Beautiful Electronica: Recommended Masterpieces and Popular Tracks

Coopers WorldSquarepusher

Squarepusher – Coopers World

Thomas Jenkinson, a pioneering electronic musician and a renowned bassist with striking technique from the UK.

Under his artist name Squarepusher, the body of work he has released has played a central role in the electronic music scene since the 1990s and has earned high acclaim worldwide.

Having been familiar with jazz since childhood, Jenkinson fused breakbeats with his own bass playing to craft a unique sonic world.

“Coopers World,” which opens his masterful second album Hard Normal Daddy, is a standout track that showcases the individuality and free-spirited sensibility of Jenkinson—then in his early twenties.

The album itself is one of the most popular in Squarepusher’s discography.

You might call it Squarepusher’s take on fusion music, given his rare musicality as an exceptional jazz musician who also excels in electronic music—or perhaps trying to categorize it at all is a bit beside the point.

Another important aspect is that it features melodies that are easy to take in even for listeners not accustomed to this kind of sound, so I encourage you to give it a try—album included!

A French ComposerKettel

Kettel – A French Composer

When people are asked which artists they love in post-2000 electronica, I suspect quite a few would name Kettel, the solo project of a musician from the Netherlands.

Possessing precocious talent, he made his album debut in 2001 at the young age of 19, and he’s well known in Japan as a highly popular figure among dedicated electronica fans.

Among the wonderful body of work he’s continued to release well into the 2020s, the piece I’m focusing on here is A French Composer, the opening track of the 2004 classic Volleyed Iron.

Its delicate electronic tones—somehow tinged with nostalgia—blend seamlessly with environmental and everyday sounds that seem to be field recordings, creating an endlessly introspective world that makes it perfect as bedroom music.

Precisely because it isn’t the sort of music that projects outward with force, it’s something you want to listen to alone, carefully, on a quiet night.

It’s astonishing to think that a young artist around 22 years old crafted this sonic world.

As of now, the CD appears to be out of print, so if you want a physical copy, make a beeline for the register if you find one secondhand!

DaydreamingRadiohead

Radiohead – Daydreaming

For music fans who, like me, spent their teens in the ’90s and were baptized by alternative rock, I suspect many first discovered the genre of electronica through Radiohead.

Their 2000 album Kid A, which boldly foregrounded electronica influences, was truly shocking.

In recent years, Radiohead have reached a point where they can seamlessly incorporate electronica as one facet of their own sound, and their 2016 album A Moon Shaped Pool is a masterpiece that only a band fluent in all genres could create.

Since this article’s theme is electronica, the track featured here, Daydreaming, is a minimal, piano-ambient-style song whose electronica-like weightlessness and Thom Yorke’s hushed vocals linger in the ear.

True to its title, it’s a dreamlike, beautiful number, yet the lyrics are far removed from mere ethereal beauty; drawing on events in Thom Yorke’s personal life at the time, they depict a world that is quintessentially Radiohead.

Be sure to check it out, including the suggestive music video.

HoppipollaSigur Rós

Sigur Ross – Hoppipolla

Sigur Rós, the post-rock band that Iceland proudly presents to the world.

Their lyrics—sung in their native Icelandic and in the band’s invented language, “Hopelandic”—are distinctive, and they’re beloved across the industry, enjoying strong popularity here in Japan as well.

We’re featuring Sigur Rós under the theme of electronica this time because bands commonly labeled as post-rock are heavily influenced by electronica, and that influence is clearly reflected in their musicality.

The song featured here, Hoppípolla, is a track from the 2005 masterpiece takk.

.

.

, an album that received widespread critical acclaim and achieved commercial success.

While sprinkled with electronica-style electronic tones, its expansive soundscape—woven from a powerful band sound and an elegant string ensemble that seems to stretch beyond the horizon—is breathtakingly beautiful, making you feel as though you’re being carried off to a faraway world.

From the perspective of how electronica has influenced genres in this direction, it’s fair to say this is an important work.

Summer ColourI Am Robot & Proud

I Am Robot And Proud – Summer Colour

Even if you haven’t listened to much techno or club music but are somehow interested in electronica, I highly recommend the artist I Am Robot And Proud! It’s the solo project of Shaw-Han Liem, a Chinese-Canadian born in Toronto, Canada.

Packed with easy-to-listen-to melodies and centered around pop-leaning electronica, his music is something even beginners can dive into smoothly.

Drawing on his background majoring in classical piano at The Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto before switching to electronic music, Liem crafts a sound that stands apart from vibe-first, hazy electronica: it’s organic and warm, sprinkled with singable sensibilities and friendly electronic tones.

As I keep saying, it’s a style that people who haven’t listened to much electronica can enjoy.

Summer Colour, with its memorable music video compiled from footage of his Japan tour, is a wonderful track that could be called quintessential I Am Robot And Proud—pop, slightly nostalgic, and tinged with bittersweet emotion.

Starting your journey into electronica with I Am Robot And Proud’s catalog is, I think, a fantastic choice!

StarsUlrich Schnauss

Stars (2019 remaster)

In the early 2000s, a genre known as “electro-shoegaze” emerged, beautifully blending shoegaze and electronica.

While it’s true that many of the original ’90s shoegaze artists had already been gravitating toward electronic music, a surprising number of artists from the electronica generation were in fact heavily influenced by shoegaze.

A prime example is the German musician Ulrich Schnauss.

The works he released particularly in the 2000s are all highly regarded classics—virtually sacred texts for fans of electro-shoegaze.

The piece featured here is a standout track from his third album, Goodbye, released in 2007.

Its dream-pop-adjacent, ethereal melodies; floating noise; subtly psychedelic atmosphere; and the beauty of a sound world dotted with delicate electronic tones have not faded in the slightest, even now, well past the 2020s.

Back then, I was amazed at how perfectly the methodologies of electronica and shoegaze fit together.

If you’re unsure which albums to start with in electro-shoegaze, you can’t go wrong beginning with Schnauss’s work.

Black List (Ft. Aesop Rock&MF Doom)Prefuse 73

Prefuse 73 – Black List Ft. Aesop Rock|MF Doom

Scott Herren is a genius who opened up a new frontier in electronic music by incorporating hip-hop elements into electronica and presenting a musical technique known as “vocal chops,” in which sampled rap is broken down and reassembled.

Under his most famous artist moniker, Prefuse 73—one of many names under which he works—he released his debut album Vocal Studies And Uprock Narratives on the prestigious Warp label in 2001.

It’s a stunning work that explosively showcases Herren’s avant-garde talent, and it is celebrated not only within electronica but also as an important record in hip-hop history.

The track Black List from that album, which we’re introducing here, features guest appearances by Aesop Rock and the late MF DOOM.

It’s a masterpiece that brought together talents whose cutting-edge work was highly regarded in the underground hip-hop scene of the time.

I highly recommend listening to it to relive the authentic atmosphere and innovation of early-2000s underground music.