The best way into a new kind of music is often a record label rather than an artist. Labels like Warp, Kranky and Mute were run by people with strong taste and long memories, and their catalogs work like a guided path: like one record, and the next one on the label is a good bet. Scenes work the same way when they grow out of a single city or moment, whether that is Detroit in the eighties or West Germany around 1970.
Our starter guides follow that logic. Each one picks ten records that explain a label or a scene, in an order that makes sense to a newcomer, with notes on where to go next. Start with whichever name you recognize. If none of them ring a bell, begin with the ambient guide or Warp, which between them open the door to most of what follows.
Below the guides are our reviews of new records from the same world: ambient, drone, IDM and the quieter end of electronic music, much of it on small labels without a press budget. We would rather send you to a 67-minute album on Projekt or a pump organ record on Room40 than to another playlist. Plenty of these come on vinyl, and our Vinyl hub covers the setup to play them.
Start here
- Warp Records: the label that bet on albums when dance labels chased singles, from LFO's Frequencies to Kelela's Take Me Apart.
- Ambient Music: from Brian Eno's Music for Airports to Tim Hecker's Ravedeath, 1972, and why ambient was never meant to be wallpaper.
Label starter guides
- Kranky Records: the Chicago label that proved slow music could be radical, from Labradford to Low, Stars of the Lid and Grouper.
- Mute Records: how Daniel Miller's one homemade synth single became a home for Depeche Mode, Nick Cave and Moby.
- Factory Records: Joy Division, New Order, Happy Mondays and The Haçienda, in ten records.
- 4AD Records: the London label that defined gothic rock and dream pop, then helped invent alternative rock.
Scene and genre guides
- Detroit Techno: from Juan Atkins' Cybotron to the second wave of Carl Craig, Robert Hood and Underground Resistance.
- Krautrock: ten albums from the West German revolution that rewired rock and electronic music.
- Shoegaze: from Psychocandy and Loveless to Souvlaki and Slowdive's 2017 comeback.
- The 8 Best Books About Electronic Music: the full story from the Moog to Detroit, and which book to read first.
Deep dives: records that hold up
- Burial, Untrue: the 2007 Hyperdub album from a producer almost nobody could name, and why it still sounds like South London after midnight.
- Tim Hecker, Ravedeath, 1972: recorded on a Reykjavik church pipe organ in a single day, and still the great record about what we do to music.
- Kelela, new avatar: her third album, on Warp, runs R&B through distorted guitar, shoegaze haze and electronic precision.
- The Black Dog, Feral Grace: British electronic listening music since 1989, now letting Sheffield and their childhoods into the machines.
- The Future Sound of London, Mind Maps 7: an hour-long transmission sold only on CD, with no download and no stream.
- Fluke, The Second Bite: twelve tracks rebuilt from their own catalog, a masters play done in the open.
- Four Tet, Human Voice: a chopped vocal and a B-side named like a filename: Kieran Hebden's small argument about people and machines.
- Ninajirachi, I Love My Computer: a debut album written as a love letter to the kid who found electronic music through a YouTube comment.
- rheom, _ 729.root: rhythm-first, reductionist IDM from Bilbao's Polygon Network.
- Parallel Worlds, Explorer: nine tracks of warm, hardware-built electronic music from Athens.
- Phaeleh, The Fragile Hours: Bristol's low-pressure sound across ambient, UK bass, breaks, dub techno and acid.
New ambient and drone
- Abul Mogard and Rafael Anton Irisarri: recorded live over three days in Berlin with Leslie speakers, modular synths and bowed guitar.
- Pan American, Fly the Ocean in a Silver Plane: perhaps the most personal record of Mark Nelson's long residency on Kranky.
- Sam Rosenthal, The Width of Shadows: the Projekt founder's first solo ambient-drone album in over a decade.
- yttriphie, Solipsis: Michael Plaster of Soul Whirling Somewhere returns with 67 minutes of patient ethereal music on Projekt.
- Hollan Holmes, The Sanctity of Rust: twelve tracks of ambient electronic music that treat corrosion as a record of survival.
- Driftwood, Maps: two pump organs retuned microtonally, on Brisbane's Room40.
- Subtlemanor, Never Alone: diaristic ambient from Ogden, Utah, built from guitar, synth and tape.
- How To Disappear Completely, Soft Ruins: three nights, a beach cabin and an old reel-to-reel, and this time the frame does real work.
- Hammock, The Second Coming Was a Moonrise: the Nashville duo's most quietly incautious record yet.
Latest news
- Bibio and Dorian Concept, Answers: a debut album on Warp, out October 16, built remotely around an SH-101 and a 1970s tape echo.
- Helen, Linda's Head: Liz Harris's band returns on Kranky after eleven years, with ten songs in 32 minutes.
- Boards of Canada Tribute Book: a Disco Pogo tribute book due in November, conceived during the long silence.
- The Black Queen Fall 2026 Tour: a second US leg playing Fever Daydream front to back for its tenth anniversary.
- Boards of Canada, Inferno: thirteen years of silence ended with unmarked VHS tapes, then an album on Warp worth the wait.
From the catalogs, on vinyl
Reissues from these labels are covered in the Vinyl & Records hub, including Warp's Drukqs anniversary edition and 4AD's Mojave 3 and Pixies remasters.
Where to go next
- Vinyl & Records Hub: turntables, speakers, record care and the reissues worth buying.
- Home Studio Hub: starter gear, studio headphones, synths and samplers.
- Sneakers & Style Hub: heritage boots, raw denim, workwear and the stories behind the sneakers.
- Desk & Everyday Carry Hub: everyday carry, mechanical keyboards, minimalist and repairable tech, bags and watches.
- Design & Art Hub: Dieter Rams, the design books worth owning, patient makers and the artists worth knowing.
- Film & Games Hub: A24 horror, restored cult films, new releases and games that do more with less.
- The Unknowndivide Buying Guides: every guide on the site in one list.
- Incoming: the records, gear and films still on their way.
