Rolling techno* albums thread for people who are clearly doing it wrong

hieroglyphic being album on soul jazz is great, how it compares to the other 544 hieroglyphic being albums i know not

that nidia minaj one is a good listen too imo

I would love to see some year-end top 10's in this vein.

if i was doing a dance-only list it'd go

1. levon vincent - levon vincent
2. helena hauff - discreet desires
3. nozinja - nozinja lodge
4. holly herndon - platform
5. jam city - dream a garden
6. flava d - more love
7. jlin - dark energy
8. dj richard - grind
9. vakula - a voyage to arcturus
10. nidia minaj - danger
11. fatima yamaha - imaginary lines
12. floating points - elaenia
13. hunee - hunch music
14. romare - projections
14. heavy-k - respect the drumboss 2015
15. anna caragnano & donato dozzy - sintetizzatrice
16. blondes - rein
17. darkstar - foam island

I love the Jam City and Caragnano/Dozzy but I can't imagine thinking of them as dance music, really.

yeah the jam city was excellent

The new Donato Dozzy album (Loud Silence) is pretty disappointing. It's like he takes the same concept as Aphex Twin did 25 years ago with "Didgeridoo" - the similarity between acoustic instruments and oscillating electronic sounds - except he's using mouth harp instead of didgeridoo, and stretches it over several tracks. It's not a an unworthy idea, but who needs a full album of that? Sintetizzatrice I found to be a bit more interesting, but I think it suffered from the same flaw of spreading a simple idea too thin. I wish DD would stop releasing these concept albums (this is the third in row!) and go back to proper techno, like K and Voices from the Lake.

Anyway, my top 7 electronic albums from this year would be like this:

1. Raw C + Pharmakustik ‎– Anamorph Specimens (excellent, droney and acid-tinged long-form techno)

2. Holly Herndon ‎– Platform (a clear improvement over her previous album, this is how glitch should sound like, fun and inviting; if it wasn't for the silly ASMR track, this would be almost perfect)

3. Thomas P. Heckmann – Ghosts (this album looks and sounds like a soundtrack to some imaginary science horror film, some cold and harsh dark ambient with occasional beats)

4. Omni Vu Deity - Vuunayatu (this pretty much the opposite of "Ghosts", light and colourful and breezy ambient; this is supposedly inspirede by Polynesian music, but I'm not sure if I hear it, except for the gentle percussive pulse that permeates the music)

5. Lorenzò Montana - Vari Chromo (this sounds like old-fashioned "home listening techno" with its syncopated beats and moody synth melodies, but boy is this guy great at producing it)

6. Material Object + Ishq ‎– Invisible Light (these two acts from the opposite ends of ambient music, with Ishq specializing in soothing cosmic sounds, and Material Object in metallic drones; as expected, the result of their collaboration is somewhere in between, but it works)

7. Moufang / Czamanski ‎– Live In Seattle (unlike the Reagenz album of last year, this recording of a David Moufang & partner live techno gig actually sounds live, with plenty of fun improvisation)

I wish I could add the new Pole album to the list, but like Donato Dozzy it was kind of disappointment; cold and abstract, but not in an interesting way, like his previous LP was.

i only listened to the Jam C

oops

i only listened to the Jam City once but was really disappointed. Loved classical curves a ton, did not care to hear dude start singing

THE HELENA HAUFF ALBUM

― lex pretend, Tuesday, October 6, 2015 1:48 PM (2 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this is fucking rad, tho

my year, no particular order:

acronym - june
helena hauff
hunee
jonas munk - absorb/fabric/cascade
laurel halo - in situ
mesh - piteous gate
nick hoppner - folk
everything reckonwrong released, thanks ilx for the tip
regis - manbait
tom ellard - rhine

Material Object + Ishq ‎– Invisible Ligh

haha interchill 2015 to infinity! downloading now.

Just discovered that Acronym album yesterday, it's excellent.

A lot of these albums don't feel especially concerned with dancing at all, a lot of ambient/drone/glitch/sunset beach bar vibes/industrial/stealth indie which is all well and good but nine times out of ten they don't really excite me. I want more artists to make albums that feel more like great DJ sets, Levon definitely wins in this regard.

Maybe I could start a separate rolling thread for ambient/chill/weeded electronic music? I'm getting old, so this kind of sofa music appears to me more these days than hardcore bangers, but I agree that they don't really belong to this thread...

Rolling ambient/chill out/drone/moodz thread: from 2010s 'til infinity!

that boof album is really good imo. i enjoy the hunee but his mixes are better, like 5/6 this year i'd rather listen to.

dance artists making home listening albums that aren't focused on the dancefloor is a pretty long-standing thing and a reason it's not really an ~albums genre tho

vincent, hauff, nozinja, nidia minaj, dj richard albums are all refreshing in that context, they're all pretty banging, and if i heard the right bits of the herndon and jlin albums they'd work too

the hunee album is a bit like last year's leon vynehall album to me, really talented producers making always-pleasurable sounds but they have less of an impact in the album format than as a single or in a mix. i mean, it's worth hearing if they're your thing

hunee's mixes are legit so much better than his own stuff tho imo, not that his album is bad or anything, just a little boring comparing to his selections

i think the boof album is pretty much doing it right, comparable to levon vincent's lp with the variations in style and ratio of dancefloor to couch

I wasn't feeling the Boof at all when I listened earlier in the year but may give it another go.

yeah hunee is an incredible dj, haven't heard the album yet lol.

how do y'all feel about the dj richard album? i thought it was good w/ some misses. i liked the flow and general vibe.

as this thread title kinda implies, most dance albums are p sterile - the buzz of a great mix is so much better. if i listen to electronic albums it's p unlikely they'll be house and techno.

it's a no brainer - all the music ever made v one artist's music.

i mean of course, some albums are good and there are great electronic albums, but even at a time when i'm less purist about electronic music than ever, this all still feels quite true for me, not least because i don't think it's ever been possible to get such a glut of mixes from clever selectors.

this idea of a dance album replicating a dj set is like someone telling me a jacket made out of shoes is a good substitute for a pair of shoes

i don't think the aim of most dance albums is to replicate a dj set and most of the best dance albums don't have the same appeal as a mix at all. i guess a lot of the time it's a producer finding or honing a very distinct style or sonic palette that works really well together rather than joined up with other artists' styles (which is true of the vincent, hauff and nozinja albums, the three on my list that i'd really really rep hard for as albums qua albums and which are also dancefloor-oriented)

Yeah it's not literally wanting a mix of an artist's own stuff (although I did feel that about the DJ Q album from last year) it's more just a sense of narrative or flow or whatever, some sense of energy rather than bloodlesness.

So many techno albums in particular just feel like an arbitrary selection of discrete tracks, with the sense that the artist didn't consider them good enough to release as singles. And who wants to listen to individual techno tracks anyway? Like, the records are explicitly designed to be heard in the context of one another.

that is a bit of an old saw around here and it isn't completely true imo, i mean it depends on the artist. i want to listen to individual techno tracks when they're good as tracks and would much rather hear those in a dj set anyway. if it's boring to listen to start to finish it's boring in a set imo. i can enjoy an album full of good house / techno on its own even when it's relatively 'mixable' as long as it has some character.

i like the album format for certain artists because it lets you dive a little bit more into what makes them tick. examples coming to mind are the pearson sound or anthony naples albums from this year, which like don't grab me by the lapels but are rich as collections i think.

i guess a lot of the time it's a producer finding or honing a very distinct style or sonic palette that works really well together rather than joined up with other artists' styles

for sure - i guess that sentence describes any good album, to a point - i just think it's p rare for this to be done in a brilliant way in dance music - you need a real auteur.

i want to listen to individual techno tracks when they're good as tracks and would much rather hear those in a dj set anyway. if it's boring to listen to start to finish it's boring in a set imo.

yeah i mean i have always liked listening to individual techno or house tracks. thing is, there's kind of a long-standing prob with dance albums whereby the tracks are just not as good as the producer's best recent 12 or remix. of course it's not a cast iron universal truth but i always feel like 12s or singles are just worth more. a really brilliant two-track 12 feels like it gives more joy than an album, or a really brilliant track. a mix full of these components the same.

it's not even purism - it just feels kind of essentially true to me, like a characteristic of what dance music is, though obv ymmv.

in any case i think this year is a p good example of this - i liked the hunee record on first listen but after a few plays it's p much done. the breadth of his selections on nts have me going back for more constantly. the power of these amazing cratediggers on tap on soundcloud is serious.

yeah i have to say i mostly prefer the 12" to the album anyway, more bang for my buck!

i've really enjoyed this album, vaguely drexciyan italo jams

http://eodtracks.bandcamp.com/album/the-derelict

Yeah I guess the issue is more often than not with producers just not bringing their A game to an album, or trying something new that they just aren't as good at.

I think I'm really talking about techno albums here - there are loads of great house albums, especially at the vocal end of the spectrum. But it's also structural - techno is so much about momentum and build that it's frustrating to hear producers abandon that by including half a dozen inessential tracks, or veering off into ambient just as they've got something building.

Going right back to a record like Landcruising, or the Brown Album, and you think these guys just nailed how to make techno work in the album format. The Levon album has that whole properly structured flow, the Nick Hoppner album as well, in a gentler way. But it's also significant that the best Omar-S album is a mix of his own stuff, the best Matthew Jonson album is basically a live set etc.

"if it's boring to listen to start to finish it's boring in a set imo"

Thing is I've heard so many unexceptional records come to life in the hands of a really skilled producer. Plenty of records are just components, a cool noise to be thrown in at the right time, and that's fine, they're basically made with that in mind.

I mean a really skilled DJ, not producer.

trying to think of other electronic albums that work as mixes in their own right- there is obviously the Villalobos Fabric mix of his own material, as well as Omar-S. The (excellent, under-rated) i:Cube album M:Megamix record springs to mind as well.

confessions on a dance floor is basically a continuous mix

unexpectedly i enjoyed the helena hauff album much more than her previous 12s

The (excellent, under-rated) i:Cube album M:Megamix record springs to mind as well.

Just to be clear this was both an album and a record, available in the CD and double vinyl formats.

trying to think of other electronic albums that work as mixes in their own right- there is obviously the Villalobos Fabric mix of his own material, as well as Omar-S. The (excellent, under-rated) i:Cube album M:Megamix record springs to mind as well.

I think there are a lot of these, just to name a few off the top off my head:

Donato Dozzy - K
Voices from the Lake - Voices from the Lake
L.S.G. - Rendezvous in Outer Space
L.S.G. - Singles Reworked (this is a great example of how to make your "greatest hits" album into an interesting new work, Lieb has remixed his old singles and presents them as a nice continous mix)
Vapourspace - Themes from Vapourspace
Air Liquide - Nephology
Innerzone Orchestraa - Programmed
Microglobe - Afreuropamericasiaustralica
The Dark Side of the Moog ‎- The Evolution of the Dark Side of the Moog (another "greatest hits as mix" compilation)
DeepChord feat. Echospace ‎- Liumin

etc.

thanks! do any of those come as particularly highly recommended? Innerzone Orchestra will be good I suppose?

Oh and Kraftwerk - The Mix, of course!

This Nozinja album is brilliant by the way, would happily listen to multiple albums' worth of this.

fucking love levon's album. up there for me with like burger/ink for home/travel listening albums centered around 4/4 kick.

versus a mix i like having a track i don't always want to hear in there like "small whole-numbered ratios" bc it can be skipped without ruining anything but also makes me think yeah i feel you levon...

how do y'all feel about the dj richard album? i thought it was good w/ some misses. i liked the flow and general vibe.

btw i love this record

the other week i alternated it with a bunch of death metal records and they seemed to share a swampy quality

also, the nozinja record!!!!!

Pye Corner Audio - Prowler

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPw9zFkvgOY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XA5U7bL1JrM

Perfume Advert - 200+ Gamma (Opal Tapes)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKu6IW_O5k4

Tulpa from 2013 is worth a go too - https://1080pcollection.bandcamp.com/album/tulpa

just encountered Lumisokea from Berlin, this is out this week and I'm really into it so far http://opaltapes.bandcamp.com/album/lumisokea-transmissions-from-revarsavr

definitely techno with an asterisk, kinda on the Cut Hands / Raster Noton type acts side of things. hypnotic/pingpongy/electroacoustic

Shalt - Unconfined
https://soundcloud.com/factmag/shalt-unconfined

full ep out today: https://astralplanerecordings.bandcamp.com/album/acheron

Really loving the recent Pye Corner Audio album, Prowler.