The Birds

Expanding on the opening song from Telefon Tel Aviv’s 2009 album Immolate Yourself, Joshua Eustis and Charles Cooper start off the 2012 EP The Birds with a title track that owes more to '80s synth-pop than the IDM style the duo began with. The vocals even sound like a young Dave Gahan from Depeche Mode singing skittering beats. Cocteau Twins’ six-string wizard Robin Guthrie lends his otherworldly guitar sounds to “The Sky Is Black,” which sounds a bit like a post-goth–influenced Sade cooing over subtle techno trimmings. Eustis and Cooper lend their title track to Berlin IDM producer Ellen Allien, who drops her signature soothing bass and downpitched ambient dance accoutrements. Allien’s remix also cleverly manipulates the singing to pulse along with her selected rhythms. Microhouse producer Matthew Dear also lends his King Midas touch to the tune, creating a remix that puts a bass guitar's natural resonance upfront and then loops the riff with all other rhythms working in the periphery.