John Talabot's early work always gave you a feeling he'd make sense as an album artist. His predisposition for sunny melodies and slow burning chug seemed equally to suit downtime as party-time. However, it's unlikely even his most enthusiastic fans could have predicted just how perfectly he'd nail his debut full-length. Blending disco shimmer, melancholic house and indie song craft,won hearts and minds from all corners of the musical landscape. All too often electronic LPs feel like an anonymous gaggle of club singles.is the exact opposite. It's a house music album that demands to be listened to in its entirety.

RIP [Honest Jon's] 02. Actress Splazsh, our fourth favorite LP from 2010, showed him plunging weirder, murkier depths than any of his records up to that point. Two years later, RIP makes Splazsh look conventional. This time he's coloring way outside the lines, boiling down his odd productions into abstract little vignettes, many of which drift in and out with no real beginning, middle or end. There are morsels of familiarity—hi-hats, chugging beats, a ghostly voice here and there—but its oddest moments are often its best. With every album, Darren Cunningham takes it a little bit further., our fourth favorite LP from 2010, showed him plunging weirder, murkier depths than any of his records up to that point. Two years later,makeslook conventional. This time he's coloring way outside the lines, boiling down his odd productions into abstract little vignettes, many of which drift in and out with no real beginning, middle or end. There are morsels of familiarity—hi-hats, chugging beats, a ghostly voice here and there—but its oddest moments are often its best.

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, a collaboration between Italian techno guru Donato Dozzy and his close associate (and preferred mastering engineer) Neel , moves in mysterious ways, but its effects are undeniable. Light as its touch may be, it grabbed us like no other album released this year.Coaxing us in with a cool breeze and a hint of a beat, Dozzy and Neel's masterpiece offered beleaguered techno fiends a musical refuge—an old-growth forest of sound for contemplation, exploration, transcendence, maybe even dancing. (If the latter wasn't immediately apparent on headphones, it was when the duo stretched these shamanic grooves out into the wee hours during live sets over the course of the year.) Where so much music in 2012 came off like an argument,lived outside of time and invited listeners to do the same. It's a sanctuary we returned to all year, and it's doubtful we'll be padlocking the gate anytime soon.