Drew Daniel: "Trump has weaponized a kind of insincere, smarmy trolling manner. I didn't want music that similarly relied upon that stance. I wanted something that was, in a way, the opposite. Something that felt affirmative and warm."
Tri Angle comes to an end as a label but begins as an important archive of electronic music. To celebrate these legendary 10 years of Tri Angle, here are 10 of their many essential releases.
Journey back 15 years ago, as 2005's best electronic albums are so emotionally involved and organically expressive that it's easy to forget they were created with advanced technology.
Cenizas is the sound of Nicolás Jaar skirting around the edges of his own sound—skeletal, stripped-back, examining the little things that made his music so great to begin with.
Electronic producer Ital Tek's new album Outland is ambitious and profound while remaining compelling unpredictable. It's a constantly shape-shifting, all-encompassing musical experience.
On DJ Python's Mas Amable, everything moves along in a liquid haze. Each song slowly mutates into the next, and each sound seems to become something unlike itself.
Legendary producer and Planet Mu label head µ-Ziq lends his remixing skills to "La parole 5", a gorgeous new song from Roman composer and electronic artist, Vincenzo Ramaglia.
Squarepusher's Be Up a Hello asserts that what some would consider an outmoded sound palette can still be mined for fresh ideas, that IDM in its golden-age variety has yet to reach its zenith.
Greg Hates Car Culture ultimately stands out for more than being Venetian Snares' first vinyl release; it's the sound of a vital artist throwing ideas on a wall and seeing what stuck.
Electronic producer Squarepusher's new album Be Up a Hello releases 31 January via Warp. Hear his latest single "Nervelevers".
Electronic music is a huge tent with so many diverse approaches, and it's more international than ever with producers around the globe pushing music forward. The year's best albums featured returns from established talents, as well as ground-breaking newcomers, and a host of women changing the old boy's club of electronic music.
Electronic musician Markus Popp continues to make warm, creative and adventurous electronic music under the Oval moniker with his new EP, Eksploio.
On For You and I, Loraine James rightfully claims the title "Glitch Bitch" to explore what it means to be queer in the spaces of IDM and one of its places of origin, London.
Bones is electronic producer Datach'i's most emotionally affecting and poignant album to date. These tracks work as a powerful collective rather than individual experiments with his production reaching new heights.
With Delphi, Canadian electronic artist Antwood releases an ambitious collection of brash electronic music and a whole slew of genre pastiches yet to be invented.
Retrace features inventive, fully-formed pieces that push Lusine's sound forwards; pulling and twisting the core elements into different shapes.
Throughout Mechanical Flirtations, Iranian duo Saint Abdullah deal in weaponized compassion and empathy, tuning their boundless music to start fires. Theirs is a sound of protest and resistance, of warmth and reconciliation.
By successfully tying the tracks to culturally relevant, apposite themes, Plaid's Polymer is one of their most strikingly accomplished albums to date.
Electronic duo Plaid discuss their favorite tracks from their 10 albums and two soundtracks released on Warp.
Experimental electronic producer Burnt Friedman documents the musical melting pot of Berlin and Central Europe generally on his latest album. Watch his new video for "Supreme Self Dub".
On his first album in eight years, electronic music pioneer Amon Tobin creates more unsettling soundscapes.
Apparat's LP5 asks questions of genre while providing a guided tour of some contemporary electronic trends.
Drew Daniel of Baltimore-via-Bay Area pranksters Matmos discusses their new album Plastic Anniversary, homophobic Montana moms, and the difficulties of recording a breast implant.
Experimental electronic duo, Matmos return after the exquisite Ultimate Care II with an etude on the various sounds that plastic materials can awaken.
Here we are in 2019, and Matmos is still producing sounds that just don't fit comfortably into any electronic subgenre currently available for classification.
Objekt combines the electronic backbone of his project with an experimental approach and an impressive amount of sound design to bring forth Cocoon Crush.
Derek Piotr's Grunt isn't so much about the sound as it is about the spirit of the noise.
Jlin's soundtrack for Wayne McGregor's Autobiography brings guttural, experimental club music from the dancefloor to the theater stage.
Brighton-based electronic artist Ital Tek has astounded listeners with his unique and innovative sounds, and he tells PopMatters about his new album Bodied as well as what it took to make his break-through album, Hollowed.
On his latest EP, Aphex Twin abruptly pulls the rug from under your feet, turning his nostalgic IDM perspective into an etude on electronic music deconstruction.
One of electronic music's most promising maximalists, Iglooghost scales back his relentless sound on a new set of EPs.
Ross From Friends' Family Portrait is an album you can easily disappear into from one of electronic music's most thrilling new talents.
Modeselektor's latest beat museum Modeselektion 4 is good, not great.
With Singularity, electronic composer Jon Hopkins uncovers a joyful sense of connection at the center of all things. "The idea of singularity is the idea that every atom in the universe exists in the same place, this infinitely small point," he says.
Litorate's "Yellow Pool" is a compelling, hallucinatory trip of a track that seems to operate in a parallel space where the tangible and intangible merge.
Jon Hopkins' Singularity is an intense, wholly immersive record that invites the listener to temporarily escape from the mundane and the repetitious and take a peek into their own subconscious.
Just by doing what they normally do on their own, Daniel Lanois and Venetian Snares combine forces to make something wholly new.
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