Is this really only the first year of the Trump administration? It feels like a lifetime has passed since the Cheeto Mussolini and his cabal of white supremacist billionaires retook the reigns of the Empire. On the Rebel side, there has been organisation against the racism, cruelty, and murderous intent of Trump, including some of the largest street demonstrations since the Vietnam War. We are entitled to ask of artists: in the face of this threat – which is playing out in many countries in different forms – what have you done?
Music can inspire and motivate. It can also divert and intoxicate. The response of some artists to the pressures put upon them has been to protect their careers and strangle the words in their throats. Others have valued their principles and humanity more than the ability to earn a few dollars.
The SXSW festival experienced unprecedented cancellations by artists who were unhappy about its connections to the arms industry. The London version of the event experienced resistance from artists who objected to it platforming the odious British war criminal, Tony Blair.
In Europe, Zanias took a courageous stand against the Amphi Festival when they threatened to censor her support for the cause of peace in the Middle East. Instead of bowing to their demand for silence, she acted with great integrity and said, “No!”
It will take more Zanias’ to effect change, but the crisis in music is part of the wider economic and political crisis affecting the whole world. When Spotify is reducing musicians to digital serfs, while its executives ally with the arms industry, who can afford to remain aloof? When the planet is being permanently polluted, who can be sanguine?
There are lost souls in the music scene who champion racism and misogyny, acting as cheerleaders for Tommy Robinson and Elon Musk. There are also voices raised to defend human rights and turn the tide against the brutality of the Trumps and Faragists. Assemblage 23 and Twice a Man are examples of the latter – and their output is significantly higher quality than the Depeche Mode imitators who seem to dominate the former camp.
There are people who demand that artists be silent about politics. These are the fools who complain about Heaven 17 reissuing “(We Don’t Need This) Fascist Groove Thang.” They brey to be entertained and soothed, as if the world’s problems can be solved by shouting over an Oasis concert while downing six pints of lager. Call that what you like, but don’t call it culture.
We’ve been here before. As Brecht wrote for a previous generation:
The demand of the times is not to stop writing love songs. It is to remember that love can encompass humanity, freedom, ecology, and peace. They are all under threat, and music has a role in the resistance. In a world threatened by the malign influence of the Empire, be a Rebel.
This year, we lost Douglas McCarthy (Nitzer Ebb), Steve Luscombe (Blancmange, East India Company), Dave Ball (Soft Cell, The Grid), Clem Burke (Blondie), and Mani (Stone Roses). This is your annual reminder to show your appreciation for artists while they are still with us.
25. Test Dept – Industrial Overture
The original politicised metal-bashers have mined the archives for a 4-CD collection, encompassing 40 live and studio tracks from the period, 1982-1985. Their vitality jumps from the bitstream with Stakhanovite efficiency.
24. Assemblage 23 – Overthrow
It’s been a good five years, but Tom Shear brought back Assemblage 23 with a set of energetic, body-moving tracks and messages shaped by the sharp divisions in American politics.
As Shear told ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK in a recent interview:
I’d say it’s in the ultra-wealthy’s best interests if we are fighting about something else rather than they are robbing everybody… the poor are getting poorer, the rich are getting richer… we are now seeing obscene wealth, like more money than anyone needs! I feel there are issues to deal with in immigration and racism but at the end of the day, those are tools being used by people who want to keep their way of life… it is greed at the end of the day!
23. Greenhaus feat. Dave Baker – Weightless
One of the surprises of the year was Dave Baker‘s turn at the mic with Greenhaus. He contributed to a number of songs, taking a break from his Lonelyklown project. Plaintive and poignant, the material had the emotional heft that Lily Allen only wishes she could offer.
22. Die Sexual – Desire
The Fabulous Florianos, Anton and Rossellini, return with more dark-electro deliciousness. Leave your crypt to dance and be seduced by the nocturnal offerings of Die Sexual.
21. Rohn-Lederman – Forbidden Planet
Emileigh Rohn and Jean-Marc Lederman paired up again for a moody, synth-driven album that doesn’t always resolve into melody or comfort. Forbidden Planet feels like drifting through synthetic spaces. It is unsettled and introspective – one to listen to while repairing your space station.
20. Thunder Bae – Mirage (All the Best)
The German songstress, Thunder Bae, stepped out with a sleek and minimal track that us dark but danceable. It doesn’t hit you over the head with Berghain beats – it seeps under your skin.
19. Anna von Hausswolff – Iconoclasts
Chased away from a French venue by Catholic fundamentalists, Anna von Hausswolff didn’t let anyone keep her from playing organ. The show must go on.
With this year’s Iconoclasts album, von Hausswolff gives the religious fanatics another kicking. The drones, organ, and expressive vocal treatments make for an unsettling experience that will have them clutching their rosaries even tighter.
18. Cosey Fanni Tutti – 2t2
The irrepressible Cosey Fanni Tutti took some time away from writing books and scoring films to release an unbelievable solo album. The follow-up to her pre-pandemic record, TUTTI, 2t2 is invested with an emotional rawness and technical sophistication that few can match.
As we said in our review:
The layers are assembled with the technical skills and trade secrets that come from a half-century of experimentation, but the artistic quality is like nothing else on the scene.
17. Lau Nau and Sontag Shogun – Päiväkahvit
The prolific Lau Nau had two albums this year that warranted attention. She is currently touring her jazz album with Jonah Parzen-Johnson, which is excellent, but we were captivated by this work with Sontag Shogun. We love the Finnish composer and musician’s voice and delicate treatment of sounds, which is really like no other.
16. echoGenetic – Live in Chemnitz
Gareth Jones‘ experimental project, echoGenetic, had a rare outing in Germany for the MachineMan Festival. It quickly found its way to Bandcamp, as a teaser for an album coming in January 2026.
The performance unfolds as a shifting terrain of modular electronics: gritty pulses, corrosive noise, and dark ambient washes. In its immediacy, the release feels like a broadcast from the fringes of experimental sound – visceral, unpolished, and more alive for it.
15. Propaganda – A Secret Sense of Rhythm, A Secret Sense of Sin/Remix Encounters
Propaganda were the most majestic of 80s artists; their compositions a head above their rivals in the charts. A 6-CD box set, curated by Ian Peel, serves as their Collected Works from the ZTT era. Collectors will aready have most of the tracks, but who is complaining at getting them in one place?
The band also revealed a set of remixes of tracks from last year’s magnificent, eponymous comeback album. Rhys Fulber, Moby, and Pyrolator are among the artists who took a turn at playing with the material.
14. Twice a Man – The Coloured Breeze Is a New Dimension
The legendary Swedish artists return to express their concerns about the ravaging of the environment. We said:
As usual, the band makes great use of textures. As you listen to the album, you can find layers in the mix that demonstrate a subtlety that most of their peers lack. The naturalism of the material is combined with abstractions and sonic designs that imbue it with a warmth that is missing from a lot of electronic music. The Coloured Breeze… is an immensely human record with a humanistic message. To borrow from Brecht, again: “Change the world – it needs it.”
13. White Birches – A New Reign
The return of White Birches is more than welcome. A New Reign is a brooding, austere effort. The Swedish warm-wave duo wrap heavy bass and precise electronic percussion around icy synths and melancholic melodies. Vocalist Jenny Gabrielsson Mare delivers the material with a fragile touch, giving the songs a haunting air. The result is a set that leaves a lingering resonance.
12. I Satellite – Streamline
From Kalamazoo, where they make guitars, comes this eclectic and retro-sounding album from I Satellite. The material was created ages ago, using authentic analogue equipment (and no guitars!), but not assembled into album format until this year. Good things come to those who wait.
11. LIKK – Don’t Lie
Toril Lindqvist (Le Volt, Alice in Videoland) sounds angry. Really angry. This is a great, hard-edged dance track, with a strong message for someone who is in a whole heap of trouble.
10. Fragile Self – OCD
The packaging for the edition of OCD we received was too beautiful to open. That should not be surprising, coming from the duo of Anil Aykan and Jonathan Barnbrook.
What was surprising was how infectious the material was. Like the ticking of Poe’s heart, the sound stays with you even when the speakers are silent.
9. Zanias – Cataclysm
Zanias’ Cataclysm lands with razor-sharp emotional clarity. It is one of Zanias’ most fully-realized works: atmospheric, cathartic, and unafraid to stare directly into the storm.
It’s also a work of consciousness and conscience. As Zanias told White Light//White Heat:
I feel a strong responsibility to contribute something to the somewhat dwindling supply of hope in the world. In dark times like these, it’s so important for us to step up and play whatever role we can in changing things for the better, and artists have far more power than most of my peers realise. We are the creators of culture, and culture is a primary influence on behaviour. If we can create a culture that is hopeful, just and compassionate, then humanity might stand a chance of surviving the meta-crisis it has constructed for itself.
8. Psyche – Dance After Curfew
Born in Canada and tranferred to Europe, Psyche was inspired by the theatrics of Fad Gadget, the torch song flair of Soft Cell, and the horror film stylings of Nash the Slash. The bandaged alter ego of Toronto musician Jeff Plewman was a one-man band who played thrash with an electrified mandolin and hacked rhythm machines in unsettling ways.
To mark the launch of the documentary, Nash the Slash Rises Again, Psyche had a go at one of the great Torontanian’s dancefloor classics.
7. Die Krupps – Will nicht – MUSS! SINGLE OF THE YEAR
The end of Front 242 and the loss of DAF’s Gabil Delgado has left Die Krupps to carry the baton for the first generation of EBM acts. Their 2025 tour was a stormer, and the release of this thundering track proves that there is still creative fuel in the tank.
6. Covenant – Andreas EP OF THE YEAR
The five-track Andreas EP, conceived by Covenant as a tribute to their late bandmate, Andreas Catjar‑Danielsson, is a thoughtful reckoning with grief and memory. From the sparse, echoing cover of Lee Hazlewood’s “A Rider on a White Horse” to a mournful reinterpretation of Yazoo’s “Winter Kills,” the material has emotional weight from Catjar-Danielsson’s own contributions.
The recordings were laid down by the late keyboardist and guitarist alongside singer/producer Eskil Simonsson, and the tracks include songs Catjar-Danielsson co-wrote or championed. That fact turns the EP from a eulogy into a final statement: a farewell not just for the man, but his last creative voice with the band. The result is deeply human – and more powerful for refusing to dress up sorrow as anything else.
5. Mark Stewart – The Fateful Symmetry
The loss of Mark Stewart in 2024 was keenly felt. The big man was a potent voice against the Establishment and all of its trappings. The album he left behind, which Mute put out this year, was more sensitive and poignant than much of his earlier work; and Stewart’s rage came across more balanced and pointed. His words will ring in the ears of the last Emperor.
4. Emmon – ICON
The arrival of a new Emmon album was always going to be welcome; but, to borrow a line from Michael Caine, we only expected it to blow the bloody doors off. Instead, ICON came as a blast that cleared the ground with its rhythms, Some Great Reward soundscape, and stylish Emma Nylén vocals.
3. Kite – Kite on Ice
After the Royal Opera, with a 16-piece orchestra, and the Avicii Arena, with a legion of figure skaters, what spectacle can Kite offer next? Kite in Space?
The Swedish duo took over the hockey arena in Stockholm, earlier this year, for the most dynamic electronic music performance we have ever seen. The Pet Shop boys have costumes, and Jean-Michel Jarre has lights, but Kite went further with Nina Persson, Anna von Hausswolff, an array of video boxes, and dancing Zambonis.
The recording of the show is only one part of a multimedia campaign that includes a film and a book. The music is glorious and evocative; and, really, Kite deserve much more attention outside of their homeland.
1. Edvard Graham Lewis – Alreet? ALBUM OF THE YEAR (TIED)
We have two albums tied for first place this year. Graham Lewis‘ solo record, Alreet?, easily claims its position as a spectacular of sound design and leftfield pop. As we wrote in our original review:
The album opens with a swelling guitar tone and the observation, “You will not pass this way again.” Geography and grooves combine in “Kinds of Whether” with emphatic richness; fused by word play and rhythmic sensitivity. Pity Trent Reznor that he never managed to bottle the lightning of He Said the way he wanted. It shines from this vessel very brightly.
1. Page – Inget motstånd ALBUM OF THE YEAR (TIED)
Conny Plank might not have seen this coming, but Sweden’s Page pivoted, this year, towards the Krautrock sound he shaped in his kitchen. Inget motstånd [EN: No Resistor or No Resistance] is a circuit activated with the charges of Neu!, Harmonia, and even Kraftwerk. It is significant that Plank also worked with Ultravox, who have exerted a large influence on Eddie Bengtsson‘s stylistic choices for recent albums.
This album is pure Page with a Teutonic vibe. It deserves its place at the top of the chart because it is infectious and melodious; drawing inspiration from Moebius and Rodelius. A modern classic.
Pole position in 2014 was easily taken by a set of recordings that were all made by 1984. Rational Youth’s first album, Cold War Night Life, came out in 1982 and quickly took a place in the synth pantheon next to the classic releases from that time, such as Depeche Mode’s Speak and Spell and John Foxx’s Metamatic. Over the years, it has become a cult favourite outside of Canada, with Swedish and German synthers fanning the embers into occasional flames. This year, the leading European artisan label, Vinyl on Demand, lovingly collated it with live recordings, demos, singles and EPs for one of their ultra-high quality box sets. Stunning sound from heavy-duty 180gm vinyl and amazing design mean that this is a package that only comes around once every thirty years.
Eddie Bengtsson nearly didn’t record “Stadens alla ljus” [EN: “City Lights”] himself. He first offered it to his former band, S.P.O.C.K. It was only after they turned it down that he took the plunge with his legendary project, Sista mannen på jorden [EN: The Last Man on Earth]. That proved to be a good move, as SMPJ fans have come to expect world-class poptronica with themes of space and longing from Sweden’s own Vince Clarke. “Stadens alla ljus” is the story of an astronaut looking down on the Earth and commenting on urban illumination as his air supply runs out. With sweeps that cover the cosmos and sequences set to Warp 4, it’s an evocative song made more poignant by Bengtsson’s emotive vocals. Once you’ve been transported by the chorus, there’s no way back.
One of the highlights of the year was receiving a copy of Hannah Peel’s Fabricstate EP on a Saturday when the Sun was shining. We said:
Machinista’s infectious poptronica travelled well in 2014, reaching London for “An Evening with the Swedish Synth.” Their live show is a razor-sharp combination of up-tempo pop and experimental rock (think Bowie meets Suicide at Nico’s house with lots of Italo records scattered around). Xenoglossy is their first proper album, and it comes filled with the same superb, original poptronica; sometimes pointing at the skies and sometimes in our hearts for signs of life, but always moving feet and hips in tandem. On disc, John Lindqwister’s vocals let rip while Richard Flow runs the machines, and the two Swedish veterans conjur up a sound that is both fresh and electrifying.
Rod MacQuarrie’s collection of machines is impressive by any standards: he owns equipment formerly housed by Bill Zorn of Rational Youth and Phil Collins, and his studio is crammed with Oberheims, Rolands, Logans and ARPs that can be used to recreate the sounds of classic tracks by everyone from Alphaville to ABBA. With the release of Zephyr, the Kalamazoo-based musician showed off his old-school influences, as well as his ability to construct distinctive original material. Covers of New Order’s “Your Silent Face” and ABBA’s “I Am the City” are polished and respectful; but, by moving more in the direction of Gary Numan and John Foxx, we’d argue that the latter is arguably better than the original version. Tracks like “This Time” and “City Streets” are instant classics, while “Bubbleboy” channels alienation and pain to a mid-tempo beat. It’s pure magic.
Karin Park ran a remix competition on Beatport for her 2014 single, “Shine,” but none of the contributions came close to the original. With pained lyrics yielding a glimpse of hope in the chorus, the track sounded best with the attack side of the envelope set high on the keyboards and the beats restrained. Park’s voice is distinctive and sometimes compared to Karin Dreijer Andersson’s, but it’s got a texture of its very own. It provides the emotional overlay that lifts “Shine” to the next level, gliding frictionless over the instrumental track.
It’s perhaps easy for an album given away for free on social media to be overlooked, but the latest instalment of William Orbit’s Strange Cargo series wasn’t exactly a vanity project. The musician and producer, best known in popular music circles for his work with Madonna, Britney and (once, but we doubt ever again) Blur, had the material up his sleeve but just wasn’t looking to cash in on it. He could have charged the market rate for Strange Cargo 5, because it is the type of exemplary poptronica that record companies write him large cheques to use as a platform for their major stars, but he just put it on Soundcloud with the download feature enabled. Pure class – in more ways than one.
We interviewed Parralox just before they appeared in London as support for Polly Scattergood. John von Ahlen’s sophisticated pop sense had consistently impressed us, but we were still blown away by the unveiling of “Crying on the Dancefloor.” With the addition of vocalists Francine and Johanna, Parralox ramped up its capabilities and glammed up its image even further. The accompanying video, in which the band play the role of a talent show jury, revealed them to have a sense of humour, as well as style. Parralox are back on the London stage to warm up for Erasure before the end of the year, and this is certain to be a crowd favourite. We’ve featured a techno mix here by Your Silent Face.
Drawing enough power to keep National Grid engineers on their toes during live performances, Vile Electrodes are the UK’s leading electro duo. Anais Neon has stunning vocal control, while keyboardist Martin Swan just about keeps the machinery under his spell in their synthetic Fantasia. This high-voltage track came in an exclusive package of remixes, embedded in a faux fur envelope, and it’s coiled to spring out of your speakers with fangs bared. 
Colouroïd are the Icelandic/Swedish duo of Jòn and Ella Moe. Besides making excellent lower-case M and W minimal wave music, they also run the FlexiWave label from their Stockholm base (which we hear will be relocating to Berlin soon). Their first album is a masterful slab of vinyl, pressed with grooves cooler than the surface of Neptune. From the run-in groove until the stylish inner-label, each side is an icy, voltage-controlled mindscape. With titles like “Pillow Fort” and “Eye Shadow,” we’d say their songs are playful and dark – fifty shades of black, if you will.
Cold War Night Life became one of the defining electronic albums of the early 1980s, comfortably sitting alongside John Foxx’s Metamatic, Kraftwerk’s Computer World and Fad Gadget’s Under the Flag. Released on an independent Canadian label, its commercial reach was limited, but over the years the record became a cult favourite among the synthescenti. A copy found its way to neutral Sweden and C90 duplicates began to circulate throughout the country’s burgeoning electronic music scene. In this case, home taping didn’t kill music; it built a base of fans for whom Rational Youth issued distant signals on wavelengths tuned to the alternative dancefloor.
The original plan was to transport a six-piece pop combo from Canada for a mini-tour of Sweden and Norway, but logistical considerations trimmed the act down to the essential duo of Howe and original keyboardist Kevin Komoda. Not a problem: fans were more than happy to receive them for a purely electronic show. Armed with a Moog Little Phatty and Roland JX-8P, Komoda was able to recreate classic sounds while confidently adding runs and fills that lifted the atmosphere higher than the International Space Station.
Psyche’s Swedish shows opened with the hard-edged stomp of “The Saint Became a Lush” from 1986’s Unveiling the Secret. There were hints of “Tubular Bells” in the sequencer pattern; but, instead of Max von Sydow in a dog-collar, the fog gave way to singer Darrin Huss, occupying the stage with a vigorous dance routine, and keyboardist Stefan Rabura. What followed was a selection of hits from Psyche’s extensive back-catalogue, covering a range of styles while maintaining the dialectic between the morbid and uplifting. Songs like “15 Minutes”, “Sanctuary” and “The Crawler” easily got the appreciative crowd making noise: in Gothenburg, Huss told the boisterous audience, “I’m singing to the rhythm of your screams!”
Bengtsson has an informal rapport with fans, who push to the front of the stage to sing along to “Sekunder” (EN: “Seconds”), “Allt är klart” (EN: “Everything is Ready”) and other SMPJ classics. Flanked by Christer Hermodsson, he knocks out energetic poptronica gems with an ease that belies their sophistication. For sheer elegance, songs like “Luft” (EN: “Breath”) and “Det där är grönt” (EN: “That is Green”) are without peers in modern electronic music. The crowds in Malmö, Gothenburg and Stockholm know this, and the bartenders at the venues are left in relative peace for the duration of SMPJ’s sets.
MacQuarrie’s show isn’t all robotic longing: audience favourite, “Bubbleboy,” taken from 2003’s Auto:Matic album, explains the fate of a boy “alone in a bubble world,” superimposed over a sonic palette lifted from 1979. The I Satellite originals on display are both quirky and catchy, and after the shows groups of young men press forward to ask questions and seek signatures. Who knew in Södermalm that Kalamazoo was hiding such an interesting act?
Never mind – the crowd at Stockholm’s Nalen venue knows all of the words to the 1980s singles: Claudette, The Face of Dorian Grey and Calling All Destroyers. They sing along contentedly, while Robert Enforsen, the former Elegent Machinery vocalist, handles iPad and keyboard duties and adds harmonies. Marlow’s voice holds up, but the years have clearly weathered the lad from Essex.