While it's obvious that Hicks and Hall know their way around both sound- and songcraft, they rarely--if ever--use those skills to sound like anything but a band even the most casual synth-pop fan would be familiar with.

Light Asylum is the product of two very talented purists whose focus on a particularly stylish bygone era has actually surpassed its roots to sound unexpectedly modern.

The obvious influences lend more to remembering old favorites than to finding new ones, yet Dinowalrus' album should appeal to fans of no-wave's vintage aesthetic.

The Rapture's latest is both a welcome and necessary addition to its relatively small discography, a record the band should be both proud of and content to leave as the final chapter of its existence. At least until they come back again.

Seams' sonic details are most potent when allowed to sink in undisturbed.

While there very well could be a single or two from this record that eventually does break through to join the current wave of club crossover hits, Glow, as an album, does not live up to its promise, regardless of whether it's evaluated in "mainstream" or "underground" terms.

When the strings rise into the mix as the song comes to a perfectly timed close, it's readily apparent that oOoOO's patience and time spent growing as a producer and a songwriter has paid off tremendously.

Considering Saul's reputation and pedigree, crafting a largely non-dancefloor album under a pseudonym is a brave move, but one that Getting Closer arguably vindicates.

While it's not an impeccable album, Ada's Meine Zarten Pfoten (German for "my tender paws") does offer some pretty exciting experimentation and a few really great pop songs.

Altogether, Gordian is a solid listen and another LP that upholds Cosmin TRG's deserved reputation as an inventive producer whose output continues to remain dependable.

Instead of straight hip-hop, The Colossus is an omnibus record, swallowing brass-wielding collaborators, live instruments, hand-aged beats, and its creator's voice—all in service of a mission to unify RJ's pet genres via horn-blasted statements of intent fit for rollicking arenas ("Let There Be Horns"), menacing synthesizer pit traps ("A Spaceship For Now"), and intricate instrumentals.

The resulting album is light and breezy.

Its blander additions aside, more often than not, Woolfy vs. Projection's latest proves to be a refreshing recess from the dancefloor, a lazy LP recorded in the Northern California woods that's as cozy as it is otherworldly.

LISm remains a particularly mesmerizing listen, traveling through an impressively wide range of sounds and seamlessly blending them into a unified compostion.

For those interested in zany experimentalism, Black Dice's latest is a welcome addition to a long line of solid releases, but for those who have never been awed by this brand of cacophony, Mr. Impossible offers little besides noise.

The resulting album, which has been 18 months in the making, is certainly more complicated, although not more sophisticated than previous work.

Now and then, Wolf will offer thoughtful contemplations surrounded by muted chimes and generous xylophone twinkles, but if it's a matter of Wolf's work being particularly groundbreaking, then we'd urge him to think before taking the red-eye.

While this is a challenging, compelling record from a singular producer, it is a less exploratory effort than we've come to expect from her.

The duo has delivered something that is listenable and enjoyable while sustaining an overarching concept with great capability.

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.

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

In collecting the a-sides from both of his 2012 singles and propping them up with another half-hour's worth of songs, Airhead's debut full-length only makes that stylistic restlessness more frustrating.

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.

In the end, Heliosphere is everything a techno LP should be, an effort that's not only a platform for delivering established sounds, but also an avenue for revealing new sides of the artist's production abilities and imagination.

This is ripe, modern disco that's commercial enough to lure suburbanites into Target and skeezy enough to entertain smack addicts (as seen in the tune's music video).