George FitzGerald – The Let Down/Weakness (Hotflush)
Phew, let’s just take a moment here. Hotflush has consistently kept its head high amidst the sea of pretenders, as it were, rolling out genre-bending gem after gem, making it easy for those of us who are so inclined to get completely sidetracked spouting theory about connections between dubstep and techno and house and two-step, blah blah blah. This record has appeared just in time to save us from our insufferable selves. A serious slice of no-nonsense, back-to-business funk to remind us all of where dance music really belongs: on the dancefloor. I fell head-over-heels in love with “Weakness” when I heard Scuba’s RA podcast a few months ago; while I’d have been ecstatic to see “Don’t You?!” get released with it, “The Let Down” certainly measures up. Perfectly punchy drums team up with warm, bright synths and the occasional filtered vocal, luscious dub techno strolling hand-in-hand with funky two-step, nothing extraneous, flawlessly executed, boy oh boy, what a great f-ing 12”.

Joe – Untitled/Digest (Applepips)
Another consistently quality label, this time bringing us a tasty slab of deconstructed, mellow-yet-uptempo funk. I’m a big fan of the ubiquitous Joe’s stylistic approach; tiny but very organic drum sounds in super-tight programming with big, booming, warm bass. “Untitled” is my pick of the pair; this tune would be just as much at home shaking booties on the dancefloor as it would be smoothing out your summer Sunday afternoon.

LV+Quarta 330 – Hylo/Suzuran rmx (Hyperdub)
I’ve been told on more than one occasion that my videogame-free childhood (my parents virulently denounced them as the ultimate brain-rotting device) is the reason that the “wonky/boogie” style doesn’t capture me nearly as much as it does some of my peers. Mostly I think this is correct, as silly as it seems, but I am certainly able to hear it when those upfront bleepy sounds are really interesting, and this record is it. Leave it to Mr. Kode9 to pick ‘em, of course. Both sides of this record combine that bright, glitchy sensibility with stuttered, uptempo beats and a weird emptiness; we may be listening to the sound of a Nintendo from Jupiter having an existential crisis, but damned if it isn’t funky as hell.

Downliners Sekt – Hello Lonely, Hold The Nation (Disboot)
I’d never heard of this individual (individuals?) before, but rest assured that I will be watching vigilantly for future Downliners Sekt releases. This is the sort of strange music that mostly defies categorization. The best way to describe this EP is that it has the bleak, jagged sensibility of Burial, with The Ghosts of Electronic Music Past drifting feverishly through its veins – indecipherable, androgynous vocals, film samples whose timbre and placement hearken back to hip hop and early jungle – but where Burial’s music is raw, unpolished and deeply emotive, these tunes are polished, intentional and altogether quite inhuman-sounding. In that respect I was reminded by all four of them of the second track on Sigha’s Rawww EP, “Hold Your Heart Up To The Light”- an almost arrhythmic amalgam of ghostly, angular sounds. Though most assuredly not for the dancefloor, “Hello Lonely, Hold The Nation” is an EP of absolutely fascinating music, and this is one thoroughly impressed music nerd.

Addendum:
Hot damn, ASC wrote some electro. (See also the next tune on his Soundcloud, “Against The Grain”.) Of all the people out there making electronic music these days – aside from the obvious choices, and if you’re confused about who I mean by that just scroll down a little – this man has really risen to the top of the ranks in my book. Unique composition/songwriting, immaculate production, I don’t think I’m exaggerating at all in saying that ASC seems to just be a factory for top-notch music. These tunes aren’t out yet; I’m just going to hope that they appear on his forthcoming LP.

Cheers to dBridge, Shed and Ramadanman (as usual) for completely ignoring all genre lines and remixing each other. I didn’t enjoy this record enough to buy it for my collection, but, like HotShore003, it makes me happy to know that it exists and I think it’s significant that people are doing stuff like this. Dubstep, drum and bass, techno, who cares, it’s all electronic music, right?