Brownswood Electr*c is the new compilation from Gilles Peterson’s Brownswood Recordings imprint based out of London. The release marks a decidedly different direction from his usual Bubblers outing’s or even the earlier Worldwide Compilations that were all centred in radio friendly, down-tempo, world music.

Electr*c’s roots however, lie firmly in the club and on the dance floor. Compiled by Gilles’ new right-hand man Alex Stephenson of Brownswood Recordings, the compilation focuses on the tracks that Peterson has been entertaining crowds with, as a pose to pleasing radio listeners across the globe. The compilation is decidedly more beat driven, up-tempo, kind…

First album (and CD) release for Gerd Jansen's cult label Running Back. Hailing from Zanziabr, but now living in Sheffield, Mim Suleiman has been a force on the afro-beat scene for quite a while, but this is her debut album - produced by none other than Maurice Fulton. How the hook up with Fulton happened is not clear (except that they both live in Sheffield), but by gosh am I glad it did. I am on a bit of a journey with African music at the moment ( check Awesome Tapes From Africa) and so when Tungi dropped on my…

I feel hunted when I hear this album, like a walrus being stalked by a polar bear. A visceral creature in the night, this strange evocative LP In D by French producer Arandel conjures up some very dark haunting images.

His label calls him a character not an artist, but Arandel being supremely mysterious (apparently he plays live behind a curtain), is rather an experiment in the convergence of techno and French philosophy. A hybrid of thoughtfulness and progressive dance floor sounds.

Which is why I’ve become enamored with Arandel's label, InFiné Music. Since they released Rone's absolutely masterful Spanish…

When a video surfaced last year of Alexander Robotnick jamming around his studio with a friend, tweaking and massaging banks of vintage synthesizers and generally having a lot of fun, my interest was, well, piqued. For those of you who are not aware of the one -man italian disco machine, Alexander Robotnick was one of the pioneers of the hard edged electronic disco sound in the early eighties - before the term Italo was coined - and he enjoyed considerable success with his track 'Problemes D'Amour' . He then moved into soundtrack work, world music and left his machines far…

How do you successfully combine the breezy elements of romantic-boat-pop and fuse it with hipster folk from the deep dirty boroughs of New York? Just ask Ariel Pink.

Pink crafts uniquely bound pop elevated by the foundation of semi-abstract lyrics, to be honest, most of the time I’ve no idea what Pink is talking about, but I enjoy it, it’s like immersion without thinking.

Where does the inspiration for L'estat (Acc. To The Widow's Maid) even come from? Some skitzophrenic has been whispering into his ear. It’s a surf-pop salute, taking a page out of Empire Of The Sun's or…

I first became aware of Ed Flis, aka Duran Duran Duran, when I bought his Face Blast EP on Planet Mu. Four minutes of ghetto-tech madness that melted speakers, tickled my balls and enquired whether or not I'd like to be "a ho tonight".

Over Hard is the second album from the one man bass-machine who is now based in Berlin, and I can happily report that it's business as usual. Sure to please anyone who likes the Bang Face Weekender, squat parties, breakcore, hardcore and ghetto-tech and has the inclination to laugh at the fact they like pretty extreme…

Timur Izhbulatov is a Russian computer programmer, tech-head and general genius. When I asked his label - Gamma Proforma - for some more information about him they sent me one or two sentences about him being a creature of the night who finds his creative process 'addictive' and explained that he was a difficult man to contact. Further investigation on the internet reveal Izhbulatov's website that seems to be more focused on widgets, self generated computer applications to rip music from Last.Fm and pretty geeky internet related stuff rather than the music he makes. Not the usual electronic producer then.…

Let me just start off this one-sided review by shouting from the rooftops very calmly, this is already my favorite album of 2010 so far. An LP that holds so much weight it could sink their hometown, which coincidentally is the most isolated city on earth, Perth, Australia.

We’ve seen them rumble on the underground for a few years, but only recently have they started picking up pace with their new video and also being personally chosen as support by MGMT on their US tour.

Where do I even begin with this album? You beg for pop-rock masterpieces like this…

Cut from the same woozy cloth as its predecessor Hazyville, 2008's word of mouth sensation, Splazsh is the second album from Darren Cunningham, aka Actress. Half-step, glitch-disco, dub-noise - all of these would be suitable descriptions for Actress' music, but whether these are good things or bad things, depends entirely on your musical preferences. Having fallen in love with the wistfully sun-faded washes of Hazyville, I was waiting with anticipation for Splazsh to see how a fairly narrow sound has been updated.

Not that I care much either way, its limited sonic architecture and strange, otherworldly vibe was what I…

Three points which make me think that Phillip Sollmann, aka Efdemin, refers to modernism with his second album Chicago.

1) The LP’s artwork features an obviously modern city environment with clearly structured skyscrapers, the symbol of Modernism per se.

2) Chicago, the cradle of Modernism, probably means the same to Efdemin as it did to the Bauhaus-maestro Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. He, who (besides Le Corbusier) was one of the most forward-thinking modern architects and designers of the 20th century, found in Chicago a source of inspiration and after his emigration in 1938 a new home.

3) Chicago is…