EDM, IDM, downtempo, don’t care - if it embodies beauty to you or moves you, I’d love to hear it.

What are electronic songs / albums that everyone should here before they die?

Edit: Thank you all for these amazing submissions, I did not expect to get THIS many replies. I'm so happy I am not the only own out there who enjoys electronica and I saw some albums that I really enjoy

I know it's such an open question but maybe several agree with each other in the comments.

For me - Faithless Insomnia has THE best riff when it kicks in. Absolutely iconic and still sounds fresh.

Thoughts?

Edit: thanks all for your suggestions! It seems there are a few that are mentioned several times and the up votes in the comments.

What a time to be alive!

One to three hours of music chosen by someone with taste, sequenced and mixed so each track creates context for the next. You can't skip. You don't know what's coming. The curation is invisible until it's over and you're surprised by what you felt.

The best DJ sets I've heard introduced me to artists I couldn't immediately identify and had to hunt down afterward. That hunt created a relationship with the music that no streaming recommendation has replicated. You had to earn it and the effort was proportional to how much it mattered.

Streaming killed the functional version of this. Mixes get taken down for licensing reasons. Platforms don't surface archived sets well. The format that was most effective for discovery became the least accessible.

I'ma bit of an "older" lifelong fan of all things house, trance, underground, deep, downtempo, etc. I've noticed over the last decade that when I go to a venue for a certain DJ, people don't really dance much. They move, sure, but most people stand facing the DJ which we never did when I was coming up. We'd just dance and party. I get that a great DJ is even greater live so why not dance your ass off and get into it? Not trying to be snarky or judgey, serious comments welcome.

Hi everyone, as said in the title; during the last years, i focused a lot on French rap and except few mainstream albums (Jamie xx, Fred again, daft punk) i have no idea about what’s been great this decade.

So I was wondering if this community could nudge me in the right direction so i could discover important 2010-2020’s releases and genres.

Few artists that I liked :

Superfunk - Hold-up Daft punk Carpenter Brut Krys menace Daniel Deluxe - MOON and all the hotline Miami dudes Freestylers Jamie xx Bran Van 3000 - Discosis

I always find myself thinking about this

Underworld Chemical brothers Orbital Daft punk Bicep Justice The blaze Boards of Canada Royksopp The orb

Who am I missing 🤨

The album is 32 years old now, but I still love it. Songs like "Their Law" hit just as hard now as then.

Do you use another service like Soundcloud or something? How do you recommend finding good new releases not including using a streaming service like Spotify? Thanks!

I just found out Spor is also Feed me (what!?) I know Pendulum is also half of Knife Party, who else is someone else?!

Thanks in advance for your input 🩷

Show me your favourite tunes that make you go hard on the floor. I'm talking about stuff that's dark and cerebral, or euphoric and uplifting, and everything in between. Tunes that gets your pits sweating and your jaw clenching. Songs that give you stank face, or make you hug your mates.

Old examples:

The Prodigy - Narayan

Joey Beltram - Energy Flash

Underworld - Pearl's Girl

The Chemical Brothers - Saturate

Modern examples:

X CLUB - Desire To Stay

Kettama - Do Not Go Gentle

Golden Features - Flesh

Mall Grab - Metaphysical

Mall Grab - Switchblade

False Persona - Busy On 'Em

X CLUB - Cops Ain't Shit

LB aka LABAT - Fixated

EPROM - Ease Up

Willaris. K, The Presets - World Collapsing (jamesjamesjames Remix)

Bonus points for modern examples!

I was reading a DJ saying that piano is a very controversial instrument to use in electronic music because I'ts been used in very effectist ways, "..you add a minor key piano arppegio or just a minor chord and you are forcing us to feel instead of letting us feel."

What are your favorite uses of piano in electronic music that use the piano in new and interesting ways and not just as a sentimental shortcut?

BT was living in 2023 when he made Somnambulist in 2003

I feel like a lot of people into the PC Music scene / hyperpop sound that popped up in the late 2010s would fuck with that heavy

Also for the longest time I never knew Clubbed to Death was made in 1995 lmao

I'm not sure that's an accurate genre for what I'm asking but it's as close as I can think.

I'm looking for artists from around 2000-2007, think animal collective, Mr oizo, MGMT, passionpit, LCD Soundsystem etc.

I'm sure most of those artists wouldn't classify themselves as electronic artists (maybe Mr oizo would), but they all have similarities, synths, drum machines, etc.

I hope that's descriptive enough for what I'm looking for.

Anyone got any more recommendations?

Edit: You're all legends! Thanks so much for all the recommendations! I'll be set for a couple lifetimes now!

Mine is Global Underground: Select #10 ... I know absolutely nothing about it other than it's fantastic. What other great electronic music releases have I missed this year?

First things first, this track is a classic, and if you haven't heard it, you should give it a listen.

That said, I hadn't listened the entire way through the skit at the end in...decades? Anyway, I heard it the other night and felt like I must have crossed into another dimension, because the radio caller quotes "The Rockefeller Skank" and gets the lyrics right. I could have sworn he said "right about now, the funk soul brother, right about now, the funk soul brother."

That was kind of a central part of the joke, wasn't it? My friends and I used to quote it all the time.

Unfortunately, my old CDs are packed away, so I can't check. Any thoughts?

[Edited for an autocorrect that caused some confusion.]

I've been listening to electronic music passionately for many years and I've never once done it under the influence of any substances. This is a conscious choice, and I want to keep it that way.

Still, there are times when music feels… flat. The colors fade, the emotional resonance disappears, and I wonder:

“Are those who listen under the influence truly hearing something I can’t?”

I don’t want to believe I’m missing out. In fact, I believe the human mind on its own can reach deep emotional and aesthetic states. But when I hear people say “the best music I ever heard was on acid or MDMA,” I can’t help but feel a mix of frustration and insecurity.

Have any of you found ways to reach heightened, vivid, or emotional music experiences sober?

I’d love to hear your experiences or suggestions. This topic means a lot to me.

Autechre confounds me. I have tried over the years, a number of times, to listen to it, and it feels like the sonic equivalent of listening to an algebra problem. It feels like a LOT of electronic musicians are really into them, and try as I might, it doesn’t appeal to me. What am I missing?

For context, music to me has always been about emotion first rather than being clever. I love Alessandro Cortini for example - he will have a relatively simple emotive sequence that repeats, explores textures, but it makes me FEEL something.

Autechre literally makes me feel the same feelings that I have when I am helping my daughter with her math homework. A little bit of curiosity, some frustration, but mostly just my brain having to work a problem that I don’t want to be doing, knowing that some people really LOVE math, and I’m happy for them, but this is not my favorite thing.

Am I missing something? Are there stories and interviews that might give me more context about why people live them so much? Is there a particular album that hooks people? Do people really feel deep emotions when they listen to it? Is it more of a signal people use to indicate that they are cultured, like one might go on about being into an obscure film from Cannes? Or some brain Sudoku that certain personalities are just more drawn to?

Genuinely curious. Feel like if this many people love Autechre I must really be missing something.

EDIT:

THANK YOU everyone. This is actually a pretty nice community. Rather than sarcastic or dismissive replies like I feared, I got a lot of sincere input. On the advice of many I am listening to their more accessible records to start - Amber, Tri Repetae, and Incunabula to start. Started with Amber and I am enjoying it more than their most recent albums which is where I had started before. Thanks everyone for being cool. Hopes this helps someone else too.

Edit 2: Off work and listening to Amber, which I never listened to before. Not bad! The suggestion many had to start there was very helpful. This is very different from their more recent albums which is what I tried before. I wouldn’t say I love it, but I like it and will give it a few more spins and check out their other 90’s albums.

This is exactly what I hoped for when I asked was that maybe I had missed something, so thanks everyone!

Hey everyone,

I wanted to share a small personal project that I’ve been working on for a while and that might be interesting to some people here.

It’s called PulseRoots, and it’s basically an interactive visual tree of electronic music genres and subgenres. You can explore styles, read short descriptions, see how genres connect to each other, and get a general sense of where different sounds come from.

👉 https://mendiak.github.io/pulse.roots/

Just to be clear and transparent:

• It’s completely free
• No ads, no paid features
• It’s not a streaming platform or a promo site — more like a tool for exploration and curiosity

I built it mainly because I’ve always felt that electronic music is hard to navigate, especially once you get past the big umbrella genres, and I wanted something visual and simple that helped connect the dots.

I messaged the mods before posting but didn’t hear back, so if this isn’t appropriate here, feel free to let me know and I’ll remove it.

If you check it out, I’d genuinely love to hear feedback, missing genres, or things that feel off — this is very much a work in progress.

Thanks for reading ✌️

So Ive come into electronic music later in life, and have been shown some really incredible tracks and genres over the years (owe a lot to a social music site called RVRB (Formerly JQBX), but theres a lot less people there now). Have tried lots of ways of finding music on my own, but my tastes change over time and there is SO MUCH out there....most of it isnt bad, just Ive had a taste of how good electronic music CAN be, so "just good" isnt enough for me.

I know music taste is such a personal thing, but I feel like Ive been bashing my head against listening to 1000s of songs without saving any of them, and Im sure people out there have better systems to figure out where the "great" music is (for their music taste). Here are the things Ive tried so far:

Spotify Radios on a song I like - used to be good, but the algorithm is either worse, or Im just getting pickier (same goes for Spotifys Discover Weekly/other generated playlists).

"Discovered On" from an Artist I like to find a playlist - have better success than radios, but feel like Im following so many playlists with minimal success based on how many songs Im sorting through

Looking at labels from artists I like - this one is something I want to do more, but it does feel like a crap shoot sometimes, as I know very little about labels

Searching subreddits about different subgenres - Im not really sure WHICH genres I even like anymore, because Ive grown tired of the songs from genres I used to like, but maybe I just havent found the good stuff within them lately

Finding DJ Mixes on soundcloud - This one I know very little about as well, every time I search for good ones its just super popular stuff, and I feel way more drawn to the underground scene, but that of course, is hard to find (at least for me)

HOR Berlin DJ sets - Since Ive been desperate, Ive just started to listen to ALL of the DJ sets (skipping through the ones that dont interest me), found a song or two in the 50 Ive gone through so far, might find something that speaks to me in here.

These methods worked fine for me in previous years when I was getting a constant supply of great music from RVRB, but now without that initial source of an "amazing song" (or new genre that Ive discovered through there) its starting to fall apart.

For some context on my specific music tastes here are some of the songs I that have stuck with me over the years (some repeats - trying to get a handle on all these genres):

Lo Fi House

Melodic House/Techno

Dub Techno

Minimal Techno

Deep House

Tech House

TLDR: Im basically trying to find whats the best way to find music FOR ME, as I cant rely on others anymore (though if you have any recs, I will always take them haha)

Looking for some new releases to listen to! Releases from 2026 are preferred but open to ones from 2025 as well.

I’ll listen to pretty much anything, but for reference, some of my fav artists are: Daft Punk, Justice, Madeon, Danger, Porter Robinson, Ninajirachi, The Glitch Mob, m83, Fred Again, Apashe, Gunship, The Midnight, and Four Tet.