Best electronic albums of 2016: twenty

20 – The Range – Potential (Domino)

Got some bars? James Hinton’s evocative Potential is one of two albums in this top 20 that sheds light on urban unease. He plundered audio from YouTube like a low-bitrate Snowden, then polished the roughness to produce pieces that are not only pleasing to the lug-holes: they’re also strangely familiar.

Familiar because there’s nothing ground-breaking here. He’s toured with Chvrches, which should give you an idea of the melody at play. This is solid soundtrack stuff. The BBC should, in turn, be plundering this for trailer music.

But this is also familiar because Potential is built from the stories of YouTube creators. People sat in rooms or knocking round in parks broadcasting to 17 subscribers and hoping for something greater. That gloriously human element nudges this into the top 20 electronic albums of 2016.



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