Stonyridge Terrace by Ian Pooley

Some mighty fine guitar pickin'.

At first, I was skeptical of the Music Genome Project; it seemed like just a fancy way of matching similar artists. But as the project has grown, it’s starting to display more & more interesting matches. In fact, I found Stonyridge Terrace on Pandora (DJ Frane‘s radio station), which uses the technology behind the Music Genome Project.

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Knee Deep by TM Juke

"Lay down with me."

TM Juke is a meticulous, soulful DJ & producer. His mellowed out, ambient music is good for a nice relax.

Knee Deep was the first song I listened to of his, and I became an instant fan. The piece starts out with some peaceful, ambient sounds followed by Alice Russell’s elegant voice. Jim Orbox then accompanies her with a nicely played duet. I am very impressed with Jim Orbox’s voice, which meshes well with TM Juke’s sound… I wish they would collaborate more often. I love the instrumentals on this, especially the sax (I’m a sucka for it). I’ve always thought this would be a good song for the intro to a tv series (maybe something like “Californication“).

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A Happening by Hyperstory

Not far off from the Gorillaz.

I first caught glimpse of Hyperstory on a Facebook ad about a month back. The headline read something to the effect of “Like the Gorillaz Check out Hyperstory!” My first thought was “Ha! They are comparing themselves to Gorillaz Fools!”. They only had one song up on their site at the time, A Happening, so I gave it a listen to prove (in my mind) that they were wrong. But, fortunately, I was wrong…

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Electric Garden of Delights by DJ Frane

or Beats to Blaze to Volume 2

I started listening to Frane about a year ago when I found his third album, Journey to the Planet of Birds, on a favorite forum of mine. After my fixation with the album died down, I decided to get my fix off of his other albums, so I gave Electric Garden of Delights a try.

I’d characterize Electric Garden as a mind-altering, drug-influenced arrangement, a lot like his other albums. But unlike his other albums, this album is set in a blissful garden, enchanted with exotic creatures and psychotropic plants. It’s an appealing album, but I’m not sure if it can hold up to his other works.

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Journey to the Planet of Birds by DJ Frane (Album)

or Beats to Blaze to Volume 3

With the release of his final installment in the “beats to blaze to” trilogy, Frane once again creates a beautiful masterpiece. Each track is a well-crafted composition that should definitely be blazed to!

Gravitational Communications: The journey begins with a downtempo intro, but really starts to shine with the second track, Gravitational Communications. The guitar rift is absolutely phenomenal in it! This, along with Visions of U, are the stand out tracks in the album.

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