Transistor Rhythm is a well-made but forgettable album by someone who, given past form, I'd expected more from.

Yet despite having created a record that admirably challenges pop conventions, Black Dice could let a little more of the tradition in to help shape their material further and get the most from this direction.

Acousmatic Sorcery's imperfections are unapologetic and unconcerned, largely stamping all over any chances of bringing the overall experience down.

While it's unlikely to garner them a new generation of fans, as an exercise in generating fresh fodder for their festival sets it's effective enough.

It's not a classic album, but its contents implicitly argue that the concept of a "classic album" has become irrelevant in 2012 anyway.

This is a fine collection of songs and although there is nothing here to dispel the feeling that even if this is no masterpiece, that doesn't mean that Ranaldo won't be producing one sometime in the near future.

Henke is always at great pains to direct Monolake so that it exists in a constant dialogue with the dancefloor and with its multifarious abstract leanings, Ghosts pushes that challenge to its limits. That it succeeds on both counts whilst balancing a fictive pathway with real emotion only makes it more remarkable.

Transverse is an exceptionally immersive, expertly captured documentation of a tumultuous performance that has already earned a place in recent history.

MDNA runs the gamut of quality from ghastly to mediocre to brilliant, but it's not the unmitigated disaster that many feared.

His solo work tends to be more delicate--with Audience Of One capturing him at his most porcelain.

4Eva and a Day is--modestly, but definitely--a triumph.

Pretty Ugly is occasionally tender, sometimes facetious; thrillingly mechanical, let down by human voices; frequently adventurous, often injudicious.

The Keychain Collection is an album of miniatures painted in tiny brushstrokes, and its relative attenuation belies the richness of its details.

Tanlines's debut comes across as well-meaning but overly earnest, overly-invested and trying hard to do many things at once.

Everything about the record suggests a separation and a self-contained existence, like a second novel, and is wonderful for it.

Unwanted Chris Brown presence aside, All Of Me is a coherent, concise album that--hearteningly--is most characterised by its creator's overflowing wells of confidence.

Skillfully and bewitchingly arranged, its neatest trick is in the way it enfolds so many distinct personalities into Glasper's own vision, his music always complementing their voices without ever being dominated by them.

It's very difficult not to like these songs--for their clarity and craftmanship, but also the strength of their ideas.

Personality's not a start-to-finish winner like Glass Swords was, but it's refreshing and gratifying to hear Scuba step out from the shadow of the Berghain and dreary discussions of the "dubstep-techno crossover", and start to release some music that sounds like it was fun to make.

Patience (After Sebald) is an unnervingly quiet album.

A record that pushes a catholic range of sounds through filter after filter, and turns out something at once smudgy and beautiful.

It is certainly every bit its predecessor, but through a more meditative, contemplative use of elements it is even better.

When it works, it makes for gloriously contradictory pop--it's just a shame that the formula isn't a little more consistent.

It's not going to make techno fans fall in love with noise, or noise fans fall in love with techno, but for those who, er, bat for both sides, it's a dream come true.

The meandering, incidental quality of their music works alternately in their favor and against them.

Black Bananas manage that ridiculously difficult feat of changing your sound up pretty massively without the whole thing feeling like a jarring shift in aesthetic.

Many of its strongest tracks are those that see Q take his foot off the gas, playing to more traditional communicative strengths in hip-hop.

Despite its patchier moments, fIN's effective command of light and shade make for an involving listen, and it's a sound that's pretty much Talabot's own.

It's playful and skittish, with equal time spent showcasing Black Milk's sample (and scratch!)-heavy beats and Brown's rhymes.

Burial's appointment as cemetery caretaker, presiding over the skeletons of rave, was always going have limited traction--after all, there's only so many ways you can express a bereavement--but perhaps in this EP he's found new purpose amongst the ruins.

Rich Forever is a supremely confident mixtape, which is probably why it is extremely entertaining in small chunks, but can be witheringly boring listened to in its entirety.

While the final result may be uneven in places, if you leave your inhibitions at the airlock you're guaranteed an enjoyable ride.

For music that is over 15 years old, Back on Time sounds as fresh as a sitar-wielding half-stepping daisy.

Hive Mind doesn't quite possess the same strength as what has preceded it.

An incredibly interesting debut album that's nearly as clever as its creators intended.

While this EP showcases some interesting ideas, even its best moments fall short of his work as Audion or False.

Despite a couple of missteps and the odd moment of doubt, I can't remember the last time a series of three full-length records released this close together has captured me--and others--in the way that this has.

On Evolve or be Extinct he spends an uncomfortable amount of time simply sounding doddery.

At times, notably in Born to Die's first half, it's a little too perfect, with songs meticulous to the point where they become sterile, but when it starts to find form, I can't think of an album since My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy that was this big and sounded this good.

Leila's awkwardness doesn't pay off here: this time round, it's almost like a disguise for lack of inspiration rather than greater depths.

MU.ZZ.LE isn't the perfect album either, but it is another bizarre step in the unfolding vision of a very unique voice, a tantalizing and far too brief hint at something magnificent to come.

Gorgeous, beguiling, strange and way way out there, records like this restore a sense of mystery and wonder to the world.

The album's middle section treads water--'The Palace' passes by without making any impression whatsoever, '1313′ sounds like a more conventional Panda Bear--and then it all goes tits up.

An extremely promising debut.