Ela Minus – Acts of Rebellion

This is the case when I find it hard to believe that this is a debut album. If this was the new Fever Ray record I’d be 100% satisfied and rank it among the best of the year. And this one’s a first long player by someone? Come. On. One part mid-tempo club beats with neon synths, other part slow moody songs, and a cold wave atmosphere maintained. Not the sorrow kind of cold wave though, but this introvert little wondering headspace—think Röyksopp or Ladytron.

Orlando Voorn – The Best of Orlando Voorn

It’s a mishmash of things around the house-electro-rave globe from a lifetime catalog. Two random notes. One: Playboy – A Paco Di Bango’s World goes to my hilarious house tracks playlist, right after Big Fat Head. Funny house is a thing, I’m slowly getting this. Two: Format – Solid Session is my favorite dancefloor anthem on this one, and it’s from 1991, gosh.

C.L.A.W.S. ‎- Splat City EP

First half is slow tempo electro, or as he says “cold-wave disco throb”. Great background for work or staring out of a window. Then the second half is more like an acid beast along the lines of Nid & Sancy, absolutely love it.

Anthony Rother – 3L3C7RO COMMANDO

The Hacker is a timeless classic of Rother’s that I will always list within my top electro albums. I love this dry, cold, glass-eyed android electro that he served at the time. After a while he had faded from my radar and sometimes when I checked back I didn’t quite get some of his releases. And now it seems like he returned to the roots. It’s like classic Anthony Rother even with some Kraftwerk to it, too. Although, in full honesty looking at this from 2019 (and as something written in the recent years) some lyrics seem rather vintage and in that sense funny. Like saying “creator, the code is my command” has an aesthetic to it that I love but it’s retro, like how grandpa imagines the soul of an electronic calculator.