Best electronic albums of 2016: nineteen

19 – Solar Bears – Advancement (Sunday Best)

Polar bears. Solar Bears. Geddit? The biggest disappointment of this album is that Solar Bears are two Irish guys, not actually two white bears sweating on a hot beach. A clear flout of trades descriptions. Which reminds me, I’ve got a bone to pick with Gold Panda.

Advancement is power-driven four-by-four electronica; so widescreen, it requires an Imax ticket. I was concerned that the calculated production may have drained the album’s energy, but this is a work I’ve come back to again and again.

It’s meant to be about nature or something, but as I said in a previous Electronic Sound magazine, it’s “more Chris Hadfield than Chris Packham”. It’s a galactic-sized beat treat. Boards Of Canada in space. Amon Tobin on Titan. Unkle on Uranus.



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