400 Thousand Miles from Home EP

by the Per Eckbo Orchestra

(Oslo)

At what point did dance culture decide that a 12-inch featuring two songs constituted an EP? Pardon my grouchy old age, but EPs were so named because they were shorter than albums but longer than the A/B single. Take this recent two songer, which I was tempted to label "Kodo Verano"/"Beat Bravo." Whatever you call it, it's worth searching out: another gem in a dazzling recent streak from Guillaume Coutu Dumont, this time collaborating with Federico Molinari, who runs the Oslo label. The masterwork is "Kodo Verano," nearly 10 minutes of straight-up four-four beat and woozily bounding bass, spray-painted with new cross-rhythms every few minutes, like a cross between Ricardo Villalobos's percussion-heavy recent work and Akufen's playful use of where'd-that-come-from found-sound shards.

I Can't Fight the Feeling EP

by Tobias

(Wagon Repair)

Now this is an EP: four tracks, the title one first, covering 26 minutes. Two of them are given the unpromising titles "Beat Study One" and "Two," though the first is probably my favorite thing on here (and the second my least favorite). The sound is so basic, it almost isn't believable: The layers of sound on "I Can't Fight the Feeling" build in stacks, like kids' blocks—the multitracked and echoed woman intoning the song's title all but obliterates the papery machine snare and dead-eyed bass pulse, and its acid filtering is deliberately rudimentary. Concentrate on it long enough, and you'll see stars. Whether he's essaying acid or electro (or, as on "Beat Study One," combining them), Tobias strips everything wire thin and then sends it hurtling down a long, dark tunnel on a long, dark night.

"Wakefield"

by Rndm

(Dial)

This is a compilation track, found via the techno blog Little White Earbuds' June Top 10 (as were the other records here). This features two samples from a heavily filtered, male falsetto vocal laced over an insistent beat and, halfway through, an out-of-nowhere Pac-Man chomp of an acid line; it's minimal like early Chicago house, not current Berlin techno—freaky, and effortless.