Dec 31, 2015

Best electronic albums of 2015: these junglists aren't massive

I've just had a chat with the cool kids down at the discotheque, and they told me in no uncertain terms that the jungle is massive.

With that in mind, let's take a look at the albums that (a) didn't make the final top ten and (b) can be classed as either jungle or grime because that's what all the youth clubs are playing nowadays. Don't worry, I'm being glib: I've not suddenly turned into a Radio 4 comedy script.

Special Request dancefloor-mashing Modern Warfare (EPs 1-3) (XL Recordings) missed the final list only because it's a bunch of EPs thrown together rather than an album in its own right. Let's pretend it's in the top ten, yeah?

There was much to love about the smooth junglism and sheer variety of Drew Lustman's The Crystal Cowboy (Planet Mu), and we also had supposedly the last album from Lee Bannon. His Pattern Of Excel (Ninja Tune) included slide guitar to great effect.

I respected the following albums muchly: Record label kingpin Kode9's Nothing (Hyperdub), Visionist's Safe (Pan) in which an experimental take on grime took the genre to a new level, and the bold dubby bass of Sherwood & Pinch's Late Night Endless (On-U Sound / Tectonic Recordings).

And finally, at the back of the grime pack - but hey, still in my top 101 - was Sam Binga's Wasted Days (Critical Recordings), Mumdance & Logos' Proto (Tectonic) and Rabit's hard and experimental Communion (Tri Angle).

The kids are getting impatient. Let's get back to the top ten shortly, yeah? The number one's gonna be a real doozer.

-----> Best electronic albums of 2015 <-----

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