Audion - Suckfish

2005; 11 tracks

Audion is Matthew Dear, a minimalistic techno musician from Detroit. Suckfish is his first and only full-length. The music of Audion is slightly on the abrasive side, but I like it a lot.

Download.

Lucy - Wordplay for Working Bees

2011; 11 tracks

This is the debut full-length album of Luca Mortellaro, a very talented young artist of electronic and techno music. His first EP, Open House, was released in 2007, and he has since been featured on numerous mixes and a prominent member of the underground techno scene.

Wordplay for Working Bees is a cerebral album, to be sure, but it is penetrating in its darkness. I've never called the genre of "techno" a favorite, but this particular brand of techno, sometimes edging on idm, is beautiful. This is definitely one of my favorite new albums of 2011, and I'm excited to see what else Lucy creates.

"The album often swings wildly from gorgeous interludes to foreboding atmospheres, where low frequencies bud and spore spontaneously. The beats are rarely predictable, sometimes not even danceable... That's not to say that Wordplay is all downcast weather and ruminative rumblings: The album's pumping midsection can be just as suffocating as it is warmly embracing, particularly the hissing field of locusts that surrounds the floating breakbeat in 'Bein' or the aural cement mixer that grounds 'Lav.'

Wordplay's defining feature is its immense and overwhelming sound design. Texture dominates over structure and rhythm. While definitely not an ambient album, it's easy enough to get lost in what's happening in or around the beats. It's something that anyone who loves electronic music, sound and sound manipulation, can fall in love with; when those microscopic fireworks burst blazing out of the percussion on 'Gas,' no one's going to care about time signatures or genre conventions. As techno continues to suffer through a bipolar identity crisis, fractured down the middle between minimal and, well, not minimal, it's producers like Lucy that prove just how far beyond those arbitrary boundaries the medium can be extended."

Download.

Le Le - Marble EP

2009; 6 tracks

This is a fun and interesting EP from the popular electronic/techno group Le Le, consisted of Dutch artists P. Fabergé (of De Jeugd Van Tegenwoordig), Piet Parra (the man who designed the cover of this and other Le Le albums, is also a fairly well-known designer/illustrator) and Rimeroni Vumani. It may not be as fully realized as their album Flage but the variety of European funk/techno styles is still present and as entertaining as ever. Woohoo for LE LE *heart*

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DJ Pica Pica Pica (光光光) - Planetary Natural Love Gas Webbin' 19999

1999; 26 tracks

DJ Pica Pica Pica, or DJ 光光光, is the solo moniker of Yamantaka Eye, of the popular Japanese noise rock group Boredoms. This album is a collage of schizophrenic sounds from every genre of every country in every world. It would seem that this album is a recipe for chaos, but the effect is overall very catchy and awe-inspiring. It's hard to describe something like this eloquently (not that I'm very good at doing that in the first place), so I'll just say this: try it!

Download.

Le Le - Flage

2009; 15 tracks

Lyrics in English, Dutch, French, German, musicians from the highest reaches of heaven... this album is fucking beyond belief. The motherfucking sexy ass motherfucker Faberyayo and his doppelgangers collaborate to create a managerie of dirty electro house disco funk rap techno dance music that is MINDBLOWING. There is honestly nothing better than Flaaaaaaaaaaaaaaage.

Bonjour je m'appelle Jean Pierre le douche

COLTEMONIKHA - COLTEMONIKHA

2009; 7 tracks

Last night I started listening to Coltemonikha and thought it was a Capsule/Perfume clone (the man from Capsule is actually in Coltemonikha) but... I was wrong :3 This mini-album is actual proof that Japan has some of the most amazing electro/technopop in the entire world. I think the reason for this is the cute vocals (Listen to "Communication"), and of course the wonderful Capsule-like electronics in the background. This is a really cute, fun, and endearing album.

Oh my god!