After covering several hundred releases in 2021, many notables—including links to their respective Igloo reviews or release pages—are cataloged here. As usual, there are no winners or runners-up as the lists are alphabetized by artist and selected tracks are featured on our Soundcloud playlist.
Giving due recognition to quality work
2021 was another strange yet impacting year for electronic music and its subsidiary genres as Igloo (celebrating over 20 years of electronic music coverage) did its best to provide a wide range of reviews, profiles, features and newswires showcasing our listening experiences. Considering an ongoing global pandemic (and sadly, its variants), several sonic creators from across the planet showed no signs of slowing, locked down or not—releasing music with seasoned and newly minted imprints (as well as on their own).
We also acknowledge that many releases have likely slipped by our radar; it’s unfortunately unavoidable. And yet, a quote by Ian Boddy (DiN) from our 2011 Five Questions profile, still holds true:
“Music has so many permutations and avenues to explore that it is impossible in any single life time to see it all. So you have to go on a personal journey that takes you down paths and tracks that are unique to you.” ~ Ian Boddy
With that being said, the idea of giving due recognition to quality work is the main reason for this yearly list of favorites—at least for the releases we had a chance to consume. Here’s our 2021 top releases, and please note that we’ll likely add more, so check back!
Special thank you to all of our contributors as well as those who helped piece together this article including: Alan Lockett, Benjamin Charles, Carlos Von Bosch, Chris Amell, Eric Sorenson, James Martin, Jus Forrest, Philippe Blache, Pietro Da Sacco, and Robbie Geoghegan. Photo by Evan Snyder (Skytree Music), layout Francesca Da Sacco.
LONG PLAYERS ::
36 :: Wave Variations (Past Inside the Present)
4T Thieves :: Raven’s Cottage (Rednetic)
4T Thieves & Pandacetamol :: The Electric Home (Kahvi Collective)
Access to Arasaka :: l a k e s (Self Released)
Aelk Minsur :: Concrete (Self Released)
AES Dana :: (a) period. (Ultimae)
ALEPH :: EGO DEATH (Renraku)
Alessandro Cortini :: SCURO CHIARO (Mute)
Andy Stott :: Never The Right Time (Modern Love)
Ambidextrous :: Fifty Years Of October (Fantasy Enhancing)
Anders Ilar :: Phocid (L50/Pulse State)
Anodyne :: Decayed (Acroplane)
ASC & Inhmost :: Dimensional Space (Auxiliary)
Atonal :: Bridge (Cold Blow)
A Typo I Feed Iris Noll :: bleeddreams (Schematic Music Co.)
Arovane :: Wirkung (Puremagnetik)
AtOm_AnT :: A_nEw_MiSsIoN [2021] (People Can Listen)
Autumn Of Communion :: Data Space Bass (Fantasy Enhancing)
Beta Consciousness :: Synesthesia (…TXT)
Black Swan :: Repetition Hymns (Past Inside the Present)
Brainquake :: Excess Denied (Mahorka)
bvdub | Brock Van Wey :: Measures of a Greater Mercy (Self Released)
Calum Gunn :: Excessive Step (3OP)
Cathode Ray Tube :: Anabasis (M-Tronic)
Celer :: Being Below (Past Inside the Present)
cEvin Key :: Resonance (Artoffact)
clocolan :: op+errata (Redpan)
clocolan :: This Will End In Love (Castles In Space)
Comit :: An Ocean of Thoughts (A Strangely Isolated Place)
Concussed :: Precipice of the Void (Somewherecold)
C Mantle :: Anatomically Correct (Acre)
Cult 48 :: Catalog 1 (Self Released / Furthur Electronix)
Cult48 :: Underground Signals From An Unknown Place (Self Released)
Cyberian :: Dark Orphism (Amek Collective)
Defrag :: Idle Lines (Kaer’Uiks)
Delving :: Hirschbrunnen (Stickman)
Derek Carr :: Arrival (Firescope)
Drifting In Silence :: False Awakening (Secret Press)
Driftmachine :: Spume & Recollection (Umor Rex)
Dryft :: From Stasis (n5MD)
Eldorado Omega :: Emergent (High Grade Media)
Elsa Hewitt :: LUPA (Self Released)
Eomac :: Cracks (Planet Mu)
Ethereal_Interface :: Dream_Logs (Circuit Church)
exm :: Descent (Touched Music)
exm :: Post Acuem (Self Released)
Farron :: Shinrin Yoku (Shaw Cuts)
Fatih Tuter :: Nature Of Mind (Faint)
f5point6 :: KaleidoSound: Time, Shape & Space Vol. 2 (See Blue Audio)
Fluxion :: Parallel Moves (Vibrant Music)
Frizzell & Duque :: A Sorrow Unrequited (Zakè Drone)
GCOM :: E2-XO (!K7)
Gimmik :: Cloudwalker (n5MD)
Hannu Karjalainen :: Railo (Signature Dark)
Harry Wills :: Luxury Bedtime (Nimble)
Hawgood | Hüwels | Murray :: Day Falls (Home Normal)
Hello Meteor :: The End of All Known Land (Evergreen Prefecture)
Heogen :: Odd Radio Circle (Touched Music)
Humanoid :: 7 Songs (De:tuned)
Idlefon :: COLDSTREAM (n5MD)
Ian Boddy :: Modulations II (DiN)
Ian Boddy :: Nevermore (DiN)
Illuvia :: Iridescence of Clouds (A Strangely Isolated Place)
Inkipak :: Inkipak (Mighty Force)
Inkipak :: Slightly Salted (Pingdiscs)
Island People :: II (Raster)
Jauzas The Shining :: Substance (Specimen)
JEMAPUR :: Mode Cleaner (Omen Wapta)
Kanz :: Remind Me Tomorrow (Mahorka)
Kero :: Demo Vectors (Detroit Underground)
KMRU :: Logue (Injazero)
Komarebi :: Nebulous (Pingdiscs)
LAITR :: Sapphire Send (Acroplane)
Lamasz :: Broderie (Past Inside the Present)
Loess :: Totems (n5MD)
Lone :: Always Inside Your Head (Warp)
Loraine James :: Reflection (Hyperdub)
Lustmord & Karin Park :: ALTER (Pelagic)
Maoupa Mazzocchetti :: UXY DOSING © (BDFM)
Markus Guentner :: Extropy (A Strangely Isolated Place)
Meemo Comma :: Neon Genesis: Soul Into Matter² (Planet Mu)
Memory Scale :: Soft Power (Audiobulb)
Mick Chillage :: Celestial Observations (Before & After Silence)
Mikael Fyrek :: Lunae (Self Released)
Min-Y-Llan :: Involatile (Min-Y-Llan Music)
Mira Calix :: a̶b̶s̶e̶n̶t̶ origin (Warp)
Molez :: Majd Máskor, Valahol Máshol (Kaer’Uiks)
Motion Sickness of Time Travel :: If We Were Landscapes (Self Released)
Music for Sleep :: La cohesion et tra i due mondi (ROHS!)
Nathan Moody :: A Shadow No Light Could Make (Obsidian Sound)
Natura Est :: Real Seasons (Cyclic Law)
Nemerov :: Automated Dances (EXILES)
Nigel Mullaney :: The Turning (DiN)
Ochre :: An Eye to Windward (Self Released)
Ocoeur :: Connections (n5MD)
O C O S I :: 373AHELL (Ohm Resistance)
Olaf Wempe :: Anomaliac (+) (L50)
Ossa / Wake :: Ovis Canadensis (Schematic Music Co.)
Parallel Worlds :: Dimensional (Móatún 7)
Perila & Ulla :: Every Something is an Echo of Nothing (Vaagner)
Patricia :: Blue Ridge (Analogical Force)
Paul Blackford :: Sunset Gradients (Woodwork)
Phoenecia :: MD.SLVG (Megastructure)
Poborsk :: Plus Minus (Kaer’Uiks)
Pollux Rose :: Transience: Flow Process (Diffuse Reality)
preston.outatime :: Mirror Radius (Subexotic)
QRTR :: infina ad nausea (Dome of Doom)
ReKaB :: MOA1204 (Móatún 7)
RENEGADE ANDROiD :: Batteries Not Included (Point Source Electronic Arts)
Repeat Eater :: Deep Desert Dweller (Touched Music)
Rhys Fulber :: Brutal Nature (FR)
Rinnovare :: Held Under All (Shimmering Moods)
Room Of Wires :: Plague of People (Ant-Zen)
Russian Corvette :: Forever Endeavor (Unit Shifter)
Scorn :: The Only Place (Ohm Resistance)
secretflowers :: Omni (Global Pattern)
Sedibus :: The Heavens (Orbscure)
Serge Geyzel :: Limbo (Diffuse Reality)
SIMM :: Too Late To Dream (Ohm Resistance)
Skee Mask :: Pool (Ilian Tape)
SKY H1 :: Azure (AD 93)
Sleep Clinic :: Talus (Errorgrid)
SLIKBACK :: MELT (Self Released)
Slow Dancing Society :: Red Sun Chadeauxs (Past Inside the Present)
Special Request :: DJ Kicks (!K7)
Sphäre Sechs :: Bêta Pictoris (Cryo Chamber)
SVLBRD :: Solstice (Faint)
Space Afrika :: Honest Labour (Dais)
Stendeck :: Carnage (Hymen)
Steve Hadfield :: Industrial Chillout Complex (Werra Foxma)
Syl Kougaï :: Modular Series • Season-01 (Self Released)
Tapes and Topographies :: A Season of Loss (Simulacra)
T/Error :: Rindler Horizon (LDI)
Tescon Pol :: Gai Lan (Concrete Collage)
The Black Dog :: Music For Photographers (Dust Science)
The Ebertbrothers :: Polymer Boulevard (Mindwaves Music)
The Future Sound of London :: MIND MAPS 2 (Touched Music)
The Jaffa Kid :: Open Heart (Pulse State)
The Seaman and The Tattered Sail :: Standing on the Precipice of Tears (Fluid Audio)
Ton Mise :: Turquoise Sky (Inpuj)
Tripsolate & Redundænt :: Reminescenze (Faint)
Valance Drakes :: A Patternless And Endless Soul (YUKU)
Varsity Star :: More Than Anything (Small Pond)
Vcam :: Cycle (n5MD)
Vica Pacheco :: Fibre-Fusion (Wabi-Sabi Tapes)
Warmth :: The Darkest Place (Archives)
Wayne Robert Thomas :: Canticles of Bliss / Canticles of B-Sides (Past Inside the Present)
Winterlight :: Gestural Abstractions (n5MD)
woulg :: Bubblegum (YUKU)
Ulrich Krieger :: 236 Strings (L’ST)
UnknownDivide :: Existence (Labile)
µ-Ziq :: Scurlage (Analogical Force)
µ-Ziq & Mrs Jynx :: Secret Garden (Planet Mu)
Xordox :: Omniverse (Editions Mego)
zakè and Isaac Helsen :: beliefsystems (Past Inside the Present)
zakè, City of Dawn, Ossa :: A Pale Shelter (Past Inside the Present)
Zombi :: Liquid Crystal (Relapse)
EXTENDED PLAYERS / REMIXES / SINGLES ::
4T Thieves :: Fame is an Addiction (Mahorka)
4T Thieves and Friends :: Liminal Space – The Remixes (Kahvi Collective)
Abroxis :: Multiverse (Detroit Underground)
Aelk Minsur :: Continuity and Discretion (Kaer’Uiks)
Alavux :: Radio Astronomy (Woodwork)
Alighted :: Fold (Garden Broom)
Ard Bit :: AMAZING BUBBLE II (Self Released)
Ariadne’s Labyrinth :: Ridiom (Self Released)
Aho Ssan :: Simulacrum Remixed (Subtext)
Blackploid :: Cosmic Traveler (Central Processing Unit)
C Mantle :: The Trials of Herta Kosinsky (Gabber Noir)
Colloboh :: Entity Relation (Leaving)
Craque :: Adapta (TruthTable)
Crisopa :: Plausible Illusions (Traxsource)
Dalham :: Fünf: The Past Is a Foreign Country (Castles In Space)
Dez Williams :: Access Point (Woodwork)
E J R M :: The Old Way (Labile)
Flexk E.S.C. :: Responsible Grown Up (Woodwork)
Flint Glass :: Psychopompsm (Ant-Zen)
Flywheel :: Hot Topics (Gimme A Break)
FOR. :: Vacuum (EXILES)
Francois Dillinger :: MINDFRAME: Cycles [Recoded] (Specimen)
Francois Dillinger (DET:roi) & Poladroïd (det:ROI) :: Roulette Rekordz
HANUT MUNSON :: Zoopraxiscopy (Evel)
Humanoid :: sT8818r Humanoid (De:tuned)
Ian Martin :: Heartbeats (Onrijn)
Ice_Eyes :: Vicious Circles (Hypermedium)
Infinite Scale :: A Little Tale of Forest Lewis (Ecoshock)
Joseph Hyde :: Spherical Harmonics (Audiobulb)
LectrO cOd_E :: Fusion (Woodwork)
Lee Gamble :: A Million Pieces Of You (Hyperdub)
London Modular Alliance :: Cracked Dice (Central Processing Unit)
Made :: When Straight Lines Become Curves (brokntoys)
Mantle of Gets :: Caveat Emptor (Schematic Music Co.)
Martin Schulte & Giacomo Pellegrino :: Night City (spclnch)
Mause :: XOR (NPM)
Mitoma & Weldroid :: reMXW (Section 27)
Molez :: Mólobdén (Self Released)
ΠΕΡΑ ΣΤΑ ΟΡΗ :: Siracha | Angina (Self Released)
ΠΕΡΑ ΣΤΑ ΟΡΗ :: IMMI (MUSAR)
Nike_Vomita :: MOA087 (Móatún 7)
NULLPTR :: Terminus (Central Processing Unit)
NUNDALE :: The Dodeka Remixes (Errorgrid)
Nuron / As One :: La Source 02 (De:tuned)
Onepointwo :: Synchronization (Subexotic)
Phausis & JFrank :: Split (Arkada)
Plaid :: Stem Sell (Touched Music)
Roel Funcken :: The Candarian Ruins (Self Released)
Roger Van Lunteren :: Saskian End Courts (Masa Series)
Romanowitch :: Inner City (Detroit Underground)
second seasons :: Parse, Care (Errorgrid)
Serge Geyzel & Karsten Pflum :: EP2 (Specimen)
Serge Geyzel :: AE – O1 (Adepta Editions)
Serge Geyzel :: Departures (brokntoys)
Skuggministeriet :: Caged (Femur)
SMPL SMPL :: Portals (Roulette Rekordz)
Sound Synthesis :: Orbital Frequencies (Distant Worlds)
Soup :: Diamond Eater (Detroit Underground)
Steven Rutter :: Close Your Eyes And Breathe (De:tuned)
Sunnk :: Nothing Is Ever (Concrete Collage)
Sytrjv :: Mathematical Objects (Point Source Electronic Arts)
Tescon Pol :: Object or Entity (Self Released)
The JDs :: Proust (Self Released)
Tim Koch :: Tourbillon (Central Processing Unit)
Tomoroh Hidari :: The Reinterpretation of Dreams (小さな夢達 remixed) (Mahorka)
upsammy :: Bend (Dekmentel)
Utopia Cloak | The Jaffa Kid :: The Imaginary Museum 001 (The Imaginary Museum)
Velum Break :: Cloaca (Analogical Force)
Vertical67 :: Through The Fog (Pulse Drift)
Weith :: Sanity Rituals (brokntoys)
ZULI :: All Caps (UIQ)
COMPILATIONS ::
🛸 (X4)
Adykt (Dyadik)
Alignment Volume 1 (Patterned Media)
BLE-EP (Yellow Machines)
Cold Readings (brokntoys)
Twelfth Listen (People Can Listen)
AM 10th Anniversary (Adventurous Music)
Artist Showcase – 2nd Edition (Point Source Electronic Arts)
Collectio Vol. 6 (X-Rust)
Communication Themes Vol. 10 (Renraku)
Compiler – Level 3 (Xephem)
Compiler – Level 4 (Xephem)
Darker Sounds Of A Present Future Vol. 1 (Errorgrid)
Gridworks 1: Tension//Release (Errorgrid)
Interstellar Communications Vol 2.1 (Pyramid Transmissions)
MOACD9 (Móatún 7)
Project OO (Touched Music)
Sinclair: Adventures in ZX Spectrum Gaming (Pingdiscs / Mighty Force)
Sirens (EXILES)
Six Circuits (Kaer’Uiks)
Table Of Elements Vol. 5.0 (M-Tronic)
Tails of the unexpected (Pulse State)
tʌntrə XX / tʌntrə XIX / tʌntrə XVIII / tʌntrə XVII / tʌntrə XIV … (Neotantra)
The Future Sound Of London :: Music From Calendars (fsoldigital)
Tone Science Module No.5 Integers and Quotients (DiN)
Ultimate_Collection hydrocycle on a lake (時の崖_tokinogake)
V8.0 (Section 27)
REISSUES / REMASTERS ::
36 & Isaac Helsen :: Anon 1 [reissue] (Past Inside the Present)
A Positive Life :: Synaesthetic (re:discovery)
Arovane :: Atol Scrap (2021 Remaster) (Keplar)
Andy Stott :: Faith In Strangers (Modern Love)
Bauri :: Lakonia (L50)
Drøn :: Hd188753 (Reissue) (Pulse State)
Eat Static :: Abduction Expanded (Planet Dog/Cherry Red)
Jvox :: Asphere [reissue] (People Can Listen)
KiloWatts :: Six Silicates (KiloWatts Music)
The Future Sound of London :: We Have Explosive 2021 (Self Released)
Lackluster :: R U Oho? (L50)
Mr. Projectile :: Sinking (Semisexual / Merck)
Shuttle358 :: Chessa (2021 Re-Master) (Keplar)
Slowdive :: Souvlaki (Music On Vinyl)
Venetian Snares :: Rossz Csillag Alatt Született (Planet Mu)
BEST OF 2021 SOUNDCLOUD SELECTIONS ::
COVER ARTWORK SELECTIONS 2021 ::
