2007: Top 10 EDM Albums Of The Year

Yeah, there's definitely good music out there these days, but with all these digital labels, producers releasing an ep per week and increasing amount of artists (with or without talent) striving towards minimal sound, it's getting more and more impossible to get the real stuff.

At first I thought this year's gonna suck, but after all I'm pretty satisfied and I'd even say 2007 was better than 2006 (even though the amount of crap released has increased awfully).

BTW, have you listened to any album from the list?

I'll try to squeeze my reply here, so I don't have to reply in every thread where you made a comment.
First, thanks for all of your comments. Glad you liked the lists.

And thanks for these recommendations. Some of them sound very tasty (I'm especially interested in 133 Thursdays and Deeperworlds, although I'll try to listen to all of them). I've heard these ones from the list:
Ricardo Villalobos - Fabric 36 - I didn't want to include mixed cds and compilations to this list, so I put Sei Es Drum on it instead. It's an album which contains full versions of some tracks from Fabric (Primer Encuentro Latino-Americano too, amongst others).
Matthew Dear - Asa Breed - I've heard it after I compiled the list, and I didn't want to include anything afterwards. Certainly not groundbreaking, but quite different and interesting (especially when compared to Matthew's other album from 2007 - False - 2007).
Justice - {Cross} - Sorry, but this just sounds like overproduced crap to me. There's nothing in this kind of music that could be attractive to me - it's not well structured, entrancing, subtle nor particulary amusing.
Simian Mobile disco - Attack Sustain Delay Release - Same as above. I haven't listened to the whole album, but judging by the couple of tracks I've heard on MTV and similar "music" channels I can only say that this music is good just for converting some more rockers and popers to EDM.

Haven't listened to much compilations in 2007, so I won't comment on that one. Warren's GU was decent (especially the downtempo part of it), and Digweed's two Transitions were also kinda interesting. I'm sure there were even better ones, but in these days of "digital everything" I don't really appreciate mixed cds the way I used to.

Honestly, I hated The Foley Room - I found it lame and pretentious, and it lacked what always made Tobin's work so excellent: his furious and incredibly creative beat programming. Definitely get Bricolage, that's my favorite of his. And listen to "One Day in My Garden" off that record. It's a (lyricless) song about Amon sneaking into his neighbor's yard and taking a piss on his bike as revenge after a living dispute. It makes me involuntarily laugh out loud (to many odd stares if I'm in public) every time I hear it - the music fits such a scene so perfectly. It's probably just me though - one of those giggle-triggers that no one else understands. The whole album is great besides.

I've actually had a pleasure of seeing him live (unfortunately he played a dj set) couple of months ago, so prior to that event I listened to his whole discography. While Foley Room is probably his technically most perfect album (considering the sample work and the richness of the sound), it's not as interesting as his older work (however it's far from uninteresting). Plus, I still think that At The End Of The Day is his greatest track. Bricolage is very good (One Day In My Garden is indeed very delightful and playful little track, probably the most interesting on that album, together with Chomp Samba), but I must say that Out From Out Where really grew on me as my favourite album from him. It's so versatile, every new track is a completely new experience: Verbal sounds like Prefuse 73 meets Beastie Boys, Triple Science shows that Amon can create ultra fast, fucked up madness in the vein of The Flashbulb and Venetian Snares and the glitch work in Proper Hoodidge can proudly stand along with some of Autechre's most bizarre work.
BTW, how did you find out about the story behind One Day In My Garden?

Agreed, although I think prog hasn't been good for a while. For me, dance this year was all about the minimal deep house and trance-inflected minimal. They seemed to do no wrong whatsoever this year - actually, just minimal in general was really good. And dubstep appears to now be a style that can be taken seriously - which is truly surprising, considering its distant roots in speed garage (a style so bad that I didn't believe it could ever be made listenable. I was wrong.). Plus I still like electro-house, even though it's lost a lot of steam, I think.

I love how "minimal" has now become a melting pot of odd fusions and hybrids between styles. The only thing that seems to hold it all together is the sense of restraint and the willingness to make beats that don't overwhelm the whole track. It's the best thing that's happened to electronic dance music since rave.

While I agree that there's a lot of great talent in "minimal" these days, there's also a great inflation of (bad) producers and a lot of garbage that gets pumped out, and this is exactly why I try to look even more into the other scenes and listen to what they have to offer. Chances are that some producer who's not concerned about fame or money that "minimal" provides these days will make an outstanding album which will overwhelm everything from the "minimal camp". Last year this happened with Untrue, Soulstickers, The Coldest Season, Oblivion With Bells... and this year already with Quaristice, Radio Scarecrow, Night Falls and Cyclical.