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)

#28: Reflection – Anima (LISTEN HERE)

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

#26: RROYCE – RROARR (LISTEN HERE)

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

#24: ÆON RINGS – Enemy (LISTEN HERE)

#23: Solitary Experiments – Transcendent (LISTEN HERE)

#22: Any Second – Enemies (LISTEN HERE)

#21: Dreamkid – Dreamkid (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)

#7: CZARINA – Arcana (LISTEN HERE)

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

#5: Xenturion Prime – Prisma (LISTEN HERE)

#4: Vanguard – Spectrum (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

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):

1984 – Sharp Dressed Men (LISTEN HERE)

ÆON RINGS – Enemy (LISTEN HERE)

Alex Sindrome – Eject (LISTEN HERE)

Am Tierpark – Forevermore (LISTEN HERE)

Any Second – Enemies (LISTEN HERE)

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)

Code 64 – Broken Rhythm (LISTEN HERE)

Corlyx – Blood In The Disco (LISTEN HERE)

Current One – Praeludium (LISTEN HERE)

CZARINA – Arcana (LISTEN HERE)

Dagon – Owen Sebastian (LISTEN HERE)

Deep Down Wise – Deep Down Wise (LISTEN HERE)

Die Robo Sapiens – Robo Sapien Race (LISTEN HERE)

Dreamkid – Dreamkid (LISTEN HERE)

e:lect – Disoriented Illusion (LISTEN HERE)

Eisfabrik – Life Below Zero (LISTEN HERE)

Electro Spectre – Stereo Dreams PT1 (LISTEN HERE)

Exsect – Opéra Mécanique (LISTEN HERE)

EXTIZE – MonStars (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)

Kondratie – Москва (LISTEN HERE)

Lucca Leeloo – Prosperous (LISTEN HERE)

Matthias & Marss – Plus One (LISTEN HERE)

Mental Discipline – Nothing To Die For (LISTEN HERE)

The Midnight Computers – Romantic Disaster (LISTEN HERE)

No – Domestic Pulse (LISTEN HERE)

Poison Point – Poisoned Gloves (LISTEN HERE)

Priest – Body Machine (LISTEN HERE)

A Projection – In A Different Light (LISTEN HERE)

Propter Hoc – History The Operator (LISTEN HERE)

Reflection – Anima (LISTEN HERE)

Reichsfeind – Darken (LISTEN HERE)

Risk Risk – Blue Science (LISTEN HERE)

RROYCE – RROARR (LISTEN HERE)

Rue Oberkampf – Liebe (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)

Vanguard – Spectrum (LISTEN HERE)

Voicecoil – Strange Days (LISTEN HERE)

VVMPYRE – Neon Night Fright (LISTEN HERE)

Xenturion Prime – Prisma (LISTEN HERE)

Zynic – Best Before End (LISTEN HERE)

Synthentral Top 100 Albums of 2022

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):

1984 – Sharp Dressed Men (LISTEN HERE)

ÆON RINGS – Enemy (LISTEN HERE)

Alex Sindrome – Eject (LISTEN HERE)

Am Tierpark – Forevermore (LISTEN HERE)

Angry Pete – Misanthrope (LISTEN HERE)

Any Second – Enemies (LISTEN HERE)

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

Ayria – This Is My Battle Cry (LISTEN HERE)

Blackbook – Confessions Of The Innocent (LISTEN HERE)

Blaqk Audio – Trop D’amour (LISTEN HERE)

Blind Passenger – Teamwork (LISTEN HERE)

Blood Handsome – A New Calm (LISTEN HERE)

Buzz Kull – Fascination (LISTEN HERE)

C-Lekktor – New World Disorder (LISTEN HERE)

Causeway – We Were Never Lost (LISTEN HERE)

Chinese Theatre – Unfinished Business (LISTEN HERE)

Claustraphobia – Vita Et Mors (LISTEN HERE)

Code 64 – Broken Rhythm (LISTEN HERE)

Corlyx – Blood In The Disco (LISTEN HERE)

Current One – Praeludium (LISTEN HERE)

Curse Mackey – Immoral Emporium (LISTEN HERE)

CZARINA – Arcana (LISTEN HERE)

Dagon – Owen Sebastian (LISTEN HERE)

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

Deep Down Wise – Deep Down Wise (LISTEN HERE)

Die Robo Sapiens – Robo Sapien Race (LISTEN HERE)

Dina Summer – Rimini (LISTEN HERE)

Dreamkid – Dreamkid (LISTEN HERE)

e:lect – Disoriented Illusion (LISTEN HERE)

Eisfabrik – Life Below Zero (LISTEN HERE)

Electro Spectre – Stereo Dreams PT1 (LISTEN HERE)

Electronic Frequency – CON:TRAST (LISTEN HERE)

ElektroTerapi – Diagnose: Liebe (LISTEN HERE)

ELM – Penetrator (LISTEN HERE)

Encephalon – Surfacer (LISTEN HERE)

Exsect – Opéra Mécanique (LISTEN HERE)

EXTIZE – MonStars (LISTEN HERE)

Fractal Age – Another Way (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)

IDEON – Forever Can Wait (LISTEN HERE)

Ill Humans – New Light (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)

The Kolour Kult – Reception (LISTEN HERE)

Kondratie – Москва (LISTEN HERE)

LAU – Circumstance (LISTEN HERE)

Liquid Modern – Circle & Light (LISTEN HERE)

LMX – Habits & Addictions (LISTEN HERE)

Lucca Leeloo – Prosperous (LISTEN HERE)

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

Matthias & Marss – Plus One (LISTEN HERE)

Mental Discipline – Nothing To Die For (LISTEN HERE)

The Midnight Computers – Romantic Disaster (LISTEN HERE)

Miseria Ultima – In Colors Of Void (LISTEN HERE)

Movie Camera – Memory / Display (LISTEN HERE)

My Own Burial – Breathing Sorrow (LISTEN HERE)

No – Domestic Pulse (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)

Poison Point – Poisoned Gloves (LISTEN HERE)

Prager Handgriff – Das Letzte Gefecht (LISTEN HERE)

Priest – Body Machine (LISTEN HERE)

A Projection – In A Different Light (LISTEN HERE)

Propter Hoc – History The Operator (LISTEN HERE)

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

Rebel Empire – Street Art (LISTEN HERE)

Reflection – Anima (LISTEN HERE)

Reichsfeind – Darken (LISTEN HERE)

Risk Risk – Blue Science (LISTEN HERE)

RROYCE – RROARR (LISTEN HERE)

Rue Oberkampf – Liebe (LISTEN HERE)

Sacred Skin – The Decline Of Pleasure (LISTEN HERE)

Saft – Dansar Med Satan (LISTEN HERE)

She Hates Emotions – Happy Pop Music (LISTEN HERE)

Solitary Experiments – Transcendent (LISTEN HERE)

Stereoskop – Silk (LISTEN HERE)

Sweet Tempest – Going Down Dancing (LISTEN HERE)

Sydney Valette – Home Alone (LISTEN HERE)

Tempers – New Meaning (LISTEN HERE)

Tragic Impulse – Distant Worlds (LISTEN HERE)

Undine – Ether (LISTEN HERE)

Unidad Obscura – Entre La Agonia (LISTEN HERE)

Unify Separate – Music Since Tomorrow (LISTEN HERE)

Vandal Moon – Queen Of The Night (LISTEN HERE)

Vanguard – Spectrum (LISTEN HERE)

Voicecoil – Strange Days (LISTEN HERE)

VVMPYRE – Neon Night Fright (LISTEN HERE)

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

Xenturion Prime – Prisma (LISTEN HERE)

Zynic – Best Before End (LISTEN HERE)

Top 30 Synth Albums of 2017

TOP 30 Synth-Based Albums/EPs from 2017!

This list was very hard to do. There were so many amazing albums, EP’s, and singles released in 2017. In order for an album to qualify, it had to be in my library. I get music a lot of ways. A lot of times promoters, record labels, and artists send me their music so I can play the music. A lot of times I have to buy the albums. Sometimes the artists offer the albums up for free on their web page, Bandcamp, or other sources.

All those sources resulted in having 4,396 unique album/EP/single entries from 2017 that I had to go through. That’s a daunting number and it should be noted that there’s no way I have all the new music released in 2017! There is no doubt in my mind that I missed some new music that may have ended up on this list if I had it in my library.

Narrowing the list down:

In order for an album to qualify it had to be new material from the musician/band. So the first thing I did was remove any remix albums. The second thing I did was remove any compilation/best of/greatest hits albums. The third thing I did was remove any singles where the song was part of a later or earlier album. Doing those three things dwindled the number of unique entries to 3,477. Still a daunting task.

Next step was to go through each of those almost 3,500 entries and rate them from 1 to 10. Then I deleted everything that I rated 8 or below. Entries required a 9 or 10 to make it to next round. This processes narrowed the unique entries to 76.

I then re-rated the remaining 76 entries with a much stricter ear. After the re-rating I removed anything below a 9. That left me with 47 unique entries. Then I had to do it again until I got down to 40 entries. At this point, removing anyone from the list physically hurt my heart. The amount of awesome goodness on that list of 47 and 40 was painful as I removed one after another.

Now that I had it down to 40, I had to remove 10 more, who are the honorable mentions. As hard as it was getting down to 40, removing those 10 more was even more difficult!

The Caveats:

1. Music is subjective. There is a really good chance that your list would be completely different from mine. I did not use any criteria like record sales, listening stats, or anything that would require me to hire someone with a Master’s Degree in musicology.
2. My criteria for the initial rating and re-rating was asking two simple questions:
   1. Do I want to listen to this album on repeat or just once and listen to a different album?
   2. Are the majority of the songs on the album listenable? The more I wanted to listen to an album on repeat and the more songs on it that were listenable, the higher the rating it got (weighted for singles and EP’s of course). Narrowing those down to just 40/30 was a lot harder than I thought it was going to be for sure.
3. I am sure that I will get a lot of “But what about Band A and album B? How could you not list those?” See #1. Music is subjective to the listener.

There was a lot of amazing new music put out in 2017. Let’s hope 2018 is just as awesome!

2017 TOP 30 SYNTH-BASED ALBUMS (alphabetical order):

3FORCE — Resistance
3Teeth — _shutdown.exe_
AM Tierpark — Trashy Luxury
Angelspit — Black Dog Bite
Arian 1 — Signals
Blakk Glass — Trial EP
Christopher Anton — Connected
CRYSEHD — EP III
deZeption — Mature
Drab Majesty – The Demonstration
Elektrostaub — Birthday And Death
Funker Vogt — Code Of Conduct
Gary Numan — Savage: Songs From A Broken World
Grendel — Age Of The Disposable Body
Hexheart — Midnight On A Moonless Night
Lorelei Dreaming — Banshee
ManMindMachine — Point Of Departure EP
Missing in STARS — Echo Point
Night Drive — Night Drive
Priest — New Flesh
Reflection — Lumen EP
Schwarzschild — Radius
Stilz — Starcrash
T.O.Y — Pain Is Love
Telekon — Hope for Believers
Torul — Monday EP
Wiccid — By Design
William Control — Revelations: The White EP
Xenturion Prime — Humanity Plus
Zynic — Neon Oblivion

2017 SYNTH-BASED HONORABLE MENTIONS:

C-Lekktor — Out Of My Way
Crüxshadows, The — Astromythology
Dav Dralleon — Depths EP
Forces Of Light — Darklights
New Division, The — No Pride In Paradise EP
Orange Sector — Endzeit (Deluxe Edition)
Slave Republic — Songs For Sinners
Sonic Reunion — Turning Point
Vainerz — Patient
Watch Clark — First Week of Winter

Synthentral 20171006

New episode of Synthentral is now online!

Today’s episode features music by Blinky Blinky Computerband, 6ct Humour, Paranoid, Tristesse de la Lune, Alphaville, Shiny Darkness, Sub Optimal, Equatronic, Rare Fracture, Neuroticfish, My Secret Machine, Bill & Murray, Dawnfine, Nexus-6, Ravenous, Biomekkanik, Andy Bell, Leæther Strip, Diary Of Dreams, Clicker, Essexx, The Thompson Twins, :Silizium:, Telekon, Jules Verne Theory, Pleasures Remain, NoyceTM, and The Kolour Kult!

Just click on the synthesizer below to listen!