Electronic music is for us, the most dynamic form of music that exists today. This list tries to capture some of the golden moments between 1990 (except two releases that were grabbed from the 80ies) and all the way up to today. There are a few obvious choices, but enough surprises for everyone here and should be well in time for your christmas shopping aswell.

Akufen - My Way (Force Inc 2002)
A cornerstone at the height of microhouse and a shining example of how house doesn’t have to be uniform.

Ametsub - Linear Cryptics (Progressive Form 2006)
Nostalgic, melancholic, complex yet easy. One of the best records to be put out in 2006

Another Electronic Musician - Patience (n5MD 2006)
Graceful melodies and alluring textures makes this album highly enjoyable, but dont let the names fool you. Your patience will be rewarded.

Anthony Rother - Simulationszeitalter (Psi49net 2000)
One of the most important names in the current electro scene. Vocoders, 80’s-style beats and Kraftwerky synth sounds. Irresistible!

Aphex Twin - Selected Ambient Works 85-92 (Apollo 1992)
Its Richard D. James’s selected cassette recordings from age 13 and onwards. Needless to say this is a prodigy and an underground superstar.

Apparat - Duplex (Shitkatapult 2003)
Beauty and beast comes together in this wonderful release from Sasha Ring. Essential.

Armando - One World One Future (Radikal Fear 1996)
Classic Chicago house masterpieces collected to a full length album. Armando Gallop died 1996 of leukemia.

Autechre - Incunabula (Warp 1993)
One can argue where and when someone got the idea of naming a style of music
“intelligent dance music” (aka IDM), still this is one of the greatest electronic albums ever, regardless of genre.

Banco De Gaia - Last Train To Lhasa (Planet Dog 1995)
Follow up to the debut Maya, which both helped kick-starting a etno-techno wave with various other genres later to evolve from it.

Basic Channel - BCD (Basic Channel 1997)
Dub Techno was born with Basic Channel, this is the collected evidence.

Biosphere - Patashnik (Origo Sound 1994)
The second album from house-techno and ambient pioneer Geir Jensen. An otherworldly semi-trance, semi-ambient, cosmic journey that made it all the way to televised Levis commercials and documentaries.

Boards Of Canada - Music Has the Right to Children (Warp 1998)
The sounds of subliminal creepy analogue synths, minimoogs, and botched-together drum machines.

Boy Robot - Glamorizing Corporate Lifestyle (City Centre Offices 2003)
Simple and catchy electronica from Swedish Hans Möller and German Michael Zorn

Burnt Friedman & Nu Dub Players - Just Landed (~Scape 2000)
Worthy of repeated listening for fans of old school ambient techno, 70s roots dub and glitch.

Burial - Burial (Hyperdub 2006)
As solid as dubstep comes and a lot stronger release than over-hyped album that followed.

Carl Craig - Landcruising (Blanco Y Negro 1995)
Techno with soul. This is the Detroit masterminds first full length and still one of his finest.

Chemical Brothers - Exit Planet Dust (Virgin 1995)
Ground zero for big-beat/break-beat aficionados.

Christian Kleine - Beyond Repair (City Centre Offices 2001)
Layered and emotional melodies with hypnotic percussion.

Claro Intelecto - Neurofibro (AI 2004)
A modern electro and lush techno classic from Mark Stewart

Closer Musik - One Two Three No Gravity (Kompakt 2000)
A classic release that falls between the minimal techno and ambient side of Kompakt

Daft Punk - Homework (Virgin 1996)
Love it or hate it, Homework has carved out a niche for itself in electronic music history.

Dave Angel - Original Man (Aura Surround Sounds 1993)
Deeply inspired by the Techno pioneers from Detroit, Dave Angel took the genre a step further with his masterfull tight and jazzy percussive production wizardry.

Deadbeat - Wild Life Documentaries (~Scape 2002)
Hazy ambient dub soundscapes lumbering along at a leisurely tempo, with intricate texturing and subtle variations from track to track.

Der Dritte Raum - Hale Bopp (Crucial Cuts 1998)
If you have to pick just one ’second generation’ trance track in your life, make sure its Hale Bopp with its groovy Moroder bassline, making it mixable with almost anything.

Derrick May - Innovator (Transmat 1997)
Contains most of the best Derrick May classics, true techno history.

DJ Rolando - Revenge of the Jaguar (Underground Resistance 2000)
A timeless genre-bending release, played by house, techno and even trance djs.

DJ Shadow - Endtroducing… (Mo Wax 1996)
Electronic Funk, Soul and Hip Hop cult classic.

Electric Birds - Gradations (Mille Plateaux 2002)
Solid sounds given time and space to play themselves out.

Felix Da Housecat - Kittenz And Thee Glitz (City Rockers  2001)
Where both Felix and the electroclash movement went mainstream, this still doesn’t stop it from being from being a fun record.

Fennesz - Endless Summer (Mego 2001)
Modern electronic masterpiece from Christian Fennesz. Experimental and deeply moving.

Flanger - Templates (Ntone 1999)
Experimental electronic jazz wizardry from Uwe Schmidt & Burnt Friedman.

Fluxion - Vibrant Forms II (Chain Reaction 2000)
Wonderful down-tempo experimental techno on the Chain Reaction label

Folie - Eyepennies (Mitek 2005)
For those into abstract electronica like Autechre and Bola, but maybe somewhere miss the warmth and the dynamic arrangements.

Four Tet - Rounds (Domino 2003)
Easy listening for electroheads

Gas - Nah Und Fern (Kompakt 2008)
Reissue of the classic Wolfgang Voigt aka Gas albums. These are four of the most affecting ambient techno albums released during the late ’90s.

Global Communication - 76-14 (Dedicated 1994)
Tom Middleton & Mark Pritchard ambient masterpiece from the early 90ies.

Goldie Presents Metalheads - Inner City Life (FFRR 1994)
Baptised as one of the best drum & bass releases ever made, this release lifted the whole genre out of the underground into the main street market.

Greg Davis - Arbor (Carpark 2002)
One of the first in a movement of so called Laptop-Folk releases, Arbor is one of these timeless records, that can be played again and again without losing any of its original freshness.

Helios - Eingya (Type 2006)
Simple and touching album with every second having its own life.

Herbert - Bodily Functions (Studio !K7 2001)
Unique intelligent and tasteful production from an equally unique artist, this is a good entry to the Herbert universe.

I-Cube - Picnic Attack (Versatile 1997)
A breath of fresh air in the sometimes stagnant face of house music

iO - Sustain & Release (Cheap 1994)
Classic techno collaboration between Tunakan, Pulsinger, Gollini and Potuznik. These tracks are also on iO - ADSR, a double CD release.

Isolée - Beau Mot Plague (Playhouse 1999)
A very important piece of microhouse music history and probably the genres greatest hit.

Jan Jelinek - Loop-Finding-Jazz-Records (~Scape 2001)
Jazz exploration made up of minimal glitches, clicks and cuts built from samples of old jazz records with depth and melody.

Jazzanova - The Remixes 1997-2000 (Sonar Kollektiv 2000)
This came out at the hight of the club-jazz, cafe/lounge music or call it whatever you want period, causing a rebirth to elevator music being sold everywhere from franchise fashions stores to gas stations and supermarkets. It blew up so quick, this is the only thing left worthy of keeping.

Jedi Knights - New School Science (Evolution 1996)
Hard to find new-school electro gem.

Jeff Mills - Purpose Maker Compilation (Labels 1997)
Being one of the biggest American names in techno, it is hard to pick anything else than a roundup, sorted and compiled to present a living legend.

Junior Boys – So This Is Goodbye (Domino 2006)
Electronic pop with a voice that you can’t help but pay attention to.

Kalabrese - Rumpelzirkus (Muve 2007)
Just when you thought you’d give up on house music, this comes along sparking new life and hope. The freshest thing to surface since perfume in ancient Mesopotamia.

Kenny Larkin - Metaphor (R&S 1995)
Tidal waves of techno soul, electrojazz, or whatever you like to call it. One of Detroit’s finest.

Khonnor - Handwriting (Type 2004)
Super pretty and sad electronic folk music. Recorded on the home computer at the age of 17 this album made it one of the most hyped albums of 2004

Laurent Garnier - A Bout De Souffle (Fnac 1993)
There are few that have done as much for french electronic music as Laurent has. He has released a lot during the years, but if you should pick just one, we hope this will be it.

Love Inc. - Life’s A Gas (Force Inc 1995)
Wolfgang Voigt has to be considered as one of the most influential artists within the European techno scene and this album is no exception.

Luomo - Vocalcity (Force Tracks 2000)
Vocalcity is nothing less than a masterpiece.

Lusine - Serial Hodgepodge (Ghostly International 2004)
Jeff McIlwain has released many records all with a very unique distinct sound, but having to chose just one, we recommend Serial Hodgepodge as a start for further explorations.

Maurizio - Maurizio (Maurizio 1997)
Like Basic Channel, the M series of records are equally influential, especially to today’s techno, characterized by a solid 4×4 beat with dub-inflected syncopated pads.

Max Richter - Memoryhouse (Late Junction 2002)
Delicate classical compositions, ambient structures and subtle electronic melodies.

Metro Area - 4 (Environ 2001)
Disco is unquestionable the most influential style that has led to today’s dance music. However as times pass by new hybrids evolve and disappear, one of these are Morgan Geist and Darshan Jesrani’s Metro Area project.

Milosh - Meme (Plug Research 2006)
Singer-songwriter glitch electronics that hits the soft spot. Subtle and beautiful.

Model 500 - Deep Space (R&S 1995)
Some of Juan Atkins’ most emotive material and essential slices of deep electronic music.

Modeselektor - Happy Birthday! (Bpitch Control 2007)
Mixing up everything from IDM to dub, electro and hip-hop, Modeselektor puts out a truly fun album that should keep you bumping up and down for a long time.

Mokira - Ease (Filippa K 2006)
Both odd and inventive, this album was produced for a swedish fashion house to be used on catwalks and later sold in its widespread fashion stores. The music is fantastic!

Monolake - Cinemascope (Monolake 2001)
Haunting, suggestive, atmospheric and a good entry to Robert Henkes plethora of releases.

Moodymann - Forevernevermore (Peacfrog 2000)
Along with  Silentintroduction”, this is Kenneth Dixon Jr. distinctly black imprint on house music, deep, soulful and sexy.

MU - Afro Finger And Gel (Tigersushi 2003)
Loud, harsh and obnoxious madness but also tons of fun.

Murcof - Remembranza (Leaf 2005)
Fernando Corona works with orchestral samples, microscopically detailed textures, sounds and rhythms with intense beauty.

M83 - Before The Dawn Heals Us (Mute 2005)
Electro-rock soundtrack for the apocalypse

New Order - Blue Monday (Factory 1983)
This record kickstarted the Hi Energy style and probably the beginning of dance music as you know it today.

Orbital - Orbital 1 & 2 Green and Brown Album (Internal 1991-1993)
With one of techno’s most celebrated and accomplished partnerships it was hard to seperate one from the other, both of these albums are must haves for anyone with even the slightest interest in electronic music.

Pan American - 360 Business / 360 Bypass (Kranky 1999)
Haunting jazz melodies and voices over a minimalistic rhythmic backbone

Panda Bear - Person Pitch (Paw Tracks 2007)
A member of the acclaimed Animal Collective, Noah Lennox creates nostalgic “modern Beach Boys” songs, tones and melodies on his 3rd solo album.

Plastikman - Sheet One (Plus 8/NovaMute 1993)
The definitive minimal acid album. It deserves a spot on the wall of pioneers in the electronic music museum.

Prefuse 73 - Vocal Studies + Uprock Narratives (Warp 2001)
It might be wrong to label this as electronic same as it would be worng to label it as hip-hop, its the mixture or the production technique thats so unique here cutting everything up and reassembling it and making it rock!

Psychick Warriors Ov Gaia - Record Of Breaks (KK 1995)
If you thought minimal techno was something new to surface around the millenium, think again. Record of breaks is probably the most underrated in this batch.

Pub - Summer (Vertical Form 2000)
A fantastic release that can live in your audio player for quite some time without ever feeling like just another remixed release, because each track (or remix) takes on a life of its own.

Rechenzentrum - Director’s Cut (Mille Plateaux 2003)
The sound of moving imagery from the audio-visual duo Christian Conrad, Marc Weiser released as CD and DVD.

Rhythm & Sound - W The Artists (Burial Mix 2003)
Flawless album from the guys behind Basic Channel/Maurizio. This is a good place to start the journey into the Rhythm & Sound and Main Street back catalogue and is probably the most interesting thing thats happen to reggae since.. who knows when..

Ricardo Villalobos - Thé Au Harem D’Archimède (Perlon 2004)
Minimal disco which is complex and terrifyingly funky at the same time.

Schneider TM & Kpt-michi-gan - Binokular (City Slang 2000)
Dirk Dresselhaus is a strange soup of IDM, synth-pop, electro and definately not for everyone. It’s still worth a honorable mention and the collaboration with Kpt-michi-gan on Binocular and especially the cover of The Smiths on The Light 3000 is a good place to start exploring.

Secede - Vega Libre (Sending Orbs 2007)
Theres basicly nothing groundbreaking here other than the intense joy of fluffy spaced out sounds recalling the early works of Future Sound of London and The Orb. Wonderful!

Sensurreal - The Occasional Series (Beam Me Up 1995)
13 years on its back and for many, a forgotten piece of dutch breakbeat tech-house history. This is simply put; good old feel-good music.

Signer - Low Light Dreams (Involve 2002)
Another underestimated release that didn’t quite get the deserved attention when it was released in 2002. On this, Bevan Smith (also recording as Aspen) combine Dub elements with IDM, Minimal and Ambient structures into dreamy peices that are at times dark, but not darker than you can spot the sunrise in the horizon.

Soulphiction - Do You Overstand?! (Sonar Kollektiv 2008)
A true fusion of every genre imaginable.

Spooky - Clank (Generic 1995)
Two years after releasing the progressive house album Gargantuan (yet another classic),  Charlie May & Duncan Forbes started their own label focusing on more experimental leftfield electro sounds, resulting in 3 wonderful EPs.

St Germain - Boulevard (F Communications 1995)
The master of bridging deep house music with blues and jazz.

Studio 1 - Studio Eins (Studio 1 1997)
Essential CD collection of Worlfgang Voigs ultra influential minimal sound.

Terrestre - Secondary Inspection (Static Discos 2004)
Fernando Corona aka Terrestre aka Murcof’s take on dance music, and what a wonderful experience it is.

The Detroit Escalator Co. - Soundtrack [313] (Ferox 1996)
Really stunning ambient album that hasn’t dated one bit.

The Field - From Here We Go Sublime (Kompakt 2007)
Sample locking can almost be called a Kompakt trademark, minimal, monotonous pop with progression.

The Future Sound of London - Lifeforms 2XCD (Virgin 1994)
This is one of those classics that once you put on, will always discover new sounds. If theres a sound you don’t like, just wait, a new one is just around the corner. It’s almost prog-rock for the electroheads.

The KLF - Chill Out (Indisc 1990)
Sound collages drifting through different settings (check out the sleeve photo) with sheep and a ghosted voice of Elvis hovering over steel guitars makes it a good album for the times you just want to disconnect your brain.

The Orb - The Orb’s Adventures Beyond The Ultraworld (Big Life) + The Orb - U.F.Orb (Big Life 1990-1992 )
The Orb’s first album (Ultraworld) provided a blueprint for the electronic listening music, the second was nominated at the Brit Awards, two definitive must haves that has stood the test of time.

The Other People Place - Lifestyles Of The Laptop Cafe (Warp 2001)
The lighter, downtempo side of James Marcel Stinson aka one half of Drexciya and the full half of The Other People Place (Stinson passed away just a year after the release).

The Postal Service - Give Up (Sub Pop 2003)
Getting 1 on the Billboard independent chart, in a country known for its mass production of Rap and Country music, is quite an achievement.

The Prodigy - Experience (XL 1992)
Rave mayhem of the highest order.

Unai - Rebel Swing (Nusond 2001)
Swedish super-talent of minimal funk, contributing with a true soul-melting piece of microhouse.

Underworld - Dubnobasswithmyheadman (Junior Boy’s Own 1993)
This is a seminal album of the 90s as far as dance music goes, never to be forgotten and it still sounds as good today as it did 15 years ago.

Various Artists - Techno! The New Dance Sound Of Detroit (Ten 1988)
Among the very first techno records to be exported from the US. The last track collected for this compilation was none other than Inner City´s Big Fun, which became an enormous hit.

Various Artists - Artificial Intelligence I+II Ltd (Warp 1992-1994)
Many would call these compilations the birthplace of IDM. One thing for certain is that both are important pieces of electronic music history.

Yagya - Will I Dream During The Process (Sending Orbs 2006)
Since the debut on force inc (rhythm of snow) is so hard to find, we’ve chosen his second release for our list. It, like the debut, features wonderful atmospheres, moods, emotion and drifting sense of sensuality. Close your eyes and travel without moving.

Thanks to Erik, Manfred, Dave, Sebastian and the Flying Dutchman for helping out. All feedback is welcomed as long as it’s on topic.

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