The Top 20 Record Labels Of 2016

Natural Sciences debuted last year with two records soaked in, whisper it, lo-fi sounds. The term has been a bit of a dirty word this year, but the Manchester-based label has distinguished itself apart from the tarred scene with the unfaltering quality of its output and assuredness of its direction, reminding us that lo-fi can be sublime as well as kicking on into new musical areas with a 100 per cent hit-rate.

Founder Alex Hall has proven one of the sharpest new sets of ears in dance music, uncovering numerous promising talents from the depths of SoundCloud anonymity in extensive searching sessions. Among his finds have been Mono-Enzyme 307’s acid-flecked weirdness, DJ Bong Gozling’s techno textural vortexes and the breakbeat-laden, swashbuckling sounds of DJ Swagger, with the latter’s cheekily named debut EP ‘Greatest Hits’ also making fine use of a screw-face salute “chieze!” sample.

Beyond the main output, August saw the launch of sublabel Dolphin Traxx with D. Futers’ infectious sunshine jam ‘I Care’ which grew into something of an underground anthem thanks to regular rotation from the likes of Beautiful Swimmers and Pender Street Steppers. Credit to Natural Sciences: releasing lo-fi influenced tracks to near-universal acclaim in 2016 of all years is no mean feat. P Hinton