Best of 2008 (electronica-pop)

1. 

   1. Crystal Castles: s/t

   Call this the year of the Crystal band: Antlers, Castles, Stilts. The fact that Crystal Castles share their name with an 1983 Atari arcade game and play keyboards using vintage video consoles sound...read more

2. 

   2. Cut Copy: In Ghost Colours

   Few records brought more joy to us this year than this spectacular new record from Australia’s Cut Copy. The deliriously fun and hooky In Ghost Colours is an electronic record electronica-hat...read more

3. 

   3. Hercules and Love Affair: s/t

   We all did a double-take of sorts when we heard that Antony (of Johnsons fame, of course) was making a dance album, but damn if he hasn’t pulled it off. Here Mr. Hegarty assumes a new identit...read more

4. 

   4. Hot Chip: Made in the Dark

   The third studio album by London-based musical postmodern hipsters Hot Chip is another soaring triumph, a surefire dancefloor hit that more than manages to live up to the great promise of their 200...read more

5. 

   5. Leila: Blood, Looms, and Blooms

   It’s been a while since we’ve heard from Leila, the 90s uber-producer and former Bjork keyboardist who, along with Massive Attack and Portishead, was one of the founders of trip hop. Ei...read more

6. 

   6. Neon Neon: Stainless Style

   Super Furry Animal’s singer Gruff Rhys and hip-hop producer Boom Bip gave us one of the year’s great party records, a deliciously nostalgic 1980s rock opera/concept album recounting the...read more

7. 

   7. Silje Nes: Ames Room

   What a lovely and surprising album! The first effort by Norway’s Silje Nes is one of the most impressive debuts we’ve heard in some time. At once mischievous and accomplished, ramshackle and de...read more

8. 

   8. Portishead: Third

   No one but Portishead could pull something like this off. Think about it; one of the three or four definitive trip-hop groups in the 90’s puts out two albums that not only set up the genre bu...read more

9. 

   9. Santogold: s/t

   How can you not love Santogold? Seriously, we know how subjective music can be, but here’s an album that not only bends genres unlike just about any other we can think of, but she brings enou...read more

10. 

    10. B. Fleischmann: Angst Is Not a Weltanschauung!

    Vienna’s Bernard Fleischmann is a Sound Fix favorite, and his latest, Angst Is Not a Weltanschauung!, does not disappoint. Fleischmann is an electronic musician unlike any other, never wallow...read more

Tags: dance , electronica , pop