I know I've recommended stuff from 8BitPeoples before, but this stuff really stands out for me. I felt I ought to share with you a sample from the new album, "Future, and It Doesn't Work", by Starscream.



You can downlaod the whole shebang freely and legally here.

I would also strongly recommend this album here, which has lately had a prominent place in my ipod's playlist.

Unlike last time I posted on the topic of music, this time I have music which is actually good and not just personally validating to me.

I've been turned on to a site called 8BitPeoples, which seems to be a showcase of different albums made in the style of those great old tunes from 1980s-era video games, but which are entirely unique and original in composition. It hits your nostolgia button pretty hard (or at least it does if you're of my generation and roughly my demographic, I guess), while also providing an entirely fresh experience.

I have by no means had a chance to listen to all - or even a small fraction - of what's here, but of what I have listened to, my favourites are from this group: 



And in particular, this tune, http://www.8bitpeoples.com/mp3/get/543/8bp087-04-paza-teen_hipster.mp3 , which had my head bobing about rythmically, and which I've listened to about eight times since.

On an only slightly related note, there's some more music I've lately enjoyed enough for me to be willing to pay money for it.

Francine Poitras, who is apparently best-known as a singer for Cirque du Soleil, put out a solo album a while back, and among the songs on it was a cover of Hijo De La Luna, which is a song which has been covered by at least a dozen other artists already, but somehow I found her rendition to be the most hauntingly beautiful I'd ever heard. I encountered it when I was listening to Radio Canada (which is entirely French, and which thus works for me, since I don't tend to enjoy music with lyrics I can understand), and when I dicovered there was nowhere online I could download it for free (so to speak), I broke down and ordered her CD. I do not regret this; I find her stuff to be about 90% great, and worth checking out.

(sadly, her site is all flash-based, which makes direct linking to the content in quesion difficult, so just go here http://www.francinepoitras.com/ , click 'english", then "music excerpts" and finally "hijo de la luna" for a sample of the song which so entranced me)

People who know me well know that I am not normally one for listening to music with lyrics I can comprehend. The primary reason for which is that I never NEVER feel as though I'm the one the song is singing to or about; I can never sympathise or empathise with the lyrics, and it tends to irritate and frustrate me that the song is about concepts and experiences I don't share and wouldn't care to. 

This having been established, I have just now been SHOCKED to hear a song which sounds as familliar and as relevant to me as the beating of my own heart. I've never before felt the need to share music via this journal, but today I make an exception. I hope that you will be able to share with me this transcendant experience.