I'm writing this to try to put my feelings on the recent changes into perspective When I first came here in 2004 there were two sites (which were connected but distinct) Audioscrobbler had the charts and neighbours and last.fm had the personalized radio stations. I'm not going to talk about the "radio" much because I have never really used it often and always found it lacking but I mainly use this site to get musical recommendations and read blogs and journals from people with what I'd consider good taste in music.

so
1st incarnation of "Audioscrobbler":

Pros:
1) Charts were…

It annoys me when people describe certain music as pretentious. According to dictionary.com pretentious means "Claiming or demanding a position of distinction or merit, especially when unjustified."

To paraphrase, to me it basically means someone who pretends to be something different and especially "more" than they actually are. I don't see how this can apply to music or art. Shouldn't people try to make the best music possible? If a musician overestimates his ability to make good music, what's wrong with that? At least by trying his or her best the music can only be made better. So bands like…

30,000th track scrobbled: It's a Beautiful World:)

A Preliminary top 10 of 2006 list;

1. Monica Richards - Infrawarrior
2. Loreena Mckennitt - An Ancient Muse
3. Sleepthief - The Dawnseeker
4. Thea Gilmore - Harpo's Ghost
5. Unto Ashes - Songs For a Widow
6. Current 93 - Black Ships Ate the Sky
7. Halou Wholeness & Separation
8. The Legendary Pink Dots - Your Children Placate You From Premature Graves
9. Starless & Bible Black - Starless & Bible Black
10 Cat Power - The Greatest

I will be writing journals with comments to explain my choices and comment on other noteworthy albums of 2006…

ok so I admit I've only listened to a little bit of Radiohead in the past. It's not because I didn't like them but just because they get so much hype. I listened to OK Computer which I have heard was their "best" and…well…I thought it was a pretty good album but not really deserving of the amount of hype it got so I kind of didn't bother listening to Radiohead for a year or two. When I heard Thom Yorke had come out with a solo-album, I decided to listen to it and liked it quite a lot (and…

Well I reset my charts last year (because I had added a lot of albums to my profile from the last.fm radio back when you could do that) and it distorted things a bit.] Anyway I've finally got back up to about 10,000 tracks so I can look at what's changed and what's stayed the same in my musical taste. I have a bit of a problem because Terami Hirsch is listed as my #1 artist because I fell asleep with 5 of her songs on shuffle play one night and she got about 200 extra tracks that way. I…

Most of the (to me) stuff new stuff I've been loving lately kind of fits into a category call it female fronted ethereal trip-hop I guess. Halou was the band that really got me started on this and as usually happens when I get entranced with a band I've been looking and finding very good similar stuff.

Invisible Ballet - "Escaping Light"

This is a side project by Rebecca and Ryan Coseboom of Halou so it's an obvious place to start this entry and also very good. The album reminds me most of Mono Chrome a side-project of another one…

I try to avoid using genre names when discussing music. The only ones I like are ones that describe the music in some way.I don't like putting music in little boxes either. If you must describe it use adjectives or compare it to a band the person knows.

I find it kind of amusing and kind of annoying some of the stupid genre names people come up with or genres which are applied to so much different music they become totally meaninglesss. Some really dumb genre names that bug me

So in no particular order

emo So this is short…

I've Been taking aa kind of hit and run approach to music lately. Got kiind of behid on picking up new releases so have listened to a lot of different stuff, while as usuasual, and perhaps even more so, focusing on female Vocalists

So in no particular order. Stuff I've been really loving:
Sleepthief

The Dawnseeker Six Track Promo

I suppose this will inevitablly compaed to Delerium
but I've never heard anything this good from them, not even
Silence. The influences of many "ethereal/trip-hop/Celtic" touches are present and the vocals are beyond beautiful. Assuming the other half is comparable…

Sorry, I haven't been following this site or really looking for new music for a while. I just got overwhelmed with so many new musical things but I realize how much I've issed searching out and hearing new things and experiencing music which touches other similarly minded people. Thanks to all who have submitted album/band recommendations and other things. A lot of interesting things there ti listen to and read. look forward to it. I apologize for neglecting the last.fm site site and not being on SoulSeek (for the people there that I trade with).

Mike