Best Dance/Electronic CDs of 2004

On his first full-length, this NYC hermit yields the most soft and tender minimal techno ever, and it’s not for the dance floor. Spliced and diced found sounds of everyday life click and clatter around your sedated head while submerged 4/4 beats chug gently beneath emotional blankets of delicate melodies. People Places & Things brings together the heart-gushing of My Bloody Valentine, the dissonance of Process, the cuteness of ISAN and the playfulness of Matthew Herbert. Serene and profoundly touching.

Step aside, Villalobos. Coming through, Hawtin. Meet the new champion of minimal techno: Robag Wruhme. He’s suddenly everywhere, and his self-released debut offers everything that us tiny tech lovers hanker for: floor-killing 4/4, quirkiness and downtempo headiness. Wuzzelbud "KK" is a goofball masterpiece loaded with bugged-out digital effects, spliced samples that poke your ears, and cartoonish playfulness that only the forward-thinking music buffs can appreciate.

L.A.’s Tejada finally puts the synthesizers on the backburner to concentrate on quirky sound processing. Each dancefloor ditty shuffles and throbs with deep sub-bass and well-polished clarity -- three of ’em blessed with the voices of Kimi Recor (Invisibles), Jimmy Tamborello (Dntel, The Postal Service) and Carl A. Finlow (Random Factor, Silicon Scally). Minimal techno is the IDM of today.

Toronto’s prolific techno pacemaker likes his synthesized, mechanical sounds distorted, gritty and ear-numbingly abrasive. Here you get 10 vigorous dancefloor smashers that shuffle and drive in the vein of Reinhard Voigt and the Kompakt label -- except Fairley sings in a Brit-poppin’ style, making this a techno album for the punk at heart.

Everything never fails to dish out smooth, sophisticated dance music for just about everybody. On Light Of Day, the Montreal maestro integrates elements of nu-jazz, reggae, Latin, electro and funk amid a solid deep house vibe. With vocal input from Roy Davis Jr., DJ Heather, Joseph Malik and others, the tracks are elegant and sensual. Ultimately, it’s the sweet, sexy serenades that get ya.

All that cuddly bliss and electronic cuteness -- Darla just couldn’t resist licensing Sal for the U.S. (It came first out on Spain’s Elefant label in 2002.) The Argentinean trio keeps it soft and charming. Ethereal vocalist Isol croons beautifully in Spanish atop minimal rhythms, glitches and fluff, leaving you somewhere between downhearted angst and heavenly liberation.

Damn. The Chilean Berliner just can’t stop. Villalobos’ light 4/4 pulsations and syncopated rhythms are thin, heady and, once you lose yourself in it, downright journey-inducing. Each piece is long-winded, gurgling with sub-bass and morphs ever so gently. Minimal techno for people on LSD.

Traditional samples and drum machine patterns be damned, dB embraces found sounds and field recordings on his slow, deep, swingy minimal techno debut. A pulsating kick drum is buried under dirty tones, pricks, pops, clanks and clatter perfectly arranged for a stoned head trip.

He calls it "laptop folk." Chicago’s Greg Davis subtly interweaves acoustic ditties with disorderly drones, field recordings and glitches sparsely doused with his own Brian Wilson-like vocals. Laid back and charming, Davis’ tunes combine the pop-glitch of label-mate Marumari, the psych-folk of Incredible String Band and the unpredictability of John Cage.

Montreal’s Scott Monteith (a.k.a. Deadbeat) and Steve Beaupré incorporate disarming samples of twangy bottleneck guitar and blues harmonica their floor-pumping goofiness. Remixes by The Mole, EGG and Mike Shannon (all Canadians) boost the 11-tracker even further -- showing us that Montreal, home of the Mutek Festival, is a place we better keep an eye on.