From the midi ghettos of the NorthWest (I like that!) arrive Cyanotic, a duo that experiments with power noise, electronics, industrial, ebm, guitar riffs, synth-core and occasionally even hardcore techno, almost gabber beats. I must say I am positively impressed with the quality of their music, their programming and their song-writing. Considering they're a young band and that this is their debut EP you wouldn't expect as much from them, but they really pulled of a well done EP. If you need comparisons think about Bile (with whom they have been touring) or 16 Volt and other bands like that. So if you are into industrial-ebm music (distorted vocals, strong guitar riffs and all of that) you should definitely check 'em out, 'cause they're good.

MTV sucks! If you need proof of that you should read Naomi Klein's amazing book "No Logo", but if you already know that maybe you wanna dig into some really cool and really alternative music videos, like the ones contained in the "Visual Niches 2" DVD. Unfortunately I never got the first volume but this second chapter is really well done and interesting. It features video clips that are subversive, interesting, experimental, original, unconventional by famous artists as well as unknown newcomers. Every video has liner notes by Karl Koch and Oliver Tepel, who both worked for the German music channels Viva. Featured artists are: Dj Shadow, Deichkind, Roots Manuva (very funny!), Anti-Pop Consortium, LFO (the most claustrophobical!), Modeselektor, Amon Tobin, Basement Jaxx (this award winning clip is one of my two favourites in the batch! scary and hilarious! definitely must check this one out!), Laurent Garnier (cracks me up! really entertaining!), Turner, Rocko Shamoni (well done), The Notwist-member side project Console, Alter Ego, T.raumschmiere (nice!), Carsten Jost (this is my other favourite one - an amazing political video clip with previously un-seen footage from the anti-G8 demonstrations in Genoa, Italy, who saw the death of young protester Carlo Giuliani, shot in the head by an italian cop of the same ago who had just joined the forces and wanted to use his gun really bad! Fantastic video! Keep these coming! Make pigs pay!). Astonishing DVD jewel case packaging, great release! Go get it!

Dj Me Dj You is a busy duo of producers that have worked with a number of people both in the music and the movie business writing soundtracks, music for commercial, doing remixes, producing artists etc. This DVD of them contains the video clip of the song "People Together", a dancey and funny outlook on pop-culture and flower-power attitude.

Los Angeles based Japanese-Korean-American duo Seksu Roba radiate their solar "Pleasure Vibrations" on us using rays of fun-lovin' electro-pop, cheesy sounding synth-exotica, relaxing lounge music and groovy dance. Their favourite instruments are the theremin, the mini-moog and other digital toys. In the middle of all this lush and glimmering vintage-disco the duo manages to keep the beat up thus making it a danceable record. This is their second album and the two have had interesting background (Sukho Lee is a renowed Theremin player who also played with Can singer Damo Suzuki while Lun*na Menoh is an artist/designer/singer with an erotic voice that will convince you of whatever she wants to convince you). If you like nostalgic and glamorous pop-tronica check this out.

Moe! Staiano is a conductor and percussion player who enjoys working with large ensembles of improvising musicians using multitudes of the same instrument. Walking the thin line between total improvisation and some degree of planning (sheet music), Moe has developed his own style of conducting an orchestra which consists of hand gestures, some prepared notations or on the spot written notations. This CD is a testimony of two of his live shows that were recorded using the same notations. As you might or might not expect they sound totally different, in spite of the fact the different musicians had been provided with the same notation, which is what really is the interesting part of this CD, besides the outcome of the improvisation itself... The perception of different people (both listeners and musicians) in relation to the orchestrations achieved by large number of musicians working on cue, together, independently, in harmonious anarchy. «It's about breaking down your expectation sand being open to what is in the moment».