Albums to watch

Prince reigns supreme

Pantha Du Prince's minimal techno crossover album Black Noise has become the most highly-rated electronic / dance release on AnyDecentMusic in the last 12 months - which is not bad going for an album that's only been out for a couple of days.

It's highly likely that the presence of Animal Collective's Noah Lennox on Hendrick Weber's third full-length release has contributed to the album acquiring a wider recognition among reviewers than might otherwise have been the case for a release by the German electronic  boffin.

However it is also a signal of a shift in the popular mood in favour of minimal techno - at least at the more ambient and electronica-infused end of the spectrum.

Indeed early 2010 would appear to be something of a purple patch for electronic music. Four Tet's There Is Love In You, currently the second-highest rated of the 12-month period, has garnered huge acclaim, and from some very unlikely sources at that, given the album's preponderance of  dubstep and glitchy techno.

Further still removed from the mainstream is Ben Frost's By The Throat, a frankly unsettling suite of experimental electronic noise, yet this currently stands joint 3rd in the chart, alongside Fever Ray, one of 2009's landmark electronica releases (albeit Frost's album has thus far received a fewer number of reviews).

Another notable current ambient techno album to figure in the upper reaches of the 12-month chart is the debut solo release by Etienne Jaumet, a former collaborator within the French "mutant disco" operation Zombie Zombie.

The ADM electronic/dance 12-month top 10

  1. 8.2 Pantha Du Prince Black Noise
  2. 8.1 Four Tet There Is Love In You
  3. 7.9 Fever Ray Fever Ray
  4. 7.9 Ben Frost By the Throat
  5. 7.8 Dan Deacon Bromst
  6. 7.7 The Juan MacLean The Future Will Come
  7. 7.7 Junior Boys Begone Dull Care
  8. 7.7 Hudson Mohawke Butter
  9. 7.6 Matias Aguayo Ay Ay Ay
  10. 7.6 Martyn Fabric 50

To see the full ratings, go to the Customise Your Chart area on the home page.

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