Perhaps the most surprising thing about Wolfgang Voigt's "Gas" project is that Wolfgang Voigt created it. Voigt has released many, many hundreds of tracks under 77 different aliases (33 solo projects and 44 collaborations - I checked!), and while I won't pretend to have listened to all of it, my impression of the stuff I've heard is that it's all defiantly mediocre - boring second-wave techno, barely living up to the worst releases on Voigt's Kompakt label. "Alltag" is an exception; this EP holds its own with the best Gas material, and serves as a sort of coda to the Gas project ("Pop" was released in 2000).

So, okay, I was looking forward to the new Field album, but I certainly didn't expect "Yesterday and Today" to be the best album of 2009 so far (which it is!) - I'll be surprised if anything this year manages to surpass it. Axel Willner's first album as The Field had transcendent singles (which were, not coincidentally, drawn from the stellar 12"s that preceded the CD release) but then also, frankly, some pretty terrible tracks - when he picks the wrong vocal sample to loop for eight minutes, watch out! "Yesterday and Today," on the other hand, is flawless - six extremely impressive tracks, two of which in particular are so mind-blowingly good that I've been playing them on continuous repeat, whenever I can pull myself away from listening to the album as a whole. The sound is both more organic and more expansive than his earlier work, which was often recorded on-the-fly (mixing the elements live on his laptop, and not bothering with re-edits); interestingly, Willner recorded this album with a full band, which he now tours with, and you can really tell the difference (the track "Sequenced" sounds more like a rock instrumental than anything else). The gauzy techno of "Sublime" has been subtly transformed into something more muscular and affecting; in short, "Yesterday and Today" is everything that's good about The Field's output, turned up to 11. Buy immediately!

If you somehow haven't heard of Gas (or Wolfgang Voigt), and if you're looking for an introduction to ambient, techno, or good electronic music generally, you couldn't possibly improve on this 4xCD set, which collects Gas's Mille Plateaux full-lengths into one extremely affordable package - if you had tried to put this collection together last year, it would have cost well over $200. I don't even know where to begin on the greatness of these four albums; "Königsforst" and "Zauberberg" are (in my opinion) among the top 10 electronic albums ever made, without question. The Gas sound has been accurately described as "heroin house," akin to hearing a techno set from the other side of a canyon, or through a series of walls; the music consists of heavily altered samples from classical and popular music distended and placed under propulsive 4/4 beats or washes of ambience, which seems like it might be boring, but turns out to be hypnotic and hauntingly beautiful. One of the more important re-issues of the decade for sure.

Kompakt has stepped in to re-release this 2006 album from Sweden's Pluxus. This one's all over the place musically. It jumps from downtempo to really crazy dancefloor material to more experimental efforts. I guess you could say Electro and Techno are at the heart of the tracks, but it's hard to justify that when you hear that Pluxus started as an actual band that plays, you know, instruments. With that framework, there's definitely an influence from the 80s new wave scene and especially Kraftwerk, but really none of this will probably help you understand what the album sounds like. It's just a creepily original dance record that doesn't fit into any easy genre category, but should be right at home on a dancefloor of open minds. You have to hand it to Kompakt; they could sit back and release the same old minimal techno all day and get high praise for it, but instead they're challenging themselves and their history by trying to release truly original material that will push things forward.

It seems Kompakt's huge acclaim over the past months that made them a precious commodity is a boost for great releases. Chromophobia is a rich work of art that stands not only as mere dancing goodness but also as intricate musical articulation. It's impossible to deny the strong presence of Boratto's Brazilian roots that make this album a hot and humid dancefloor, and if this doesn't tickle your ears it's such a shame.

Kompakt continue their tradition of scene-defining mix CD’s with this release from longtime label compatriot Tobias Thomas. Running the gamut from minimal to uptempo to Fleetwood Mac covers, this mix never manages to grow tiresome while highlighting the top tracks across numerous styles of German dance music with excellent and inventive mixing all the way through.

Kompakt delivered the second fist of their early 2007 one-two punch with the excellent debut by Axel Willner’s project The Field. Following up the highly praised Chromophobia by Gui Boratto, The Field’s debut album goes even further in Kompakt’s statement that 2007 will be the year they uproot the dancefloor and repanel it with their best records. The Field’s productions have the aesthetic of simplicity without reaching for the comforting tag of minimalism. They’re not for a “drowsy dancefloor”, rather an active one that would prefer something cool and pumping rather than cerebral and acceptably monotonous. The Field has easily produced the first great dance record of 2007.