Boy King is intrusive, abrasive and in-your-face--but that’s no criticism: one can imagine lads properly belting out ‘Big Cat’ and ‘Alpha Female’ at live shows.

Bolder and with increased confidence, I Remember sounds more succinct and complete than 2013 debut ‘Body Music’.

Written in her producer’s garden shed rather than the confines of a studio, Laura Mvula sounds confident and free throughout her second album.

Smoky, slow- paced, disco soul with Bee Gees-style falsetto harmonising, it's the type of grown-up pop Scissor Sisters can pull off like few others.

It’s just him, a piano and a bunch of songs (some original, some standards), and they feel so raw that listening to them borders on the uncomfortable.

Soulful, grown-up, dancey synth pop is hard to do well, but Toro Y Moi nails it.

Prepare to get emotional and elevated in equal measures.

Eve is no ground-breaker, but Booka Shade’s solid reputation remains safe.

Viewed as a showcase of reinvention The Feast Of The Broken Heart is a success. Judged as a cohesive album, it’s far tighter than their previous long-player and repeat listens do indeed find new, exciting depths and melodies at play.

Beams represents a cerebral and well-balanced opus that could well represent a peerless innovator at the absolute pinnacle of his legacy.

Perhaps a marginally less absorbing spin than Nick Höppner’s addition to the series last summer, but judged on its own merits, Panorama 05 still constitutes a solid house mix.

Danceable, intelligent and always emotionally charged--and Dan Snaith’s most profound and accomplished piece of work to date.

Recorded in Sydney, New York and California, ‘Faraway Reach’ bursts with sun-soaked vibes.

While album three may require a reboot from The XX, that's for another day. Right now, when it comes to fusing indie rock and dance, no one pulls it off quite as elegantly.

A super-satisfying second LP.

As with anything this ambitious, it occasionally over-reaches itself--but the highlights are magical, and should see Moderat reach ever bigger audiences.

We’re a long way from Super Collider, but there’s really not a duff card in the pack.

This is the sort of LP you play from start to finish while on a car journey in the sun on the way to a festival: it’ll gift you with positive feelings through its infinite groove.

Springsteen cover ‘The Last To Die’, is a witty aside, but throbbing 4/4 dominates as the electronic legends make a welcome return to their roots.

More than a simple change in direction, this debut album feels like the culmination of pretty much everything he's done up to this point in his career.

It’s as beguiling and bewitching as you’d expect.

For all its varied elements is all too clearly the expression of the demented but coherent vision of one man. You will find no better way to fry your mind this year.

Their second album has a cosmic disco groove ('The Following'), thought-out harmonies ('The Unknown Faces at Father James Park') and electro- pop moments ('The Right One'), creating the kind of warm glow you may get from a house party in a log cabin.

As the mix migrates to the dancefloor, Lone drops some smooth 90s techno with John Beltran’s ‘Placid Angles’ and the cyber-electro of Drexciya’s ‘Bubble Metropolis’, before signing off with Radiohead’s obscure and atmospheric mood sketch ‘Worrywort’.

A haunting memorial.

Where ‘Coastal Grooves’ felt like an indie kid playing at being an r’n’b superstar, here the metamorphosis seems complete.

The guest list on Amygdala proves his pull, boasting marquee names to help Koze construct a dense, intense and highly individual album of nuanced house.

This is music from a mind with a digitized imagination.

This is a strong, sometimes truly beautiful, maturation of Avery’s work as a producer.

Whether it’s in the tribal drums, sensual vocals or huge range of instruments, you’re unlikely to hear a more diverse collection of music this year.

It’s a place where house music melts into a joyous, shimmering gloop.

While ‘Loving Life’ channels Jermaine Jackson’s ‘Do What You Do’ but takes it to church rather than the charts. 'Fast Lane’, meanwhile, drives straight to the pop pulpit with a chorus Jim Steinman would be proud of.

Energetic, endearing and still unlike anybody else, Sleigh Bells continue to unapolegtically pummel your senses.

A heavy bass throb infects ‘Retour au Champs de Mars’, beating out a slow, muted rhythm like a submarine engine, while the pair channel labelmate Nils Frahm with the emotive strings, piano and frazzled electronica of ‘Comme on a Dit’.

Hard Love is easy to adore. [No. 139, p.61]

It’s an accomplished record.

Thanks to the string 'n' bass-fuelled opener 'Hood Wink', the Lykke Li-ish 'Don't Go' and the super-slow marriage of synths 'n' rave on the title track, these '...Gardens' continually bear fruit.

Fans of Haxan Cloak's loud/quiet drama and Rabit's fearless extremes will want to crack open yet another great Tri Angle long player, which is intense at times ('Mass') and brooding at others ('High Places').

It's an LP as heart-warming and engaging as the story behind it.

It’s another LP from the Londoner exploring sense, sexuality and seduction, picking up where her 2012 debut ‘Playin’ Me’ left off.

The release date really doesn't matter: this is an absolute stunner of an album from start to finish.

Glow is an epic achievement, an album that bolsters its disco-flecked gems with 80s funk, Euro synth-pop and chunky 90s house tropes.

All in all, an impressive album.

It finds the Welshman departing even further from his garage roots in favour of a more visceral warehouse sound.

This is a hot, sweaty but very beautiful dream of a record.

What you get here is more of the same star-crossed rave-pop.

Nick Weiss and Logan Takahashi's second coming finds the youngsters exploring a more symphonic sound.

Woman is a really good record and an accomplished, confident body of work, but it may leave those hankering for something with more venom feeling a little impatient.

It arguably only packs one real standout track, but Cellar Door is still a refined and fluid long-player.

The key, though, is that each track will slot effortlessly into their famously hypnotic live shows.

Laced with menace and atomically sonic, this second coming is nothing short of a masterclass in dark craft.

This album is something that any open-minded Mixmag reader could appreciate.

While 2010’s Compass--produced by Beck, and festooned with stellar guests--was about electronic folk and scuzzy pop, this new record’s got the funk.

Journeying and introspective, U pieces together a narrative that reflects on a past relationship; sculpting electronica, garage and piano together effortlessly.

Absolutely sterling work, very possibly the most consistent album yet from the duo, and not a star guest in sight.

On the whole, Sleep Of Reason is a stirring and cerebral venture into avant-soul.

Flashes of 80s electro sleaze, throwback house and glossy diva vocals all add to the fun.

His new LP feels like a return to the resonance of his earlier work.

Everything Everything hit their targets with aplomb.

The debut album from mysterious group Babyfather features bucketloads of frontman Dean Blunt’s devilish humour. But like all the best satire, it’s also steeped in grit and realness.

Its 13 tracks are more versatile in lyrical depth and vocal flow than before and, when added to his trademark intensity, are proof that Mykki's moved to the next level.

Steffi appears totally in control on an album that’s an important milestone in her career: mature, emotive and imbued with a hint of futurism, it’s a delight.

Undulating melodies, exquisite sparkling detail and a sense of vast space all add up to a blissful listening experience.

Bratten's sound is somewhere in-between classic Trentemøller and BOC's campfire melodies. By your third listen, you'll be hooked.

Like a warm embrace on an icy morning, the pair’s captivating harmonies come together effortlessly on debut album Silhouette.

An album that is as melancholic as is it banging.

Honey is an energetic and youthful love letter to Katy B’s clubbing roots.

Black Is Beautiful is nigh-on indescribable--in a very good way.

OK, it can be a bit tiring at times, but if you’re feeling open minded enough, this is a fluid, super-charged masterpiece.

[A] Collection of gorgeous, gossamer-light vignettes. [Jun 2018, p.114]

Slow Focus is a grisly journey into the unknown, but an exhilarating one--if you’re willing to take it.

Meditative house music moments from Italojohnson and Vin Sol also bring the heat in the first hour, while for the final furlong, he opts for two peak-time Audion exclusives and brings the mix to a close with DJ Khalab & Baba Sissoko’s ‘Kumu’.

It's kind of unexpected, but Brackles has created a sunny storm.

Dive in and experience Slugabed's amazing imagination for yourself.

With no twee gimmicks, vibrant colour and bold substance are present in spades, resulting in an album that’s nothing short of a masterclass in left-of-centre dance music.

If you’re looking for some immersive and emotional electronica, just Call Super.

Put intellectual conceits aside and Untogether’s dense, throbbing undercurrent, a soundtrack to some alternative dancefloor, proves alluring.

‘The Kid’ feels organic and human; you can hear it in ‘Who I Am Why I Am Where I Am’, where repetitive Steve Reich-style phrases are layered like filo pastry. Like much of this beautiful record, its hypnotic intensity is immensely comforting.

Get ready for shimmering, disco-dipped house and digital soul, long German titles and impish unconventionality.

Nearly 30 years in the game have not withered them a jot.

Opener 'Halo' finds Albarn at his melancholic best, while 'K-Town' demonstrates a vitality that often seems missing from African music in its WOMAD-friendly guise.

Most electronic acts, when asked to sound-track a film, dump pop sensibility in favour of atmospherics, but we're happy to report that, as astute players for over a decade, Air have gone the other way: to the moon and back.

Dillon's rustling electronics plink, twitch and occasionally spin out, set apart by a cutesy vocal style and eccentric lyrics that sound a bit like a baby-voiced Kate Bush.

Tracks on The Triad are often busier, denser and more wild than their predecessor. Gone are the carefully layered compositions and _sparse wintry landscapes and arrived have more free flowing jams.

It’s so absorbing that, by the end of the two-hour odyssey, you’ll be left wondering where the time went. Splendid stuff.

Eleania demands focus, too, but pay attention to it and you'll be rewarded.

Passages of pummeling grooves, emotional strings and delicate piano are impressively tied together by Craig’s dancefloor expertise.

It's an all-encompassing experience ideal for Mixmag readers seeking transportation to a Balearic state of bliss.

Wiley's finally made the album that his talent warrants.

Slightly dark and just a little experimental, this is quality, innovative, of-the-moment dance music.

A brilliant, breathlessly exciting, sunshine-dappled album of melodic, electronic alt-pop.

They forge a magicalworld of trippy vocal electronica.

In short, Chase & Status remain fierce and on form.

An album of outstanding pop, shuddering dance-rock and intricate electronic moods.

The Glasgow quartet have put their talent for irresistible hooks to good use and come up with a solid new LP that splices towering post rock with potent dancefloor sensibilities

It’s a classy, timeless mix from a classy and timeless selector.

All in all, hugely ambitious enjoyable fun.

You'd have to be fairly joyless not to find the lighthearted lyrical content and unifying party vibes infectious.