Gately describes her method as a question: "How much can I add before it just sounds too crazy. What's the most obnoxious thing I can make the song do?" With Color, she's overshot.

Lonely Planet rarely veers off the beaten path, but when it does, it's quite the voyage.

For a techno mix, Fabriclive.73 is a surprisingly breezy affair.

Whether they're taking inspiration from '70s kosmische or more contemporary sounds, Vermont's debut album is continually intriguing and texturally rich.

Phoenix fully establishes a distinct Eartheater style, building mountains underground and finding worlds of meaning in deep introspection.

The Fabriclive mix was much more than the sum of its parts, but to have some of its best tracks available in this way makes for both a solid album and a chance to wonder what you could build with them yourself.

Many of the songs feel like they're improvised by someone with an encyclopedic knowledge of vocal pop music.

Baio's tunes are short and snappy, and at around 40 minutes long, The Names takes less time than reading most chapters of a DeLillo book.

still slipping vol. 1 is an honest and humanizing document, giving us a deeper look into the musical styles and influence that drive Joy Orbison than anything else we've heard before.

Concrete Desert is a response to a real environment. But the album feels less specific to a given city. It seems instead like a parallel space, one that builds an impression of some future dystopia.

His fans might find this fascinating. For anyone else, there are better entry points into Jonson's catalogue.

Blue Gardens is another milestone in a banner year for one of the UK's most consistently exciting labels.

Ultimately, in the cold light of day, it all begins to sound unrelentingly grey and one-paced.

Their first record done entirely as a duo, and their most mature piece of music yet.

As expected, Hyperdub's output retains a pretty sophisticated tone even when it's dealing in pop hooks and party tracks.

Fascinating and vibrant, Texture Like Sun finds Deenmamode less concerned with his own life and times, focusing instead on the world around him.

That final third of DJ-Kicks might not be its strongest section but it no less feels like the most emblematic of Riddick's timeless appeal--connecting funk's past, present and future with an unbreakable thread of authenticity and positivity.

A large part of Death Peak--despite the morbid title--contains some of Clark's most accessible and melodic dance floor tracks.

Rather than an earth-shattering opus, Dream A Garden is a stepping stone to a new sound, one with enough promising moments to suggest it's only a matter of time before Latham gets there.

t's a work of clever, classy and timeless R&B that builds on some of the most enduring and ubiquitous music of the last 30 years.

The image has no direct connection to the music (it was drawn in the '70s, before Halo was born) but it's intricate, strange and beautiful--much like the album itself.

Tightening up the chaos that blighted his sophomore record, The Rat Road doubles down on SBTRKT's multi-genre vision and pulls it off slightly better. His cocktail of pop and underground influences sounds more decisive and refined, though there are still moments that fizzle rather than ignite.

It's not a splashy supergroup album, nor is it perfect. It's the work of two experienced producers producing sharp songs. Like all of Edgar and Stewart's work as J-E-T-S, Zoospa is impressive but surprisingly low-key.

Harlecore is the souvenir, a collection of dance music so deliriously upbeat you can't help but surrender to it.

Listen on a good system and you'll be entrapped and immersed.

It's a boisterously enjoyable and skilfully compressed journey, and a further evolution in an already promising mix series.

This is an experimental record culled from fully improvised sessions, so it follows that some zones feel more inspired than others. To these ears, some of the most inspired of Dissent's "Chapters" are more densely referential than previous MVOT music.

The best moments here are almost indistinguishable from Grouper's best work.

While this scrappier, DIY vibe feels like a natural fit for HTRK, Venus In Leo lacks some of the depth and mystery that makes their music so powerful. ... Still, HTRK create something their fans will never tire of: a dark, sensual, poetic languor that's theirs alone. Venus In Leo delivers a welcome fresh take on that sound.

Hendra is an always beautiful, sometimes stunning album, if one that bears no trace of its creator's knack for house music.

The permanent ache in Blake's voice is one of his most arresting qualities, but it grows tiresome as The Colour In Anything wades through its 76 minutes.

DJ-Kicks isn't the best mix Jackmaster's ever done, largely because his taste in new house and techno is less convincing than what's in his record collection at home. There are, however, flashes of brilliance that confirm his status as one of the most skilful and thrilling DJs working today.

Rundell and Goddard are still crafting warm, well-balanced tracks, but the parts that reveal their personalities—namely the lyrics--are often awkward and strangely didactic.

Lyrics like "I can't live in a world / that won't keep its shape," on "Through Your Atmosphere," sung by Faris Badwan of The Horrors, can be interpreted as a man taking a more clear-eyed view of everyday reality, rather than escaping into nightlife's transient peaks. Butler can still deliver those peaks.

The atmosphere is so consistent, the pacing so uniform, the sounds created with such a defined set of instrumental sources, that all the pieces blur into one.

While it might be beautiful to gaze at momentarily, by the end of the record it's treading water.

It's another entry of his sublime wanderer's music as Torn Hawk, and includes some of his most arresting and sonically numbing creations to date.

The sheer number of different tools and skills they bring to the job is staggering. That's a big reason why, nearly a decade after the scene's initial explosion, they're still propelling the sound forward.

This is actually one of his more readily enjoyable albums, even if it's a little less adventurous most of the records from his long-running Pan•American project.

That's Harakiri isn't trying to be a dance floor album--it's trying to unsettle the listener. And it's succeeding.

It's a powerful formula, and Dall and Ander have basically perfected it here.

The complexities of No Highs are masked by its minimalism. Hecker pairs expansive and bright songs with more repetitive compositions, capturing the beauty in uneasiness and vice versa, and keeping the album from blurring into an ambient haze.

Not everything on Isles is a win—"Rever" and "Fir" dial the neon palette up a notch too high—but overall the album nails the tricky balance artists face when following a successful debut: similar enough to charm the old fans yet fresh enough to entice the new.

There are many occasions on Modern Worship when the surging synths sweep you along with the force of a dopamine rush, but there are a few others when you're left with a nagging sense that Hyetal could take things that little bit further.

Pinned down somewhere between pared-down jazz and emotive R&B, Duval Timothy continues to find insightful ways to tell stories by way of repetition. When ideas are this robust, the extra stuff becomes less important.

On the self-produced Will, there's an extraordinary confidence behind Barwick's voice and arrangements.

This is a minor work, but a minor work from a master of his art.

It's one of the most engaging and gripping techno albums of the year anyway.

The gussied-up politeness that has followed Greene throughout his career is still an issue here, making the less adventurous material sound slightly anonymous. That's why the thick textures on "Folle" stand out so much, or why it's so exciting when Greene lets it all float away on "Lately." There are more than enough of these moments to make the record worthwhile.

Lone hasn't fully reinvented the narrative thread he started with "Pineapple Crush," but he's enriched it with a deeper exploration of his music's other referents, finding new dimensions to a sound that was beginning to feel awfully one-dimensional.

With enough listens, you'll even catch yourself humming its melodies, but the ideas come close to feeling generic.

If The Phoenix is that feature film we were waiting for, it could stand an edit or two.

Petrol finds the artist coming into his own, interpreting his life experience into sublime electro-acoustic music.

Rave 'Till You Cry shows that, in the right hands, braindance is flexible enough to create nuanced, multilayered portraits with the unfiltered intimacy of a diary.

These songs are whittled down, a rare moment where the overwhelming density of Arca's music falls away, raw and stripped of any protective coating. ... There's a newfound and striking intimacy—the last gasps of the KiCK series before the explosive climax "Crown," where kiCK iiiii's softness is ripped apart by cathartic blasts of noise. It's one final, triumphant punch that leaves everything on the table.

Cellophane Memories ranks among Lynch's best: slippery, bewitching and almost overwhelmingly Lynchian.

The instrumental and production prowess on display is fairly stunning.

Four hours of dense, bewildering and occasionally fun electronic music, elseq 1-5 is a logical next step into the unknown for two pioneers.

Each production here feels less like a 10-minute single than a condensed DJ set, and The Orb navigate these spaces with a fresh wind in their sails.

The second Floorplan album feels triumphant enough to bear the title Victorious. It's a stellar follow-up to Paradise.

Though it's way too long to listen to in one sitting, Grime 2.0 is catnip for the grime fan, and good bait for those new to or curious about the genre.

Huxley's pop forays might not be for everyone, but there's plenty on Blurred to appeal to both his underground acolytes and, perhaps, a new crop of fans as well.

It's almost too easy to become completely enamoured with the very sounds it's employing, rather than the mood it's ostensibly trying to convey.

Left bruised and raw from the previous entry, the soft pads and thick walls of synth noise on tracks like the Planningtorock-featuring "Queer" feel like weighted blankets. ... kick iiii plays like a surrealist diary of Ghersi's experiences as a queer person and transgender woman.

In bold terms, this is quite possibly the commercial mix of the year.

The jolt you get from Tiger & Wood's best work is missing. Perhaps the songs are too ornate, or maybe they're too similar to so much other retro-themed club fodder. Tiger & Woods haven't lost their spark, but their music shines less brightly than before.

Music For Installations doesn't offer a single listening experience: these tracks make far more sense looped, either alone or in small groups, to create a particular, sustained mood.

While her music is hyper-stylized, it never feels contrived. Look Up Sharp neither panders nor willfully obfuscates, residing in a dreamy space in between.

When she steps away from the overproduced big drops and focuses on body groove, Kelly's world is worth stepping into.

There is a feeling of accomplishment throughout Invite The Light.

Quantum Baby still delivers on the kind of smoky, sexy numbers that we'd expect from her.

The lyrics on Humanz might be Gorillaz's darkest, but the album has lots of bright music.

As a survey of Africa's influence on contemporary dance music, Basar is an inspiring document. As an album, it's every bit as good.

As you would expect on a 17-track compilation, in places the experiment really works and elsewhere it probably could have been left alone, but there are enough killer moments here to make it all worthwhile.

On Tundra, the duo's debut long-player for R&S, Lakker seem fully in their element. The ideas have room to breathe and consolidate themselves.

But what comes off at first as blistering and self-deprecating actually reveals her deep reverence and respect for her own complexity.

I Hope You Can Forgive Me, ten songs under a half hour that move quickly but stay with you long after, is a full-fledged real-time resume that demonstrates how complex rhythms and careful arrangements can elevate the human voice to the ultimate instrument.

The language of contrasts she creates only immerses us further in Laini Tani's transcendent, nearly purgatorial atmosphere as it builds. But beyond its conscious atemporality, Laini Tani's beauty is what makes it so entrancing.

It's slightly ludicrous, highly theatrical and great fun.

As esoteric as the use of language translation software might seem, Doran and Carlile work their magic on these dialects and accents.

As its title implies, Migration was meant to be about Green's experience moving to a new home and traveling around the world. But rather than taking his sound anywhere, Migration stays put.

For the most part, Mantasy is a serious record that confidently takes its own sweet time.

The sound of Pangaea doing his thang, then? Yep. Ahead of the game? On this evidence, most certainly.

Re-Engineering is very much an album designed to be played as a seamless whole. It's warm, fun, curious and deeply entertaining.

Portraits resonates at a level of button-pushing sentimentality, but Maribou State are such deft directors of their sound, and so melodically gifted, that they still create moments of magic.

This is a dense, longform piece of near future sci-fi that clothes abstract storytelling in visceral, goosebump-inducing club music.

Unrestrained emotion is ultimately III's defining attribute, and that richness can be too much to bear.

It's quintessentially him, stuck in the little world he's created. And there are worse places to be than his realm of video games, rap music and pop so sweet it tickles the back of your throat.

Modern Streets may lack ingenuity, but it works as a sincere and relatable portrayal of the artist's experience.

Something about its bleary-eyed shuffle, smooth jazz accents and chipmunk vocals is ineffably familiar and intimate. By drawing on memories and relationships for inspiration, Weatherall conveys emotion more convincingly than ever before.

Taking inspiration from our deep-rooted human imperfections, Anne is at once intimate and universal, honest and hopeful.

Despite the occasionally fraught listening experience, Will Happiness Find Me? remains a record that is as fantastically compelling musically as it is thought-provoking.

The middle of the album explores a stranger kind of sample collage, stitching together unlikely sounds and moods. At first the shift seems odd, but after a few listens it becomes clear that this is where things really get interesting.

On his latest, the palpable, sometimes uneven spontaneity that defined the first few years of DJ Seinfeld is gone. In its place is the sound of a producer who's found a confident, definitive voice.

It's both humble and ambitious, wonderfully arranged in some places and slightly clumsy in others (the Popol Vuh-isms of "Start A New Life" kill the album's momentum just three tracks in, and I've yet to be convinced by Weber's humdrum vocals). But for an artist who has always been earnest and upfront about big melodies, Garden Gaia feels like the logical next step, freeing him from his techno past.

Death After Life is so seamless and consistent that it might grow tedious for less patient listeners.

In its best moments, Morning/Evening is perfectly paced. Less convincing is the Evening side's coda.... Even with these faults, though, Hebden has brought a refreshing addition to his discography.

It's a rock-solid techno mix with few surprises or left turns. Avery can hold his own in this style, but a collection of tracks from artists like Planetary Assault Systems, Shlømo and Artefakt might not have the same crossover appeal he's used to. That said, the mix is still full of drama and striking moments.