A Few More from Magnatune

Chris Harvey - The White Sail

Billed as "gentle, intelligent electronic music". This one is really nice. Gentle throughout, a little ethereal in spots, but some really enjoyable tracks.

By way of critique, though, there is this cricket-like sound he uses on the first half of the album that, while not annoying, got to be too much. The 2nd half didn't have it, and was much more enjoyable (probably as a coincidence). It might have been better to have mixed up the first half with the 2nd. (OTOH, I'm not a producer or composer (yet)...)

Anyway, I'm pretty impressed with this, and hope he releases more. This was as good as a lot of the Narada stuff I used to listen to.

Artemis - Gravity

Billed as "deliciously groovy electro-pop". Really pleasant music (even the moody tracks), really nice vocals, somewhat odd lyrics, and an odd web page. Makes me want to listen to the other album, and not meet her in person, (even as a spider).

Claire Fitch - Ambiencellist II

Billed as "ambient cellist". I remember liking her first album; I'm going to have to go back and give it another listen. This one is more ethereal than even I like. "Beatless" is okay, but this goes a bit beyond that.

Beat Under Control - The Introduction

Billed as "jazz/dub intense electro funk". Kinda like "jazz meets electronica meets dance beat". Pretty darn cool, (even with the dance beat, which I usually don't like). A little intense at times, but then it says that, doesn't it? Maybe not a buy, but certainly a revisit.

Lizzi - Love and you and I

Billed as "groovy downtempo rock". Not too bad. Not quite my style of music; a little too moody. Also, she does that slide-thing with her voice that has never really appealed to me. (Yes, it's modern, hip, or whatever. That's not me.)

Let me also say that I haven't listened to pop music for over a decade, so I don't know if this is true across the board, but it just seems to me like a lot of music has gotten dismal and depressing, compared to, say, the eighties music I grew up on. It just seems fashionable to be moody and gloomy. Maybe like the seventies. (So should I just come back in 10 more years?)

I do have to admit, though, that I listened to this all the way through, and it's got some pretty compelling tracks.