the electroscape has published deep dives into albums, artists, and people in the scene. In March 2021, a piece entitled, You’re Invited: Eight Early 2021 Electronic Albums to Dig Into was published. This piece sparked interest in a series of issues that features a collection of electronic music releases – a survey of the electroscape, so to speak. This series will provide a space for fans to browse a library of releases and, hopefully, discover something new.
This issue features 12 albums. The next issue is already in the works. In the meantime, keep an eye on our “Album of the Day” on our website and Twitter (follow here) which highlights electronic music releases.
Albums are in alphabetical order.
Cracks by Eomac
Cracks is one of the most psychologically engaging albums I’ve heard in quite a while. Eomac masterfully lets the sounds do their job, gripping your psyche. The artist often creates sounds that play like emotions unfolding over time. For example, on “What Does Your Heart Tell You?,” futuristic sounds express feelings of isolation, and the lead melody on “Reasons to Live” expresses a feeling of emptiness. My favorite quality of Cracks is the strong visuals it elicits. “Falling Through the Cracks” uses sounds that play like voices of dying souls and elicits visions of battle and endings, and “Ancient Self” elicits visions of the dead marching into the cavity of the valley in the shadow of the mountains above. As Cracks begins to close with “Seashells” and “Canticle,” the album has a noticeable vintage character, like a modern soundtrack to an old black and white horror film. Cracks puts its final stamp on the psyche on “Prophetess,” which elicits a sense of disconnect, the fight to reach those outside you, and the eventual giving up in despair.
Devil x Nine by BurningTapes
Error Area by Donor Lens
Error Area is the third album by Donor Lens to be released on June 18 by My Pet Flamingo. Error Area is a grower. And growers are my favorite types of albums. Error Area drew me in upon first listen with the vintage, soulful character of the vocals by Midori Jaeger on “Strange Direction” and Kiera Pixie on “Secret Messages.” As I revisited Error Area, I discovered nuances that left me addicted to this release. The songwriting is patient, and the soundscape is open and uncluttered. Donor Lens has a special way of creating atmosphere, and in many ways, Error Area is an album of contrast in the atmospheres it offers. On one song, the sound will transport you to a lonely nightclub where the air is thick with smoke and stories of love lost and found are told upon stage; on another song, you’ll find yourself in a botanical garden in the basement. Donor Lens duo Thom and Jay have a knack for creating disoriented states, like passing through a time-warping portal on “Excavated Memories” and “Jukemodern Postbox.” The gripping emotional undertones and disoriented states that Error Area embodies collide, becoming one in places, such as on “Copycat Fragrances” and “You’ll Know You Know.” Error Area is poised to be a vaporwave classic. It’s one to revisit often. Read our story about Midnight Store by Donor Lens here and story about vaporwave label My Pet Flamingo here.
Escape from Ultra City by Jonny Fallout
Fall of the Titans by Millennium Falck
Step into the future with Fall of the Titans. It’s not an album. It’s an experience. Millennium Falck invites you press play, close your eyes, and let your imagination do the rest. The sound of Fall of the Titans encapsulates the environment, much like sitting in a theatre and watching a film on the big screen. Fall of the Titans tells a story set in the Neo Helsinki universe, taking place on Mars in a war over quartz. The voice actors are characters in the story by guests including, Mike Templer, Athena Queen, Gryff, and many more. The story is immediately dramatic and grows in intensity as it unfolds, offering thought provoking, emotion filled content that plays along with music that amplifies the drama and intensity of the story being told. The album elicits imagery of battle, wastelands, man, machine, is tribal at times and synthetic at others. The story conveys hope, loss, purpose, power, rebellion and helplessness. The detailed work on Fall of the Titans is masterfully done. The album comes with an e-book of the complete story the album tells and includes additional artwork.
Kitty Hate Machine by Cat Temper
Kitty Hate Machine is hardcore, industrial cattitude-infused synthpunk. “Meoward Spiral” opens the album and elicits a strong sense potential energy is about to burst, much like a skateboarder teetering on the edge of the half pipe, plunging to the bottom for a ride that thrills, with no helmet in sight. Kitty Hate Machine stays in the red from start to finish. The energy seems to ooze from a bottomless storage chamber. Though the big cat came to play on Kitty Hate Machine, his assertive character is tempered by the softer side of the kitten, a quality that is quite noticeable on “Pet You Like An Animal,” “She’s Gone Astray,” and other songs, where melodies gently pounce across an assaulting backdrop that hisses, growls, and snarls. The meowave character of the songwriting is front and center as well. Listeners might find themselves on a voyage bouncing from one psychotic state to another in a non-linear fashion. “The Paw That Feeds,” for example, is at one moment a flight through a valley of pastel colored legos, at another moment a heart-racing chase by giant elephants, only to end sitting in an electric chair where a kitty flips the switch. All Cat Temper releases squeeze the juice from the sounds the artist builds songs around, and Kitty Hate Machine is no exception, especially the 8-bit video game sounds, which are a key player in the soundscape and pop across the album. Learn more about meowave and Cat Temper here and feature of More Than a Feline in our 2020 end-of-year piece here. Read a in-depth review of Kitty Hate Machine on ABSYNTH here.
Lustful Sacraments by Perturbator
There was a time I traveled everywhere with my cassette of The Crow: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, seeking a tape deck anywhere I could find one to listen. Lustful Sacraments is that kind of album. I want to experience those nuances I’ve come to know and anticipate as often as I can. On Lustful Sacraments, Perturbator dared to write songs where the listener does not know what’s around corner. It’s exciting to eagerly wait for the next turn, to be led into new spaces without notice. The album has a bit of a “pre, during, and post” structure to it. The songs play like a soundtrack to landscapes that grow more vast, more grim, and darker as the album progresses, especially as it approaches its end with “Dethroned Under a Funeral Haze,” “Messalina, Messalina,” and the closer, “God Says,” songs that bring to mind a voyage through desert canyons or rubble in the streets lit only by the fire of buildings that burn. I was excited by the direction of Perturbator’s music when I heard 2017 release New Model. At that time, I felt the artist was forging a new path with slower tempos, open spaces, spontaneity, and erraticism. Lustful Sacraments has firmly planted its stake in this new territory. There’s something more here, though, and it’s the goth and post punk character, especially in the guitar sounds and vocals, which is perhaps its most enticing quality. Read an excellent, in-depth review of the album on ABSYNTH here.
New Paradigm by Silicon Empire
New Paradigm plays like a story unfolding. One of my favorite qualities of the album is how it evolves as it progresses. For example, the opening tracks elicit a strong feeling of two worlds forced to come together against their will, built around a breakbeat and retrofuture core that are at once chaotic and structured, with great tension and drama. The music induces a feeling of being in a space that is squarely foreign, futuristic, and uncomfortable. There’s a feeling of uncertainty, especially in the early tracks, but as the album evolves to “Raised by Machines,” there’s a sense of settling in, though discomfort lingers. There’s a real heavy darkness in the music, accentuated by the metal guitar work, with textures that are gritty and industrial in a grimy and wet way. As the album arrives at the aptly titled “Rain and Concrete”, there’s a moment of rest, a sense of looking out a window on a rainy afternoon to watch the droplets hit the concrete and reflect on the past. Just when you feel like you can stop and take a breath, the urgency in the music on “Mechanized and “Godless Prayer” elicit a sense it’s time to get moving again. New Paradigm closes with “Phoenix,” but it doesn’t feel like an ending at all. It feels like the beginning of something new.
Open House by Alpha Chrome Yayo
Sarajevo by Betamaxx
Sarajevo is an ambient album by synthwave artist Betamaxx. The album is set in the 1984 Olympics, with took place in the place the album is named after. The sounds draw a soundscape of cold and ice with warm undertones. I find this contrast to be a subtle yet foundational quality of Sarajevo. The sounds, melodies, and songwriting convey concentration and preparation which coexist with urgency and a budding sense of anxiety. At some times, the music conveys solitude and emptiness, and at other times, conveys joy, kindness, and interconnection from shared experience. The soundtrack quality of Sarajevo cannot be denied. On “Alpine,” tight beats and dreamy melodies glide like skies on the slope. On “Igman”, layers of melodies each do their own work yet play together like partners dancing together on the ice, a song that grows in complexity as it goes with twists and turns, each segment having its own time to shine. This quality is also noticeable on “Sarajevo”, with moments of solitude and moments of great intensity, conveying an uneasy feeling of what’s to come upon reflection of the past. As the album nears its end, “Horizon” has a bright character, and reminds me of the warmth of the sun on a cold winter day, melting the snow just enough for water to flow.