StumbleAudio is a free music recommendation site similar to Pandora or Last.fm with one major difference: StumbleAudio only features independent artists. With over 2 million tracks by 120,000 artists you’re sure to find something that pleases your ears.

How it works

Similar to the web-phenomenon StumbleUpon, StumbleAudio allows you to rate songs via a “thumbs up” or a “thumbs down” system, which helps the site determine other artists and tracks that may pique your interest while you “Stumble.”

The site’s layout is intutitive with a list of genres (e.g., Blues, Country, Jazz, Rock) on the left and a coverflow-like setup in the middle. While all of the music you listen to on StumbleAudio is free, there are links to purchase individual songs or entire albums (via iTunes, Amazon.com, etc.) on the right.

Overall appeal

One nice aspect of StumbleAudio is that (unlike Pandora) there is no limit to the number of songs you can skip if you don’t find them to your liking. Another great feature is that once you find an artist that you like, StumbleAudio lets you listen to an entire album. The one weakness of StumbleAudio seems to be its recommendation system. For example, I searched for artists that would be similar to Maroon 5, and I was disappointed to find that out of the 22 albums StumbleAudio recommended, none of them appealed to me and none of them really reminded me of Maroon 5. But I’ll let you be the judge. Be sure to leave a comment below to let me know what you think!

  Subscribe

The Ten Must-Have Electronic Albums

• #10 Come To Daddy EP by Aphex Twin
• #9 In Sides by Boards of Canada

#8 Music Has The Right To Children by Boards of Canada

If you really want to have your music take you away to a different dimension, then Boards of Canada is what you need. This album is just about as famous as you can get in the electronic/IDM world. Absolutely groundbreaking. There is no accident that “children” is in the title. It somehow creates the sound of childhood, if that can make any possible sense. Atmospheric undulations along with trippy beats. This is audio candy. Enjoy.

Samples

Anywhere.fm

Videos

An Eagle In Your Mind
Pete Standing Alone

  Subscribe

The Ten Must-Have Electronic Albums

• #10 Come To Daddy EP by Aphex Twin

#9 In Sides by Orbital

While there may be objections to having this album in the top ten, as opposed to Orbital’s many other qualified albums, this, in my opinion, is their more polished, mature and complex one. Well, alright, it just kicks ass and I wanted it here… and it’s my post. You may have heard Orbital on MTV Amp (”The Box”), or for the video-game-turned-movie lovers, the end scene of Mortal Kombat (”Halcyon+On+On”). For those that feel left out, check out the videos below.

Orbital’s previous albums were definitely club worthy, while this album is a little more, well, subtle. Don’t get me wrong, they still have the club sound, it’s just a lot more interesting. They seem to have created a rave like atmosphere in this album that includes hints of trip-hop and drum-n-bass, but in my opinion succeeding in keeping their music from becoming monotonous. The inclusion of trip-hop and drum-n-bass is none more evident than in their extended version of “The Box” on the bonus disc - but don’t count on finding it easily. The first release of In Sides (songs listed below) lasted only about a year. Once the movie The Saint came out, and since Orbital had a song for the movie, they re-released In Sides with a new-but-not-necessarily-improved bonus disc. So, alas, the awesome 28 minute version of The Box has become a hard-to-find treasure. But fear not! You can at least take a listen to it in its entirety here. For those that want to listen to all songs from the rare bonus disc, click here.

It would be unfortunate to not mention the undertones of “Save The Planet” going on in this album, so anyone interested should go to the always informative wikipedia. Hopefully you’ll be back, at least for the videos below.

The Box

Halcyon

  Subscribe

#10 Come To Daddy EP by Aphex Twin

Aphex Twin, a.k.a. Richard D. James, heralds back from the days of MTV Amp, back in the early 90’s, when electronic was getting into the limelight with other artists including Orbital and Prodigy. It was a surreal experience for me watching those videos late at night. This music can really be a natural high. Aphex Twin, in particular, seems to present his music tongue-in-cheek. The first song of the chosen album, Come To Daddy [Pappy Mix], has been described as somewhat of a jab at Prodigy’s Firestarter. What’s amazing about Aphex Twin is that he seems to never take himself seriously, displaying himself as someone who’s constantly just playing around, and yet comes out with some totally unique and ground-breaking music. He’s known as not playing by the rules, as is evident from this quote from allmusic.com:

“James created remixes using none of the source material given (for Nine Inch Nails, he admitted “I never heard the originals…I don’t want to, either”)” - John Bush, allmusic.com

Seems a little strange to me to not have respect or interest in Trent Reznor, whose music has permeated almost every popular genre of music out there. But hey, as long as Aphex puts out some good music, right? That he does. James shows immediately in this EP his ability to combine vastly different styles on one album and have it work (just listen to the difference between the first song Come To Daddy [Pappy Mix] and the second song, Flim — see videos below).

Playlist

• 1 - *Come To Daddy [Pappy Mix]
• 2 - *Flim
• 3 - Come To Daddy [Little Lord Faulteroy Mix]
• 4 - Bucephalus Bouncing Ball
• 5 - To Cure a Weakling Child, Contour Regard
• 6 - Funny Little Man
• 7 - Come To Daddy [Mummy Mix]
• 8 - *IZ-US

* indicates that the song can be listened to in its entirety at Anywhere.FM

Watch Some Music Videos

Come To Daddy [Pappy Mix]

WARNING: This is such stuff as nightmares are made of! Watch at your own risk!

Flim

This is a little bit of low-tech goodness (video not by Aphex Twin)

The National - Boxer

I’ll keep this one short. This is my first introduction to The National, and I got to say I’m impressed. His voice is guttural and raw. Piano makes an appearance throughout. Standouts include Fake Empire, Squalor Victoria, Mistaken For Strangers, and Slow Show.
They reminded me of (at times): Sufjan Stevens, The Walkmen, Interpol


Be sure to check out all of my music recommendations!
Before you leave, take a look at this “unofficial” video of Fake Empire…

Gotan Project - La Revancha Del Tango

This is one of the sexiest albums I’ve heard. Of course, tango is the sexiest dance, so that’s no surprise. Gotan Project are Parisians who decided to mix things up a bit. This album was revolutionary, combining classical tango with electronic, even hip-hop at times. Go to any milonga (i.e. tango dance event), and if they happen to play a non-traditional piece, chances are it’s one of the Gotan Project’s. The purists may scoff, but the youngsters or adventurous ones have flocked to this group. Play this one with the candles on, and keep your dancing shoes close. Oh, and don’t forget a dancing partner.

All the songs are great, but standouts include Queremos Paz, El Capitalismo Foraneo (video below), and Vuelvo Al Sur (remix of El Capitalismo Foraneo, w/ vocals).




Be sure to check out all of my music recommendations!

Anouar Brahem - Conte De L’Incroyable Amour & Le Pas Du Chat Noir

Talking about music reminds me of talking about wine: “Hints of oak and strawberries with a nice anise finish.” All I can taste is hints of cardboard with a not-so-nice tannin finish. Check them out at Amazon MP3, Conte De L’Incroyable Amour Le Pas Du Chat Noir

Be sure to check out all of my music recommendations!

Ellen Allien - Berlinette

I’m finding myself quite without words for a lot of these album “reviews”, so again this will be short. Ellen Allien, creator of Bpitch Control label, is a leader in German techno. Apparently her songs/remixes are played often in clubs. Which clubs? German, probably. Kentucky? Probably not. She adds her vocals throughout. Quite surreal. Take a listen to Allen Sehen, Trash Scapes, and Abstract Pictures. Enjoy a live video of her performance below (mixing up the track Sehnsucht). Get it from: eMusic - Amazon

Ellen Allien and Apparat - Orchestra of Bubbles

Now we have the combination of IDM in Apparat with techno beats from Ellen Allien. This is a killer album, a near seamless mix of the two artists. Thoughtful sounds from Apparat are brought into the foreground with Allien’s beats. Take a listen to Metric, Rotary, and Jet, and enjoy the video of Way Out below. Get it from: eMusic - Amazon

Be sure to check out all of my music recommendations!

Thank God It’s Monday! This is a regular weekly post of music that got me through the week last week, so I’m hoping to spread the love. This week includes an album I absolutely love: Gimme Fiction by Spoon. You can read some of my random thoughts below, and/or just stream some samples from anywhere.fm under the playlist TGIM: 9/17/07.

Spoon - Gimme Fiction

Spoon hails from Austin, TX. What an awesome city for music:

• South By Southwest (SXSW)
• Austin City Limits (with music festival)
• 6th Street
• Waterloo Records, one of the few CD stores still standing.
• Spoon

I could do another post just on the bands that come out of Austin, and Spoon would definitely make it in there. I believe they became famous (well, indie band famous) for their album Girls Can Tell, but Gimme Fiction is my favorite. I can’t even give you standouts on this album. Great listen from start to finish. Check out some music videos from two songs off the album below: I Turn My Camera On and The Two Sides of Monsieur Valentine. Enjoy…

The Brand New Heavies - Heavy Rhyme Experience: Vol. 1

To think I was a junior in high school when this album came out, and I just heard of The Brand New Heavies this year. Where the heck have I been?! Musically, that is. To be honest, what led me to this album was Jump N’ Move playing during the choreographed penguin dance sequence in Happy Feet (see video below). Now all I see when I hear it is a bunch of digital dancing penguins. Anyways, I little perusal of their allmusic.com page turns up they were pioneers of the London acid jazz scene in their early days. This album was their first foray into hip-hop, possibly inspired by their first American tour where Q-Tip and MC Serch jumped on stage with them during a performance in New York. Certainly would have been nice to be there for that. Feat. performances include Black Sheep and The Pharcyde. Great album with a lot of funk grooves. Who wants the funk? We want the funk…




Be sure to check out all of my music recommendations!