The Top 5 Electronic Albums of 2013

Season's Greetings, Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah, one and all!  Or if you don't celebrate anything this time of year, Happy Antipathy Month! 

It has been a good year for all genres of music.  Perhaps less so with electronica, but there were still several solid releases.  Since electronics seem to be the only holiday gift that matters, I present to you our top 5 electronic albums of 20013.  This list is varied between the different schools of electronic music.  You won't find house or EDM in this list.  What you will find is some other great stuff.  Here they are:

1. Trentemoller-Lost
Before the later year release of this album, it would have been difficult to predict Trentemoller even making this list, let alone coming in at number one.  That's because we didn't know this Danish composer was working on new material until late August.  It would have been even more difficult to predict what kind of flavors were on order with this album.  Unlike his previous album, Lost incorporates a wide variety of vocals from a number of gifted singers.  Instead of breaking away from tradition, however, Trentemoller simply seeks new musical territory.  The result is nothing sort of astounding.  The deep pulses and electronic rhythms against a sea of blurry undercurrent still remain, as do the heavily distorted guitar lines.  What is new sounds almost like dreamy pop, delivered in spectacular doomy fashion.  This album grabs you from the first track and does not relent.  Speaking of which, here is that first track.


M83-Oblivion (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Normally, soundtracks do not count for album of the year awards.  Unless said soundtrack is a collection of compositions by one artist.  This doesn't happen extremely often.  When you think of electronic artists making movie soundtracks, you immediately think of Daft Punk's excellent work for Tron: Legacy.  In that same vein is the new work for Oblivion, which stars Tom Cruise.  This is a major departure in sound for M83, a French nu-gaze artist with some excellent talent.  With Oblivion, M83 trades in the guitars and pedals for an entirely symphonic electronic production.  In this album every sound you hear is being produced synthetically.  The album's closer is probably closer in style to normal M83 work, and it is the only track on the album with vocals.  You need to hear both.


3. Ulrich Schnauss-A Long Way to Fall
The first solo work released by Ulrich Schnauss in quite a long while is as good as any of the work he's done.  His latest works have been his collaborations with Jonas Munk and Mark Peters.  That should give an idea of what Ulrich Schauss sounds like.  What you hear is a deep, chill-wave style of music with some random infusions of jazz over long, soaring synths.  This album sounds darker than his previous work.  It is a very solid release.  You can listen to some of it here.


4. The Luna Sequence-The Day the Curse Grew Stronger
If you are in the market for some good old-fashioned electronic synth rock, this album should be right up your alley.  The Luna Sequence unveiled their debut album two years ago.  That was a very good effort.  This release lays down razor sharp, computer-enhanced guitar lines to create a metallic frenzy of rock and electronic.  This is a somewhat odd style, less mainstream than Celldweller, less metallic than Blue Stahli, and less industrial than I Will Never be the Same.  Also of note: There are no vocals, which really allows the music to shine.  Jump into some of the chaos here.


5. Klaus Schulze-Shadowlands
How often do you come across a double album that contains only five tracks?  That is just what German composer Klaus Shulze has done with his airy, ambient electronic new album.  As you would imagine, the tracks are very long, so this is not music for short attention-spans.  It works best as background music for when you are playing solitaire or...um, writing a music blog.  This music is dreamy, atmospheric, and beautiful.  One of track on this album is a shade under 42 minutes long, while another falls just short of an hour, a hefty 55 minutes.  The track you will hear below is the shortest track on the album. 


Of course, this list would not be complete without some honorable mentions.  Here they are in no particular order.
Cosmo's Midnight-Surge
Public Transport-Dark Days
Boards of Canada-Tomorrow's Harvest
Daft Punk-Random Access Memories
The Knife-Shaking the Habitual
Logos-Cold Mission

As always, thanks for reading, and enjoy!

Free Downloads in triplicate!

You know how they say bad luck comes in threes?  Well today I am happy to announce that good luck also comes in threes.  You have to have yin to your yang don't you? 

The other day I stumbled across two artists whose music grabbed me and wouldn't let me go until the song was over.  As it turns out both of these items were available as name-your-price downloads from the bands' respective bandcamp pages, so I promptly downloaded them.  Upon doing so, I found that one of the bands had recommended another artist that sounded interesting.  I happened to enjoy that one as well.

Three new artists in a day?  Pretty good luck.  Let's start with the first.

Kigo-For some reason i didn't get into this group much when I first heard of them a couple weeks ago.  A blog I frequently read had posted about their new EP and I liked the cover art, but i didn't find the music impressive enough to download.  Or course that changed when I listened to a second track from the EP posted about later in the same blog.  I was floored.  Kigo is one Australian dude who plays dynamic electro-gaze tunes.  We all know about Spc-Eco and M83, but Kigo is entirely different.  He combines fuzzy, distorted guitar instrumentation with pedal effects and massive underpinning of dazzling electronic reverb.  If you like shoegaze or alternative rock, you will love Kigo.  Check out their EP here.

Germany Germany-Who wouldn't half-expect this artist to be from Germany? That's what I thought.  I like German artists on average much more than I like Canadian artists.  Germany Germany is actually from Canada.  The style of music here is down tempo, spatial ambient music with tinges of dream pop to give it a more urgent feel.  Those two styles wouldn't seem to mesh well, but Germany Germany pulls it off with such aplomb that it is difficult to not be impressed.  This was much better than average.  Take a listen to their newest album below.

Arrange-I have known about this Portland-based musician for quite some time, but I never really gave much thought to listening to his music.  His latest album came to me on a recommendation from Germany Germany.  It seemed unlikely that I would enjoy it, but I listened anyway.  His new album, "Plantation" blew me away.  Complete with emotional, understated vocals and a sterile world of eerie ambiance, this record was a fantastic listen.  The genre classification here would be best suited as ambient pop, but the pop stylings are very subtle.  Instead of being bouncy, this album takes on a surreal feeling of melancholy and anger.  Such depressing tunes can be maddening to listen to for a long time, but the tracks are short and varied enough to retain interest throughout.  Check out "Plantation" below.  As always, thanks for reading and enjoy!

Miscellaneous-Sarah Brightman and Trentemoller

Today's post is going to be a little bit on the random side, since we seem to have hit yet another lull in new music released to listen to.  I am sharing a couple of tidbits of news that is not really news. 

The first Item I wanted to look at is the new video of the song Angel from Sarah Brightman.  This track comes from her forthcoming album "Dreamchaser."  The video features clips of childhood memories interspersed with space exploration footage while Brightman sings across symphonic brilliance in her unforgettable soprano-operatic voice.  Check out the new track below.


Second, I was doing a random search on soundcloud for M83 and I discovered a remix of the smash hit Midnight City by Danish electronic prodigy Trentemoller, who we have raved about here before.  Trentemoller takes apart the original by slightly lessening the atmospheric ambiance while adding bouncy electronic sections and digitally modified vocals that fit the song perfectly.  Check out the remix below, followed by the original M83 version.  Thanks for reading and enjoy!

Our top Alternative/Indie bands

Hello, everyone!  Today we are starting a collaboration between the two of us (Kristy and I) discussing our three favorite bands from each of the genres we cover.  Today we look at the alternative and indie scene, which consists of electronic rock, indie rock, grunge rock, progressive rock, and shoegaze.  Picking three of the best turned out to be a chore.

3. M83.  This Frenchman, also known as Anthony Gonzalez, pumps out dynamic 'electrogaze' music, which blends ambient soundscapes with distorted and looped guitar lines to create a dazzling atmospheric effect.  Looping and layered vocal effects are also heavily used.  Here is Midnight City, from the album "Hurry Up, We're Dreaming."


2. Radiohead.  Radiohead has been around since the early 90s.  Their sound has over the years migrated from straight up alternative rock to the electronic-based indie rock they specialize in today.  Though I disagree with the band's portrayal of today's music industry, I happen to enjoy everything they release.  Take a listen to There There (the Boney King of Nowhere) from the album "Hail to the Thief"


1. Chevelle.  Chevelle never ceases to amaze.  They play consistently good progressive-fueled hard rock that is easy to enjoy.  They have been compared way too often to Tool in my opinion, but rarely used screamed vocals.  Most of their songs are incredibly catchy and easy to sing to.  Listen to Jars, from the album "Sci-fi Crimes" below.


Kristy's Top 3 is as follows.

So you wouldn't think that choosing our top three alternative bands would be hard but it was.  I have over forty on my list and they all have things about them that I really love.  Then my husband told me to pick the best song from each band.  This was a challenge but I have chosen three great songs I think you will enjoy. 

3. Red Jumpsuit Apparatus.  I loved this band the first time I heard their first single Face down.  I like alternative music for different reasons than most.  Mostly I like guys who can play their own instruments and sing at the same time.  These guys can play music that is really harsh but the vocals are amazing.  The vocals are crystal clear and I love his voice.  I chose this song because lets face it I am a romantic sap and I love how this song starts out slow and then has this dramatic crescendo  at the end of this song.  The lyrics are amazing.  I just love it.  Check it out.



2. The Used.  My brother introduced me to the used after their single Blue and Yellow came out.  I have been a huge fan of them ever since.  Some albums are greater than others but I can always find at least one track that I have to listen to on repeat for a couple of days.  The Used is a band kind of from the screamo genre.  I am a rebel and I prefer the songs where they actually sing a song with a melody.  The song I chose for your listening pleasure is Not Kissing you Goodbye.  This track is on their album Artwork.  I love how this song starts out with just vocals and the piano.  It's beautiful and then the music picks and you can feel the emotion of the song pick up as the music soars.  This track is amazing.



1. Linkin Park.  Linkin Park is my first choice for an alternative band.  I love Chester's voice.  I don't even mind the screaming.  I first heard Linkin Park again from my brother.  The first song I heard from them was Crawling.  I loved the electronic intro and was blown away the first time I heard Chester sing.  I know that everyone knows this song but it's my favorite so listen to it again.  It's still as fantastic as the first time I heard it.