The Top 50 albums of 2021 – 30-21
The choice list of 2021’s choicest albums
30
Kruder & Dorfmeister – 1995 (G Stone)
“Reminiscent of subdued halftime as it is of boomy trip-hop, only deploying the genre’s trademark breakbeat after almost 6 minutes of kick drum driven exposition. After a nauseating excursion through beatsmithery – and gurgled vocal snippets from an old recording of an auctioneer – we are treated to a liquid jungle beatswitch. It’s a rollage not unlike something heard on Good Looking or Formation Records, jungle labels active during K&D’s “pure” era.”
29
Tom Furse – Ecstatic Meditations ( Lo Recordings)
“The reference points he cites include Alice Coltrane, Laraaji and Japanese environmental musician Yasauki Shizimu. What Furse achieves is making a record that feels on a level with the genius musicians who’ve helped him find his own sound. It’s a meditative album that you can leave on and escape into that will completely transform your body and leave you feeling more divine..”
28
DJ Seinfeld – Mirrors (Ninja Tune)
Swedish producer DJ Seinfeld is back in long-playing action with the release of his second studio album, ‘Mirrors’. The carefully constructed collection follows an extended period of sonic R&D, and admirers of his back-catalogue are likely to discern a tangible progression in his already potent sound signature. There’s plenty to enjoy here, with fans of the more accessible end of electronic music equally likely to find favourites among the collection as strict underground devotees. Clearly, DJ Seinfeld’s concerted period of close personal reflection and sonic refinement has been time very well spent.”
27
DLR / Break – Hit The Target (Sofa Sound)
“Dream team Klaxon! Two titans in the game Break and DLR collide once again for ‘Hit The Target’. An ode to the late 90s Bristol sound, all stripped-back, full of shakers and ludicrously funky, its understated funk worms its way deeper and deeper into your soul on every 16. ‘NADS’ on the B sees DLR swinging his sack in a much grimier, grizzly way. Think early 2000 Dispatch but with added crunch. Cover your sensitive areas.”
26
FYI Chris – Earth Scum (Black Acre)
“More than anything, the album format has presented FYI Chris with the opportunity to cast themselves as more than just a duo of northerners making tunes in Peckham. There’s a rolling cast of vocalists, from Pinty and Simeon Jones to Thick Richard and DJ Morris – all friends living in their vicinity as opposed to pointed or contrived link ups with hotly tipped ‘names’. Much like the recent Joy Orbison mixtape, this familial approach adds a certain sincerity to the music, providing a window into the real world the artists reside in.”
25
Mori Ra – Japanese Breeze Edits (Forest Jams US)
“These tweaked obscurities sit somewhere between far-sighted electronica, Japanese takes on American minimalism, city-pop, jazz-funk and spaced-out post-disco, though there are also forays into horn-heavy disco-funk, AOR, new age ambient and percussion-rich curiosities. A brilliant collection of lightly tweaked musical obscurities: don’t sleep!”
24
Yung – Ongoing Dispute (PNKSLM)
“Denmark’s second city, Aarhus has a thriving band scene…. A commanding Jarvis Cocker-esque charm working brilliantly as the most melodic element in the band. Underpinning this vocal is guitar-led compositions taking cues from the best in post-rock/krautrock/jangle pop. That said about the melodic element, let’s not take away the fact they can be incredibly unhinged at times:”
23
Arpanet – Inertial Frame (reissue) (Record Makers)
“In some ways Gerald Donald will always be one half of Drexciya before anything else. When you create something as profound and widely adored as he did with James Stinson, it’s not easy to shake off the association. But what Drexciya achieved in expanding the parameters and possibilities of electro set the stage for what Donald would go on to achieve afterwards. Across aliases and collaborative projects such as Heinrich Mueller, Dopplereffekt, Japanese Telecom and Der Zyklus, he’s plunged boldly into abstraction as much as upheld his distinctive strain of groove-oriented electro-funk, depending on the particular project or intention.”
22
Directions – Echoes (Temporary Residence)
“One of the hooks to draw attention to this reissue of a modest cult classic is its high profile co-sign from Kieran Hebden, aka Four Tet. Coming from the sympathetic trajectory of his post-rock group Fridge, Hebden credits Echoes as a major inspiration for the start of his work as Four Tet, and it’s not hard to discern. The sultry sax, meditative percussive groove and mellifluous double bass meanderings sound like a shoe-in for the debut Four Tet album Dialogue. But where Hebden explored electronic processes in this context, Echoes has a loose, dubby, organic quality. You can sense the mood in the room as the track was laid down – it’s music of this earth, even if it travels far across its 10-minute run time.”
21
“Flock is Another rich and varied offering from Weaver. There is a starkness, but it possesses fantastic colour and somehow, she manages to implant soul into robotic melodies and motoric rhythms. The consistent “eco-friendly, post-new-normal” theme is vital flavouring given the dark and bewildering times we are now living through. But as underground artists go, and especially now as she launches this new pop-plated effort to sit it all on, Jane Weaver for sure remains the bomb.”