Dance music can thank Claude VonStroke for inventing not just a style, but a whole new emotional register. As honcho of San Francisco's Dirtybird label, in the mid-‘00s VonStroke masterminded a tech-house strain that's both deep and playful, heady and gonzo: a hypnotic sound peppered with giddy asides and riddled with hyphy's rubbery drums. The springy, bleepy “Who's Afraid of Detroit” captures him at his trippy, late-night best, while the goofy vocals and energy-stoking drums of “Barrump” show off his class-clown side. And on the dreamy “Aundy”, liquid Rhodes licks serve as a reminder that every trickster has a sensitive side.