Various

In celebration of its 50th release of "emotional experiments in music,” n5MD has capped its seven years of production with a double compilation CD of exclusive new material, remixes and covers from its IDM alumni. AEM, Arc Lab, BitCrush, Quench, Funckarma and Loess are a few notables, and the combined sound unleashes a definitive collection of the modern and moody. The forlorn piano keys of Near the Parenthesis’ "Into the Green” opens the sonic foray. Soon after, Keef Baker’s echo-y drum rolls in "Never” surge forth and batter down any expectation of pure mellowness, as does the crunch and static of Subtractive LAD’s "Back To You” and the drawn out glitch-step of Funkcama’s "Skaind.” The rest of the tracks, characterised by mostly pensive rhythms, expansive synths and jarring IDM, make for a distorted indie rock/electronica collection with intermittent ambient refuge found in such numbers as AEM’s rustling soundscape "Hilbert” and Loess’s Rhythm & Sound-like dub remix of Quenches’ "Bud.”