Even more than a Lynchian album, Flamagra is nothing if not a FlyLo album. As usual he lends himself to superlatives and clichés, the sign of a singular artist (there’s another) about whom there just aren’t that many descriptors.

In terms of song choice, and as an exercise in breaking boundaries, Scuba's DJ Kicks stands as a solid effort on par with the good work he's done with his recent productions.

Earthly Delights for some, surely, and otherworldly torments for others.

There are some songs which start off tepid, become lukewarm, and emit flickers of Blake’s usual brilliance. ... hile it's easy to criticise Blake’s chart-pandering forays into trap and pop, it is actually Assume Form’s most unashamed pop songs that rescue it from insufferable drabness.

Kings Ballad marks the natural progression of a remarkable artist-in-residency.

12 Bit Blues is an enjoyable record and an exciting addition to Kid Koala's catalog.

As always, it's a lot to take in; even after a dozen listens, the album's too oblique to really register in the memory. That slipperiness does nothing to diminish the moments when things really stick, though.

He showcases the breadth of footwork and pushes the sound forward by building links with trap, R&B, and Jersey. In doing so, he reinvigorates footwork and brings it up to date with 2018 dance culture.

Fabriclive 93 might not be flawless--but it sure is fun.

There's no doubt that Visions is an excellent album.

Slow Focus has the sheen and seemingly high stakes of a blockbuster movie--and enough easy thrills to compensate for the stakes being, in reality, pretty low.

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

Wenu Wenu's success lies in its ability to cleave memorable passages from homogenized surroundings.

Adventurous but not selfish, intelligent but not difficult, a victory lap of sorts but hardly congratulatory, Terje's first album is astoundingly balanced and astonishingly broad, a wider serving of the man's artistic vision that ultimately proves just as satisfying as his single servings have in the past.

Field-Pickering isn't yet the type to release a grand album statement, but so far, his best moments have been the monolithic ones. Now, it's just a matter of amassing enough of them for a long-player.

Although beatless, it is not altogether one of those ambient albums you could play in the background and ignore, nor necessarily fall asleep listening to. At times unsettling and industrial-sounding, this is far from forgettable music; it is engaging, futuristic, and trippy as hell.

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.

Some of the best moments on I AKA I are when the producer plays it relatively straight.

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.

Nostalgic is an exciting journey, but during the moments when Lapalux fails to provide a coherent roadmap, it's a bit too easy for the rest of us to get lost.

In short, it is rare to find a producer who can craft many types of tracks so consistently well, but with You Stand Uncertain, FaltyDL has cemented himself as such.

While not as complete or precise as any major release from Hot Chip, this is a strong debut album, even after factoring in the slightly elevated expectations based upon Goddard's previous successes.

DNA Feelings has moments of brilliance, but its dark mood and single-minded vision become oppressive over the course of its runtime. Those fleeting rave touches combine so well with her extraordinary voice, you can only wish there were more of them.

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.

With Dedication, Zomby's first release for the legendary indie label 4AD, he's turned increasingly inward-and it's an entirely welcome trajectory.

Truly, there's nothing outrightly offensive about There's More to Life Than This, but there's little to hold on to either.

The unifying factor? It's Para's evocative beauty, a underlying glimmer that flows from the album's sumptuous opening chords to its final spectral fade.

Pink is a triumph and the new high-water mark for one of this generation's finest producers.

What he's given listeners may be imperfect, but it's also freakishly musical, completely synthetic, and utterly human.

Despite (or maybe because of) the absence of Braxton, Battles has soldiered on into new musical territory, and discovered a place that is simultaneously confrontational and inviting, esoteric and playful, technical and infectious-and very, very good.

An ambitious and eclectic album that packs tons of ideas into its runtime and manages to pull them all off with a great deal of style.

These are their beloved records, guzzled up, internalized, and regurgitated in new unrecognizable forms; music of the past as perceived by modern minds; an even balance between tight live instrumentation and charming studio nous. Give this record a few spins, and you’ll succumb to their peculiar, but beguiling world too.

For Paris has an avant-gardist taste, and the homemade artwork and written statements ring sincere.

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

Under The Sun is Mark Pritchard’s most consistent piece of work in some time, one that is beautifully conceived and produced with restraint and an overall vision that, most of the time, only an artist of considerable experience can muster.

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.

In lesser hands, Abyss may have collapsed under the weight of its self-seriousness. Instead, Wolfe steps into the cavernous space of her ambition and fills it with an assured collection of songs that are unsettling in their commitment to sorrow.

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.

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.

Take Off Mode doesn’t forge any new paths so much as it retreads old ones. ... That said, Take Off Mode’s most retro moment is also its best.

Whether as background music for one's day-to-day or as a receiver of one's full attention, it is truly an enjoyable record that is prepared to fill whatever space is asked of it.

After eight-plus years of releasing music, Junior Boys demonstrate handily with It's All True that they remain fresh, luminous, and highly relevant.

Minor complaints aside, Hardcourage is an excellent effort, and, if the crossover attempts prove successful, it just might be the album that gets a wider audience talking about FaltyDL.

Needless to say, for the legions pining for another immersion in the aesthetic, Fabric 69 is a worthy companion to the crew's 2010 full-length opus, Feed-Forward.

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

hat’s most striking is that the album really does tell a story. Its glorious conclusion arrives a little too soon, but it’s good enough to have you hitting rewind. Listen in a dark room, on headphones, and you’re likely to experience a few hairs-on-end moments. It’s ugly, yes, and sometimes contrived. But it’s beautiful too.

As a record, Con Todo El Mundo won’t change the world, but it will make your day brighter. Once you’ve maxed out playing records by The Budos Band and Bonobo, then Khruangbin should be next in your selection.

Sisterworld maintains Liars' sonic trappings but apparently deals with subcultural scenes as a means of maintaining identity in a city like LA.

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.

Ghetto Madness is an expertly constructed effort showcasing one of the most energetic and recognizable outputs in dance music.

From the patient and methodical moments to the flashes of light and energetic dance music, the producers always seem to be in control, and following the path they take makes for a truly rewarding listen.

Fabriclive 73 has a formidable sense of both style and consistency--qualities that don't necessarily ooze glamor, but are slowly and steadily carving out new territory in the interstices of rapidly collapsing genres.

The results are both easily enjoyable and unexpectedly refreshing.

Anxiety is a draining front-to-back listen; it becomes much more comfortable when one is able to take each track as an individual single. However, there is a reward for making it to the end of Ashin's therapy session.

Something happened in the shift from Games' That People Play EP to Channel Pressure. That welcome looseness was lost in lieu of Ford & Lopatin's more focused and (dare we say) over-thought songwriting and production, and it's as if there are too many cultural cues being thrown our way this time around.

An effortless, catatonic undercurrent carries listeners through Her Blurry Pictures and somehow, it manages to put the subliminal neuroticism of Mathew Jonson's music at the center of the listening experience while remaining pleasant to listen to.

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.

Van Hoesen does leave some room for improv, but it's a bit too low-key to feel like anything's at stake.

There’s youthful playfulness at hand on Oddments. There’s also a kind of majesty, one borne out by an affinity for subtly grand melodies, which works in juxtaposition to the album’s brief, jewel-like cuts--most of these tracks clock in at well under four minutes, and the entire LP barely reaches 40 minutes.

Chance of Rain will likely prove less controversial than Quarantine, but by no means is it a less challenging record.

There’s a widescreen vibe to these tracks; with their patient, sometimes nearly imperceptible cycles of accretion and subsidence, they feel as much like landscapes as they do music. But they’re vistas that have been internalized and made personal, and that process--along with the calm majesty of the songs--is the source of Phantom Brickworks emotional sweep.

It all makes for a well-rounded and fully formed debut album by a propitious new artist we look forward to hearing more from.

Revill's thoughtful selections and undeniable ability to fuse a number of moving parts into a thoroughly enjoyable listening experience make for a wonderfully ambitious venture worth every minute.

The two display perfect chemistry with the Seattle beatsmith's bangers complimenting the Philly Freezer's gruff delivery.

With Odd Blood, the Brooklyn trio has left behind its most obvious ethnic influences--and its environmental anxiety--for a tighter, more polished sound.

Ring may not be perfect--certain songs have a nondescript, meandering feel--but this kind of growth is undeniably exciting, and makes both Glasser and True Panther well worth watching.

Tooth is best devoured as a whole and without distractions; its singular sound and delivery is one that Raime has tirelessly honed into a steadfast concoction of brooding dystopia.

It's a confident attempt to stake out a distinguishable sound within the web of influences and like-minded contemporaries the band has been linked to, including stalwarts like New Order and Radiohead, as well as newer faces like James Blake and The xx.

There's no question that Torn Hawk is carving his own, art-damaged lane, but unfortunately, Let's Cry is not the defining statement of his aesthetic.

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

Truthfully, there's no singular tune from Modern Worship that stands out in the same unforgettable way that "Phoenix" did, but as a long-form piece, Hyetal's sophomore full-length is the most satisfying work he's released so far.

All in all, the full 30 minutes of Kuiper seems logical as a comfortable extension of, and compromise between, Shepherd's recent discography: as he continues to unravel the additional possibilities of live instrumentalism, we can be sure to expect plenty more of the same.

When this record lands on a great idea (which is certainly a regular occurrence), the captivating qualities of Vessel's songcraft and his strength for piecing together textural marvels make up for any confusion along the way.

Galaxy Garden is a fine effort, an album that tweaks Lone's formula just enough to pass as a step forward.

Weighing of the Heart is, to me, an unripe album. The recording is slick and the mix is by the guy who mixed the last Gorillaz album, but I just don’t feel any outstanding music-making talent or skill. I see a marketable product.

Illum Sphere's debut LP may be an elegantly produced collection of noir beat vignettes, but his next one could be a whole lot more.

Stone Breaker is the foundation of E building something new and completely different: an intense, head-down, relentless edifice of original, modern house music.

As a whole, Grime 2.0 works as both an introduction and a re-introduction to a sound that's still without an official expiration date--and won't likely get one anytime soon.

On the whole, Blurred is an uneven release. Huxley's ambition is laudable, but it's only his decision to hedge his bets a little that saves the album from being a completely subpar outing.

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.

Talabot's DJ-Kicks proves to be an essential listen, not only because it is an immaculate mix in its own right--one which moves swiftly through a graceful arc--but also because there is just so much vital music to take in over the course of its 70-plus minutes.

Green’s always aimed for music that’s magical, for a sound that’s transcendent--with Migration, he’s come closer than ever.

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

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.

At a time when dance music's past is often treated with elegiac reverence, the fact that Re-Engineering takes a clever, witty, and irreverent approach to its influences feels bracing rather than tired.

Ultimately, only time will tell, but as things stand now, his Death After Life LP is unquestionably a strong and inventive first full-length.

It's not an album about any particular time; instead, it's an album about the passage of time And time always marches on.

It’s the DJ’s own efforts that are the most striking, yet this mix isn’t about big tracks per se; it's more about building a lost-in-the-moment mood. In that, it succeeds tremendously, and offers an intriguing glimpse at a new chapter in Daniel Avery’s story.

Few truly distinctive examples of footwork have found their into the world lately, but RP Boo's LP goes a long way towards revealing the potential diversity and immensity of the genre.

Total Loss is an overwhelming album given the rollercoaster of emotions Krell goes through over the course of its 11 tracks.

It's hard to knock Aguayo's unique spirit, and the boldness with which that shines through on this LP is certainly captivating in its own right.

All told, Azari & III is a solid work with plenty to offer newcomers and devoted fans alike.

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.

It's nice to find a little mystification from a duo that often prizes rigor over imagery.

Not only does this stand out as one of Paradinas' best albums to date, but also as one of IDM's.

It's a fantastical story of aliens, spirits, and children told by one breathtakingly gifted artist, and it's utterly remarkable.

While the album's unique collage of what seems like vintage sounds will prompt endless "is that a sample?" debates amongst crate diggers, the pure joy offered by just listening will hopefully reveal those arguments for what they are-beside the point.

Crafting spacious soundscapes, taking droney vision quests into '70s psychedelia, and offering pleasantly subdued vocals, the Oakland trio appears to have found solid footing as a band of new-school doom-rock warriors.