2016 Tropical House / Synth Pop Innovative Leisure In 2013, after toiling in the remix game for several years, Classixx released their...

2016 Melodic Death Metal / Progressive Metal Century Media There were many excellent melodic death metal albums released this year, but...

2016 Progressive Electronic / Ambient Small-town Supersound Prins Thomas is a Norwegian progressive electronic musician often associated...

2016 Technical Death Metal / Atmospheric Sludge Metal Relapse Records One of the common refrains I hear from friends and colleagues in...

2016 Jazz / Downtempo Greenleaf Records Dave Douglas is an avant-garde trumpet player and composer who has been releasing interesting nu...

2016 Post-Hardcore Rise Records In 2016 the post-hardcore scene has mostly given way to djent and metalcore, but there are still a few...

2016 Contemporary R&B / Neo-Soul Vagrant Records Mayer Hawthorne is a bit of an anomaly in the admittedly overcrowded white boy soul...

2016 Progressive Rock / Art Rock Memphis Industries I have a soft spot for Field Music, the art rock band based out of Sunderland, UK, as...

2016 Instrumental Hip-Hop / Synth Funk Self released Eliot Lipp has been quietly releasing exceptional instrumental hip-hop albums for a...

2016 Technical Death / Progressive Metal Relapse Records That fretless bass. Among the many things that technical death metal band...

2016 Nu-Disco / Synth Pop Ed Banger Records From the opening synth strings and drum machine loop of Back for More all the way through to...

2016 Black Metal / Psychedelic Rock Svart Records / 20 Buck Spin Dark guitar riffing, extended jams, weird soundscapes — Oransii Pazuzu...

2016 Jazz / Fusion UCJ Records Snarky Puppy are one of the premiere jazz fusion groups working today. They combine immaculate...

2016 Synthwave / Electro Pop Mute Records Over the last 15 years or so, Anthony Gonzalez, under the name M83 (named for the galaxy...

2016 Technical Death / Progressive Metal Nuclear Blast Records Somewhere in the annals of the Internet I came across a one-sentence...

2016 Indie Folk / Lounge Pop Nonesuch Records Ever since the expansive freak folk of his early work, particularly the seminal Cripple...

2016 Progressive Rock / Metal InsideOut Records Modern progressive metal band Haken consist of six young guys from London, England, and...

2016 Technical Death / Doom Metal Profound Lore Records Quite possibly the heaviest record released in 2016, Chthe’ilist’s excellent Le...

2016 Jazz / Neo-Soul Blue Note Records Robert Glasper is a Grammy Award-winning jazz musician and bandleader, and he’s had a pretty...

2016 Sludge / Doom Metal Relapse Records Paradise Gallows is a monolith of a record. Incorporating elements of sludge metal, psychedelic...