DJ Elmoe knocked our socks off with footwork that still sounds as fresh as the first day we heard the style. Lindstrøm returned with the umpteenth coming of space disco and got us starry-eyed for the umpteenth time. Purelink dusted off ambient dub, Anthony Naples dabbled in tech-house, OPN reacquainted himself with a beloved sample pack—there were plenty of reasons to feel just fine about feeling nostalgic this year. But there were just as many opportunities to scrape your jaw up off the floor: the mangled drum science of Blawan’s SickElixir, the polyrhythmic abandon of Djrum’s Under Tangled Science, the non-Euclidean geometries of Barker’s Stochastic Drift. Those were just a few of our favorite electronic releases this year; here are all 30.
Check out all of Pitchfork’s 2025 wrap-up coverage here.
(All releases featured here are independently selected by our editors. When you buy something through our retail links, however, Pitchfork may earn an affiliate commission.)
30.
Jeremy Hyman: Low Air
A drummer with credits on records by Dan Deacon, L’Rain, and Lifted, the in-house ambient-jazz braintrust of D.C.’s Future Times label, Jeremy Hyman steps out on his own with a solo album of luminescent boogie and acid-squiggled atmospherics that’s part Windham Hill, part Detroit techno, and positively bursting with personality.
Listen/Buy: Bandcamp | Rough Trade
29.
DJ Elmoe: Battle Zone
A track from DJ Elmoe had the pole position on Planet Mu’s landmark compilation Bangs & Works Vol. 1, which introduced Chicago footwork to the wider world, but Elmoe has mostly been self-releasing his music since then. Collecting more than a decade’s worth of his work, Battle Zone is a fascinating showcase of his singular style: nimble, pointillist, and seemingly zero-G, reminiscent of hummingbirds communicating in Morse code.
Listen/Buy: Amazon | Apple Music | Spotify | Tidal
28.
james K: friend
London’s AD 93 label put out some of the year’s most rewardingly challenging releases—records like YHWH Nailgun’s bracing 45 Pounds and Moin’s math-rocking Belly Up—but it also gave us one of 2025’s most gratifyingly listenable records with james K’s friend. The New York singer-producer’s long-awaited album, following a recent string of scene-stealing features, slots loosely into the ubiquitous early-’00s revival in its blissed-out downtempo and dream pop. But the enveloping richness of her production and the gossamer drift of her voice elevate her music far above her pastiche-besotted peers.
