The Best Electronic Music of 2022

Listen/Buy: Amazon | Apple Music | Bandcamp | Spotify | Tidal

The Soft Pink Truth: Is It Going to Get Any Deeper Than This?

On his longest and most sumptuous album as the Soft Pink Truth, Matmos’ Drew Daniel tunnels towards the center of the music dear to his heart, making a double-LP disco-house epic for no better reason than because he loves the stuff—and has the talent and resources to put together a great one. As a remotely assembled cast of collaborators summons an oceanic swell of strings and horns, Daniel uses marathon track lengths and his mastery of tonal control to transport the listener through a velvet-lined vortex that seems limitless—until a cover of Willie Hutch’s “Now That It’s All Over” guides the listener gently back to the real world. –Daniel Bromfield

Listen/Buy: Rough Trade | Amazon | Apple Music | Bandcamp | Spotify

Theo Parrish: DJ-Kicks

Leave it to Theo Parrish to turn his entry in the DJ-Kicks mix series into an explosive manifesto in defense of Detroit. The preposterously talented DJ and producer has always felt slightly out of step with his Motor City peers—sampling funk, soul, and disco just as Detroit techno was hardening into an exportable product, and turning to strident free jazz in mixes when his imitators finally overtook deep house. Across 19 tracks, just about all of which come from artists actively working in and around his Michigan stomping grounds, Parrish pushes back against recent efforts to memorialize the local sounds of the ’90s. Genres and generational politics blur, as the DJ makes the case for the timelessness of local scenes while giving context to the incredible music happening in Detroit today. –Rob Arcand

Listen/Buy: Amazon | Apple Music | Bandcamp | Spotify

Two Shell: Icons EP

There was a brief moment before the name Two Shell took on any significance, but that feels like ancient history. The enigmatic UK bass duo broke through with a series of white-label 12″s that were hard, heavy, and above all, playful, breathing new life into the last decade’s post-dubstep austerity with blinding synths, garish breakbeats, and massive, head-turning samples. While their unpredictable live shows are quickly becoming a central draw at festivals, the equally gonzo Icons proved that the pair is just as effective in the studio: In five irresistible tracks that mashed up techno, hyperpop, and even big beat, Two Shell cemented their place as one of dance music’s most inventive—and irreverent—new voices. –Rob Arcand

Listen/Buy: Rough Trade | Amazon | Apple Music | Bandcamp | Spotify | Tidal

yeule: “Bites on My Neck”

Part hyperpop cyborg, part suffering bedroom songwriter, yeule deals in emo-tinged laments that conceal deep, impossible desires: to be numb and euphoric at once; to be touched without a body. The Singaporean musician floats between dissociative sing-speak and lullaby coos on “Bites on My Neck,” corralling meteor-shower synths and pugilistic kick drums to offer a fresh perspective on pleasure-centric dance pop. Co-written and produced with Danny L Harle and Mura Masa, the track owes as much to M83’s starbound symphonies and Laurie Anderson’s deadpan alienation as to post-PC Music clubland. Yeule hijacks that garish pop paradigm in service of more vaporous emotions, funneling a post-breakup identity crisis into an immaterial rush. –Jazz Monroe

Listen: yeule, “Bites on My Neck”