While Trent Reznor is busy being a married dad and becoming an Oscar-winning composer, AWOLNATION has stepped in to fill the void of a one-man electronic music act.

Aaron Bruno’s debut album, Megalithic Symphony, under his all-caps moniker, is a frenetic album that swings from the sweet (“All I Need”) to the defiant “(Kill Your Heroes”), with an undercurrent of X-Files style paranoia (“Sail”).

This album had me hooked from the first listen and, upon every listen, it was one that would somehow still sound new and exciting. If that’s not the sign of a great album, I don’t know what is.

James Blake was one of the big buzz names for new artists this year, and, I admit, he was hard for me to get into. But, I do love to be challenged as a fan of music. And, when it turns out the challenge is worth it, when the music finally clicks with me, the payoff is that much sweeter.

His self-titled debut isn’t exactly a party-starter or a people-pleaser. He’s kind of a minimalist electronic artist. While everyone else seems to be adding bigger drums and more intricate musical arrangements, his music is stripped to the core and essence of the song. I guess an alternative title for his self-titled album could have been “Zen and the Art of Electronic Music”.

After all, “I Never Learnt To Share” is just one line repeated ad nauseum, each time with a new layer of instrumentation added. And “Unluck” features a very off-kilter percussive clicking 

But, eventually, each track unfolds into something beautiful.

And I recommend a good set of speakers or headphones for this one. That is, if you want the full bass-rattling, floor-shaking effect of his cover of Feist’s “Limit To Your Love”.

For pure musical fantasy and escapism, you don’t need to look any further than M83’s ambitious double album Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming.

As you can gather from the title, the album’s concept focuses on the dreams we have, as children, teenagers and adults. And, the music helps transport us to our various dreamscapes.

M83’s helmsman, Anthony Gonzalez, also draws heavily from the 80s music that inspired him. This album sounds like all the best parts of New Order, Depeche Mode and Joshua Tree-era U2.

And in between the bombastic sounds of “Midnight City” and “Steve McQueen” lie lovely ballads and interludes. “Wait” stirs something in my core with it’s simplicity and yearning. While “Raconte-Moi Une Histoire”, where a child narrates a story about turning into frogs, really just sums up the wonder of this album.

In fact, this isn’t so much an album, as it is a soundtrack for your daydreams.

Love her or hate her, Björk is always innovating and experimenting with music, which makes her part musical composer, part mad scientist. And I worship her for that. Vespertine was a project with choirs. Medúlla was an experiement in creating music using only voices. Volta was a meditation on music and nature.

And, this year’s album Biophilia, examines the relationship between music, art and technology. In addition to creating all new instruments to record the album, Björk also partially recorded the album on a tablet computer, and released the album with a series of iPad apps that feature games that further enhance the experience of the song by allowing the listener to actually interact with each track.

Gimmicks aside, the album is solid and classic Björk. Musically, it fuses the choral elements of Medúlla and the hard electronica found on Homogenic. While it might be a hard album to get into, it’s an easy one to get lost in once you surrender yourself to the Icelandic wizard and allow yourself to be her musical guinea pig. 

Denmark band When Saints Go Machine have been getting positive press for their latest album Konkylie. The brooding synths paired lead singer’s Nikolaj Manuel Vonsild’s haunting falsetto voice make for some great music to chill out to.

They’ve just released their third video, “Kelly”, a song about a girl’s first kiss. The video is simple, but so cute. It focuses on a young dancer who is clearly smitten with her very intense dance instructor.

I’ll admit, it made me feel a little uncomfortable watching it for the first time, just because I wasn’t sure how controversial the video would get. I mean, where is his hand going?!?!?

Thankfully, the video keeps it very innocent. Her flirting glances cut with her fantasy of performing a big routine with her instructor perfectly captures young puppy love.

I mean, haven’t we all been there? Young and naïve, crushing on someone way older and way out of our league. In my case, it was Ms. Hughes, my Grade 11 English teacher. She was hot.

Canadian electro-pop singer Lights is prepping the release of her second-album Siberia.

The lead single "Toes" sounds a bit darker, as she sings about an unpredictable lover keeping her on her to-oh-wo-oh-oh-oh-woes. 

Too bad the video does little to keep us on our toes. Lights is just walking around Toronto, looking pretty.

Granted, all her videos are minimalistic, but I kinda like that she had a quirky, artsy gimmick in them, be it cardboard backdrops or buckets of paint.

I guess the point is to focus on the song. And damn, it's a great song.

Proving there must be something in the Swedish water, here comes another band from the Scandanavian country that is definitely worth checking out.

Icona Pop, a female electro-pop duo, has been getting a lot of buzz for their distinct fusion of dubstep and bright poppy vocals. 

This isn't the dubstep that comes from douchey DJs or random Britney Spears re-appropriation. This music isn't so much about tweaking on the dancefloor as it is about just having fun.

Their debut video for "Manners" is all black lights and glowing body paints, and is only a preview of what we can expect from their upcoming debut album, which Attitude magazine calls "one of the most anticipated albums of the year."