Electronic Music on Vinyl : 10 of the Best Starter Albums

'Electronic' is a handy blanket term to describe artists that predominantly use synthesisers, samplers and/or computers in their productions. What began as a specialist field way back in the 1950's has blossomed to include genres including synth-pop, downbeat, ambient, dance music, krautrock and experimental, with very few modern albums NOT having some kind of electronic element. Here we have restricted the selection to albums in which electronics predominate. Anyone keen to find out more about this incredible cutting edge genre is recommended David Stubbs' excellent book "Mars by 1980: The Story of Electronic Music".

Clark - Body Riddle
Chris Clark aka 'Clark' is an artist cultivated over the years by UK label, Warp Records. His 2006 LP Body Riddle, recently reissued on double vinyl, is unusual in that it is driven by live drums (borrowed from Warp stablemates Broadcast). The album, featurinf a continually shifting mix of complex electronic textures and beautiful melodies, was created using a range of audio programs and plug-ins, an old Revox tape recorder, a Sony dictaphone, a minidisc, a music box, a viola, vintage synths and keyboards...and an out-of-tune piano. This combination of organic instruments and frazzled electronica created a sound quite unique that baffled and intrigued reviewers at the time. This is Drowned In Sound's description of track 4 - "Herzog dances, dazzling and firefly-like, across an early summer’s evening sky; its wayward shifts of sound – left to right, invisible waves of static and laser-blast sonics – mesmerize, rendering the headphones-wearing listener powerless to resist the pull of a tremendous black hole that appears from nowhere, a crescendo of typewriter keys and bicycle bells echoing from its core. Body Riddle requires time and careful attention, each nuance needing a degree of focus few albums are ever afforded."

Autechre - Amber
The Manchester duo, Autechre were one of Warp Records' pioneering electronic acts back in the early 90's. They are still making cutting edge music 30 years on, gradually algorhythmically abstracting their sound to virtually eliminate any human content. Their second album, 1994's Amber, is an outlier in their discography that the duo themselves have dismissed as 'cheesy'. However, what sonic scientists may consider cheesy, can be appreciated by us common people as ethereal, dreamlike and beautiful. Housed in a gorgeous gatefold sleeve, Amber, with its sombre, moody melodies and lush production is an IDM classic. 
Unlike most of Autechre's other albums, Amber, despite its starkly minimal sound design, has emotional content, with majestic synth string washes that actually sound real, skittering drum patterns in layered percussive loops, and haunting melody lines inside wells of reverb and delay, with tracks flowing into one another evolving to create something poignant and unique.

Kraftwerk - Tour De France
In 2003 electronic pioneers Kraftwerk came out of the blue with Tour De France - Soundtracks (the reissue title now shortened to Tour De France), their first album in 17 years since the release of 1986’s Electric Café. Their groundbreaking early albums, in particular Trans Europe Express (1977), Man Machine (1978) and Computer World (1981), still sound great today, especially the newly remastered versions, and remain a must for any fans of electronica.  However, Tour De France gets the thumbs up here, mainly because it is often unjustly overlooked. Side A comprises ‘Tour de France Étape 1’, ‘...Étape 2’, ‘...Étape 3’ and ‘Chrono’ - 18 minutes of atmospheric, immersive trance, a suite which ranks alongside their classic side long tracks ‘Autobahn’ and ‘Trans-Europe Express’ and a surprise after such a long break. Originally released as a single in 1983, the title track 'Tour de France', with its sounds of ragged breathing underpinning Hütter’s pre-robot vocals, remains a cool piece of musique concrète pop. The album is notable for its sound quality alone - a pristine and perfectly balanced production that would be hard to better. Turn it up and listen for the bass drop on Side B – Vitamin.

Tosca - Suzuki 
Down one end of the electronic spectrum sits the genre commonly referred to as 'downbeat'. In the early 2000's, taking their cues from jazz and dub, artists such as Thievery Corporation, Nightmares On Wax and Tosca created uber chill grooves designed to enable listeners, in the words of  Richard Dorfmeister - one half of Tosca..."to drift away for an hour, wherever. There are no sharp corners and edges, no brutal changes of mood or intricate melodies. There are only a dozen or so different grooves, which are unfolded quite calmly. That sounds rather unspectacular, but the unspectacular has method here.” Suzuki is a downbeat classic. Essentially an instrumental album, it is peppered with vocal samples in such a way that they "become a part of the instrumentation." The album is dedicated to the Zen master Shunryu Suzuki, which says a lot about the intent behind downbeat.

Craven Faults - Erratics & Uncomformities
Since his first 12" in 2017, the reclusive Yorkshire UK based electronic producer Craven Faults has released a handful of EPs and two albums and has become something of an underground legend. His debut album, 2020's Erratics & Uncomformities stands as a towering achievement in the field of contemporary electronic music. Crowned album of the year by the UK's Norman Records, this sound has been labelled "West Yorkshire kosmische", as it is a kind of rugged, rural take on the synth explorations that emerged out of 1970s Germany. Equipment used is listed on the album's liner notes - with computers noticeably absent. This is pure analog machine music, with synths locked and swirling like cogs turning within vast explorations in electronic sound, tone and texture. Apparently, this enigmatic artist lives and records in an abandoned Yorkshire textile mill, and this music has a hauntological aspect, with Craven Faults' machine rhythms suggesting the relentless factory rhythms of the huge looms that helped drive the industrial revolution of the 19th century.

The Cinematic Orchestra - Every Day / Man With A Movie Camera
The brainchild of producer J. Swinscoe, The Cinematic Orchestra's sound leans towards jazz as much as electronics. Ninja Tunes have recently released a 20th anniversary 3xLP version of 'Every Day', the album that established their sound - a merging of samples, synths, double bass and live drums, featuring sax played by UK jazz legend Tom Chant and vocals by Fontella Bass and Roots Manuva. They merge decades, creating music that exists outside of any one particular era. The album evolved from a commission to perform a live soundtrack for a screening of the experimental 1929 Soviet silent documentary film, Dziga Vertov's Man With A Movie Camera. Elements of that score were incorporated into the tracks that became Every Day, and for their subsequent album, Man With A Movie Camera, the band spent two days in a studio recording the original score and releasing it as a replica of the classic 'live in the studio' recordings from the heyday of the 1950's jazz era, complete with a thick card tip-on sleeve. By turns moody, grand and uber cool this sound helped inspire a new generation of keepers of the jazz flame.

Boards of Canada - Music Has the Right To Children
Arguably, one of the most influential acts of the last two decades, any of the Scottish duo's four LPs could be included here. Geogaddi (2002), The Campfire Headphase (2005) and Tomorrow's Harvest (2013) are all exceptional records, each with a particular flavour, and each distinctly Boards of Canada, who maintain a consistent and encompassing artistic vision across all of their LPs and EPS. Music Has the Right To Children (1998) was their debut (not counting their prior self-released records) that changed everything and remains an undisputed classic. Deservedly getting a rare Pitchfork rating of 10/10, it spawned a mini-genre even though the elements of their sound were nothing new. Like many others they used drum machines, samplers, and synths, their melodies ambient and gauzy, their beats downtempo; however, rarely before had electronic artists paid as much minute attention to texture and detail. The sound, the cover art, the sample base and the over arching ethos - one that reconfigures the past and childhood wonder into something strange and eerie -  invites the listener into a wondrous and fascinating parallel world, and the more you lean in the more there is to discover. 

Broadcast - Tender Buttons
Trish Keenan, one half of Broadcast, died tragically aged 42. Released in 2005, Tender Buttons stands as a testament to a true visionary who helped create a new sound, sometimes referred to as hypnagogic pop - "a world of blissful reverie and sun-dappled hallucinogenic soundscapes, a world beyond time, where both past and future intermingle". Reduced to a duo for their third LP, Broadcast's sound was more stripped back. With an old analog drum machine replacing their departed drummer and fuzzy synthesizers dominating the record, this relative simplicity works in their favour, the simpler arrangements allowing Trish Keenan's vocals to feature more prominently. The band's development over four records, from The Noise Made By People (2000), to Ha Ha Sound (2003), to Tender Buttons (2005), to Broadcast and The Focus Group Investigate Witch Cults of the Radio Age (2009), is an intriguing journey to follow.

VA - Artificial Intelligence
Warp Records are currently re-issuing several of the early formative IDM albums including The Black Dog's 'Spanners', Richie Hawtin's 'Fuse' and Speedy J's 'Ginger', all of which's artists appear on the 1993 compilation, 'Artificial Intelligence'. The album's cover illustration, depicting a robot, reclining in a living room with Kraftwerk and Pink Floyd LPs strewn about the floor, evokes an old school deep listening session, and suggests a new genre which Warp called "Electronic Listening Music". Sadly, the term never caught on and we got the much maligned "Intelligent Dance Music," (IDM) named after a popular e-mail list. While tempos are a little slower and textures more complex the record adhered to techno's early template and has dated remarkably well, presenting itself both as a formative historical document and a highly enjoyable selection of early electronic productions. Featuring tracks including Aphex Twin (as the Dice Man), Autechre, Richie Hawtin (as UP!), the Orb (as Dr. Alex Patterson) and Plaid in their Black Dog days (as I.A.O.), Rolling Stone included the compilation on its 2014 list of "The 40 Most Groundbreaking Albums of All Time". 

Aphex Twin - Selected Ambient Works 85-92
Richard D. James aka Aphex Twin has attained legendary status over the years, partly due to dozens of rumours, including that he owns a tank and a submarine and that he composes music via lucid dreaming. True or not, his cult status has served him well, as his relatively small discography (6 albums and a handful of EPs over 30 years) remains popular. Released in 1992, his debut album, 'Selected Ambient Works 85-92', a compilation of early tracks, is now considered a landmark release, despite its lo-fi DIY origins, with some of the tracks recorded onto cassette when the producer was a 14 year old who "wanted to make my music sound like a game - a danceable version of a Spectrum game". Whether this music is actually ambient depends on your definition. All of the tracks have beats and are as much influenced by rave culture as by Eno, with 808 hi-hats and acid squelches and many dance dynamics throughout. This is the outlier in Aphex Twin's discography, being less frenetic and far more atmospheric than his later albums (with the exception of Selected Ambient Works Vol II) and remains a curiously innocent and at times quite beautiful record.