Best of 2015/2016

Music discovery unfortunately took a back seat during the last couple of years due to all spare time going to flat renovations. Hence, there was never a Best of 2015. To make up for it, here's a double whammy of a top 100 containing the tracks that did it for me during both 2015 and 2016.

Rave revival seems to have been the theme this time around. Not only are Special Request and Zomby occupying a healthy number of spots, catchy house scorchers and deep techno workouts that wear their 90s influences on their sleeves, were very much the order of the day.

Confirming my late adopter tendencies, 2015 was the year I got into bassline. I was far too deeply submerged in a sweet italo haze back in 07/08 to quite understand what all the fuss was about. Both DJ Q and Royal-T made it into the top 10 with ridiculously infectious stompers.

PC Music are still delivering the goods, Danny L. Harle, Hannah Diamond, easyFun and Sophie all crafted highly perfected post-truth pop, Martial Canterel kept doing his thing as solidly as ever, and Norwegian Susanne Sundfør, of whom I had never before heard, delivered a devastatingly masterful Valerie Dore pastiche in Slowly.

Thanks to Panacea there's even some hardstyle in this year's list, along with some murderously uplifting drum & bass.

But the top spot, surprisingly, goes to Dead Can Dance, whose glorious 1987 album Within the Realm of a Dying Sun had managed to pass me by until now. The string arrangement in Perspehone is simply unrivalled.

(Oh, and there's some metal.)

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