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I didn’t buy much music last year, however, the few things I did buy are almost all worth mentioning. Lets start with Trentemøller’s late 2007 electro-ish double CD. I still like to have something real in my hands, so I bought the CD, but “The Trentemoller chronicles” is also available from Beatport.

It is kind of hard to define Trentemoller’s music. “Electro” really doesn’t do him much justice. You can find many samples on his myspace site if you want to investigate and listen, before buying. It does give a good feel of what he’s all about.

Some of his more relaxed, ambient if-you-will, work is missing there though. And it’s a pity. The chronicles start of really relaxed and only evolve towards his better known dancefloor style in the second part. In contrast, the second disc of the set goes all out. While the first one is Trentemoller’s own work, the second is a selection of remixes he did. Most notably for me is Djuma Soundsystem’s “Les Djinns”. Classic.

If you want more in depth reviews for trainspotters, I would suggest the one at Pitchfork or on Resident Advisor. They are right, many tracks are very well known, maybe a bit too well and have already been released. But if you’re not a DJ, I doubt you will have many of them and this chronicle is the ideal way to get your collection up-to-date.

This is going to be short. But it will be sweet.

I think I found a worthy station for my number two spot in the online radio station top 10 (that will be finished one day, I’m sure). It is SKY.fm‘s Modern Jazz station. The choice in music is excellent. John Coltrane does make a very regular appearance, as do Charles Mingus and many others. And the music has to be brilliant, because everything else is wrong about this station.

It is one of those random play-list stations, that are the norm today. As far as I know, they don’t have any shows. It is part of a huge chain of one-more-similar-than-the-other streams. And there is almost no community to speak of (there is a tiny bit of discussion in the forum). In short, it has no personality.

Yet, I’m considering to put it on my number 2 spot. The music is that good.

It took me a while and it wasn’t easy, but I’ve decided to get rid of the few vinyl record I still have lying around. I just don’t play them enough any more to justify the space they use (and the record player). I also believe that they will be in better hands elsewhere. Most of the records are collector’s items, they should be part of a real collection. Not that I plan to make much money with it, the number of people that are interested in this kind of stuff is pretty limited.

First one to enter the room, is Astralasia‘s “Pitched Up at the Edge of Reality”, the limited edition with “A.N.D.E.” tracks. Just taking out the record, starting the player, brings back a lot of memories. Judging by the website, Astralasia is still around, producing and playing music. I clearly have some catching up to do. The record label, Magick Eye Records, clearly is not around any longer. It’s very nostalgic, to surf the Magick Eye site, try out some links, and see how much has changed.

I got to know Astralasia right around the time Goa Trance had it’s short period of fame in Belgium. One of my fonder memories, was experiencing the 1999 solar eclipse during an outdoor Goa festival. Organized by Dance-a-delic, now also sadly gone. Astralasia’s music, however, spans a number of genres, and that is probably why they are still around.

The power of vinyl is that it is very “physical”. You get those large discs, packed in large paper bags. And you can actually see the music. A good release has lots of artwork and much to discover. When you take out the records from this limited edition, you have a black and white folder. One holds the actual LP and one holds an additional LP. A little extra thrown in. There’s even a personal note on the backside of this A.N.D.E. envelope, telling you the ideal state of mind to take out this record.

It’s magic.

Buy it on eBay

A few years ago, inspired by Sunday night’s Jazz  on Radio 1, I started my search for the ultimate online Jazz radio. I must say, it wasn’t as easy. There’s plenty of great electronic radio out there, as you will see in other blog posts. Most Jazz is a little too tame for me.

Lets listen to Smoothjazz for instance. It’s not bad (else I wouldn’t even have mentioned it), in fact it’s ideal if you want to play something in the background when your in-laws are coming for new years diner. It’s not that I’m looking for controversy, but every harsh edge the music once had, seems to have been carefully removed in order to attract the largest possible crowd. Again, in spite of the maybe too harsh critic here, I do like the music. I’m even surprised this isn’t more popular. For me, it would be incredible if this was what the average radio station sounded like. So check it out, and turn it on when you want something smooth to go along with your lazy reading or interesting diner guests.

Contemporary Jazz is also on the shortlist of “good music” (my choice). If it wasn’t for the annoying live365 commercials every two or three tracks, it would get two thumbs up. It features a more risque selection of jazz. Nu jazz, Acid jazz, whatever you want to call it. It seems Jazz has the same issue with trainspotters that electronic music has.

One thing that bothers me a little with the two stations above, is the lack of the “human factor”. It’s just a bunch of mp3′s somewhere on a hard-disc that are randomly played. I can do that too. Just leech or rip a bunch of tracks and I’m all set. I do like the more personal touch of a DJ. See for instance friskyRadio in the previous posts, they have “shows”, where actual humans select the order of play. It seems to be even more difficult to find such stations. After some searching I ended up at El Club de Jazz, which is in fact a podcast, not a streaming station. I’m not even sure if it is in Spanish or Portuguese, or something else. But I love its local touch.

Enjoy.

One of my many hobbies is music. I try to listen to as wide a range of music as possible, but my heart has always been beating for an underground electronic music genre, called progressive house or trance.

An ideal way to find new music is online radio stations. I used to have a long list of stations, but lately I have stuck with one: friskyRadio (their capitalization). It’s fresh, as we used to say. At least, I don’t think that expression is very popular any more.

It’s one very dependable source of quality music. Any time of the day, any place, any mood. Go ahead and turn them on. The genre ranges from electronic to progressive to trance and on. Usually, their shows are usually pretty relaxed. Don’t expect high energy pumping 2 o’clock packed-dancefloor beats, think more of the afterhours. The obvious advantage is really that they are listenable even while working and, most of the times, won’t even bother any one around that isn’t into “this kind” of music.

But I could go on and on. Just have a listen and decide for yourself.

I will be adding a few other favorites over the next few weeks. I might reach 10, I’m not sure yet.