Listening to a lot of Metropolis lately: Monofader, Velvet Acid Christ, Retrosic, Terrance Fixmer w/Douglas Mccarthy, etc. All good.

Totally digging that Franz Ferdinand, although I disagree with the comment that it's not derivative -- everything's derivative, some more than others.

Ditto Ghost -- just can't get enough of that one.

My car audio system needs tuning. Way too much bass on stuff like Ellen Allien (yes, I finally picked that up Davey) -- it sounds like hip-hop in my car, although it sounds just like good male-generated electronica on my home system...not saying that I can hear a peni...erm...Y chromosome, but it definitely does not sound feminine. Perhaps I shouldn't distract myself with such precepts.

Listening to Scissor Sistors right now -- kind of like a contemporary Bee Gees, neh? Maybe more so on their cover of Pink Floyd's "Comfortably Numb", with the falsetto vox. The rest is more just contemporary. Sort of like Kenna, which I too dig.

So how come none of you Low fans have discussed this yet:



...? It's a three disc set of rarities. And no, I stopped getting Low (although I might have to pick up Amazon's choice for a pairing, Explosions in the Sky, based on the descriptions -- "...fans of Mogwai and GYBE..."). Not sure I ever did.

Thoroughly enjoying Lamb these days. Man!, they are so good. I would say that they are at the absolute top of their genre (whatever it is -- femme-fronted e-tronica w/d&b elements?) in the same way that Portishead is to trip-hop. And no, they are not trip-hop. Their songs contain harsher elements that dissuade from the trippy element, and yet at the same time, they are "smoother"...as in, I am more likely compare their songs to classic "Lieder" than to today's pop swill...which I enjoy, too, sometimes...(oink, oink)...

skewiff -- for the D9, I like von Karajan. He's nicely bombastic on the pieces that require it, and I think this one does. The recent Fischer version and the classic Bernstein version are also certainly very good (hmmm...I only have two versions on SACD?...I have to fix that...). In fact, you almost can't go wrong with this one (although, stay away from anything different until you get used to it -- the piano concerto version, the organ version, the duo pianos version -- they're all nice, but most of them just make you want to listen to the classic orchestral version) -- it's so ...erm...trying to think of another word than bombastic...ANYWAY...that whether the conductor tries to play it subdued and serious, or sardonically and completely over-the-top, it's almost as if it's more up to the listener whether or not one wants to take it seriously or "rock out".

audiobill -- I, too, dig Soilwork, though I would classify them more as contemporary Gothenburg than classic Gothenburg, neh, madrhet? I mean, the classic Gothenburg sound is a little more dirgy, innit? Anyway, have you tried The Crown yet?