Here’s something for the jazz lovers – John Scofield’s Überjam mixes jazz fusion with world music and electronica and creates a new path for the future of jazz. The result is a record that may not appeal to all jazz fans, but should win him a few listeners that love jam bands and electronica. John… Read More John Scofield – Überjam
Here’s proof that all it takes to get ahead in the competitive DJ world is a great pair… Of turntables. DJ Portia Surreal, is “up and coming”, according to her site, as a New York DJ and “glowing disco ball vixen”. She’s appeared with some of the DJ world’s headline acts, including Sandra Collins and… Read More Portia Surreal – The Topless DJ
Frank Samagaio Back before samplers made the scene in the 80’s, the Mellotron ruled as a source of “lifelike” playback of prerecorded sounds. The Mellotron Book takes you back to the early days of sampling, and explores the unique qualities of this strange instrument. The Mellotron is a keyboard that basically has a tape player… Read More The Mellotron Book
Body Love had inauspicious beginnings, as the background music of an erotic movie by Lasse Braun. Instead of the cheesy jazz typical of 70’s adult movies, Klaus Schulze pumped out a masterpiece of throbbing electronica. There are three cuts on this album. They are each long cuts; the shortest is 11 minutes. They are put… Read More Klaus Schulze – Body Love
This classic is nothing short of amazing. Each of Eno’s Ambient works has a different mood, with unique instrumentation and textures. On Ambient 2, Eno and Harold Budd create a intoxicating world that, once you’ve visited, you’ll want to return to. Harold Budd creates slow piano works, reminiscent of some of Eric Satie’s more well-known… Read More Brian Eno/Harold Budd – Ambient 2: The Plateaux of Mirror
This album is a trance party waiting to happen. It has two discs of continuous mixes of trance classics. The Moonshine release features numerous club classics from some of the leading trance musicians. ATB, Energy 52, System F, Matt Darey, Paul Van Dyk, Moby and BT contribute some of their most popular cuts. Disc 1,… Read More Various – Trance Classics
This 1995 album put ‘big beat’ into the lingo. Plenty of sampled loops, squelchy TB303 basslines, and a compressed kick that won’t quit add up to upbeat, danceable techno. If you’ve listened to much electronic music, you’ve probably heard some of the cuts on this album. “Leave Home” starts the album off, with a sampled… Read More The Chemical Brothers – Exit Planet Dust
As of 12:00 PM PST, the MP3.com website will no longer be available in its current form. MP3.com has been bought by CNET Networks, who has announced plans to create a new MP3 serivce in the future. It will be called music.download.com, and will offer artists free file hosting and web space. MP3.com had stagnated… Read More MP3.com – RIP
Moby’s 1999 release has eighteen cuts, and eighteen of them were picked up for use in commercials and movies. On Play, Moby blends emotional blues and soul samples with colder electronic sounds. The result is an often upbeat, spiritual sound. Much of Play sounds like it could be a remix album of blues and gospel… Read More Moby – Play
This 1981 release is an upbeat set of tunes that highlights some of the best qualities of Tangerine Dream’s music: atmospheric sounds and driving sequencers. More than most earlier TD releases, the cuts on Exit have traditional melodies and forms. This may disappoint some fans, who prefer their earlier free-form recordings. However, Exit does a… Read More Tangerine Dream – Exit
