Best Music of 2016

It seems like doing these lists some 6 months after the fact is becoming "a thing" for me, but it definitely has its benefits. I can only absorb so much music over the course of a year and the extra time allows me to parse a bunch of material that would otherwise be left in some liminal space where it's not eligible for "year end" recognition because its release year has already passed. Have I explained myself out o a tardy slip yet? TL DR: sorry I'm late.

2016's music didn't blow me away the way some years do, but there were plenty of strong showings and surprises from new and old artists alike. This year's MVP award goes to Fred Warmsley (Dedekind Cut, ¬ b, Lee Bannon) who ranks very highly on this list, but also has music on here from each of his three monikers. No Piano Stab of the Year award this year, unfortunately. There were some OK stabs, but nothing at the level of previous winners. I did give Lorenzo Senni AotY though, so at least the face tearing dancefloor heartbreak is represented in some form.

The list below has all the details and the YouTube playlist takes one track from each of the entries in turn, starting at #50 and working its way up. I was able to embed most of what I wanted, but in a few cases, such as Dark0's "Luka," I had to find a substitute based on what's available on YouTube. Anyway, please enjoy and celebrate 2016 in music!

1. Lorenzo Senni - Persona EP
2. Underworld - Barbara Barbara, We Face A Shining Future LP
3. Bwana - Capsule’s Pride LP
4. ¬ b - Reflections LP
5. Tim Hecker - Love Streams LP
6. Lone - Levitate LP
7. Leon Vynehall - Rojus (Designed to Dance) LP
8. Dark0 - Oceana EP
9. Taso - Cold Heat Vol 3 EP
10. John Roberts - Plum LP
11. Brian Eno - Reflection LP
12. Various Artists - Furi OST
13. Royksopp - Never Ever
14. James Ferraro - Human Story 3 LP
15. Doc Daneeka - Never Wanna Lose You / Got Me
16. The Field - The Follower LP
17. Konx-on-Pax - Caramel LP
18. Kornel Kovacs - The Bells LP
19. Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith & Suzanne Ciani - Sunergy LP
20. Dedekind Cut - $uccessor LP
21. Legowelt - Sampling Winter EP
22. Youandewan - There is no Right Time LP
23. Leon Vynehall - Midnight on Rainbow Road
24. Fatima al Qadiri - Brute LP
25. DJ Shadow - Endtroducing Reimagined LP
26. Lindstrom - Windings EP
27. Nosaj Thing - No Reality EP
28. Jubilee - After Hours LP
29. Taso - New Start EP
30. Andy Stott - Too Many Voices LP
31. Ansome - Coffin Dodge EP
32. Patten - Psi LP
33. Jam City - Cowboy EP
34. Especia - Carta LP
35. Floating Points - Kuiper EP
36. Mall Grab - I Just Wanna EP
37. Midland - Blush
38. CFCF - On Vacation LP
39. Antoni Maiovvi - Tusk Wax Seventeen EP
40. Perc & Truss - Leather & Lace EP
41. Thunder Tillman - Jaguar Mirror EP
42. Steve Hauschildt - Strands LP
43. Zomby - Ultra LP
44. Dan Lissvik - Midnight LP
45. Avalanches - Wildflower LP
46. Porter Ricks - Shadow Boat EP
47. DJ Boring - Winona
48. M83 - Junk LP
49. Mick Gordon - DOOM OST
50. Crystal Castles - Amnesty LP

Best Music of 2015

Yes, this is a super belated list, so I won't delay things with much preamble at this point. I've embedded a YouTube playlist below with one entry for each artist/band in the list proper. Some aren't the exact song from the list, but I've got to work with what's already uploaded. I had a basic list culled around the beginning of this year, but if nothing else, my delay in publishing it has given me time to listen to a bunch of stuff that normally would have ended up in an honorable mentions category for not having had time to do more that skim through it. No individual write-ups this year, but here are a couple quick notes:

DJ Paypal was an obvious standout this year with his unique mutation of footwork music.
Rustie's latest was passed over by a lot of critics, but it's really grown on me and I think it's his strongest effort to date, and I love the overblown production work.
Legowelt wins MVP for having the highest quantity of quality output in a year.
Lastly, and most importantly, the award for Piano Stab Of The Year goes to Special Request for "Reset It." Runners up include DJ Mastercard feat. DJ Paypal for "Lethal" and Lockah for "Barcelona Drums."

1. DJ Paypal - Buy Now LP
2. Jamie xx - In Colour LP
3. Rustie - EVENIFYOUDONTBELIEVE LP
4. Legowelt - Anaconda Flow EP / Tondalayo EP / Immensity of Cosmic Space EP / Vaporware Tracks Vol. 1 EP
5. Lakker - Tundra LP
6. Head High & WK7 -  Home. House. Hardcore. LP
7. Oneohtrix Point Never - Garden of Delete LP
8. Container - LP LP
9. Kuedo - Assertion of a Surrounding Presence EP
10. Egyptrixx - Transfer of Energy LP
11. DJ MasterCard - Corrupt Memories EP
12. Jlin - Dark Energy LP
13. Special Request - Modern Warfare LP
14. Data - Money (Aamourocean Remix)
15. Clouds - Tannhäuser Acid Works III EP
16. Blanck Mass - Dumb Flesh LP
17. FaltyDL - Visceral / The Ah Track
18. Gacha - Send Two Sunsets LP
19. Hodge - Blood Moon
20. Panda Bear - PBVSGR LP
21. CFCF - Colors of Life LP
22. Arca - Mutant LP
23. A-trak - Push
24. John Carpenter - Lost Themes LP
25. Todd Terje - Alfonso Muskedunder (Mungolian Jetset Remix)
26. µ-Ziq - XTLP LP
27. Kelela - Hallucinogen EP
28. Jam City - Crisis (Special Mix)
29. Lightning Bolt - Fantasy Empire LP
30. The Chemical Brothers - EML Ritual
31. The Orb - History of the Future Part 2 LP / Moonbuilding 2703 AD LP
32. Escort - Animal Nature LP
33. Burial - Temple Sleeper
34. Floating Points - Elaenia LP
35. JoeFarr - FS3+4
36. Squarepusher - Damogen Furies LP
37. Zigg Gonzalezz - High Jackin'
38. Perc - Gob EP
39. Ital Tek - Hollowed LP
40. Ellen Allien - High
41. Pixelord - Places LP
42. Canblaster - Rev Tower
43. Eric Prydz - Opus
44. Darkel - True Lover
45. Blue Daisy - Darker Than Blue LP
46. Benjamin Damage - Obsidian LP
47. Javi Frias - Body Heat EP
48. Kode9 - Nothing LP
49. Julio Bashmore - Knockin' Boots LP
50. Miami Horror - All Possible Futures LP

User Experience

Remember when I used to make a new mix every 2 months? Ha! Those were the days. But let's not lament the past. Instead here is one of the most intense mixes I've ever produced. It begins at 132 BPM and ascends all the way to 152 by the end, traversing everything from hard house to old-school breaks. I was a little rusty going into this one, but I think I smoothed out most all of the rough patches. As always, this is mixed live in one take. Hope you like it!

Gold Skulltulla - User

Tracklist:

Proxy - Kamuyi
Baadman - Stab
Duke Dumont - Nicht Vor Mitternacht
Calvin Harris - Thinking About You (feat. Ayah Marar) (GTA Remix)
Russ Chimes - Back 2 You
Soul Grabber - Motocross Madness
Panteros666 - Hyper Reality
Jacques Lu Cont - In The Night
Les Sins - Call
Clouds - Teenage Boy
Deadbeat - Hot Mess
Paula Temple - Deathvox
Pictureplane - Touching Transform
Boys Noize - Excuse Me (Club Cheval Remix)
Altern 8 - Frequency (Hallucin 8 Mix)
Club Cheval - Now U Realize
Jam City - ...Now We Relate
Head High - Hex Factor
Sasha - Xpander
A. G. Cook - Beautiful
Rusko - Lytah
DJ Marfox - Noise
Burial - Temple Sleeper
Blame - Music Takes You (2 Bad Mice Remix)
Orbital - Lush 3-5 (C.J. Bolland)
The Prodigy - We Are The Ruffest
Acen - Trip To The Moon (Part 2 - Darkside)
Data - Money (Aamourocean Remix)
A-Trak & Zinc - Like The Dancefloor (feat. Natalie Storm) (JWLS Remix)
Jonny L - Hurt You So (Alright)

Best Music of 2014 (#10-1)

10. Lockah - Yahoo Or The Highway LP

9. Koudlam - Benidorm Dream

8. Clark - Clark LP

 

7. Fatima Al Qadiri - Asiatisch LP

6. Paula Temple - Deathvox EP

5. Caribou - Our Love LP

4. Danny L Harle - In My Dreams

3. Danger - July 2013 EP

2. Todd Terje - It's Album Time LP

1. Royksopp feat. Robyn - Monument (TIE Version)

Click HERE for a YouTube playlist containing all 50 of the links found across the three Best Music of 2014 posts.

EDITOR'S NOTE: The original version of this post contained sizable blurbs for each of the top 10 entries, but was eaten by Blogger during the drafting process. Apologies for the lack of context provided for my selections here, but I can't muster the effort to redo all of that work.