Moderat II

More than just the mere sum of its moving parts, Moderat's second album exists as its own peculiar entity: artful pop angles melded with manic dance music in a way that works in both clubs and living rooms. So while tear-streaked tracks like "Bad Kingdom" and "Damage Done" are shielded from "emotronica" trappings by howling hooks and samples that split, scamper, and slide, the rest of the album reads like a series of compromises among three very opinionated producers: Apparat's Sascha Ring and Modeselektor's Gernot Bronsert and Sebastian Szary. Good thing everyone brought such full-blooded beats to the drawing board; "Milk" taps into a 10-minute trance like The Field, "Versions" imagines a slower, more soulful version of drum 'n' bass, and "Ilona" follows a path lit by pitch-shifted vocals and the kind of kinetic programming that made Thom Yorke want to work on Modeselektor's last album and (most likely) listen to this one.