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[a pack of wolves]

Nah, here in the US that music was generally dismissed as being commercial and a bit silly.  Well, Orbital have always been popular but I don't think you can lump in Orbital with Daft Punk or big-beat.

Basically there used to be two groups of electronic music that there was a definite line between.  On the one side you had Daft Punk, Prodigy, Fatboy Slim and all that, some of which was tolerated as being "not bad for dumb music".  Particularly Chemical Brothers, they were probably the most well-liked of that lot.

Then you had FSOL, Underworld, Orbital, Aphex Twin, The Orb, and other such acts that were deemed "IDM" or "ambient" or both, and were seen to have been focusing on making good albums rather than dance-tracks.

I'm not saying it wasn't a snobby distinction (I always thought "Smack My Bitch Up" was actually a pretty good song), just saying that I never knew or read of anyone who thought Daft Punk or any act like them was anything more than tolerable at best.

Like I said, I'm not actually trying to be a dick, I just literally don't understand their sudden popularity, because they haven't changed their style or anything.  To me it's as weird as if Pearl Jam suddenly became indie darlings (though to be honest, I'd rather listen to them than Daft Punk any day).

I don't think you're coming across as a dick, you're just asking some questions and disagreeing with the general assessment of Daft Punk's music. Nothing wrong with that, music discussion would be a bit dull if it was nothing but a sustained wankfest over certain artists with no disagreement.

Over here things were quite different. The reason I mentioned Orbital was because they were of comparable popularity at roughly the same time, Satan for example being a big chart hit. Underworld too, Born Slippy was absolutely massive, you couldn't escape from that track anywhere. As for The Prodigy they were (and still are, for material like Firestarter) regarded as pretty much the most important thing to happen to popular music in years by the press. This is back when people were predicting the end of people playing live instruments and proclaiming that electronic music would soon kill rock dead. That was of course the silliest end of things but it gives an idea of the climate.

I guess what I'm saying is that over here it makes sense since this kind of music has been popular and considered critically important for quite a long time now. From what you say it does seem odd that it's only now that the US is doing the same.

[Jackie Blue]

So, as "Beautiful Burnout" comes on shuffle, what do people think of the newest Underworld album?  It seemed to be dismissed as "business as usual," but I dig some of the tracks.  I also have Dubnobass, anything else I should pick up? 

Their first two albums!  (Just kidding.)  You really absolutely need Second Toughest in the Infants, it's one of the best electronic albums ever made by a longshot.  Beaucoup Fish is not as good, but is not bad either, and has some real winners on it.

Their new one is pretty decent, certainly a vast improvement over the absolutely dreadful A Hundred Days Off, which was truly "Underworld on autopilot".

[ViolentDove]

Well honestly I don't think that there are very many, if any, particularly great electronic artists right now who are making music intended to be played in clubs.  The closest I guess I would say would be some of the better electroclash stuff, or people like Felix Da Housecat, but that's not very very recent anyway.  If I listen to electronic music that's been released within the past couple years, it's going to be M83, Four Tet, Boards of Canada, stuff like that.

Have you checked out any dubstep? Some of the music coming out at the moment is beautiful, both on a sit-down and listen level, and a dancing in a club kind of level.

Stuff on the Hyperdub label is particularly good, such as: Kode 9, Burial, the Bug, Quarta330. Other good stuff: Digital Mysticz, Mala, Vex'd, and Aaron Spectre.

Also, if you dig Boards of Canada and DJ Krush, you might like Cleptocleptics and Hermitude, two relatively unknown groups.