The eMusic Dozen: IDM Dozen

These early pieces built the cult of Richard D. James. Apart from "I," though, little of this is really ambient (that would come on '94s SAW II). But the beats aren't the point here -- the timbres and textures are, which is a crucial distinction when it comes to IDM. Cushiony sonics on cuts like "Xtal," "Pulsewidth," and the proto-trip-hop "We Are the Music Makers" make it unique in the RDJ oeuvre: it's got the smarts and style he would later hone to a point, but it's also got an honest innocence that James would never quite capture again.

Having debuted with 1993's Incunabula, a fetching variation on the post-electro textures that typified Warp Records' early-IDM phase, Amber retains some of that basic style in tracks such as "Montreal" and "Slip." But the duo's new mode was to slow things down and make them more menacing: "Foil," the opening track, sounds like it's playing at half-speed, and is all the more enticing as a result. And while "Glitch" evokes the sputtering of software on the fritz rather than utilizing it as another cool sonic gadget the way IDM types would do down the line, it's still prescient enough to be considered the cool uncle to the glitch-techno mini-movement.

A former member of post-rock outfit Fridge, Kieran Hebden now does everything from improv-heavy collaborations with veteran jazz drummer Steve Reid to invigorating, idiosyncratic DJ sets, to crafting albums and remixes under the name Four Tet. Those remixes are often uncanny (seek out his reworking of Born Ruffians' "I Need a Life"), and the albums are smartly made. Everything Ecstatic, from 2005, plays to his strengths: melodies just off-center enough to keep you wondering where they'll go, arrangements with the same effect. "And Then Patterns" is an atmospheric breakbeat loop slowly parting at the seams; "Smile Around the Face" has the sun-faded melancholy of Boards of Canada.

Like most of his better-known IDM mates, Luke Vibert has made lots of records under lots of names: Wagon Christ (trip-hop), Plug (drill-and-bass), as well as using the name his mama gave him for everything under the sun. He's remarkably consistent -- so much so that this 2007 album, a good decade and a half from his first outings, ranks easily among his best. Vibert is pretty literal, if cheeky about it, so you don't need much imagination to picture what a song like "Comfycozy" or "Breakbeat Metal Music" will sound like. But Vibert always makes a virtue of thinking quickly and keeping things active, so even those two cuts get the care and treatment that they, and you, deserve.

Though dance music of all stripes is high on concept, Matmos take their ideas more seriously, and further, than most. The domestic-musical couple of Martin C. Schmidt and Drew Daniel, Matmos extend musique concrete working methods into the electronic-pop realm, and they made their 2006 album in homage to ten avant-garde gay icons ranging from philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein to punk legend Darby Crash to novelist William S. Burroughs. "Steam and Sequins for Larry Levan," dedicated to the legendary New York disco DJ, constructs a clanking robot groove that Levan himself would have been happy to use to warm up a crowd -- mostly because he wasn't afraid to play avant-garde music to dancers.

Once in a blind listening test, Kompakt head Michael Mayer ID'ed a Mouse on Mars track as having "a Dusseldorf bass drum" -- his way of saying they'd made the steady house pulse a bit off. Sidestepping the typical is the very notion behind Jan St. Werner and Andi Toma's squiggling, restless sonic recipes. On 1997's Autoditacker the duo distends all manner of electronic sound, from the loopy jazz ride cymbal and woozy scratches on "Dark FX," to the fluttering, wheezing organ of "Sehnsud," to the flopping, squishy beat that carries "Sui Shop," which is friendly like a big, slightly confused sheepdog.

Shhh -- don't tell anyone, but this is my favorite Aphex Twin record. It's the one (maybe the only one) where he leaves all his conceptual-prankster-bluffer-con-artist baggage back at the lab and heads into the water headfirst. No matter how silly or baroque he became, Richard James knew how to cut a techno track, and while it's not hard to imagine, say, Joey Beltram or Frankie Bones playing out "Quixote" or "Quoth," you can also hear how the guy who made these bangers might go on to serenade the sedentary. "Polygon Window" ranks among the most lovingly faked Detroit techno ever to put its electro-handclaps through some echo.

IDM is often criticized for standing askance from hardcore dance culture, but this compilation is an example of the opposite. On it, 25 artists aim for the headphones by playing within what most lay listeners would regard as sonic cracks in the wall. It's no coincidence that the concept was picking up adherents in the world of the four-to-the-floor as well. Clicks_+_Cuts practically defines that crossover: participants Reinhard Voigt, Dettinger, and Farben all recorded for Kompakt, which early on pursued a similar pulsating minimalism, and Luomo fashioned Vocalcity, which merged this crisp-and-dry approach with wet, emotive house. The line between this collection and the minimal techno sound that's dominated clubs in the decade's second half isn't a completely straight one, but it doesn't wind too much, either.

Mike Paradinas's great work as Mu-Ziq isn't on eMusic, but the label he named for half his alter ego may end up being his more lasting contribution. For the label's 200th outing, Paradinas gathered 26 exclusive tracks to show off his roster, and it's an engaging tour of IDM's many strands. Venetian Snares gives darkside jungle a laptop rinse, the Gasman plays his strangely contoured music box, Neil Landstrumm turns UK garage into a primitive game of Pong, Luke Vibert makes machines blow funky raspberries, and Mu-Ziq puts himself dead center of disc two, a loving, femme-crooned early-jungle throwback. What really puts it over, though, is Paradinas's acute ear for dubstep, which accounts for standouts by Pinch, Loefah, and Benga.

Remember when goofing on message-board debate culture and titles that made fun of/identified hard with emo were the markings of a subculture and not a go-to marketing plan? The 44 fire-'em-out-and-see-what-happens cuts on this oddly cuddly curio do. During the early '00s, Miguel "Kid606" Depedro began making home-cooked sound-squibs marred and/or enhanced by splotches of noise and rudderless hyperspeed beats; eventually he calmed down, got twee and various combinations thereof. Tigerbeat6 is his label, and Tigerbeat6 Inc.is that label's early testimony: overdriven electro-pop ("Always Frank" by Blechtum From Blechdom), varicolored glitchstrumentals (Goodiepal's "Wooper"), click-clack accordion loops (Daedelus's "Exp."), and fuzzy, abrupt disco (Dwayne Sodahberk's "Nu_Maschine"), all in search for the kicks regular dance music, including IDM, wasn't providing.

By linking its ten mellow tracks of bright early pseudo-Detroit techno with roll-your-joint-on-the-foldout-cover '70s classics by Kraftwerk and Pink Floyd, this collection made history: techno now belonged in headphones, not just warehouses. It's not chill-out music, exactly, though Speedy J's "Fill 3" is pretty starry-eyed and Dr. Alex Paterson of the Orb closes the set out with "Loving You Live," a series of purple swirls that can still induce visions of oversized tie-dyed hoodies and smiley faces with gleams in their eyes. Instead, the mood is gently propulsive, with cuts like Musicology's "Telefone 529" and Speedy J's "De-Orbit" twinkling brightly over light, funk-inflected grooves.

Before IDM got its name, there was a similar impulse at work with the loose canon of records dubbed "Balaeric" -- songs that British DJs like Danny Rampling and Paul Oakenfold had found favor with in Ibiza (with most everyone on ecstasy). The tracks on this Black Dog collection could slot easily into either category: tracks like Plaid's "Object Orient" and Xeper's "Carceres Ex Novum" are tranquil but still propulsive, even if the rhythms are floppy-boned. These songs have simple melodies and subdued, lived-in beats, and they helped codify such pretty, computer-y stuff as one of the great flavors under the IDM umbrella.