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"This is hip-hop for the people," says Sage Francis early on his fourth album. "Stop calling it emo." Stop bellyaching and maybe we will.

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If 2002's A Hundred Days Off proved that Underworld's Karl Hyde and Rick Smith could scale sonic skyscrapers without former bandmate and DJ Darren Emerson, its follow-up is where they relax -- literally. Seven of Oblivion with Bells' 11 cuts feature beats that lope below cooing guitar and/or keyboards, or are submerged into the muted synth-pulse.

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This collection of seven tracks by Baltimore upstart Blaqstarr (on Philadelphia DJ Diplo's new label) serves as a good example of the raw, exuberant club music being made largely outside of the media spotlight.

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Formerly a collaborative project with vocalist Eva Puyuelo, Savath & Savalas is now another solo pseudonym for Guillermo Scott Herren. Golden Pollen has some of the laptop hip-hop fritz associated with his usual alias, Prefuse 73, but here it's tucked away inside ornate arrangements: low-key woodwinds, delicate guitar and piano, and Herren's plain-sung Spanish vocals.

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Sure, "Vocal A meets Music B" DJ blends are tossed-off gimmicks most of the time, but in those rare moments when the gimmick clicks, the party immediately kicks into another gear.

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Jens Moelle and Ismail Tuefekci may be German, but the tracks they make as Digitalism slot right in with the recent wave of Parisian house music for headbangers.