There’s have been so many good electronic- and dance-music releases coming out lately that our heads are spinning…but we’ve conquered our vertigo enough that we can tell you about two of our favorite recent releases. As an added bonus, both of them have a strong Gotham component – go, home team!—Bruce Tantum

New York Endless
Strategies EP
(Golf Channel Recordings)

“Scale Those Heights,” off the debut EP from New York Endless, is bedecked with the following ornamentation: a metronomic, tick-tocking rhythm; percolating, cascading synths; a spare, haunting melody and, when a four-chord keyboard pattern kicks in around the three-minute mark, a quietly triumphant ambiance. In short, it’s a gorgeous tune that’s not far removed from the work of Kraftwerk, especially the often-meditative, flowing music the German quartet produced for mid-period albums such as ’77’s Trans-Europe Express and ’78’s The Man-Machine—and for Dan Selzer, the man behind New York Endless, that likely would be the ultimate tribute. Selzer, a veteran DJ and longtime underground presence (he runs the postpunk/new-wave–oriented label Acute Records, among many other claims to fame), doesn’t keep his love of Kraftwerk, and specifically, the combo’s “Europe Endless,” a secret, and the shimmering aesthetic of that song and that album runs strong on this EP.

Which is not to say that Selzer has made a slavish, gently cosmic Kraftwerk copy here. “Scale Those Heights” is a full-bodied and muscular work, closer to the more thoughtful end of the modern-day electronic-house spectrum than nostalgic electropop. The EP’s “A Consultant’s Agreement” presents a variation on the theme: Leading off with an unspooling, circular kalimba-esqe riff, a muted synth melody slowly appears, bubbling keys make an appearance, some skillful hi-hat programming adds more rhythmic accents, and a kick and handclaps hold the piece together until the whole thing fades away—then a surprise coda reminds you of what a gem the song is. It’s a stunner—but the highlight of the release is the 16-minute “Benefits Arrive (Life Goes On),” a cut that conjures up a drive along a rain-slicked, neon-lit city street as adroitly as Kraftwerk ever managed in its prime, thanks to Selzer’s focus on arrangement, sound design, dynamics and an ear for an elegant, near-regal melody. Like the rest of the EP, it’s a grand, hypnotically placid and sweet-hearted all at once. Simply put, it’s a beautiful finish to a striking release.

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Stone Float
Everlasting Remixes
(MothLab Recordings)

This collection of remixes from the Brooklyn freeform-electronics combo Stone Float, the latest release from the Italian digital label MothLab, is a tech-house–leaning treat. That might not be surprising in itself…unless, that is, you’ve heard the original tunes. Not that the originals aren’t good—they’re very good, actually—but there’s not really that much that’s tech-housey, or clubby at all, about them. “Stone Float is one of infinite possible windows that could be open to the inner corners of human consciousness,” the band’s Facebook page states; true, perhaps, but if we had to, we’d narrow the band’s sound down to somewhere between psychedelic trip-hop and progressive industrial. Whatever, the case, these remixes could rock most any tech-friendly dance floor.

The three cuts on this EP aren’t the first Stone Float rerubs to see the light of day; that honor goes to a version of “Repeat,” released earlier this year on Plant Music and a remixed by Justin Strauss and Teddy Stuart under their a/jus/ted banner. That track is well worth tracking down—the duo molded the doomy electro-folk of the original into a slightly less doomy slo-mo acid-disco chugger. But the three cuts on the current release are all on the tough and steely side. Luis Padron takes “Rusted Sun,” a slightly sinister drum ’n’ bass number in its original incarnation, and transforms it into a pulsating monster, with throbbing bass and echoing, percussive keys imbuing the track with something approaching old-school tech-trance (that’s a good thing in our book). Illich Mujica, who works with Padron in the MOTH duo, takes a deeper approach to his take on “The Key”—he keeps the windswept melody intact, but buffs the downtempo original into a cluband groover with pinging synths, bellowing bass, loping house rhythm and overall dubby ethos. Finally, there’s “The Letter”: Originally a dreamy head-in-the-clouds kind of cut, Matt Le Khac reconstructs it into a slab of haunted drama, its tough arpeggiated synth supplying the propulsive force while orchestral swoons and an array of effects, fades and whatnot take care of the grandeur. It’s a fascinating track, one that helps take this EP well out of the realm of the ordinary.