A Short Review: We haven’t read the bird-watching J.A. Baker book that Lawrence English’s latest solo LP is based on, but judging by the producer’s sweeping, painterly ambient pieces, it must be the one of the deepest, darkest nature narratives ever written. Or are the very least, a slow-burning survey of what it’s like out there in the wild, whether you’re hovering above it all ever so peacefully or in the very heat of the hunt.

Available At: Experimedia

Watch a video from this album below…

A Short Review: A surprising hit stateside, where it cracked Billboard’s Top 200 chart and produced a token “electronica” track (“Toxygene,” a remix Jean Michel Jarre refused to release), the Orb’s fifth album samples everything from Cold War paranoia to Mike Leigh’s penultimate film (Naked) in its pursuit of transcendent techno and runaway drum breaks. While an expanded double-disc edition is available, we recommend tracking the double LP pressing down and getting lost in every single loop.

Available At: Amazon · iTunes · Spotify

A Quick Review: Beta Band’s former frontman regains his creative footing in the capable hands of a British dub legend (Dennis Bovell, who’s produced everyone from the Pop Group to Orange Juice). Ghosts Outside is more than just a blunted rendition of Boys Outside, however. A full-on studio collaboration from early 2011, it refracts Steve Mason’s solo tracks through a steady-handed series of rim shots, rocking horse rhythms and seasick melodies.

Available At: Amazon · iTunes · Spotify

A Quick Review: The first “mini collection of ideas” in Teebs’ new beat tape series is more than just a palette-cleansing amuse bouche for his next album. True to the producer’s roots as an painter, it colors outside the lines of his last LP with a richer set of samples and a better sense of what it takes to make a record rise above a simple loop-led framework. Some of that may come from the company he keeps—such L.A. underground leaders as Flying Lotus and Daedelus, whose whimsical approach can be felt in the fleeting strings of “Verbena Tea” and the angelic choruses of “Pretty Polly” and “Cook, Clean, Pay the Rent (House Version).”

Available At: Amazon · Insound · iTunes

A Short Review: Oberlin’s other Brooklyn transplants/synth slayers (see also: Blondes) channel the bleary eyed chasm between midnight and the first sun-glazed signs of morning. While the album’s first half errs on the more experimental side of things, Side B includes such unexpected detours as a pulpit-pounding house anthem (“Cheaters”), ambient asides (“Koi Pond”) and a rare example of what Shannon Funchess (Light Asylum’s fearsome frontwoman) sounds like with her guard down (“Dancing In Slow Motion”).

Available At: Amazon · Insound · iTunes · Spotify

Check out a pair of videos and free MP3s below…

A Short Review: Not Not Fun’s dance imprint gets its very own Donna Summer, an Estonian enigma with the beats to bust her out of the glo-fi ghetto. As muffled as Studio 54 missives get without losing sight of the hooks at hand, and a promising sign of what’s to come.

Available At: Amazon · iTunes · Midheaven

A Short Review: While they’re on the same black-lit label (Wierd Records) and have similar names, Frank Alpine has nothing to do with Frank (Just Frank) beyond a shared interest in battery-powered synths and bleak lyrics. Beyond that surface tension lies a club-ready look at the darker corners of L.A.; much like what Liars explored on their last album, only punctuated with steam-pressed dance beats, scuzzy production values and lots of yelping. Some of the songs go on a bit too long, but we have a feeling that’s exactly the point—dude’s trying to burrow his way into your brain.

Available At: Amazon · Insound · iTunes

Direct Link: Frank Alpine, ‘Frank Alpine’ Sampler by selftitledmag

A Short Review: While it’s not quite as laid-back as the snoring robot on its sleeve would suggest—Richie Hawtin’s UP! alias, for one, turns his track into a high octane thriller—the first installment in Warp’s seminal Artificial Intelligence series is heady enough to warrant its place in the pantheon of “intelligent dance music.”

Or as the label’s co-founder, Steve Beckett, put it in a self-titled piece a few years ago, “When people were coming down from whatever they were on at parties, they’d play more relaxed or interesting music—people like Black Dog [Productions], B12 and Aphex Twin, who were making music that wasn’t just aimed at the dancefloor. We realized how incredible this music was and that it wouldn’t really work in the 12-inch format, so we started associating it with classic albums, like stuff by Kraftwerk or Pink Floyd. We thought, ‘If this music stands out to our ears [like Kraftwerk and Pink Floyd do to others], why don’t we just market it that way?’”

Amen.

Available At: Amazon · iTunes

A Short Review: Absolutely demented dance music that obliterates the assumption that John Elliott’s Editions Mego imprint exists solely to release drone-y, synth-y acts that fall right in line with his band Emeralds. With five songs that blurt, beep and bang on for 36 minutes straight, Container’s debut 12”—he’s released nothing but underground cassettes up until this point—reminds us of the point in a warehouse party where things suddenly take a terrifying turn. Queasy and decidedly strange, it’s a K-hole we’re more than happy to succumb to.

Available At: Amazon · Insound · iTunes

A Short Review: Hooks that are as humid as the hurricane-ready air outside our office window. And while three of the four new songs on this 10-inch will sound familiar to anyone who’s heard Fennesz before, the simple addition of brushed drums to the title track adds a human dimension to music that’s otherwise alien and slightly atonal. According to the composer/multi-instrumentalist, “I wanted to make a record that has a certain lightness about it and at the same time explore new territory using drums on one track. This might be something I will continue with in the future.” We can only hope.

Available At: Amazon · Insound · iTunes · Spotify