Considering how good of a year dance music has been having, it looks like this may just have to turn into a monthly column. The peak of summer 2024 brought us some more phenomenal dance music albums, so let’s take a look back at some of the highlights. 

Just a friendly reminder that these are listed in no particular order, and I take a lot of factors into account when making these lists, including overall quality, popularity, and creativity. I’ve also included links to each album so you can take a listen yourselves. Who knows, maybe you’ll find the soundtrack for your end-of-summer party.

salute – TRUE MAGIC

If you don’t have salute on your radar, what are you doing? The Austrian producer finally released their highly anticipated record “TRUE MAGIC” this past month, and it is a non-stop bundle of joy. 

The 14-track package features some of the greatest and most infectious funky house I’ve heard. It also features some pretty massive collaborations with Disclosure, Sam Gellaitry, and Rina Sawayama. It’s hard to pick a standout track just because everything is so cohesive and well produced. An instant classic, this album needs to be in your ears as soon as possible.

Kiasmos – II

Ólafur Arnalds and Janus Rasmussen have done it again: Kiasmos’ first album in ten years is nothing short of perfect. 

With its hypnotic grooves, crystal-clear production, organic instrumentation, and overall laidback sound, this record is eleven tracks of pure bliss. The highlight is the exceptional percussion work; tracks like “Sailed” and “Squared” feature some of the best-sounding organic foley, claps, and percussion I have ever heard. It’s a triumphant return for the duo, and hopefully, we don’t have to wait ten more years for the next album.

THIRST – AFTER HOURS MIXTAPE

I’ll be the first to admit that I think drift phonk as a whole has become slightly stale, but this mixtape by THIRST, a collaborative project created by hayve, Bad Computer, & ROY KNOX, breathes new life into the genre. 

The 20-track mixtape is entirely mixed, and the last track, “TIMEOUT”, mixes back into the first track, “SKYLINE”, which means that the entire project can be listened to continuously on loop. Many of the tracks provide a new melodic take on the genre, such as “TRAPPED MEMORY” and “YELLOW TREE”. The mixtape’s climax is absolute “MEANT 2 BE” with nuphory, a track that seamlessly blends drift phone and Y2K-inspired hyper trance.

John Summit – Comfort In Chaos

John Summit’s debut album has finally arrived. After absolutely dominating the melodic techno space for the past few years, “Comfort In Chaos” features some of his greatest hits alongside some new tracks that may very well top them. 

“Where You Are” and “Shiver” with HAYLA are here, of course, but so are “Stay With Me” with Of The Trees and “Give Me Anything” with Elderbrook, two tracks that may just surpass the megahits mentioned above in quality. The album’s greatest track is the closer, “palm of my hands” with venbee, which is an expertly produced liquid drum & bass number. This album makes one thing clear: John Summit has not peaked. In fact, he’s only getting better.

DubVision – Another World

DubVision’s Spotify bio simply states “We are progressive house.” This album proves it. The album isn’t actually just progressive house, as there are a few melodic techno tracks scattered throughout the tracklist, but overall, this is an extremely strong progressive house record.

Highlights include “The Horizon (With You),” a prog house anthem with Nu-La on vocals, “G.O.D.,” one of the aforementioned melodic techno tracks that would feel right at home at an Anyma show, and the two collaborations with Martin Garrix.

Overall, this is an extremely well-made record with just enough variety to please everybody.

Elohim – Power of Panic

This is undoubtedly the best bass music album of the month, and it coming from Elohim is entirely shocking. The stylistic shift from her previous work to this is jarring, to say the least, and yet, she pulls it off.

Each track features Elohim’s gorgeous vocals expertly blended with gritty, dark production, leading to an overall phenomenal package of tracks. “Afraid to Fall” sounds like it was taken directly from the Cyberpunk 2077 soundtrack, while “Can’t Remember Your Name” is a bassy future house track that should absolutely take over dance floors for the next few months. This album has to be the biggest surprise of the month for me, and I encourage everyone to check out what Elohim’s up to.

Boombox Cartel – Proof of Life

I’m honestly surprised it took this long for us to get an album from Boombox Cartel considering how long the act has been active. We finally got that debut last month.

While the album features lots and lots of Boombox Cartel’s signature trap style mixed with rapping, there’s a good amount of variety here, as well. Drum & bass fans will enjoy “Better off Dead”, while fans of dark midtempo will flock to “Afterlife”, and those who prefer a more-radio friendly pop sound should certainly add “Common Ground” to their playlists. I’d refer to this as a trap album with a few surprises, and it’s exactly what I thought the debut Boombox Cartel album should’ve sounded like. 

Whethan – Life of a Wallflower, Vol. 2

It’s hard to believe that Vol. 1 arrived six years ago, and it’s finally time for Vol. 2. Whethan’s artist bio on Spotify describes this album as a “return to form”, and it’s just that: a return to the house-y sound that made fans fall in love with him in the first place.

While the album opens with a trap track (a really, really good one with Flowdan on vocals) more akin to the tracks on his previous album, the rest of the tracklist is full of summery house anthems. Whethan’s megahit “MONEY ON THE DASH” with Elley Duhé also appears here, right at home alongside tracks like “DO YOU REMEMBER?” and “ENERGY”. It seems as if Whethan was attempting to create the quintessential summer album, and he was absolutely successful.

BONUS: Porter Robinson – SMILE 😀 

I’m not including this as a part of the list officially as Porter himself claimed that this album isn’t EDM, but considering he’s a major name in the EDM scene, I’m going to bring it up anyhow. It seems like every time he releases a new album, he changes his style completely. This is very much the case here, as he’s once again ditched the house rhythms of Nurture for an alt-poppy sound that at times feels like Big Time Rush and at other times feels like James Taylor. And, yet, it still sounds like Porter Robinson.

It’s definitely a sad listen, but there are some gems on the tracklist, including “Cheerleader”, which kicked off the whole rollout, and “Is There Really No Happiness?”, which highlights an acoustic breakbeat and trance-y stutter vocals. It’s definitely the least EDM thing Porter Robinson’s ever put out, but that’s certainly not a bad thing, and it’s absolutely worth a listen if you’ve enjoyed his previous work.

The post The Best Electronic Dance Music Albums Of The Summer (2024) appeared first on Magnetic Magazine.