Square Wave documents an emerging community of contemporary musicians trafficking in electronica, hip-hop, and avant-garde. In an age where any beat geek or tech head can be a producer, technology has given rise to scenes and collectives in unlikely locales; Square Wave is a space for those communities to reach a global audience.

Modeselektor rides that line between intelligent, hard, danceable electronica, and Eurotrash anthems. The latter was far more apparent in the New York club they chose to perform at. While they played, I chilled in the tiny green room above the stage at ever-greasy Webster Hall—immense bass frequencies pulsed through me as I sat backstage with two other writers and Siriusmo, the scraggly, bespectacled German producer for whom Modeselektor created Monkeytown Records.

Fighting over cmopeting voices through a cloud of cigarette smoke, I tried to draw a list of influences from him. After some prodding, I got Jamiroquai. That makes sense—his sound is pure funk, channeling Stevie Wonder more than his electro-glitch contemporaries. He mentioned a reciprocated affinity for the French scene, including Breakbot, whose “Baby I’m Yours” Siriusmo had just mixed with one of his own originals half an hour earlier. While the French techno-disco revival stuff works great with Siriusmo’s tracks at a dance party, his production has the complexity that gives Squarepusher replay value, and just enough of the cheese that always gets Wagon Christ a smile.

Each of Siriusmo’s EPs and singles has a theme, from a twisted take on the big bad wolf on The Uninvited Guest to The Plasterer of Love, a glorification of his day job as a plasterer of other, more mundane things. My meeting with him seemed like a great opportunity to unravel the cryptic motifs, but as we knocked out mystery after mystery, it turned out he hadn’t given them much thought. When asked what his track “Einmal in der Woche Schreien” meant, he simply translated it: “scream once a week” and left it at that without further explanation. His focus was on the tracks themselves. Siriusmo is a true square, preferring the studio to the stage, and a Saturday night crowd at Webster Hall hadn’t tipped the scales for him. He kept his statements matter of fact, and never mentioned what we didn’t ask about—his next release.

After a decade of EPs and singles, Mo dropped his first serious record in March of this year. Mosaik is a full-length experience of his sound, dark side to light. Now, we get a full dose of everything that fell through the cracks between now and the beginning of his career. Pearls And Embarrassments is a double CD of tracks that come under either category stated in the title. It should be noted that even tracks that this kid considers embarrassments are of a quality that the world’s average track makers aspire to meet.

If you’ve been listening to Siriusmo, you’ve heard versions of some of these tracks, but a good chunk of them have never seen the light of day.

Siriusmo “Pearls & Embarressments : 2000 – 2010” (MONKEYTOWN013 2xCD) OUT JUNE 24 by Modeselektor

Pearls And Embarrassments is out June 24th on Monkeytown records.