I’ve developed a habit of putting all of the new music that I download or rip into a playlist (called “new music”…how creative). I started doing this as a way to make sure that I listened to everything. Kind of like the way I used to keep new CDs stacked next to the stereo, and would only put them into their place in the collection after they had been digested (or at least chewed a little). A handy by-product of my new music playlist system is that when I put that playlist on shuffle, the new music gets to me free of any expectations. I often have to pull out the ipod to see who is playing. It is nice when I hear something unknown, and like it. It gives me confidence that it is the music and not the name that is moving me.
Two recent eMusic scores that struck me in shuffle mode ambushes are Mary Havorson Trio Dragon’s Head, and Todd Sickafoose Tiny Resistors.
I was doing the new music shuffle at the grocery store the other day, and each time a track from one of these albums would come on, I would have to look and see who was making the strikingly good music. I got the Halvorson, because I have been wanting to check her out on her own musical terms, having heard her and about her with Braxton, Taylor Ho Bynum, etc. I got the Sickafoose, because it kept showing up on people’s year end lists, and my interest was piqued. Both are worth purchasing.