Cure guitarist Lol Tolhurst, Hotel Arkada continues that streak, with sparkling arpeggios and swirling textures. Perhaps most effective is the final track, Yesterday’s Parties, which draws in ghostly vocals from Slowdive’s Rachel Goswell and violin from Samara Lubelski to create superbly subtle drama - if it were a TV series, I’d binge it.
Ben Sloan - Muted Colors If you record on the same cassette too often, the ferrous material can fragment allowing sounds from one side to bleed through to the other. While I know the same isn’t possible with a hard drive, there’s a similar palimpsest-like quality to these tracks, made up of fragments Sloan built up while on tour as a percussionist with the likes of Moses Sumney, Rozi Plain, and The National. On this debut album, he’s honed all those bits into songs, some including vocals from Sumney, Madeline Kenney, and others, for a decidedly leftfield approach to pop music. On a live EP released later in the year, he proved he could add some more viscera to these skeletal constructions.
Friends Meeting - God Respects Us When We Work, but Loves Us When We Dance The convocation of Ben Seretan, who has given us some of the best ambient music of the last few years in addition to his songwriting and production work, and M. Geddes Gengras, who’s no slouch in this realm himself, has led to this dreamy 52-minute epic. Unfolding like a walk through nature, it subtly shifts through environments - as if moving from field to woods to lake - without ever losing the airy, reflective beauty with which it began. Absolutely mesmerizing. And don’t miss this overstuffed compilation of Seretan’s My Big Break tracks, which can enhance your inbox on the regular if you sign up for his newsletter.
Lawrence English & Lea Bertucci - Chthonic I don’t travel much, and when I do it’s usually to cultural destinations (i.e. Italy) rather than natural ones (i.e. the Amazon rain forest). But somehow the awe-inspiring soundscapes Bertucci (who is having quite a year) and English have conjured up give me a sense of what it might be like to just be floored by our glorious planet. Cannily blending field recordings, electronics, tape, and acoustic instruments, they’ve crafted a unified sound that feels like it has always existed.
David Toop & Lawrence English - The Shell That Speaks The Sea Toop’s career was already legendary before the turn of the century, whether for releasing foundational oddities on Brian Eno’s Obscure label, appearing on the first album by The Flying Lizards, or writing one of the first books on hip hop in 1984. This collaboration with English has been in the works for at least a decade and finds Toop as fearless as ever, speaking illegible incantations and assembling musique concrete that seems to dissolve before your ears.
Epic 45 - Spring Whether creating ambient folk, as on Weathering, which hit my Top 10 in 2011, or folky ambience, as here, Ben Holton and Rob Glover rarely put a foot wrong. This album has been in various stages of completion since 2006 but is timeless enough to fit into any year’s sonic landscape.
Brian Eno - Top Boy (Score From The Original Series) Even if you’re not haunted, as I am, by the fatalistic tale of rival/partner drug lords Dushane and Sully, the sounds crafted by Eno for the soundtrack of the British series will tell some kind of story to your soul. With a great deal more textural and instrumental variety than his recent “generative” music, Top Boy is like a new Music For Films…but it’s all for one film. Majestic miniatures from a master.
Did you discover something new? Let me know by leaving a comment!
There’s plenty more where this came from in the 2023 archive playlist - and keep up with what 2024 brings here.
From the archives:
Best Of 2022: Electronic
Best Of 2021: Electronic
Best Of 2020: Electronic
Best of 2019: Electronic
Best of 2018: Electronic
Best of 2017: Electronic
Best of 2016: Electronic