An Electronic Renaissance

Ok ... there's so much to love about electronic music at the moment. And I suspect that this may only be the tip of the iceberg. I present for your delectation some of the artists quietly making inroads in this oft maligned genre (IDM has a lot to answer for!). Lets ditch the folktronica in all its hirsute variants and delve into the ice cold waters of synthetic beats:

(i) Darkstar - North

This is at the moment my album of the year. There is something for everyone on this. Anything from cold clattery beats underscored by the essence of base heavy dub to the trip hop stylings of lead single "Gold".

(ii) James Blake - Klavierwerke EP

Ignore the slightly pretentious use of German in the title and the dubious link, by extension, to classical music. The piano features heavily as a bass note but those ghostly vocals (overdubbed and treated to disguis a weak instrument I'm guessing) are a brilliant touch. Lets hope a full album does not bomb!

(iii) oOoOO - Hearts

This one's from the other side of the Atlantic and bears the hallmarks and the measured pace of the burgeoning vinyl sampling scene spearheaded by the likes of Flying Lotus and Delorean. Wait till Kanye jumps on this bandwagon. Its only a matter of time.