Ultimately, Dutch is less vibrant and, well, relevant than dance deconstructions by Actress or Oneohtrix, but it's also a lot harder to pin down, and there's a rogue-ish appeal to that.

Whether or not one buys into Menzies' unrelentingly bleak vision, it's hard not to admire how well he captures the mood.

The record may not be Dragging A Dead Deer Up A Hill, but pieces like "Living Room" are the essence of Harris's singular oeuvre.

The production is immaculately pretty, but it also tends to swamp the music's thrust, and one ends the album unsure of exactly what Darkstar is anymore.

Home's biggest problem is that it can easily drift by almost unnoticed.

Thanks to his savvy techniques and careful placement, his penchant for the far-out fringes of dance music doesn't seem weird at all, but delightfully intriguing.

Centralia, for the most part, goes back to the duo's tried-and-true dynamics for a seemingly exhaustive summary of the band.

A bleak and beautiful ambient record that occasionally reaches beyond its self-imposed confines.

When a dance album cannot contain a grander narrative, the next best result is certainly a selection of floor-primed productions, and on this front, Orbiting delivers.

What it may lack in sound system-minded sonics it makes up for with its distinctive mix of cacophonous rhythms and touches of warped soul that result in what is, simply put, an accomplished debut LP full of inventive house music.

Release is an impressive feat overall, one that offers up a handful of uniquely dancefloor-ready tracks while continuing to show that Pangaea and Hessle are not likely to fall behind the cutting edge of dance music anytime soon.

Although it may not represent a complete return to form, it's still a welcome stop on a production career that appears to have a lot of life left in it.

Ultimately, the restless movement here doesn't help the "classical" tracks connect to a non-specialized audience, but it does make for an inventive dialogue between the club and the ivory tower.

The thing that makes the LP so engaging is the fact that Shaw picks a mood and runs with it--this is not an album that lives up to the cliché of taking the listener on a journey; rather, it's a work that roots the listener to a spot and stares them dead in the eyes for an hour.

Despite scattered flashes of brilliance, too often it's an album that feels unambitious, as though it's content to dwell in the middle ground where the two producers' back catalogs intersect rather than forge something new.

Thankfully, most of Hauschildt's eight-track LP further explores the sounds and themes that made Tragedy & Geometry the brilliant record it is.

Skating along on smooth sounds that seem almost effortless, these outer-galaxy footwork songs-along with the energy and aura they display--are Ital Tek's strong suit.

The record accomplishes what Eno has proposed is ambient music's main purpose: to heighten one's sense of their surroundings while allowing their own narrative to fill the music with meaning and context.

Dream On finds him utilizing the computer-processed end of his sound with a newly savage intensity.

Part of what makes Just to Feel Anything such a rewarding listen is its ability to quickly shift between aerial jams and understated lulls without abandoning Emeralds' unspoken ethos.

Smalhans, [is] a return to his old self that alternatively plays things a little too safe by offering six tracks of Lindstrøm-by-numbers.

Overly cool and polished music for graphic designers this isn't--but its twisted art-school aesthetics might mean it's too out there for the candy kids as well.

All of these seemingly fragmented entries would be rather disappointing were it not for the fact that they are all brought together in one final movement-a continuous DJ mix. It's like an 'aha' moment; without it, Hermansen's concept wouldn't successfully come together.

Luxury Problems may not be as unbelievably mysterious and engrossing as his pair of 2011 EPs, We Stay Together and Passed Me By, but his craft is just as sharp here, and the results just as worthy of intense, continuous listening.

It has style and character, it's both puzzling and gratifying, and above all, it's filled with solid tunes.

Rinse Presents: Royal-T is a solid full-length debut for the budding producer, and radiates a certain charm through its sincere portrayal of new grime as a versatile genre that's able to cater to a variety of listeners.

Elemental Themes is a great movie soundtrack--the film just doesn't exist yet.

Whilst he must be commended for his ambition, Mantasy is a patchy affair containing the good, the bad, and the downright ugly.