As some of you may already know, Digital Meltd0wn has it's own group on last.fm, which can be found here - http://last.fm/group/digital+meltd0wn I couldn't be more pleased with the eclectic yet amazing taste of the members of the group. Recently all of the members have been participating in a monthly music recommendation discussion on the group forum. It has turned out to be a great way for us all to discover new artists, genres, and albums. I have decided to start sharing these monthly recommendations on all of the sites within the Digital Meltd0wn network. I have also set up a temporary page on geocities http://geocities.com/zer0ii/recommendations.html

May Recommendations

Antic Clay • Alt. Country
Doo Rag • Blues Punk
Don Tiki • Exotica
François Rabbath
Lycaon Pictus
Nighthawks
Peter Alamoo
Polk Miller
Ritualistic School of Errors
Scale the Summit
School of Seven Bells
Scott H. Biram Alt. Country
Slim Cessna's Auto Club • Alt. Country
Turner of Wheels
Woven Hand • Alt. Country

April Recommendations

Alan Sondheim
Andrew Liles
Annette Krebs
Anton Bruhin
Aphorism
belladonnakillz
Collection d'Arnell~Andréa
Beati Mortui
Beatriz Ferreyra
Brainticket • PsychedelicKrautrock
Calyx After This
Camille Sauvage • Library Music
Catherine Ribeiro + Alpes
CH District
DuOuD • World Fusion
Duuster
Dym
Egisto Macchi
Frank the Baptist
Fritz Weiland
Germaine Tailleferre
Gewaltakustik
Horacio Vaggione
Ike Yard
J.A. Caesar
Jeff Wayne
John Fahey
Lodge Doom
Mad Marge and the StoneCutters • Psychobilly
Matamachete
Miasma & The Carousel of Headless Horses
moniek darge
Nebulo
Pine Tree State Mind Control
Present
PURPLE FOG SIDE
Rabbit Junk • Digital Hardcore
Raymond Scott • Library Music
Remko Scha
Rune Lindblad
Semool
Speculativism
Steaming Coils
Syllyk
The Autumns
Univers Zero
U.S. Maple
Virgins O.R. Pigeons
Voice Crack
Von Südenfed
Winter Soul
Xyn
Yma Sumac
Yusef Lateef

The following albums have been recently uploaded for the Digital Meltd0wn music blog - http://digitalmeltd0wn.blogspot.com. They can be downloaded free of charge. If you need additional information, or help downloading these files, feel free to send me a message and I will reply as soon as it is convenient.

The Tape-Beatles - The Grand Delusion
Vàli - Forlatt
The Fuzztones - Braindrops
VA - Sitar Beat! Indian Style Heavy Funk Vol. 2
VA - Sitar Beat! Indian Style Heavy Funk Vol. 1
VA - The Bells Shall Sound Forever (Current93 Tribute)
VA - Attack of the One-Man Bands
Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas - Audiobook
Black Flag - Damaged
The Electric Moog Orchestra - Music From Star Wars
VA - Just West Coast
VA - Chop Suey Rock 2
VA - Chop Suey Rock
Ren & Stimpy Production Music
Mahavishnu Orchestra - Visions of the Emerald Beyond
The Beachles - Sgt. Petsounds
Viper Mad Blues - 25 Songs of Dope and Depravity
Princess Tinymeat - Herstory
The Shamen - Drop
Tiny Tim - Songs of an Impotent Troubadour
Purple Fluid Exchange - Pernicious Nonsense
Phantom Chords - Johnny Remember Me (12" Single)
The Rose of Avalanche - A Peace Inside
Delia Derbyshire - Electrosonic (aka KPM Library listing: KPM1104)
King Khan & His Shrines - What Is?!
BBQ - Tie Your Noose
Ananda Shankar - Ananda Shankar
Alejandro Jodorowsky - The Holy Mountain OST

I've begin working on a social network for Digital Meltd0wn. It is not intended to compete with any other social network, rather it will be a place for all of us music lovers to interact with one another and share music among other things. The network is fully functional at the moment, however I'm working quickly to improve as many things as possible in order to provide a more enjoyable experience there. I would be honored if you all join me there. For those of you who do decide to join, I could use a little help. At this point your suggestions and feedback would be a tremendous help. I'm working on coming up with a suitable name for the network instead of using the generic 'DM Social Network', so if you have any ideas please let me know. It would also be very helpful if you could upload music, videos, pictures, and create blog posts and groups - basically anything to make the network seem more alive. Inviting a few friends probably wouldn't hurt either. As I mentioned before, I have a lot of work to do, but I will do all I can to create a utopia for music lovers. Please refer to the links below if you are interested in becoming a part of this.

Digital Meltd0wn Social Network: http://digitalmeltd0wn.ning.com

My birthday is tomorrow (July 9th). For those wondering, I'll be 28 years old. Considering I'm isolated in a tiny research laboratory in Antarctica, I doubt that I will receive many presents. However, I will be celebrating by myself by drinking a few glasses from a bottle of wine that I've had tucked away, and only break out on special occasions, and I've even allotted myself half of a candy bar.

I don't usually ask for anything, but I'm going to make an exception on this occasion. If any of you are feeling generous, please upload some rare music of any sort, or make a compilation for me. If it's good enough I'll even pass it on to the visitors to the Digital Meltd0wn music blog - http://digitalmeltd0wn.blogspot.com. If you're interested in doing this, it doesn't have to be done by the 9th. Feel free to take as much time as you need. I can assure you that any effort on your part will certainly be appreciated. A man can get awfully lonely in such a desolate region, and music certainly helps one to forget his whereabouts. You can either leave a comment here, or send it via e-mail to shockw4ve_x at hotmail.com Thank you and take care.

My birthday is tomorrow (July 9th). For those wondering, I'll be 28 years old. Considering I'm isolated in a tiny research laboratory in Antarctica, I doubt that I will receive many presents. However, I will be celebrating by myself by drinking a few glasses from a bottle of wine that I've had tucked away, and only break out on special occasions, and I've even allotted myself half of a candy bar.

I don't usually ask for anything, but I'm going to make an exception on this occasion. If any of you are feeling generous, please upload some rare music of any sort, or make a compilation for me. If it's good enough I'll even pass it on to the visitors to the Digital Meltd0wn music blog - http://digitalmeltd0wn.blogspot.com. If you're interested in doing this, it doesn't have to be done by the 9th. Feel free to take as much time as you need. I can assure you that any effort on your part will certainly be appreciated. A man can get awfully lonely in such a desolate region, and music certainly helps one to forget his whereabouts. You can either leave a comment here, or send it via e-mail to shockw4ve_x at hotmail.com Thank you and take care.

After hearing constant hype and criticism about one of the latest internet phenomena known as Twitter, I've finally decided to give it a try. When I first read about Twitter, I thought it was a useless idea, as I'm sure many others have. Basically Twitter is a simplified social network, and the purpose of it is simply to post short 140 character updates about what you are doing. Of course the majority of the users are posting irrelevant and boring updates such as, "I'm about to eat", or "I'm about to go to the movies". However, I noticed a few users who were able to put the service to good use by being original, and I thought perhaps I could do the same. At the moment I've been using it to notify people when I add albums to my website, or new music blogs to my music blog directory, but if enough people are interested in following me on Twitter, I will eventually incorporate other ideas. Of course if no one is interested, then I will eventually abandon this idea.So without further ado, here is the Twitter page for Digital Meltd0wn:

DM Twitter Page: http://twitter.com/DigitalMeltd0wn

This month I’ve decided to focus on artists/bands who play either unheralded instruments, or fuse two or more different styles of music together, which is known as Fusion. I’ll probably throw a few traditional artists into the mix for good measure.

Paul Dateh is a classically trained musician who could be considered a contemporary, or experimental violinist. He is also considered an accomplished jazz artist and vocalist, although the vioin is his forte. He often performs a fusion classical violin and hip-hop as demonstrated in this video. Be sure to visit his websites below for more information, and free music downloads.
http://pauldateh.com
http://myspace.com/pauldateh




I never thought that I would see someone rip a mean ukulele solo, but I’m certainly happy that I did. You probably haven’t heard of Jake Shimabukuro, but he is well known in the ukulele world, and although that might not sound impressive, this video is sure to change your mind. This beautiful rendition of George Harrison’s "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" starts off a little mellow, as one would expect, but he really picks up the pace around the 2:40 mark, and goes on to let loose that ukulele solo I mentioned before. His hand speed and control are absolutely amazing. He certainly lives up to the virtuoso label that has been applied to him.








Ashwin Batish is an extraordinary sitarist and tabla player. He received training in the North Indian classical tradition from his father S.D. Batish and later created his own unique fusion of Indian classical sitar with pop, rock, jazz, calypso, funk... an example of a few hybrids he excels at. He is famous for such songs as the Bombay Boogie, Raga Rock, Raga Jazz, Casbah Shuffle and Sitar Mania.








I’m sure that during the course of time I’ve spent running this blog that I’ve described several performances as ’energetic’, but I was blown away by the energy that Otis Redding pumped out in this performance. I’m sure that Mick Jagger, who was present in the crowd that night, was equally stunned. I was going to post a great video of the Cramps until I found this gem. I’m sure you won’t have any problems understanding why once you’ve viewed it. Enjoy!

Here are the music recommendations for the month of March. Please keep in mind that I will update this list throughout the month, so if you check back often, you should see new additions to the list.

Braniac: It’s hard to categorize Braniac. They fuse various elements of electronic synth (using Moog synthesizers), punk, and noise rock. Unfortunately the group disbanded in 1997 after vocalist and keyboard 
player, Tim Taylor, died in a tragic car wreck.

Paul Dateh: Paul Dateh is a violin virtuoso. Unlike most violin players, he doesn’t focus on playing classical or contemporary classical pieces. Most of his pieces involve playing the violin to hip-hop or rock beats. His music is refreshing and original.

Damien Youth: Damien Youth is a mysterious cassette release artist, who only recently started releasing material in CD format. His music could best be described as haunting accoustic folk/rock. If Edgar Allan Poe would have played accoustic guitar, it probably would have sounded something similar to Damien Youth.

Purple Image - Unfortunately Purple Image only released one album. Fortunately it was an amazing one. Their music could best be described as a fusion of psych rock ala Hendrix and funk.

Unfortunately there are still many music enthusiasts out there who still aren't aware that last.fm (http://last.fm) exists. I've visited and researched a lot of music oriented sites, and music oriented social networks, and I have yet to discover anything that even comes close to being able to offer all the options for discovering music that last.fm provides. Mog and Social.fm are both great sites, but they both pale in comparison to last.fm.

In a nutshell, last.fm basically tracks the music you listen to on your favorite media player, and various charts, such as 'Top Artists This Week, 'Top Artists Overall' and 'Top Tracks Overall'. It then recommends similar artists based upon your listening habits. However, this is only scratching the surface in terms of what last.fm has to offer.

They have a great radio program that you can download, which plays full length streaming tracks. You can play 'tags' such as Indie, Punk, or Electronic. You can also get creative and type in tags to create a certain atmosphere, such as 'terrifying' or 'energetic'. The other option is to type in an artist, and it will play similar artists, which are calculated based on last.fm users listening habits. Usually the results are very accurate. You have the option to ban tracks, or designate that you love them, by pressing the appropriate button. last.fm will then adjust the music it plays based on these decisions. In addition to the radio, there are a variety of widgets available to use on your website or blog. You can use these to display your last.fm generated radio, favorite tracks, a playlist, your recently listened tracks, favorite artists, and a slew of various other information.

I think the best thing about last.fm is the community itself. There are endless groups for you to join on last.fm, which center around various genres and concepts.
The groups also have their own charts and radio, and you can also receive recommendations from other members of the group if you choose to do so. They also have a great journal system, which allows you to make artist connections. Whenever you write about a specific artist, your journal entry will appear on that artists page. last.fm also generates 'recommended reading' which are basically the journal entries of other last.fm users, who have created a journal entry about artists that you frequently listen to, or that have been recommended to you by last.fm. The forums are a great place to visit for in-depth musical discussion also.

Still yet, this is only scratching the surface. It is truly a service that needs to be experienced in order to be truly appreciated. I have discovered an insane amount of music that I woudn't have known about otherwise thanks to last.fm If you listen to music on your computer at all, then do yourself a favor and join last.fm. You can find my last.fm pages below. Feel free to send me a friend request if you're already a member, or if you decide to sign up.

last.fm Homepage - http://last.fm
My last.fm profile - http://last.fm/user/Zer0_II
Digital Meltd0wn Group on last.fm - http://last.fm/group/digital+meltd0wn