Synthentral Top 30 Albums of 2022

From 100 to 30! First step was to get down to 100 for the Top 100. Then down to the Top 50, and finally down to the Top 30 (here we are). Normally I would do a live countdown show, but my vision is all screwed up and I just cannot see the small print in my DJ software. I waited two weeks to see if it would clear up, and while it’s gotten better, I still cannot see the fine print clearly enough to go live. So unfortunately, there won’t be a live countdown show and I’m just posting the Top 30 here.

As a reminder, here are the rules and guidelines I work with:

I only rate albums. There are tons of “best of” lists out there for singles and EPs.
- An album consists of at least 7 original songs. Remixes, intro/outro, instrumentals, versions, compilations, etc. do not count toward the “at least 7.” Covers do count as long as it’s not an album of all covers.
I must have the album in my collection to rate it. If a band or label didn’t get it to me, I didn’t buy it, or get it from a DJ resource, then it’s not on my list to rate.
Song are rated individually and the album is rated overall for listenability, danceability, whether I wanted to skip any tracks, was I engaged from start to finish, etc.
Rating is weighted so an album with 7 songs does not have an edge (or handicap) to an album with 17 songs.
I post the Top 100 and Top 50 lists alphabetically and not in “countdown” style. The Top 30 will be in countdown style.
I post my list after the year is over so any album released late in December 2022 still gets a chance at making it on the list.

As I noted in the Top 100 and Top 50 lists, I hope you disagree with my list and post some of your favorites that I didn’t include or I may have missed during the year and hope you’re as passionate about your favorite bands and albums from 2022 as I am mine!

I have “LISTEN HERE” links below each album cover, so go and listen and give each band and album a chance, and support the bands you like!

The Synthentral Top 30 for 2022:

#30: e:lect – Disoriented Illusion (LISTEN HERE)

#29: Voicecoil – Strange Days (LISTEN HERE)

#27: Blood Handsome – A New Calm (LISTEN HERE)

#25: Deep Down Wise – Deep Down Wise (LISTEN HERE)

#23: Solitary Experiments – Transcendent (LISTEN HERE)

#20: VVMPYRE – Neon Night Fright (LISTEN HERE)

#19: Am Tierpark – Forevermore (LISTEN HERE)

#18: Alex Sindrome – Eject (LISTEN HERE)

#17: Blackbook – Confessions Of The Innocent (LISTEN HERE)

#16: Lucca Leeloo – Prosperous (LISTEN HERE)

#15: Sydney Valette – Home Alone (LISTEN HERE)

#14: In My Despair – Last Mirage On The Earth (LISTEN HERE)

#13: Causeway – We Were Never Lost (LISTEN HERE)

#12: 1984 – Sharp Dressed Men (LISTEN HERE)

#11: Mental Discipline – Nothing To Die For (LISTEN HERE)

#10: Risk Risk – Blue Science (LISTEN HERE)

#9: Eisfabrik – Life Below Zero (LISTEN HERE)

#8: Current One – Praeludium (LISTEN HERE)

#6: Zynic – Best Before End (LISTEN HERE)

#5: Xenturion Prime – Prisma (LISTEN HERE)

#3: Vandal Moon – Queen Of The Night (LISTEN HERE)

#2: Corlyx – Blood In The Disco (LISTEN HERE)

And the number one album for 2022 was….

#1: Sacred Skin – The Decline Of Pleasure (LISTEN HERE)

Synthentral Top 50 Albums of 2022

Jan6

From 100 to 50! First step was to get down to 100 for the Top 100. Then I wittle it down to 50 for the Top 50 (here we are), and finally remove an additional 20 for the Top 30. The Top 30 will have a corresponding show with one song from each album.

As a reminder, here are the rules and guidelines I work with:

I only rate albums. There are tons of “best of” lists out there for singles and EPs.
- An album consists of at least 7 original songs. Remixes, intro/outro, instrumentals, versions, compilations, etc. do not count toward the “at least 7.” Covers do count as long as it’s not an album of all covers.
I must have the album in my collection to rate it. If a band or label didn’t get it to me, I didn’t buy it, or get it from a DJ resource, then it’s not on my list to rate.
Song are rated individually and the album is rated overall for listenability, danceability, whether I wanted to skip any tracks, was I engaged from start to finish, etc.
Rating is weighted so an album with 7 songs does not have an edge (or handicap) to an album with 17 songs.
I post the Top 100 and Top 50 lists alphabetically and not in “countdown” style. The Top 30 will be in countdown style.
I post my list after the year is over so any album released late in December 2022 still gets a chance at making it on the list.

As I noted in the Top 100 list, I hope you disagree with my list and post some of your favorites that I didn’t include or I may have missed during the year and hope you’re as passionate about your favorite bands and albums from 2022 as I am mine!

I have “LISTEN HERE” links below each album cover, so go and listen (if you didn’t on the Top 100 list) and give each band and album a chance, and support the bands you like!

The Synthentral Top 50 for 2022 (in alphabetical order):

Blackbook – Confessions Of The Innocent (LISTEN HERE)

Blood Handsome – A New Calm (LISTEN HERE)

Causeway – We Were Never Lost (LISTEN HERE)

Chinese Theatre – Unfinished Business (LISTEN HERE)

Claustraphobia – Vita Et Mors (LISTEN HERE)

Corlyx – Blood In The Disco (LISTEN HERE)

Deep Down Wise – Deep Down Wise (LISTEN HERE)

Die Robo Sapiens – Robo Sapien Race (LISTEN HERE)

e:lect – Disoriented Illusion (LISTEN HERE)

Eisfabrik – Life Below Zero (LISTEN HERE)

Electro Spectre – Stereo Dreams PT1 (LISTEN HERE)

In My Despair – Last Mirage On The Earth (LISTEN HERE)

Incirrina – Lip Led Scream (LISTEN HERE)

Jason Alacrity – The Criminal Class (LISTEN HERE)

Kim Lunner – From Dusk To Dawn (LISTEN HERE)

Matthias & Marss – Plus One (LISTEN HERE)

Mental Discipline – Nothing To Die For (LISTEN HERE)

The Midnight Computers – Romantic Disaster (LISTEN HERE)

Poison Point – Poisoned Gloves (LISTEN HERE)

A Projection – In A Different Light (LISTEN HERE)

Propter Hoc – History The Operator (LISTEN HERE)

Sacred Skin – The Decline Of Pleasure (LISTEN HERE)

Solitary Experiments – Transcendent (LISTEN HERE)

Sydney Valette – Home Alone (LISTEN HERE)

Vandal Moon – Queen Of The Night (LISTEN HERE)

VVMPYRE – Neon Night Fright (LISTEN HERE)

Synthentral Top 100 Albums of 2022

Jan1

Incredible amount of new music released in 2022! In previous years, I’ve had to start with 500+ albums and go through them all at the end of the year. This year I did it different: I only added albums to my “to be rated list” if I thought it had a chance to at least get in the Top 100. This narrowed my starting off point to just above 250 albums. Still a lot, but half the time to do the rating.

First step is to get down to 100 for the Top 100 (here we are). Then I go down to 50 for the Top 50, and finally remove an additional 20 for the Top 30. The Top 30 will have a corresponding show with one song from each album. Once I start removing albums from the 50 to the 30 that’s when it gets painful for me as an album I really loved gets removed because it had a rating of 8.62 and the album above it had an 8.63. Yes, it’s often that tight.

Here are the rules and guidelines I work with:

I only rate albums. There are tons of “best of” lists out there for singles and EPs.
- An album consists of at least 7 original songs. Remixes, intro/outro, instrumentals, versions, compilations, etc. do not count toward the “at least 7.” Covers do count as long as it’s not an album of all covers.
I must have the album in my collection to rate it. If a band or label didn’t get it to me, I didn’t buy it, or get it from a DJ resource, then it’s not on my list to rate.
Song are rated individually and the album is rated overall for listenability, danceability, whether I wanted to skip any tracks, was I engaged from start to finish, etc.
Rating is weighted so an album with 7 songs does not have an edge (or handicap) to an album with 17 songs.
I post the Top 100 and Top 50 lists alphabetically and not in “countdown” style. The Top 30 will be in countdown style.
I post my list after the year is over so any album released late in December 2022 still gets a chance at making it on the list.

I expect people to disagree with my list because it’s subjective. In fact, I hope you disagree with my list and post some of your favorites that I didn’t include or I may have missed during the year. I hope your list is different and you are passionate about your favorite bands and albums from 2022!

Most importantly, I hope you discover new bands from my lists.

I have “LISTEN HERE” links below each album cover, so go and listen and give each band and album a chance, and support the bands you like!

The Synthentral Top 100 for 2022 (in alphabetical order):

Avarice In Audio – Our Idols Are Filth (LISTEN HERE)

Ayria – This Is My Battle Cry (LISTEN HERE)

Blaqk Audio – Trop D’amour (LISTEN HERE)

Blind Passenger – Teamwork (LISTEN HERE)

C-Lekktor – New World Disorder (LISTEN HERE)

Curse Mackey – Immoral Emporium (LISTEN HERE)

Das Leiden – Chapter I, Dies Irae (LISTEN HERE)

Electronic Frequency – CON:TRAST (LISTEN HERE)

ElektroTerapi – Diagnose: Liebe (LISTEN HERE)

Francesca e Luigi – Dirty Disco – The Ultimate Album (LISTEN HERE)

Ginger Snap5 – Make Me Bad (LISTEN HERE)

Give My Remains To Broadway – My Will Is Not My Own (LISTEN HERE)

Harsh Symmetry – Display Model (LISTEN HERE)

Headless Mannequins – Shadowland (LISTEN HERE)

Hidden Souls – All That We Destroy (LISTEN HERE)

Humans Can’t Reboot – No Tomorrow (LISTEN HERE)

The Kolour Kult – Reception (LISTEN HERE)

Liquid Modern – Circle & Light (LISTEN HERE)

Martiné – My Mind – The Hand Grenade (LISTEN HERE)

Miseria Ultima – In Colors Of Void (LISTEN HERE)

Movie Camera – Memory / Display (LISTEN HERE)

My Own Burial – Breathing Sorrow (LISTEN HERE)

Noise Resistance – Stripped (LISTEN HERE)

Panic Priest – Psychogoria (LISTEN HERE)

Peppy Pep Pepper – Decline (LISTEN HERE)

Perel – Jesus Was An Alien (LISTEN HERE)

Prager Handgriff – Das Letzte Gefecht (LISTEN HERE)

Pure Obsessions & Red Nights – Let Your Obsessions Run Wild (LISTEN HERE)

She Hates Emotions – Happy Pop Music (LISTEN HERE)

Sweet Tempest – Going Down Dancing (LISTEN HERE)

Tragic Impulse – Distant Worlds (LISTEN HERE)

Unidad Obscura – Entre La Agonia (LISTEN HERE)

Unify Separate – Music Since Tomorrow (LISTEN HERE)

X Marks The Pedwalk – New/End (LISTEN HERE)

Synthentral 20170704: July 4th Special!

Jul4

New episode of Synthentral is now online!

Today’s episode is a special July 4th with songs about Independence, Freedom, Revolution, Rebels, and all that stuff. The song called Freedom may be about freedom from a person instead of freedom from tyranny, but in reality, those two freedoms are one in the same.

Today’s episode features music by Figures On A Beach, Apoptygma Berzerk, Miss FD, Ruined Conflict, Cryo, Atlantic Popes, Funker Vogt, Provision, Psy’Aviah, Ayria, DE/VISION, Destroid, The Comsat Angels, Alice in Videoland, Wideband Network, [:SITD:], Colony 5, Mindless Faith, Endless Shame, Cut Copy, Whiteqube, Velvet Acid Christ, Covenant, Ruined Conflict, Bigod 20, and Modulate!

Just click on the synthesizer below to listen!

Music Time! Random Shuffle. 12/26/16

Dec26

It’s music time again! Why do I do this? Well, in the hopes of introducing people to new synth-based music (EBM, Futurepop, Synthpop, Synthwave, Darkwave, Industrial, Industrial Dance, Electro, etc). So give the bands a listen and if you like what you hear, then go and pay for their album and support the bands!

I was on vacation for two weeks and I’m ready to get some more music out there!!!

You can listen to all of these songs in a solid stream on my MixCloud page!

NOTES: 1) I own (as in paid for, or was gifted) all of the music that I feature. I also attend as many local shows that I can to support bands when they’re on tour. Please do the same and support music! 2) Unless I’m doing a themed Music Time!, then all songs are from MediaMonkey being on shuffle and I put them here in the order MediaMonkey plays them for me (exceptions only if MediaMonkey duplicates a band during the shuffle or there is no video on YouTube for the song).

ARTIST: Divamee
SONG: Traumwelt
ALBUM: Experiment
YEAR: 2008