Ambient music. Just leave the fridge on for an hour, put microphone close by, record and release in nicely packaged artwork. That's what the cynics would say. They've clearly never been anywhere near Sakura. While Japan's Susumu Yokota is better known for leftfield techno and weird-beard house, this venture into the world of chilled-out soundscaping is captivating enough to rank alongside any of Brian Eno's Music For. classics. Tapping into the spirit of Eno's 1970's experimentalism (think My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts), tracks like the Afro-tinged "Uchu Tanjyo" and "Hisen" capture the sound of global drifting beautifully. The pace throughout (apart from the jazzed-up "Naminote" and Moroder-ish "Hogoromo") is metronomic, but never soporific. [+]

Justice is the moniker of the Paris-based production duo Gaspard Augé and Xavier de Rosnay. Their approach to crazy-quilt dance-pop hybridism is infectious, if a tad off-putting here and there. The duo rose to fame due to an MP3 single and super smart video for the excellent, kiddy-chorused house-pop number "D. A. N. C. E. " in 2007, and they soon thereafter signed to the suitably named label Banger. They manage to make really silly and fun music in a way that frequently comes off in a pretentious manner. It's ridiculous to name your album after a symbol, especially if it's †. [+]

Conjure One, is the self-titled debut from ambient music veteran Rhys Fulber, who previously was a member of production outfits such as Front Line Assembly, Delirium Noise Unit and Intermix. He is also an in-demand producer and his fingerprints can be found on a plethora of records by everyone from metal gurus Fear Factory to the one and-thankfully-only Sarah Brightman. Conjure One is Fulber's first solo outing; hiring a broad range of vocalists including Sinead O'Connor, Israeli chanteuse Chemda, the Argentinian Marie-Claire D'Ubaldo, the American Poe and England's Mel Garside, he has created a conceptual yet personal LP that draws heavily on music from the Middle and Far East. Fusing live instrumentation with plush studio production, Fulber has come up with his own no-holds-barred take on these exotic musical traditions. Unfortunately, as happens with so many projects of this nature, he has overcompensated for his cultural voyeurism by writing overly epic songs that are so saturated with "heartfelt" emotion that they end up simply being nauseating. One or two tunes stand out but the real charms for dance-music heads lie in the bonus CD, which contains some tastefully minimal remixes from the likes of Hybrid and Max Graham. -Paul Sullivan.

In the late 1980s, as American house and techno imports flooded Britain and the Acid House movement was sweeping the nation, brothers Paul and Phil Hartnoll were busy building Britain's own interpretation of the sound. Named for the illegal "Orbital" raves taking place around the M25, they dragged their equipment from party to party, playing live PAs of their homegrown dance music to enthusiastic crowds of revellers. Their 1990 single "Chime" was (and still is) the anthem of many a British raver, and their self-titled 1991 debut remains a classic. Opening with the exquisite mid-tempo anthem "Belfast", and containing the "Chime", "Satan", and "Fahrenheit 303" singles, this album captures the innocence and energy of the nascent rave scene. -Matthew Corwine.

Lenny Kravitz is still obsessed with the 1970s, and for good reason: he's found endless inspiration in the work of Sly Stone, Stevie Wonder, and a decade's worth of soul men. Kravitz hasn't lost the funk on 5, but the sound here drifts dangerously close to the Me decade's shallowest end, when disco seemed to rob R&B of its soul. So the passion Kravitz has shown on early albums is strangely diluted (aside from the album-closing epic "Can We Find a Reason?"). 5 is the singer's first foray into digital technology, but despite a few modern effects at the edges, he's doing essentially the same as before-only colder. -Steve Appleford.

Something must have flipped Kool Keith's wig like a mescaline pizza. I can think of no other way to explain the mutant birth of Dr. Octagonecologyst. Literally assuming another personality on this record, Dr. Octagon-Kool Keith on the mike, with Dan "The Automater" Nakamura producing-transmits unearthly rhymes like tractor beams to your cranium. Then he squirms around in there, grabs some Vaseline from your medicine cabinet, and does a little dance. The first time you listen to cuts like "Earth People" and "Blue Flowers," you might have to change the way you listen to hip-hop. The standards are the same-verse, chorus, verse, with plenty of nasty skits in the middle-and there are electro-beat shades of his predecessors, such as Afrika Baambaata, but the wordplay and beat compositions are truly light years from most hip-hop. Listening to this album is like trying to read the glyphs from Stargate. -Todd Levin.

Goldie was deservedly the first crossover star to emerge from the jungle/drum & bass underground scene, although credit for this astonishing debut album must also go to his collaborator and engineer, Rob Playford. This music is almost three-dimensional-the soundtrack to some undreamt of, heavenly computer game-and the cavernous dub breaks, rapid-fire rhythms and morphing twists and turns of "Jah The Seventh Seal" and "This Is A Bad" is intoxicating. Its centrepiece, however, is the epic, three-part title track featuring Diane Charlemagne's vocals; its all-enveloping rhythms and shadowy synths take the listener on a palpable musical descent into the darkest horrors of inner city life. Drum & bass was quickly subsumed to become the lingua franca of TV adverts before dropping from fashion, yet Timeless stands the test, genuinely living up to its name. -David Stubbs.

The resurgence in all things old-school that gripped drum & bass in the early 2000s suited Aphrodite's Gavin King more than most, adding a veritable slew of newcomers to his stalwart grass roots audience. Urban Junglist offers something of a quick fix to those hungry for a follow up to Aftershock, which threw lyrics from rap legends Schooly D and Big Daddy Kane into a blend of wobbly bass and jittery percussion. There's something eminently likeable about the funk-flecked beat programming and cunning split-tempo technical trickery that characterises King's own music and it comes as little surprise to find his work as a DJ very much in the same vein. The selection makes its way straight down to the dancefloor, Peshay's euphoric "You Got Me Burning" opening an album that steadfastly refuses to take its foot off the accelerator. The beat-matched mix deftly segues from big dancefloor shakers to lesser known acetates and a scattering of easy access junglistic remixes but the highlight is Aphrodite's interpretation of Beverley Knight's "Whatever's Clever. " -Kingsley Marshall.

Electronica artists are increasingly in demand as film scorers. Overall this is good news, and this heavily instrumental music fits especially well with action or sci-fi movies (cf. Pi). Since Plunkett & Macleane is set in the 18th century, choosing Massive Attack associate Craig Armstrong was a bit of an odd choice-one that's mostly paid off. Here Armstrong mixes up Carl Orff-style pomp, string-laden trip-hop, and a somber ambience reminiscent of late 1980s Goth. And despite Lewis Parker's inept (and incongruous) rapping, a cover of Talking Heads' "Houses in Motion" provides a soulful break from the heavy-duty atmospherics that make up most of this CD. We're not talking Miklós Rósza here, but this definitely is an encouraging piece of work. -Elisabeth Vincentelli.

Pioneers of Post-Chemical Brothers big beat, the Propellerheads' first album is a fresh take on a tired genre. Alex Gifford, formerly of the Grid, and Will White have gone from strength to strength with their blend of breakbeat techno, hip-hop and 1960s kitsch. Like Fatboy Slim, they inject humour into the rather dry dance scene with tunes like "Velvet Pants" ("He's got a good body / He's wearing velvet pants"). Decksanddrumsandrockandroll features collaborations with De La Soul ("360 Degrees"), the Jungle Bros ("You Want It Back") and the illustrious Shirley Bassey on their top-40 hit "History Repeating". However, the best single on the record is their version of the underrated soundtrack from the Bond film On Her Majesty's Secret Service, which does not destroy but refreshes the classic John Barry original. -Ed Potton.