Best Of 2024: Electronic
From ambient soundscapes to synthetic pop, there's much to explore here!
The electronic music I love runs the gamut from ambient soundscapes to synthetic pop, both of which you’ll find below alongside releases that bridge the gap between the two. The cream from this already creamy crop rose to my Top 25 in the form of albums by Arushi Jain, Elsa Hewitt, I-R, kuuma, and Clair Rousay - read all about those here. For other overlapping sounds, catch up with the Best Of 2024: Classical.
As usual, a quick run-through of everything I covered previously starts things off. Press Play on the playlist for the perfect soundtrack!
A Song For Friday
Sugar Vendil - Live Love Work Play “…an involving tapestry of sound that simultaneously soothes and enlivens.”
Earth Flower - s/t "The overall soundscape is electronic and filled with intuitive, left-field touches, including Gendel’s breathy sax and Melanson’s inventive percussion, with koan-like lyrics wending their way through it all on the wings of Garbus’ affectless soprano.”
Richard Knox - (Un)Yielding II “…a sublime, nearly static, sheet of sound that somehow seems to be arrowing through time itself, like the prow of an ice cutter in the Arctic.” Note: Also make sure to delve into (Un)Yielding I and (Un)Yielding III.
Stephen Vitiello & Andrew Deutsch - Almost Missing “Both tracks on Almost Missing are hypnotic but energizing and prove that the banjo wildness conjured up by other artists, like Weston Olencki, is not happening in a vacuum.”
Jan Esbra - Suspended In A Breath “Over nine brief tracks, Esbra explores a variety of textures and moods, building up layers from guitars, Organelle, and loop pedals, then processing them to create expressive soundscapes.”
Emmanuel Jacob Lacopo - Miniature Beams “But there’s something about the absolute precision Lacopo brings to the piece that frees it from the staves on the sheet music and allows it to truly soar.”
Record Roundup: 2024 Electronic In Focus
Blackmoonchild - The Pisces Tape “You’ll be dancing and disoriented - and never more so than during the unhinged cover of Britney Spears’ Toxic.”
Derek Michael - Tunnels “With rhythms that slyly nod at Kraftwerk classics and the whole history of Detroit Techno…Micheal’s expansive album is a trip of a different kind.”
NEW CORRODED - Pass Lightly “Dark and sleek, it moves like a maglev train through the night. Get on board.”
Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross - Challengers “Luca Guadagnino’s sexy tennis flick is a total blast - and Reznor and Ross gave us the precision-tooled soundtrack to match.”
Kristina Warren - The Bandwidth To Care “If you feel baffled after one listen, play it again and all will make sense.”
Stefan Meier - PP-06: Nervous Systems “This typically adventurous release features Canadian composer and installation artist Meier, whose ability to create a narrative out of noise consistently intrigues…”
Technical Reserve - PP-07: Cheap Heat “Two computers…and one cello plus some deeply twisted ideas about what to do with them…”
Dau - Gilly’s Wood “…songs traffic in starlit drama and calm acceptance, rounding out a remarkable collection.”
Jeff Greinke - Oceanic “…deeply immersive soundscapes that use some of the techniques of ambient music while somehow propelling you through the travelogue Greinke is conjuring…”
Jonathan Sielaff - Coral City “…solo Sielaff hits the sweet spot on this rich collection, which blends bass clarinet, electronics, guitar, and field recordings into questing panoramas of sound.”
Michael A. Muller - Mirror Music “Meditative simplicity combines with intensely detailed passages for an exemplary mind movie.”
Bloooom - Dew Life “…improvisations that strike a perfect balance between synthetic and analog elements…”
Pet Wife - Foam Set “The strongest collection yet from this queer trans duo features sculptural sounds, finely honed songs, and that harder-to-define quality: a world view.”
Perdurabo - Magnetar “…marshalls powerful percussion and epic keyboards for a series of anthems that glitter with nuance.”
New Reviews
TURQUOISEDEATH - Kaleidoscope On the night of my last concert in 2024, I first attended a surprise birthday party for my sister-in-law. Hanging out with some old friends, I ended up talking to their kids and got some music recommendations. That’s how I traversed the distance from the Village to Bushwick on the glittering glass rainbow of this latest album from a British keeper of the drum’n’bass flame I hadn’t heard of ten minutes before I left the party. As I traveled towards a previously unseen venue to hear a new band, all the infinite possibilities ahead seemed reflected in the constant shattering and reassembly of sound TURQUOISEDEATH was delivering in a seamless unfurling. The album ended just as I mounted the stairs to Unruly Collective’s brownstone, a perfect propellant towards sets by Ben Seretan, Cachabacha, and Fun Facts. An experience like that can bond you to a record. Press play and see where it gets you.
Nimalan Yoganathan - The Dub Structure Tracks included in this compilation have also been featured here (in 2023) and here (in 2025), but I’m linking to this one because it was my first introduction to this Canadian sound artist’s marvelous methods of assembling tracks. Plus he quotes me on the page, LOL. From abstract sonic environments to references to actual dub reggae, his interests are broad and the results leave no questions about his skills and questing nature.
Audio Obscura - Acid Field Recordings In Dub Involving abstractions by English producer Neil Stringfellow, with hints of ambient and dub, sometimes both, sometimes neither. Based on field recordings - or noises Stringfellow remembered, such as a street cleaner’s broom “bouncing up and down in the exact way a snare on a Dub reggae record might” - these are immaculate sounds, precisely placed in a glimmering soundscape.
Sachi Kobayashi - PSALM016: Lamentations This unsettling collection on Phantom Limb’s Spirituals imprint is a perfect introduction to the methods of this Japanese producer and composer, which has her processing synth sounds through cassette decks. This gives everything a tension and an almost physical presence, two qualities perfect for music “born out of sadness and grief toward the current wars.”
Loula Yorke - Volta and speak, thou vast and venerable head I have some catching up to do as these are the fourth and fifth albums from this Suffolk, UK-based electronic composer, improviser, and sound artist. Created in her cottage studio, Volta has Yorke using a combination of compositional and generative techniques on her modular synths, which she then recorded live to create a series of ping-ponging jams that rise and fall in intensity. Created for Quiet Details, the “record label where each release is an interpretation of the name,” speak… is more texturally varied, bringing in field recordings, buzzes, and drones for a seamless journey into the mind of a musician who’s carrying forward the foundational work of Laurie Spiegel and Suzanne Ciani in a highly personal and original fashion.
Danz CM—The Map OST Shiny and propulsive, this short EP retains the naiveté of early Kraftwerk while still being completely accomplished—just as you would expect from a highly skilled composer, producer, and synth historian. Created for Gary Hustwit’s 2020 documentary short about the redesign of the NYC Subway map, the music is a delight in any context.
Michelle Moeller - Late Morning There’s an air of cerebral play to this album that puts it in the lineage of Erik Satie and Thelonious Monk. Like those two groundbreaking musicians, Moeller’s main instrument is the piano, but she is equally adept at electronic keyboards and assembling seemingly disparate elements into cohesive pieces. This brief and strong debut from the Oakland, CA-based composer and producer sets her trajectory toward all points of the compass. Long may she travel.
Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross - Queer Somewhat overlooked in the disco-ball glare of the hedonistic Challengers (see above), this score for Luca Guadagnino’s William S. Burroughs adaptation is a work of pensive and subtle beauty. Sections of it get close to the psychological acuity of Bernard Herrmann’s best work. But when Reznor is duetting with Brazilian legend Caetano Veloso or when the hammer drops on the electro-psych mindblower, No Holy Grail, these two are in a class by themselves.
Bolis Pupul - Letter To Yu Stepping aside from his world-beating partnership with Charlotte Adigery, the Belgian producer investigated his Chinese heritage, turning his discoveries into witty and bittersweet tracks with richly layered electronics and killer beats.
Omar Ahmad - Inheritance Remixed Eight simpatico producers, including Ki Oni, give Ahmad’s sublime and deeply moving collection (my #3 album of 2023) of ambient and beat-driven vignettes the remix treatment. The collection illuminates different angles on Ahmad’s work and the general concept of inheritance. New additions include spoken word, fun and fizzy beats, and large helpings of atmosphere. While nothing will replace the extraordinary original, Remixed is a fine listen, too.
Ben Seretan - Jesus Was A Slot Machine (My Big Break 2023) Even at their most elegant, these pieces project a sense of play. Originally included in Seretan’s My Big Break newsletter, they feel like missives from a friend, as if he’s saying, “Hey, check this out. I made it just for you.” The personal touch combined with musical excellence - who could say no to that?
Many of these releases have been featured on my podcast, and you can find more goodies in this playlist. Keep up with 2025 has to offer here and feel free to recommend more!
From the archives:
Best Of 2023: Electronic
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