Having spent years as a drummer for LA-based bands such as Abe Vigoda, it is no surprise that raw, polyrhythmic drum programming forms the bedrock of Dane Chadwick’s debut album Cool Intentions. These frenetic footwork rhythms are combined with smooth and soothing self-programmed synth patches to create a bubble bath of an album.

Chadwick is a master of building and releasing tension. On ‘Water Work’ synthesizers rush together and form waves of sound that build even as they recede, like an audible version of Escher’s infinite stairway. Tracks like ‘Dope’ and ‘vowelS’ on the other hand rely on rhythmic abstraction as the grid blurs and drums fall so far behind they are ahead. The lightning rimshots, cascading tom rolls and relentless kick drums say Chicago footwork, but Chadwick's sound is nowhere derivative. Liquid drum kinetics meet breathy jazz chords and warped vocal exhortations, bending the footwork template to evoke hazy California sunshine.

Dreams' debut full-length Lost Kingdom is like a vortex, inhaling disparate moments in the history of electronic dance music and turning out sonic pathways to tomorrow. Starting at the street level, the album begins with two feet planted firmly in the rich history of house music and ascends to an unabashedly synth-powered zenith. Single 'Over' begins with doomy horn samples before flipping dramatically to effervescent synth pads, while title track ‘Lost Kingdom’ sounds like a SNES hardwired into a Roland Jupiter, with a soaring prog lead carrying the track to its climax. Meanwhile, tracks like ‘Ztar Curse’ and ‘Quick’ fuse the drum programming of contemporary hip-hop and the synthetic opulence of the 1980s.

Formerly residing in Los Angeles, Dreams’ recent move to NYC is met with a shift towards a much more club-driven sound, but his retro-future sonic signature remains intact. Chicago, Detroit, Miami: the roots of this music spread across geographic boundaries to simulate a fictional urban territory in which everything vibrates at the fundamental frequency of a kick drum.

Based in Atlanta, 20-year old Moist Ghost's debut LP and Astro Nautico’s seventeenth official release - Big Game Hunter - conjures a landscape as ethereal as it is post-apocalyptic. Liquid textures and haunting soundscapes connect songs along a constellation that is oceanic in character, yet also finds roots in a dangerous, late-night aesthetic. While the album spans a myriad of musical styles, there is a clear, underlying vision to the work that is both coherent and timeless.

With pulsing remixes from fellow ATLiens Time Wharp and REKchampa smoothly rounding out the LP, Big Game Hunter is a glimpse into the swamplands of the south through a voodoo lense, a smoke-filled cave where saltwater flows into the earth. Though each track individually can be dissected and analyzed, there is an intangible aura encompassing the album both familiar and unfamiliar which lends itself to finding a comfortable home in the long lineage of future-classic electronic music.

An experiment in cultural exchange and sampling, respective music collectives Astro Nautico and INNIT/Day Tripper Records have collaborated on a transpacific project which finds 7 members of Astro Nautico sampling Kurosawa’s “The Seven Samurai” to create a track and conversely, 7 members of Japan-based INNIT flipping sounds found in the westernized version of the same film, “The Magnificent Seven”.

The second installment in our trilogy of West Coast releases, 'You're There' is the trailblazing debut full-length album of Oakland-based ambient beat producer Space Ghost.

You know you're listening to Space Ghost by the drums alone. Shamanic bone rattles and shrunken head shakers fill the spaces between winding snare cranks and impatient muted kicks to form a unique hybrid organic-mechanical rhythmic foundation. The result is an album that endures and haunts and deepens with each listen: a head-nodding journey from our prehistoric past to our posthistoric future. This is the 'Music Has The Rights To Children' of the post-Dilla era.

After three years of blood, sweat and tears and just sitting around Astro Nautico brings you Atlantics: Vol. 2, a flick-to-the-balls, balls-to-the-wall, whopping, whapping 40+ track (including intro, outro, interludes and bonus tracks) compilation album that is poised to soundtrack your summer and generally change the game.

Atlantics Vol. 2, like its 2009 predecessor, plays like an astral map of our musical tastes, passing from beats and bass-heavy dance tracks up to footwork heaters and down to chill ambient experimentalism. Some of the artists involved have put out records with us before. Others are new to the project. But most of all Atlantics Vol. 2 is made possible by the invisible but always present Web audience that has fueled us since the beginning.

Kicking off a trilogy of releases from West Coast artists is 18-year-old San Franciscan producer Abel‘s single ‘Girls’, accompanied by a slew of wet and sticky remixes. Shimmering, romantic synth chords blanket a lightning finger cymbal shuffle with guns and 808 kicks dropping like bombs left and right. There’s enough syrupy auto-tuned yearning here to last you the whole summer.

Broken Arrow EP is the first solo release of Brooklyn’s Paul Jones, one of the three founding members of Astro Nautico alongside Obey City and Kuhn. Having produced and released tracks for years on Astro Nautico and elsewhere under a variety of secret monikers in addition to curating the inimitable FatDudes Tumblr and creating video art and cover art for the label, Paul Jones is no newcomer to the game. This is like an unveiling of the heart of Astro Nautico itself.

Being that it is such a family affair, the other two founders of the label have joined in on remix detail. Obey City’s take on ‘Bad Haircut’ ups the tempo and finds a new pocket for the original’s off-kilter arpeggios, while Kuhn’s version of ‘Broken Arrow’ turns out a buoyant agressive juke-jungle hybrid fit to back your next GTA and/or Mariokart 64 session.

BLK EP is the first release on Astro Nautico for 21-year-old Atlanta-bred experimental producer Time Wharp. Sequel to last year's self-released GRN EP, BLK finds Time Wharp departing somewhat from hip-hop beats in order to flirt with more dance-oriented musical forms including house, 2-step and juke.

But despite the genre flexing, there remains intact Time Wharp's core sound: meandering synth melodies fly high and lush emotive pads run low on top of churning rhythm tracks in arrangements so solid they're practically architectural.

The Range is James Hinton, a 23-year-old producer from Providence, RI with a facility for melding frenzied footwork percussion and melodic R'n'B vocal cut-ups to generate rich, emotional bass music for the bedroom and the club.

The Big Dip is a thunderous album. On tracks like 'Distractions' and 'Blind Spot,' sub kicks flip effortlessly between ice cold crunk and scorching footwork riddims, with buzzing snare rushes, cowbells, glass hits, rimshots, toms, timbales, and a slew of hand claps up top. The result is the orchestration of a totally percussive sound as baroque as it is sparing, precise, clinical.

'The October Series' is a Triple LP from prolific 19-year old New York producer, Raja (formerly Infinitirock). 72 tracks in total, this release is a sprawling display of raw talent and energy. The first album, 'Red', is a massive collection of sample-based hip hop beats, with heavy jazz influences. 'Witch' is a hard-nosed collection of trap beats to be played at loud volumes in dark clubs, and represents the spirit of the date on which it was released (Halloween). The third and final album of the series, 'Color' is a requiem for the heart, with vocals and piano taking precedence over heavy drums and bass. An epic work in its entirety, 'The October Series' has incredible depth that begs to be re-visited again and again.

We’re Gonna Make It’ is a love song set in space. Warm vocals and guitar lifted from the solo output of Zombies lead singer Colin Blunstone are reconfigured around a halftime shuffle, with static snares, lazer blasts, and persistent lower-than-low subs setting the pace.

Kyushu, Japan-based pop bass maverick Magical Mistakes passes the original through constantly shifting acoustic environments, crunching through tears in time and space until settling into a triumphant, melodic finish, while Astro Nautico compatriot Obey City’s remix targets the club, reinforcing the original’s drums with a thunderous 808 workout adorned with glamorous synth bell glissandi up top.

Building on the foundation of his first two releases 'JST CHLLN' and 'undizputed', howse's 'trakz EP' exhibits all of his sonic signatures: murky emotive ambient densities are underswept by sub bass jolts and flickering juke-influenced percussion, providing a wholly unique take on 160 BPM.

'Trakz', while distinctly influenced by the primal immediacy and broken soul of select juke/footwork tracks, holds much more beneath the surface. Low fidelity crackle, ghostly R'n'B samples, and a constant sense of drift, simultaneously unsettling and sedating, permeate this release. Backed by remixes from The Range, along with Astro Nautico's Kuhn, Obey City and Paul Jones, 'Trakz' is both a product of dance music's current trends and a foreshadowing of its potential future.

Brooklyn producer Obey City's debut EP Melted Magic offers four idiosyncratic yet seamlessly styled dance tunes that sound like the soundtrack to a romance on the moon in the year 2020. Lush synthesizers are paired with chopped vocals in a complex melodic matrix, while syncopated drum machine patterns and sub-bass frequencies set the songs into movement. Melted Magic is a sensual transition of day to night, with the opening and title track bursting through like rays of fluorescent light and the final track softly settling into velvety dust.

Sam Obey a.k.a Obey City's emotional and cosmic tracks are comparable to the electronic soulful grittiness of bass giants like Hudson Mohawke, Machinedrum, Bok Bok and Jacques Greene. Exploring the genres of R&B, UK funky, grime and tech-house, Obey City's colorful club music grasps onto your heart and stomach tight before abruptly letting you loose. As the cover art so aptly illustrates, Melted Magic is a work of warped beauty that provides a mind expanding trip for the listener.

Flagship Brooklyn beat collective Astro Nautico's latest effort 'Quiet Nights EP' is a kaleidoscopic journey from the heart of Brazilian jazz to the outer limits of experimental hip-hop and bass.

Featuring tracks by all three Astro Nautico artists (Kuhn, Obey City, +weed) and guest spots from both sides of the Atlantic (Young Montana?, Termeric, InfinitiRock, Thirsty Jefferson), this compilation album is tied together by the common departing point for each artist's version: Brazilian jazz classic 'Corcovado' as performed by Stan Getz.

Phasing tape hiss, crunchy vinyl pops and thunderous subs interface with classic bossa nova piano vamps, raw saxophone swag and the hauntingly beautiful vocals of Astrud Gilberto. This is as much a tribute to the depth of Brazilian songwriting as it is to modern electronic developments in the wake of dubstep and Dilla. Set to be released free on www.AstroNautico.com on December 9.

Inaugural collective release from the members of Astro Nautico - Kuhn, Obeycity and Paul Jones (+WEED) - which also spawned the Quiet Nights remix EP. With two tracks from each contributing member, Atlantics Vol. 1 is a snapshot of Astro Nautico's explorations into electronic sound, circa 2009. Stay tuned for Atlantics vol. 2 coming late 2011.