Spurred by excellent, challenging production, the record maintains an adequate sonic distance from its inspirations, and the bonus disc's excellent selection of remixes fosters a dialogue between jungle, house, and techno's past and present.

In the end, Virgins only adds to the artist's growing legacy; it's another triumph for Hecker that once again strikes a resounding chord that not many ambient records can.

Thankfully, he's enough of a careful, diligent, and experienced artist to make even the lackluster experiments feel vital and significant in the larger scope of his oeuvre.

Drone Logic is a fastidious and memorable debut, though the middle suffers from a significant lull in energy.

It's a different, and more unique effort [than Rooms(s)]. Moreover, the LP doesn't look outside of itself to the same extent that its predecessor did.

For all of its turbulence and dislocations, R Plus Seven is an astounding thing to behold, a perfectly imperfect and downright breathtaking masterpiece.

It's a work of and inspired by ritualized labor, haunted by the irretrievable loss of a culture.

There's arguably nothing groundbreaking about Pull My Hair Back, but its artful combination of influences, subtle production, and the ambiguous emotional terrain it covers makes it one of the strongest debuts of the year.

Dream pop is rarely celebrated for its attention to melody, as it usually places texture and atmosphere higher up on the totem poll, but At Home would have benefitted from a few more melodies that were capable of sticking with the listener past the album's running time.

Apar is left to sound good but not great, worthwhile but not essential, Delorean but not quite.

Whether it's the muffled, unsettling synths that peer out from underneath the groove, the mannered and highly potent collision of seemingly incongruous drum patterns, or simply the masterful arrangement, it all adds up to make a record that's difficult to second-guess and lots of fun to unpack.

Occasional lyrical missteps aside, Arrington's voice sounds as smooth as ever on this album, which is great, although it does overshadow Dam-Funk's significant vocal talent.

Glow feels bloated from the start.

As it is now, John Wizards is an effortlessly fun, pan-global pop record that stands on its own, no qualification needed.

Melidis has surely succeeded at creating a sunny, idea-rich patchwork. But listeners looking for some emotional nuance might find it a touch saccharine overall.

Black Jazz Signature seems intended to shepherd people toward the Black Jazz reissue series. It no doubt does a terrific job doing just that, but it stands nicely by itself as a personal "best of" and a great DJ mix. Fans of Parrish--and anyone receptive to this sort of jazz, really--will very likely appreciate what's on offer here.

The LP is merely a collection of somewhat compelling, hip-hop-leaning beats that largely go nowhere; it's more like a dressed-up beat tape, and not a particularly exciting one at that.

The LP is merely the byproduct of Barnes steadily refining his intricate and very particular sound.

For the most part, it's simply a pleasure to sit back and plug in.

Saginaw's clarity of vision permeates his new record, even during the brief lulls when the music seems to be taking a break to catch its breath, and makes it a resounding statement in his musical career.

Snow Ghosts has arrived with 10 songs straight out the gate, leaving us with a strong first impression and a lingering suspicion that there may not be much fertile ground for Augustus Ghost and Throwing Snow to find together.

While other producers are content to experiment with tirelessly looped Amen breaks, dBridge continues to push within the tradition, often to dazzling effect.

As a complete package, Blue Gardens comes across as impressively well thought-out and refreshingly imaginative--it's a bright flash of creativity in an already eccentric genre.

The album may be architectural in its deliberateness, but it's not overly academic; during its best moments, Music for Objects could even be described as fun.

II may actually prove itself to be the group's most accomplished record, and one Moderat fans will come back to more often down the line.

Joke in the Hole is an unusually infectious outing for an artist whose recent work with Black Dice, although intermittently catchy, remains as unrelentingly challenging as it's ever been.

Raffertie by and large stays out of the way of his songwriting, and opts for subtlety over bombast--an asset that eludes many songwriters.

Some may complain that Blondes hasn't radically expanded its horizons on Swisher, but frankly, such an effort isn't even necessary, as there's still fresh ground to cover within the confines of the duo's engrossing signature style.