DMX Krew

Before Dam-Funk there was DMX Krew, who managed to turn up a good 15 years too early for the current '80s electro revival party. First championed by Aphex Twin's Rephlex label in the mid-'90s, the Krew's Ed Upton has made a career out of mining the sounds of synthesizer pioneers from Kraftwerk to Mantronix to Bruce Haack. 2010's Wave Funk, his tenth album to date, is vintage electro-boogie stitched together with 21st century tools: seldom revelatory, but a lot of fun all the same.