The 50 Best Albums of 2016
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Although some claim that electronic music has finally run out of ideas, we feel like albums have been more varied in 2016, spanning more genres and mixing more diverse influences than ever before. Within our Top 10 you can find Afrobeat, Future Jazz, House, Broken Beat, Ambient, Techno...
There is also a mix of old and new, from Yussef Kamaal's stellar breakthrough to A Tribe Called Quest's final album, Convextion's long-awaited return or the LP debuts of Dorisburg, Funkineven aka Steven Julien and The Pilotwings.
Enjoy the selection. (Due to Christmas and limited stocks, we are sold out of a lot of these – we will endeavor to restock those that are available, just add your email on the albums' page to get a notification!)
Although some claim that electronic music has finally run out of ideas, we feel that the LPs to pass through the shop this year have been more varied, and mixing more diverse influences, than ever before. Our top 10 reflects both the diversity of opinion amongst staff members here at Phonica and the sheer variation amongst records being made in 2016. With only a quick glance you will see Afrobeat, Future Jazz, House, Broken Beat, Ambient, Techno, and indefinable records which explore new boundaries. These records couldn’t be more different, and that, in our opinion, is a very, very, good sign of things to come.
You’ll notice that, without intention, our top 20 LPs are all on independent, mostly very small (we’re talking one-man-operation small) labels. We see this as a continuing and maturing trend away from the majors, a democratisation of music for the multitude, allowing open-minded consumers and producers to create and buy brilliant long play records away from corporate influence. The sound of 2016 is one of fusions, experimentations, and independent thinking.
78
Fueled by word of mouth excitement and social media posts from supporters including Prince, Gilles Peterson, Erykah Badu, Solange, Nile Rodgers, Sam Sparro, Janelle Monae, Questlove and a host of others, King's story and songs have spread wide and made many new fans, including... guess who?
79
Analogue Attic Recording's fifth release was a live take from Melbourne's Sleep D, recorded at Melbourne's iconic Fairfield Amphitheatre. Maryos Syawish, Corey Kikos and guitarist Joe Karakatsanis show off their ambient side.
80
Triggering just the right senses, these eight fabulously swinging tracks from the dark Funk laboratories of Perlon really pushed our buttons.
81
Sunergy brought together synthesists Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith and Suzanne Ciani for the thirteenth installment of FRKWYS, RVNG Intl.’s intergenerational collaboration series.
82
Original music of the "Slow Futur" show by Elsa Guérin and Martin Palisse, played and composed by Zombie Zombie (Cosmic Neman, Etienne Jaumet, Dr Schonberg), here presented separately from the show.
83
Mork arrived with it's first album by long-time LA musician, producer and DJ, Grant. An ode to 90's UK house music blended with a distinctive air of West Coast deepness.
84
The ever consistent Mr. G returned with a fifth album this year, delivering yet another atmospheric, funky and raw collection of club ready tracks.
85
‘Sport’ was an album that sounded like the perfect snapshot of Powell's eclectic DJ sets. In a world of producers making techno that takes its cues from post-punk, he turned the style on its head and made post-punk with techno ideals.
86
Over the past 7 years WOLF Music have steadily blossomed into a bonafide platform for both auspicious and established producers of classically-minded House and Disco catering for listeners and DJs alike. Casino Times' first full length saw them enter new territories and delving into a variety of moods.
87
Crunchy and tattered thanks to SDC's production aesthetic, 'Orange Melamine' was a deeply personal album that laced supernatural sounds and translucent synths with a sense of overflowing harmony.
88
Romare's first album, “Projections”, voted Album of the Year by DJ Mag, could have been difficult to follow up for a lesser artist. But Archie Fairhurst managed to do just that with 'Love Songs: Part Two'.
89
Parisian crew Acid Arab have worked extremely hard to create a space for Arab culture in the world of contemporary electronic music. This isn't banging techno spiced up with darbouka samples. It's the real deal.
90
Berlin based duo Africaine 808 pushed their blend of West African bass and rhythms, disco, island-funk and house to newer heights by bringing their debut LP 'Basar' to Golf Channel recordings.
91
Back in 2000, Vibrant Forms II became one of the last records to be released on Mark Ernestus and Moritz von Oswald’s classic label Chain Reaction. This year, Subwax Bcn release Fluxion's long awaited follow up. And it didn't disappoint.
92
Hessle Audio released this debut full-length album from label co-founder Kevin McAuley, aka Pangaea. In Drum Play's ten tracks cut deep into stripped-back techno structures, yet remain infused with the intensity and experimentalism that make Pangea's work among both the strangest and most banging dance music to emerge from the UK in the last decade.
93
GLK's new label is starting in full swing: a new album with his usual madness and psychedelia. Full of great collaborations, such as Gonjasufi, Miguel Atwood-Ferguson etc... Get ready to rock your hair back and forth.
94
Bibio reached album number seven this year with 'A Mineral Love'. It beautifully ties together its influences that surrounded him during his childhood, from '90s jungle and hardcore dance tracks to late '70s and into early '80s American TV show themes.
95
It’s not everyday that pianist and composer, Francesco Tristano, joins forces with one of Detroit's Belleville Three - Derrick May. Surface Tension is perhaps the most significant in his ongoing explorations into electronic music.
96
Valere Aude was the debut album from Romans, a collaborative project between New York techno producer Gunnar Haslam and Vienna-based acid evangelist Johannes Auvinen (aka Tin Man). It featuring 12 tracks of hallucinogenic, psychedelic techno that - counter-intuitively - lend themselves perfectly to the album format.
97
Michigan artist John Beltran's 13th studio album and 3rd on Delsin was his most complete and personal work yet. Written largely on modular synthesizers for the first time, it melts 90s intelligent techno with post rock and ambient with leftfield downtempo.
98
He may be ill at ease with the darkroom throb of 21st Century clubs but the house music the Crooked Man produces is as weighty, alien, raw and left of centre as anything you’d get from many a hyped young producer.
99
Atmospheric and ambient dub master Yagya served us up Stars and Dust, his seventh full length album and second on Delsin. Electronic but organic, it is another complete work that encourages you to lay back and get lost in sumptuous sound.
100
Don't DJ's tracks for Berceuse Heroique exist in a lineage of German reverence for African music and electronics stretching from Moebius and Can through to Basic Channel and T++. A listwe can get down with!