Just finished listening to The Dawnseeker by Sleepthief. Thirteen different songs with a different female vocalist on almost every one. Jody Quine, who sings on three of the songs, sounds amazing. I really liked the whole cd and found myself drifting off, in a good way, as I was listening to it. Anybody else hear anything recently that they really liked?

I get excited about a new thing every week; right now it’s a classical record that won’t be out for another week or so: Neruda Songs. Sadly enough, it’s the final recording by Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, the amazing mezzo-soprano who died of breast cancer earlier this year. As the title says, she interprets love poetry by the Chilean writer Pablo Neruda, accompanied by the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

IMO, it wasn’t just about the notes with Lieberson. I dig any singer who can convey some kind of emotional connection with a song (examples: Billie Holiday, Neil Young, Aretha Franklin, David Byrne)—regardless of how “pretty” the voice is. Of course, given the medium she worked in, Lieberson’s voice is gorgeous in a conventional sense, yet not in a way that distracts you from the fact that the words actually mean something. Of course, it’s even more of a kick if you understand the language she’s singing in. (Neruda wrote in Spanish.)

I have recently been listening to The Orb's The Dream album. It's a great album if you like electronica. You can listen to it 100 times and still hear different things. Best album they've done in 10 years.

It has a touch of ambient, raggae, dub, rock and house all wrapped up in one package. It think it's a fun album and something I can listen to over and over again. It can be found on emusic, itunes or beatport.

Orb on MySpace

Thanks for the tip retep. I'm a big fan of electronica and ambient, so I will check them out.

Some of my favorites in this genre include: Orbital, Autechre, Boards of Canada and Aphex Twin.

The Orb's first to albums were classics. The Orbs Adventures Beyond the Ultra Word and U.F. ORB.

I too like Orbital and Aphex Twin. I'm not familiar with the other two. I've seen Orbital and Aphex twin live in SF, but that was about 16 years ago.

In that category, I've been a big fan of Tripswtch and Mirror System (aka System 7). They both have electronics mixed with some guitar.

You may want to listen to " Tales of the Inexpressable " or " Shpongled " by Shpongle.Both albums have an unbelievable amount of layering, fun to listen to and trippy.From spanish guitar to ambient beats and Ian Anderson like flute.Songs are 8 - 12 min long.Each one a delight to enjoy.The brains behind Shpongle is Simon Possford and Raja Ram.Other works of Simon Possford are :" Hallucnogen " , Celtic Cross " and" Younger Brother "