For some reason Berlin's Ulrich Schnauss hasn't attained a level of recognition to match the easy likeability of his music. Maybe it's his pokey output-- two full-lengths in five years, and nothing since 2003. Maybe it's his name, which isn't as pleasing to the ear or as catchy as, say, M83. But Schnauss' two very different albums are obvious go-tos for someone looking for melodic IDM working within the framework of pop.

We remember Schnauss last from 2003's A Strangely Isolated Place, a record that found him enveloped in a neo-shoegaze glow, allowing a reverence for Slowdive, first explored on his cover of "Crazy for You" from the Morr tribute album, to run wild. Relative to that widescreen odyssey of layered guitar, Schnauss started more simply. On his 2001 debut album, recently issued in the States for the first time with a bonus disc, he was practicing the sort of bubbly instrumental electro-pop Morr has made famous.