Top 5 electronic albums of 2013

Reviews by Chris Dart, Jesse Kinos-Goodin, Nicolle Weeks

1. Tim Hecker, Virgins

 

Tim Hecker’s Virgins is a lot of things, but an easy, passive listening experience is not one of them. Hit play, put on headphones and Hecker’s earthy electronic production permeates your head, forcing you to listen completely free from other distractions. Even if you don’t give in right away, over the course of 12 songs and 48 minutes, Hecker will fill your head with such a lush, cinematic soundscape that you won’t have much choice. Synths vibrate and soar, sounds fade between left and right ear drums, and mysterious noises are introduced as quickly as they disappear. His songs can be uplifting, moody or violent, sometimes all at the same time, and together it is nothing short of breathtaking. This is music at its utmost ambient. — Jesse Kinos-Goodin

LISTEN

audio Tim Hecker

Virgins

Tracklist

Streaming until Jan. 19

Musique Non Stop | eMusic Electronica

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M.I.A., Matangi Posted: 05 Nov 2013 06:00 AM PST Balancing between clamor and self-reflection, politics and partying M.I.A.’s career has been propelled by constant questioning: She’s used her music and her persona to slice preconceived notions about geopolitics, gender, and cultural identity to ribbons. She refuses to be boxed in by any demographic, whether it’s her ethnicity, her class, her gender, or her status as a mother—almost a sin in the targeted-marketing era. Instead, she fuses all of these elements, as essential together as they are irrelevant apart. And if her boastful, stuffed-to-the-gills fourth album Matangi could be summed up with a single, driving question, it would be: “Why?”