Syntheme's winsome shit, Kompakt's ambient 'shosts' and Circlesquare's dullness

I'm not sure if Lasers N Shit is the best name ever, or a lukewarm sigh of a title. Either way, it's the debut LP from Syntheme (pictured).

The acid overlord, who has been squelching her trousers off on a series of 12"s, doesn't pull any rabbits from any hats. Instead she sticks to familiar ground: 4/4 drum sequences, a Roland 303 going ninety-to-the-dozen and, er, apart from a couple of downbeat diversions, that's it.

But that's the trick with Syntheme. It sounds simple, like the spirit of Phuture channelled through Squarepusher's cheerier side. Don't be fooled. It's well-programmed, gurning, glitterball techno that's as much for the bonce as for the tootsies. It's magic.

Other releases now... This year's slab of smashingness from Kompact Records hit recently. Pop Ambient is a blissed-out electronica series ideally suited for curious music lovers unsure of where to start in ambient's sweeping, sprawling, snoring pantheon.

It's both uncompromising and accessible, from the opening fanfare of Klimek's swooning True Enemies And False Friends, through the insistent underwater iciness of popnoname's Nightliner, to Tim Hecker's shimmering epic Shosts in Silver. Yes, "shosts". This album is recommended for late nights snuggled up to your headphones, your pet goldfish and a bucket of benzodiazepine.

Finally, and I'm really late writing about this, I wanted to mention Circlesquare's Songs About Dancing And Drugs. This collection of melancholic electropop took five years to arrive, and some of it (but not all) is worth a listen - especially single Dancers' hesitant funk and pining guitar.

"I'm not sure why you should listen to it. But I think it would be a good idea if you did." Not my words, but that of Circlesquare on this slightly dull YouTube interview.

Snoring pantheons? Benzodiazepine? Slightly dull? I've ended this piece on a downer. Bring back Syntheme, with her jolly lasers and her, um, winsome shit.

Fingers, fists and big squelchy buttons: new singles from Amon Tobin, Syntheme and HudMo

If I stuck two fingers in your face, you'd quite rightly twaz me round the chops with your broomstick.

But if I stuck Two Fingers in your face-- note the capitalization-- you'd quite rightly hold me and squeeze me and call me George.*

That's because Two Fingers is a collaborimification between smoke-hazed Ninja Tune sample king Amon Tobin (pictured) and electronic artist Doubleclick.

The first digital single of that partnership hit like a freight train this week.  What You Know has been hailed as Blade Runner played out in Tottenham.  If the streets of London are strewn with paper unicorns after this post publishes, you know why.  The single fuses hip hop and drum 'n' bass, as a twitchy nod to the early DJ Food era of Ninja Tune Records.  Mercury nominee MC Sway grimes things up good and proper with an angry rant on racial stereotypes, and it's entertaining to see Tobin make room for the vocals by stepping back from the wall-of-sound big fistedness he's known for.

The Two Fingers chaps will drop an album, which I believe will be titled eponymously, closer to Easter. 

Also out this week is Syntheme's daringly titled 12" Syntheme Vol 2.  The key word here is "squelch".  She gets a Roland TB-303 Bass Line synthesiser and pummels it until it's squelchy.  She recreates a banging acid rave in a basement by pressing a big red button labelled 'squelch'.  She squelches like no other: a fine 12" from Planet Mu Recordings.

Hudson Mohawke's new EP Polyfolk Dance is out today(ish).  He's been banging out tracks for ten years, and since he's only 22, that makes me sick.  In fact, I'm already fed up with him, so I'm not going to tell you about him justifying all the hype, about how your ears will find him outrageously addictive, and about how he's working on The Best Album Of 2009 Maybe (which will be fawned over extensively on this site - stay tuned).

*one of my favourite Looney Tunes quotes, from 1961's Abominable Snow Rabbit.