Ratatat - LP4 (2010)

New York-based experimental duo Ratatat probably makes the weirdest music I have ever heard. Their instrumentals resemble sound mosaics, recorded and arranged beyond any musical style or convention. On LP4 they mix such contradictive genres as French house with cheesy 80's metal guitars and classical string orchestra arrangements with afro funk breaks. Ratatat tear pop music as we know it into shreds, just to put the pieces back together and finally turn its dynamics upside down again. Brilliant!

1.) Bilar

2.) Drugs

3.) Neckbrace

4.) We Can't Be Stopped

5.) Bob Gandhi

6.) Mandy

7.) Mahalo

8.) Party With Children

9.) Sunblock

10.) Bare Feast

11.) Grape Juice City

12.) Alps

Flying Lotus - Cosmogramma (2010)

The first thing to be said about Cosmogramma is that it is, in any aspect, an album which is way ahead of its time. In fact, it is probably the most futuristic record I have heard since Radiohead's Kid A (no surprise Thom Yorke contributed a vocal track on this one). Flying Lotus' genius Steve Allison blends all kinds of musical genres into a complex, multilayered masterpiece: Hip Hop, House and Free Jazz just to name some of them. The result sounds strangely accessible and organic, considering such an insane effort. In a recent interview the artist himself described his work as an experimental space opera, which pretty much sums up what the album sounds like: Pop music for the 23rd century.

1.) Clock Catcher

2.) Pickled!

3.) Nose Art

4.) Intro/A Cosmic Drama

5.) Zodiac Shift

6.) Computer Face/Pure Being

7.) ...And the World Laughs With You

8.) Arkestry

9.) Mmmhmm

10.) Do the Astral Plane

11.) Satelllliiiiteee

12.) German Haircut

13.) Recoiled

14.) Dance of the Pseudo Nymph

15.) Drips/Auntie's Harp

16.) Table Tennis

17.) Galaxy in Janaki

Boxcutter - Oneiric (2006)

Somewhere between dancefloor and armchair, Northern Irish genius Barry Lynn a.k.a. Boxcutter found his niche. Lynn fuses intelligent dance music with dubstep, resulting in eccentric sound collages. The whole album is a dreamlike, stunningly beautiful experience and definately worth a listen if you enjoy experimental electronica.

1.) Tauhid

2.) Grub

3.) Skuff'd

4.) Gave Dub

5.) Brood

6.) Mossy

7.) Rikta

8.) Sunshine V.I.P.

9.) Bad You Do

10.) Silver Birch Solstice

11.) Hyloz

12.) Chlorophyll

Death From Above 1979 - You're A Woman, I'm A Machine (2004) + Remixes

The most impressive thing about Toronto-based Death From Above is that the band only consists of two people. The sheer fury of Sebastian Grainger's  napalm drum beats in combination with  Jesse Keeler's  fuzzy, heavily distorted razorblade basslines sounds like a whole army rocking out. This album fuses punk and dance music to 100% pure in-your-face badassery. 

One year after You're A Woman I'm A Machine DFA released a similarly impressive album with Romance Bloody Romance which features 13 remixes  by a variety of very distinct artists, including Queens of the Stone-Age's Josh Homme and EdBanger poster-child Justice.

Venetian Snares - Rossz Scillag Allat Szuletett (2005)

Canadian electro wizard Aaron Funk aka Venetian Snares got the inspiration for his 2005 album during a trip to Hungary. Therefore most of the samples used on the record belong to classical Hungarian compositions. Funk drowns walls of paranoid string arrangements (he learned to play the violin for this) in shitstorms of  hurricane breakbeats and his trademark hardcore drumpatterns. Though almost inacessible at times, the result is an evil, dark as fuck electronic masterpiece.

1.) Sikertelenség

2.) Szerencsétlen

3.) Öngyilkos Vasárnap

4.) Felbomlasztott Mentökosci

5.) Hajnal

6.) Galamb Egyedül

7.) Második Galamb

8.) Szamár Madár

9.) Hiszékeny

10.) Kétsarkú Mozgalom

11.) Senki Dala

The Bloody Beetroots - I Love the Bloody Beetroots (2006)

The Bloody Beetroots is a solo project of the Italian DJ Cornelius Rifo and Tommy Tea. Their first EP "I Love the Bloody Beetroots" sounds like a ton of TNT being dropped on a razorblade factory. Merciless killer synthies and kick-ass beats in the style of Justice and late Daft Punk make this record an electronic inferno.

1.) Mac Mac

2.) Pour un rasage de très près et un confort absolu!!

3.) Harvest Time

4.) Ezekiel Eats Red Hoodie

5.) Public Enemy

6.) Rotten Pick 2007

7.) Bluto Fucks Popeye

8.) I Love the Bloody Beetroots