This year’s best electronic albums span the widest range of styles of any genre, ranging from melodic electro and warm house to the experimental outer reaches.
Listening to DJ Koze’s Music Can Hear Us is like stepping into a kooky sonic funhouse — playfully warped, pleasantly disorienting, and strangely familiar.
Squint upon the Outside Lands playbill or you might miss a new favorite act performing while the sun is fully shining.
From forward-looking electronic and experimental to new approaches in the ever-evolving R&B scene, from hip-hop and punk to rock and pop, 2018 bestowed an embarrassment of musical riches upon us.
Electronic music is one of the broadest-reaching genres by design, and 2018 highlights that as well as any other year on record. These are the 25 best albums.
DJ Koze's commitment to avoiding easy four-on-the-floor dance music, his unwillingness to whack at synth pads for an hour and call Knock Knock an experimental ambient album, is commendable.
Even a minimal, highly ascetic branch of house music, in the right hands like DJ Koze, can become the springboard for something deeply profound and transformative.
