Is there something in the water in Switzerland? Probably not. That being said, the two most recent albums on the, ahem, eclectic house/electro/techno/something else entirely label Mental Groove have been from, possibly, the two most talented Swiss producers working today (not named Luciano). They’re also women, if you must know.

The “weird” one’s album is called Reflections Of The Dark Heat (Kate Wax). Appropriately, each track seems to operate at that point where things are just out of reach, as though some sort of shimmery effect has been thrown on top of the CD after the mastering process. Most everything here couldn’t be termed techno, but it also couldn’t be termed much anything else besides electronic. Call “Beetles & Spider” pseudo-proto-liquid-house. Or just call it a goopy, melted messy masterpiece. Perfect for the unseasonably humid temperature that my room still hits even though we’re nearly on the cusp of Fall.

Also perfect for that nether region between the two seasons, where any day could end up being either strikingly cold or unbearably hot, is Water Lilly’s nervous electro. Certainly Lilly is much more self-assured on record than Wax’s catch-yourself forays into the digital world, but there’s something not quite “right” about Lilly’s electro anthems either. It’d be easy to produce the easy anthems that previously earned her spots at Luxx and other high-profile DJ gigs, but on her debut album Sputnika, it seems like she’s going for something a little bit darker than before. “Misfit Fuzz” is an obvious example, where the bass gets fuzzy, but not warm, in providing a backing for a simple pointillistic melody and Lilly’s vocal. Whereas you feel dark and sexy when listening to things like Fischerspooner, this just sounds a tad bit creepy. And that’s a good thing.

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