Berlin’s Michel Morin, aka Sneak Thief, seems to have found the magic formula for rocking a party with his funky, live-fast-die-young synthy electro, demonstrated here in a live set recorded last November in Ireland. Morin’s clever use of samples and “all-synth, no-vinyl & no-laptop” performance is impressive and most importantly, ass-shaking. Morin is also half of Polygamy Boys, along with Stephan Busche (aka DJ Gitano). Some of the Boy’s best tracks are those featuring Lindsay-J, who’s lovely vocals often channel great female Italo vocalists of the past. Keep an eye out for the trio’s forthcoming EP on Mighty Robot UK.

[ download - Sneak-Thief aka Polygamy Boys Live in Cork Ireland 11/27/05 .mp3 ]

San Francisco’s Club Activ brings us a nice recording of Legowelt’s live appearance at their club last month. It’s been almost a year since I last saw Mr. Wolfers last perform live, so it’s nice to hear some of his Beyond the Congo EP, which has been on heavy rotation at my house, in live form. Complex, thematic, weird yet still paced to rock a dance floor, the Beyond the Congo ranks high among my favorite Bunker releases.

[ download - Legowelt Live @ Club Activ - .mp3 ]

Another release well-worth mentioning from Legowelt is his Dark Days album, a collection of tracks from once-lost tapes dating back to 1992 released on his own Strange Life Records. I’m not sure where this CD is available for purchase other than directly from the artist, but it is worth tracking down for a glimpse into the evolution of Wolfers’ sound. The main theme of the Dark Days album is spaced out, distorted deep techno with hypnotic synth melodies, with a nice marriage of dramatic synth washes over over jacking Chicago-style crunchy beats acid lines. Some of the best tracks hail from his 1996 tape release, “Space Force”, including my favorite, Lego Resistance, a stunning track that (excuse my resorting to a comparison here) rivals Aphex Twin’s similar SAW material.

[ download - Lego Resistance by Legowelt - .mp3 courtesy of Legowelt.com ]

WNYU radio show Bentwave brings us a sometimes-hypnotic but mostly rocking live set from Michaela Dippel, aka Ada, recorded in November 2004 at Ikon Club in NYC.

I was first introduced to Ada via her track “Blindhouse” on my constant and faithful companion in sleep, travel and almost everything else for almost a year now, the Triple-R “Friends” mix. I somehow let the task of purchasing Ada’s much-hyped Blondie album fall by the wayside, which, based on this live set, might have been a mistake.

[download: Ada Live @ Ikon - .mp3/67mb]

While I was at the Bentwave site, I picked up two other gems: a fun live set from electro/idm purveyor Cylob, and an unexpectedly disco-filled 2+ hour long DJ set from Broker/Dealer. Broker/Dealer is another name that I associated with sweeping dancefloor minimal techno, so I was pleasantly surprised to find italo boogie and synthy disco from the likes of Daniel Wang, Lama, Was Not Was and Klein & MBO mixed among the minimal. Check around the 1 hour 5 minute mark for one of my alltime-favorite Patrick Cowley tracks, Sea Hunt.

[download: Broker/Dealer DJ Set for WNYU - .mp3/58mb]