CD: Jacques Greene - Dawn Chorus

★★★ CD: JACQUES GREEN - DAWN CHORUS Housey electronic suite from Toronto producer is gently alluring

Housey electronic suite from Toronto producer is gently alluring

Canadian DJ-producer Philippe Aubin-Dionne – AKA Jacques Greene – has had a successful career in global clubland. One release in particular, his spacey 2011 deconstruction of the song “Deuces” by R&B star Ciara, which he entitled “Another Girl”, created waves in the world of house music. His 2017 album Feel Infinite demonstrated he had vision enough to hold listeners on a longer electronic journey.

CD: Caravan Palace - Chronologic

Easy-going fourth album from French dance popsters moves further from their origins

Parisian outfit Caravan Palace have now had a career that’s lasted over a decade. They’ve not busted the British charts open (although they have had hit albums in France), but they’ve long been festival favourites with multi-millions of YouTube plays, and their UK profile has never been higher. Their new album dials back the manic dancefloor energy they sometimes emanate, yet succeeds as a wittily constructed, summery, electronic dance-pop concoction.

CD: Hot Since 82 - 8-track

Successful DJ-producer fires out a brain bubblebath for the initiated

Club music has its own micro-universe, with its own rules, jargon, and fans. It also has globe-trotting stars most people have never heard of. Much of the music is functional, to be danced to at 3.00 AM on MDMA, no more, no less, unconcerned with the usual structures and frameworks of rock and pop. In this world, Hot Since 82 is a kingpin.

CD: Hot Chip - A Bath Full of Ecstasy

★★★★★ HOT CHIP - A BATH FULL OF ECSTASY Growing up in style

Growing up in style with the indietronic fivesome

Nineteen years, seven albums and untold side projects into their career, Hot Chip have for the first time enlisted outside producers: Rodaidh McDonald and French disco/house don Philippe Zdar. And it's worked. Over the course of the previous albums, the band had steadily evolved from ramshackle and rather self-consciously quirky writers and players to a far slicker operation.

Primal Scream, The Haunt, Brighton review - up-close, short, raucous and sweaty

★★★★ PRIMAL SCREAM, BRIGHTON FESTIVAL Frenetic small-scale gig is short and sweaty

Frenetic small-scale gig by the large-scale rock'n'roll band

Primal Scream have played in this city, in the recent past, at the 4,500 capacity Brighton Centre but tonight they’re in a venue which holds well under 400. A bananas atmosphere reigns when bands of their stature play intimate shows, and so it is tonight.

CD: Kornél Kovács - Stockholm Marathon

Tropical house taken to Sweden and made interesting

On his second album, Swedish star DJ Kornél Kovács has achieved the impossible and made “tropical house” interesting. Somehow, he's taken every cliché of that slow, lilting pop dance sound Drake and lifestyle influencers Instagramming from pristine beaches and tweaked them to find unexpected strangeness and depths.

DVD/Blu-ray: Pet Shop Boys - Inner Sanctum

Royal Opera House concert film is lively but primarily for hardcore fans

Pet Shop Boys are never shy of producing stylishly conceived fan mementos. Coming not long after Faber & Faber’s hardback collection of Neil Tennant’s lyrics, this four-disc set is just such a slice of lovingly rendered memorabilia. After well over three decades in the game – but one since they had a Top 20 hit song – the duo retain a devoted following, ever eager to invest in whatever they’re up to.

theartsdesk Q&A: Bananarama

THEARTSDESK Q&A: BANANARAMA The indestructible girl group on singing, clubbing, post-punk, Lemmy, George Michael and much more

The indestructible girl group on singing, clubbing, post-punk, Lemmy, George Michael and much more

Bananarama are one of the most successful girl groups of all time. Consisting of Sara Dallin and Keren Woodward, the band’s third original member Siobhan Fahey left in 1988 to form Shakespears Sister. The trio reunited in 2017 for a tour but new album, In Stereo, sees them back as the long-standing duo. The pair have been friends since their school days.

CD: L’Impératrice - Matahari

Crafted Gallic disco-pop debut that emanates sleek summery allure

The French have developed an international reputation for a certain smooth style of electronic music. It’s the place where disco and house collide with something more urbane and far less sweaty. Daft Punk provided a defining moment with their 2013 album Random Access Memories, but the sound referred to is touched upon all the way from the louche downtempo of Air to more recent yacht rock sumptuousness from Papooz.

CD: The Chemical Brothers - No Geography

★★★★ THE CHEMICAL BROTHERS - NO GEOGRAPHY Ninth album from 90s dance music giants is a party monster

Ninth album from 1990s dance music giants is a party monster

The Chemical Brothers just keep on coming. No Geography could as well be called No Surrender. It’s the sound of two men approaching 50 but still keenly attuned to making feet move on the dancefloor.