Landau Orchestra, The* - Janus Plays Telephone

Landau, a group of musicians collaborating across the net, set aside their staple IDM sound that perfectly suited Merck (oh, Merck, [sigh!] how I miss you), and organized a real orchestra, full of brass, percussion and string instruments, along with a pair of turntables, a laptop and a Rhodes. The experimental jazzy downtempo result is instantly gratifying (kind of reminds me when The Herbaliser joined forces with a group of nine players to form The Herbaliser Band and release an instantly classic Session One). The Landau Orchestra is geared more towards an all electro-acoustic instrumentation, and the sound is executed flawlessly by this highly skilled and professionally trained group of jazz musicians. Releasing on Milan Records have opened up some potential doors for Landau, since the global label provides major support for film and television (friendly warning - Milan is a member of the RIAA), and provided an opportunity for Landau to remix Javier Navvarate's soundtrack for Pan's Labyrinth (iTunes download only). Overall, I'm glad that a long standing electronic group is able to infuse the IDM heads with a kick of jazz - perhaps we'll see a full film score in the future. Recommended if you like Nostalgia 77, Skalpel, Jaga Jazzist, and Jazzanova.