The best Electronic Music of Q1-2023

Featuring 35 EPs and albums from January to March

After my 2022 best-of round up (EPs, Albums), I thought it’d be nice to cover new releases in a quarterly fashion. There’s been a lot of good music in the first three months of the year, so I had to leave quite a few things out and still ended up with a list of 35 albums and EPs! I hope you enjoy listening and scrolling through these and might find something you like!

JakoJako - Verve [Mute]

JakoJako's new EP on Mute delivers four immaculately produced melodic ambient-techno tracks. "Impetus" goes trance-y in a low-key way, with a rotation of glassy, gated arps and booming reverberant lowend. "Opak" is a heavenly floater with a warm kick, pulsing bassline and thick, warbling pads. "Auris" is more quick-footed and dubby, with a catchy bassline and lush, smokey chords. Closer "Nexus" goes darker than the rest, with nervous kicks, decorative bursts of noise and a wistful mono arpeggio that emerges towards the end.

Morten B. - Untitled [Mosae Records]

Within just a few releases, Morten B. has established himself as a reliable source for the kind of traditionalist, Basic Channel inspired dub techno that many attempt, but few get right. In a genre that's all about texture and tone, his tracks excel with dim, moody warmth, lustrous resonance and metallic, shimmering textures.

Jo Johnson - The Wave Ahead [Mysteries Of The Deep]

Jo Johnson is a former riot grrrl punker turned ambient producer. Her output is sparse, but essential. While there are many similar releases centered around gently rotating synth arps, her sound has a certain mysterious quality that recalls the mythical, primordial era of synthesis, when synthesizers were not consumer products, but occult technology.

N9oc - Memory Allocator [Die Orakel]

This EP on Frankfurt's Die Orakel label appears to be the first release by local producer N9oc. In one impressive debut, she flawlessly cycles through early IDM, proto-techno, electro and 90's ambient.

John Manhard - MUIMUI002 [Mui Mui]

This EP features some of the best house I've heard in a while. "Lennox is NK" centers around flanged, sultry vocals and a bouncy bassline that runs over a background of sizzling, damp noise. "Hog Lord Smanging" cycles through lush chords over bare and skippy drums. An impromptu vocoder-interlude adds a touch of surprise. "Lexington" is relaxed and swinging, with more with flanged vocals and vocoding. "House Standard" delivers on its title with a classic piano house number. Four tracks of warm, lush and groovy goodness.

HOLOVR - Continual Unfolding [Indole Records]

A few years ago, HOLOVR had the honor of releasing new music on the mythical early UK techno label Likemind. A fitting match, since HOLOVR has a hand for channeling the utopian romanticism of that period, when electronic music was still about a promise of the future, expressed in machinic bleeps and sequences.

Dorisburg - Voices [Aniara]

Every once in a while, a track comes along that proves that it is still possible to squeeze novel tones out of the ol' TB-303. On Voices, Swedish producer Dorisburg makes the little silver box sound almost impossibly elegant and ethereal, like fog slowly gliding over the vast and sublime Scandinavian lands.

Chestnut People - Chestnut People [Exo Recordings]

Chestnut People is the new collaborative project of Priori and Ludwig AF. Their debut EP throws together various influences from the deeper end of the early 90's, freely borrowing from early trance, downtempo, proto-jungle, and chillout. My favorite track here is IV, beatless with slow and glistening arps, enveloped by shimmering reverb and samples of gently flowing water.

0 - 01 [0]

Is the Acting Press posse just messing with us now? Their latest project appears to have been intentionally designed to be as cryptic and ungoogleable as possible (artist: "0", album: "01", label: "0"). The strange press blurb on their bandcamp page just adds to the surrealist presentation. The music's just as weird: a single, 25-minute long lo-fi loop that sounds like it's been through at least a dozen generations of cheap cassette tape. Although little happens across its duration, it somehow remains mesmerizing throughout, cycling through bar after bar of earthy bass, swooshing noise, dim percussion and warm chord-fragments.

Burnski - Where Are You? [Constant Sound]

Where Are You? is another EP of bassline-heavy modern house bombs by UK producer Burnski. The title track channels ruff 2000s UK-bassline. Stop is a sexy, jazzy number with lush rhodes keys and soulful vocal samples. Closing track The Way is a deep, wide and mourning dubwise anthem.

Lugo / Shiroshi - Feed [SUPERPANG]

Feed is an album mostly composed of screeching cascades of noisy feedback. While feedback technique certainly are a well-treaded cliché in experimental circles, Feed is rescued from academic dullness by its stern, but delicate focus on the visceral experience of feedback and its textural and timbral nuances. Across the record, Lugo and Shiroshi weave together live-playing, oscillating feedback tones and heavy, noisy compression-overdrive into an organic whole. Not the most easy or pleasant listen, but a rewarding one.

Divide - Manifesto Futurista [Warm Up]

Manifesto Futurista goes all in on the future-pressure with four tracks of driving and grinding wide-screen techno. Throughout the EP, Divide runs enormous amounts of reverb into pumping compression and grizzly clipping, creating dense, noisy and blurry spaces that endow the tracks with a a damp and cavernous atmosphere.

SP:MC - Missing You / Big Request [Declassified]

MC-turned-producer SP:MC channels classy modern UK garage here. The A-side "Missing You" is soulful, with a house-y square-wave bassline, lush chord stabs and sampled RnB vocals. "Big Request" is darker and leaner, with a ruff halfstep bassline oscillating over skippy and tight garage drums.

Fireground - Recreation [Ilian Tape]

The sound of early 2000s techno is back. After the endless 90s revivals, I suppose it was only a matter of time. Italian duo Fireground excel at recreating this sound with their period-correct dry, saturated and pumping tones. Recreation is a classic early 00's filter disco number; dead simple, but all the harder to pull off, which they do with finesse. Spice Up is equal parts percussive and detroit-y, while Bamboo is a heavier track consisting of little but slamming, compressed drums and faint noises.

Cv313 - Suspended In A Moment [Cv313]

Echospace's Steven Hitchell is back with two singular and sublime extended ambient drifters. Music for those twilight states between sleeping, dreaming and waking.

Luxe & Tom Place - Moonquake [Dansu Discs]

Moonquake rather shamelessly apes twinkly progressive house and trance ca. 2003-2004: shimmering trance arps and breathy female vocal chops over a dark, buzzing reese bassline? Hello Luke Chable! But it's a sound that I've always had a soft spot for and Moonquake does it well, channeling grand nerd emo-melodrama without veering into cheese or ironic appropriation.

Paradox - Breakbeater / Detronic [Sneakers Social Club]

On this two-tracker, breakbeat maestro Paradox combines fat, mid-tempo breaks, subby dub-step basslines and dubby, cascading delays. The LFO-"womp" bass on "Breakbeater" is reminiscent of classic half-step; on top echo fluttering, modulated vocal snippets. Towards the end, one of those classic shimmery jungle pads lends a brief touch of emotion to the overall ruffboy atmosphere. The flipside "Detronic" is a deeper number, grounded by a massive sine sub and elevated by floaty and filtery dub techno stabs. An occasional dubbed guitar skank subtly hints towards Jamaica.

Kassem Mosse - Workshop 32 [Workshop]

Cult weirdo-house producer Gunnar Wendel has been mostly quiet the last couple of years, but now he's back with a double-pack on his home base Workshop. Workshop 32 keeps with the label's tradition and delivers raw, strange, skeletal and hermetic tracks that evoke an alternate past in which early Chicago house forgot about the dancefloor and went all off-kilter. This is one of those records that is so inwards-looking and seemingly unaware of exterior time and space, that you start to wonder if its creator has even listened to anyone else's music in the last ten years. God bless the weirdos and hermits.

Eliane Radigue - 11 Dec 1980 [Important]

New archival material from drone queen Radigue's electronic period. Essential.

Levon Vincent - The Medium Is The Message II [Novel Sound]

This one's a classic raw, Levon-style street beat, coming in with nothing but a distorted kick, a swishy shaker and a pulsing chord stab. Despite these bare-bones ingredients, he manages to keep things engaging throughout the track's extended thirteen-minute duration through the means of keen dubbing, lively filtering and smart drum-arrangement.

SØS Gunver Ryberg - Spine [Arterial]

Spine is a warmer and smoother record than the Swedish producer-composer's previous efforts. She diales back the distortion and harsh noise, and instead hones in on lush and stepping ambient techno, interlaced with warbling and shimmery beatless pieces. It's still got plenty of sonic impact, but also looks towards the subtler moments in between the beats.

Andrea - Due In Color [Ilian Tape]

Italian producer Andrea is a mainstay of Munich's Ilian Tape label, consistently delivering the colorful, breaksy techno sound that the label has become known for. With big kicks, bright synths and wide, shimmering pads, in Due In Color follows a proven trajectory, but adds a some novel nods to jazz by embellishing tracks with skittish, acoustic percussion and occasional bass guitar.

Yushh - Look Mum No Hands [Wisdom Teeth]

Another one of those warm, lush and chord-driven UK techno records that have been popping up a bunch recently. These tracks here strike a great balance between sonic impact and subtlety, lightly stepping back and forth within a large, soothing bath of atmospheric pads that is grounded by subby, dub-stepping basslines. A warm-up record for smart and adventurous DJs.

Aural Imbalance - Planetary Formation [Auxiliary]

Aural Imbalance has been a reliable source for spaced-out and atmospheric jungle for years. As the EP title suggests, Planetary Formation looks towards outer space, enveloping classic breaks in endless layers of clear and wide reverberating pads. Proper sci-fi tracks.

Bluetrain - Precious Times [Kontakt Records]

On Precious Times, London dub techno legend Steve O'Sullivan is joined by vocalist Prince Monrella for two tracks of classic dub-house skank. Despite the nod to Rhythm & Sound, O'Sullivan's sound has a distinctly modern feel, channeling the lean and functional sound of contemporary dancefloor-oriented house. At ten minutes each, these tooly and extended tracks take their time, dubbing along at their own pace and swinging back and forth within their own grooves.

Cassy - The Mission [Kwench Records]

Veteran house DJ and former Panorama Bar resident Cassy tries her hand at euro-kitsch. Dangerous territory, but she pulls it off. “Inside Dance” is a surprisingly sparse track, consisting only of fluttering 909 drums, a Moroder-esque bassline and her own, reverb-drenched vocal ad libs. With such simple ingredients, all it takes for an euphoric climax is a pad and some 909 rides. The flipside “The Get On Down” is rougher and less euphoric, closer to 90’s Chicago than Euro-Italy.

Ena - Stratum [Rosa]

On Stratum, Japanese weirdo-DnB producer Ena continues to venture into alien territory with a series of noisy, textural sketches that sound more like field recordings than "music". With conventional melodic and harmonic elements largely out of the way, he throws himself into the finer subtleties of inharmonic noise and texture.

Skee Mask - ISS009 [Ilian Tape]

Munich don Skee Mask refuse to stand still and keeps trying out new styles with each release. His new EP ISS009 plays around with various strands of what used to be called "post-dubstep". "Bandprobe Dub" is a dubby techno/dubstep hybrid, recalling late 00's productions by 2562 and F. "UWLSD" gets more garage-y, with skippy, stepping drums and a fat garage bassline. "Studio 626" is a little early Mount Kimbie homage, all choppy and giddy and euphoric.

The Abstract Eye - Nine Oh Nine [Technoindigenous Studies]

Low-key LA cult producer Gifted & Blessed is back with another EP of classic, raw and skittish electro-techno. My pick here is "Can You Keep Up?", with its bouncy, swinging 909 drums, seductive dry bassline, jazzy keys and gliding resonant arps.

Pan American - In Daylight Dub [Foam On A Wave]

This one's a reissue of tracks dating back to the early 2000's. Kranky mainstay Pan American eschews the guitar and channels his brand of dusty Americana through the computer. In Daylight Dub’s sonic landscape is warm, but sparse, populated by a wide and cinematic backdrop, little bits of clicky percussion and intermittent bursts of noise. Tracks from an alternative universe where "mnml" techno had emerged out of rural America, rather than Berlin and London.

Freund der Familie - Rising Sun Interpretations [FDF]

FDF's newest is a dub-album made up of dubbed versions of material by fellow Berlin producer Rising Sun. While these tracks are mostly gray-scale, occasionally, haunting and glistening pads shine through the dubby mist, lending the music a subtle, but powerful emotional edge.

Alton Miller - Run The Essentials [Quintessentials]

During the brief deep house revival hype of the late 2000s, the Quintessentials label was one of the more prominent outlets, consistently churning out the good and deep stuff. Still active fifteen years later, its latest EP of slow, light and soulful vocal house from Detroit veteran Alton Miller is about as untrendy as you can get these days. But that hardly matters, since, far away from TikTok buzz or fawning press features, tucked away in the corner of some small bar or club, a local DJ will be spinning classic house, and this record might be just the dose of soul and deepness their little dancefloor needs.

Gamut Inc - Sum To Infinity [Morphine]

Sweeping, atonal digital spectral harmonics, accompanied by polyrhythmic, computer-controlled acoustic percussion and metal instruments? Sounds just ripe for a party! I'm kidding, but for such an unapologetically bizarre record, this one's pretty damn fun, eschewing academic self-seriousness in favor of a mad scientist's bravado, passionately indulging in its own absurdity.

Leigh Dickson - Definition Of Praise Revisited [Pariter]

I usually don't like remix albums - who needs that many remixes? - but this one succeeds by keeping the remixes brief and essential. Leigh Dickson's original is a gorgeous track, pure detroit techno-soul, with classic 808 drums, a gripping bassline, sublime vocal pads and haunting strings. Baby Ford's two remixes keep it simple and tracky, doing just enough to turn the track into a ruff vintage house anthem. Obergman's remix offers a more contemporary, subtle Romanian house vibe, while fellow soulful techno producer Derek Carr goes dubby and bouncy.

Imaginary Softwoods - The Notional Pastures Of Imaginary Softwoords [Field Records]

The Notional Pastures is classic Imaginary Softwoods. It evokes fantastical forests and dream-like pastoral landscapes that are colorful and inviting, urging you to lose yourself in their radiating warmth. But (in the best tradition of Boards Of Canada), hidden somewhere deep in the background, there remain signs of an ancient. ghostly presence that is haunting the land. Music like an old-fashioned fairy tale.