CONTROL VOLTAGE

July 25, 2012 – Matmos, the Baltimore-based duo of brainiac multi-taskers Drew Daniel and M.C. Schmidt, are planning to release a new EP, The Ganzfeld, on a new label, Thrill Jockey, in October. And in typically high-minded Matmos fashion, the pair will base the music on experiments in psychic research and feature a remix from the mysterious Bay Area techno producer Rrose; an album, The Marriage of True Minds, will follow in early 2013.

July 24, 2012 – Four Tet's Kieran Hebden has kept vinyl buyers busy over the past year with a steady stream of releases on his Text Records label. In just the past few months, he's put out two new Four Tet 12-inches, "Jupiters"/"Ocoras," "128 Harps," plus a third collaboration with Burial, the single-sided "Nova," which followed 2009's joint effort "Moth"/"Wolf Cub" and last year's "Ego"/"Mirror," featuring Burial and Thom Yorke.

July 20, 2012 – America hasn't produced many viable electronic-music scenes in the past decade or so — that is, local or regional communities with their own sound, like Chicago house or Detroit techno in the 1980s and 1990s. There are some, sure, but not really to the extent that the rest of the world has served up localized interpretations of a specific sound. But maybe there's a silver lining there.

July 17, 2012 – With rockers from Tommy Lee to Korn's Jonathan Davis dabbling in electronic music, it's not that surprising that Flea has a little sideline in beatmaking himself.

July 13, 2012 – With the year dipping down past the half-empty mark, I'm taking a page from No Trivia's book to compile what he termed "a glorified list of my favorite songs" for the first half of 2012. I had hoped to be somewhat objective, balancing criteria like forward-thinkingness with sheer sonic thrills, but at the end of the day, this list is far more about me than it is the State of Dance Music in 2012.

July 12, 2012 – One benefit of Ricardo Villalobos refusing to set foot in the United States for so many years is that it allowed plenty of time for Stateside producers to form their own impressions of his squirrelly, spiraling groove fantasias (and the kinds of dropped-jaw reaction they inspire) without ever actually catching the minimal maestro in person.