What holds this album back is a lack of direction and the vision necessary to pull his intelligent, melodic techno into a new musical landscape.

Needless to say, it ["Nothing Here"] makes for an underwhelming close to an otherwise tenderly crafted and beautifully arranged debut album from a producer who has already proven his worth and will undoubtedly have plenty more bright moments in his future.

Although his political ideas may be rough hewn, Doom's latest effort stands out from some of the major releases in his discography.

Minor complaints aside, Beams is a solid record, and a pretty good Dear album is nothing to be upset about.

Tracer is an album executed with seriousness and intelligence, and although it is never outright contemplative, the record is never jubilant either.

All in all, too little of Mst lets us hear Gretschmann shine within this chosen framework.

Ultimately, E-Funk proves to be an effort that finds its creators trying to pull in something that's just beyond their reach.

Call it short and sweet. And the vibe is definitely sweet, all acoustic guitars, reverb synths, and Sly & Robbie-worthy bass and drum rhythms.

Raw Money Raps is fascinating and inventive, though not the game-changer many were hoping for.

Aju's adventurous boundary pushes are again a valuable addition to the Circus Company discography.

For better or worse, TNGHT's objective for its debut EP is straightforward: to craft big beats. Sadly, this leaves Mohawke's noted penchant for sonic adventure really nowhere to be found.

Purity Ring suffers from the all-too-popular idea that pitch-shifted vocal samples and well-calibrated washes of reverb are enough to create haunting, enigmatic music, as opposed to crafting singular worlds of sound that convey the soul of their creator and resonate within the listener.

Every selection here is strong, and though scholars may have heard the lion's share of these tracks already, this is a sturdy, enlightening gateway into a realm that isn't easily penetrable for those who weren't there.

Passion may be an ambitious record from beginning to end, but listening to it is a breeze.

An LP that restlessly moves between ideas and struggles to find a solid footing, but not without touching on some real promise and originality along the way.

The music grows in richness with ritual, an evolution from the material scarcity and obscurity of Basic Channel releases.

With fingers in this many pies, Modeselektion Vol. 02 really shouldn't have come across as a cohesive statement, yet it does.

It is what he decides to do with his production skills that is questionable, and although glimpses of solid tunes do show up every so often, Ask the Dust is nonetheless a disappointment.

Digital Native is missing a large amount of the substance and general cohesiveness that any artist's "first proper album" should rightly offer.

For those who have never heard Whitman's music, Occlusions provides a fabulous representation of both his performance instincts and how engaging and fun his music can be.

Salton Sea is good, but ultimately doesn't leave as strong an impression as it intends.

Nearly all of the album's pieces feature a gorgeous accord of a large number of electric and acoustic guitars-call it folk maximalism, or perhaps Wall of Kieran.

Bass Clef may have created a solid album, but, in the end, this lovely exercise leaves a sense that it was all a bit too easy for him.

His evolution may not be complete, but the process hasn't prevented him from making quality tunes in the meantime.

What takes shape is a solid, unflinching artistic statement, an effort at moments challenging and bizarre, and at others dreamy and utterly inviting.

Preset instrumentation and uninspired song structures notwithstanding, you could tack on just about any other blog-buzzing name--like, say, Washed Out, Blackbird Blackbird, or Houses--to these songs, and no one would second guess it.

Clearly, Rathbun is a talented producer, and his debut full-length appears to imply that he's nowhere near to running out of ideas.

With this album, Slugabed firmly asserts himself as a first-rate producer, having turned in a debut LP that is short on subtleties, packed with triumphs, and hopefully telling of a career set to only continue impressing.