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Dec 28, 2016

Also-rans: techno tryers making all the right noises

Still awake?

Not all techno can make it into my final list: it’s the taking part that counts, right? Here are some more also-rans as we count down the best electronic music of 2016.

Maybe I should have given more time to the sonic harsh-tronics of Andy Stott’s Too Many Voices (Modern Love), him being a former chart-topper round these parts. There was also some storming techno from A Made Up Sound’s A Made Up Sound (A Made Up Sound) – band, album and label nicely uniform there. Thug Entrancer moved from footwork to acid on the likeable Arcology (Software), and JK Flesh moved my bowels with the dirty jackhammer techno of Rise Above (Electric Deluxe).

One of my most listened albums of this year was Death In Vegas’s 1997 album Dead Elvis. Which is a shame because it overshadowed his comeback album Transmission (Drone). It didn’t quite transmit enough for me.

I enjoyed the paddy techno of Roman Flügel’s All The Right Noises (Dial Records). Prolific Icelander Bjarki put out three techno collections on the Trip Label: too much for me to absorb for this list. And I liked Abstract Division’s dancefloor-ripping Contemporary Spaces (Dynamic Reflection). This was technically an EP but it felt very much album-esque. An excuse I will use again, controversially, later on in this album countdown





Scroll all of the best 2016 electronic albums by clicking here.