Due to new synergy requirements, all music hereafter mentioned in this column will get all bloggy at music.kuoi.org. There, at the KUOI chief executive director of music blog, you’ll find links to songs and to Web sites. Here are more worthwhile releases from the first half of the year.

HEALTH, “HEALTH//DISCO” (Lovepump United)
Standout tracks: “Crimewave (Crystal Castles vs. HEALTH),” “Problem Is (Thrust Lab Rmx)”
Do you love the ‘80s? HEALTH and a cast of remixers do. We have here eleven remixes of seven songs, with two each for “Heaven” and “Lost Time” and three of “Triceratops.” The excellent Crystal Castles remix of “Crimewave” was previously released as a Crystal Castles single and appeared on their self-titled album. Most of these reimaginings diminish the band’s less accessible tendencies (though your parents wouldn’t recognize any of it as the disco of their youth) and instead focus on circuit-bent, Sega-flavored keyboards. The solo in “Problem Is,” especially, is wonderful. If you’ve been wondering what the hip kids are dancing to, here is your answer. Lovepump United also features recommended releases from noisy rockers Genghis Tron, AIDS Wolf and USAISAMONSTER.

No Kids, “Come Into My House”
Standout tracks: “I Love the Weekend,” “For Halloween”
Hailing from Vancouver, British Columbia, No Kids is a fancy-pop trio. When I saw them at SXSW, I expected a much bigger crowd than the few dozen in the attic of a restaurant. They certainly deserve it. The emphasis and the beat arrive in unexpected places, supported by a full complement of percussion grounded by a jazzy drum kit and piano. Horns and harmonies appear. Live, the setup is much more Spartan — a few keyboards, the drums, and a bag of toys (guiro, shakers, etc.). Lead singer Nick Krgovich’s beautiful tenor voice is showcased particularly on the downtempo “Bluster in the Air.” All the members are also of the indie pop group P:ano, though one member of P:ano is not present here. The glib barbershop name dropper, “Four Freshmen Locked Out As the Sun Goes Down,” features harmonies and a ukulele.

Strategy, “Music for Lamping and Ambient Not Not Ambient” (Audio Dregs)
Standout tracks: “Cathedral Spark,” “All Day…”
For a town its size, Moscow has an oversized culture and influence. We all know Sony/BMG artist Josh Ritter, who still maintains a residence somewhere east of Main Street, but the astute reader will also recollect that Strategy’s Paul Dickow hails from our city. (His father, Bob Dickow, is an associate professor of horn, theory, and composition at the Lionel Hampton School of Music.) Lamping is an exploratory, atmospheric rumination on the Pacific Northwest. Many parts of the songs — as is his m.o .— are hard to identify as being from an instrument or from field recordings or anything else. “Cathedral Spark” seems to have vocalizations, but even that might be chimerical. The tracks, however, may as well be considered artificial bounds for the hour-long work considered as a whole: one track floats into another. On the companion volume “Ambient Not Not Ambient,” Dickow and Audio Dregs head Eric Mast (E*Rock) assemble seventeen tracks of both ambient and not not ambient pieces. Featured performers include Mast’s brother; E*Vax, himself half of the duo Ratatat; acclaimed Maryland group WZT Hearts; Dickow himself with partner Rhenne Molly Miles releasing under the name Smoke & Mirrors; and Kill Rock Stars artist Lucky Dragons. To paraphrase Brian Eno, this music is as interesting and evocative as it is ignorable.

Thao with the Get Down Stay Down, “We Brave Bee Stings and All” (Kill Rock Stars)
Standout tracks: “Big Kid Table,” “Yes, So On and So On”
Thao Nguyen’s second album is as adorable and lovable as “Amélie.” From humble NoVa/College of William and Mary beginnings onto Olympia’s Kill Rock Stars — former home of the Decemberists, Elliott Smith, Sleater-Kinney and current home to Deerhoof, Stereo Total and others — Thao has erupted in the last year: opening for Rilo Kiley and for labelmates Xiu Xiu, receiving a 7.7 from Pitchfork and perhaps most prestigious of all, headlining the 2008 Sawtooth Music Festival in Stanley, Idaho. (Tickets available now.) “Bee Stings” is like a young adult novel for twentysomethings. “Are you unhappy for me? I am unhappy for you,” she sings. “But I don’t know what I don’t know.” I want to hug her with my body. Besides her lyrical and vocal talents, Thao is as impressive a guitarist as anyone and the album features organ and guiro — two of my favorite instruments.

Throw Me the Statue, “Moonbeams” (Secretly Canadian)
Standout tracks: “Young Sensualists,” “Your Girlfriend’s Car”
On numbers like “A Mutinous Dream,” TMTS’s Scott Reitherman sounds just like Pavement and Beulah through a Seattle-colored filter. “Lolita,” a song about a nineteen-year-old upon whom one is crushing, has the charming guitar style of the Microphones. It’s a testament to the album’s quality that, after having been self-released in 2007, current best label in the world Secretly Canadian picked it up for rerelease in 2008. Consequently, its appearance here is somewhat deceitful, but certainly deserved. The video for “Lolita” is opaque but does feature the band performing inside a doghouse. Bands such as Throw Me the Statue, Fleet Foxes and Velella Velella are helping cement Seattle’s enduring reputation as a hub for music. A fun cut now available on their MySpace profile is a cover of the Huey Lewis classic “If This Is It.” Be sure and check out the delightful, not-safe-for-work cover art.

FIVE MORE WONDERFUL SONGS FROM 2008:
Ratatat, “Shiller” (“LP3”, XL Recordings)
Startlingly beautiful harpsichordish tones turn sinister with a patented Ratatat guitar line in the last third of this number.

Neon Neon, “Raquel” (“Stainless Style”, Lex Records)
An extended instrumental intro sets up an homage to Raquel Welch. Neon Neon is Gruff Rhys of Super Furry Animals alongside Boom Bip. Recommended if you love the keytar.

Los Campesinos!, “You! Me! Dancing!” (“Hold On Now, Youngster...”, Arts and Crafts)
I am glad to have the opportunity to highlight this Welsh group. This 6:46 magnum opus delivers exactly what it promises and, along with the Okmoniks album title, allows me seven justified uses of the exclamation mark.

Hot Chip, “Ready for the Floor” (“Made in the Dark”, Astralwerks)
There was a time, thankfully now in the past, when electropop was a four-letter word, when electronic hiccups and fake bass and all those other qualifiers of the genre were dismissed as inaccessible. Then Moby came around and broke it open for everyone. Anyway, this song rules.

The Okmoniks, “Teenage Timebomb” (Party Fever!!!, Slovenly Recordings)
This band is like a garage-rock Stereolab — coming in, rocking and getting out under two-minutes-five. A wonderful keyboard sound complements handclaps and excited, indecipherable vocals.

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