AllMusic 2016 Year in Review
Favorite Electronic Albums
The year's best electronic releases included Brian Eno's return to ambient music, Tim Hecker's first work incorporating vocals, Junior Boys' Big Black Coat and many more.
Adrian Younge Presents the Electronique Void
With help from narrator Jack Waterson, the all-analog psych-soul specialist makes a fun, convincing turn toward vintage synthesizer manipulation.
The Berlin duo's excellent debut album mixes ethno and acoustic instruments with infectious house music.
Expansive collection of lo-fi analog jams from Chicago acid house artists Jamal Moss (Hieroglyphic Being) and Noleian Reusse.
A great, high-energy mix, and one of the better Fabric sets in recent memory.
The Mancunian's rhythms are sludgy as ever, but synthetic choral elements and bright keyboard melodies add some color to his fourth proper album.
Exciting, inventive album of complex rhythms and vocal samples from the Baltimore electronic musician previously known as Adventure.
A return to ambient and experimental music-making -- and singing -- this set offers more than a few surprises.
Delightfully unorthodox pop from Nathan Jenkins and a cast of associates including Sampha, Laura Groves, and Shabaka Hutchings.
First solo album from longtime producer, remixer, and Studio member is peaceful, intricately made electronic music that bubbles with warmth.
The consistently brilliant electronic duo follows a series of limited 12"s with a thrilling album of mutated club tracks.
U.K. garage/grime producer DVA explores a concept involving a global virtual reality corporation, resulting in his best work yet.
Obsessive, late-night minimal wave from Montréal-based duo Marie Davidson and Pierre Guerineau, making their debut on DFA.
The group's first album as a duo takes minimalism in fascinatingly claustrophobic, expansive, debauched, and sardonic directions.
A reflective yet hopeful deconstruction of life as heard through an atmospheric electronic lens.
Brooklyn synth trio Forma make their Kranky debut with their ambitious, thoroughly stunning third album.
A brief, highly potent entry point into the vast, often brilliant discography of experimental Chicago house producer Jamal Moss.
The Canadian electro-acoustic composer/vocalist expands his already distinctive, powerful sound on his FatCat Records debut.
The producer's gorgeous, confident second album layers gritty rhythms and delicate atmospheres with a cool clarity.
Rollicking, animated fun that skips across four decades of electronic post-disco, ranging from boogie to juke.
Compulsive and deep, the electro-pop duo's first album in nearly five years is among their best.
Playful, organic-sounding electronic music composed on Buchla synthesizers along with warped vocals and fluttering woodwinds.
The second album from the Australian producer is a deeply cinematic, narcotic journey full of dank atmospheres, unease, and terror.
The sound designer's fascinating debut combines the avant-garde and pop with surreal wit.
Dazzling XL debut from a producer who has impressed Janet Jackson, opened for Madonna, and produced the Internet and Katy B.
The producer's second album of grayscale ambient productions features a little more definition than her debut.
These emotionally and politically charged soundscapes are some of Scott Morgan's most affecting music.
Fractured and dreamlike, the third album from Philippe Hallais cuts up and mashes together genres like hip-hop and footwork in wholly disorienting fashion.
The veteran producer's mostly ambient first album under his birth name, featuring Linda Perhacs and Thom Yorke, ranges from folk to techno.
Inventive harpist Mary Lattimore's first full-length for Ghostly International, recorded during a cross-country road trip.
A Whirlpool washing machine provides the inspiration for one of the duo's subtlest and most audacious albums.
A coup for !K7's long-running mix series, featuring 11 custom edits and a prized highlight from the DJ/producer's Mahogani Music label.
Markus Popp unexpectedly reinvents his Oval project as an ecstatic post-rave mutation, producing his best work since the early 2000s.
With the help of a guest vocalist, patten's second album for Warp is more focused and immediate than past efforts.
Intense, overwhelming listening experience about the vastness of the universe.
Third studio album of stunning, occasionally overwhelming soundscapes from the co-founder of dubstep duo Vex'd.
Recorded at the same time as Hairless Toys, Murphy's fourth solo album is some of her most personal and eclectic music yet.
After two of its members scored the hit Netflix series Stranger Things, Austin synth wizards S U R V I V E deliver their first album for Relapse.
With a full guest list and a top-notch mix by Juan MacLean, their third album is another crisply clean, emotionally deep techno-pop gem.
The Emeralds co-founder's fourth solo album for Kranky balances calmness with darker, more fearful moments.
Arriving 25 years after their seminal debut, the Orb offer a sort of peaceful protest with their spontaneously recorded 14th album.
Ryan McRyhew expands on his already impressive hybrid electro sound with his sci-fi-inspired second full-length as Thug Entrancer.
Incorporating vocal arrangements for the first time, the Canadian experimental artist's 4AD debut is one of his most accessible works to date.
The producer's third album takes inspiration from 19th century German Romantic painters and strips the irony from his music.
The German musician and producer delivers an escapist world that harkens back to his early albums.
Barbara Barbara, We Face a Shining Future
A near-perfect album from the veteran electronica artist, co-produced with the group High Contrast.
Aaron Funk crafts an album of intense, intricately programmed songs using a modular synthesizer system.
The duo's first album recorded in a professional studio focuses on Liz Wendelbo's icy vocals and a mood of unhurried drama.