The Distrans Continuum Top 5 Albums of 2020

Okay, it's time to resurrect this blog. If all goes to plan, Distrans Continuum will be back up to date with the obligatory album of the year lists in the coming days, plus something a bit more bespoke and hopefully interesting as well...

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So back to 2020. You may well wonder why I've opted to list only my top 5 albums, and not go for a more expansive top 10. As it happens, I planned this post long ago and didn't get around to writing it until now. Looking at my draft list, there were 5 albums that just really stood out, so I'm sticking to that.

5. Fleet Foxes - Shore

As a long-time Fleet Foxes fan, I instantly liked this album when it came out, but after several listens and closer scrutiny it just didn't have the necessary ingredients to propel it further up this list. It's probably not the most essential record they've put out, but it still sits very nicely in their largely excellent back-catalog. As I turned 40 in 2020, I started to have this nagging feeling that liking the Fleet Foxes is the sort of thing I'm expected to do as a forty-something... F**k that, it's still a damn good album.

4. Leo Takami - Felis Catus And Silence

As if to dispel the middle age trope (see above), here's an album from an artist I've been unfamiliar with until this breakthrough release. Felis Catus And Silence is an instrumental record with jazz and ambient influences, but the music is difficult to pin down to a particular genre. Unlike his previous album, 2017's Tree Of Life (which is well-worth tracking down), this record is more compact and thematically unified. With track names like 'Garden Of Joy', 'Children On Their Birthdays', and 'Garden Of Light', the music is more often optimistic and almost celebratory, interspersed with more contemplative ambient cuts. Well worth checking out if you haven't heard of the artist.

3. Sufjan Stevens - The Ascension

The first proper follow-up to Carrie & Lowell, which topped my 2015 list and remains a fixture in my all-time top 10, I greeted The Ascension with no small amount of trepidation back in 2020. This album sounds at face value like a return to the kind of electronic instrumentation preferred on 2010's The Age Of Adz, with the addition of a persistent and deep-seated sense of anxiety that pervades most of the tracks. Clocking in at around 80 minutes, there are skippable stretches, and some tracks can outstay their welcome if the mood isn't right - especially later songs like 'Death Star' and 'Sugar'. But these moments never really detract from the overall quality of the record. Several songs stand up there with the best in Stevens' discography, and while the overall mood of the record chimed all too well with the experience of living in a COVID afflicted world, there are sustained glimpses of transcendence - most notably the title track, amongst others.

2. Waxahatchee - Saint Cloud

This one very nearly made the #1 slot... And amazingly Saint Cloud is the first Waxahatchee album to feature on this blog. A lot has been made of the Dylan influences on this album, but at the end of the day the release feels like a major game changer in Katie Crutchfield's output - it's all so much more lyrically direct and cathartic, even more so than the previous Waxahatchee album, 2017's Out In The Storm.

1. The Strokes - The New Abnormal

What a pleasant surprise this was. It was inconceivable, say in 2019, that a *Strokes* album would take my #1 album slot in 2020. With a title that was all too apt to the COVID situation that was to unfold through the year, the music really speaks for itself on The New Abnormal. There's not a dud track on the record, and it keeps on building nicely, doing what the Strokes do best until the end of the last track. With their debut album being massively over-hyped by the music press back in 2001, each subsequent Strokes album seemed destined to fail in some respect, in many instances probably unfairly. I mean, to be honest, in the last 10 years I've probably listened to 2011's Angles a lot more than Is This It. Anyway, The New Abnormal was well worth the wait, and for me, definitely the best Strokes album to date.

The Distrans Continuum Top 10 Albums of 2019

A bit late this year, but here it is, the Distrans Continuum pick of albums from 2019...

10. Floating Points - Crush

First on the list is a new discovery for me, a project of Mancunian Sam Shepherd. While sounding a bit fragmentary on first listen, this electronic music features a nice kaleidoscope blend of textures, sounds and great ideas. I've enjoyed this immensely, as well as discovering the rest of the artist's discography.

9. New Pornographers - In The Morse Code Of Brake Lights

It's been a while since a New Pornographers record made my top ten, but it hasn't stopped me religiously buying their music ever since their excellent 2000 debut, Mass Romantic, was released. If 2017's Whiteout Conditions was a return to form, In The Morse Code Of Brake Lights kicks their special brand of guitar-based power-pop up another notch again. There are plenty of tracks on this album that live with the Canadian supergroup's best, like 'Falling Down The Stairs Of Your Smile' and 'Opening Ceremony'.

8. James Blake - Assume Form

After his previously inconsistent and sometimes overly bleak records, Assume Form is a real breath of fresh air. James is evidently blissed up with new romance, which is explored from a variety of directions on the record's constituent tracks.

7. Jessica Pratt - Quiet Signs

Following 2015's excellent On Your Own Love Again, Quiet Signs was one of my most eagerly anticipated releases of 2019. What a different record this is. Whereas its predecessor was more of a collection of songs, Quiet Signs is more of a coherent and unified experience, with individual tracks fading into one another. More of a grower perhaps, but also a confident step forward in the career of promising singer-songwriter.

6. Gareth Quinn Redmond - Laistigh Den Ghleo

I came across this album bundled with the re-issue of Satoshi Ashikawa's ambient masterpiece, Still Way (1982), by WRWTFWW Records. On this record, Redmond develops some of the motif elements on Still Way to create a beautiful album that is so much more than a mere companion piece. Well worth checking out.

5. Ladytron - Ladytron

Well, I didn't see this one coming. Ladytron seemed to be losing their creative edge on their last album, Gravity The Seducer (2011), which I loved for its style if not its execution. 2019's self-titled release is a seriously strong comeback album, improving substantially on the artist's original output, while retaining their signature sonic identity.

4. Holly Herndon - Proto

Much has been made of the use of the artificial intelligence 'Spawn' that features on this album, but for me this is a distraction. In essence, this is a super follow-up to the excellent Platform (2015), adding (amongst other things) choral interjections that take several of the tracks to new levels of weird climax.

3. Visible Cloaks, Yoshio Ojima & Satsuki Shibano - Serenitatem

Largely thanks to the impact of Visible Cloaks' album Reassemblage (2017), I have spent significant sums of money over the last few years tracking down obscure Japanese ambient, electronic, environmental, and new age music from the 1980s and early 90s. So naturally, the prospect of getting hold of a collaboration of Visible Cloaks with Japanese electronic/ambient maestro Yoshio Ojima and pianist extraordinaire Satsuki Shibano was going to be very exciting indeed. While it does live up to my expectations, I concede that many will find this obscure and perhaps somewhat cerebral. Still, a highly rewarding purchase if you can find the right moment/setting to listen to it in...

2. Weyes Blood - Titanic Rising

Hardly a stranger to top 10s in 2019, but this record really blew me away. I hadn't heard of Weyes Blood before, but as a consequence I now own their full back catalog... Tracks like 'Andromeda' and 'Everyday' are simply timeless, and the rest of the album is pretty strong too.

1. FKA Twigs - Magdalene

Perhaps another predictable choice, but Magdalene is hands-down the record that left the most indelible mark on me in 2019. While its impact was less immediate than say, Titanic Rising, Magdalene recieved most plays in the longer run. I liked her debut well enough, but there's far more depth, maturity and sophistication on this album than 2014's LP1 - I hope we don't have to wait another four years for the next one.

The Distrans Continuum Top 10 Albums of 2018

Must do something about the infrequency of posts on this blog... First step, get the obligatory top 10 albums of the year post out of the way. Hardly incitement to read the rest of the blog, you may be thinking. Well, indeed. I have to confess my musical explorations have been focused elsewhere in 2018 - and I hope to make a post about that soon enough.

Anyway, 2018. Before getting into the top 10, it's fair to say that my lack of attention to new releases has laid bare my default buying habits - indie rock by artists in their heyday 10-20 years ago. Okay, it's not that homogeneous, but it's also fair to say that I've not been massively inspired by 2018 either. A number of critically acclaimed records don't make the cut here because they left me cold - even by artists I normally love, like Julia Holter (too experimental, too much hard work), Kamasi Washington (too samey, too long), Kurt Vile (see Kamasi Washington) and Oneohtrix Point Never (just not up to past high standards).

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10. Papa M - A Broke Moon Rises

The second recent-ish album from David Pajo after 2016's brief and surprising comeback, Highway Songs. A Broke Moon Rises sees Pajo return to the familiar chilled out instrumental acoustic territory of older classics like 1999's Live From A Shark Cage, and the end result is a delight that appears to have been overlooked by a lot of critics.

9. Kelly Moran - Ultraviolet

Okay, so I wasn't entirely on autopilot in my 2018 album explorations. Kelly Moran was a new discovery for me, and on hearing this I quickly snapped up her preceding album, Bloodroot (2017). The attraction here is Moran's unique sound obtained from her custom-modified piano, which is perhaps best showcased on the track 'Helix'. I'm not sure this album completely fulfils Moran's potential, but it is certainly one of my standout listens of 2018.

8. Death Cab For Cutie - Thank You For Today

This one was a bit of a surprise entry. I'd almost written off Death Cab after their decent-ish but ultimately underwhelming 2015 release, Kintsugi. Despite it's insipid cover and title, Thank You For Today is a much needed shot in the arm for these beloved indie rock veterans - great production, lyrics and a consistent all-round listen.

7. Belle & Sebastian - How To Solve Our Human Problems

Less of a surprise, but very much in the veteran indie theme of this top 10. Although not really a proper album, this collection of 3 EPs is a nice addition to Belle & Sebastian's already extensive discography. True, there's nothing much new here, just a really strong collection of songs without the slightly artificial disco styling of their last album, Girls In Peacetime Like To Dance (2015).

6. Jlin - Autobiography

Time for something a little different to break things up. Autobiography is the third full-length album from electronic 'footwork' artist Jlin, and is her most satisfying album to date. Perhaps the key difference here is that the music was composed to accompany a dance performance arranged by Wayne McGregor. Whatever the reason, this album is consistently compelling, with many well-executed twists and turns. Looking forward to the next proper album.

5. Beach House - 7

Another great album from Beach House? Not exactly. Yes, I've included it in my top 10. There are plenty of stand-out songs here, such as early highlight 'Lemon Glow'. At the same time, despite a tweaked sound, I think this album may mark the start of peak Beach House for me. Perhaps the track listing didn't quite flow as well as on their previous albums, or maybe I've just heard too much Beach House. Either way, this is their first album in a long time that hasn't felt like a truly essential listen, despite its evident qualities.

4. Low - Double Negative

Let's file this one under refreshing change of direction. Not that one was necessarily needed - their previous album Ones And Sixes just made my top 10 for 2015. It's not quite the Low meets Bon Iver transformation that some critics billed the album as, but nonetheless this is invigorating and enchanting in ways Low have rarely been before, if ever.

3. Frankie Cosmos - Vessel

I  don't get the relative lack of attention Frankie Cosmos gets. Okay, the music tends to review well enough, but somehow her albums seem to disappear when it comes to too many end of year lists. This is another superb pop gem that follows hot on the heels of the similarly excellent Next Thing, my #2 pick for 2016. As ever, many of the tracks here are fleeting in their brevity. This can be a bit of a double-edged sword, leaving the listener lamenting their shortness, but encouraging repeated listening...

2. Tim Hecker - Konoyo

Another refreshing change of direction, this time a little more subtle from ambient-electronic instrumentalist Tim Hecker. On Konoyo, recorded in Japan, Hecker seemingly adds his own spin on recent Western rediscovery of Japanese environmental-ambient fourth world music from the 1980s and 90s, in a style that is reminiscent of the excellent 2017 album Reassemblage by Visible Cloaks. While many agree that Hecker's first four albums are frustratingly difficult to separate in their excellence, his later releases have been a bit more divisive. Konoyo makes a strong claim to being Hecker's best release of the last 10 years.

1. Melody's Echo Chamber - Bon Voyage

What a pleasant surprise this album turned out to be - a clear #1 by some distance. While I loved Melody's self-titled 2012 debut album, it also had its flaws, most notably petering out just over the halfway mark. Bon Voyage is a shorter listen, at 7 tracks and over 33 minutes, but this time there is no let up. There are frequent changes of pace, often within tracks, which pay-off more often than not, producing an exhilarating listen, perhaps best exemplified by the track 'Desert Horse'. Hopefully it won't be another 6 years before the next album...

The Distrans Continuum Top 10 Albums of 2017

Okay, this post comes a little late. Nevertheless, we're just about still in the first quarter of 2018, so a respectable period of time has passed for a proper retrospective on 2017. One of the reasons the post is so late is that I'm a bit old fashioned, and wanted to wait for the physical releases of one or two records, especially Fever Ray's Plunge. As it happens, that album didn't make the cut, but in the meantime I've had long enough to firm up a definitive top 10.

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10. Kamasi Washington - Harmony Of Difference

Kicking off the top 10, I'm cheating a little bit by including an EP. Still, this is such a good record, and clocking in at over 30 minutes is worthy of inclusion alongside full-blooded album releases. Harmony Of Difference comes hot on the heels of Washington's superb 3CD 2015 album The Epic, and the shift towards a more concise musical statement is both refreshing and rewarding. The EP better captures the emotion and euphoria of Kamasi Washington live, right from the get go on opener 'Desire'.

9. The Shins - Heartworms

While it's been five years since the last Shins album, Heartworms is a welcome return to form from James Mercer. While the sound is denser, and seems less effortless and airy than the classic Shins albums of the early 2000s, this is definitely one of the better comebacks of 2017.

8. Broken Social Scene - Hug Of Thunder

Another comeback album, an even longer hiatus - the last BSS album being released in 2010 (the excellent Forgiveness Rock Record). Although it fades somewhat in the second half, Hug Of Thunder sounds just as urgent as their classic You Forgot It In People (2002). The title track is a sublime slice of indie rock - as are many others here.

7. Toro Y Moi - Boo Boo

The most underrated album of 2017? Boo Boo must be a contender. While Toro Y Moi's previous albums have glittered while flattering to deceive, Boo Boo really delivers with his most consistent and compelling album yet. Unjustly perhaps, the record seems to have passed beneath the radar of many 2017 best album lists. Not only are there some great pop tracks here, but there's a new depth of emotion that really comes to the fore in some of the instrumentals.

6. Fleet Foxes - Crack Up

Another comeback album, and one that many were eagerly anticipating. While it doesn't take the easy route that the band could have opted for by reproducing the formula of their previous albums and EPs, Crack Up fulfills the promise of those releases, and challenges the listener to boot. Most importantly, it still sounds unquestionably like the Fleet Foxes of old.

5. Jens Lekman - Life Will See You Now

I have a special affinity for the music of Jens Lekman. While most consider his best album to be 2007's Night Falls Over Kortedala, for me it will always be 2012's break-up record, I Know What Love Isn't - every single track seemed to evoke some deeply-felt aspect of the divorce I was going through at the time of its release. Life Will See You Now occupies something of the territory between those two aforementioned releases - at once fun, witty and contemplative.

4. Do Make Say Think - Stubborn Persistent Illusions

Another comeback album, and this one is yet again a serious contender for the best release in the band's back catalogue. As with Broken Social Scene, the keyword with this album is urgency. While many past DMST albums tended to meander around in jazzy and spacey instrumental rock, Stubborn Persistent Illusions drifts closer to the sounds of mainstream post-rock (if not a contradiction in terms), with resoundingly euphoric results.

3. Slowdive - Slowdive

Okay, this is the last comeback album on the list, but boy, what a good one, and what a wait. Slowdive's self-titled album comes a full 22 years after 1995's Pygmalion, disproving the notion of the slow decline after an initial burst of creative and innovative releases. I'll be frank, while I love Souvlaki, Slowdive is the better album. This is as good as any dream-pop the likes of Beach House have made in the last 10 years.

2. Sufjan Stevens, Nico Muhly, Bryce Dessner and James McAlister - Planetarium

Something of a divisive release, this album is long, sprawling, illogically ordered, and messy. At the same time, it is utterly gorgeous, and defies all its faults to demand listen after listen. There are many high points here ('Jupiter', 'Venus', 'Pluto' and 'Saturn' are just a few), and while the longer instrumental tracks may put some people off, I found their presence vital to do justice to the celestial theme of the music. Well worth coming back to if it didn't click straight away.

1. Visible Cloaks - Reassemblage

Wow. I've long been a fan of electronic ambient music, but this album not only blew me away, it also opened my mind to a new world of obscure electronic albums from 1980s Japan (future blog posts to follow on this subject). Like a lot of minimalist ambient music, getting the most out of this requires careful selection of context and mood, so in a sense, it is harder to compare directly with the other music on this list. Aside from the music itself, another major reason it is number one is the impact it has had on my music buying and listening in the last year or so. After delving into some of the music that inspired this album, it was pleasing to hear, among other things, echoes of Japanese maestro Yoshio Ojima, an artist I would have probably never encountered without hearing Reassemblage.

Symbol of life, love and aesthetics. A tribute to the music of Susumu Yokota (1961 - 2015)

Susumu Yokota was a multi-talented Japanese electronic musician who released a series of influential albums from 1993 - 2012. He died in 2015. After coming across Susumu Yokota's music through a chance internet recommendation earlier this year, I found myself strangely compelled to track down the majority of his releases (at least those produced under his own name), and here we are.

For most Western listeners, the standard gateway to Susumu Yokota's discography is Sakura, released in 1999 to a fair amount of critical acclaim in the North American and European music press. Sakura is a lush and mesmerising album, combining ambient soundscapes, samples, house-beats and occasional jazz to wonderful effect. This is an album of subtleties that rewards repeated listening (headphones are recommended), but there are obvious highlights as well, including the haunting 'Kodomotachi' (children), which samples Joni Mitchell's 'Songs To Aging Children Come' (1969).

As good as Sakura is, it would be a mistake to confine oneself to this record alone. For many, the next logical stopping off points are Sakura's follow-up releases, 2001's Grinning Cat, and 2002's The Boy And The Tree. While both these albums undeniably feature moments of creative beauty, most notably 'Lapis Lazuli' and 'Secret Garden' respectively, I missed the same connection that came so easily with Sakura, and found these two to be largely disappointing. In the context of Yokota's full discography, for me the obvious successors to Sakura are 2003's Laputa, and 2010's Kaleidoscope. These albums are two of Susumu's strongest electronic-ambient releases, and both demand to be listened to in their entirety. In this respect it is harder to list highlights for these records. From Laputa, I found 'Degrees Dream' to be particularly affecting - a lazy, floating track that almost sends me into a day dream when I hear it. Likewise, Kaleidoscope's 'Blue Moon' successfully melds eastern instruments and chanting with western bells and choir in another dreamlike transcultural odyssey - a soundscape that re-appears more prominently on Susumu's last record, Dreamer.

An obvious facet of Susumu Yokota's discography is its impressive breadth and diversity of musical styles. The first group of albums worth mentioning consist of his pre-Sakura electronic releases, including his 1993 trancy debut The Frankfurt-Tokyo Connection, 1994's Acid-house Acid Mt. Fuji, and my personal favourite, 1997's Mouse On Mars-like Cat, Mouse And Me. While lacking the depth of his later releases, these albums certainly don't lack for charm, and more than hint at some of the further riches to come. All three clock in at over 70 minutes, and therefore involve a considerable investment of time. I found the initially beguiling Acid Mt. Fuji to test my patience the most as the least varied of the three, whereas Cat, Mouse And Me features many delightful changes of direction - highlight 'Wait For A Day', 'Cat, Mouse And Me' and 'Dodo' all had me clamouring for multiple repeated listens. Alongside these early releases it is also worth mentioning the excellent Image 1982 - 1998 compilation, which is half low-key guitar instrumentals from the 1980s, and half Sakura-style electronic ambient pieces from the 1990s. On the other hand, Magic Thread (1998) is a minimalist ambient affair that is largely forgettable, aside from the odd interesting moment.

Susumu's work diversifies again into the 2000s and beyond. Perhaps the best release from this era, and rival for Sakura's crown as the finest Susumu Yokota album, is 2005's Symbol. Symbol is a bold departure from previous releases, and in essence is a skillful mash-up of various Western Classical music pieces stitched together with more than a veneer of Susumu's deft collage of beats and samples. The end result is quite simply gorgeous, and is likely to appeal to listeners put off by his more abstract electronic releases. The more accessible approach of Symbol is taken to another level on 2007's Love Or Die, which is probably Yokota's most commercial sounding album, melding some strong piano-driven tracks with Susumu's signature electronica. Commercial shouldn't be taken as a criticism here - there are more moments of beauty and stand-out tracks than in any of his other releases, but paradoxically at the same time it feels just a little too structured, produced and choreographed.

Another predilection in Susumu Yokota's work is his liking for ethereal and folksy female vocals. This is the emphasis for another couple of albums, 2006's Wonder Waltz, and 2009's Mother, which each make use of a number of guest vocalists. While neither of these records are particularly consistent by Yokota's usual standards, each one features stunning stand-out tracks, from the lullaby-like 'Don't Go Sleep' on Wonder Waltz to the piercing Nancy Elizabeth vocals on 'A Flower White', the enchanting 'Meltwater' and mournful '12 Days 12 Nights', all on Mother. Mother is certainly the stronger of the two, and like many of Susumu Yokota's later releases has perhaps been unfairly overlooked in the Western music press.

Susumu Yokota's last studio album is 2012's Dreamer. This album and its cover are steeped in Asian mysticism, and the music is testament to Susumu's evident interests in fusing elements of Western and Eastern music, as well as styles and sounds from across his career. This album sadly received little fanfare in Europe and North America, and reviews are hard to come by on the web. Dreamer is a challenging but rewarding album, epitomised by the jarring but alluring second track 'Flitting Ray'. The album also features two stomping housey tracks, 'Inception' and 'Animiam Of The Airy', which are surely a nod to Susumu's pre-Sakura days, and bring a necessary change of pace and and urgency missing from much of Yokota's earlier work. The end result is an impressive, albeit idiosyncratic monument to Susumu Yokota's fundamentally innovative and affecting musical career.

Aside from a few promotional photographs, it is difficult to get much sense of the man behind the music. The 2016 re-release of 1994's Acid Mt. Fuji paints a picture of Susumu as a mysterious, almost romantic figure, a lone artist who seldom gave media interviews, and was prevented from giving regular live performances by an ongoing state of poor health. This picture of the introspective artist is heightened in particular the sleeve notes from the Image 1982 - 1998 compilation, which features a list of paintings, collages and photos produced by Susumu in 1987-8 (including the cover art for 2007's Love Or Die album - shown above), in addition to a short essay by Susumu about the tracks on the album. It seems fitting to end this tribute with a quote from this essay, as Susumu describes 'Kona' as a theme influencing his very earliest music:

Kona is a Japanese word for powder - an assemblage of white grains. I wished to be Kona. I wished to be Kona at the moment of death. Things I wanted to do were becoming very clear because of this wish. Sugar, stevia, some chemical drugs, and ceramics are a gathering of super-particles. Accumulate some white Kona and blow on them. They will scatter can never be replaced exactly in their original form. Like the vagueness of memories. Bones of the dead are shattered like Kona and sprinkled over the homeland. Children can fly in the sky when sprinkled with Angel's Kona.

The Distrans Continuum Top 10 Albums of 2016

Another year, another top 10 albums list. It's probably worth stating that I didn't find 2016 as rewarding for new music as 2015. This isn't such a terrible indictment on the year though, given how much I loved 2015. But no honourable mentions this time. I had high hopes, but several albums disappointed and missed out - I'm thinking specifically of Explosions In The Sky, M83 and Tortoise, who all released records that ultimately did not live up to past highs. And yes, I'm in the minority camp that didn't see anything special in the new Bon Iver record either. It was pleasant enough, I suppose. Ho hum.

FYI, this year's top 10 was compiled with a refined methodology, drawing on a balanced combination of individual track ratings and overall album impressions compiled over multiple listens. More than ever, I am convinced that this is the best of what I have heard this year, although as usual I reserve the right to discover new things that I've missed and retrospectively change the list! On with the countdown...

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10. Animal Collective - Painting With

In the aftermath of their 2009 magnum opus Merriweather Post Pavilion, Animal Collective have been cast as a band in decline by many critics. I really liked 2012's Centipede Hz, but it lacked the killer singles of Merriweather, as well a distinctive new creative direction. In some ways, Painting With is a more frustrating listen than Centipede. It is one of Animal Collective's most inconsistent albums, with some tracks that really detract from the overall experience, like 'Vertical'. Yet there are also incandescant positives. 'FloriDada' and in particular 'Golden Gal' are a couple of the best songs written by the group. Crucially, there are enough other high points scattered through the record for it to sneak into my top 10 for 2016. 'Natural Selection', 'Spilling Guts' and 'Summing The Wretch' and a host of others all add up to what is an overwhelmingly fun listen. Don't cancel your subscriptions just yet.

9. Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith - Ears

Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith was a major new discovery for me in 2016. Following quickly on the heels of official debut Euclid (2015), Ears is a more focused offering of organic synthesizer music that conjures a rich tapestry of distinctive, sometimes tantalisingly brief soundscapes. While others have likened it to Rifts era Oneohtrix Point Never, this record sounds much more crisp and teems with life. Although there is some structure here, the album seems more than content to fill space while it unfolds, drawing in the listener with changes of vista before slow release comes via a kind of wide-screen ambiance. The wonderful album cover is a really apt visualisation of the music: colourful, eclectic and quite simply gorgeous.

8. The Field - The Follower

Continuing in the vein of electronic music, this time at the (opposite) very structured end of the spectrum, comes The Follower. This is the fifth album by Swedish producer Axel Willner, aka The Field. Differing little in style from his previous releases, this is minimalist ambient techno at its finest. The Follower is all about the progressively subtle layering and varied use of samples over tracks that can last between 8 and 15 minutes. Getting the best out of records by the Field has always been about finding the right circumstances to allow the music to penetrate one's subconscious, for example, repetitive chores around the house or data-entry work well for me. While I have used the word 'ambient' to describe The Follower, stand-out tracks like 'Monte Veritá' demand attention and encourage the imagination to wonder in equal measure. The beautifully unexpected mid-track tempo change here is just one of many small joys on this album.

7. Yeasayer - Amen & Goodbye

Yeasayer may not enjoy the popularity and critical acclaim they once had, but nevertheless delivered a cohesive gem of an album in 2016 in Amen & Goodbye. From intro track 'Daughters Of Cain' to 'Half Asleep', the first third of the record makes for compelling pop with a sophisticated sheen, until 'Dead Sea Scrolls' breaks ranks with its fun but ultimately tedious repetition of 'Ba ba ba ba ba ba ba baa yah'. The rest of the album falls into line nicely until the gorgeous and heartfelt penultimate track 'Uma'. Good as it is, there's a sense that Yeasayer sound a bit left behind in 2016 - but if it really is amen and goodbye from Yeasayer, this would not be a bad way to say it.

6. James Blake - The Colour In Anything

The much-anticipated follow-up to slightly disappointing Overgrown (2013) finally arrived in 2016, clocking-in at a whopping 75 minutes and 17 tracks. While I'm not against long records per se, The Colour In Anything could have been a really great record if it had been subject to more critical quality control. The first 10 tracks make for an utterly compelling if typically bleak listen, with 'Love Me In Whatever Way' and 'Timeless' being particular highlights. After 10 tracks, the record sounds like a genuine album of the year contender, but then comes 'I Need A Forest Fire', featuring Bon Iver's Justin Vernon. While I've enjoyed past collaborative appearances of JV (Lia Ices' 'Daphne' is a particular favourite), this track just drags on, with a tedious repeating vocal sample, and ultimately signals a downturn in the quality of the rest of the album. Although several tracks show promising hints such as the title track and 'Modern Soul', it never quite hits the same heights and immediacy of the first 10 tracks. A flawed masterpiece.

5. PJ Harvey - The Hope Six Demolition Project

Another long-anticipated follow-up, this time to the excellent Let England Shake (2011), which conjured an emotive post-colonial critique of English history and identity. The Hope Six Demolition Project addresses similar political themes, this time taking aim at the spectre of global capitalism and its various negative consequences. While tracks like rousing opener 'The Community Of Hope', 'A Line In The Sand', and 'The Orange Monkey' most certainly hit their mark, the album suffers from a disappointingly weak closing quarter. Although it does not really break away from the shadow of its predecessor, this is nevertheless a more than worthy follow-up.

4. Radiohead - A Moon Shaped Pool

Radiohead's latest offering provides yet further evidence that they are incapable of making a poor album (well, Pablo Honey aside). What's more, A Moon Shaped Pool sounds as essential and urgent as Radiohead have ever sounded. For me, the real highlights here are the beautiful 'Identikit' and 'Present Tense', but there are no obvious weak points on the album, as we've become accustomed to with the band over 20+ years. If I had to quibble, the closer 'True Love Waits' is not a good fit with the rest of the record, which makes sense given the song was originally written in their (first) heyday in the mid-nineties.

3. Jóhann Jóhannsson - Orphée

Jóhann Jóhannsson has built an impressive back-catalogue of records over the last 15 years, subtly blending classical composition and instrumentation with background electronica. While much of his past work focuses on scoring film soundtracks, Orphée represents the first stand-alone record since 2008's Fordlandia. Taking the Orpheus myth as a general theme, this album represents an important shift from smaller labels like Fat Cat to renowned classical label Deutsche Grammophon, seemingly following a similar path to composer Max Richter, who shares a similar musical approach. Unlike Richter however, whose DG debut From Sleep (2015) did not quite live up to previous releases, Jóhannsson manages to showcase his undeniable talents to great effect on Orphée. There are many beautiful moments here, some fleeting, others more sustained, ranging from the child-like sadness of 'The Drowned World', the regretful 'A Sparrow Alighted Upon Our Shoulder', the shimmering and contemplative 'By The Roes, And By The Hinds Of The Field' and the cathartic closer 'Orphic Hymn'. This is undoubtedly one of his finest albums to date.

2. Frankie Cosmos - Next Thing

Second place in 2016 goes to Frankie Cosmos' brilliantly concise Next Thing, which packs 14 songs into less than 30 minutes. Cosmos, aka Greta Kline, is already the master of melodic indie pop songs that cram witty reflections into 2 minutes or less. What's more, Next Thing is tremendously consistent, a real step up from its otherwise solid predecessor Zentropy (2014). Everything bubbles along nicely until the latter half of the record, where many of the highlights seem to be gathered, including 'Outside With The Cuties', 'What If', and 'O Dreaded C Town'. The perfect accompaniment to a spare half-hour, whatever the circumstances.

1. Jessy Lanza - Oh No

This year's number one goes to a record that has slowly pushed itself to the top of the line after listen after listen, until one day it dawned on me that this would become a personal favourite. It follows roughly three years on from Lanza's well-crafted debut, Pull My Hair Back (2013), which marked her out as a new artist to watch. Oh No is a sublime blend of sophisticated pop sung over sharply produced electronic dance music, the latter immediately coming to the fore on opener 'New Ogi'. While the record stutters a little with second track 'VV Violence', the tempo ebbs and flows in the more challenging first half of the album before settling down in part two. The final four tracks 'Vivica', 'Oh No', 'Begins' and 'Could Be U' effectively propelled this album into my number one spot for 2016. This closing song arc gradually builds up steam towards crescendo and release on 'Begins', with 'Could Be U' providing a kind of chilled retrospective on the whole affair. Much of this is understated and detached, which is admittedly a big part of the charm of both her records for me, but perhaps also a factor in the record's below the radar status on some of the more prominent end-of-year lists so far. If Oh No is anything to go by, however, it won't be long before Jessy Lanza gets the recognition she deserves.