The new year has only just begun, but we’re already looking forward to our favorite albums on the horizon for 2015. Below, we countdown the ten most anticipated electronic albums of 2015, featuring Panda Bear, James Blake, Disclosure and more.
10) Giorgio Moroder, “74 is the new 24,”
Release Date: March 2014
A new album this late in the game seems like a cash-in on a newfound horde of millennial fans, but Giorgio Moroder’s near deity status in electronic music can’t be denied. By the sounds of the album’s first single, Moroder aims to keep the 70s club revival train rolling well past Daft Punk station. Hard to say if an entire album of this would fare in the age of the bass phaser, but if anyone can pull it off besides the , itap Moroder.
9) Bjork, TBA,
Release Date: TBA
Much to fans simultaneous delight and disappointment, Bjork announced her return to the studio as an explanation for a tour cut short late last year. Her albums vary as wildly as what the Icelandic producer/singer might wear on any given press day, so your guess is as good as our as to what it might sound like. What we do know is she’s teaming up with experimental Venezuelan producer Arca for the album, most recently made notable c/o Thom Yorke’s Christmas playlist. Otherwise, it could be anything—, for all we know
8) Joker, “The Mainframe,”
Release Date: February 16
https://soundcloud.com/jokerkapsize/joker-midnight-out-8th-dec
British producer Joker is one of the most promising grime producers to come onto the scene in the last two years. While the prominent pop vocals on his debut LP left a few scratching their heads, the first single from his upcoming album, “The Mainframe,” signals a return to form, despite its insistence on J-Lo vocal samples (only as a texture). If the rest of the album follows suit, “The Mainframe” has all the workings of a sleeper hit outside of gates of the electronic community and a marquee release inside.
7) MMOTHS, TBA,
Release Date: TBA
Put yourself in the otherwordly haze of Irish producer MMOTHS and images of his country of origin come to mind, displaced out of time. Itap mythological yet futuristic, and decidedly at peace with the world and the chaos we imagine when we think of electronic music. MMOTH’s EPs have showed his promise, but itap the single off his upcoming full-length that has us most excited. “Yago” is an auditory journey to an ill-defined paradise, marked by a crescendo of bass drums and yawping background vocals. Hopefully, a sign of whatap to come.
6) Panda Bear, “Panda Bear Meets The Grim Reaper,”
Release Date: January 13
Animal Collective’s Panda Bear cut his teeth on bizzare sound collages, and his latest effort sounds more or less like a logical progression. Judging from , “Panda Bear Meets The Grim Reaper” isn’t as immediately accessible as his break out hit “Person Pitch,”and focuses on textures as much as providing palatable rhythms. As you can tell by the title, itap a shade darker in theme, concerning itself with existential maladies (as opposed to whatever it is you took from “Person Pitch”) while never losing the sonic thread of childlike wonder so prominent in his music. The album comes out soon, but in the meantime, you can catch it streaming over the next week.
5) Chromatics, “Dear Tommy,”
Release Date: Before Valentine’s Day
The very modern, very Portlandian Chromatics sound like they came straight out of 80’s Europe in the best way possible. Their most recent release, “Kill For Love,” plays like the holy grail of record store finds: old yet new, strange yet classic. We know little of the band’s upcoming album save for the fact that, , it’ll be released in time for Valentine’s Day. Maybe a love-making soundtrack? Time will tell. Keep your ear out for singles in the coming weeks.
4) Grimes, TBA,
Release Date: 2015
After a year ago and subsequently scrapping it in September (official reason: ), a new Grimes LP may never be a hotter commodity than it is now. Despite two one-off releases in the last year, we know little about what the album will sound like, because Grimes has gone out of her way to distance the strangely M.O.R. and her X-mas release from her upcoming release. (Apologies to fans of holiday indie rap.) What we do know is she’s delving into live instrumentation and the album will likely feature a glam rock track, a la Queen and David Bowie.
3) Disclosure, TBA,
Release Date: TBA
Many would argue Disclosure are nothing but ’80s/’90s house music repurposed for a new generation. Haters aside, they’re one of the rare electronic projects today that has yielded almost 100% chart-worthy tracks. Their debut was 2012’s most airtight albums, the sort you can throw on at a party and let play through without complaint. There’s only been whispers of a return to the studio since “Settle”— they have begun work on their sophomore LP in September—so who knows when this will see the light of day. 2015 or 2016, retro house or skittering techno, whatever these guys put out is bound for the end-of-the-year lists.
2) James Blake, TBA,
Release Date: Spring 2015
There’s few musicians that personify this day and age as well as James Blake. Itap soul, itap folk, itap heavily electronic and ultimately, unmistakably of our time. While timeless in one respect, what other decade could have produced “To Care (Like You)” or the smoldering desolation of “Overgrown,” from his last album of the same name? All we have to go off of Blake’s 2015 LP is a rough release date (he said in November it’d probably be released in five months, so around April 2015), a typically a few weeks back, and the tease of on the album. Even with these meager shreds of info, this is one of the most bankable releases of the year—Blake delivers too consistently to predict otherwise.
1) Radiohead, TBA,
Release Date: TBA
This one’s a no-brainer. The always surprising, always incredible Radiohead have dithered between alternative and electronic music for the majority of their career. But as 2011’s “King of Limbs” and “In Rainbows” before it can attest, the band has stuck their flag in the electronic camp as of late. This isn’t to guarantee their amorphous new album will follow suit—Thom Yorke might have gotten it all out of his system with his latest solo album—but it’s as good a bet as “weird” for the band’s next outing. Listening to Johnny Greenwood’s interview with , it sounds like the band has as little idea as we do: “When we start up…we don’t know quite what to do. ‘Looking down avenues’ is a very kind way of putting the kind of fumbling that we do, mainly because every time we try and do it like the last time because that worked, it never seems to work. So we talk about different approaches and we’re currently trying a bunch out.”
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Dylan Owens is Reverb’s all-purpose news blogger and album reviewer. You can read more from him on , or the comment sections of WORLDSTARHIPHOP.
