As per usual, lots of music came out in April, some of which was great and some of which was not. Here are four great ones.

Santogold — “I’m a Lady” (from Santogold)
This is not the best track off Santogold’s excellent self-titled debut (that honor would go to “Creator,” nor is it the most representative (”L.E.S. Artistes,” probably). It is, however, the most unexpectedly wonderful, its unabashedly catchy melody nearly impossible to not start humming along with, if not already singing at full volume. (MySpace)

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Eric Lau’s New Territories has something in common with NSM’s Turn It Up, DKD’s Future Rage, and the more relaxed tracks of 4hero’s Play with the Changes, but the recent album from the U.K. it recalls most is Silhouette Brown’s self-titled 2005 release. Like Silhouette Brown, New Territories reduces the more energetic, dancefloor-oriented aspects of London broken beat, retains the deceptive abstractions of left-field hip-hop and R&B, and places equal emphasis on mood and songwriting. One possible set of coordinates for Silhouette Brown producers Dego McFarlane and Kaidi Tatham and Lau includes Patrice Rushen’s “Remind Me” and Roy Ayers Ubiquity’s “Searching” as remixed or covered by the Soulquarians — gentle, nuanced, moving R&B that is equally geared for a relaxed night at home or summer day driving.

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Without the knowledge that both Junior Boys have been DJing for some time, there’s a natural inclination to approach their volume in Get Physical’s Body Language series with a little apprehension, like it might be one of those reasonably sequenced batch of favorites — a glorified mixtape, or what journalist Philip Sherburne once termed the “vanity compilation” — rather than a proper, skilled DJ set. Junior Boys will always be thought of first as recordings artists, and they couldn’t possibly carry a rep as jocks on the level of Jeff Mills or Ricardo Villalobos, but they are evidently able enough to put together the kind of set that goes many places with fluidity.

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Cheri Dennis, “Spaced Out” (from In and Out of Love). After nearly two years of delays, Bad Boy background player Cheri Dennis finally saw the physical release of her debut album, and although it couldn’t possibly turn into a Cassie-like phenomenon (Dennis’ material is neither flashy nor provocative enough), In and Out of Love is one of the label’s finest R&B albums. The older singles are worth pointing out, and so is “Dropping Out of Love,” which revisits Bobby Caldwell’s “My Flame” a la Biggie’s “Sky’s the Limit,” but “Spaced Out” gets the nod for its stuttering clusters of synthetic snares (provided by an eccentric producer who sometimes calls himself Romeo IX) and Dennis’ “Just try to get on my level” swagger.

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Before The Warning, Hot Chip were poppy, but not exactly pop; their songs had clever ideas, but were missing the pieces they needed to really make an impact. The Warning brought those pieces together with a satisfying click, making the band’s music immediate as well as pleasingly off-kilter. Made in the Dark isn’t quite as big a leap forward as The Warning was, but it doesn’t need to be — Hot Chip have already hit their stride, and now their pop machinery chugs along at full speed. Alexis Taylor and Joe Goddard’s dry wit is illuminated by neon melodies and punctuated by attention-getting beats, as it was on The Warning, but that album had clear-cut singles, including “Over and Over” and “And I Was a Boy From School.” Here, it’s wonderfully unclear which songs are the A-sides, aside from the brilliant lead single “Ready for the Floor,” which was the first clue that Made in the Dark was going to be something special. It builds from a rubber band bassline, piling nervy guitars, synths that sound like they were borrowed from Taco’s “Puttin’ on the Ritz” or Matthew Wilder’s “Break My Stride,” and a cheery-yet-bittersweet melody into a perfect fusion of pop and dance that is definitely ready for the floor. The rest of Made in the Dark boasts some of Hot Chip’s most kinetic music, with rhythms and melodies that are just as hyper-articulate as the wordplay: it takes a special kind of perverse wit to name one of the album’s most head-noddingly insistent songs “Don’t Dance.” “Bendable Poseable,” on the other hand, is exactly as wiggly as the title implies, and its ragga-tinged spoken word bits show that Hot Chip’s sound is more than bendable enough to accommodate almost any styles or influences that Taylor and Goddard want to fit into it.

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