The Ledge (2011)

The act with the first arena-sized sound in the electronica movement, the Chemical Brothers united such varying influences as Public Enemy, Cabaret Voltaire, and My Bloody Valentine to create a dance-rock-rap fusion which rivaled the best old-school DJs on their own terms – keeping a crowd of people on the floor by working through any number of groove-oriented styles featuring unmissable samples, from familiar guitar riffs to vocal tags to various sound effects. And when the duo (Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons) decided to supplement their DJ careers by turning their bedrooms into recording studios, they pioneered a style of music (later termed big beat) remarkable for its lack of energy loss from the dancefloor to the radio. Chemical Brothers albums were less collections of songs and more hour-long journeys, chock-full of deep bomb-studded beats, percussive breakdowns, and effects borrowed from a host of sources. All in all, the duo proved one of the few exceptions to the rule that intelligent dance music could never be bombastic or truly satisfying to the seasoned rock fan; it's hardly surprising that they were one of the few dance acts to enjoy simultaneous success in the British/American mainstream and in critical quarters.

Cardboard sleeve (mini LP) reissues from Daryl Hall & John Oates featuring the high-fidelity Blu-spec CD format and the latest digital remastering

On 2008's Broken Grid, his first album under the group name Solar Fake, German synthesizer player and singer Sven Friedrich covered Radiohead's "Creep," one indication of his musical taste. A more telling one comes with the cover he's chosen for the second Solar Fake album, Frontiers, a version of Talk Talk's 1984 hit "Such a Shame." Friedrich's all-synthesizer dance-rock sound is very much rooted in ‘80s antecedents, including not only Talk Talk, but also, and especially, Depeche Mode, who are evoked in the opening song, "Under the Skies."

“Songs of Ascension” is a major new recording from composer Meredith Monk and her vocal ensemble. Written in 2008, it is conceived as a continuous composition, a departure from Monk’s earlier collaged or episodic extended works. In recent years Meredith Monk’s been expanding into the worlds of orchestra and string quartet. On “Songs of Ascension” she teams up with a string quartet of New York players well versed in new music. With winds, percussion and two vocal groups added to her already extraordinary singers, this is one of Monk’s most musically ambitious ventures. Voices and instruments are paired and balanced against each other to an extent rare in her music.