Top 3 Electronic Albums of 2008
By Nick Manteris · 1 Comments · Leave a Comment
Electronic music used to be a larger facet in my life, but then it began to get too incestuous and uninteresting. This caused an enormous upswing in the amount of girly music and indie rock in my musical diet, but the desire to groove to electronic music has never really gone away. It just seems like there’s less good stuff out there than there used to be. This is the best electronic stuff that 2008 had to offer:
3. Stereolab – Chemical Chords
The last Stereolab album that I owned was Emperor Tomato Ketchup, but Chemical Chords makes a strong argument in favor of checking out the five albums that I missed. This release actually has the same number of good songs and bad songs as the next album on this list, but it had twice as many average tracks.
2. Supreme Beings of Leisure – 11i
The last Supreme Beings of Leisure album that I owned was their self-titled debut, so I’ve missed one of their releases as well. This sounds like the kind of stuff you’d hear in a spy film if the protagonist visited some sort of futuristic lounge. Or something.
1. She – Coloris
She might be the first chiptune http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiptune music that I’ve encountered…it’s certainly the first time I’ve encountered the label. The entire album ranges from average to pretty good and several of the tracks are just fun. I imagine that this is the exact type of stuff that plays in elevators and stores and other public places in Japan…I mean, it must be.
okay, I admit it
I really should have included Portishead's Third on this list, but my very first impression was - and I'm being nice here - VERY negative. It took me two more listens over the course of at least a year and a half before I could be truly objective and - while I still don't think it compares to their past work - it rates highly enough to bump Stereolab from this particular list.
Mon, 02/01/2010 - 20:02 · Nick Manteris