BlackBook

What do you know about Latvia? Expand your Latvian cultural knowledge with the Important Contemporary Artists of Latvia exhibit currently at the National Arts Club.

It's hard to imagine how shocking four guys with nothing but synthesizers and experimental haircuts was back when Depeche Mode first emerged in the early 80's. But Dave Gahan, Martin Gore, Andrew Fletcher, and Vince Clarke veritably launched the synth-pop revolution by devising a middle ground between Kraftwerk's gleaming, Teutonic minimalism and Giorgio Morodor's oversexed futuro-disco. Now, as yet another generation of buzz-worthy acts - Austra, Cold Cave, CLAPS - clamor to worship at their sonic altar, Remixes 2: 81-11, being released June 6 by the electro godfathers, is another stunning reminder that while many will imitate, all are doomed to stumble in Depeche Mode's footsteps.

Was it really a decade ago? Just as the Strokes and the Libertines were making it sexy to wield a six-string again, four icy, black-clad futurists from Liverpool and Bulgaria arrived sounding like they'd just stepped out of Kling Klang Studios in Dusseldorf. Ladytron had made steely ennui chic again, at least until a pack of bands with the words "bear" or "foxes" in their name dragged the musical Zeitgeist off into the woods somewhere. Ladytron's new album, Gravity the Seducer, won't be hitting the shelves until sometime in September, but in the meantime, here are a few notable knob-twiddling brethren that promise 2011 will be a "Summer of Synth."

Austra, Feel It Break (Domino) The debut album from this versatile Canadian three-piece has a singular sound, at once electronic and danceable, but with minor keys, austere chord progressions, and rainy-day vocals that sound goth at first, but are actually operatic—lead singer Katie Stelmanis (center) is classically trained.