Glow feels bloated from the start.

You'll Be Safe Forever proceeds in this indeterminate fashion, with Locust maintaining a razor's-edge balance between comforting and disruptive sounds.

It would appear that Justice's schtick on Audio, Video, Disco largely involved soullessly regurgitating the sounds of rock and roll's past into faux dance music.

Knowing what he is capable of with his band, though, one can't help but feel a little unfulfilled by his solo effort. If anything, SUM/ONE's moments of constriction emphasize how vital the expansive jam aspect is to Gang Gang Dance.

III is a pleasant--although occasionally forgettable--listen from a seasoned artist who is playing to his strengths.

The LP has a padded running time; 52 minutes is a long-ish album by any measure, but this one could have benefited from some serious editing.

Taken as a whole, Abaporu isn't a bad LP, and for fans of classic Kompakt records by the Modernist, SCSI-9, or even The Field, the album might be exactly what they're looking for. More adventurous listeners, however, are advised to look elsewhere.

In all honesty, New Chain isn't so very different from the rest of the Bushwick bulk. What is worth returning to, however, is the fact that the music offered is effortlessly lovely, memorable, well-transitioned, and oddly addicting.

Somehow, when put together, the artists' individual strengths are watered down, resulting in a mixture of the benign and the over-the-top, depending on the particular song.

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.

It's a solid effort, and one with some ace tunes that will certainly be snapped up by intrepid DJs, but as a full-length, it might be better with a reorganized tracklist in your iTunes music folder.

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.

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.

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

It takes a few notable risks in composition and rhythmic style, but as is evident from the title, this isn't the new Machinedrum album.

All in all, most every cut on Sam Baker's Album is solid in its own right, but maybe 40 minutes is just too much, considering that the lines which box in the instrumental hip-hop genre become only more clear as the album pushes on.

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.

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.

Plaid's sixth proper studio album, Scintilli, is hard to place stylistically, but nonetheless offers plenty of enjoyable head-scratching moments, along with a straight-up tune or two.

For those on the outside of that process, fans who are frantically trying to connect the missing links of Iradelphic's lineage with its beloved forefathers, more apt descriptors might be "unexpected," "unfamiliar," and "unfulfilling."

Perhaps the album's only major drawback is its lack of jaw-dropping "wow" moments. It's as though 100% Publishing is almost a little too consistent.

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.

Track after track of nostalgia-inducing pastiche that, though a bit self-referential—they're almost dance tracks about dance tracks--somehow sound fresh. They’re effective both as exercises in the power of memory and as compelling club cuts in their own right.

Such uplift from dread makes Strange Weather a fitting party record for our age when so many American Dreams, lived and fantasized, are falling apart. Pass the bottle.

Despite clocking in at under 15 minutes, the plethora of ideas Teengirl Fantasy displays on Nun shows that the pair is unwilling to rest on its laurels and ultimately represents a bold step forward.

Cooly G is still present here, but maybe she's a bit too present to fully elicit the kind of seduction she's singing about.

This is functional, workmanlike music built out of sturdy analog technology. For home listening and for the club, this is useful music to have around.

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