The best electronic albums that aren't by Daft Punk

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  1. Jamie xx's In Colour is the 2015 case for the list, a blend of house and UK garage that works as a thesis statement for the decade, and the video notes that The xx's most popular song is an instrumental.
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  2. Justice's Cross is picked as the grittier, more aggressive answer to the French house sound Daft Punk made popular, with its maximalist synths as the defining trait.
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  3. James Blake's self-titled debut sits between electronic music and R&B, with autotune used the way Bon Iver uses it and vocal manipulation closer to Burial.
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  4. Against All Logic's 2012-2017 arrived with no warning and no reference to Nicolas Jaar's name, and is the most dance-floor-ready, accessible thing he has made.
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  5. Boards of Canada recorded over 90 tracks for Geogaddi before settling on 23, and buried numerology and occult references in it, down to a running time of 66 minutes and 6 seconds.
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  6. Sweet Trip's Velocity: Design: Comfort is the cult pick, glitch pop and IDM that listeners compare to My Bloody Valentine, and the duo wanted it to sound like flipping channels late at night through strange infomercials.
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  7. Flying Lotus made Cosmogramma out of the deaths of his mother and aunt, and his great aunt was Alice Coltrane, which goes some way to explaining the jazz running through it.
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  8. The Avalanches built Since I Left You from over 3,500 vinyl samples, and had to delay the release to clear them, which still led to legal disputes including with Madonna.
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  9. Sophie's Oil of Every Pearl's Un-Insides spans bubblegum bass, glitch pop and ambient, and the title is read as how a Scottish speaker might say I love every person's insides, which fits an album about identity.
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  10. The top pick is Burial's Untrue, made largely alone at night from samples pulled out of everything from Metal Gear Solid sound effects to Beyonce vocals, and credited with inspiring James Blake, Jamie xx and Fred again.
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