D'Ya Like Scratchin'?

Top/ Glee (Audiogram, 1997) was the first album from Canadian music collective Bran Van 3000 (also Bran Van and BV3), an electronica collective from Montreal, Canada. It was founded by the DJ James Di Salvio, collaborating on a number of songs with musicians, among them Québécois rock star Jean Leloup. The album contains the international hit "Drinking in L.A." Middle/ A huge inspiration to countless sound seekers including Music Curator Max Chavanne of Sonic-Nurse.com, pop collage giant Beck towers above The Information (Interscope, 2006), produced by Radiohead collaborator Nigel Godrich. Yet another mind-bending release, the album includes the singles "Nausea", "Think I'm in Love" and "Cellphone's Dead", with an official video directed by Michel Gondry; the track samples Primal Scream's hit single "Loaded" quite prominently. Before its release, Beck said the album was not a "stripped down" record, in contrast with his previous Godrich collaborations Mutations and Sea Change. Bottom/ Single "Where's Your Head At" (2001) by critically acclaimed UK electronic dance music duo Basement Jaxx relies on a sample by electropop pioneer Gary Numan, of "Are 'Friends' Electric?" fame.

Boing Boom Tschak

Top to bottom/ "We had a vision: to make electronic folk music. To become the Volkswagen of pop music; accessible to a big audience, but still innovating." Kraftwerk (German for power station) is a Grammy award nominated, electronic music band from Düsseldorf, Germany. The signature Kraftwerk sound combines driving, repetitive rhythms with catchy melodies, mainly following a Western classical style of harmony, with a minimalistic and strictly electronic instrumentation. Kraftwerk’s releases in the 1970s and early 1980s, most significantly a quartet of albums that would exert a huge influence on popular music—Radio-Activity (1975), Trans-Europe Express (1977), The Man-Machine (1978) and Computer World (1981)— continue to inspire many popular artists from many diverse genres of music and artists, from David Bowie to New Wave, to Chicago House Music, to hip-hop, to current electronic acts, among them LCD Soundsystem and the Chemical Brothers. The band is notoriously reclusive, as they reject to accept mail and allow no visitors at the Kling Klang Studio. It is rumored that their label partner, EMI, does not even have the members’ phone numbers. Originally announced in 2004, Kraftwerk released eight of their albums in remastered versions on October 5, 2009. Kraftwerk is preparing a new album, the first without co-founder Florian Schneider.

One Hell Of A Party

Top/ The "Surfing On A Rocket" E.P. (Astralwerks, 2004) by French electronica duo AIR includes the Tel Aviv Rocket Surfing Remake by Nomo Heroes and Joakim's To The Smiling Sun Remix. The band's name is a backronym for Amour, Imagination, Rêve which translates to Love, Imagination, Dream. Middle/ In the Court of the Crimson King (An Observation by King Crimson) (Island Records, 1969) is the debut album by the British progressive rock group King Crimson. The album continues to be a classic and has been a tremendous influence on other artists. Including seminal pieces such as the title-track, "21st Century Schizoid Man" and the visionary "Epitaph", In the Court of the Crimson King is generally considered by many to be the launching point of progressive rock where blues-oriented rock was mixed together with jazzy and European symphonic elements. The Who's Pete Townshend was quoted as calling the album "an uncanny masterpiece". Barry Godber (1946–1970), an artist and computer programmer, painted the "Schizoid Man" album cover. Bottom/ Epitaph (Atlantic, 1997) is a live 4CD set of 1969 concert performances and radio sessions by King Crimson.

Ley Lines To Glassdom

"This is a quiet, minimalist kind of groove with a shimmering luminescence. It's an acoustic, European variation on funk..." (JazzTimes). Influenced by Japanese ritual music, Bartók, and Stravinsky, Nik Bärtsch (born 1971) is a Swiss pianist, composer and producer from Zurich. He lives in Zurich and Berlin. Nik Bärtsch currently works in three parallel musical settings: as a solo artist, with the acoustic group Mobile and with the 'zen-funk' group Ronin. As a solo artist he performs his own compositions on prepared piano with percussion. Mobile plays purely acoustic music, performed in rituals of up to 36 hours, which include lighting- and room design. Ronin, by contrast, is more flexible and plays rhythmically complex compositions that contain elements of jazz, funk and acoustic rock. Bärtsch's earlier projects were released on Ronin Rhythm Records. In 2006 Bärtsch was signed to ECM and has released two albums, Stoa (2006) and Holon (2008).

Music Selector In The Soul Reflector

Bottom/ In Rainbows (XL, 2007) is the seventh album by the English alternative rock band Radiohead. Radiohead incorporated a wide variety of musical styles and instruments on the album, using not only electronic music and string arrangements, but also pianos, celestes, and the ondes Martenot. Days after announcing the album's completion, Radiohead released In Rainbows as a digital download that customers could order for whatever price they saw fit. Middle/ Featuring the tracks "Born of Frustation" and "Ring the Bells", Seven was the fifth album from James, released February 1992 on Fontana. Half of the album was produced by Youth. James are an English rock band from Manchester. They formed in 1981 and were active throughout the 80s, but most successful during the 90s. Their hit singles include "Sit Down" and "Laid". Top/ Insert from Björk's sixth full-length studio album, Volta (One Little Indian, 2007). It was primarily written and produced by Björk herself and features 10 new tracks, containing electronic, kora, pipa, and brass compositions. The disc features input from acclaimed producer Timbaland, Antony Hegarty and Sjón, among other artists.

Accept No Substitute

Savage Eye (Swan Song, 1975) is the eighth studio album by The Pretty Things, a rock and roll band from London that caused a sensation in England. They pioneered a raw approach to rhythm and blues that influenced a number of key bands of the 1960s British invasion, particularly The Rolling Stones, and David Bowie, whose first hero was Phil May. Their early material consisted of hard-edged blues-rock influenced by Bo Diddley (they took their name from Diddley's 1955 song "Pretty Thing") and Jimmy Reed. They were known for wild stage behaviour and edgy lyrical content. In the U.S. they, along with The Yardbirds and Van Morrison's Them, were a huge influence on hundreds of garage bands, including the MC5 and The Seeds. After a flirtation with mainstream pop, they embraced psychedelia, producing the concept album S.F. Sorrow during 1967-68. This album, released in late 1968, is arguably one of the first rock operas, preceding the release of The Who's Tommy
in April 1969 by a few months.

Too Cool To Conga!

Bottom/ Kid Creole and the Coconuts are an American musical group created and led by August Darnell. Their music incorporates styles like big band jazz, disco, and in particular Caribbean/Latin American salsa. Their breakthrough came with 1982's Tropical Gangsters, which spun off three Top 10 hits with "Stool Pigeon", "Annie, I'm Not Your Daddy" and "I'm a Wonderful Thing, Baby", written by musical director Peter Schott. Doppelganger (Sire) is their fourth album and was released in 1983. Darnell adopted the name Kid Creole (adapted from the Elvis Presley film King Creole) in 1980. The persona of Kid Creole is described as: "Inspired by Cab Calloway and the Hollywood films of the 30s and 40s, the Kid fills out his colorful zoot suits with style and grace, dancing onstage with his inimitable, relentless and self-proclaimed cool."
Middle/ Come Dance With Me! (Capitol) is an album by American singer Frank Sinatra, released in 1959. It was the most successful album of Frank Sinatra's career, spending two and a half years on the Billboard charts. Billy May won the Grammy Award for Best Arrangement. Top/ Recorded in Los Angeles in 1958, Latin Fever by American percussionist Jack Costanzo was re-released on Capitol in 2003. Costanzo is best known as a bongo player, and was nicknamed "Mr. Bongo". He visited Havana in the 1940s and learned to play Afro-Cuban rhythms on the bongos and congas. He toured with Stan Kenton from 1947-48 and occasionally in the 1950s, and played with Nat King Cole from 1949 to 1953. He also played with Peggy Lee, Judy Garland, Dinah Shore, Xavier Cugat, and Frank Sinatra