Listen to selections from this list on our Spotify playlist and Apple Music playlist. All releases featured here are independently selected by our editors. When you buy something through our retail links, however, Pitchfork may earn an affiliate commission. What does New York sound like? AceMo Adrian Mojica and MoMA Ready Wyatt Stevens bring their lightning-in-a-bottle energy to small clubs around the city, where Stevens will sometimes hop on the mic and hazily emcee, and their debut collaborative EP manages to capture the same spirit. Akasha System is the leading artist in the new subgenre I am calling Portland techno. Stereotypical, perhaps, but Echo Earth , with its raw sound and big sweeps, is so evocative of green terrain that it feels impossible that it came from anywhere urban.

Franchises

Follow the Fader
Electronic music is a huge tent with so many diverse approaches, and it's more international than ever with producers around the globe pushing music forward. The year's best albums featured returns from established talents, as well as ground-breaking newcomers, and a host of women changing the old boy's club of electronic music. Undoubtedly one of the most gifted frontmen of his generation, there had always felt like something was missing from Thom Yorke's solo career. While he had the ideas, ability, and enthusiasm to explore his more electronic vision, something was lacking in the execution. It was if he could never fit his songwriting personality in with the electronic music he wanted to make. However, with Anima , everything seemed to finally click. Musically, it was still Yorke's take on electronic music, full of shadow beats and fidgety breaks but with a greater sense of melody and, most importantly, a sense of humanity. Of course, the post-millennial angst is all present and correct, but the ripples of chords that close the skittering "Twist", the achingly beautiful "Dawn Chorus", and the orchestral swells that close "Not the News" give the album more relatable, emotional heft.
DJ Nate: “Fuck Dat”
Electronic music in was a little like metal this year: Few ringers to steal the spotlight, no easy narrative to summarize the whole, and more hidden gems than we really knew what to do with. Without someone like Richard D. James sucking up all the air in the room, it took a little more digging to find stunning Italian EBM, German industrial drone, Iranian ambient, and like, whatever Fire-Toolz is. Here are the 20 best electronic albums of
Or browse results titled :. Even in the realms of the superstar DJ, edgy and extreme music is making its way to the mainstream, and the wild variety of sounds cropping up across smaller scenes is a sheer joy. In that one piece, the Finnish synth-rock band achieve the platonic ideal of trance-inducing, space-voyaging techno, and have written a classic for the ages. Not only does it keep hitting hard over its entire duration, it gets better with every listen. An extraordinary achievement. Sometimes techno with high production value sacrifices groove in favor of finicky detail, but Edge of Everything delivers on every front. It is apocalyptically tough and dramatic, and can be appreciated purely for its adrenalizing qualities while also rewarding close listening. Chicago legend Jamal Moss, aka Hieroglyphic Being also Africans With Mainframes and Insane Black Man , has a massive discography, which so many tracks built around extreme distortion and lo-fi recording that approaching his music can be daunting. So let this mini-album serve as a brilliant introduction. Yet somehow, it remains rooted in the clubs of his hometown.