Album: VCMG, Ssss (Mute)

The VC and MG in question are Vince Clarke and Martin Gore, Ssss being a Depeche Mode composers' reunion album – albeit only at email arm's-length, the two electro-heads firing files back and forth between their respective studios.

Not that the distance has harmed the project: this is the most potent and inventive electronica album I've heard in ages, a masterclass in punchy bleepscaping right from the low-register throb that opens "Lowly". Elsewhere, driven by a galloping bass figure, "Zaat" scuttles along with panache and just the merest hint of ambient mystery, and "Single Blip" develops its eponymous blip into an entire sci-fi landscape, building momentum throughout. "Spock" and "Bendy Bass", meanwhile, both possess a muscular elasticity that's irresistible, confounding any lingering notions of electronic music being stiff and mechanical.

DOWNLOAD THIS Lowly; Spock; Zaat; Single Blip