Our Favorite Electronic & Dance Music of 2018
For many, escapism is the default rationale for dance and electronic music. That's understandable, given that dance culture was built in no small part upon a tradition of converting dark warehouses into sweaty bacchanals. But a movement toward building bigger, more detail-rich and beautifully architected wormholes within dance music itself felt like a defining trait this year.
While many of the artists we loved these past 12 months live in hotbeds like New York, Berlin and London, where they're from was far less important than what they represented: a big elsewhere, where place takes a backseat to narrative, and ideas can be explored on their own terms.
The following list — which is by no means exhaustive — runs down, in alphabetical order, the albums, EPs and tracks that had us writhing, humming, and chasing something resembling meaning in 2018.
• Stream selections from the list on Spotify
ALBUMS
AMOR
Sinking Into A Miracle
(Night School)
When so much dance music now reflects the extremes of the world with bracing noise, it took four chaps from Glasgow's experimental and post-punk scenes to offer euphoric escapism. Featuring Richard Youngs' unmistakable voice, Michael Francis Duch's spacious double bass, Paul Thomson's (Franz Ferdinand) elastic drumming and Luke Fowler's gliding synths, AMOR's debut album takes the oblong shape of its first two 12"s and stretches oddball grooves into the glittery void. Occupying a space between Liquid Liquid's blustery avant-funk and Talk Talk's transition from New Wave to museum-piece art-rock, Sinking into a Miracle simultaneously celebrates and deforms house and disco traditions, seeking the beyond of the dance floor. —Lars Gotrich
Anthony Naples
Take Me With You
(Good Morning Tapes)
Anthony Naples' second album was, at first, envisioned as a gentle tribute-in-mix to quiet, fuzzy post-party mornings and the time he's spent with friends inside of them. Over 38 minutes, accomplishes exactly that; its soft-focus productions bleed and overlap into one another, shifting styles drastically
