A concept album that sticks straitjacket tight to its concept throughout, Shobaleader One: d'Demonstrator is a record of throwback electronic rock, with an R&B edge and synthesized vocals, performed by a hooded band - and if Daft Punk springs to mind, it should. After a record of solo bass (titled Solo Electric Bass, Vol. 1), Squarepusher's Tom Jenkinson soon unveiled his next project: the masked foursome named Shobaleader One. (Jenkinson's claims that the group consists of real people is certainly possible, but the omnipresent masks make one wonder if the producer is playing puppetmaster here.) A combination of stark electro and swinging funk, most tracks featuring vocals, the album will have listeners thinking of Daft Punk one minute and stark '80s television themes the next (read Knight Rider)…

LFO are one of the most influential dance acts to come out of the UK. Signed to Warp over two decades ago on the strength of a few scrappy demos, their sound is still as fresh today as it was in warehouse parties of the early nineties. Frequencies has influenced multiple producers, DJs and bands throughout the years, and the original album charted worldwide and gained Top 40 placement in the UK. It includes the cult dance floor filler ''LFO,'' which achieved a number twelve chart position in the UK. LFO originally released Frequencies in 1991, an album that not only plays a crucial part in Warp's history - but also represents a pivotal moment for the British rave movement.

Boris Brejcha has released his new album Space Diver. The masked German producer and DJ has come a long way from his beginnings in the mid 2000’s. His music has evolved from quirky and glitchy minimal to a more upbeat blend of house, techno and trance, likely reflecting the size of his audiences at shows. Now on his ninth album, Space Diver distills what has been a remarkable run for him over the past several years…

ATB is the alias of progressive house/trance DJ and producer André Tanneberger, a native of Freiberg, Germany, born in 1973. ATB's catchy, vocal-driven singles crossed over from clubs to mainstream pop radio, making him one of the most recognizable artists of trance's late-'90s/early-2000s commercial peak…

As signaled by the March 2014 non-album single "Superscope," Chris Clark opted to turn sharply away from the oft-idyllic, sometimes pastoral sound of his 2012 album Iradelphic and its accompanying Fantasm Planes EP. The producer captioned a trailer for this, his seventh Warp album, with "More Berghain than Guggenheim," referencing Berlin's techno nerve center while alluding to his new material's dancefloor appeal. The majority of Clark indeed supplies numerous robust rhythms that are among his most physical and stimulating. At the same time, the producer applies singular touches, from unpredictable changes in course to treated field recordings - including the sound of a chair scraping a factory floor and stomped snow - that help yield the kind of depth and richness that typify so much of his previous output…

Unlike a lot of DJs and producers whose main goal in life seems to be to fill up hard drives and record bins with their collected output, Jonny Faith took a different route. After spending a few years immersing himself in various styles, hosting a radio show, and working on his own style, and after the release of one lone EP in 2011, his debut album, Sundial, finally came out in 2015. Throwing all his dub, hip-hop, techno, and quiet storm influences together and mixing them liberally, Faith comes up with a unified work that flows from gently unspooling ambient soundscapes to shuddering hip-hop beats, from intricate melodic patterns to sundazed mellow jams, all the while displaying a knack for creating a mood that's hard to shake long after the record is over…

Most Porcupine Tree fans already know this, but lead guitarist Steven Wilson is also a keen experimental artist, although he keeps that facet of his activities well separated from his progressive rock career. Starting in 1994, Steven Wilson began solo recordings described as "experiments in texture," resulting in his work under the name Bass Communion.
Even though the amount of material he recorded would strain most musicians' lifetime abilities, a listen to this fine release again compounds the regret that Bryn Jones hadn't lived to do more. The matching of two inspired, self-contained musicians like Jones and Steven Wilson turned out to be a dream collaboration, with both bringing their similiarly wide scope but different aesthetic senses to the drawing board…

Versus is a long-gestating audio document of the collaboration between Detroit techno luminary Carl Craig, pianist Francesco Tristano, and French orchestra Les Siècles, conducted by François-Xavier Roth. All the aforementioned musicians (along with Germany's Moritz von Oswald, who serves as "spiritual advisor" for this recording) premiered Versus on-stage in 2008, reportedly to five standing ovations. Instead of taking the easy way out and just releasing a recording of the concert, Craig and company spent nearly a decade working on this album, taking full advantage of the capabilities of the recording studio. The orchestrations are rich and expressive yet intricate and fine-tuned, and they provide a hefty kick when necessary…

Sofa Sessions presents Solid Berlin Chill-Out Vol. 2: Five Star Relaxing Deep House Lounge, Minimal Ambient Dub Techno. Klartraum, Dub Taylor, Aashya, Gabriel Le Mar, DreamAwaken and others.