Top 20 Indie Electronic Albums of 2021

Much like the New Orleans–born artist who created it, Second Line is an unapologetic genre bender that pushes boundaries, expands possibilities, and shatters expectations. It’s more than just an album for DAWN, Second Line is a cohesive sensory experience that questions traditional ideas of sound, production, and visual aesthetics as they relate to music. Its interlocking parts tell an epic story about the quest for artistic expression, with DAWN describing her project as “a movement to bring pioneering Black women in electronic music to the forefront.” To stream the album visit, Spotify, Tidal, Apple Music, or purchase on Bandcamp.

As Mndsgn's first approach to a traditional studio album, Rare Pleasure weaves itself in many forms as the album's evolving theme, blending root stylings of R&B, soundtrack/theme-music, psychedelia, and jazz into a sonically rich score of self-actualization. The title itself, Rare Pleasure is an appreciation of sharing life, inward reflection and the gift of joyful catharsis in the face of inevitable discord. As Mndsgn describes it, "We are beings living this human life that's only going to happen this way once and only once, every moment infused with a magical impermanence, a rarity." To stream the album visit, Spotify, Tidal, Apple Music, or purchase on Bandcamp.

The full-length Ghostly International debut from Brijeanguided by a lush mix of charismatic keyboard chords, grooving bass lines, and radiant bongo-driven rhythms, the duo wants you to move, physically, mentally, dimensionally. This is dance music for the mind, body, and soul. With Feelings, they’ve manifested a gentle collective space for respite, for self-reflection, for self-care, for uninhibited imagination and new possibilities. To stream the album visit, Spotify, Tidal, Apple Music, or purchase on Bandcamp.

Manchester-based DJ and producer Anz first EP on Ninja Tune, All Hours was built to be a soundtrack for 24 hours, from sunrise to the next. It is a non-stop journey throughout the history of dance music and culture, from 90’s electro inspired by Detroit television series ‘The New Dance Show’, through to club focused techno, breakbeat and classic UK garage. The release follows on from a hugely successful few years for Anz that, despite a global pandemic, has seen her cement her position as an exciting selector. To stream the album visit, Spotify, Tidal, Apple Music, or purchase on Bandcamp.

Deekapz's Jewel Gems EP showcases their signature sound of mixing Brazilian rhythms and sounds with modern day R&B/Soul, Hip-Hop, and Electronic Music. While some songs on the project were released in limited form, on Jewel Gems is the first time these songs were received an official worldwide release. To stream the album visit, Spotify, Tidal, Apple Music, or purchase on Bandcamp.

New Jersey-based instrumentalist and producer, Good Food, has been a key figure in the state’s underground musical community on latest album A Place to Call Home they’ve proven exactly why that is. On the 15 track album, Good Food blends together R&B, Hip-Hop, and House in a way that has never been heard before enlisting the help from a few friends along the album. To stream the album visit, Spotify, Tidal, Apple Music, or purchase on Bandcamp.

Following last year’s hugely successful For You EP, London-based producer India Jordan released EP Watch Out! on Ninja Tune which has gone to earn critical acclaim. Jordan is tipped as one of the most exciting dance music producers of the moment. To stream the album visit, Spotify, Tidal, Apple Music, or purchase on Bandcamp.

박혜진 Park Hye Jin releases her highly-anticipated debut album Before I Die on Ninja Tune. The album—entirely written, produced and performed by the South Korean-born and now LA-based the producer, rapper, singer, and DJ—working with the likes of Clams Casino and Take A Daytrip (“Y DON’T U”), Blood Orange (“CALL ME (Freestyle)”) and Nosaj Thing (“CLOUDS”), plus a remix from Galcher Lustwerk (“Can you”). Jin continues to expand her sonic palette, drawing on a range of influences that take in electronic, rap / hip-hop and downtempo sensibilities to present the most complete vision yet of her sound. To stream the album visit, Spotify, Tidal, Apple Music, or purchase on Bandcamp.

Although producer Kush Jones maintains a rather low profile for himself his music can’t go ignored. The Bronx-native has fiercely worked the underground electronic music scene with a catalog dating back to 2016, Jones has continue to push the envelope exploring all subsets in dance music as well as other historically Black genres, his 10-track album Black Is The Color is the beautiful result of that exploration. To purchase visit Bandcamp.

still slipping vol.1 is the debut full length project from Joy Orbison. Fans of Joy O’s DJ sets and radio shows will already be aware of his diverse tastes and inspirations, represented here through a roll call of delicately curated, mainly UK, collaborators that include Herron, James Massiah, Bathe, Léa Sen, Goya Gumbani and TYSON. Just as important are the voices of Joy Orbison's family - mum, dad, sister Sarah, uncle Frankie, uncle Keith (recently departed), auntie Helen and cousins Lola and Mia, as well as Leighann, who was the first person to introduce him to drum and bass and garage as a kid and stars on the mixtape’s cover art. They appear throughout the record via a series of voice notes, his only contact with his family during this year of worldwide lockdown and an intimate, vicarious glimpse into the personal world of an artist who has generally side-stepped the public gaze. To stream the album visit, Spotify, Tidal, Apple Music, or purchase on Bandcamp.

Inspired by futuristic sounds and sci-fi storylines, High Klassified has blazed one of the most original paths in electronic music, releasing stylish and conceptual EPs on Fool’s Gold while producing platinum hits for Future and The Weeknd. Law Of Automata: Valid is his most ambitious project yet, as it experiences the full spectrum of human feelings over the course of the EP’s five tracks. These diverse collaborations with R&B singers Leven Kali and Illham, international MCs Zach Zoya and Izi, and EDM beat star TroyBoi each represent a different emotion, and when taken together launch the android – and the listener – to a higher plane of understanding. To stream the album visit, Spotify, Tidal, Apple Music, or purchase on Bandcamp.

Live electronic act, music producer, and visual artist, Rose Bonica has become known by fasn for her unexpected sounds. This uniqueness illustrates the authenticity of private production process from her studio overlooking the ocean in the small coastal town of Hout Bay in South Africa. On 6-track EP Waiting For Change, she pushes her production to even greater levels. To stream the album visit, Spotify, Tidal, Apple Music, or purchase on Bandcamp.

New Jersey produced and recording artist Cookiee Kawaii debut album Vanice pushes Jersey Club music to the mainstream. The 16-track album is a sonic environment filled with jams to dance the night away. After exploding onto the scene with her breakout single "Vibe (If I Back It Up)" last year, Cookiee has continued to keep the pedal to the metal in working to ensure Jersey Club music will reverberate throughout the country. Vanice is meant to continue this movement by putting new folks onto the longtime genre whilst providing old fans the nostalgia that they knew. To stream the album visit, Spotify, Tidal, or Apple Music.

The album Icons from New York based percussionist and composer Eli Keszler builds upon fragments of American abstraction, dreamlike ancient melodicism, industrial percussion, jazz age film noir and imperial decay. The music takes on forms difficult to describe outside an articulation of the loss and wonderment that defines our age. To stream the album visit, Spotify, Tidal, Apple Music, or purchase on Bandcamp.

J’Kerian Morgan, the artist known as Lotic, says of her second album Water, “this is the record I always wanted to write. This feels like my arrival as an artist.” The last decade has irrevocably shaped the arc of Morgan’s life. The liberatory impact she has had on experimental club music as Lotic (meaning, “Of, relating to, or living in flowing water”) has in turn folded back into her creative practice, revealing a more finely-realised and intriguing evolution with each subsequent iteration. A decade bookended by chapters in Texas, USA and Berlin, Germany, saw Lotic navigate personal hardship and upheaval while garnering acclaim for an expansive production style; unpredictably nestling searing knife’s-edge sound design next to pop music hooks, hypnotic vocal reverie and the lineage of Black club cultures. To stream the album visit, Spotify, Tidal, Apple Music, or purchase on Bandcamp.

Two years of endless creativity led to the birth, Mixtape #2. The 18-track project from producer, engineer, and recording artist BIIANCO. The project is a masterclass on how to infuse raw emotion into such infectious music. In their words, “you will dance and ugly cry.” The project features collaborations with Kaleena Zanders, Amo Amo, Luna Shadows, Tolliver, and SWIMM. To stream the album visit, Spotify, Tidal, or Apple Music.

Following the release of her first single for Local Action Records, “Microdosing”, New Jersey’s club queen UNIIQU3 released 6-track EP Heartbeats. This project represents both a new creative phase for the producer, DJ, and recording artist UNIIQU3, and her most ambitious and personal project yet — dealing with themes of “self-love, heartbreak, intimacy and lust” across six narrative-driven tracks that showcase her production, singing and rapping at its most accomplished. Although it's not the longest release of her career, in terms of its scope, detail, depth and honesty it feels like a true landmark moment for her. To stream the album visit, Spotify, Tidal, Apple Music, or purchase on Bandcamp.

Rapper, DJ, and producer Wreckno’s highly anticipated EPPansy. The high energy project is a celebration of self-love and queer empowerment. The project features special featuring WHOM?, jordnmoody, Ujuu, Chase Icon, Miss Tiddy, HerShe and Ruku. To stream the album visit, Spotify, Tidal, Apple Music, or purchase on Bandcamp.

Palmistry is the ever evolving musical identity of singer, songwriter and producer Benjy Keating. His signature take on electronic pop – from dancehall bangers to uptempo club sounds – manages to push the form to futuristic new heights while being deeply vulnerable and palpably human. wyrdo, Palmistry’s debut Fool’s Gold LP, is his first full length since 2019’s Afterlife, branching out into new timelines inspired by a move to California and a year locked down. From the ethereal lullaby of the title track to “fk a deal”’s fractured dance grooves and the smoky, cinematic “Oceanic Healing” (complete with impressionistically beautiful music video), wyrdo is another intimate adventure into the unknown with one of music’s most unique voices. To stream the album visit, Spotify, Tidal, Apple Music, or purchase on Bandcamp.

To celebrate their fifth year anniversary of their formation (Chicago-based, multicultural duo of producer Na’el Shehade and vocalist Via Rosa) DRAMA released their debut EP Gallows (Deluxe). Rewriting modern love songs and reshaping dancefloors for the love struck and brokenheartedness, Gallows (Deluxe) must be experienced to witness the duo’s evolution. To stream the album visit, Spotify, Apple Music, or purchase on Bandcamp.