Various

So it has come to this - electro-sploitation. What began as a lark last fall (fine, it began a few years before that, but I'm speaking specifically about the post-naming of the "electro-clash" movement) and graduated into its own "retro-electro" bonanza during the spring is approaching the winter of its discontent. The backlash is brewing and the innovation of the "nu wave" movement is long gone. So these two double-CD compilations should sound like death tolls, but Ladytron aside, few "electro-from-techno" artists have managed to put out worthy full-lengths, so gathering up singles, remixes and rarities proves there's still some life left for, uh, I ran out of catchy epithets. Despite its unfortunate name, Electro Klash offers a more satisfying collection, with hits from Chicks on Speed, Crossover, Peaches dry-humping Basement Jaxx's already sexed-up "Get Me Off" and, of course, the first lady of electro Miss Kittin dropping her increasingly overdone deadpan. But Sony's entry into the electro-stakes, This Is Not The '80s, boasts twice as many offerings, including a tasteful track by Adult, a fiery shot from International DeeJay Gigolos' founder DJ Hell, Detroit Grand Pubahs' streetwalker "After School Special" (featuring Miss Kittin, of course) and the awesomely-titled, half-decade-old "Space Invaders are Smoking Grass" by I-F. But the sheer number of tracks are so deep that it demonstrates just how similar much of this music really is, and may have you mutilating vocoders by night's end.