Listening to Aleph, it's apparent why Kanye West called on French producer Mike "Gesaffelstein" Levy for some production aid on his Yeezus album . The Lyon native creates nagging, infectious melodies from sheets of dark, cold, industrial, minimal, horrorcore techno. As he rolls out one beautifully weighted noir-tronica symphony after another on this, his debut album, Levy shows a clear-headed and clinical approach to creating such waves of sound. While there are occasional slivers of the old-school (the bassline on Destinations, for instance, is a bit leftfield in dimension), Levy has enough sense to trust in his own blends and brews and not simply photocopy favourites from the techno back-catalogue. Obsession and Duel provide majestic thumps, while Hellifornia puts a whole new spin on bass culture. An album full of perfectly justified grandstanding and pomp. gesaffelstein.com
Download: Destinations, Duel, Hellifornia