RA: Top 100 albums of the 2000s

评语：01. Ricardo Villalobos - Alcachofa [Playhouse, 2003] For most, Alcachofa is where "Ricardo Villalobos" began. A little known DJ and producer with a few solid tracks to his name in 2003, there were few indications that there would soon be a 3 x 12-inch release on Playhouse that would help change the course of electronic music. After a few years of playing the game as it should be played, however, Villalobos let his freak flag fly in full view on Alcachofa. It was a revelation in both imagination and scope. It was a question. "How out there can we go and still make people dance?" And an answer. "This far...for now." "For now" meant that there were ever-so-slight concessions to the masses. You would never hear the desiccated voice of "Easy Lee" nor would things ever get quite as easy as "Dexter" in a Villalobos track ever again. But the particular genius of Alcachofa is that you only realized that things like "Easy Lee" and "Dexter" were anthems after you listened to them for the second, third or 15th time. It's a nearly impossible trick, making tracks that kept you dancing but which still give up new secrets each time that you hear them. Seven years later, we're still hearing things. – Todd L. Burns

评语：02. Metro Area - Metro Area [Environ Records, 2002] Essentially a modern electronic take on the '80s boogie sound of yore, Morgan Geist and Darshan Jesrani's first and only full-length together is a landmark album in more ways than one. Largely responsible for the resurgence of the electronic disco sound, this collection of the previous Metro Area 12-inch singles is still played by DJs from all genres, building nu-jazz DJs a bridge to house and opening a door for techno heads into disco. The tried-and-tested dance floor anthem "Miura" will be the one that you know inside out, but from the bubbling funk of "Dance Reaction" all the way through to the slinky shuffle of "Caught Up," the New York duo didn't put a foot wrong. With its crisp sounds, clinical arrangements and ridiculously funky grooves, Metro Area truly is a timeless album. – Richard Carnes

评语：03. Burial - Untrue [Hyperdub, 2007] If Burial's self-titled debut was the first dubstep record to really give the UK-bass mutant a somewhat larger foothold elsewhere, then follow up Untrue was the album that led to its first household-name claim (fine, apartment-name). Often described as "ghostly" or "spectral," Untrue was, first and foremost, a mastery of sample stitching. Vocal shards smudge almost every edge of his dark-alley 2-step, often left to moan below as blurry new haunts take the fore. The genre's sharp, machine-room edges suddenly seemed sanded down, touchable; a notoriously dour, black-and-gray format now infused with both a little color and a bit of spiritualism. Were it not such a "British" record in terms both of heritage and sonics, one might almost consider Untrue a kind of urban gospel music: A hymn, almost solemn, in a cracked pavement landscape. – Derek Miller

评语：04. Daft Punk - Discovery [Virgin Records, 2001] Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo probably didn't set out to create the Sgt. Pepper's of dance music when they started writing songs for the follow-up to their loudly-lauded Homework. No, they merely embraced a wild spectrum of post-'60s popular music with the kind of innocent reverence normally reserved for rock's halcyon heyday, chopped it up with precision sampling technology in obedience to a throbbing 4/4 and recycled it into fourteen blurts of heady machine-processed joy. House-rooted artists before and since have made albums more avant-garde or more populist, but none have combined the two as suavely and effortlessly as Discovery, and no one, ever, has made a simple filtered loop sound so life-affirming, so thrilling as Daft Punk do in the first 47 seconds of "One More Time." – Mallory O'Donnell

评语：05. LCD Soundsystem - LCD Soundsystem [DFA Records, 2005] There was a line of thinking in some quarters that LCD Soundsystem's eponymous 2005 debut was a questionable representation of the album format; little more than a collection of distinguished singles. For the ears of a casual mass market listener? Perhaps. But viewing the record via the prism of a throbbing dance floor, it hardly seemed to matter one iota. The run of singles that began with 2002's "Losing My Edge" kicked up an anticipative dust cloud for the full LP and cannily made up LCD Soundsystem's second disc, while the LP proper basked in Murphy's love for Talking Heads, Can and Suicide, within the loose-ish framework of a disco jam session. Influences aside, LCD Soundsystem burnt up the rulebook Disco Demolition-style on what a contemporary "dance" band could, and should, sound like. – Ryan Keeling

评语：06. Gas - Pop [Mille Plateaux, 2000] I almost don't want to write about Pop in isolation, because few experiences in ambient music are as sublime as the transition from the rest of the Nah Und Fern box set to this album. It's like stepping off an airplane and away from the high, sweeping view you get from its window into the thick of a jungle, a dense, steaming hiss enveloping your ears while somewhere, in the distance, an orchestra plays (this is Gas, after all). Here Wolfgang Voigt deploys his mastery of loop-based composition such that some of the tracks feel a bit like perpetual waves of deja vu, a timeless slice of the feeling you get when you're just coming up, dilated out to what feels like infinity. It's actually 66 minutes, but Pop's excruciating beauty makes you wish it was twice that. – Ian Mathers

评语：07. The Avalanches - Since I Left You [Modular Recordings, 2001] While long periods of silence following genre-smashing debuts are far from rare in the electronic music world, The Avalanches are the perpetrators of a walk-off that make Portishead look like R. Kelly. Whether they're just sitting somewhere in Australia, still stunned, or have simply returned to their home planet, their debut and sole long-player remains as eye-opening and brain-buggering as the day you first heard it. Most of a decade later, there's still no easy way to summarize Since I Left You. Is it an AM radio falling off a cliff or an art-collage gone pop? Soundtrack to a prom in Heaven or the devil's own mixtape? Whatever you make of it, you're diminishing these 60 minutes of blissful miscegenation. Is it any wonder its' own creators don't know what in Hell to do? – Mallory O'Donnell

评语：08. Booka Shade - Movements [Get Physical Music, 2006] Bangers. At the end of the day, it's really all that you need. "Night Falls," "Body Language," "In White Rooms," "Mandarine Girl." Nearly everything on Movements was primed for the club, ready to be unleashed on crowds via vinyl or Booka Shade themselves during their excellent live show. The duo made some concessions to the format—making an album version of "Mandarine Girl, for instance—but Movements was largely an exercise in trusting a musical vision. Booka's dance floor material was always slightly more musical than most, and the reaction to Movements—a record that brought the group and label more mainstream attention—proved that theirs was a formula that didn't need to be shoehorned to fit some idea of what an album should be. – Todd L. Burns

评语：09. The Knife - Silent Shout [Rabid Records, 2006] "Angular" doesn't sound like it describes music; when we use it, it's because someone has made the most heartfelt and companionable artform feel like it could cut you if you touched it. That the curling alien menace the Knife wield comes from fairly conventional sources just makes it scarier. In anyone else's hands "Forest Families" would be moving instead of weirdly threatening; "One Hit" would express concern about the abuse at its heart instead of leering at you; "Still Light" would be a ballad instead of something whispering underneath your bed. And tracks like "Marble House" and "We Share Our Mother's Health" would be dance tracks instead of stark, taciturn, brilliant edifices. Whatever the Knife are ultimately up to, the title track puts it best: On Silent Shout you caught a glimpse, now it haunts you. – Ian Mathers

评语：10. Rhythm & Sound - w/ The Artists [Burial Mix, 2003] Mark Ernestus and Mortiz von Oswald will probably be best remembered for their mid-'90s run of Basic Channel records, but they sure set the price high on dwelling on the past. Their subsequent Rhythm & Sound project nestled into slower tempos and thicker atmospheres, drawing deep from a dub muse discernible even at BC's inception. For w/ the Artists, the Berlin duo called on some of dub and reggae's most legendary voices, turning the likes of The Chosen Brothers, Love Joy and Paul St. Hilaire loose over reverb-soaked, organic rhythm tracks that rank among their weightiest (see the companion Versions disc). The vocalists take to the techno-informed environs like they were born in them, spitting stories proud and wearied, and making this landmark of digital dub sound design a hell of a soulful reggae record to boot. – Chris Burkhalter

评语：11. Boards of Canada - Geogaddi [Warp Records, 2002] Rarely has an album cover so fittingly embodied an album's sound as that of Geogaddi. A bloody, sun-drenched, kaleidoscopic tessellation of a child standing in between two trees, the image imparts inscrutability, whimsy and an ominous sense of danger. Elementally, Geogaddi does not depart all that radically from its predecessor, Music Has the Right to Children. But in tone and texture, the album is Music's stark opposite. Possessing a uniquely alluring dread, Geogaddi's 23 soundcards form a collage of eroding nostalgia, a singular sonic experience whose reach we have yet to truly witness. Because though we can pinpoint aural touchstones in its predecessors and followers, we still cannot find an approximation of its consummate purview. - Tal Rosenberg

评语：12. Akufen - My Way [Force Inc, 2002] Like the 2000-plus micro samples comprising Marc Leclair's definitive release My Way, microhouse's threat as a dominant discourse in dance music got clipped short and sweet. But despite Force Inc. disappearing soon after releasing Akufen's idiosyncratic debut, the album outlived its contemporaries and become a classic for both the mind and hips. Using the glitch as a means of teasing the glee out of fleeting everyday audio encounters, My Way's theoretical strengths paved the way for LeClair to bring subsequent live performances into art galleries as well as clubs. Because while other conceptual records get forgotten under the weight of their own methods, LeClair's grounded dedication to a hook-heavy splice and groove made My Way a fervently buoyant listen. - Leigh Dennis

评语：13. Luomo - Vocalcity [Force Tracks, 2000] Back at the start of the decade, house music was in pretty uninspired shape. A handful of German labels, however, were quietly forging an intriguing fusion of instinctive house structures and increasingly experimental sound design. The most prominent of these microhouse imprints was Force Tracks, and Vocalcity remains by some distance the label's most enduring full-length release. While other microhouse producers had been dabbling in rarefied, glitch-heavy experiments, Vladislav Delay's Luomo alter ego was arguably the first artist to successfully meld next-level production techniques with a rich, emotionally-charged soul. From the endlessly shifting plains of "Synkro" to the vocal tearjerker "Tessio," it set the tone for a decade that would see the conservative boundaries of what we once knew as house transformed beyond all recognition. - Lee Smith

评语：14. Hercules & Love Affair - Hercules & Love Affair [DFA Records, 2008] The dissonance between Hercules & Love Affair's first two EPs is remarkable. The Chicago jack of Classique #2/Roar shortly gave way to the melodramatic throwback disco of Andy Butler's debutante anthem "Blind." The subsequent self-titled album not only made "Blind" infinitely more palatable, it effortlessly sealed the gap between the two EPs with an oddly thrilling and unexpectedly familiar-sounding love letter to disco and EDM. House and disco are inextricably linked to the gay experience, and our modern-day Hercules succeeded in reconciling images of Baccahanalian hedonism with body music and modern day queer culture. Through this lens, Butler reimagined indie darling Antony Heragty as Sylvester, his vocal muse, and himself as his Arthur Russell or Ron Hardy, flitting between leftfield disco arrangements and expert dance floor alchemy. - Christine Kakaire

评语：15. The Other People Place - Lifestyles of the Laptop Café [Warp Records, 2001] The greatest of the seven album "storms" that aqua-funk legends Drexciya scattered over an array of labels, guises and enigmatic framing concepts, James Stinson's yearning, house-affected solo album is beset with the mismatch of human intimacy and depersonalized internet culture. A record—as the cover image suggests—of lush, open sounds and spare, confined interiors, Lifestyles' purring keyboards and ripe organ chords set a reflective, languid tone, though its splashing rhythms have all the intensity of Drexciya's earlier, coursing electro. And there were the vocals—plainspoken and understated, they speak or sing of romance and sunshine, but hint at brooding discontent and even loneliness. More touching and human than anything we'd then expected from this secretive techno warrior, it made Stinson's untimely passing a year later all the more heartbreaking. - Chris Burkhalter

评语：16. Herbert - Bodily Functions [Studio !K7, 2001] Many of the tracks on Bodily Functions were written according to the rules of PCCOM, Matthew Herbert's self-imposed regulations for composing music. (Most notable among them: "The use of sounds that exist already is not allowed.") Unlike much of his later work, however, you could hardly tell that was the case. Herbert's remarkable collaboration with Dani Siciliano simply sounds like a jazz album with some house flourishes thrown in every so often to ensure that the tempo never drops too low. Expertly sequenced, it ebbs and flows with highs—"It's Only," "Suddenly," "Leave Me Now"—and lows—"About This Time Each Day," "I Miss You," "I Know"—that give this record a sense of balance that few other electronic music albums can claim. Rarely has Herbert been this interested in traditional beauty as he is on Bodily Functions. Thankfully, we'll have the results for the rest of time. - Todd L. Burns

评语：17. Convextion - Convextion [Down Low, 2006] Convextion may lean heavily on the reverberations of Basic Channel and Deepchord, but there's a critical twist: Emotion. Moody chords and optimistic melodies conjure the streamlined future visions that you first heard in the gliding lasers on Carl Craig's Landcruising or the raw poignant hooks of Aphex Twin's Selected Ambient Works—those overheated golden tones from back in the days when techno music was future music. Dig the plaintive streaks across "Equanimity" or the sparkling chimes on "Premiata." This is cinematic music. This is Blade Runner and Logan's Run. By turns jittery, sedative and jacking, Convextion's singular long-player plugs the emotional side of electric music into the stern template of dub techno and it's a beautiful, timeless intersection. Winter neon lights sliding across the hood of a car. This album sounds exactly like that. - James Reeves

评语：18. Shed - Shedding the Past [Ostgut Ton, 2008] Though Ostgut and Berghain had already established themselves as leaders in contemporary underground techno by the time Shedding the Past hit, only now can we fully appreciate the importance of René Pawlowitz's debut in defining the aesthetic of one of the world's most important clubs. Where Dettmann and Klock had been challenging the old power station's revellers with the potentials of the new wave dub-techno crossover, Shedding connected the two in a coherent package suitable for consideration off the dance floor, tracing links between ambient electronica and Berlin's old school. Over a year after its release, Shedding's austere landscapes continue to defy their retrospective past and shape the present, maintaining Pawlowitz's reputation as one of today's most consistent producers and precedent-setter for the future of True. Techno. Music. - Leigh Dennis

评语：19. Hot Chip - The Warning [Astralwerks, 2006] You got the sense that in 2006 listeners were ready to embrace Hot Chip. The path trodden down by LCD Soundsystem earlier in the decade had defrosted dance fans' attitudes toward guitars wedding electronics, while the star of longstanding electronic outfits such as Basement Jaxx, Underworld and The Chemical Brothers had long since began to fade. Sounding like a New Order for a new era, The Warning saw the UK outfit grow into the sharp suit they had tailored on their fine, but ultimately lightweight debut, Coming On Strong. Lead single "Over & Over" epitomized this newfound steely resolve with its searing guitars and tenacious chorus; "Boy From School" illustrated their capacity to emotionally engage; and numbers such as "Colours" and "The Warning" played to the light and shade, sweet and sour tones that bled throughout much of the album. - Ryan Keeling

评语：20. Moodymann - Silence in the Secret Garden [Peacefrog, 2003] Moodymann's albums in the late '90s and early '00s felt a little bit like The Wire. Both defied their mediums, stitching together pieces of art that seemed more interested in acting as novels than record or television shows. Silence in the Secret Garden is a novel without much of a plot, of course. But that's also the point: Moodymann stayed true to his name by simply crafting atmospheres and feelings that appear and disappear without rhyme or reason, as subliminal as the rush of words that close "Yesterdays Party Watta Bout It." There is no narrative, just scenes. "Silence in the Secret Garden" reveled in the power of repetition, "Shine" reminded us that vocalizing words is often unneeded when you have "mmm" and "yeah" to see you through. And it was all held together by one of the most idiosyncratic producers of our time. - Todd L. Burns

评语：21. Mylo - Destroy Rock and Roll [Breastfed, 2004] There are still so many unanswered questions thrown up by the video to Mylo's "Drop the Pressure." But it's that same sort of inexplicable quality that also makes the song, and the album it's contained within, so great. No one knows why all the doctors are bearing Destroy Rock & Roll shirts. And no one knows exactly why a simple voice telling you that a "motherfucker's going to drop the pressure" makes you want to dance so hard. What is clear is that the success of Destroy Rock & Roll was immense, an all-encompassing situation which allowed for half of the tracks on the album to be released as singles. That Mylo hasn't returned in a meaningful way since is no surprise. How do you follow up something this inexplicable? - Todd L. Burns

评语：22. Justice - Cross [Ed Banger Records, 2007] Justice. What a great name for a group. Quick, powerful, single-minded. Just like Gaspard Augé and Xavier de Rosnay's music on their debut album. Sure, Cross was more than a little reminiscent of fellow countrymen Daft Punk, but Justice's tunes had less humor, and were far more brutal in the way that they went about their business. Everything was distorted, brash, young. And awesome, in the truest sense of the word. "Genesis" immediately took your breath away, and the boys didn't allow you to get it back until somewhere around "Tthhee Ppaarrttyy," before launching into the final salvo of tunes. It's a fast ride, but Augé and de Rosnay knew that it had to be. After all, Justice doesn't allow for a whole lot of subtlety. In this case, though, that was a very good thing. - Todd L. Burns

评语：23. LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver [DFA Records, 2007] No one seems to put more pressure on himself than James Murphy, so if expectations were high for Sound of Silver among fans, you can only imagine the crushing weight that Murphy felt. Murphy's neurosis was a good thing for all of us, though, because it clearly led to moments of tortured bliss like "New York, I Love You..." and melancholy anthems like "Someone Great." Sound of Silver's secret weapon, however, were the tracks that everyone forgets. "Watch the Tapes" and "Time to Get Away" both swing with a funk that should have no place on album like this, and "North American Scum" is likely the funniest self-lacerating anti-American screed put to tape in a decade when patriotism was no laughing matter. That it sounds like the easiest thing in the world may be the greatest testament to Murphy's talent of all. - Todd L. Burns

评语：24. Fever Ray - Fever Ray [Rabid Records, 2009] When Olof Dreijer left Stockholm and moved to Berlin to explore other sonic ventures, fellow Knife member Karin Dreijer-Andersson was left behind, stuck with a home studio and crying baby-induced sleep deprivation. Bad for her, good for us: The results of those late night/early morning recording sessions under the Fever Ray moniker somehow engendered the most peculiar-sounding electronic music ever put to tape. Produced with the help of Van Rivers and The Subliminal Kid (their collaboration was clearly instrumental in shaping the album’s idiosyncratic sound), Fever Ray is an oeuvre that is both ancient and modern, highly stylistic yet profoundly liturgical, combining ritualistic paganism and hi-fi wizardries, Jungian archetypes and visual ideas from Google Image searches. - Stéphane Girard

评语：25. Burial - Burial [Hyperdub, 2006] Burial's sophomore album Untrue may have had the spectral garage anthems of "Archangel," "Ghost Hardware," "Raver" and the title track, but that doesn't mean that we should forget about Burial. Many fans still hail it as their favourite of the two due to the way it works as an album and its concisely dark and dusky tone. It was—and still is—a revolutionary record in the way that it influenced dubstep sounds and reinvented 2-step for an entirely different generation. From the sublow meditation of "Distant Lights" through to the Eno-esque ambience of "Forgive" and the gorgeously wonky "Broken Home," every track on Burial stands up firmly on its own, making it an essential listen whether you consider yourself into dubstep or not. - Richard Carnes