In the music world, many artists are trying to work their vast influences, both musical and cultural, into their sounds with varying results. Often, like last year's brilliant M.I.A. album, Arular, it can push musical boundaries forwards. Other times, like the announcement of Cubano tinged reworkings of tracks by Arctic Monkeys and Franz Ferdinand (Rhythms del Mundo), it can be an unholy mess.

Falling into the former category is Niobe (otherwise known as Yvonne Cornelius), a woman of German and Venezuelan descent who on this, her fourth album, wraps her lovely voice around the soundscapes and tunes cooked up by such illustrious collaborators as Wechsel Garland, Bastian Wegner, and Marcus Schumacher (all are German electronic music producers). The result is a beautiful mixture of glitched-up electro, bossa nova, and scratchy ‘30s jazz reworked by a defective supercomputer.

A fascinating aspect of this album is what is done to Ms. Cornelius’ voice throughout this record. On many of the songs, her vocals are processed into a waver or double-tracked with a high-pitched, cartoon-y vocal line that matches her every move. It gives each song a distinctive and unnerving edge to it, but when her voice is left alone, it is imbued with an Astrud Gilberto-like timbre that might have made the record more accessible to a wider audience.

Ms. Cornelius also shows on this record her excellent decision making by choosing exactly the right kinds of people to work with. The tracks written with Wechsel Garland are lovely exercises in restraint. Echoing that group’s own music, songs like “Touch This Flower” and “None But One” are simple chord progressions that move elegantly along thanks to varied instruments like a marimba or a string section and don’t over exert themselves into the song. Instead, they are there to help give Ms. Cornelius’ voice a soft bed to lie upon. As well, the music cooked up by St. Lindemer on “Well and Wise” has a tone that is both gentle and disturbing, not unlike the feel cooked up by Lars Von Trier in Dogville.

The depth and beauty of a record like White Hats is something that comes along far too infrequently these days. It’s a shame that its release will more than likely fall by the wayside in the midst of the number of high profile releases being touted over the next few months. Hopefully some music geeks out there will pick up on it and create some buzz for this disc. It more than deserves it.