Genres

Staying a step ahead of the competition is always tricky business, but electronic music presents a particularly unique challenge. As a genre dependent on the advancements of technology, it markets itself as the sound of the future, yet as we continue to develop advanced machinery at an increasingly frantic pace, this music has a tendency to date itself more rapidly than other forms. What’s more quaint than listening to music that purports to be cutting edge long after our cultural standards have surpassed its once-lofty goals?Warp Records has never had an issue with releasing timeless music. Formed in Sheffield, England, in 1989, Warp has built one of the most imposing and consistently challenging catalogs, not just in electronic, but in all types of music. Although Warp does pride itself on exposing strange, exciting new sounds, the artists it fosters are equally concerned with creating work that stands on its own two legs, regardless of what instruments were used to produce it. It’s music built as much for the dance floor as for your living room, not to mention Warp’s various detours into schizo-rap, indie-prog, dance-tent EDM, and whatever the hell Gonjasufi is supposed to be. Most of all, Warp has gracefully avoided the trap of desperately chasing after bandwagons to hop on, choosing instead to take chances on radical voices from the underground and give them plenty of room to push their work to wild new extremes.Though electronic music is at the mercy of technology to some extent, the human imagination has no limits. Take a tour through Warp Records’ expansive legacy, and remember that the future is always now.Click here to follow this playlist on Spotify.

The most maligned woman in rock history, Evelyn McDonnell called her, and it’s not hyperbole. Yet for studiocraft, Fly, Feeling the Space, and especially Approximately Infinite Universe deserve the scrutiny that her husband’s desultory Nixon-era albums get from Beatlephiles (she pushes her husband to new heights as a lead guitarist, too). Toss in Season of Glass and Rising and I had to stop noting the number of excellent songs written by Yoko Ono. Her influence is profound: from Alex Chilton’s pilfering the melody of “Mrs. Lennon” for “Holocaust” to the B-52’s and Sleater-Kinney. Walking on Thin Ice, a distillation of the Rykodisc Onobox, is one of the great accidental purchases of my life — at a Best Buy in summer ’96!Eight years younger than my grandmother, Yoko is still recording: I wish I’d heard Take Me to the Land of Hell, and she enjoys a thriving second life as the object of okay to excellent remixes of older material that have taken her to the top of the American dance charts.Visit our affiliate/partner site Humanizing the Vacuum for great lists, commentary, and more.

On their debut record, Auckland, NZ four piece The Beths channel their longtime friendship into hook-filled, energetic guitar pop with attitude. Titled Future Me Hates Me, the pessimistic, self-loathing wit is inescapable while the upbeat soundscapes juxtapose that stance nicely. Influenced by guitar-driven pop, name-checking Rilo Kiley and Fall Out Boy as influences, The Beths are creating thoughtful power pop for a jaded generation. As explained to Pitchfork, frontwoman Liz Stokes "typically writes her lyrics most when I’m upset," so when we asked her for a playlist, we werent too surprised that she honed in on that sadness to come up with this mix.Says Stokes: "I feel sad today and so it was difficult to compile a playlist of anything other than songs where I can wallow and commiserate. Of course, I like my sad songs to have a beat and a melody. It should be hard to put on a happy face when youre down and out, but sometimes its the easiest thing to do. So I feel like these are songs that can shuffle along next to me with a smile while I go about my day, without giving too much away."Listen above or go right here.

Beyonce is a national treasure. She’s not someone who requires a critical or commercial reappraisal. She’s had her missteps here and there, but we’ve all known since near the beginning that she possesses a gift that’s nearly unparalleled in modern R&B. So it makes sense that her b-sides and deep album cuts are going to be great. Al Shipley, from the blog Narrowcast, provides a really great overview of the highpoints. It’s a fun playlist that takes a reveals special moments from a very known commodity.

Sonic Youth covered a lot of ground in their career. As high-art CalArts castaways turned Downtown NYC No Wave noise pushers, they largely abandoned traditional song structure on their first releases for bursts of detuned guitar shrapnel. As the ‘80s turned into the ‘90s, and mainstream music began to get heavier and stranger, they became the curators of rock’s brief but wondrous plunge into experimentalism, and though this brief foray into the mainstream changed rock, it also changed them, and, for a brief second, they almost became the new normal. This is wild playlist, however, doesn’t even approach “normal,” and demonstrates that the experimental instinct never receded, but was channeled to the various side projects, covers and one offs that represent some of the most self-consciously weird music of the past few decades. They provide a dark, gnarly cover of Madonna’s “In the Groove” under the moniker Ciconne Youth, while YOKOKIMTHURSTON pairs Yoko Ono with the alternatives formerly lovestruck duo for atonal vocal shimmering. And who knew that Nancy Sinatra stab at a comeback included covering a Thurston Moore song? This isn’t so much a playlist you listen to -- much of it, in fact, is barely listenable -- but something marvel at, which makes it a necessity for Sonic Youth obsessives. -- Sam Chennault

If the Stranger Things soundtrack has you jonesing for modern synthesizer music, then jam this playlist as soon as you’ve devoured season one. For those new to the movement, the otherworldly arpeggios and gaseous drift of composers Kyle Dixon and Michael Stein surely sound novel and exciting. But truth be told, synth-based exploration has been going strong for nearly a decade now. Cleveland’s Emeralds, as well as their myriad side projects, deserve the lion’s share of credit. As far back as 2008, the trio were busily transforming elements of Kosmische Musik, proto-New Age, vintage sci-fi and horror soundtracks (John Carpenter and Alan Howarth’s especially), and avant-garde electronics into a uniquely 21st-century voice. Other vital contributions have been made by Panabrite, Oneohtrix Point Never, and Tim Hecker, each one pushing these ideas into thrilling, new territory. -- Justin Farrar

If you ask Big Boi to name his favorite albums of all time, he’ll include all of his own solo LPs. He’ll also throw in the Dungeon Family album, which he contributed to, and Janelle Monae’s The ArchAndroid, which he both appears on and executive produced. At least that’s what he did for a Complex feature in 2013, shortly after the release of his sophomore LP, Vicious Lies and Dangerous Rumors. Now that Big Boi’s released Boomiverse, his first solo album in five years, we’ve compiled a playlist featuring 25 tracks from those 25 favorite albums—21 of which actually don’t include him at all.Though Big Boi showed preference towards his own work for the Complex list, he conspicuously failed to include any of OutKast’s albums. Perhaps that’s because the duo was still a year out from their eventual reunion at the time of publication. Still, Big Boi discussed how many of the albums he chose influenced him and Andre 3000 during various recording sessions. He claims Bootsy Collins’ Ahh…The Name Is Bootsy, Baby! and Funkadelic’s Cosmic Slop helped form the funk experimentation of Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik. He also recalls the “mutual respect” OutKast had with Mobb Deep around the time the duos released ATLiens and The Infamous, respectively.The rest of Big Boi’s favorite albums are—as to be expected of the innovative producer and rapper—eclectic. He claims Bob Marley and Kate Bush are “his favorite artists of all time,” citing two albums by the latter. He lists Tom Petty, Phoenix, and John Frusciante alongside A Tribe Called Quest, N.W.A., and the Boomerang soundtrack. His favorites span genres and eras, much like his own work (which is, of course, his true favorite).The only album from Big Boi’s list that isn’t on Spotify—and thus not included here—is Dr. Dre’s The Chronic. In its place, I’ve included “Kill Jill,” the Killer Mike and Young Jeezy-assisted single from Boomiverse. If Big Boi were compiling this list today, I can only assume his new album would’ve knocked one of these off the list.

These songs will take you from zero to 100. The perfect group of tracks to listen to while you get ready to go out to the club.

The only thing better than listening to a song you love, is playing that song for someone else you THINK will love it and being right! For several years in a row, my girlfriend and I have spent New Years Eve just sitting around a couple bottles of wine and taking turns playing songs for each other that we love and think the other person maybe hasnt heard. Passionate speeches ABOUT the song and why we love it or think its important is a BIG part of the presentation. Thats what this list is! Its me playing you tracks that have had a huge impact on me, and telling you WHY theyre so important to me (or why theyre important more generally). Its QUITE varied, so I doubt youll like it all, but I am sure that almost everyone who listens to this will find at least one song they love that the didnt know before!

The history of black experimental music is made up of musicians who were and are unapologetically proud of their African descent. They not only used their skills to create profoundly unique music — they also leveraged their connection to their heritage to uplift black American communities, as well as convey their personal frustrations with the oppressions of the pre- and post-civil right eras. This mixtape is filled with artists like Sun Ra, Alice Coltrane, Betty Davis, and Funkadelic, who pushed, pulled, and broke the boundaries of what black music in America should be, yanking themselves from the mold of Motown to explore new musical territory. A small army of gifted artists followed in their footsteps, from Afrika Bambaataa to DJ Spooky, Flying Lotus to Azealia Banks.