Is this really only the first year of the Trump administration? It feels like a lifetime has passed since the Cheeto Mussolini and his cabal of white supremacist billionaires retook the reigns of the Empire. On the Rebel side, there has been organisation against the racism, cruelty, and murderous intent of Trump, including some of the largest street demonstrations since the Vietnam War. We are entitled to ask of artists: in the face of this threat – which is playing out in many countries in different forms – what have you done?
Music can inspire and motivate. It can also divert and intoxicate. The response of some artists to the pressures put upon them has been to protect their careers and strangle the words in their throats. Others have valued their principles and humanity more than the ability to earn a few dollars.
The SXSW festival experienced unprecedented cancellations by artists who were unhappy about its connections to the arms industry. The London version of the event experienced resistance from artists who objected to it platforming the odious British war criminal, Tony Blair.
In Europe, Zanias took a courageous stand against the Amphi Festival when they threatened to censor her support for the cause of peace in the Middle East. Instead of bowing to their demand for silence, she acted with great integrity and said, “No!”
It will take more Zanias’ to effect change, but the crisis in music is part of the wider economic and political crisis affecting the whole world. When Spotify is reducing musicians to digital serfs, while its executives ally with the arms industry, who can afford to remain aloof? When the planet is being permanently polluted, who can be sanguine?
There are lost souls in the music scene who champion racism and misogyny, acting as cheerleaders for Tommy Robinson and Elon Musk. There are also voices raised to defend human rights and turn the tide against the brutality of the Trumps and Faragists. Assemblage 23 and Twice a Man are examples of the latter – and their output is significantly higher quality than the Depeche Mode imitators who seem to dominate the former camp.
There are people who demand that artists be silent about politics. These are the fools who complain about Heaven 17 reissuing “(We Don’t Need This) Fascist Groove Thang.” They brey to be entertained and soothed, as if the world’s problems can be solved by shouting over an Oasis concert while downing six pints of lager. Call that what you like, but don’t call it culture.
We’ve been here before. As Brecht wrote for a previous generation:
The demand of the times is not to stop writing love songs. It is to remember that love can encompass humanity, freedom, ecology, and peace. They are all under threat, and music has a role in the resistance. In a world threatened by the malign influence of the Empire, be a Rebel.
This year, we lost Douglas McCarthy (Nitzer Ebb), Steve Luscombe (Blancmange, East India Company), Dave Ball (Soft Cell, The Grid), Clem Burke (Blondie), and Mani (Stone Roses). This is your annual reminder to show your appreciation for artists while they are still with us.
25. Test Dept – Industrial Overture
The original politicised metal-bashers have mined the archives for a 4-CD collection, encompassing 40 live and studio tracks from the period, 1982-1985. Their vitality jumps from the bitstream with Stakhanovite efficiency.
24. Assemblage 23 – Overthrow
It’s been a good five years, but Tom Shear brought back Assemblage 23 with a set of energetic, body-moving tracks and messages shaped by the sharp divisions in American politics.
As Shear told ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK in a recent interview:
I’d say it’s in the ultra-wealthy’s best interests if we are fighting about something else rather than they are robbing everybody… the poor are getting poorer, the rich are getting richer… we are now seeing obscene wealth, like more money than anyone needs! I feel there are issues to deal with in immigration and racism but at the end of the day, those are tools being used by people who want to keep their way of life… it is greed at the end of the day!
23. Greenhaus feat. Dave Baker – Weightless
One of the surprises of the year was Dave Baker‘s turn at the mic with Greenhaus. He contributed to a number of songs, taking a break from his Lonelyklown project. Plaintive and poignant, the material had the emotional heft that Lily Allen only wishes she could offer.
22. Die Sexual – Desire
The Fabulous Florianos, Anton and Rossellini, return with more dark-electro deliciousness. Leave your crypt to dance and be seduced by the nocturnal offerings of Die Sexual.
21. Rohn-Lederman – Forbidden Planet
Emileigh Rohn and Jean-Marc Lederman paired up again for a moody, synth-driven album that doesn’t always resolve into melody or comfort. Forbidden Planet feels like drifting through synthetic spaces. It is unsettled and introspective – one to listen to while repairing your space station.
20. Thunder Bae – Mirage (All the Best)
The German songstress, Thunder Bae, stepped out with a sleek and minimal track that us dark but danceable. It doesn’t hit you over the head with Berghain beats – it seeps under your skin.
19. Anna von Hausswolff – Iconoclasts
Chased away from a French venue by Catholic fundamentalists, Anna von Hausswolff didn’t let anyone keep her from playing organ. The show must go on.
With this year’s Iconoclasts album, von Hausswolff gives the religious fanatics another kicking. The drones, organ, and expressive vocal treatments make for an unsettling experience that will have them clutching their rosaries even tighter.
18. Cosey Fanni Tutti – 2t2
The irrepressible Cosey Fanni Tutti took some time away from writing books and scoring films to release an unbelievable solo album. The follow-up to her pre-pandemic record, TUTTI, 2t2 is invested with an emotional rawness and technical sophistication that few can match.
As we said in our review:
The layers are assembled with the technical skills and trade secrets that come from a half-century of experimentation, but the artistic quality is like nothing else on the scene.
17. Lau Nau and Sontag Shogun – Päiväkahvit
The prolific Lau Nau had two albums this year that warranted attention. She is currently touring her jazz album with Jonah Parzen-Johnson, which is excellent, but we were captivated by this work with Sontag Shogun. We love the Finnish composer and musician’s voice and delicate treatment of sounds, which is really like no other.
16. echoGenetic – Live in Chemnitz
Gareth Jones‘ experimental project, echoGenetic, had a rare outing in Germany for the MachineMan Festival. It quickly found its way to Bandcamp, as a teaser for an album coming in January 2026.
The performance unfolds as a shifting terrain of modular electronics: gritty pulses, corrosive noise, and dark ambient washes. In its immediacy, the release feels like a broadcast from the fringes of experimental sound – visceral, unpolished, and more alive for it.
15. Propaganda – A Secret Sense of Rhythm, A Secret Sense of Sin/Remix Encounters
Propaganda were the most majestic of 80s artists; their compositions a head above their rivals in the charts. A 6-CD box set, curated by Ian Peel, serves as their Collected Works from the ZTT era. Collectors will aready have most of the tracks, but who is complaining at getting them in one place?
The band also revealed a set of remixes of tracks from last year’s magnificent, eponymous comeback album. Rhys Fulber, Moby, and Pyrolator are among the artists who took a turn at playing with the material.
14. Twice a Man – The Coloured Breeze Is a New Dimension
The legendary Swedish artists return to express their concerns about the ravaging of the environment. We said:
As usual, the band makes great use of textures. As you listen to the album, you can find layers in the mix that demonstrate a subtlety that most of their peers lack. The naturalism of the material is combined with abstractions and sonic designs that imbue it with a warmth that is missing from a lot of electronic music. The Coloured Breeze… is an immensely human record with a humanistic message. To borrow from Brecht, again: “Change the world – it needs it.”
13. White Birches – A New Reign
The return of White Birches is more than welcome. A New Reign is a brooding, austere effort. The Swedish warm-wave duo wrap heavy bass and precise electronic percussion around icy synths and melancholic melodies. Vocalist Jenny Gabrielsson Mare delivers the material with a fragile touch, giving the songs a haunting air. The result is a set that leaves a lingering resonance.
12. I Satellite – Streamline
From Kalamazoo, where they make guitars, comes this eclectic and retro-sounding album from I Satellite. The material was created ages ago, using authentic analogue equipment (and no guitars!), but not assembled into album format until this year. Good things come to those who wait.
11. LIKK – Don’t Lie
Toril Lindqvist (Le Volt, Alice in Videoland) sounds angry. Really angry. This is a great, hard-edged dance track, with a strong message for someone who is in a whole heap of trouble.
10. Fragile Self – OCD
The packaging for the edition of OCD we received was too beautiful to open. That should not be surprising, coming from the duo of Anil Aykan and Jonathan Barnbrook.
What was surprising was how infectious the material was. Like the ticking of Poe’s heart, the sound stays with you even when the speakers are silent.
9. Zanias – Cataclysm
Zanias’ Cataclysm lands with razor-sharp emotional clarity. It is one of Zanias’ most fully-realized works: atmospheric, cathartic, and unafraid to stare directly into the storm.
It’s also a work of consciousness and conscience. As Zanias told White Light//White Heat:
I feel a strong responsibility to contribute something to the somewhat dwindling supply of hope in the world. In dark times like these, it’s so important for us to step up and play whatever role we can in changing things for the better, and artists have far more power than most of my peers realise. We are the creators of culture, and culture is a primary influence on behaviour. If we can create a culture that is hopeful, just and compassionate, then humanity might stand a chance of surviving the meta-crisis it has constructed for itself.
8. Psyche – Dance After Curfew
Born in Canada and tranferred to Europe, Psyche was inspired by the theatrics of Fad Gadget, the torch song flair of Soft Cell, and the horror film stylings of Nash the Slash. The bandaged alter ego of Toronto musician Jeff Plewman was a one-man band who played thrash with an electrified mandolin and hacked rhythm machines in unsettling ways.
To mark the launch of the documentary, Nash the Slash Rises Again, Psyche had a go at one of the great Torontanian’s dancefloor classics.
7. Die Krupps – Will nicht – MUSS! SINGLE OF THE YEAR
The end of Front 242 and the loss of DAF’s Gabil Delgado has left Die Krupps to carry the baton for the first generation of EBM acts. Their 2025 tour was a stormer, and the release of this thundering track proves that there is still creative fuel in the tank.
6. Covenant – Andreas EP OF THE YEAR
The five-track Andreas EP, conceived by Covenant as a tribute to their late bandmate, Andreas Catjar‑Danielsson, is a thoughtful reckoning with grief and memory. From the sparse, echoing cover of Lee Hazlewood’s “A Rider on a White Horse” to a mournful reinterpretation of Yazoo’s “Winter Kills,” the material has emotional weight from Catjar-Danielsson’s own contributions.
The recordings were laid down by the late keyboardist and guitarist alongside singer/producer Eskil Simonsson, and the tracks include songs Catjar-Danielsson co-wrote or championed. That fact turns the EP from a eulogy into a final statement: a farewell not just for the man, but his last creative voice with the band. The result is deeply human – and more powerful for refusing to dress up sorrow as anything else.
5. Mark Stewart – The Fateful Symmetry
The loss of Mark Stewart in 2024 was keenly felt. The big man was a potent voice against the Establishment and all of its trappings. The album he left behind, which Mute put out this year, was more sensitive and poignant than much of his earlier work; and Stewart’s rage came across more balanced and pointed. His words will ring in the ears of the last Emperor.
4. Emmon – ICON
The arrival of a new Emmon album was always going to be welcome; but, to borrow a line from Michael Caine, we only expected it to blow the bloody doors off. Instead, ICON came as a blast that cleared the ground with its rhythms, Some Great Reward soundscape, and stylish Emma Nylén vocals.
3. Kite – Kite on Ice
After the Royal Opera, with a 16-piece orchestra, and the Avicii Arena, with a legion of figure skaters, what spectacle can Kite offer next? Kite in Space?
The Swedish duo took over the hockey arena in Stockholm, earlier this year, for the most dynamic electronic music performance we have ever seen. The Pet Shop boys have costumes, and Jean-Michel Jarre has lights, but Kite went further with Nina Persson, Anna von Hausswolff, an array of video boxes, and dancing Zambonis.
The recording of the show is only one part of a multimedia campaign that includes a film and a book. The music is glorious and evocative; and, really, Kite deserve much more attention outside of their homeland.
1. Edvard Graham Lewis – Alreet? ALBUM OF THE YEAR (TIED)
We have two albums tied for first place this year. Graham Lewis‘ solo record, Alreet?, easily claims its position as a spectacular of sound design and leftfield pop. As we wrote in our original review:
The album opens with a swelling guitar tone and the observation, “You will not pass this way again.” Geography and grooves combine in “Kinds of Whether” with emphatic richness; fused by word play and rhythmic sensitivity. Pity Trent Reznor that he never managed to bottle the lightning of He Said the way he wanted. It shines from this vessel very brightly.
1. Page – Inget motstånd ALBUM OF THE YEAR (TIED)
Conny Plank might not have seen this coming, but Sweden’s Page pivoted, this year, towards the Krautrock sound he shaped in his kitchen. Inget motstånd [EN: No Resistor or No Resistance] is a circuit activated with the charges of Neu!, Harmonia, and even Kraftwerk. It is significant that Plank also worked with Ultravox, who have exerted a large influence on Eddie Bengtsson‘s stylistic choices for recent albums.
This album is pure Page with a Teutonic vibe. It deserves its place at the top of the chart because it is infectious and melodious; drawing inspiration from Moebius and Rodelius. A modern classic.
Covenant are back with the Fieldworks Exkursion EP. A five-track collection, it shows the Swedes developing their interests in philosophy, sampling and rhythm.
It is reported that a new kind of material has been developed by British researchers, which can absorb 99.5% of visible light. Commercial applications for Vantablack must surely include stage design for Covenant, Sweden’s biggest EBM export.
The show opens with “Death of Identity” from the Psychonaut EP, setting an experimental tone. What follows is a tour through Covenant’s back catalogue, drawing in early compositions like ”Edge of Dawn” and ”Shelter” from 1994’s Dreams of a Cryotank.
The Curse of 2016 took a lot of artists from us. The year opened with Lemmy’s passing fresh in everyone’s minds, and the roll call of musicians claimed by the Grim Reaper kicked off from there: David Bowie, Prince and Vanity, Leonard Cohen, Pierre Boulez, Keith Emerson and Greg Lake, Gisela May, Craig Gill (Inspiral Carpets), Pete Burns, Caroline Crawley, James Woolley (Nine Inch Nails), Alan Vega (Suicide), Steven Young (M/A/R/R/S and Colourbox) and Richard Lyons (Negativland) all shuffled off this mortal coil. We’ve often said at 
As the half of Psyche who handled the keyboards, Stephen Huss was a legend of Canadian alternative music. His spiky hair and hook-laden synth lines were instantly recognisable, and Psyche’s style became the template for a dozen imitators.
Sarah Badr’s FRKTL project matured in 2016 with a proper second album. The first release from the Anglo-Egyptian digital pioneer was Atom, back in 2011: an electro-acoustic marvel that stretched sounds beyond recognition. Qualia, named for the psychological and philosophical categories of qualities that are always experienced but hard to explain, went further and incorporated Badr’s voice and world rhythms suitable for the dance club into mixes that were both exotic and intriguing.
There are signs that Covenant, the Swedish darkwave legends, are slowly, collectively, morphing into Brian Eno. It’s certainly hard to avoid that conclusion when a feature of their new album is the sound of the sea and engines being focused by a parabolic sound mirror; particularly as they were attracted to it as a sonic and historical metaphor for Europe’s response to the Mediterranean refugee crisis. The Blinding Dark puts some of the experimentation that was reserved for the bonus disc on Leaving Babylon in the foreground, even as it showcases the band’s continuing deftness with energetic rhythms.
Nash the Slash is sorely missed. A true Canadian original, he is known outside of his home and native land mainly for his early work with Gary Numan and an album produced by Steve Hillage. However, Nash was also a composer of soundtracks to surrealist films (“Un Chien Andolou”) and – so we argue – the inventor of the sounds that became signatures for The Orb and System 7.
Are we allowed to blow our own trumpet? Well, we’re going to, because the Heresy compilation blew many minds in 2016. A tribute to Rational Youth, it gathers no less than nineteen artists, including the Canadian electro-pioneers and two former members of the band, into three vinyl platters. There is a CD bundled into the package, but no downloads. There is no way not to touch the vinyl in order to play the material. You can almost hear Super Hans saying: “No downloads.”
Speaking of Rational Youth, they made 2016 better with a new album up their sheer black sleeves, in the form of Future Past Tense. The first studio album from RY since To the Goddess Electricity, it proved that the Canadian pioneers have lost none of their sense of melody or political angst. The lead single, “This Side of the Border,” is influenced by Canadian nationalism, social democracy, nostalgia and The Who – a heady cocktail made more potent by the addition of Gaenor Howe’s vocals.
It is hard to believe that Vile Electrodes are only on their second studio album. Britain’s best synth band stunned with The Future Through a Lens, which established a benchmark for the island’s electronic scene with tracks like “Proximity” and “Nothing.” Now that the island has decided to sink into the Atlantic, rather than accept European influences, the Viles are setting the bar again in a less pop-oriented vein.
Pole position for 2016 didn’t go to an obvious choice with a hipster following on Facebook. Eric Random has come and gone from the music scene over the years, but is most closely associated with Cabaret Voltaire and its Doublevision label. Random’s return in 2016 with Words Made Flesh kept some of the indie-industrial vibe from his earlier recordings, but was notable for repositioning dance music as something with character and texture. With influences drawn from world music, Random breathed new life into electronica, as this stand-out track demonstrates.
The track is lifted from Covenant’s new album, The Blinding Dark. It sits nestled among tracks of remarkable strength, pointing out the sounds of burning homes and broken souls. It is a unique statement from Covenant, and sits alongside Portion Control’s “Refugee” as a song about mass displacement that you can dance to. Perhaps, if we weren’t bombing their homes and arming the mercenaries who attack them, the peoples of the Middle East and North Africa wouldn’t need to move to colder countries – a point your DJ can make by spinning one of the excellent remixes that feature on the single release.