PopMatters' 20 Best Electronic Albums of 2016

PopMatters' 20 Best Electronic Albums of 2016

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20.

Julianna Barwick - Will
May 6, 2016
Critic Score
76
21 reviews

Evocative and turbulent, the mostly buoyant compositions seek the freedom to extend beyond a moment or locale. A faintly sketched canvas, listeners can color their own emotions to Will.

19.

Mr. Oizo - All Wet
September 30, 2016
Critic Score
60
7 reviews

18.

TOBACCO - Sweatbox Dynasty
August 19, 2016
Critic Score
64
12 reviews

17.

patten - Ψ
September 16, 2016
Critic Score
74
6 reviews

16.

Katie Gately - Color
October 14, 2016
Critic Score
74
9 reviews

15.

The Range - Potential
March 25, 2016
Critic Score
78
20 reviews

Potential is as great an album as it is a story, and the songs allow you to sink into them while simultaneously offering a chance to think about one’s dreams and actually putting in the effort to chase them.

14.

Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith - EARS
April 1, 2016
Critic Score
79
7 reviews

The music feels less homogeneous, perhaps slightly more erratic, than on Euclid, but still with the overall feeling of beauty and future-looking exploration.

13.

Brood Ma - DAZE
February 19, 2016
Critic Score
76
8 reviews
What it does have is stimulating music that takes you on a journey, something every piece of electronic music should aspire to. In this way, Brood Ma has created a clear success. Everything else is just icing on the cake.

12.

Mark Pritchard - Under the Sun
May 13, 2016
Critic Score
74
15 reviews

The strength of Under the Sun rests with his continued spirit of collaboration and his eclectic style, recognizing the endless possibilities of infusing pop elements into electronic music’s abstract spirit.

11.

Jay Daniel - Broken Knowz
November 25, 2016
Critic Score
76
5 reviews

10.

Nicolas Jaar - Sirens
September 30, 2016
Critic Score
76
19 reviews

Jaar has been a formidable producer since releasing his earliest singles, but Sirens, more than any other previous release, proves that he is every bit as capable as all the artists mentioned above in creating a true masterpiece. 

9.

Tim Hecker - Love Streams
April 8, 2016
Critic Score
80
28 reviews

It makes perfect sense that Love Streams is Hecker’s first record with label 4AD, as it sort of sounds like the Cocteau Twins if they decided to live inside a glacier, communing with Old Norse land spirits and subsisting exclusively on psychedelic mushrooms. Love Streams is at once familiar and totally alien; a work of art that reminds us why we need art in the first place.

8.

Illum Sphere - Glass
November 4, 2016
Critic Score
71
7 reviews

7.

S U R V I V E - RR7349
September 30, 2016
Critic Score
77
13 reviews

6.

Autechre - elseq 1–5
May 19, 2016
Critic Score
74
4 reviews

4.

Ash Koosha - I AKA I
April 1, 2016
Critic Score
78
10 reviews
Koosha has incorporated a lot into his display of music, but it’s especially successful in terms of versatility. This isn’t just a statement on the wide range of sounds he engineers or the emotions he captures. The album as a whole is just as elastic as its pieces are.

3.

Pantha Du Prince - The Triad
May 20, 2016
Critic Score
70
21 reviews

The Triad is not the type of album that holds up to any enthusiastic hype. It’s tone is quiet and tender, reserved beyond the point of typical downtempo standards, and its 10 long songs are agonizingly, excruciatingly tranquil. It’s a record that mutes listeners’ excitement by design.

2.

Underworld - Barbara Barbara, we face a shining future
March 18, 2016
Critic Score
79
30 reviews
It’s both pretty much anything you could ask for as a long-term fan and the kind of late-period album that is actually worth spreading beyond the faithful.

1.

Ital Tek - Hollowed
March 18, 2016
Critic Score
83
5 reviews
Ital Tek has made a nearly perfect album, wherein each note and beat contains an intimate history of Alan Myson’s decade-long artistic development.
Original Source: http://www.popmatters.com/feature/the-20-best-electronic-albums-of-2016/
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