Listening to Slugabed for the first time brings back the memories of hearing the complexity of Squarepusher or the insanity of Venetian Snares who, incidentally, released his sweet venom on Planet Mu as well. But the music of this 19 year old, Bath (UK) based producer, Greg Feldwick, is not the broken rhythms of breakcore or drill'n'bass. It is a slow-paced wobble through the square edged 8-bit world of two-dimensional cardboard trees and bass-growling monsters. At times comical and playful, at times nasty and evil, the sound of Slugabed doesn't commit to classification - instead it begs for a genre of its own. Going back to my mentioning of the complexity of sound with which I was struck upon the first listening of Feldwick's six-track EP, the thick layers of sound and fractured beats take the listeners' time to fully unwrap and appreciate. The sluggish rhythm trolls through an alley of bit-crushed chords, often changing direction of the syncopated step. Closer to the sound of Harmonic 313 then any other dub-step producer, the raw production re-wires the bleeps and lasers of arcade-boxes and turns them into dance tracks that skipped the 80s to time travel to 2010. And if you listen closely, you will hear that behind the sharp and distorted hard-panned sounds, hide the beautiful melodies, as sung from the land of The Uglydolls. Slugabed's debut 12", Gritsalt, appeared in May of 2009 on Ramp Recordings. That summer, he followed it with a split with Coco Bryce, titled MYOR 02 on a brand new Dutch MYOR label. Another 12", Superphreak, appeared on Stuffrecords. And finally, Slugabed got picked up by the beloved Planet Mu. Welcome. This is your new home. Now get comfortable and bring us a full-length.

Jamie Vex'd's genre-defying solo work finally has a name: Kuedo. The follow-up to his excellent In System Travel EP, Dream Sequence sees Jamie hitting up the wonky side of things on opener "Starfox", and it's some space age craziness with equal parts hip-hop and dubstep base with that perfect infusion of 8 bit that makes wonky so captivating. "Shutter Light Girl" is only a minute long, but one of the coolest things I've heard all year. Such a catchy and intriguing ambient interlude. It leads into "Joy Construction" which resumes the wonk and is the highlight of the release. There's an intensity Jamie is bringing to these tracks that I don't think a lot of wonky has mastered the way he has. "Glow" brings us more into the unknown, which features barely audible female vocals, strange percussion and an all around strange vibe. I can't be more impressed with the collection of tracks Jamie has put out over these last two EP's and look forward to seeing what Kuedo brings to us next.

It took almost nine years for Dylan Nathan to return to the scene with his intelligent breaks and glitchy melodies, slapping it across the entire IDM spectrum under his Jega moniker. There were some hiccups in this release - the album leaked back in 2003, and Nathan chose to pull back the tracks, refile the scraps, and rearrange the bits into his third full length, double disk release, Variance. Here and now, Nathan brings back the vigor with which he left us with Geometry, once again selecting Planet Mu as the label of choice for his experimental beats. It's tough to approach the review of this album, especially since it spans across two discs and 18 tracks! I'll get right down to it, and skip the first volume altogether, which is melodic electronica and light IDM. The only reason I am jumping over the first disc, is because with the amount of great music on this double volume, I want to get straight to the goodness. Apologies for that, but I do not mean to send a wrong signal. So with your permission I'm moving on to the darker side of Jega, because the second disc is where he truly shines. Here, the random palette of synth melodies is replaced by the darker strand of electro, that breaks its jagged tooth against the broken beats. Atmospheric pads still linger in the background, while the front-lines are dominated by impeccable rhythm structures and a heavily processed dose of virtual effects. Synthesis geeks will be proud to hear their brains being tweaked through the naughty twists of Jega's ridiculously time-consuming production. I have a feeling that it took Nathan nine years to release this album simply because he chose to tweak every possible VST plug-in out there and throw each and every one of them into the mix. Variance is like a detox manual for DSP junkies on a thousand ways to mess up the beat. Listening to Latinhypercube I find myself cringing my nose and going "What in the world was that?" Drilling rhythms decompose into voices, into flashbacks of a bad trip, into sick mental sound too crippled to dance. A few tracks (like Aerodynamic and Kyoto) remind me of Chris Cunningham's short film, Rubber Johnny, where an erratic and delusional mutant child is dancing in his wheelchair to a spasmodic beat of Aphex Twin's "afx237 v7" track taken off of his album drukqs (2001, Warp). Looks like Cunningham may have a new challenge! For the full background on Nathan's history, see my Headphone Commute flashback to Geometry where you will learn of his releases on Skam and Matador, as well as his influence on Mike Paradinas (µ-Ziq) and the beginnings of Planet Mu. This album is a must have for fans of Autechre, AFX, Wisp, Squarepusher, Clark and all things juicy erratic. Come and get your fix.

Legion Of Two is Decal's Alan Boyle and Irish drummer David Lacey. Don't expect electro coming out of this album though. This is some dark, experimental jazz meets dub meets IDM meets whatever depending on the minute. Riffs certainly recalls the earlier Mu release from the Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble with its eerie vibe and jazz influences, but this album is certainly more diverse than that one, as it brings in electronics for more than just noise, has a much more rock-oriented sound (its is called Riffs, after all), and adds a heavy dose of dub when appropriate. It's a pretty interesting mix of sounds and makes for a compelling and somehow tight listen as whole. Live drums carry the record through all of it. Industrial, metal, and postrock influences are all there to go with the "darkjazz" thing trailblazed by Bong-Ra's project, but there's a lot of dub and IDM influence sprinkled through here as well. The basslines are huge. Even though it's so dark, because of its diversity, I think it could have a lot of appeal for both hard rockers and electronic types. These songs are long, but thery are for a reason. They progress and add layers in a way that is realy quite remarkable for the sounds they're mixing. An excellent, dark album.

Floating Points caused quite a stir earlier this year with his remix of Real 2 Reel's "Love Me Like This". The tune was a classic house tune in the vein of the best Alan Braxe tracks. Now he's signed onto the Planet Mu roster taking instrumental hip-hop experiments akin to Flying Lotus and others and perfectly melding them into a house and techno framework. This is Planet Mu's second dance-oriented release this year (after the wonderful Few Nolder album), and it's a curious direction for what's traditionally been an IDM and experimental label. That's not to say that this 12" isn't experimental because it very much so is, but these are the first records from Planet Mu a DJ outside of a dubstep or jungle setting would ever consider dropping. Whatever's made Mike Paradinas step onto the dancefloor with his label, he's done it with a solid ear. The A side "J & W Beat" is a nice mix of competing sounds and styles that jostles along for a good six minutes and gets your shoulders moving and the synapses in your head bouncing. But the B side "K & G Beat" takes things to a new level with an immense intro and a Burial meets the Field type of sound (yes, that's as cool as it sounds) that should make anyone appreciative of this type of music turn their head. A stunning 12". I hope more is soon to follow.

Lithuanian producer Linas Strockis is a new style of producer. Coming from way north of any super-developed dance scene, his debut album picks bits and pieces of dance floor sounds from all over Europe and mixes them together. This is the type of record you'd expect from Kompakt on their best days, not Planet Mu, a label not known for releasing dancefloor-ready material at all. Mu first released the "No Mo/Brenn" 12", and the A side made our list of the best songs of 2008. Thankfully, those two tracks re-appear here and bookend the album for non vinyl collectors, but they are quickly overshadowed by some of the material in the middle. "El Snig", which also appeared on last year's Plan Mu compilation, is a major highlight. It features Lithuanian vocals over a minimal techno beat which eventually is replaced by a disco beat and then enveloped at the end by dubstep level bass. Rut's voice carries the tune, and Strockis' manipulaton of it into the beat at times works perfectly. "Fluttery" dips into late 90s IDM style with surprising ease, and some sparse vocals before the beat kicks in. "Chika" goes in a different direction. What starts as a haunted dub vibe gives way to African drums before warped flutes move this track into tribal house territory and keep it there. Fantastic tune. This is music where you categorize it as house or techno or trance based on the minute of the song you're listening to. Along with The Field's new album, this is some of the finest experimental dance music released in a while.

Planet Mu certainly has their ear to the streets. Across the globe this small label is signing up some of the most unique acts in electronic music. FaltyDL is the latest, a New York producer mixing in UK Garage, dubstep, acid, IDM, and a host of other influences for one of the most energetic albums so far this year. Vocal samples reminiscient of Burial populate the entire disc, with more upbeat tempo and acid lines and IDMish melodies mixed in. It's very interesting that this sort of sound is coming out of New York and not the UK. All of its influences seem to emanate from there. I guess this album speaks to how fast sounds and genres can spread with the internet. There's an assuredness to the blend of FaltyDL's sounds. He knows where's snatching these sounds from and how they should work together, something that's highly unusual for a debut album. Overall, this is one of the more polished debuts Planet Mu has put out in a while, and just a heck of a record. And I can certainly see why Mike Paradinas was impressed. Some of the more IDMish tracks (like "A Shape Has Come") could come straight off a Mu-ziq album.

Barry Lynn returns with his third album as Boxcutter, and this time he's dipping even further into the acid sound he explored on Glyphic. With Glyphic, some songs seemed to be acid and some seemed to be dubstep. With Arecibo Message, he seems to have been able to integrate the two sounds better, and it makes for a much better album. This may dissappoint those hoping for more IDM-infused dubstep, but Arecibo Message is new in the way Oneiric was and Glyphic wasn't, and it's exactly what Barry should be doing with this project. The single, ironically titled "A Familiar Sound", is a mix of vocals, acid synthlines, and dubsteppy bass. "Free House Acid" follows and sounds like it could have come straight from one of The Tuss records, which is no small compliment. "Mya Rave v2" is an absolute dancefloor stormer, with a sped up sample singing "Loving you was my mistake". Those three songs alone make the album worth the price of admission, but the album also round itself out with some of the jazz and IDM influences previous fans may be looking for. All in all, I think this is a nice step forward for Barry after (for me, anyway) a disappointing second album.

You have to hand it to Planet Mu. Sure, their taste can be questionable at times, but no label goes into more genres than them and no label pulls diamonds out of the rough like they can. Sunken Foal is just the latest in a long line of winners for them. Dublin's Dunk Murphy blends synthetic voices team up with gentle guitar, piano, and glitchy electronic work for a really impressive debut album. This is a lot more refined than what I'd expect from a debut on Planet Mu, but Murphy has created a finely tuned unqiue sound that is immediately grabbing, shifting in intensity, and very atmospheric. This is what The Gasman could sound like if he didn't realease so much unfinished material. The vocals may sound like a gimmick, but they blend in perfectly with the Sunken Foal aesthetic, are barely noticeable as such other than them being yet another sound in the mix, and again add to the uniqueness of what you're hearing. Another impressive new artist out of the Planet Mu camp.

Planet Mu always seems to have its ear to the ground searching for new sounds. The label is almost eager to re-define itself with each new release, starting from an IDM label, but then embracing indielectronic, breakcore, grime, and dubstep. Now, Planet is, to my knowledge, the first label to release a Skweee album, and the first label outside of Skweee labels Harmonia and Flogsta Danshall to even acknowledge the sound. For those that aren't aware, Skweee is a Scandinavian phenomenon that involves funky basslines and chiptune-esque synth sounds. Until now, all of its releases have been 7"'s, but Eero's trying to take it out of the Nordic lands with the genre's first full-length. This album contains a lot of the hits that have defined the genre's parties, including probably the most known Skwee track "We Could Be Skweeeroes", which could end up being the genre's own "Midnight Request Line". The premise behind Skwee is kind of silly, and the sound is undeniably cheesy, but anyone listening to this album can definitely see potential here. Whether this sound gains traction in the way dubstep has over the last couple of years remains to be seen, but if you're looking for something new, this is the freshest thing you're going to hear.