Top 5 Electro Albums

So I was highly bored yet still thinking a few minutes ago, and considering I haven't posted anything in a while (all summer, actually) I decided I would do a quick little post with my top 5 electro albums. This may become a series across genres, we'll just have to see... Anyways, here we go.

5. Daft Punk - Discovery
 

How could I not start this top 5 without the electro album that, among a few others, really pioneered house music? Discovery is an electro album that introduced us all to the concept of using sounds that were not necessarily considered "electronic" (a.k.a. not created by a synthesizer) in an electronic music structure and environment. The result is an album that goes from club classics such as "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger" to true electronica immersions such as "Veridis Quo", meanwhile paving the way for electro producers all over the world...



4. The Chemical Brothers - Surrender 

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This album, which I only recently discovered, is a true marvel of electronic production. Combining punchy and driving beats and synths in some tracks with soft pads and chill atmospheres (even an acoustic guitar!) in others, the Bros really cover the entire spectrum of electro, and yet they don't do it half-heartedly. Each piece delves fully into the atmosphere it builds and you completely experience so many facets of this genre.




3. Deadmau5 - For Lack of a Better Name

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The second full-length album from the Canadian guy is a deep house masterpiece. Taking the moods and atmospheres from his first album in a new and more musically interesting direction, Deadmau5 plunges you headfirst into an environment where big kicks, intelligent percussion, and a whole plethora of synth sounds co-exist in perfect harmony, and you come out of it, at the end of the 10-minute masterpiece "Strobe" with an entirely new vision of what house music can be. Powerful yet composed.



2. Laurent Garnier - Shot in the Dark

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Like Daft Punk's Discovery, this is ana album that truly pioneered house music. But whereas the guys with the helmets where making dance and almost-pop tracks with electrified "natural" sounds, Laurent Garnier took the plunges with acid, minimalist, entirely synth-based sounds. The atmospheres he manages to build are phenomenal, and each track is a work of art, thoroughly crafted from start to finish, just like the album, in fact. A masterpiece.




1. Justice - †

How can I not top this list off with the album that turned me onto electro? After all, this is still my favorite one. From the glorious opening of "Genesis" to the last strokes of "One Minute to Midnight", Justice take us on a journey from the ridiculously acid and harsh ("Let There Be Light", "Phantom Pt. II", "Stress", "Waters of Nazareth") to the trash-poppy ("D.A.N.C.E.", "The Party") and through the carefully constructed and outright beautiful ("Valentine", "Phantom Pt. I"). No wonder it has become the reference point for electro.



There you have it, my top 5 electro albums. Obviously this is up for discussion, and obviously there are so many more that could have been on here, like The Prodigy's latest album Invaders Must Die or The Chemical Brothers' We Are the Night, but for me, these are truly the top 5. Cheers,

Pierre.