"Bucky Done Gun (Billion Dollar DJs Remix for Kicks)"
by M.I.A.
(myspace.com/billiondollardjs)

The musical data stream is all glut, all the time, so I usually don't mind being a little bit behind on things. (Not like I, or anyone else, will ever be fully caught up, nor that it would be especially better for us if we were, but you know, I do try.) But I'm further behind than usual. For example, this has been floating around on the web since at least July. Billion Dollar DJs are a Brit electro duo, and what they do with the most hurricane-like track off M.I.A.'s debut is make it sound like a glow-in-the-dark slot machine. Neon synths light up with every stiff, slashing chord, and they illuminate the singer from within.

"One Pure Thought (Supermayer Remix)"
by Hot Chip
(EMI)

And I mean way further behind: I only recently became acquainted with this, though it came out in March, way before the Cologne, Germany, duo—Kompakt majordomo Michael Mayer and label star Superpitcher—headlined Decibel. In two ways I wasn't expecting it: Usually these guys' remixes are lush, which this is anything but. And it's as bare-knuckled as any dance groove this year, but it isn't minimal techno: It sounds instead like a 99 Records tribute, Supermayer cutting away every stray sinew off the bones of a clackety guitar-bass tandem and isolating the tensest hi-hat ever picked up by digital signaling.

"No Epiphany"
by Fucked Up
(Matador)

And now for something more recent: This Toronto punk sextet manages a neat trick here—psychedelic hardcore, music that elevates you to the astral plane and throws you right into the middle of the pit at the exact same time. The intro is so dawn-over-the-mountains that once, when this came on at random, I wondered when I put a Boredoms song on my iPod; then Pink Eyes, the band's vocalist, comes in sounding like Mr. Drano and we're right in the gutter again.