The Year in Electronica

Continuing from yesterday, here are my personal favourite electronic albums of 2010. Before you dash off, it's worth mentioning that The Knife's electro-opera Tomorrow, In A Year, missed out on this list by a single downy hair, but is absolutely worth your time. Just not quite as much as these:


10. Delorean - Subiza

Ibiza might not be everyone's idea of a good time and it's definitely not my idea of a source of inspiration, but in this case I'm happy to be proved wrong. Delorean's Balearic pop on Subiza is a rich, satisfying record lined with bright, summery piano and insistently positive vocals.  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QngeN-5wGQ

9. Emeralds - Does It Look Like I'm Here?

Drowned In Sound's record of the year, but not mine. It certainly is a blissful assortment of digital soundscapes but it rarely strays beyond unobtrusive ambience, when it does though, robotic signal beeps collide with reverberating synth patterns in a haze of theatrical techno.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Og1qs2OAuPE

8. Crystal Castles - Crystal Castles II

Alice Glass goes hardcore (at least in sound, she was always fucking maniacal) with even more visceral synths and voice work that sounds like she's being constantly asphyxiated. Suffocated is the least radical point, which is more or less just Air War 1.5 but the crushing distortion of Fainting Spells and spectral Sigur Rós cover Year Of Silence are significant departures for the pair. 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzcZu7qN8F8

7. Röyksopp - Senior

The logical follow-up to Junior, Röyksopp took their indulgent adolescent outlook on synth-pop and matured it a little for their fourth album. Senior is far more reflective and sombre, tracks like The Alcoholic and The Drug stand out as positively gloomy in places, but the crisp beats and airy alpine chords keep the whole affair distinctly familiar. Röyksopp might have grown up a little, but Happy Up Here, this is not. 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YM4vWu1Wrl8

6. Pantha Du Prince - Black Noise

The third release from German producer Hendrik Weber, Black Noise has more of a spring in its step than his prior minimalist techno: the orchestral-inspired house on display here finds a perfect ground between sweeping ambience and throbbing dancefloor energy. Mid-point standout A Nomad's Retreat teases in a gorgeous brain-wiring rhythm while exploring a vast sonic landscape of fluttering cadence and mournful hums. Its reminiscent of Burial in places, with elegant pauses to accentuate the renewed beat but the overall sound is far more lavish, meaning it not only works as lounge electronica, but full-blown house as well. And that, is quite an achievement. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHq0-ujgoaY

5. Four Tet - There Is Love In You

Unfairly labelled as one of Hebden's least inspired pieces, There Is Love In You is still makes positively thrilling listening, darting between heartstricken cyborg bleeps (Sing), jazz-tinted lounge (This Unfolds) and introspective instrumentalism (She Just Likes To Fight). None of this is a dramatic change for Kieran, but hey, if it ain't broke.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhYV2Q6_hbI

4. Flying Lotus - Cosmogramma

A man from the DJ Shadow school of sampling, Steven Ellison, the L.A. producer Flying Lotus has a sound quite unlike anyone else at the moment. His unique brand of electro seems at first to be clumsy and invasive, bumbling past ill-placed time changes and disparate chords, but look further. After a few listens, Cosmogramma suddenly makes sense as a mischievous jaunt through electronica's major subgroups, taking cues from techno, house and dance with a few forays into pop and hip-hop. Its challenging, but ultimately far more rewarding than the work of more by-the-book producers. 
http://soundcloud.com/simm/sets/flying-lotus-cosmogramma

3. Yeasayer - Odd Blood

Yeasayer ditched their globe-trotting alt-folk in favour of more electronically-driven sound on Odd Blood, the decision raised a few hipster pulses but of course they had nothing to worry about, the end result is just as continent-spanning in scope as their previous album yet maintains a dazzling pop-sheen throughout. Love Me Girl is a Timbaland meets Yo La Tengo burst of charmingly infatuated funk with a dark pop chorus and ONE sits pretty on a skipping reggae beat with punchy percussion and extra stretchy synths.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPbsxA0bBgA

2. Neon Indian - Psychic Chasms

Psychic Chasms is a true masterpiece of chillwave; retrospective in outlook, lethargic in attitude and blasé in production value. Their ethic is evident everywhere, in the lazy holiday hedonism of Deadbeat Summer, the narcotic regret of Should Of Taken Acid With You and the head-swimming Mind, Drips. It's all so effortlessly enjoyable and unassuming that it's impossible to take it seriously, but why would you? The production may be Brooklyn-bedsit in budget, but it's not like that stopped them liberally dosing this all-too-short record with fantastically honky synths and perfectly placed samples, look at Laughing Gas, with its inane background giggling or Local Joke and its exuberant fireworks crescendo. Psychic Chasms was designed from the ground up to brighten your mood, and succeeds at damn-near every turn.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWs4e7oTn9g


1. Caribou - Swim

This was the hardest decision I've made since the last closing time at my local, but Swim tops this list for the following reasons. The balance between ardent and joyful lyrics is nothing short of artful, the instrumental percussion is evocative and varied and the production is nothing short of astounding. The pacing is spot-on, each track is placed to keep the experience progressive and rewarding in consistently surprising and original ways.The opener Odessa is as intimate as it is epic, as likely to pluck at your heartstrings as it is to give you itchy feet with its synthetic wails and haemorrhaging bass. Following on from that though is Sun, a joyously occult incantation over glittering synths and beating tribal drums. Swim continues in this fashion for the next 40 minutes, evolving at every step until its conclusion on Jamelia in a cascade of weeping strings. Its this unrivalled experience, that nets Caribou the top spot. 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aiSa7THgxrI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=euS2SlC68q8