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Nothing interesting has been announced till the end of the year (except cv313 - Dimensional Space, but considering the recent Deepchord related efforts, it's very likely to be passable), so I might as well do mine.
First I want to complain a little. Coming strictly from artist albums perspective, this year has been somewhat bittersweet. I followed new releases quite closely, and by the end of the year I think I listened to around 50 albums just from 2011, most of them multiple times. And I came to one conclusion: never has there been more 'just good' and 'fairly interesting', yet at the same time so little of those really great, essential and worth listening in 5 years time albums released. That's of course not a new trend, but I think it's getting more and more alarming each year. Some day the inevitable is gonna happen: people who raise up their personal line of mediocrity just a little bit too much are gonna end up loving just a couple albums per year.
But rant aside, here's the list. I just think first three have a potential to be considered masterpieces in a near future:
1. Machinedrum - Room(s)
Most of the reviewers and fans focuse on the successful integration of all those new and fancy (but not really interesting alone) styles and genres into the big post-dubstep melting pot, but none of them can actually tell why this album works. I can't either, so I'll just say that there's an factor x that separates geniuses that have an ability to do that kind of experiments efficiently from tryhards that fail miserably. Travis Stewart obviously possesses that factor, which is more than evident from both Room(s) and the other album which he did this year with the fellow Braille as Sepalcure.
2. Marow - + - 0 (Plus Minus Null)
Same as above - it's difficult to say why an essentially minimal techno album works so well, when there's more than enough years of evidence that that's not usually the case. So I'll describe how it sounds instead. Imagine you're sent to another unknown blue planet, built solely out of ice and inhabited by peaceful elderly intellectual creatures deeply connected to their planet. You're floating in a breezy, crystal clear sky above them, tuned into their mind-altering station and observing the complex architecture, interaction between them and the beautiful nature. You're happy and you're ready to die. Fans of Yagya and Gas will love this.
3. Phoenecia - Demissions
It's refreshing in this day and age to encounter an album that sounds completely chaotic and confusing after the first listen, and just after fifth or so starts to make some sense. It means the artist is walking uncharted territory and avoiding to descend into the well-tried and comfortable zone. This album continues where Autechre stopped around 2005 - advance rhythmical exploration, granular synthesis and electroacoustics, plus some really unique sound design. And really, really interesting arrangements. Fresh.
4. Plaid - Scintilli
5. Sandwell District - Sandwell District
6. Andy Stott - Passed Me By / We Stay Together
7. Modeselektor - Monkeytown
8. Kuedo - Severant
9. Alva Noto - Univrs
10. The Black Dog - Liber Dogma
Honorable mentions (in no order): Biosphere - N-Plants, Dave Monolith - Welcome, Kangding Ray - Or, Oneohtrix Point Never - Replica, Sepalcure - Sepalcure
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