New album: Recent controversies aside, the Irish singer-songwriter’s collaboration with German producer DJ Koze is a mesmerically inventive, intimate, candid exploration of funk, pop, disco and house, skilfully pushed through an wonderfully warped aural lens of vocal effects and sounds
Read moreJungle: Volcano
New album: Entertaining, sample-heavy fun by the London-based duo of Tom McFarland and Joshua Lloyd-Watson in their fourth album, with a polished product mixing soul, gospel, 70s funk breakbeats, electronica, dance, and disco with a shiny, radio-friendly formula
Read moreGeorgia: Euphoric
New album: Quality mainstream pop in this third album the London singer, electronica producer and drummer Georgia Barnes this her third dancefloor-focused album, this time co-produced in LA by ex-Vampire Weekend’s Rostam Batmanglij
Read moreHENGE: Alpha Test 4
New album: A third album of ingeniously brilliant keyboard blips ‘n’ beats, squelchy, catchy, funky fun from the electro-psych-pop space alien band (actually from Manchester) packed with entertaining tunes about robots, the climate crisis and more
Read moreLittle Dragon: Slugs of Love
New album: An inventive, very eclectic, enjoyably experimental seventh studio album by the Gothenburg quartet, mixing electronica, soul, pop, hip-hop and R&B with guests including Blur’s Damon Albarn and East Atlanta rapper JID
Read moreDjango Django: Off Planet
New album: A 21-song mega-release by the innovative, experimental London-based art-rock and pop quartet features a variety of great guest vocalists with music that plays around more in the electronica-dance genre and various world music beats, but overall feels more like four EPs
Read moreJanelle Monáe: The Age of Pleasure
New album: The American artist returns after 2018’s dystopian Dirty Computer a series of acting roles with a celebratory LP of her full sexual liberation and confirmed non-binary status in a release that feels like a hedonistic non-stop party of the LGBTQ Black culture scene
Read moreAlison Goldfrapp: The Love Invention
New album: Working without Will Gregory for the first time in her 25-year career, Alison strikes out with catchy breathy bangers of synth disco and electro-pop with help from producers Richard X and James Greenwood (aka Ghost Culture)
Read moreThe Orb - Prism
New album: The veteran dance music and ambient noise duo still with co-founder Alex Paterson return with a vibrant release of cosmic electronica, dub and reggae, house, drum n’ bass, guest vocalists plus newscaster and other sampled voices
Read moreSkinny Pelembe: Hardly The Same Snake
New album: The eclectic experimentalist from Doncaster, aka Doya Beardmore, with roots also in Birmingham and Mozambique, comes up with a powerful, visceral new LP, spanning indie, avant-pop, hip-hop, rock, electronica, gospel and soaring soul
Read moreNabihah Iqbal: Dreamer
New album: The London electronica artists and DJ, formerly known as Throwing Shade, brings a mix of dancefloor with the dream-like, sensual, breathy and ethereal, with echoes sometimes of Cocteau Twins, but also of New Order
Read moreJessie Ware: That! Feels Good!
New album: Classy and indeed classic disco, pop, soul and funk by the London-born soaring-voiced singer, who with this fifth album of 10 glitterball bangers is really at the very top of her game
Read moreEverything But The Girl: Fuse
New album: Tracey Thorn and Ben Watt return finally, after 24 years, with an album of smooth, but melancholy electro-pop/dance, walking a dark, nostalgic path through various niche musical trends through the decades since their 1984 debut, Eden
Read moreFire-Toolz: I am upset because I see something that is not there
New album: Like a bizarre recipe filled with flavours that should not mix, but by some strange alchemy really work, an extraordinary fusion of electronica, ambient, drum’n’bass, jazz, prog, pop, and blasts of dark metal by the Chicago producer, composer, and multi-instrumentalist Angel Marcloid, a heady fusion that must been heard to be believed
Read moreA Certain Ratio: 1982
New album: The Manchester post-punk veterans Jez Kerr, Martin Moscrop and Donald Johnson, return with a sparklingly eclectic record of electronica, dance, jazz, funk, Afrobeat and more with a retrospective feel on their history
Read moreDutch Uncles: True Entertainment
New album: Vibrant, tight, bright, excellent toe-tapping indie electro-pop with a darker undercurrent by the Manchester quartet in their sixth full LP and first for six years, echoing influences such as Yellow Magic Orchestra and The Blue Nile
Read moreOrbital: Optical Delusion
New album: Electronica dance veterans Phil and Paul Hartnoll’s 10th studio album is musically varied and dynamic, and powerfully examines the self-deceiving chaos of the last few years with a variety of guest vocalists
Read moreYoung Fathers: Heavy Heavy
New album: There’s nothing quite like them. Joyous energy and endless invention, the Edinburgh trio’s fourth LP is filled with soulful, emotional vocals, fabulous oddball, dynamic beats and sound textures, and already an album of the year contender
Read moreFujiya & Miyagi: Slight Variations
New album: Crisp, clean, refined, witty, cleverly pared-back electro-pop by the Brighton band of two decades and fronted by David Best with this very fine LP released in late September
Read moreSantigold: Spirituals
New album: Inspired by African-American folk and gospel, this powerful, feverishly intense, emotional fourth LP released in September by the singer-songwriter brings an electric mix of punk, hip-hop, funk, afrobeat, electro-pop, and reggae wrapped in rage, anxiety and reflection
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