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<title>Top Leftfield/IDM Artists on Rhapsody Online</title>
<dateCreated>Fri Jan 01 15:47:33 PST 2010</dateCreated>
<dateModified>Fri Jan 01 15:47:33 PST 2010</dateModified>
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<outline type="include" text="Owl City" description="Minnesota's Adam Young is a study in contradictions. Citing musical inspiration from the likes of Boards of Canada, Prefuse 73 and Sigur Ros, the vegetarian insomniac also claims God, G-rated movies and optimism as real-world influences. Left unsaid in either list are both Postal Services -- the government agency that delivers mail, and the group featuring Ben Gibbard and Dntel. But the latter's lush, electronic emo is a definitive influence on Owl City's own brightly hued, shiver-inducing electro-pop ditties, while the former symbolizes Young's epistolary approach, with every song sounding like a page ripped from his journal and zipped cross-country to a lovelorn crush. On Owl City's debut EP, &lt;I&gt;Of June&lt;/I&gt;, Young sang of floating in space in a set that referenced cruise ships, airplanes and nonstop modern motion, sounding at once thrilled with distance and nostalgic for a simpler, stay-at-home lifestyle. He came into his own style with &lt;I&gt;Maybe I'm Dreaming&lt;/I&gt;, which found him fleshing out his delicate, catchy sound with acoustic guitars and more intricate songwriting. This is the sound of being young, in love and 110% alive.
- Philip Sherburne" category="Electropop" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/owl-city/data.opml?rws=%2Felectronica-dance%2Fleftfield-idm%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="3OH!3" description="While Denver's Flobots were crafting organic, conscious hip-hop, their state-mates in the duo 3OH!3 had a different inspiration in mind: crunk. You might never have suspected that the style reached all the way to Colorado, but the dudes in 3OH!3 -- Sean Foreman and Nathaniel Motte -- clearly have established a Dirty South outpost up in the Rockies. 3OH!3's name reps their 303 area code, but it might also reference the famous Roland TB-303 bass synthesizer. Overdriven analog gear abounds in their music, which folds together electro, emo and hip-hop to create a high-intensity fusion that, in retrospect, was almost inevitable.
&lt;P&gt;
3OH!3's big break came at the Denver stop of 2007's Warped Tour; their strong showing got them booked to play the entire nationwide tour in 2008. The same year, they signed to the Atlantic subsidiary Photo Finish and released their debut album, &lt;I&gt;Want&lt;/I&gt;. For all the aggression in their songs, there's a wink and a smile behind the sneer, which makes sense given their punk roots: punks don't take anything too seriously, after all. Not even crunk.
&lt;/P&gt;" category="Electropop" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/3oh3/data.opml?rws=%2Felectronica-dance%2Fleftfield-idm%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Depeche Mode" description="Depeche Mode will forever be '80s icons thanks to their role in helping invent synth-pop as we know it. But unlike so many of their peers, they've remained both active and relevant. From their earliest days with Vince Clarke (before he left for Yaz, then Erasure), Depeche Mode took a spindly, synth-pop sound and filled it out with touches of techno, industrial, Americana and modern rock. Principal songwriter Martin Gore and his bandmates fuse classic pop songcraft with productions that keep pace with advances in music technology; lead singer Dave Gahan's dramatic delivery, meanwhile, has helped their songs of loss and redemption become pop-culture touchstones, covered by everyone from Tori Amos to Marilyn Manson. It's easy to chart the overall arc of the band's career, from its minimalist, electro-pop beginnings to the swelling pop yearning of &lt;I&gt;Music for the Masses&lt;/I&gt; and on to the dark extravagance of albums like &lt;I&gt;Violator&lt;/I&gt; and &lt;I&gt;Exciter&lt;/I&gt;. But an abundance of alternate versions and remixes has produced a messy canon. For many fans, that's half the fun: Depeche Mode's B-sides make for a fascinating alternative history of these alt-rock heroes.
- Philip Sherburne" category="Synth Pop" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/depeche-mode/data.opml?rws=%2Felectronica-dance%2Fleftfield-idm%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="MGMT" description="MGMT (pronounced Management) are a restless electronic-rock duo. The two members -- Andrew VanWyngarden and Ben Goldwasser -- came together in 2002 while attending Wesleyan University in Connecticut as art students. In 2005, they released the catchy synth scrum &quot;Time to Pretend,&quot; which became an underground hit and led to their being signed by Columbia Records. Their debut, &lt;i&gt;Oracular Spectacular&lt;/i&gt;, a collection of sweeping, electronic Flaming Lips-style noise-pop songs, was released in 2007. Critical and popular accolades for the band reached a high at the CMJ Music Marathon a few weeks after the album's release. A tour alongside Of Montreal and a remix from Justice helped the band continue to merge its twin tendencies towards psychedelic pop and electro.
- Philip Sherburne" category="Electropop" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/mgmt/data.opml?rws=%2Felectronica-dance%2Fleftfield-idm%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="The Ting Tings" description="Glitzy and sassy with a DIY spin, the Ting Tings are for hipsters who aren't ashamed to unfold their arms, clap along and bust a move. Based at Islington Mill, a former cotton spinning mill near Manchester turned art and recording space, the Brit twosome of Katie White and Jules De Martino started playing off-the-cuff performances for their friends. Word spread, and their impromptu sessions became the hottest ticket in Manchester. Major labels quickly took notice, and they were signed to Columbia Records. Even before releasing their debut album, &lt;I&gt;We Started Nothing&lt;/I&gt;, in May 2008, the Ting Tings got a boost of exposure from an iTunes ad featuring the song &quot;Shut Up and Let Me Go.&quot; With White providing a feisty bite of snotty shouts and sharp guitar and De Martino offering an inventive mix of chopped beats and quirky effects, the two unite a sound that draws from indie party bands such as Bloc Party and CSS while taking cues from garage rock groups like the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and the Kills.
- Stephanie Benson" category="Alt Dance" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/the-ting-tings/data.opml?rws=%2Felectronica-dance%2Fleftfield-idm%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="M.I.A." description="When she was little, Maya Arulpragasam, aka M.I.A., probably had no idea she'd grow up to become an underground dancehall sensation. Her father was a resistance figure in the Sri Lankan independence struggle, and Arulpragasam's family was forced to leave Sri Lanka -- for their safety -- when she was nine years old. But after growing up in a London housing estate and studying film, Arulpragasam's life changed when she picked up a Roland MC-505 for the first time and started composing songs. Skillfully weaving street slang with geo-politics, nonsense rhymes with low-tech dancehall riddims, Arulpragasam's angular, low-tech sound has struck a chord. Her debut, &lt;i&gt;Arular&lt;/i&gt;, was released in 2005.
- Sarah Bardeen" category="Electronica/Dance" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/mia/data.opml?rws=%2Felectronica-dance%2Fleftfield-idm%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="The Postal Service" description="As crazy as it sounds, the two creative minds behind the Postal Service (Jimmy Tamborello and Ben Gibbard) never met before working together. It seems Tamborello, a Death Cab For Cutie fan, asked its lead singer to come to L.A. and record vocals for his Dntel project, and Gibbard did! Of course, it probably helped that Tamborello's roomie is Pedro Benito from the Jealous Sound; either way, this initial meeting of musical minds was the genesis of the Postal Service. The two continued to collaborate for the better part of ten months, each mailing the other songs to add parts to, until all ten tracks for their debut album were completed. Inspired by their creative process, the duo dubbed themselves the Postal Service. Sub Pop released the 1980s-influenced fruits of their labor under the title &lt;I&gt;Give Up&lt;/I&gt; in early 2003.
- Linda Ryan" category="Indie/Alternative" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/the-postal-service/data.opml?rws=%2Felectronica-dance%2Fleftfield-idm%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Bjork" description="Bjork is hard to pin down and trace. Pointing to her pre-solo incarnations as a jazz singer, a Crass Records punk and an international indie-pop star with the Sugarcubes only shows a fraction of her depth. Since her &lt;I&gt;Debut&lt;/I&gt;, in 1993, she has created a symbiosis between academic music and pop, her hands holding a score by Karlheinz Stockhausen while her feet dance to the faceless sounds of rave culture. Masterfully, her music never flies out into obscurity or stoops to obviousness. Working with innovative producers and remixers, such as Nellee Hooper, Howie B., Mark Bell, Matmos and, most recently, Timbaland, she has been able to consistently change strategies, keeping her sound contemporary, gently nudging at the edges of the mainstream. While she takes these adventurous turns through her career, her versatile voice is unmistakable. She displays wide emotional range from the contained rage of &quot;Army of Me&quot; to the explosive joy of &quot;It's Oh So Quiet&quot; to the ethereal bliss of &quot;All Is Full of Love.&quot; While her music is always challenging, her fine art and screen side-projects are equally thought-provoking. For the Palme D'Or-winning Lars Von Trier film &lt;i&gt;Dancer In the Dark&lt;/i&gt;, she won a Best Actress award for her leading role at Cannes in 2000. She would later collaborate with long-time boyfriend and fine art star Matthew Barney on the eerie and indulgent film &lt;i&gt;Drawing Restraint 9&lt;/i&gt;.
- Marc Kate" category="Post-Modern Pop" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/bjork/data.opml?rws=%2Felectronica-dance%2Fleftfield-idm%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Passion Pit" description="Tripped-out samples culled from around the world and then sped up, high-register vocals that recall the Danielson Famile, the whole spectrum of electronic percussion, fat club synthesizers, a subtle but undeniable prog-rock feel -- Passion Pit are damn near the weirdest band ever to come out of Cambridge, Mass. Formed in 2007, the five-piece electronic dance-pop subversives made an immediate splash in critics' polls on the strength of the inescapably fun, oddly exotic &quot;Sleepyhead&quot; and &quot;Better Things,&quot; which takes the giddy happiness of Stevie Wonder's &quot;Sir Duke&quot; and presumably shoves steroids down its throat. The band debuted on wax in 2008 with the &lt;i&gt;Chunk of Change&lt;/i&gt; EP. A full-length, &lt;i&gt;Manners&lt;/i&gt;, followed a year later, with Passion Pit making the successful crossover into the world of TV ads (PlayStation) and appearances (in the U.K., anyway)." category="Electropop" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/passion-pit/data.opml?rws=%2Felectronica-dance%2Fleftfield-idm%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Aphex Twin" description="Aphex Twin follows Newton's Third Law: For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Describing his music becomes a web of contradictions. For every violent and vitriolic &quot;Come to Daddy,&quot; there is an absurd children's song such as &quot;Milkman.&quot; For every acid anthem (&quot;Digeridoo&quot;), there is a frazzled complex of rhythms (&quot;INKEY$&quot;). For every surging, grinning dance track such as &quot;Donkey Rhubarb,&quot; there is the near stillness of &quot;Weathered Stone&quot; or &quot;Parallel Stripes.&quot; A track-by-track breakdown may not equate a balance of yin and yang, but throughout his career as Aphex Twin, AFX, Caustic Window, Polygon Window, the Dice Man and countless other pseudonyms, Richard D. James has created what is perhaps the widest spectrum of electronic sound by a single artist.
- Marc Kate" category="Leftfield/IDM" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/aphex-twin/data.opml?rws=%2Felectronica-dance%2Fleftfield-idm%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Royksopp" description="There was a time when A-Ha carried the mantle of globally-successful Norwegian bands, but the arrival of Royksopp's Torbjorn Brundtland and Svein Berge inspired a whole new generation of melodic electronica, making Norway, and Scandinavia in general, the go-to place for hopeful A&amp;R scouts looking for a new sound. And what a sound: gorgeous pop melodies layered over long-forgotten bits of old electronic equipment (no doubt chipped free from the very ice floes that influenced Royksopp's intimate yet sparse soundscapes). &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt; Torbjorn and Svein met at the age of 12, and began their musical career performing Kraftwerk covers for friends. Naming themselves Aedena Cycle, they started creating their own ambient sounds reflecting their love for King Crimson, Brian Eno and the Orb -- influences that would continue to show as their production capabilities matured. Briefly joining Those Norwegians, Torbjorn sharpened his house sensibilities, and then the two friends formed Royksopp, releasing &quot;So Easy&quot; and signed soon thereafter by Wall of Sound. Their debut album, &lt;I&gt;Melody AM&lt;/I&gt;, was a slow-burner that generated huge word of mouth and massive sales until even your postman could be heard whistling &quot;Poor Leno&quot; and &quot;Eple.&quot; The music was a curious combination of electronica, downtempo, folk and pop -- catchy melodies and fun, uplifting beats that were especially needed in the overly po-faced prog house days at the beginning of the millennium. Global tours followed, accompanied by a number of award-winning and highly creative videos. Remixing requests started to come in, and soon it was possible to detect a specific Royksopp sound: the warmth of a good melody combined with a sparse clinical and washy Arctic rhythmic backdrop. Clearly not wanting to be pigeonholed, their next release, 2005's &lt;I&gt;The Understanding&lt;/I&gt;, had a different feel and employed new vocalists (even using their own on some tracks), but their love of prog rock, especially the Alan Parsons Project, could still be clearly detected on tracks like &quot;Alpha Male.&quot;
- Nicholas Baker" category="Downtempo" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/royksopp/data.opml?rws=%2Felectronica-dance%2Fleftfield-idm%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Santigold" description="Santogold, nee Santi White, has quite the curriculum vitae. Born and raised in Philadelphia, but based out of Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, she was an African-drum-playing music major at Wesleyan University, a Sony A&amp;R underling, and ska-punk band Stiffed's leading lady before evolving into an avant-garde mash-up artist and critical darling. And even though she's spent the majority of her career in the deep underground, she's definitely got some friends in high places: she's toured with friend and artistic peer M.I.A.; opened for Bjork; worked with Spank Rock; penned and produced for R&amp;B siren Res; and has written for the GZA, Lily Allen and Ashlee Simpson. Master craftsmen like Mark Ronson, Switch, Diplo, Jon Hill (her partner in Stiffed) and the late Disco D produced her self-titled debut album. &lt;i&gt;Santogold&lt;/i&gt;, which reflects influences like Bad Brains, Tina Turner, Devo, the Smiths, Cocteau Twins and many more, is a stunning display of hipster pastiche -- it's ear candy loaded with brain food of a subversive flavor.
- Angela Bruno" category="Electropop" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/santigold/data.opml?rws=%2Felectronica-dance%2Fleftfield-idm%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Shiny Toy Guns" description="Los Angeles' Shiny Toy Guns are part of a new wave of electropop acts, like Cut Copy and She Wants Revenge, updating classic '80s pop with touches of emo and modern rock. Founded in 2002 by keyboardist Jeremy Dawson and vocalist/guitarist Chad Petree -- former bandmates from the Shawnee, Okla., scene -- they rounded out the lineup in 2004 with drummer Mikey Martin and vocalist Carah Faye Charnow. An early MySpace success story, they toured the U.S. in 2005 in support of their debut album, &lt;I&gt;We Are Pilots&lt;/I&gt;, initially released on Stormwest International. Perhaps the landing gear wasn't working, because later that year Shiny Toy Guns re-recorded the album, this time for SideCho Records. But listeners along for the ride didn't unbuckle their seatbelts until 2006, when the band once again redid the album for its major-label debut on Universal. Though it only climbed to No. 90 on the &lt;I&gt;Billboard&lt;/I&gt; 200, the album earned them a Grammy nomination for Best Electronic/Dance Album and landed three songs -- including &quot;Le Disko,&quot; a sassy blast of punk-spirited electro -- in the upper quarter of &lt;I&gt;Billboard&lt;/I&gt;'s Modern Rock charts. They followed up with &lt;I&gt;Season of Poison&lt;/I&gt; in 2008 and &lt;I&gt;Girls Le Disko&lt;/I&gt;, a remix collection, the year after.
- Philip Sherburne" category="Electropop" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/shiny-toy-guns/data.opml?rws=%2Felectronica-dance%2Fleftfield-idm%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Goldfrapp" description="The sultry vocals of Alison Goldfrapp are the centerpiece of this gorgeous trip-hop from Goldfrapp and composer Will Gregory. Ms. Goldfrapp, who contributes vocals on tracks by Tricky and Orbital, lets her breathy vocals work their magic alongside lush strings and intricate production.
- Tim Pratt" category="Baroque Pop" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/goldfrapp/data.opml?rws=%2Felectronica-dance%2Fleftfield-idm%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Ratatat" description="Arena rock built byte-by-byte: Ratatat has sonic ambitions way beyond their two-dude-in-a-bedroom setup. Brooklynites Evan Mast and Mike Stroud got their break in 2002 when their first single, &quot;17 Years,&quot; released on Mast's own Audiodregs label, gained attention from DJs across the U.S. With Mast on beat production and bass and Stroud -- a sought-after guitarist who also plays in Dashboard Confessional's touring lineup -- ripping up various looped six-strings, Ratatat released its self-titled debut in 2003 and opened for a slew of major indie acts. Their stripped down, amped up sound appealed to rockers and rappers enough that they self-released a CD of their own compositions backing a cappella tracks by Jay-Z, Missy Elliot, Raekwon and more. Their official sophomore album, 2006's &lt;i&gt;Classics&lt;/i&gt;, was mostly recorded in upstate New York and substantially broadened their style. Ask 'em and Ratatat will try to convince you that small is the new big.
- Jonathan Zwickel" category="Leftfield/IDM" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/ratatat/data.opml?rws=%2Felectronica-dance%2Fleftfield-idm%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Girl Talk" description="Pittsburgh native Gregg Gillis is Girl Talk. When he started out in the early '00s, Gillis composed glitchy IDM pieces, standing next to his laptop during performances flanked by costumed dancers to make the show a little more visceral. But he struck hipster gold in 2006 with &lt;i&gt;Night Ripper&lt;/i&gt;, an album-length mash-up of approximately 160 different songs.
- Garrett Kamps" category="Laptronica" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/girl-talk/data.opml?rws=%2Felectronica-dance%2Fleftfield-idm%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="The Human League" description="One of the highlights of British Synth Pop is in fact not simple synthesizer melodies, but attention to vocal harmonies. This is especially true for the Human League. The charm of their first hit, 1981's &quot;Don't You Want Me,&quot; lies mostly in its unforgettable, highly emotional narrative delivered through deadpan vocals that harmonize like the Beach Boys. Even when the subject matter was desperate, their male and female vocal exchanges always maintained either a New Romantic cool or the emotional distance of a Godard character. But this is not to give their instrumentation short shrift: at their peak, their driving basslines, post-Disco beats and keyboard symphonics were unmatched and a perfect match for their vocal depth.
- Marc Kate" category="New Romantic" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/humanleague/data.opml?rws=%2Felectronica-dance%2Fleftfield-idm%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Justice (electro)" description="Gaspard Auge and Xavier de Rosnay met in Paris and first made their mark with a 2003 remix of Simian Mobile Disco's &quot;Never Be Alone&quot; (subsequently released as &quot;We Are Your Friends&quot;). Sounding like the crafty, cheeky offspring of Daft Punk, Justice was not surprisingly signed by DP's former manager, Pedro Winter, to his Ed Banger Records imprint. The duo's first single was &quot;Waters Of Nazareth,&quot; which went on to be championed by several big names, including 2 Many DJ's and Erol Alkan. Remixing work followed, with Soulwax, Mr. Oizo and Franz Ferdinand (amongst others) asking for the Justice treatment. The mainstream audience became aware of Justice when they won best video for &quot;We Are Your Friends&quot; at the 2006 MTV Europe Music Awards, a victory that so incensed the rapper Kanye West that he took to the stage to complain about his video losing. Subsequent online furor ensued, so that by the time Justice appeared onstage at the 2007 Coachella Music Festival, they were one of the most hotly anticipated acts. The look of their debut release, 2007's &lt;i&gt;Cross&lt;/i&gt;, and their use of a huge cross as part of their stage show, was said to be inspired by Madonna's and George Michael's use of similar imagery during the '90s, as well as being a common heavy metal motif. It should be noted however that the huge Marshall stacks they use on stage are merely props.
- Nicholas Baker" category="Electronica/Dance" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/justice/data.opml?rws=%2Felectronica-dance%2Fleftfield-idm%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Crystal Castles" description="Crystal Castles are an electropop duo from Toronto. Members include multi-instrumentalist Ethan Kath and vocalist Alice Glass, who mix 8-bit electro with punk and new wave. Their first single, &quot;Alice Practice,&quot; was the result of an accidental recording made during a microphone test and then released on the band's MySpace page. The single was then picked up by Parisian tastemaker label Kitsune for its &lt;i&gt;Kitsune Maison Compilation 4&lt;/i&gt;. The Canadians have since become hot commodities on the international club circuit and toured with Australian electronic group the Presets. They have also done popular remixes for Bloc Party, Klaxons and Uffie. In 2008, they released a self-titled debut, a messy collision of electronic noise and dance-rock, which some have labeled as &quot;new rave&quot;.
- Dan Shumate" category="Electropop" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/crystal-castles/data.opml?rws=%2Felectronica-dance%2Fleftfield-idm%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Cut Copy" description="Cut Copy began in 2001 as a one-man studio project of Australian DJ and producer Dan Whitford, who makes dance pop using elements of synth-based electronic music and indie rock. Whitford released an EP and single on his own in 2001, before adding guitarist Tim Hoey and drummer Mitchell Scott to a live lineup in 2003. Whitford played all the instruments on Cut Copy's 2004 debut LP, &lt;i&gt;Bright Like Neon Love&lt;/i&gt;, but teamed up with French producer Philippe Zdar (Cassius, Motorbass and MC Solaar), and the album helped spawn a worldwide electro-house movement. On their second album, &lt;i&gt;In Ghost Colours&lt;/i&gt;, Zdar was replaced by DFA Records co-founder Tim Goldsworthy and would take the group in a more indie rock and synth pop direction.
- Nate Cavalieri" category="Electropop" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/cut-copy/data.opml?rws=%2Felectronica-dance%2Fleftfield-idm%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Stereolab" description="Clean, soapy bliss like a new bottle of bubbles. The looped wand waves through the wind and casts out dreamy, melancholic analog waves. A picnic on a sunny day with estranged French relatives; both familiar and foreign, you recognize the references, but you cannot help but notice they are out of context. The chanteuse's optimism creates absurd words of revolution and the empty promise of future days.
- Marc Kate" category="Dream Pop" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/stereolab/data.opml?rws=%2Felectronica-dance%2Fleftfield-idm%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="M83" description="M83 began in the southern French town of Antibes around the turn of the millennium as a duo, Anthony Gonzalez and Nicolas Fromageau. Equally indebted to the 4AD/My Bloody Valentine school of blissed-out, psychedelicized noise and to the chilled atmospheric sides of Paris and Berlin's electronic scenes, M83's self-titled debut and its 2003 follow-up, &lt;I&gt;Dead Cities, Red Seas and Lost Ghosts&lt;/I&gt;, captured the tragedy and ascension of the post-9/11 moment. Befitting a group named after a universe, it was not small music, it did not back down from feelings and it could rock a dance floor without mocking rockers or dancers. Fromageau exited ahead of '05's &lt;I&gt;Before the Dawn Heals Us&lt;/I&gt;, yet as titles like &quot;Teen Angst&quot; and &quot;Don't Save Us from the Flames&quot; may imply, M83 retained the sound and fury of a sonic battleground, youthful vigor and knowing hopelessness exploding and receding. A limited-edition EP of ambient sculptures called &lt;I&gt;Digital Shades [Vol. 1]&lt;/I&gt; saw Gonzalez achieve an ambient calm. And when he re-entered the breach, '08's &lt;I&gt;Saturdays = Youth&lt;/I&gt; found him embracing an '80s song form, an almost-pop band forming from the big bang of an electronic freak-out.
- Piotr Orlov" category="Laptronica" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/m83/data.opml?rws=%2Felectronica-dance%2Fleftfield-idm%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="The Knife" description="Since 1999, Swedish siblings Karin Dreijer Andersson and Olof Dreijer have made fractured dance-pop as the Knife. Notoriously mysterious, the duo is never photographed without masks on, and until recently refused to perform live. Greater stateside interest in the pair's music, which followed on the heels of critical praise throughout Europe, lead to increased exposure, as well as the domestic release of its 2006 stunner, &lt;i&gt;Silent Shout&lt;/i&gt;.
- Garrett Kamps" category="Laptronica" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/the-knife/data.opml?rws=%2Felectronica-dance%2Fleftfield-idm%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Soft Cell" description="One of the earliest and most successful synth pop groups, Soft Cell first burst onto the early '80s electro dance scene with such hits as &quot;Tainted Love,&quot; &quot;Memorabilia&quot; and &quot;Sex Dwarf.&quot; Made up of singer/songwriter Marc Almond and producer Dave Ball, the duo released a total of three albums before breaking up in 1984. Ball went on to found the famed techno outfit, the Grid. Almond formed Marc and the Mambas, and then Marc Almond and the Willing Sinners before finally embarking on a successful solo career. In March 2001 --17 years after their split -- the two reunited for a Soft Cell concert in London. The success of the show led to the recording and release of 2002's &lt;i&gt;Cruelty Without Beauty&lt;/i&gt;. That same year, Almond was involved in a near-fatal motorcycle accident, putting future work with Soft Cell on hold.
- Jamie Sanchez" category="Synth Pop" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/soft-cell/data.opml?rws=%2Felectronica-dance%2Fleftfield-idm%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Hot Chip" description="An underground UK phenomenon rapidly moving their way up the international ranks, Hot Chip began as the two-man production team of Alexis Taylor and Joe Goddard. The pair made beats and sang their soft falsettos in Goddard's bedroom and released their debut EP, &lt;I&gt;Mexico,&lt;/I&gt; on a small London imprint in 2001. Hot Chip evolved their lazy, hip-hop inflected sound over the years, adding scraps of toy percussion and analog synths and taking on new members. They gained critical attention on the strength of 2005's &lt;I&gt;Coming on Strong&lt;/I&gt;, their American debut, but it was 2006's Mercury Prize-nominated &lt;I&gt;The Warning&lt;/I&gt; that exposed the band now a fulltime four-piece to larger audiences. While their albums are mostly laid back, toe-tapping disco affairs, their live shows are explosive and sweaty, especially for four pasty-white English guys playing synthesizers.
- Jonathan Zwickel" category="Electropop" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/hot-chip/data.opml?rws=%2Felectronica-dance%2Fleftfield-idm%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Ministry" description="Despite the fact that they started out as a more pop-oriented goth band, Ministry's unspeakably abrasive, endlessly negative music remains pretty much definitive industrial metal. On top of that, we have singer Al Jourgensen to thank for the whole post-apocalyptic biker-cowboy look that led to sales of millions upon millions of full length black leather coats in the early 1990s. But more importantly was when Ministry released their 1988 album, &lt;I&gt;The Land of Rape and Honey&lt;/I&gt;, it was clear that the music was genuinely unique in the mainstream and that they had created a sound as powerful and heavy (if not more so) than any alternative or metal band of the period. The band crossed those alternative and metal lines, drawing hordes of fans from each camp and helping along the eventual blurring of those traditionally opposite styles that occurred in the late '80s and early '90s with the onset of grunge rock and alternative metal. Ministry's influence (which can be felt even today in the industrial scene) was both musical and stylistic and the albums they put out during their peak (&lt;I&gt;Land Of Rape And Honey,&lt;/I&gt; &lt;I&gt;The Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Taste&lt;/I&gt; and &lt;I&gt;Psalm 69: The Way to Succeed &amp; the Way to Suck Eggs&lt;/I&gt;) actually stand up over a decade later. The band continues to release albums today and, to its credit, remains as Satanic and sex-obsessed as ever -- an aesthetic Nine Inch Nails may have taken to the top but Ministry invented.
- Mike McGuirk" category="Industrial Metal" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/ministry/data.opml?rws=%2Felectronica-dance%2Fleftfield-idm%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Jamie Lidell" description="Justin Timberlake can cut a rug like nobody's business, and Maroon 5 know their Chic inside and out. Yet arguably the funkiest blue-eyed soul man since Daryl Hall lives across the pond. Much like the legendary Arthur Russell and later Matthew Dear, Lidell is a pop singer with a background in esoteric dance music; he and Cristian Vogel, under the name Super Collider, released two albums of quasi-ambient electronica in the late '90s. The Brit approaches soul music more like a producer meticulously constructing sonic collages than a traditional frontman. Although his debut &lt;i&gt;Muddlin Gear&lt;/i&gt; was a continuation of his interest in pure sound, Lidell turned into a straight-up crooner for 2005's &lt;i&gt;Multiply&lt;/i&gt;. In addition to a host of standard, non-electronic instruments, the album features him making a clutch of sounds -- from the punchy percussion to the falsetto backup singers -- with just his voice (a feat he wowed audiences with when he toured in support of the album). But while that's a novel trick, Lidell clearly understands soul's vast history. He is as well versed in the post-'70s era (Prince, D'Angelo) as he is in the classics of both Northern and Southern soul. Then again, soul is a shadowy quality that lives somewhere beyond knowledge and skill. Some folks have it; some don't. And Lidell certainly does.
- Justin Farrar" category="Blue-Eyed Soul" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/jamie-lidell/data.opml?rws=%2Felectronica-dance%2Fleftfield-idm%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="La Roux" description="La Roux roughly means &quot;red-haired one&quot; in French. But this is a duo, not just a front for sharp, ginger-tressed lead singer Elly Jackson. Jackson and her bandmate Ben Langmaid met through mutual friends in 2006. Each brought a distinctive musical background to the table: Jackson was raised on folk artists like Nick Drake and Joni Mitchell (and in fact, La Roux started out making acoustic music under the name Automan). Meanwhile, Langmaid was a music scene veteran, having done much of his earlier work with best friend Rollo Armstrong (Faithless mastermind and brother of Dido). After working for a number of years to hone their aesthetic and their debut, La Roux settled on a sleek '80s synth-pop style. A handful of buzz-worthy singles (&quot;Quicksand,&quot; &quot;In for the Kill&quot; and &quot;Bulletproof&quot;) preceded the duo's debut, which dropped in June 2009.
- Rachel Devitt" category="Synth Pop" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/la-roux/data.opml?rws=%2Felectronica-dance%2Fleftfield-idm%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Telepopmusik" description="Francophiles take note: here's the latest intelligent electronic pop outfit
a la Air, Les Rythmes Digitales and the Belgian-based Hooverphonic. Aptly
placed vocal snippets lounge over dreamy arrangements made up of nature
sounds; gentle, sparkling rhythms; electronic distortion; sweet swells and
spiky sound effects. The work of Stephan Haeri, Christophe Hetier (formerly
known as DJ Anti-Pop) and Fabrice Dumont of Autour de Lucie fame,
Telepopmusik's serene, smart sounds reached a whole new echelon of listeners
beyond the clubbing set when Mitsubishi set their song &quot;Breathe&quot; to an SUV
commercial in 2003.
- Melissa Piazza" category="Electropop" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/telepopmusik/data.opml?rws=%2Felectronica-dance%2Fleftfield-idm%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Gary Numan" description="With one hand on a Minimoog, and the other in a William S. Burroughs novel, Gary Numan became one of the most influential artists in synth pop. His signature sound is a wall of perfectly oscillating analog synthesizers running through simple melodies and generating tremendous alien drones. Accompanying these electric textures is his disaffected, plaintive voice. His lyrics create a world of technological and sexual alienation, drawing tensions between past and future, self and other. His songs are like the tears of a clown, fronting pop exuberance and melodies while cold, melancholic words and harmonies lay gloomily in the back.
- Marc Kate" category="Synth Pop" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/gary-numan/data.opml?rws=%2Felectronica-dance%2Fleftfield-idm%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Benny Benassi" description="The worldwide dancefloor domination of Benny Benassi's &quot;Satisfaction&quot; has proven very, well, &lt;I&gt;pleasing&lt;/I&gt;, to this lifelong fan of 1980s electronica, and indeed the influence of Kraftwerk, Depeche Mode and Giorgio Moroder can be clearly heard in the track's mechanized vocals and lush, driving beats. Benassi describes this dirty electro-house style as &quot;hypnotech,&quot; and claims that the bassline for &quot;Satisfaction&quot; was created by his cousin Alle Benassi drawing inspiration from the sounds of traffic outside his hotel window. Much in demand for remixing duties, Benassi prefers to handpick what he likes and turn down the rest, going for quality rather than quantity. So far he has sat behind the mixing desk for Outkast, Goldfrapp, Robbie Rivera and Electric Six, among others. Production work includes his solo full-length outing, &lt;I&gt;Hypnotica&lt;/I&gt;, along with his and Alle's &quot;Benny Benassi presents The Biz&quot; project, a more minimalist soundscape blending techno, electro and house. In 2004, Benny was nominated for three Dancestar awards and won for best video -- which just goes to show what you can achieve with some semi-naked women and a set of power tools.
- Nicholas Baker" category="Dance Pop" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/benny-benassi/data.opml?rws=%2Felectronica-dance%2Fleftfield-idm%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Au Revoir Simone" description="Au Revoir Simone take the burbling, pinging sound of early 1980s synth pop and replace the robotic feel with warm music that suits bucolic picnics better than cyborg weddings. In the early 2000s, Erika Forster (who had previously been in Dirty on Purpose), Annie Hart and Heather D'Angelo formed a trio around their love of retro keyboards. Even though they had to learn their instruments, things gelled quickly. Their debut album, &lt;I&gt;Verses of Comfort, Assurance &amp; Salvation&lt;/I&gt;, recalled Birdie and Saint Etienne (as well as the mellower side of indie rock bands such as Yo La Tengo) rather than the cold man/machine feel of other bands playing with analog synths and keyboards. The album's lead-off track, &quot;Through the Backyards,&quot; was played on an episode of &lt;I&gt;Grey's Anatomy&lt;/I&gt;, exposing millions of people to Au Revoir Simone. The trio supported TV on the Radio and toured Europe and Japan. The band was featured in Peter Bjorn &amp; John's video to &quot;Young Folks&quot; (a massive hit in the U.K.) and received further press when the director David Lynch requested they play for him in New York City. Au Revoir Simone released their simply lovely album &lt;I&gt;The Bird of Music&lt;/I&gt; in early 2007.
- Nick Dedina" category="Indie Pop" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/au-revoir-simone/data.opml?rws=%2Felectronica-dance%2Fleftfield-idm%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Ghostland Observatory" description="Austin, Texas' Ghostland Observatory revive the same tinny synths and clunky electro-funk as plenty of their '80s-loving peers; what sets this two-piece apart is its will to rock out. The spirit filling their eyepiece is undoubtedly Freddie Mercury's, with frontman Aaron Behrens copping the Queen singer's every shriek and howl on songs like &quot;Dancing on My Grave&quot; and &quot;Sad Sad City.&quot; Drummer and beatmaker Thomas Turner focuses his lens on the ghosts in the machine, crafting rubbery basslines and big, splashy synths indebted to robo-funkers like the Time and Daft Punk. (Both of them jack Mercury's fashion sense, preferring capes and white flares to the electro scene's pegged-jeans aesthetic.)
&lt;P&gt;
The duo kicked off its career in 2005 with the self-released &lt;I&gt;Delete.Delete.I.Eat.Meat...&lt;/I&gt;, a 10-song blast of sawtooth synths, distorted drums and yelp-along vocals, and it has gone on to develop its sound with three more albums in as many years, all on its own Trashy Moped label. The template has remained the same, but the sounds become fatter with every record, soaking up classic-rock organ riffs, techno beats and R'n'B flourishes. It's suave and goofy all at once.&lt;/P&gt;
- Philip Sherburne" category="Punk-Funk" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/ghostland-observatory/data.opml?rws=%2Felectronica-dance%2Fleftfield-idm%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Discovery" description="Daft Punk tower over their indie dance acolytes like, well, a giant, gleaming pyramid. So it's only appropriate that some starry-eyed statesiders would eventually borrow not only the French duo's filters, but even one of their album titles. That would be Discovery, perhaps better known as the duo comprised of Vampire Weekend's Rostam Batmanglij and Ra Ra Riot's Wes Miles. (Perhaps to compensate, they named their debut album simply &lt;I&gt;LP&lt;/I&gt;.) Their buzzing, gleaming layers of filtered synthesizers would be unthinkable without Daft Punk's influence, but they take just as much inspiration from contemporary R&amp;amp;B, favoring jiggling, syncopated drum-machine beats and scads of breathless falsetto, often run through vocal effects like Auto-Tune. It's more than just musical tourism, though -- Discovery's wide-eyed approach to pop music has a quick wit and plenty of homespun charm." category="Alt Dance" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/discovery-2/data.opml?rws=%2Felectronica-dance%2Fleftfield-idm%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Uh Huh Her" description="If Uh Huh Her sound familiar, well, they oughtta. Not only does this electro-pop duo take its name from PJ Harvey's 2004 album, but half of it consists of Leisha Hailey, whom you may know from either her former band or her current acting gig. Back in the early '90s, Hailey was half of the Lilith Fair-touring alt-pop duo the Murmurs (she also famously dated k.d. lang for several years), but she began switching gears into acting in 1997 and in 2004 won the part of Alice Pieszecki on &lt;I&gt;The L Word&lt;/I&gt;. After a five-year break, Hailey decided to make a return to music and, fortuitously, wound up getting introduced to bassist and keyboardist Camila Grey. Grey had built up a reputation as a member of Mellowdrone, as well as playing backup for artists like Dr. Dre and Kelly Osbourne, but had never had the opportunity to focus on her own music. It was musical kismet, and the two hid out at Grey's house writing their debut EP, 2007's &lt;I&gt;I See Red&lt;/I&gt;. It was followed the next year by the full-length &lt;I&gt;Common Reaction&lt;/I&gt;.
- Rachel Devitt" category="Electropop" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/uh-huh-her/data.opml?rws=%2Felectronica-dance%2Fleftfield-idm%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="VNV Nation" description="Slick, club-oriented electronic tracks teeter on the elusive boundary between Euro-Trance and Darkwave. Thin melodies and dreary lyrics slide hopelessly over a sea of dark, shimmering synths like remnants from an oil spill off the coast of Greenland. A festival of gloom for those who find beauty in the dark." category="Industrial Dance" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/vnv-nation/data.opml?rws=%2Felectronica-dance%2Fleftfield-idm%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Black Kids" description="Contrary to the name, not all the kids are black, just siblings Reggie and Ali Youngblood. That makes this multiracial act the Paul Butterfield Blues Band of sassy, post-modern new wave; think the Go! Team filtered through the Cure and those criminally underappreciated Brit-pop dudes in James. Coming together in swampy Jacksonville, Fla., in 2006, the quintet blew up in a minute. Like a lot of buzz bands, they posted some demos to MySpace (the insanely infectious &lt;I&gt;Wizard of Ahhhs&lt;/I&gt; EP). Of course, Pitchfork started drooling all over them, as did folks grooving to Black Kids' sweaty, feel-good concerts throughout the South. Signing with Columbia Records, Black Kids went into the studio with producer Bernard Butler. On the band's debut album, &lt;I&gt;Partie Traumatic&lt;/I&gt;, former Suede guitarist Butler once again proves to be a pop master, bringing to the surface the group's latent ties to peppy AM pop, as well as the early-'80s R&amp;B of New Edition and Michael Jackson. Whether all the hype and praise makes you love or hate Black Kids, tunes like &quot;I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance With You&quot; and &quot;I Wanna Be Your Limousine&quot; are classic teenage fun. Now get out there and bop.
- Justin Farrar" category="Alt Dance" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/black-kids/data.opml?rws=%2Felectronica-dance%2Fleftfield-idm%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Ladyhawke" description="Taking her name from the 1985 Michelle Pfeiffer film, New Zealand's Pip Brown is Ladyhawke, a solo performer whose outsized hooks and attitude belie the tidy lineup. Using guitars, synthesizers and studio magic to create a sound that's both classic and futuristic, Ladyhawke is more ambitious than your average electro-popper.
Brown started playing percussion at 11, inspired by her stepfather's jazz drumming; she earned her indie stripes with the band Two Lane Blacktop, slogging across the continent in a broken-down van. When the group fizzled out, Brown moved to Melbourne and then Sydney, collaborating with other musicians and increasingly devoting herself to Ladyhawke, her solo project and alter ego. &quot;I started Ladyhawke out of a desire to do my own project where I could completely express myself in any way I wanted, without having to answer to bandmates,&quot; she explains in her official biography. &quot;I wanted to make music that could put a smile on people's faces and give them a feeling of nostalgia, even though they may be hearing my songs for the first time.&quot; And indeed, her debut album has just that quality, with every song sounding like a long-forgotten '80s classic.
- Philip Sherburne" category="Alt Dance" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/ladyhawke/data.opml?rws=%2Felectronica-dance%2Fleftfield-idm%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Peaches" description="Canadian electro-punk star Peaches boomed onto the dance scene with her raucous rap style and vulgar brand of overtly-sexual pop tunes. With cutting-edge electronic drum beats and indulgent guitar riffs, Peaches' 2006 album, &lt;i&gt;Impeach My Bush&lt;/i&gt;, brought a hard-hitting, raw vibe to electronic rock. The former music teacher turned fowl-mouthed rocker sings about dirty sex, politics and the art of partying. Known for her over-the-top &quot;KISS-style&quot; live shows and extravagant stage fashion, Peaches' hard-hitting music is all about fun. She has even collaborated with artists like Joan Jett, Beth Ditto and Leslie Feist. Peaches' upfront, in-your-face songs aim to raise hell and take no prisoners.
- Jamie Sanchez" category="Electroclash" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/peaches/data.opml?rws=%2Felectronica-dance%2Fleftfield-idm%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Ladytron" description="Liverpool-based boy-girl phenomenon Ladytron defined the androgynous robot love of early 2000s with their monotone, ironic lyrics and one-finger synth sounds. The single-driven hit album &lt;I&gt;604&lt;/I&gt; spawned many an imitator for its cheeky cool and was a leading example for the electroclash set. &lt;I&gt;Light &amp; Magic&lt;/I&gt;'s darker turn showed the group more than neu-New Wave imitators and gave the world &quot;Seventeen,&quot; a whisper-led anthem for the barely legal. The 2005 album &lt;I&gt;Witching Hour&lt;/I&gt; is downright swaddled in shoegaze guitars and Cocteau Twins synth sounds, but still manages some icy jet-setter complaints, like &quot;International Dateline.&quot;
- Daphne Carr" category="Electropop" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/ladytron/data.opml?rws=%2Felectronica-dance%2Fleftfield-idm%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="CSS" description="Though known in the U.S. mostly by their abbreviated handle, the proper name of Brazilian dance-rock sextet C.S.S. is Cansei de Ser Sexy, a Portuguese translation of a quip from Beyonce Knowles, who allegedly once claimed to be &quot;tired of being sexy.&quot; The band formed in Sao Paulo in 2003 from a group of cross-connected art-scene socialites who eventually solidified a lineup consisting of vocalist Luisa Hanae Matsushita (who goes by the stage name Lovefoxxx), bassist Iracema Trevisan, guitarist Ana Rezende, and multi-instrumentalists Luiza Sa, Carolina Parra and Adriano Cintra. Under the keen musical direction of Cintra, a vet of Brazil's underground rock scene, C.S.S. found international attention for their high volume of downloads from Brazil's TramaVirtual, a music and social networking site. They self-released two EPs in 2004, &lt;i&gt;Em Rotterdam Ja e uma Febre&lt;/i&gt; and &lt;i&gt;A Onda Mortal/Uma Tarde com PJ&lt;/i&gt;, and issued their self-titled full-length LP on TramaVirtual's fledgling music label in 2005. It was re-released internationally on Sub Pop a year later, followed by wide international touring.
- Nate Cavalieri" category="Electropop" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/css/data.opml?rws=%2Felectronica-dance%2Fleftfield-idm%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Millionaires" description="" category="Alt Dance" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/millionaires/data.opml?rws=%2Felectronica-dance%2Fleftfield-idm%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Teddybears" description="" category="Alt Dance" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/teddybears-2/data.opml?rws=%2Felectronica-dance%2Fleftfield-idm%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Jeffree Star" description="" category="Electropop" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/jeffree-star/data.opml?rws=%2Felectronica-dance%2Fleftfield-idm%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Kraftwerk" description="After looking at a few of their song titles, do you really need any additional description of their sound? &quot;Pocket Calculator,&quot; &quot;Autobahn,&quot; &quot;Metropolis,&quot; &quot;Electric Cafe,&quot; &quot;Computer World,&quot; and &quot;Ohm Sweet Ohm&quot; correctly cast this animatronic ensemble as the creators of musical LED displays and cold steel configurations. Their techno/pop sound reproduces the rigid &quot;Kling Klang&quot; of industry. Their music is so lost in the matrix of artificial intelligence, a soul emerges. And a funk as well. Their history has taken them from a handful of musicians of an inscrutable pedigree that created illusory Krautrock in a vibrant German avant-garde to the vanguard of electronic pop. Their contributions to the histories of dance and electronic music is immeasurable.
- Marc Kate" category="Electropop" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/kraftwerk/data.opml?rws=%2Felectronica-dance%2Fleftfield-idm%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="MSTRKRFT" description="Sprung from the loins of Death from Above 1979, MSTRKRFT are rockers on a disco mission. Beginning in 2004, the duo -- comprised of DFA1979's Jesse Keeler and the group's producer Al-P (Al Puoudziukas) -- started earning notoriety for its remixes of bands like Panthers, the Kills and the Gossip; in 2006 MSTRKRFT moved into original productions with the album &lt;I&gt;The Looks&lt;/I&gt; and related singles. Their frequent DJ gigs -- including a tour with John Digweed -- have confirmed their commitment to the dance floor, while their many remix credits (for Bloc Party, Justice, Chromeo D.I.M., even Usher and Kylie Minogue) have confirmed their stature in the &quot;blog-house&quot; scene. In 2008, they continued to expand their sound with &quot;Bounce,&quot; featuring the rapper N.O.R.E.. The single, a thuggish crunk-up of grinding electro-house, came with remixes from Bloody Beetroots and Felix Cartal.
- Philip Sherburne" category="Alt Dance" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/mstrkrft/data.opml?rws=%2Felectronica-dance%2Fleftfield-idm%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="CocoRosie" description="For many years, the only thing the Cassady sisters -- better known as CocoRosie -- had in common was a shared Bohemian upbringing. Their childhood was spent traipsing from state to state with their teacher/artist mother during the school year and from reservation to reservation with their Cherokee father, a Waldorf teacher and shaman, in the summer. The sisters didn't get along, and after Sierra went to boarding school at 14, they didn't see each other for 10 years. During that estrangement, Bianca quietly began writing songs, while her big sister moved to France to study opera at the Paris Conservatory. One day in 2003, Bianca, who had been living in Brooklyn until she took off to travel the world, showed up at Sierra's Paris apartment. The reunited sisters shut themselves in Sierra's bathroom, which had the best acoustics, and began composing and recording their first album, &lt;i&gt;La Maison de Mon Reve&lt;/i&gt;. That recording, which is every bit as delicate and ethereal as its title, established CocoRosie's incandescent electro-folk-hop sound, got them a deal with Tough &amp; Go (which released the album in 2004), and led to gigs with indie luminaries like Devendra Banhart, Ratatat, and Antony and the Johnsons.
- Rachel Devitt" category="Post-Modern Pop" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/cocorosie/data.opml?rws=%2Felectronica-dance%2Fleftfield-idm%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Junior Boys" description="Junior Boys started out in 1999 as Jeremy Greenspan and Johnny Dark, a couple of Hamilton, Ontario, musicians joining the short, but perfectly formed, list of local bands and industry luminaries (Manitoba, Kieran &quot;Four Tet&quot; Hebden and U2's sometime producer Daniel Lanois). Wearing their early 1980s pop influences on their sleeve, they started to craft synthetic and mechanical songs layered with warm melodies, but those early demos received a tepid response, and Dark subsequently moved on to other projects. Their engineer Matt Didemus picked up the slack, partnering with Greenspan in a second incarnation of the Junior Boys. The new twosome assembled their first EP, &lt;I&gt;Birthday/Last Exit, &lt;/I&gt; in 2003, followed by &lt;I&gt;High Come Down&lt;/I&gt; (featuring a mix from Manitoba) in early 2004. By the time of their debut long player, 2004's &lt;I&gt;Last Exit, &lt;/I&gt; they had perfected their blue-eyed Canadian electro soul sound (think Cabaret Voltaire duetting with the Lightning Seeds) -- wistful and dreamy pop with a robust machine-driven backing.
- Nicholas Baker" category="Electropop" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/junior-boys/data.opml?rws=%2Felectronica-dance%2Fleftfield-idm%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="The Faint" description="It's hard to imagine a band like the Faint coming out of Omaha, but if crops can be turned into automotive fuel, there's no reason this corn-fed quintet can't distill its own electronics-fueled version of high-octane indie rock. After an early start with the name Norman Bailer, whose lineup briefly included Bright Eyes' Conor Oberst -- the Faint built a local following before breaking out with 2001's &lt;I&gt;Danse Macabre&lt;/I&gt;, which darkened indie songwriting with goth mascara (then spangled it with electro's shiny circuits). &lt;I&gt;Danse Macabre Remixes&lt;/I&gt; brought them all the way over to the club, with help from remixers like Paul Oakenfold and Tommie Sunshine; subsequent albums &lt;I&gt;Wet From Birth&lt;/I&gt; and &lt;I&gt;Fasciinatiion&lt;/I&gt; have continued to burrow wormholes from the present day back to the '80s new-wave glory days.
- Philip Sherburne" category="Electropop" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/the-faint/data.opml?rws=%2Felectronica-dance%2Fleftfield-idm%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Apoptygma Berzerk" description="Apoptygma Berzerk is the nom de guerre of Norwegian techno-goth Stephan Groth. Since the early 1990s, his songs have infiltrated the play lists of edgier dancefloors catering to Goth, Industrial, and fetish club-goers. The music of A.B. obliterates the semi-permeable lines of demarcation that once divided these scenes. If Skinny Puppy had been asked to remix Depeche Mode's &lt;I&gt;Black Celebration&lt;/I&gt;, the end result may have been equally oppressive -- though without entirely abandoning a pop orientation. Fans' fervor for Apoptygma Berzerk, however, has less to do with the gloomy pallor of Groth's lyrics and more to do with his penchant for throbbing, irresistible beats. It's no small feat figuring out how to inspire sulky, black-bedizened club-crawlers to shrug off their pestilential gloom and pound the dancefloor in ecstatic unison; but if you're daring enough to venture out to your local Goth club, you can see it happening all the time -- thanks to Apoptygma Berzerk.
- Chad Driscoll" category="Industrial Dance" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/apoptygma-berzerk/data.opml?rws=%2Felectronica-dance%2Fleftfield-idm%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
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