For all fans of world-beat fusion and ambient music in the style of Enigma, here are a dozen of great songs to help you Chill:

Rainforest - Paul Hardcastle
Sweet Lullaby - Deep Forest
TNT for the Brain - Enigma
Global Warning - Alan Steward
Moments in Love - Art of Noise
Madazulu - Deep Forest
Return to Innocence - Enigma
Enigma wrapped in a Riddle - Alan Steward
Desire - Paul Hardcastle
Breathe - Blue Stone
King Tut - Paul Hardcastle
Sadeness Pt. 2 - Enigma

This collection spans more than ten years but it contains some of the all time chillout classics. Enjoy!

Well better late than never i guess, got busy and never had a chance to really finish up... even now with a couple more months of listening it's been hard to get an accurate order.

It's been another monster music for me, with over 140 albums to pick from I though the Top 25 was just not going to cut it this year and I just didn't want to leave a bunch of albums behind.

29 of these albums are from new artists or artist new to me, most are from the great recommendations from Last.fm friends and random commenters, thank you all so very much.






































































































* = New Artist or New Artist to me

All tagged up for the top song of 2007 playlist

All my 5 star songs of 2007 (in alphabetical order):

Achillea - Amadas Estrellas
Air - Napalm Love
Air - Mer Du Japon
Amy Winehouse - You Know I'm No Good
Andrew Bird - Imitosis
Andrew Bird - Plasticities
Arcade Fire - Keep the Car Running
Arcade Fire - Intervention
Bat For Lashes - Horse and I
Bat For Lashes - Trophy
Bat For Lashes - What's a Girl To Do?
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - Weapon Of Choice
Blonde Redhead - 23
Blonde Redhead - Publisher
Blue Foundation - Equilibrium
Blue Stone - Set Adrift
Blue Stone - Dreamcatcher
Charlotte Hatherley - I Want You To Know
Charlotte Hatherley - Behave
Charlotte Martin - Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town
Chungking - Ticking
Dive Index - The Promise Room
Dive Index - The World Is Kind
The Divine Madness - Mia
Division Kent - Pat The Pan Am Pilot
Dot Allison - In Deep Water
Dot Allison - The Latitude And Longitude Of Mystery
Elsiane - Vaporous
Elsiane - Accross The Stream
Elsiane - Hybrid
Emmy Rossum - Slow Me Down
Emmy Rossum - Anymore
Ether Aura - your favorite song
Fauxliage - All The World
Feist - I Feel It All
Feist - My Moon My Man
Flunk - Haldi
Glen Hansard & Marketa Irglova - Falling Slowly
Holy Fuck - Lovely Allen
Hooverphonic - 50 Watt
Hooverphonic - Expedition Impossible
Hooverphonic - Circles
Hooverphonic - Gentle Storm
Hooverphonic - Black Marble Tiles
Jesca Hoop - Summertime
Johnette Napolitano - Amazing
Johnette Napolitano - Save Me
Julia Kent - Dorval
Julia Messenger - And We Danced
Julia Messenger - Unprotected
Karmacoda - Something
Karmacoda - Wonder
Kelly Sweet - Dream on
Kelly Sweet - Now We Are Free
Kelly Sweet - How 'Bout You
Kendall Payne - Lines
Kosheen - Damage
Kosheen - Overkill
Kosheen - Same Ground Again
KT Tunstall - White Bird
KT Tunstall - Funnyman
KT Tunstall - Hold On
Lou Rhodes - All We Are
Lou Rhodes - This Love
Lou Rhodes - They Say
Marketa Irglova and Glen Hansard - If You Want Me
Mermaid Kiss - Beat The Drum
The Moon and the Nightspirit - Éjköszöntõ
Nightwish - Amaranth
Noe Venable - prayer for beauty
PJ Harvey - The Devil
PJ Harvey - Grow Grow Grow
PJ Harvey - White Chalk
PJ Harvey - The Piano
Rilo Kiley - Silver Lining
Róisín Murphy - Scarlet Ribbons
Ruth Ann - The Woman I Could Be
She Wants Revenge - She Will Always Be A Broken Girl
St. Vincent - Paris is Burning
Stars - Bitches In Tokyo
stephanie's id - Blue
Tegan and Sara - Like O, Like H
Tina Dico - On The Run
Tina Dico - Sacre copur
Tori Amos - Big Wheel
Tori Amos - Bouncing Off Clouds
Tori Amos - Girl Disappearing
Tori Amos - Father's Son
Tracey Thorn - Falling Off a Log
Uh Huh Her - Say So
The X-Ray Dogs - Slaughter House Blues

Well 2007 is ending in a hurry it seems, so I figure I should get a handle on this sooner this year lest something gets left behind. I like to cut off my nominees by December 1st, you should at least have a month of playtime to determine greatness of an album. After December 1st I will not listen to any new albums from 2007 and try to just focus on the list so I can get the order as accurate as possible.

Last year I missed a few brilliant albums just cause I didn't get to them in time, Loreena McKennitt - An Ancient Muse would have easily made the list if I had gotten to it sooner.

So after you read my list of nominees and rejected albums, feel free to post ** 1** album you think I have horrendously missed so far and just have to listen to tat came out in 2007.


Nominees:
Air - Pocket Symphony
Björk - Volta
Blue Foundation - Life of a Ghost
Blue Stone - Worlds Apart
Charlotte Hatherley - The Deep Blue
The Chemical Brothers - We Are The Night
Cine mad in chaos - Cocnutz in the Air
Digit-All-Love - Digitalllove
Dot Allison - Exaltation Of Larks
Elsiane - Hybrid
Ether Aura - Before We Could Sing
Fauxliage - Fauxliage
Feist - The Reminder
Flunk - Personal Stereo
Helios - Ayres
Hooverphonic - The President Of The LSD Golf Club
Jesca Hoop - Kismet
Joan as a Police Woman - Real Life
Julia Messenger - And We Danced
Karmacoda - Illuminate
Kendall Payne - Paper Skin
Kosheen - Damage
KT Tunstall - Drastic Fantastic
Lou Rhodes - Bloom
Mermaid Kiss - Etarlis
Nine Inch Nails - Year Zero
Noe Venable - The Summer Storm Journals
Nox Arcana - Shadow of the Raven
Rilo Kiley - Under The Blacklight
Ruth Ann - What About Us
Sarah Nixey - Sing, Memory
She Wants Revenge - This Is Forever
Stars - In Our Bedroom After the War
Tegan and Sara - The Con
Tina Dickow - Count to Ten
Tori Amos - American Doll Posse
Tracey Thorn - Out of the Woods
VAST - April
X-Ray Dogs - Alta Plaza

Added Nominees:
Blonde Redhead - 23
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - Baby 81
Chungking - Stay Up Forever
Nightwish - Dark Passion Play
PJ Harvey - White Chalk
Puscifer - V is for Vagina
Dave Gahan - Hourglass
Division Kent - Gravity
Frost - Love! Revolution!
Johnette Napolitano - Scarred
Katherine Blake - Midnight Flower
Kelly Sweet - We Are One
Keren Ann - Keren Anne
Porcupine Tree - Fear of a Blank Planet
Róisín Murphy - Overpowered
stephanie's id - Grus Americanus
St. Vincent - Marry Me
Julia Kent - Delay

Still to be Evaluated:
Radiohead - In Rainbows
Slovo - Todo Cambia
Alison Moyet - The Turn
Alpha - The sky is mine
Apocalyptica - Worlds Collide
Divasonic - Changing Wind
Donna Regina - More
Gus Gus - Forever
Minnie Driver - Seastories
Pascale Picard - Me, Myself & Us
Clutch - From Beale Street To Oblivion
Queens of the Stone Age - Era Vulgaris
Type O Negative - Dead Again


Rejected:
Achillea - Amadas Estrellas
Arcade Fire - Neon Bible
Artefact - Caffeine
Amy Winehouse - Back to Black
Dolores O'Riordan - Are You Listening?
Emmy Rossum - Inside Out
Lendi Vexer - The process of disillusion
Lily Allen - Alright, Still
The Nightwatchman - One Man Revolution
The Polyphonic Spree - The Fragile Army
The Smashing Pumpkins - Zeitgeist
Storm Large - Ladylike Side One
Uh Huh Her - I See Red
Paramore - Riot!
Holy Fuck - LP


Please keep in mind I do not think the list of rejected albums suck, I love tracks off of all of them, they just aren't good enough to be considered on a Top **Album** of 2007, maybe I'll do a Top 50 Tracks of 2007 this year as well.

A random "music survey" that I found on someone's last.fm journal and filled out:

Sort by song title:
- First Song : Sonic Realm - Trance Central (this one comes up first due to formatting in title)
- Last Song : Zulu Lullaby - The Soweto String Quartet

Sort by time:
- Shortest Song : Good Night! - 植松伸夫 (0:05)
- Longest Song : Chariots of Fire - Vangelis (21:29)

Sort by album:
- First Song : Erin Set - Band of the U.S. Air Force (Album name : ...for Heroes Proved)
- Last Song : Rev (Technolust Remix) - Nynex (Album name : Zerozero)

Top 10 Most Played Songs:
1. Kevin Lorenzo's Vanguard Metropolis - debeerguy
2. Trance Hit (extended) - David Kibrick
3. Direct Current Trance (Blaster Master Remixes Track 04) - Disco Dan
4. Push (Club Mix) - Future Breeze
5. Victory Theme - David Kibrick
6. NG3773 - Jermaine Blume
7. Cactus Armor - Nintendude
8. Today - Paul van Dyk
9. Synththing (Strings Version) - David Kibrick
10. Northern Short - Second Sky

First five songs that come up on Shuffle:
1. Life to a Beat: Complete Sessions (Disc 1) - David Kibrick
2. Reaching the Daylight - Icebird
3. Violentango - Astor Piazzolla
4. Forgiven - Blue Stone
5. Ice Cap Zone Remix - synchrnzr

Search...
"Sex", How many songs come up?: 7
"Love", How many songs come up?: 141
"You", How many songs come up?: 261
"Death", How many songs come up?: 7
"Hate", How many songs come up?: 5
"Wish" How many songs come up?: 7

And some bonus searches:

"Future": 45
"Waiting": 10
"The": 2342

And the grand total: 9139 items, 61.4 days, 102.99 GB

mixtapes usually make themselves. you can usually tell right away if the song fits or not. and half of its usually already compiled in the back of your head. then you hit the anchor track one day, standing outside the arts building sipping on the third coffee of the day. the track that brings it all together, that you build the rest of the songs around.

this compilation was definitely one of the most fun to make, and showcases basically everything i like about music. the driving percussion that opens the first track. the icy crisp vocal work on the last one. the delicate keys work on tracks 10 and 14. the soothing instrumentalism of track 3. the funk of 6. the melody of 5. the seductive south american styels on 2 and 12. the cheeky girl on 8. and of course, alice russell.

this tape runs across most of the downbeat genre, to trip hop, funky breaks, and deep house. it skirts the edges of soul and jazz and ambient and ... well, you get the picture.

best enjoyed in the late evening, in between dinner and the party.

a soul tape for a downbeat kind of day

1. Speedy Consuela - Sunday Dream (3:37)
2. Si*Sé - Bizcocho Amargo (4:20)
3. Aim - Pier 57 (3:59)
4. Alice Russell - Hurry on Now (fe