There was nothing terribly novel about Roman Flügel's, an album by an electronic veteran issued by one of house music's most established labels, Dial. Instead, it was the perfection of something long in the making: Flügel's versatile take on techno. From the melodic deep house of "How to Spread Lies" to the cosmic effervescence of the aptly titled "Krautus," the only common thread in this album is Flügel's impossibly elegant production technique––something that could just as easily be said of his career overall.

Room(s) [Planet Mu] 02. Machinedrum Room(s) was 2011's greatest feat of assimilation. You could reasonably have concluded that Travis Stewart's ninth full-length as Machinedrum was a distillation of almost every contemporary club genre, or equally, as RA's Andrew Ryce Room(s)'s release and with its drums fully lodged in your psyche, what's evident is that Stewart successfully executed that most difficult of moods in the dance album format—pure, unbridled joy. was 2011's greatest feat of assimilation. You could reasonably have concluded that Travis Stewart's ninth full-length as Machinedrum was a distillation of almost every contemporary club genre, or equally, as RA's Andrew Ryce put it , "a pop album at heart." In either case, it had few analogues, though Stewart's melding of complex rhythm structures with undeniable hooks brought to mind (in spirit at least) the best of LA's Flying Lotus. Six months after's release and with its drums fully lodged in your psyche, what's evident is that Stewart successfully executed that most difficult of moods in the dance album format—pure, unbridled joy.

Track unavailable U Don't Survive





Track unavailable Balance Her in Between Your Eyes

- Nicolas Jaar

at 5 PM, right after I came home from school, probably the most boring time of the day. Or during the summer, when I had nothing to do all day. Just having a nice meal in the morning, maybe reading a nice book and then making some music. It's music that I made from the ages from 17 – 20, so it spans a lot of different time. It wasn't like I sat down for two months and wrote it: it was a three year process.For a while I thought I was going to write my thesis on Henri Bergson, the French philosopher, because I really fell in love with his ideas of time. So I curated the album with those thoughts in mind. But then the album became way too ethereal and I was not OK with that. I wanted it to be grounded in something much dirtier and more disgusting. I wanted it to have something bad inside of it, maybe something evil. When I made the track "Space Is Only Noise If You Can See" the album became more complete. I knew that it needed something like that.I had a deadline with Circus Company of a Thursday, I think, and on that Wednesday night I wrote "Balance Her In Between Your Eyes," which is one of my favorite songs off the album. I wrote it with my computer speakers because my other speakers weren't working. But I guess what I realized this year is that the writing of the album wasn't the writing of the songs. It was the three months I took to turn it into some sort of weird bastard DJ set of the songs I really like. That's something I realized lately more than ever: Just how much of a DJ set I actually saw it as.