DANCING ABOUT ARCHITECTURE: DEEP IN DANCE

If your sole knowledge of dance and electronic music was based on the radio or most mainstream gay clubs, you’d have a very shallow and, quite frankly, dull opinion of the genre (at least in my book). In past columns I’ve discussed the beautiful­—if slow—progress of EDM into something a bit more organic, manic, deep and usually minimal. While the revolution of disco and minimal house I predicted hasn’t exactly put Zedd and Avicii out to pasture, it’s poked its head onto the charts and the radio from time to time (Disclosure, Daft Punk). If you’re looking for something along these lines, read on, my child.

The aforementioned Disclosure has dominated most discerning DJ’s decks for well over a year now to the point of burnout, but it’s still so good. If you’re looking a fix while waiting to see what the brothers do next, sample Disclosure vocalist Sam Smith’s latest album, In the Lonely Hour. While not nearly on par with the quality or urgency of his dance cuts with Disclosure or Naughty Boy (the massive spring hit “La La La”), Lonely Hour has a few nice electronic nuggets in between the maudlin Adele wannabe tracks. Worth a plow-through on iTunes. You’re actually better off getting the Naughty Boy album from which “La La La” came for more satisfaction.

While we’re still talking Disclosure, fans of their other vocalist Jessie Ware must run now to get Katy B’s US debut, Little Red. If you, like I, were saddened and disappointed by Paloma Faith’s dismal follow up CD and are tired of waiting for that next Jessie or Lana CD, Little Red is for you. Chock full of delicious, slick female vocal house including the addictive ’90s house burner “Aaliyah,” a duet with the stunning Miss Ware as well.

A surprise on this list for you might be the new Blake Lewis, Portrait of a Chameleon. It’s a stunner of a third album from the gay-friendly/very hot American Idol finalist. Filled with breakbeat, minimal house and soul, it’s the CD Justin Timberlake fans should have actually expected after FutureSex/LoveSounds instead of the MJ/Gap Band double release they got.

And finally, our darling of the dance floor Robin returns with her old friends Röyksopp with the unexpected EP Do It Again. While most fans of her’s won’t be surprised by the pop single “Do It Again” or the other two dance tracks, they might be by the two ten-minute-long bookends of ambient on either end of them. The EP strikes just the right balance of Robyn’s knack for writing infectious hooks with their genius of bringing soothing sounds of European chill and ambience into a structured format. Hopefully, like with Robyn’s Body Talk EP, there will be more tracks to come before their sold-out show at Pritzker this August.

DJ Moose helps launch WüF at Mary’s Attic (a party for the bearded crowd) with all of the above dark techno you can handle on May 31.