giraffecat's friend compatibility:
100%_Bexator
100%_galofsunnyside
100%_magicwindow
100%_niallcrazyhorse
99%__DominoLine
93%__gretelpetjelly
85%__guycalledxan
81%__kajakajagoo
80%__elly-horn
80%__mmmwafflehouse
78%__red-green-blue
77%__IdleCrocidile
76%__juxtaposeur
75%__firedaemon
74%__canery
74%__Vrag_vremeni
72%__Maddzy
72%__izzynomad
72%__haikara_girl
71%__mrfredman
70%__Kogepanchan
70%__4our5ive6ix
70%__Breakpointer
68%__cakester
66%__Rakelles
64%__veenatron
63%__breakinghavok
62%__Pilvi-
52%__badhex
51%__thatmikeykid
50%__snusmumrikken
48%__Caz-chan
42%__ideal4bbq
39%__PurePolitePale
30%__Bubblecup
29%__artsyhipster
27%__Maybione
27%__Potat0
26%__mndlock
24%__chiakiM
22%__letsprocras
21%__cherylanelia
20%__Vampykitten
17%__KoldofCaelin
13%__BanzaiiKitten
12%__Fenchurch
11%__sanssov
10%__lapetitebaobab

After my delight at discovering Riow Arai's 2000 album, Mind Edit, Electric Emerald contains all of the disappointment of a turd in a Snickers wrapper. Quite why he ditched the glitchy minimalist hip-hop in favour of mid-nineties-sounding four-to-the-floor dance generica is a mystery, and one that doesn't do him any favours. I can see where it went wrong; Mind Edit was beat-driven, sample-heavy and unmelodic. Emerald is the opposite, and it clearly highlights the fact that he just can't do melody. The electronics are also sub-par, often sounding like they were dragged of an early rave track, and…

Every new Boom Boom Satellites album is going to disappoint me; Let's face it, they're never going to return to the Big Beat sound of their first four albums, and I should stop hoping they will, but what's worse is that with each new release they strip away more and more of the diversity that caused me to fall in love with them in the first place. While it's perfectly enjoyable, Exposed in an exercise in indie-rock uniformity. It's catchy and adrenal, but that's pretty much all it is.

magicwindow: I want to be as good as Amon Tobin.
magicwindow: He could make a MINT from producing.
magicwindow: Like AFX. He could easily remix ANYONE.
GiraffeCat: Yeah! If we ever get to be in that position, I'm going to say 'Bollocks to principles, let's just take the cash'.
magicwindow: Me too, man.
magicwindow: I'll be producing for the Pussycat Dolls.
magicwindow: Sugababes - Hello You (5 of 6 Remix)
magicwindow: The Cheeky Girls feat. 5 of 6 - Shake Your Fanny.
magicwindow: Las Ketchup vs. Don't Eat Sky - Got an LCD Monitor? Why are…

Music made from old computer sound chip noises? What kind of nonsense is this? Well, it's not nonsense, it's very good.

I've long been a fan of old game music, but I recently got into stuff from 8bitpeoples.com. Namely, Paza, USK, Rushjet1 and nullsleep. Then, through the Bitpop group on here I discovered YMCK, leading me to buy both of their albums. And they're superb! I guess it's easy to classify them as J-pop, but at the same time they're so far removed from the likes of Mai K., Glay and all the other stuff I…

My copy of Sensuous arrived today! I've only listened to it twice so far, so I don't really feel qualified to comment on it (Aside from the songs I've heard already from the singles). omstart is an initial stand-out track, however, featuring Erlend Oye from Kings of Convenience. At any rate, I'm going on holiday for a week and a half, and I'll have plenty of time to listen to the album on the beaches and possibly mountains of Gran Canaria. I may say some more on it when I get back!

Connection: Cornelius

Could any of you guys point me towards some decent record shops in London? It'd be nice to go there for a day-trip some time (God knows I've lived down this end of the country long enough without doing so already), but I don't particularly want to spend all day walking around loooking for the right kind of place. Just a few tips to point me in the right direction would help massively.

I guess the kind of places I'm looking for are indie shops with an emphasis on electronica (Not so much Dance music, though), along with the standard…

Man, I can't get enough of Anticon lately. I recently bought the label's sampler CD (Which I'd been meaning to check out for some time, but never got around to it), and instantly became addicted to the two Passage tracks on there. Alias also caught my attention, mostly because of Divine Disappointment, but Unseen Sights, featuring Markus Acher from The Notwist is also ace. Next, Hrvatski's remix of Good People Check wowed me with its reverberating guitars, crunchy vocals and drum & bass ending. And today I checked out the original, and I know I'm going to be playing…

I should really post to my music journal more often. And what better to post about than Now is the Time! I have a tendancy to await a new album by an artist I really like with some trepidation, especially one whose output is as mixed as Polysics'. It was in this case ungrounded, however, and Now is the Time! is a fantastic album.

I first came across Polysics when I was searching for the theme music to the Disney cartoon, The Weekenders, bizarrely enough. My first reaction to Weekenders was kind of, 'What on earth have I just…

I've been a bit of a fan of the Boom Boom Satellites since playing Ridge Racer 5, which featured the excellent Fogbound. It also featured, as its ending music, a vocal version of On the Painted Desert. I downloaded the original (And I really regret not buying Out Loud when I saw it in Virgin in London, as I haven't seen it anywhere since), but I haven't been able to find the vocal mix. Until today! Apparently, it was on a remix EP, along with DJ Krush's mix (Which is pretty good, but bears little resemblence to…