There haven’t been too many great electronic albums so far this year, but that’s no problem: I’ve been going back to check out some releases from last year that I’d initially missed. Here’s a short selection – a late delivery – of electronica from 2011!

 

Asura – 360

Asura expertly mix in trance ambient and World Music elements into their sound. Sometimes I find pure ambient music a little too laid-back and uninteresting, but Asura has beats, occasional vocals, and such a diverse palette of sounds that I hear new things every time I listen to this album.

Genre: psybient, ambient
Similar to: Vibrasphere, Galaxy, Solar Fields

 

Ghost & Writer – Shipwrecks

Seabound and Edge of Dawn vocalist Frank Spinah teamed up with The Weathermen’s Jimmy-Joe Snark III to release an album last year under the name of Ghost & Writer.

Genre: futurepop
Similar to: Seabound, Edge of Dawn, Solar Fake

 

 

Detachments – Detachments

I discovered Detachments at the end of 2011, although they’ve been around for a year or two. After the renaissance of “friendly” synthpop, it was refreshing to hear a new synth band more closely aligned to post-punk and the original Mute and Factory Records sound.

Genre: synthpop, post-punk
Similar to: Joy Division, New Order, Fad Gadget

 

Foretaste – Love On Demand

Arriving too late in 2011 to make in onto my best of year list, Foretastes rounded off a fantastic year of synthpop with this their third – and best – album. Lead single Superstar is a definite highlight, but Love on Demand is packed with great electropop goodies.

Genre: synthpop
Similar to: Parralox, Northern Kind, Thermostatic

 

 

Severe Illusion – No More Alive Than You Deserve

I read about Severe Illusion on I Die: You Die, one of my favorite new music blogs. Swedish band Severe Illusion hark back to the electro-industrial sound coming out of North America in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Cold, brutal and cynical, there’s something I find quite intoxicating about this album; I’ve listened to it on repeat obsessively.

Genre: industrial, EBM
Similar to: Skinny Puppy, Mommy Hurt My Head

 

Eat Lights Become Lights – Autopia

I’m still a relative newcomer to the joys of  krautrock, but I’m learning fast and think I’ve found it at just the right time. Eat Lights Become Lights is my latest discovery and I’m loving the motorik beats and pulsing rhythms on Autopia.

Genre: krautrock
Similar to: Neu!, Can, New Order, Kraftwerk, Warm Digits