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.

Listen: YouTube plus YouTube equals The Range's Copper Wire

Here's a YouTuber singing.

And here's a lad rapping.

Now here are those two filtered through the expansive EDM of The Range.



There's something so electric in the air with The Range, and his ability to plunge into YouTube for his samples is quite something.

Have another one. Here's a couple of guys bustin' some bars in Hyde Park.

And here is The Range bustin' that all apart for Five Four. Have a dip into The Range's YouTube channel, and hat doff to video director Daniel Kaufman.