Electro Recommendations Best Of 2010

Review: Generally regarded as one of the best electro albums ever, Drexciya’s Neptunes Lair is a landmark piece of music - 21 tracks of exploratory electronica from 1999, excavated from the Tresor vault. Drexciya - aka James Stinson and Gerald Donald - formed close ties with Underground Resistance and Submerge crews, with their Detroit roots coming through in the jazz and techno feel to many of the tracks. This album still fetches a tidy dollar on Discogs, and its emergence into the digital realm is the cause of pant-wetting excitement at Juno Download. Big tip.

Review: It's been an unfeasibly busy year for Sherard Ingram with the Detroit legend donning his Urban Tribe alias for releases on Planet E and Mahogani (with the latter composed in conjunction with former UT cohorts Carl Craig, Shake Shakir and Kenny Dixon Jnr). "Sphere of Influence" on Dublin imprint Naked Lunch makes it a trinity of success in 2010 for Ingram. The title track is a pensive electro tech workout replete with ear piercing machine funk melodies matched perfectly to the warm bassline. In contrast, "Sentiment" is pitched at a tempo that touches on dubstep, with thumping pads cascading brilliantly around the looped up and heavily dubbed vox and leftfield guitars.