Kate Bush - The Kick Inside
I once read an article about how to keep a boyfriend, rule number six was you must accept his diva. Now, Babs is fine, and Madonna has brought sexuality into the 21st century, but no one rates in my book like Ms. Kate. Her debut album is hardly dated, and it introduces the original voice that would carry a career for two decades. My favorite line, "You'll never see the poetry you've stirred in me," from Saxophone Song.

Kate Bush - The Sensual World
Kate Bush is someone you either love or hate, very few feel indifferent about her. She is something of an acquired taste, but her music has inspired a host of women rockers, being the first alternative female performer on the scene way back when. The Sensual World is a wonderfully layered album, as all of her work is, my favorite being Love and Anger. It is more mellow than most, but you can't help but be caught up in the romantic 'literature' of her lyrics. Well worth a listen.

Cocteau Twins - Treasure
In the same vein as DCD, Cocteau Twins spin hypnotic songs with layers of guitars and Elizabeth Fraser's transportive vocals. Mellow listening for the thought-prone; a high recommend. If you like this, find The Pink Opaque, or if you want to get your feet wet, give Stars and Topsoil a listen; it spans more than a decade of their recording career.

The Dandy Warhols - Dandy Warhols Come Down
To be honest, I've had this for a couple of years, after seeing the video "Boys Better" on some obscure music channel, I ran out and got it. Influenced by the Velvet Underground and other heroin inspired music, they have a gritty, guitar driven sound that makes you feel cooler for listening. The album is sort of like a nod, it starts of fast and urgent, ends up slow and mellow, with standouts "Boys Better" and "Hard On For Jesus". When you are in the mood, it's perfect.

The Dave Brubeck Quartet - Time Out
I grew up with Jazz, my mother being something of a fanatic, and had a nostalgic longing for the off-beat melodies of DBQ. Now that I have matured, I can appreciate the dynamic force of their music. They play with time, meter and instrumentation, doing exactly what feels and sounds right, and it carries you along. It's easy to forget how advanced they were for their time (1959). Amazing stuff. It makes you crave musicians as adventuresome and playful in the current boy-band driven music scene.

Dead Can Dance - Spiritchaser
I've recently rediscovered by Goth roots and went back over the bands that I loved to listen to late at night and write bad poetry to. Spiritchaser is fairly new, released in 1996, and is the penultimate CD from their extensive collection. Built on their Goth foundation and influenced by Eastern music and culture, Spiritchaser is surreal and mellow to the ear, with "Songs of The Stars" standing out as a poetic ballad of sound.

Depeche Mode - Black Celebration
Sure, they have a new album out, Exciter, but I gave up on them during Dave Gahan's drug days. Black Celebration, their pinnacle in the 80's, is still my favorite. It's deep and lush with great harmonies. It is the album bridging their introspective early work (minus Speak & Spell which is Vince Clark's baby) and their mainstream, less interesting pop. Ah, it's nostalgic of my teen years, but it still holds up pretty well. I am actually shocked that hip-hop bands have not sampled more of their work, they practically invented the hypnotic sampling of bizarre percussive noise.

Facing East - Facing Beloved
"Facing Beloved", the latest release from Facing East, is a perfect blend of eastern and western musical styles being dubbed Indo/Jazz fusion. John Wubbenhorst, who fronts the quintet, has pioneered a unique sound by combining Indian ragas with classic jazz, yielding amazing results. Wubbenhorst sculpts music with his bansuri flute, weaving energizing melodies across shifting jazz and raga-influenced patterns, achieving the musical equivalent of dancing light. "Facing Beloved" includes some very distinctive pieces including "Irish Raga", which is similar in style to Dead Can Dance’s Celtic inspired work, as well as "Infectuoso Groovatissimo", which is a celebration of sound. This long-awaited second album would be a great crossover for anyone who already loves jazz or Indian music and wants to broaden their musical horizons, or as an introduction to both styles.

Fantastic Plastic Machine
My friend Viet turned me on to this mix of fun and funky mixes done by DJ Tomoyuki Tanaka. Music to drink espresso to, is what I told him after listening to it. You will not be able to sit still with this eclectic collection of tunes, part jazzy lounge, part techno-pop, all in good fun. Best cover, Joe Jackson's 'Steppin' Out' - but my favorite track is of his own creation, 'Mr. Salesman'.

Peter Gabriel - The Passion (From Last Temptation of Christ)
Again with an Eastern Theme, Peter Gabriel weaves a modern pop sensibility into the music of the East and Africa with amazing results. This is the one album I always listen to when writing for it lacks distracting lyrics and the music builds along very simple patterns that are meditative and equally energizing.

Hedwig & The Angry Inch - Original Cast
While I desperately await the release of the movie, I indulged in the rockin' album of the Off-Broadway show that inspired it. John Cameron Mitchell, a very talented cutie, lays some heavy tracks down about this transsexual East-German war bride. Though the album does not have the power of the live show, it still rates high on my list of favorites and "Midnight Radio" can make me cry every time. Few shows deserve the hype this one got. Where else will you get a song based on Plato's Symposium? The movie opened on July 20th, 2001.

Hooverphonic - A New Stereophonic Sound Spectacular
I was drawn to this band via the Depeche Mode tribute album, For The Masses, and found their sound fit right in with everything that I'd been listening to recently. If you mixed mid-80's DM (when they were introspective) with Julie Cruise, then blended in amazing layers of lyrical sound, you'd get this album. The coverart is brilliant as well. I let it to by friend, Robert, and have yet to get it back.

Aimee Mann - I'm with Stupid
Back in the late 80's, Aimee Mann fronted one hit wonder band 'til Tuesday. Their first single, 'Voices Carry' nearly ruined them with success, but they were able to get three albums out before breaking up. Their third effort is a great 'relationships suck' album (Everything's Different Now) which was the springboard into her solo career. 'I'm with Stupid' has the same theme, but is a more mature and objective slam. On first listen the album appears stripped down musically, but Aimee fills in with a perfect voice for her alternative folksy music. The blunted edge of her tongue will cause you to nod your head in understanding and appreciate her lyrical craft.

Pavement - Wowee Zowee
After reading about the little indie band that could, I ran out and got Slanted & Enchanted and said, well what the fuck was that about? It's a good album, but where was all this great grit I'd read so enthusiastically about? Then someone turned me onto one of their earlier, less "accessible" albums. If you're sick of boy bands, and want something to entertain your ear and your mind, give this a hard listen. It's so different from the crap out there that it might take awhile to get the groove, but it is worth it when you do. A notable standout is 'grounded', with a great, hypnotic hook. From a Pavement convert, skip the new stuff and gravedig the bargain bin for their edgier earlier work. Why should accessible be a good thing? Make me work to appreciate you, I'm sick of just being entertained.

Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon
I'm coming to Pink Floyd later in life, having only been exposed to The Wall, which I once obsessed over. I ignored the band back in high school because it was what all the stoners and dropouts in listened to (that and anything heavy metal). Good thing I waited, for this music is perfect drug fare, and I might have started hanging out with those flannel-clad, Marlboro smoking stoners and learned a thing or two about how to roll the perfect joint. In any case, this mellowly-crazed album is as strong and inventive now as it was when it was released, and I encourage you to turn on, light up, and have a listen.

Ravi Shankar - Chants of India
Taking cues from music I was already listening to, including Dead Can Dance and Peter Gabriel's The Passion, I decided to make the next step to the music of India. These traditional chants are incredibly soothing, once you get into their groove, and helped me stay focused when I was busy programming our new internet server. If you take the time to read the English translations, these simple prayers are even more beautiful. This introductory primer, produced by George Harrison, warmed me up to investigate the field of Indian music. My mother had a small laugh as she had already been a fan of Ravi Shankar's since the Beatles promoted him back in the early 70's. How funny children should think they are experiencing everything for the first time in history!

Ravi Shankar & Philip Glass - Passages
My interest in Indian music has been growing thanks to its hypnotic and spiritual repetitions, as well as my esteem for Philip Glass for more or less the same reasons, so this collaboration was right in line. This CD has quickly grown into one of my favorites, and even some of my friends who think of Philip Glass (if they think of him at all) as music akin to screeching cats, have even asked to borrow it. Shankar evens out Glass' modernist edges, and Glass propels the classical Shankar forward; combined they create a melodious series of passages that swell into a spiritual jazz. Great writing or meditative music.

This Mortal Coil - It'll End in Tears
I'm feeling my Goth roots and turning back the clock to this classic. The wonderfully melancholy and layered music is just as strong as their standout album, "Filigree and Shadow", but what makes "It'll End in Tears" special are the guest appearances of two of my favorite songtressess, Elizabeth Fraser of Cocteau Twins and Lisa Gerrard of Dead Can Dance. They were all under 4AD at the time and got thrown together by Ivo Watts-Russell, who conceived this unique union. This meditative album has a transportive quality, which is what I want in my Goth music. I still get chills from longing in Liz Fraser's voice in "Song to the Siren". Perfect music for that contemplative mood.

Velvet Goldmine Soundtrack
After seeing the movie, I ran out to get the soundtrack to revel in the androgynous rock gods of the glam period, but found that Todd Haynes and snippetted out the best sections of the music, leaving the rest of the song purposely on the cutting room floor. The album is good, but leaves you craving the real thing. Eno and Roxy Music are stand outs here. What is missing is David Bowie, but as the movie vaguely reflected his life as Ziggy Stardust, you can see why he might have balked at the idea.