Music

**Cool artists, grouped by my own bizarre notions of genre**
Space music	Tangerine Dream (in Allmusic), Jean-Michel Jarre (in Allmusic), Patrick O'Hearn, Ozric Tentacles, Andreas Vollenweider, Mannheim Steamroller, Vangelis
Techno	Higher Intelligence Agency, Orbital (Californian mirror site), Deep Forest (reviewed), The Orb, Single Gun Theory, Delerium, Enigma, The Future Sound of London, the Art of Noise (in Allmusic)
Beautiful alto vocals	Dead Can Dance (in allmusic), Renaissance, Clannad (in Allmusic), Enya (in Allmusic), Loreena McKennitt, Single Gun Theory
Ethereal	Michael Stearns (in Allmusic), Constance Demby, Steve Roach (in Allmusic), Ray Lynch, Emerald Web
Folk/Rock	Mike Oldfield, Jethro Tull, Annwn
Minimalist	Steve Reich, Philip Glass
Classical	Ralph Vaughan Williams, Carl Orff

If you've been wandering by my office, chances are you've heard some of the artists above. My CD collection is getting pretty large these days; it includes a complete collection of the non-soundtrack work of Tangerine Dream (insofar as it's available on CD).

Whatever they're calling techno/ambient/industrial/house music these days, a great deal of it is pointless to listen to unless you're on the dance floor. Some exceptions I've been enjoying are listed above; I'm still not sure about The Future Sound of London.

If you're hunting music information, the Ultimate Band List keeps track of a large number of bands. I've found that the All-Music Guide tends to have very informative entries on just about anything (the reviewers are educated enough to note the influence of Satie on Enya, for instance). The Internet Underground Music Archive has some obscure stuff that might interest you.

There are music stores on the Web now, including CDnow! (my personal favorite), Windham Hill, Sound Wire, CDConnection, and CDEurope. Miramar and Sony are on the Web now.

There's an interesting experimental music-rating program called HOMR, formerly known as ringo++, that was itself an outgrowth of the old ringo@media.mit.edu server and has evolved into Firefly. When you rate enough groups to let it know about your musical tastes, it can recommend more. There's a similar service now at World Wide Music.