Various Speicher CD3 Kompakt
Kompakt is responsible for some of the most textured, melodic techno ever, and Speicher CD3 follows suit threefold. Featuring melters from DJ Koze, Stardiver, John Dhalback, and mixed by The Modernist and Michael Mayer, Speicher 3 is the peak-time bleep-fest champion of the year!

Porn Sword TobaccoNew Exclusive Olympic HeightsCity Centre Offices
With a name like Porn Sword Tobacco, you’d expect Henrik Jonssons’s music to be blisteringly offensive and abrasive. New Exclusive Olympic Heights is neither; it’s ethereal, beautiful, and one of the best ambient records to spring up this year. The name of PST’s game is textured effect flakes and spooky (but catchy) leads that’ll take any listener to the dreamiest place. Harold Budd, who?

R. KellyDouble Up Jive
Handed down by our generous Creative Director Brianna Pope, Double Up has served as the soundtrack to the entire XLR8R domain. The king of R&B has returned with 20 club-friendly hits that cover a range of topics, from being one’s “sexasaurus” to traveling the galaxy in search of a Sex Planet, to declaring flirtations in the VIP. R. Kelly marches to his own beat and that shit hits.

Someone ElsePen Caps and Colored Pencils FoundSound
Philadelphia-based Sean O’Neal (a.k.a. Someone Else) is the newest notch in the click-house belt. Pen Caps and Colored Pencils is his debut LP, and he’s already earned crate time with Steve Bug, Richie Hawtin, and the like. This offering has enough bleeps and bloops to make any Poker Flat artist sound like happy hardcore. For reals.

Future RapperLand of a Thousand Rappers Vol. 1: Fall of the PillarsAsthmatic Kitty
Like any Anticon. artist high on mathematics and painful childhood memories, Future Rapper has come to break some glasses. By all means the nerdiest rapper in the history of music, Future Rapper spills out a mouthful of existential rap-rants over 20 tracks. Land of a Thousand Rappers is a fuzzily produced and over-pronounced piece of geek rap history.

Various Famous When Dead 5 Playhouse
Number five of Playhouse’s venerable comp series simply reinforces this German label’s love affair with dirty, innovative techno and house. Showcasing 12” highlights and unreleased rarities from the likes of Isolée, Rework, and Einzelkind, this comp tastes like too many cigarettes, feels like eight hours of dancing, and sounds outstanding.

Animal CollectiveStrawberry JamDomino
Consistent with the band’s recent trajectory from experimental to pop, Strawberry Jam shows these seminal freak-folkers embrcing quick rhythms, gorgeous Brian Wilson harmonies, and spasmodic, tribal outbursts. The solo projects were pleasant, but we sure are pumped to get back to the real deal.

Turbo FruitsS/TEcstatic Peace
This Be Your Own Pet offshoot makes garage-rock the way it was meant–loose and bluesy, filled with lyrics about smoking dope, and by dudes under the age of 21. Just in time for summer, the sweaty foot stomping has begun.

VariousEccentric Soul: The Prix LabelThe Numero Group
The Eccentric Soul series is all about the backstory. In this latest installation, a yard sale collector stumbles upon a box of tapes that turn out to be an entire collection of demos and unreleased tracks from Columbus, Ohio’s The Prix Label. This is raw, fuzzy, churning soul at its finest.

Justice †Ed Banger
Over-extended hype usually leads to a bit of disappointment around here, but Justice’s first full-length is every bit as squelchy, chopped, and just as killer as we hoped it would be. John Carpenter, Egyptian Lover, and Slayer never new they had so much in common.