The Inheritors

In 2006, the first album by this British electronic producer found him exploring the outer reaches of trance, glitch, and minimal techno. Seven years later, having busied himself elsewhere in between, Holden followed up with an ecstatic explosion of sounds and styles on The Inheritors. The electronic merry-go-round that Holden presides over is based around thick, visceral analog synth tones that alternately throb, rattle, and wheeze as the situation demands, but they're framed in a multitude of mind-melting ways. On "The Caterpillar's Invention," avant-jazz sax frenzy collides with a tribal groove and a prog-flavored accumulation of electronics. "Sky Burial" pits electro-acoustic edginess against old-school Harry Partch–style DIY clang-and-bang sound sculpture. Along the way, '70s Berlin–style cosmic synthscapes dart around funhouse-mirror reflections of everything from ambient music and post-rock to videogame soundtracks—making for a sometimes disorienting but consistently engrossing journey.