Frank Bretschneider & Peter Duimelinks: Fflux (Korm Plastics) - CD
It's Frank! Frank means funky! Despite working within the rigid templates laid down by the roster of the Raster-Noton crew (he's a founding member). I've always found Frank's work to possess a dancefloor sensibility. On this collaboration with Rotterdam's Peter Duimelinks they take minimalist loops through textural deconstruction.

Opener 'Knox' is so groovy, it'll propel you: sub merged bass and short-wave frequencies do battle against rhythmic pointillism. 'Prax' has more than a hint of Pole about it, with its fluttery patterns and weightlessness. My only complaint? It all runs far too short at just over 30 minutes. A follow up record would be a solution.

Various: The World is Gone (XL / Various) - CD
Anyone who's been within the walls of a decent record store during 2006 can't have failed to miss their startling series of 7's. Adorned with intricate artwork of captured moments of lust and desire. Add to that, a secretive approach to ego (no interview's, no photo's), resulted in a music that intrigued everyone.

It's obvious that the creators must be blessed with some sort of musical attention deficit disorder. Moving from echo-chamber dub to future folk to binary r'n b with apparent ease. The opening sneer of 'Thunnk' is jarring and immediate, but nothing prepares you for the weightless beauty of 'Circle of sorrow' that follows straight after.

The production is sprightly; spatial awareness via a mix of markedly different vocal styles, tender instrumentation and propulsive electronic melodies. It's future pop made from broad brush strokes with dubstep's influence providing them with their unique sound.

At a time when the iPod generation have de-valued the long player, along comes one that reconfigures the very definition.

Someday all pop music will sound like this.

Various Artists: Elektronische - Interkontinental 5 (Traum) - CD
Traum's ever worthy compilation series continues to dazzle with the latest installment. I'm here to filter, so just head straight for the contributions from Adam Kroll (bleep house max) and Ortin Cam (teutonic, chord progression). Also the packaging is so fucking spot on, it hurts.