This was going to be a Top 10 Albums of the Decade list, but as I’ve done plenty of lists in the recent past I thought I’d write about something a little different before I embarked upon another one. Because not only has the past decade produced some remarkable albums, it’s also seen incredible advances in the way music is shared and discovered, some of which we would never have anticipated ten years ago [one of the world’s biggest bands offering their new album online for however much you want …

A while ago, I compiled a list of the top 20 singles of the decade. It was difficult. So difficult in fact, that I’d at first considered making it a longer list [or at least including honourable mentions at the end].
Somehow I managed to come up with my 20 absolute favourites, but I thought it may be of interest to post some of the runners-up. Of course, I could go on and on – there are still quite a few songs I would have loved to include, and I …

So there’s this dude, right. He heads up a project called Vendetta Against. I don’t know his real name. He professes an admiration for the talents of Miley Cyrus that may not be entirely sincere, has previously released music under another name, and keeps a sarcastic and informative blog about the recording/distributing process for Vendetta Against’s debut EP, “Shifty Eyes” [Tasty Treat Records]. Oh yeah, and he types really well.

You’ve got to dig to dig it, you dig?
Shimon digs it.
So now, robots can do something mere mortals can’t…………improvise. Shimon the Jazz playing robot, can listen and improvise to any musician, not in any spectacularly impressive manner, but it can capture the tone structure, a basic idea of the artists composition, and work on it from there.

Flying is not exactly a pleasant experience these days. From the stares you get at the security check, to waiting for your bag of peanuts or worst of all, traveling economy class, with the other sheep passengers, and praying you don’t get deep vein thrombosis. It’s such a relief when you can just lie back, and listen to your iPod, until the stewardess kindly(?) explains, that you have to take it off, because the flight’s going to land or take-off.