News from the Sharitty Front

More cool blogginess and a possible end of rapidsharing.
The big news is that lots of better MP3 blogs are suffering from having their Rapidshare files being whacked at a fearsome rate. Some have even thrown in the towel as a result. 'Tis a shame. Go and grab what you can until the situation changes (one way or another).

Here's my field report:
One gottendammerung find for me has been Dinosaur Gardens. Not only has this great blog (apparently a team effort) offered up the soundtracks to Jodorowsky's Holy Mountain and El Topo (!), but also the craptacular Conquer the Video Craze, which was sampled on Negativland releases (among others), a great english translation of Brecht and Weill's Threepenny Opera and an audio recording of Nabakov reading Lolita and other bits.

Puritan Blister is a great theme-based MP3 blog that offers up lots of cover songs and probably the most impressive on-going collection of mash-ups you'll find anywhere. His post titles are a real hoot, as well. Priceless.

Our favorite Brussel-Sprout Pax has got lots of Front 242, some Infectious Grooves and more. Go check him out and tell him Andy sent you.

Another truly awesome find has been Decoder, which features the great, long-lost album Miniatures:

"The concept for Miniatures involved getting artists from all across the board to contribute tiny vignettes saying as much as possible in the shortest space of time. Featuring contributions from the Residents, Andy Partridge, the Damned, Robert Wyatt, and Michael Nyman, among others, this may give an indication as to the diversity of this project."

I remember hearing lots of this album being played here and there on my local listener sponsored radio station KBOO, back in the day. Now I know who these people are and who did what. What a find!
They also offer the soundtrack to the wonderfully crappy German movie Decoder, (the site's namesake?) starring Einsturzende Neubauten's F.M. Einheit, Genesis P. Orridge and the good Doctor Burroughs. G-Pod (who has hit the big time) previously offered up the movie here.

Have you ever fallen in love with the unearthly sounds of shortwave radio, but find owning and maintaining a SW setup more trouble than it's worth? Me too, and this (apparently dormant) blog has lots of amazing finds which are all handily described for us: "....Suddenly, a crowd of Daleks emerge from a volcano in the Tardis and break into song..... And what's the deal with those vocals, anyway?" , which accurately sums up the intercepted song.
Lots of amazing sounds from around the globe can be heard here.
The site's owner is a gifted sound sculptor in his own right.

Another really handy resource has been Ishkur's Guide to Electronic Music, a flash-heavy interactive music map of all things electronica. Now you can forget making the social faux-paus of confusing Jungle with Acid House, etc...
Also includes loads of info on gear, for inquiring minds.