Quality electronic pop music, classic nordic style.
Aurora – A Different Kind Of Human – Step 2
Fujiya & Miyagi – Flashback
Just the usual. And I’m pretty sure that’s what I wrote of their last album, too.
(Edit: and checked, and yes. That still means good though.)
Fixmer/Mccarthy – Let It Begin EP
This sound is so recognizable. Intersting how this does not translate outside headphones for me. First listen of Let It Begin with headphones felt like my head exploding (in a good way). Re-listening it on loudspeakers of different kinds just didn’t give the same vibe back. I guess in a club it would be good again. Anyways, headphones it is. Sidenote: great album cover photo.
Yak – Termina EP
I could swear I heard at least half of these tracks in the past decade. In the crossroads of “nothing new” and “sounds classic”. Anyhow, Stampede is something that’s new and instantly recognizable – soundtrack to a car chase in an action movie.
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.
ZAMILSKA – Uncovered
We would have called it trip hop a decade ago, now she labels herself as techno. Things just go around. Thumping rhythm, humming bass, noisy soundscapes, eerie vocals.
HEALTH – Vol. 4 :: Slaves of Fear
It’s like The Knife with more tempo and an industrial touch. Ends up with a cyberpunk soundtrack feel to 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.
Tim Hecker – Anoyo
Hecker’s Japanese trip is an elegantly spaced ambient composition. Negative space, Japanese instruments, digital noise, ritual, calm, sacral scents.
Elder Island – The Omnitone Collection
Electronic, pop, soul. It’s like the Bristol rework of German nu jazz. Great concept of cover series for the singles and the album.