without

Normally I like original vocals over just an instrumental or samples because oftentimes they just sound way too repetitive but ofc there are exceptions

I love Bonobos more instrumental tracks on Black Sands or North Borders because of how dynamic the songs could be from an instrumentation or production standpoint but I found his later work got more and more repetitive and more robotic (less heartfelt).

Whereas the vocals on Settle from Disclosure were absolutely incredible and added so much to every song from an energy standpoint. But since then, the vocals on their work could never capture that spark again.

I like both

I don’t necessarily need it for my techno/house songs but it can be a plus. But the vocals on the electro/dance songs are really nice typically.

But when they glitch the vocals? That s***s my fav fr

Wouldn't go nearly as hard without vocals

if we’re talking autechre or artists of that ilk they can definitely make interesting stuff sans vocals but trance dance s*** I need them powerful female vocals to smack me in my s***

with

Both.

depends what mood i'm in. sometimes I like the dub mixes, and sometimes i just want the instrumental.

100% depends on the style the artist is going for, and song by song even then. I will say I’m generally not a fan of vocals tacked on top of an already existing song that works without them (Lovesick by Mura Masa for example) but there are also plenty of examples where that doesn’t necessarily hold true (the original Ghosts N Stuff for example)

What’s always really interesting to me is when a traditionally instrumental artist makes the leap to tracks with vocals. Tycho’s an all-time favorite of mine, but I’d call Weather the first miss of his catalog (thankfully he dropped Simulcast though.) Clark just dropped a great album that prominently features his vocals for the first time and it’s fantastic.

Well I prefer no vocals to s*** vocals, which can easily ruin a song no matter how good it is