Levon Vincent hails from London, but he's not interested in Britpop. He has a hankering for house, but only so much as to take those redolent chords and deconstruct them into something more intellectual than kinetic. Vincent himself calls this album something of a reaction to all the shit that's going down these days.

Levon Vincent World Order Music (self-released)

Sure. Why not?

Insomuch as all art is that, he's right. But I think he's also reacting to the current musical climate, which is just as chaotic as the political world. I mean, we can't even agree on what country music is any more. Apart from classifying these songs as electronic, what are they?

As much Kraftwerkian as house, to be sure, with hints of the ambient. Vincent does not clutter up his pieces, keeping the lines clean and separate. But within that proto-techno shell resides the beating heart of a club maestro. Vincent keeps the dance floor at arm's length, but he doesn't ignore its allure. Those guitars, bass lines and beats are all here, just presented in suspension.

Vincent doesn't bring everything together into a Unified Theory of Electronic Dance Music. Doesn't exist anyway. But he does illustrate how a multitude of disparate notions can coexist. And that's a reaction that's always worth hearing.

Jon Worley