To My Boy

Originally formed as a four piece at Durham University in 2005, Liverpudlian electro duo To My Boy signed to the XL Recordings imprint of Abeano Music and released their first single, the double A-side of the insane i am xRAY and the calmer outerregions in September 2006. This was followed up by the electricity anthem of theGrid just two months later. Computers and structures were stated in the lyrics of their third single model, released in June 2007, with the physics and Tomorrow's World inspired album, messages, coming out the month after. The album received very positive media acclaim, especially due to the fact that the album is very quick at times, such as during the powerful IN THE ZONE or the most maniacal 99 seconds of music ever that is the hidden track of GAME OVER, while also being a bit more slower and calmer, with tracks such as talk and the last messages-era single fear of fragility, released in September. An acoustic version of the album was released in December as a Christmas present to their fans. The twosome took time out from the music world, with lead vocalist and guitarist Jack Snape finishing his Physics degree. During this time, their imprint collapsed, and so the two decided to form their own label, Von Braun, on which their second album would be issued. May 2010 saw the twosome's long awaited return with the half-an-hour mildly conceptual album entitled The Habitable Zone; there is a huge change of sound from their debut, as it is much calmer overall and also has a folktronica feel, with a heavier implementation of acoustic instruments over electronic instruments. No singles have been officially released from the album, but a demo of Us + The Wind was posted online in November 2009 and gained good reactions. model's video is below, with downloads after.

The Tigerpicks

Mancunian trio The Tigerpicks formed in October 2005 and signed to Deltasonic Records soon after. They then issued the Disco Punk Electro Funk single in May 2007. An album, Mourning The Death Of A Panther, was recorded in 2008 but has not been released, neither has any one of the band's other tracks that they have posted up on their MySpace page. DPEF's video is below, with the single afterwards.

Shy Child

Formed out of the ashes of their previous New York group Supersystem, Shy Child released their first album, Please Consider Our Time, in 2001 as a limited CD-R before Grenadine Records picked the twosome and re-issued it the next year. The Humanity EP followed the year after, and showed a less experimental and a more synth-based sound than their debut. October 2004 saw their second full-length One With The Sun issued, with the album's two singles, December 2005's The Noise Won't Stop and March 2006's Technicrats both released in the UK as 1000 only 7"s on Paul Epworth's 679 imprint of Good & Evil Records. April 2007 saw the first new material from the group, that being Drop The Phone, with the group's first global album, Noise Won't Stop, being released a week after the title single came out on 14th May. Summer came out in September, with Drop The Phone being the last single released from the album in November. Liquid Love is the group's fourth album, released in March 2010. Drop The Phone is below, before the downloads.

Robots In Disguise

Best known in the UK for their association with The Mighty Boosh, Robots In Disguise formed in Liverpool in 2000 and released an EP, Mix Up Words And Sounds, in the same year. The duo then joined French label Recall and released a self-titled full length in 2001 which is much more experimental than their recent work. Boys was the only single lifted from the album, released solely as a 12" the year after. May 2004 saw the first new work from the pair, entitled The DJ's Got A Gun, with their second album Get RID! coming out in November, although it was reissued in Germany on Crosshair Records in November 2005, and their future label President Records in the UK on 2nd July 2006, the same day as the only other single from the album, Turn It Up, was released. October 2007 saw the first single drop, The Sex Has Made Me Stupid, from their third album; the album, We're In The Music Biz, came out on 4th February 2008 with the title track released 2 weeks after and final single The Tears coming out in September. The group have reportedly been unable to complete their fourth album due to a lack of funds, but have been able to push out the Wake Up! single, back in April. TSHMMS's video is below, with the downloads.

The Presets

Sydney duo The Presets met in 1995 but didn't release any material until 2003, when they released a 10" featuring Beat On Beat Off and Blood Bubbles on the Rex Records label. This was shortly followed by a signing to then-fledgling Modular Records, who released their Blow Up EP in the same year. The twosome then released a second EP, entitled Girl And The Sea, the next year. Are You The One? followed in 2005, with their first album, Beams, being released in September. Down Down Down and I Go Hard, I Go Home were released in 2006, with UK-only single Truth & Lies rounding off the Beams-era in early 2007. December saw the first new release from the group, with My People released to critical acclaim. This was followed by This Boy's In Love in April 2008, with the album Apocalypso released in the same month. Talk Like That in September, November's Yippiyo-Ay, March 2009's If I Know You and May's Kicking And Screaming were the post-album singles, all achieving varying rates of native success. Are You The One?'s video is below, with the downloads accompanying it.

Passion Pit

Massachusetts' Passion Pit was originally the solo project of Michael Angelakos (who then recruited four more people to support him) and has received intense critical acclaim from many journalists and the music media. His first release, an EP released in September 2008 called Chunk Of Change, was originally a four-track affair written in late 2007 as a Valentine's Day gift to his then-girlfriend. But after signing to New York's Frenchkiss Records, the Neon Gold-released double-A side Sleepyhead / Better Things (issued before they'd signed) was added to the EP upon its September release. The Reeling was the first single off the group's album, Manners, which was released in May 2009, followed by To Kingdom Come and Little Secrets. Sleepyhead's video is below, as are the downloads.

Lo-Fi-Fnk

Stockholm's most sensational electro-duo is Leo Drougge and August Hellsing, best known as Lo-Fi-Fnk. Founded in 2001 after being friends at school, they signed to the Stockholm label La Vida Locash in early 2002 and released the very limited We Is... EP in August. This was followed in 2004 with their first release on their European label Moshi Moshi Records, which was Change Channel. February 2005 saw the duo's second Scandinavian-exclusive EP, (...And The JFG?), released to critical national acclaim, with half the tracks being rotated on Swedish radio stations. March 2006 saw the first sign of an album, with the Wake Up single being released in Scandinavia three months before it dropped in the UK. The album, Boylife, was released in the Nordics April to much critical acclaim, although it had to wait four months before it hit UK shores. The penultimate single from the album was the Scandinavian-only Steppin' Out, released in May, with Moshi Moshi issuing City as a single in June 2007. The group then went quiet in order to write tracks for their second album; the only release between the City single and January 2010's Marchin' In was the track Want U, only released on Kitsuné Maison Compilation 6 in October 2008. Change Channel's video is below, as are the downloads.

Justice

Parisian duo Justice have been at the forefront of the electro house/French house scene in the 21st century. Formed in 2003, the duo of Gaspard Augé and Xavier de Rosnay first got known after their remix of the Simian track Never Be Alone (re-titled as We Are Your Friends) was released in July 2006 and hit #20 in the UK charts, although they had released the track Waters Of Nazareth as a 2 part single prior to the Simian remix in September 2005 and April 2006 on the influential Ed Banger Records label. After the remix success, Justice's first solo success was the single D.A.N.C.E. in April 2007; although not a commercial winner, it became a huge dance hit, and following this, the pair's first album, † (Cross), was released in June to large critical and commercial success. The two singles following the album, DVNO in May 2008 and the stutteringly titled Tthhee Ppaarrttyy in February 2009, didn't have such an impact as the previous singles did, although a live album and documentary compilation, A Cross The Universe, released in December 2008 received moderate continental success, charting highest at #34 on the French Album Chart. D.A.N.C.E.'s video is below, along with the downloads.

James Yuill

London's own James Yuill is very much becoming one of the front runners of the folktronica genre. He first showed his talent in this genre through his first two albums, both self-released on his own The Happy Biscuit Club label, his first being The Vanilla Disc in February 2005. He then released the original version of what was to become his label debut, Turning Down Water For Air, on the same day in February 2007 as his first single, No Surprise, on the Chess Club Records label. This prompted the Moshi Moshi Records to sign him, and released his first MM single as part of the Moshi Moshi Singles Club; the electronically-charged No Pins Allowed in July 2008. Follow up single This Sweet Love was released a fortnight before the MM reissue of his second album, on 20th October 2008. Two more singles followed after the album, with the MM version of No Surprise being released in January 2009, and Over The Hills following in May, with the Earth And Fire Version EPs following from these two in December. James then released his newest album, the slightly more experimental Movement In A Storm, on 21st June 2010, preceded by the On Your Own single the week before. No Pins Allowed's video is below, before the downloads. 

Hot Chip

Alexis Taylor and Joe Goddard are the brains behind Hot Chip. Having been friends since their school years, the falsetto-powered Taylor and the deep brooding bass of Goddard have given the London five-piece one of the more trademark band sounds in recent years. The duo's first release was in 2000 on the Victory Garden Records label; the Mexico EP has a much different alt. rock sound to later releases, with the more prominent use of guitars, with the six-and-a-half minute instrumental closer Mersion/Version being incredibly related to the sound of Blur's self-titled, although the EP itself has some electronic input. Follow-up 2002 EP, the 50-only CD-R Sanfrandisco E-Pee, bridged the gap between the debut and the pair's first release on the ever-excellent Moshi Moshi Records, the Down With Prince EP in 2003. This EP showcased some examples of the twosome's contrasting vocal styles and tunes that would form their debut album, the Neo Soul Coming On Strong, released in May 2004 as a limited 500-only 8 track LP version and the standard CD version containing 11 tracks. This album has more of a hip-hop feel than later full-lengths, with the only single to be released from the album being the faux-gangsta rap Playboy, which hit #102 in the UK charts. During this album, the duo had formally expanded to become a five-piece, with many thanks to Al Doyle, Felix Martin, and Owen Clarke, although Taylor and Goddard were still the mind and soul of the Hot Chip body. The group then signed to EMI, where after the 2005 release of The Barbarian EP, one of their more recognised tracks, Over and Over was released in February 2006, hitting #32 on the charts (although the October 2006 reissue increased on its original position by 5 places). The Warning, Hot Chip's major label debut, was released in June 2006, and had removed the Neo Soul aspect of their work and replaced it with more electronic tones. Aside from the reissue of Over And Over, the other two singles off the album, And I Was A Boy From School and Colours, did not succeed as well as Over And Over had done. This was set to change with the follow-up to The Warning, entitled Made In The Dark. With this album, the group found mainstream success, especially with the second pre-album single Ready For The Floor charting at #6. This was to be the only successful single from the album, with Shake A Fist being a limited 12", One Pure Thought only hitting #53, and Hold On/Touch Too Much being classified as an EP and not a single. Regardless, the album sold well, hitting #4 in the UK charts and was also certified Gold by the BPI. 2010 saw the release of the group's fourth album, One Life Stand, which, with no track being shorter than four minutes, is a move away from standard alt. dance and into more experimental territory, with the singles so far being One Life Stand and the infamous I Feel Better, infamous because of its Peter Serafinowicz-directed video. The great Nima Nourizadeh-directed video for Over and Over is below, with downloads following on.

Flairs

Some musicians today try to be ultra-serious about their music, making all their songs sound as serious as possible, while others just really make music as a hobby, and consequently just toy around with it. Anglo-Frenchman Lionel Rault falls into the latter category. His album, Sweat Symphony, isn't a seriously focused album; he jokes about a bit at times (with the track R.E. Balls being one of these examples, with its innuendo chorus of "Hey R.E. Balls are my best friends") but through the jokes there is some focused electro rock going on. Better Than Prince is below.

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Digitalism

Following their meeting in a Hamburg record store, one of the more mainstream electro house artists of the late 2000s was formed by Jens Moelle and İsmail Tüfekçi in 2004. The duo are heavily enthusiastic druing their live sets, and with a signing to famed electro-based French label Kitsuné Music, their only album so far, Idealism, is an electro house essential. One single from the album, Pogo, is below.

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