Waiting with Bated Breath
I am waiting for the forthcoming record from the king, Dimitri from Paris. His new CD, After the Playboy Mansion, is going to be awesome. I remember his previous CD, A Night at the Playboy Mansion, quite well. I have been loving all the grooves from that one for a long time (me love that CD long time, yes) and will for many years to come. Check it out at www.astralwerks.com/dimitri/ You will be blown away by the sweet, 16-minute mix featured on the site. I am going to pre-order the CD from Amazon so I can get it on February 19th! It will be stuck in my CD player for many, many weeks.
Go to the Astralwerks web site. Along with Dimitri, there are a number of great new releases sure to warm you in this long cold winter (that is, unless you live in Hawaii or Southern Cal, in which case, these albums will get you naked in public.)

From the "Making the Best of a Bad Situation" Department:
If you work and, like me, have very little engaging work, just boring monkey work, then I have the streaming radio for you. I have spent the past few weeks looking for the right kind of radio for every time of the day.

As you may already be away, until the recent computer age, people were forced to listen to their own radios. On those radios, they listened to commercial soft-rock/pop stations. That is a punk way to live. Seriously, how can music be therapeutic if it sucks?

Now, I do not spend every day bound to by chair. But there are days when I do nothing but work at the damn desk, and luckily I have some sweet music flowin' from the speakers to keep me from becoming a miserable wretch like everyone else in my life.

Frequence Jazz
Frequencejazz.com is hooks you up with the sound of radio 97.3 in Lyon, France. They play an amazing mix of old and new Jazz, along with a good dose of the Blues. You can even hear some Gospel music here and there. I am quite happy with the mix. And, being that Lyon is some 6 hours or so ahead of my time, I spend the afternoon listening to sexy nighttime jazz, which is cool.

Also, the DJ's and the commercials are all in French, which I cannot understand. Not being able to understand it makes it easier to ignore.

Jazz FM
Another station, jazzfm.com, is far cooler. The site hooks you up with the sounds of 102.2 London (and 100.4 FM Manchester). As is the case with FrequenseJazz, during the day, JazzFM plays a sweet mix of classic and modern jazz. Then, in the evening (my afternoon), the downtempo jazz slides on in for the kill. I love listening to this station.

"The Late Lounge" comes on at 5 PM (my time.) This show, hosted by the lovely Claire Anderson, features smooth, down tempo jazz and lounge music. This music is more appropriate from 3 AM after a night of dancing, but my love is not restricted to the time of day. I love this all day long.

The commercial breaks can be quite distracting, though. Because I cannot always tell if the person talking is discussing the music or selling me something, I am often duped into hearing a bullshit ad. Of course, since I am not hell-bent on doing my job, these distractions are often welcome.

JazzFM also sells compilation CD's from Hed Khandi and Onion Records. On January 28th, JazzFM released "The Late Lounge", a CD with music from the radio show of the same name. I am rather interested in this CD, and will give you all a review in a later issue.

Dub Lab
"…connect to the dubStream and find more funk than filet o' fish on a James Brown brand tartar sauce lump. Labrats are inspired vinyl fiends. Catch the selections for soul reflections." - from dublab.com description of the dubStream.

Dublab never fails to make me very very happy. The 'dubStream' is a non-stop stream of downtempo DJ mixes recorded live at the dublab studios. The fresh tracks weave sounds from the islands, distant continents, and beyond the stratosphere into happy house beats for maximum enjoyment. If, however, you are interested in specific artists, you can look into their archives for original DJ sessions with the likes of Alex Gopher and Ursula 1000, to name a few. This is a great way to find new artist and labels from around the world.

But these guys cannot do this forever. Please, after you spend some time enjoying their selection and good vibes, send them a donation, or what they call a Proton Grant. Users of Paypal can send them $10 or $20 to keep the sounds flowing.

This is very important point. While some sites, like the New York Times and ESPN.com, which are visited by millions of people daily, can live by advertising dollars alone, many great, small sites cannot. If you frequent a site fir humor, music and enlightenment, you should return the favor by sending them some dollars when they ask for some.

Sumosound
Check it! The next great site is www.sumosound.com. Not only is this a great site visually, but it is an internet music hub. From the main page, you can link to a few dozen record labels, record stores, on-line radio and clothes. This site can provide thousands of hours of good listening when you think of what you get from the links.

(Truth be told, I found dublab at Sumosound, and for that I am eternally grateful. Betalounge, which I enjoy, but have not looked into deeply, is also a great listen.)

Sumosound itself has a streaming music channel that emits good downtempo, dubliminally sweet beats from your otherwise pathetic and lifeless speakers.

Lounge Radio
Last, but not least, I come to www.lounge-radio.ch, which has the most satisfying streaming music in the world. One wonderful man, Thomas Zumbrunnen, streams a uninterrupted barrage of kind downtempo music from Switzerland.

Conclusion
There is not as much music on the web as there is porn, but the pleasures of porn are best kept out of the office and in your pants (and hands), jerk.