The Best Electronic Music of 2021
As the world began to open up in 2021, so did some of its dance floors and parties, and electronic artists arrived ready to map these spaces with sounds that pushed and challenged listeners to break free. The best electronic music of this year was often filled with heart-bursting passion, in the outright declarations of love for music-making in the work of Porter Robinson and MoMa Ready, and in the metallic, dizzying beauty of hyperpop's many rising stars. An A-list popstar turned to dance music for a remixed reinvention, and a veteran vinyl DJ dug in the crates to craft a joyous debut. From Jersey club to the U.K. underground, 2021's best electronic music looks like a complex melting pot of genre and history united by a fevered dedication to setting fire to the barriers and boundaries of what music can be. —Hazel Cills
Albums
Tammy Lakkis, Notice
The centerpiece of Lakkis' brief album was good enough to make two of our lists, but its entire runtime is noteworthy; tongue-in-cheek, vaguely paranoiac, always bright and novel. Lakkis' brilliance is not only in her mastery of the dance floor groove, but the winking personality she imprints on it like a language-free journal. —Andrew Flanagan
Danny L Harle, Harlecore
Throughout the worst of the pandemic, most of my social engagement was through "Zoom raves" — live streamed parties with each person dancing alone from the comfort of their own homes. Despite the encapsulated the specific joy that can only come from sharing a laser-strewn space with a thousand sweaty bodies. Anchored by Harle's four different alter egos — DJ Danny, DJ Mayhem, DJ Ocean and MC Boing — the LP darts back and forth between electronic subgenres with a maximalist nostalgia, creating a primer for the world of millennial rave. —
