ACE TRACKS: October - December 2024

I know this is about the point everyone expects some yearly reflection, maybe a little philosophical insight about what the previous jaunt around the sun meant in the grand scheme of culture. Frankly, I got nuthin'. Oh, thoughts about All The Things aplenty, but little I find terribly enlightening. 2024 played out mostly as I thought it would, sadly, and was plenty prepared for all the nonsense that came from it. What does it say about one's outlook when the conclusion basically can be summed up with a classic 'King Of The Hill'-ism: “Mm, yup.”

Or maybe it's just because this was the year that, more than any I can remember, I had to come to grips with the reality that those closest in my life may not be there for much longer. Its something that's lingered in the back of my mind for a while, sure, but easily compartmentalized. Time grows shorter for many more though, which has a tendency to make those things more your priority than whatever else is going on in the world.

Oh hey, I didn't mean to make this sound all moody and glum. Here's some ACE TRACKS from the end of 2024!


Full track list here.


MISSING ALBUMS:
Natural Life Essence - Imaginary Motion
Sound Synthesis - IC 4406
Taboo - I Dream Of You Tonight (Bab Ba Ba Bab)
Jeannine Schulz - Humble
Natural Life Essence - Hidrogenesis / 2020
Various - Hidden Realms EP
Various - Galaxies: An Excursion Through Technospace
N:L:E - Gaia

Percentage Of Hip-Hop: 17%
Percentage Of Rock: 0%
Most “WTF?” Track: Franck Vigroux - 68 (it's a rather abrasive song to start on, especially with a lot of ambient to follow)

Something I just realized: with almost all of N:L:E's albums not on Deezer, I have a pretty good idea of how many I go through whenever I put together another of these playlists. Seems this three-month period was one of the more fallow blocks, which makes sense, these current letters within the alphabet surprisingly skint for albums in general.

As for the rest, it's about what most of these playlists have become: lots of Suntrip Records, lots of ambient forms (in this case, Urban Meditation eating up the bulk), with enough smatterings of other genres to keep things somewhat interesting as it plays through. A little more R&B and hip-hop than usual too, which I suspect will become more of a thing in the near future.

ACE TRACKS: July - September 2024

So a lot's happened since I last did one of these. Been a wild summer, to say the least, visiting more hospitals than I'd care to in such a short period of time. Didn't even go to all the ones I might have either, but making another lengthy trip back to the hometown just wasn't feasible so soon. I guess I should feel fortunate there weren't any more deaths I had to deal with, but sometimes it feels like the clock ticks ever too closer to the inevitable than we're ready to deal with. I know we all gotta' die some day, but it sure would have been rough going if they'd all bunched up in just a few months like it could have.

Maybe it's why I ended up distracting myself with yet another pet-project out of the blue. What is it? Ah, I can't really say for various reasons, other than it's been a fascinating look into an aspect of social media I wasn't really privy to before. Don't know how much steam it has long-term, but I've had fun with it this past month. Oh, that 'sportsing' thing I was so gung-ho about these past two years? Erm, yeah, about that... Anyway, here's the ACE TRACKS from this past summer!


Full playlist here.

MISSING ALBUMS:
Various - Fabric 28: Wiggle
Various - Fabric 34: Ellen Allien
Various - Fabric 46: Claude VonStroke
Various - Fabric 50: Martyn
Q-Burns Abstract Message - Feng Shui
Spiritual Fields - Fields Of Light
N:L:E - Floating Garden
WRNR - Floating in An Acid Can
Yahgan & N:L:E - The Forgotten Civilization
Photek - Form & Function

Percentage Of Hip-Hop: 0%
Percentage Of Rock: 0%
Most “WTF?” Track: Oh, definitely the Stereo Raptor stuff. Just don't jive with the house and psy trance, it don't.


Even with the amount missing, there's still a decent amount of variety in this playlist. Probably helps that A). all those Fabric CDs provided plenty of unique tunes from each other, and B). I reviewed much less Suntrip Records than my usual average. Of course, being stuck in the 'F' block of music all this time didn't hurt either. So many different 'Form's...

ACE TRACKS: April - June 2024

I cannot deny, these last few months have been a bit of a slog. Never mind allergy season kicking my ass in April, and never mind dealing with the aftermath of my grandfather's passing in May – those were kinda' things I was prepared for one way or another. No, when it came to June, I decided to do something I should have done a long time ago: finally get off energy drinks, specifically the Monsters.

Yeah, I've been drinking the bastards since they first came on market in North America, a handy pick-me-up when first working graveyards and all. Then they just became routine, my dedicated caffeine injection when everyone else resorted to coffee. There were times when I made concerted efforts to get off them, and was briefly successful on a couple occasions. Always that relapse though, when things would get hectic and I needed to find that artificially induced higher gear. And always that assumption that, hey, there's nothing that wrong drinking 1-2 cans a day, right? I haven't felt any major ill effects in these two decades, right? Well, maybe not so much anymore.

So I started feeling persistent tension in the left side of my head and down my neck. I knew if I went to a doctor about it, and I told them of my Monster addiction, the first thing they'd tell me was to get off the sauce. Looking to nip that factor, I committed to quit drinking them, and sure enough, after a week, most of the pain subsided. Still, some lingering feeling in my left temple, plus intense pressure in the bridge of my nose. Hm, a sinus infection, maybe? I tried Sudafed for a week, and that definitely helped with the nasal cavity and the temple pain, but there's still some lingering soreness just above my ear, noticeably felt when my blood pressure goes up a little.

Though I've now been off Monsters for almost three weeks, I still get a caffeine fix from drinking green tea. Will I have to give that up as well? Or is this just some long-term after-affect from pounding back energy drinks for so long? Ugh, so many distracting issues, when I need to be getting prepped for Basscoast too. Here's some ACE TRACKS to help distract even further!


Full playlist here.

MISSING ALBUMS:
Spiritual Fields - Dharma
Kiphi - Divine Flux
N:L:E - Docking To The New Space Station
N:L:E - Dune
Nacht Plank - Echo Ark
N:L:E - Ecovillage
God's Groove - Elements Of Nature
D York - Melancholic Gardens
Herne - Emotional Axes
Sacred Seeds - Migration
Tierro Cosmico - Figments Of Wonder
Natural Life Essence - Emerged Garden
Kiphi - Eternal Molecule
N:L:E - Ethereal Land

Percentage Of Hip-Hop: 5%
Percentage Of Rock: 0%
Most “WTF?” Track: Nothing overt, except for the title of Futuregrapher's album Geirþjófsfjörður


Shame God's Groove ain't available on Deezer - that's one I think really deserves some rediscovery. Beyond that, pretty much the usual overabundance of goa trance while missing out on all the obscure Natural Life Essence itmes and Lee Norris sponsored ambient. I'm glad there's enough other assorted music in this batch breaking up any monotony, but yeah, if you're not sick of the psy by this point, tip of the hat to ya'.

I'll be taking a half-month break now, partly for Basscoast, but also because I don't want to interrupt my next run of reviews. We're returning to an old standby here at EMC, one that's technically been a couple years building. I am, of course, talking about Fabric On A Budget! Quite a few made the cut this round, by g'ar.

ACE TRACKS: February - March 2024

Been a while since I last wrote one of these, eh? Yeah, I feel the two-month Ace Tracks playlist is almost necessary now, just to plug in more variety of music than all the psy trance that clogs these. Which means a bunch of updates to the blog that I must rattle off now!

Um, okay, there really isn't much, though I have noticed a bunch of older Ace Tracks playlists still linked to Spotify are dying off. Makes sense, since I haven't used that streaming service for two years now, and likely never will again. It's easy enough updating all those posts with the Deezer version now, as all that did transfer over. Gads, that's a lot of tedious work to spend an afternoon on. Maybe I'll just do it whenever I get around to the 'old review' Mastodon link, which will happen later this year. Yeah, that'll suffice.

Nothing else coming to mind (which is weird, because I could have sworn February was quite an active month for some reason), so here's the ACE TRACKS for the past sixty-two days:


Full track list here.


MISSING ALBUMS:
H:U:M - Dark Matter
N:L:E & Kiphi - Crystal Vision
ReKaB - Counting The Days
Various - Decima Circuits_Cottage Industries 10
Various - Cottage Industries 11
Various - Cottage Industries (A Neo Ouija Compilation)
Various - Clockwork Manor (Cottage Industries 9)

Percentage Of Hip-Hop: 6% or 12%, depending if you want to include The 13th Sign in there
Percentage Of Rock: 0% (unless you want to count New Order, then 24%)
Most “WTF?” Track: none, unless you just can't understand how Cypress Hill could kill a man

So little surprise none of the Cottage Industries are on streaming – Lee Norris remains quite resolute in that – but what's funny is not all volumes are. I spotted a couple of the compilations on Deezer, oddly the middle ones. Why none of the older or newer, I haven't a clue. Regardless, it's a shame none of the ones I covered are, as the various electro and IDM tunes would have nicely broken up all the psy trance.

It actually isn't that bad though, with variety of hip-hop, techno, tech-house, and such sprinkled about for the first 7/8ths worth. But yeah, that final stretch of just psy and New Order does get redundant.

ACE TRACKS: November - December 2023 ...and an EMC Update

Well, that was certainly a productive December on my end, especially that flurry towards the finish. Nicely made up for the lacklustre November (or as I liked to call it 'Mopevember'). There's just something about the block of 'B' albums that always inspires me to haul writer's ass. I'm serious! Two years ago, I had another productive month finishing off another bundle of 'B' albums. And earlier that year, another solid run of writing about, you guessed it, albums with titles starting with the letter 'B'. Man, if every album I forever did now was like that, I might even get back to my pre-Pandemic rate of output! Yeah, no, I wouldn't count on it.

Or maybe I just need a little recharge break? I've had lulls and inspiration blackouts, but I'm talking about a deliberate 'time-out' from writing new reviews. Haven't taken one of those since... um *checks* Holy cow, April 2018!? No wonder I'm feeling burnt-out.

That settles it. I'm kicking off 2024 with a month-long sabbatical. I'll still do my 'Sportsing Surveys' but methinks I'm well overdue for a mental recharge. Gotta' come up with fresh angles to cover all that goa trance in my 'To Review' pile, after all.

Speaking of, here's the ACE TRACKS from the last two months!


Full track list here.


MISSING ALBUMS:
Humanoid - Built By Humanoid
N:L:E - Botanical Adventures
N:L:E & Kiphi - Blurred Milkway
N:L:E - Bioluminescent Forest
N:L:E & Kiphi - Between Dreams And Reality
Distant System - Astral Map Error

Percentage Of Hip-Hop: 12%
Percentage Of Rock: 10%
Percentage Of Psy Trance: 52%

Hey, look at that, a new category! Figured if I'm gonna' be reviewing that much goa going forward (and I apparently can't count on N:L:E to break up the monotony some), I should warn folks ahead of time.

Hoo boy, is it ever dominate in this playlist. Even at a 'mere' fifty percent of the 6.5 hour runtime, it sure feels like there's so damn much of it. You'll hear two, maybe three tracks of psy at a time, then a lone ambient or synthwave or hip-hop track will come in, then another run of three, maybe four psy trance cuts again. Considering I reviewed only eight items from Suntrip these past couple months, it sure does come off over-weighted. And I'm only showcasing the cream of the crop circles here!

Alright, I'm (mostly) peacing out for now. See y'all in February!

ACE TRACKS: September - October 2023

We've passed the one year anniversary of All That happening at the former birdsite (or whatever you want to call it now). Many an article floats about the internet about 'what that means', and I'm sure it's a rather significant event for some folks out there. Myself? Look, I'll level with ya': Twitter was never much use for yours truly. Yeah, there was some initial thrill about being able to directly connect with industry talents you'd never have any contact with otherwise. Heck, I'm sure a few even helped give this blog a little promotional boost when I was still in hardcore hobby obscurity with it. Whatever benefit I personally gained from using Twitter soon faltered, however, and I only kept using it out of a sense of inertia. Little did I realize switching over to Mastodon would yield far greater social media interaction than the void-screaming that was Twitter, but fortunately a Muskian One forced the issue.

Still, I kept my account semi-open, posting links for a few months after my switch, then just lurking to keep tabs on a handful of content creators holding on (or decided BlueSky was their preferred destination post-exodus). It was only this past month that I finally cut the cable (re: deleted Twitter from my Bookmarks) for good. There's still a half-dozen accounts I liked reading from there, but if I wasn't gonna' move on one year later, I'd be a hopeless cause. No, time to let it go, like Spotify, and... ah, hmm. I think those are the only two 'Mega Evil Internet Thingies' I've disconnected from. Yeah, I still use Facebook (family and friends contacts), Amazon (get the shit I want when I want it), and Google (YouTube, plus this blog wouldn't exist without it), but beyond that? Think I've stayed relatively 'clean', whatever that means on the web this day and age.

So cheers, Xwitter. You came, you xweeted all over our cultural space, and hopefully we'll be in a better place without you being such an over-inflated presence. Now for the ACE TRACKS of the past two months!


Full track list here.

MISSING ALBUMS:
N:L:E & Yahgan - Antarctica
Various - Annexe (Cottage Industries 2)
Various - 026028
Various - 021025
Various - 016020
Various - 011015
Various - 006010
The Frozen Vaults - 1816
Autumn Of Communion - 3
Autumn Of Communion - 2

Percentage Of Hip-Hop: 0%
Percentage Of Rock: 0%
Most “WTF?” Track: Unless you consider goa trance default “WTF?” music, nothing much.

Shame so much from the extended Lee Norris Multiverse Of Music isn't available on Deezer, but the man remains committed to keeping his labels' material off standard streaming services, and you have to admire his gumption if nothing else. Still, it would have been nice having some of those choice electro and techno tunes from Intellitronic Bubble mixing things up some among all the psy trance in this playlist.

Yeah, I've a feeling this is gonna' be a standard for the following year, all those Suntrip CDs clogging up my Ace Tracks playlists. Not that I'm lacking for other potential material filling things out, but it seems much of it may not be available either, so we'll see how things shake out.

ACE TRACKS: July - August 2023

So this sure has been a summer. Maybe not the busiest one I've ever had – how can it be when I didn't go to a single festival this year? - but certainly not for a lack of trying. One does not simply drive back to one's hometown when said hometown is at the literal ends of the Earth. A thirty-six hour drive, roundtrip, half of which I did in a single shot coming home (just to see if I could). What's a European equivalent, you ask? Start driving east from Brest, France, until you reach Moscow, Russia. Something like that, except with a lot more fuck-off mountains along the way. If that seems insane, here's a factoid I learned from this trip: the length of the Fraser Valley (where I technically live in) is about the same as the width of the Italian peninsula. Canada's real big, is what I'm sayin'.

Seriously, nothing puts the sense of scale into sharp focus like driving in Northern British Columbia. I used to travel those roads often in my younger years, but having since lived in the far more densely populated 'border regions' for just as long now, I forgot how remote it all is. A small town, followed by hours of rugged wilderness, the sporadic rest stop, gas station, or Native reserve dotting the highway between. Then you remember, there's another whole half province north of you that's even more empty than this! And let's not get into the Arctic territories. Such drives would be great opportunities to listen to some of these gargantuan streaming playlists, if I could be certain I'd get signal everywhere (note: you can't). Anyhow, here's a sampling of what you may have heard had you shared the drive with me:


Full playlist here.

MISSING ALBUMS:
Natural Life Essence - Wave Bio Generator
The Shape - Waveshape Fiction
The Future Sound Of London - We Have Explosive 2021
Natural Life Essence - Wetlands
Various - Sven Väth: What I Used To Play

Percentage Of Hip-Hop: 0%
Percentage Of Rock: 8%
Most “WTF?” Track: Nothing major, though Tracing Xircles' Closed Circuit certainly stands out with its acid breakcore.


The sound of my summer! Well, kinda'. Feel like I listened to a lot more than just what's in this playlist, especially what with my 'Sportsing Surveys' taking up almost an equal amount of my potential listening time now. Wonder if I should make playlists of highlights from those sessions as well, but figure it's just easier buying up the albums I liked the most and doing proper reviews of them.

This marks the end of the current alphabetical queue, wherein I now restart the loop once more. This will also be the first time doing a straight run front-to-back, no special attention given to particular blocks of pre-blog albums. This means I'll be constantly adding to this alphabetical queue as we mosey on through, potentially putting the end of it forever on the horizon! Okay, not really. Once one letter block is finished, anything new I get within that block will be added to the next alphabetical loop-queue, and who knows when that one will start (if ever?). This probably makes a whole lot more sense in my head than anyone reading this. Trust me, if you could see how I have everything stacked, it all tracks.

ACE TRACKS: April - June 2023

Bed bugs. Not even once.

Unfortunately, I've now had to deal with them at least once. Not only is it an icky thing to suddenly discover these critters have been crawling about your mattress for who knows how long (I suspect at least a month, migrating into my apartment shortly after the building tore out the hallway carpets), but in such numbers! Now, I had evidence they were lurking about, as I was waking up some mornings with what looked like hives across my forearms. It wasn't until I noticed some crawling up my nearby hanging decor that I finally tore up my bedding to find them all over the place, particularly nestled in a nook of my futon frame.

Okay, so I have bed bugs. Clean everything, then call building management to get a pest controller to do a spray or steam job to get the ones I can't find, right? Right, except my building 'management' is handled on the other side of the continent, correspondence handled through a web-portal, and hardly timely at that. Long story short(ened), after two weeks of inaction, I finally called a service myself, paying out of pocket, and by g'ar, it got the job done (hot drying ALL my clothing and bedding didn't hurt either). Guess I didn't need to buy all this peppermint oil to detract them from my blood but hey, at least it keeps my flat smelling minty fresh.

So that's how this past month went for yours truly. Anyhow, here's some ACE TRACKS from the past three months! Yeah, felt it necessary to stretch this one out some, get a few more genres in there that aren't ambient drone. Look, it's not my fault some of the more interesting techno, trance, and electro aren't on Deezer!


Full playlist here.


MISSING ALBUMS:
Yahgan - Ushuaia
H:U:M - Universal Code
Stimulus Timbre - Unfolding Cycles
N:L:E - Uncharted Lands
Various - tʌntrə x
Various - Tranceculture > Endless Universe
Tomas Jirku - Touching The Sublime
Yamaoka - Time To Time
Procs - Stuck In The Oven With Me
G-Prod - Space Time's Bubbles LP

Percentage Of Hip-Hop: 5%
Percentage Of Rock: 5%
Most “WTF?” Track: The Viking metal. Always the Viking metal.

Quite a few missing there, which I suspect is gonna' become more common the deeper I get into N:L:E's extended Bandcamp catalogue. Speaking of, Bandcamp apparently now offers Playlist options too. Should I make an exclusive Bandcamp Playlist, featuring all the tracks not available on other streaming services? I know there's quite a few in that category, particularly from artists and labels very stingy about having their music spread abroad for percentages of pennies. Would take quite a while to compile, but if I start sooner rather than later, at least I can just keep building upon it, rather than wasting an entire day over it. Anyhow, food for thought.

ACE TRACKS: February - March 2023

Y'know, I'm starting to dread retirement.

Oh, I'm quite the ways off from that date, believe you me, but at the moment, I'm getting a taste of what that might be like. As per my job's union benefits, I'm entitled to Accumulated Time Off (ATOs), wherein after every 10 hours worked, I get 1 hour of paid time off – essentially, one day off every two weeks worked. These are 'banked' over a period of time, but my job can also 'put me in the hole', so to speak, when there's little need to have me around due to lack of business (March is typically rather slow). Because the individual who's normally my back-up at work is leaving, my boss saw fit to put me into this 'ATO hole' rather deeply while he still had the chance, so he wouldn't have to worry about scheduling around them down the road. Thus, I've ended up with a three week 'forced paid vacation'!

And you may say, “Quit y'er bitchin'! That's awesome!” Well, yes and no. I didn't plan for this myself, so I'm hardly in a financial position to travel anywhere. And the funny thing about having all the free time in the world to do all the things you've wanted to is you end up paralyzing yourself with not knowing what to do with all that free time – truly a curse of having ADHD. At least having a job to go to on the regular forces you to schedule your free time around that. Now, it feels like all the things I've normally done (writing, working-out, etc.) has been slipping from my rotation. And if this is what retirement is gonna' be like, dear me, maybe I should want to put that off for as long as I'm physically capable of!

Anyhow, here's the ACE TRACKS for the past couple months:


Full track list here.


MISSING ALBUMS:
_Nyquist - Sonic Periapsis
Skua Atlantic - Silfra Diving
Daniel Pemberton - Silent Sky

Percentage Of Hip-Hop: 0%
Percentage Of Rock: 14% (but only if you include some Gorillaz and Dance With The Dead)
Most “WTF?” Track: Squigglasonica, mostly for that title.

Perhaps way too heavy on the ambient this time around. Like, there's gonna' be a fair amount for as long as I'm still going through that Lucette Bourdin box-set, but even after that, we're pretty heavy on the beatless drone musics. Otherwise, an alright collection of tunes. Oh, and nothing from Jack's 'Token Prog' series included here, since highlighting specific tracks wasn't really a point of those reviews.

In other news, I've discontinued my Twitter account. With that app turning into a 'pay to be seen' scheme, I see little point in using it anymore. My reach already was limited during the 'good years', and this will effectively render me invisible to all but whatever artist happens to be searching for their names at a given time. I haven't deactivated my account though, instead setting it to Private, as I'd rather keep that handle from being taken over by someone else. So if you do see a 'Sykonee' active on Twitter, I can assure you it's not me.

ACE TRACKS: December 2022 - January 2023

Such a busy past couple of months. Yeah, December is rather hectic regardless, but all the snowy weather put an extra bit of craziness on the usual activities - never thought I'd get stranded at an afterparty because of white-out conditions! January though, that's usually the downiest stretch of days, winter doldrums hitting me as hard as they ever do (November typically a close second, damn loss of daylight), but getting a bit obsessed about physical activity kept me well enough distracted, perhaps did good for my mental health. Or maybe not, getting at times dejected when the amount of work I put into burning calories some days would yield only small changes compared to others. I think I simply found my limit though, what my body's willing to endure without going to extreme measures that no one should. No, not even Hugh Jackman when getting ready for his Wolverine abs photo-shoot!

Anything else? Oh, I just happened to buy the entire catalogue of Suntrip Records off Bandcamp:

Man, between this and that bulk-buy of Natural Life Essence's label, 2023 is looking stacked for specific genres. May need to bulk-buy some other labels just to space things out some. Damn you, Bandcamp, and your bulk-buy options! Anyway, here's the ACE TRACKS for the last 60 days:


Full playlist here.


MISSING ALBUMS:
CYPHER 7 - Security
DEVROKA - Processor Overlord
Various - Planet Wax Vol. 1

PERCENTAGE OF HIP-HOP: 0%
PERCENTAGE OF ROCK: 0%
MOST "WTF?" TRACK: Unless you're already familiar with his turn towards IDM, some of the latter era Speedy J.

Yeah, lot's of Speedy J, which is kinda' new to these playlists now that he's finally added his back-catalogue to all streaming services. Usual assortment of tracks from those other artists I bulk-bought from (Lucette Bourdin, Dance With The Dead), plus a fair bit of other ambient, but some techno and new trance too! Fairly typical playlist from me, all said.

ACE TRACKS: October - November 2022

So this has been a month.

Never mind regular work being a total boondoggle, or the fact I damn near wrecked my left ankle twice in the span of a week, no I'm talking about the goings-on of Internetland, specifically That Bird Site. I can't say I've completely ditched it yet, but I'm finding fewer reasons to stick around at this point. My own usage of it felt more out of a sense of obligation, utilizing social media apps to help generate traffic for this blog, but looking over the stats, I can't say it ever yielded much. Yeah, occasionally one of the artists I reviewed might give a Tweet a bump, but those numbers honestly dwindled quite a bit over the years. It's almost as if folks just don't like using Twitter anymore, and those that do, do so out of sense of obligation, utilizing the social media app to help generate buzz about their content. Frankly, I get more of a traffic bump off of Facebook than I ever do Twitter.

Which is why I'd been contemplating making a switch for a while anyway, regardless of the Musky buyout. Once folks started pumping up Mastodon as an alternative, I decided to give it a try this month, see how it stacks. And frankly, it's been a better overall experience! With its dedicated server system, I don't feel like I'm just shouting into the void for attention, a keyword or hashtag maybe getting the attention of someone more Very Important than I. My direct engagement with folks there has been far higher than it ever was on Twitter. Yeah, it hasn't generated numbers directly to this blog, but that's expected when starting over again on another social media app, especially one with a significantly lower number of marketers and bots.

Thus most of my activities have transfered over to the ravenation.club server (because there were no other 'electronic music' ones). My 'Sportsting Surveys' are been posted there exclusively now, as the 500 character limit nicely fleshes out what thoughts I may have. I've also been re-sharing 10 Year Old reviews, for a time on both, but decided to keep that Mastodon exclusive as well. New reviews and Survey unrolls will still be shared on both, but that's about it. At this point, the only two things keeping me on Twitter is to keep tabs on the content creators that haven't jumped ship yet, and to keep my front-row seat of just how much of a flaming dumpster the Bird Site will actually become. I'm terrified, yet I can't look away...!

That sorted, here's the Ace Tracks for the past two months:


Full list here.


MISSING ALBUMS:
Mind Over MIDI - Outpost
Natural Life Essence - Organic Adventures
Iempamo - ...Now What?
Speedy J - Ni Go Snix
Rapoon - Navigating By Colour
FSOL - Music From Calendars
Encym - Music For Meditation
Peter Broderick - Music For A Sleeping Sculpture Of Peter Broderick

Percentage Of Hip-Hop: 0%
Percentage Of Rock: 0% (KMFDM and DWtD aren't really 'rock' enough here for this category)
Most “WTF?” Track: Nothing really, tho' the obscene amount of Lucette Bourdin may have some scratching their heads.

Yeah, I didn't tally a total runtime up, but she's gotta' take up at least half of this playlist, probably more. Mind, I didn't include many of her extra-long pieces, only Dream Traveler (because dang, it's such a sublime slice of floaty ambience), but when you cover six album's worth of music out of twenty, it can't help but overwhelm everything else.

I know I've made some whiplashy playlists in the past, but between all the Lucette, and the... well, nearly everything else (save Dr. Alban), this playlist whiplashes hard indeed. I'm sure you could get some power naps in before another synthwave thrasher knocks you out of slumber.

ACE TRACKS: August - September 2022

Feels like forever since I last did one of these, and I guess it kinda' has been, three months passing and all. More than that though, it's been a busy last few months, but a good kind of busy, where things are getting done and goals are getting accomplished. Not like that bad kind of busy from earlier in the year, where an addiction to doomscrolling also made things seem to stretch out forever, just with no hope in sight, no hope at all.

It does leave me feeling a bit... guilty, over how my own personal bubble has been so positive as of late, compared to many others. I'm not even talking about *all that* happening in the world (whichever “all” and “that” happens to be affecting you the most), but with the people I care about too. I know failing health and abilities are the unfortunate side-effects of aging. Still doesn't make it any easier watching it happen in real time, y'dig?

Anyhow, enough musings, here's the ACE TRACKS for August and September... basically Summer 2022!


Full track list here.


MISSING ALBUMS:
Anzio Green - Lygan
Apollo 440 - Liquid Cool (Volume One) and (Volume Two)
The KLF - Last Train To Trancentral (Live From The Lost Continent)
Spectra Ciera - Last Light
Speedy J - Krekc
Speedy J - Intercontinental
Owl - Infinite Horizon
Various - In Trance We Trust Xtra Nordic Edition: DJ John Storm
Various - In Trance We Trust 001: DJ Misja Helsloot

Percentage Of Hip-Hop: 0%
Percentage Of Rock: 7%, or 22%, if you want to include Dance With The Dead as Rock
Most “WTF?” Track: If the notion of KMFDM in dub doesn't throw you off, the FSOL stuff is as weird as things get

I know earlier in the year I marvelled at how much more music Deezer had over Spotify, but man, those are a lot of gaps. Not that I expect Spotify would have all of these – some are just too darn old for streaming purposes, while others come from labels very stingy about their streaming rights.

Regardless, there's still a wide range of music on this list, everything from trance, techno, d'n'b, prog-psy, ambient, dub, and synthwave on hand. No house though. Weird oversight, that.

ACE TRACKS: April - June 2022

Well. Don't think I'll be doing that again.

It was so much easier working two festivals per summer when they were separated by a month. After so many fire seasons threatening to derail everything, however, the Shambhala Music Festival decided to move its event into July, only a couple weeks after the other one I've been attending, Basscoast. Then ~THE PANDEMIC~ happened, thus delaying everything for three years before we could see how such a change would take effect. Ironically, despite Shambhala moving its dates earlier into the year to avoid potential fire closures, my region of the world has been going through one of its rainiest summers on record, rendering the fire threat a moot point.

Anyhow, I had a ton of vacation time banked, so decided to do both festivals despite the short turnaround. I can't say things didn't go as planned, because for the most part, things did, even if I mostly only enjoyed the first 3/4s of Shambhala, and the last 1/4 of Basscoast (so, combined, a perfect festival!). It's just circumstances made for a far more hectic month than I was prepared for, plus two bouts of post-festival sickness thrown in for good measure. No COVID though (at least, according to the tests), so there's that?

If both festies are gonna' insist on existing within the same month, think I'm gonna' have to choose one over the oth- it's Shambhala. It'll always be Shambhala. Basscoast is fun when it's in full-swing, but kinda' dull place to chill, especially when you're working pre-show (not to mention the 'volunteer situation' has grown rather unfavourable). The Kootenays will always be a preferred vacation destination, even when putting in a little hard work while out there.

So that's my month of July wrapped up. How was yours? And while sharing, here's a long overdue ACE TRACKS playlist, gathering up music from April through June (and a little July):


Full Track List here.


MISSING ALBUMS:
Pale Glow - In Dreams Awake
Speedy J - Ieee Mitten Menu
Silent Universe - Gravity
Various - Fabric 69: Sandwell District
Various - Fabric 58: Craig Richards Presents The Nothing Special
Fabric 55: Shackleton
Grid - Evolver
Speedy J - Evolution
Daar - Entire
Aythar - ElectrOcean / Winter Walk

Percentage Of Hip-Hop: 6%
Percentage Of Rock: 0%
Most “WTF?” Track: Probably anything from Technical Itch, Parental Advisory, or The Bug, as they'll often suddenly, aggressively appear after some calming ambient music.

Seriously, there's a lot of ambient music in this playlist, not to mention a fair chunk of tunes on the downbeat. Probably great if you're up for some extreme chill time (post-festival blahs, let's say), but I certainly wouldn't want to take a long road trip to this.

ACE TRACKS: February - March 2022

So I got COVID.

This was bound to happen though, wasn't it. My work already puts me on the 'front-line' of potential exposure as it was, and between all the precautions and risk mitigation we did, only a few folks in my sphere ever came down with it in the past two years. With all the mask mandates and crowd limits being lifted though, chance of exposure increased dramatically. Did I catch it from an asymptotic co-worker or customer? Maybe on one of my bus commutes? Perhaps that crowded night club where not a single soul wore a mask? Mysteries upon mysteries.

I suppose I should be thankful it was only a mild bout, the worst of it being a 24 hour period of wet-lung. Could it have been worse had I not been vax'd? Probably, though frankly, this scar currently on the side of my tongue is more bothersome than whatever COVID threw at me. There's always something, it seems. Remember when I used to just talk about music here, not all these Real World Events constantly interjecting? Speaking of, here's an ACE TRACKS playlist, the first from Deezer!


Full playlist here.

MISSING ALBUMS:
Various - Deeper 01.02
Autumn Of Communion - Data Space Bass
Various - Coercion Of Deities
The Boats - Do The Boats Dream Of Electric Fritz Pfleumer?
Lucette Bourdin - Drum-atic Atmospheres

Percentage Of Hip-Hop: 0%
Percentage Of Rock: 0%
Most “WTF?” Track: Strangely, anything from The Chemical Brothers, as they're total odd men out in this playlist.

No, but seriously, even extending this playlist by an extra month, it seems I listened to exactly two forms of music in all that time: ambient and drum n' bass. That's about it. Sure, there was a Deeper dalliance into prog, plus occasional spurts of ambient techno, but almost none of which could be found on Deezer. My ambient excursions remain about on par of course, but man, all d'at d'n'b. Two albums from Tech Itch Recordings, and two triple-disc offerings from the D&B Arena – I'd say that's enough to overwhelm everyone else. Still, it all makes for a rather funny playlist, jungle rhythms interspersed with ambient interludes.

ACE TRACKS: January 2022 ...and an EMC Update

I repeat myself but seriously... wow.

True, this was an eventuality – there was only so much pre-2012 music I had in my collection to begin with – but it's still astounding that I accomplished this. I've seen a few attempts at the daft idea of reviewing one's entire pile of records or CDs, but almost never anyone accomplish it. Maybe Mark Prindle, before he retired his website? He certainly was thorough with artist discographies. I recall a few text-based websites way back in ye' olden Web 1.0 days, which were more useful as databases before Lord Discogs changed the game. A more recent trend of 'a track review a day for a year' certainly seems to have gained traction within the podcast-o-sphere, but that's not really the same.

I suppose it comes down to how folks consume music these days, most sticking with streaming. Could you imagine someone trying to review one's entire Spotify Favorites collection? Man, folks smash those little hearts like they're nothin'!The era of having a physical collection continues to dwindle down to niche interests, and of those who do, how many develop an itch to actually write reviews of everything they have? Not bloody many, I wager. No, Rate Your Music doesn't count. Well, maybe a little, if you're one of those 1,000+ word review 'blurb' types.

And I ain't finished, oh no. There's still plenty of music in my 'To Review' pile, plenty more on its way in the mail, plenty more to discover, new and old. All the same, it's nice having another arbitrary box checked off on my 'Blog Goals, I Guess' chalkboard. Meanwhile, here's the ACE TRACKS from January, the final batch from my pre-2012 collection!


Full track list here.


MISSING ALBUMS:
Neil Young - Chrome Dreams II
The KLF - Chill Out (I refuse to call what's been recently released proper Chill Out)

Percentage Of Hip-Hop: 9%
Percentage Of Rock: 0%
Most “WTF?” Track: The Trans'pact stuff, especially lodged among Enya, as alphabetical stipulation decrees.

Wait...! Neil Young is missing!? Oh yeah, THAT whole thing. Time to address the elephant in the room.

So I've cancelled my Spotify subscription. This isn't some knee-jerk reaction to *all that* - I've been considering it for a while now. Believe me when I say I was a huge supporter of the app when it first launched in Canada, but in my mind, they've done little since to improve conditions for musicians relying on their service, especially when they've had ample chances to do so. And it's not like they aren't flush with enough cash to do so, doling out one-hundred million dolla' bill exclusivity rights to podcasters. Meanwhile the Discovery algorithm wasn't very useful for my interests, there was that one time they splattered every button, feature, genre, and playlist with Drake's mug (we're not a monolith culture!), not to mention a bunch of behind the scenes stuff that's about as icky as growing corporations get...

So if there's all this rot, why now, when everyone else is doing it, and not before? Honest and truly, Neil Young no longer being on the platform was the proper nudge I needed.

Ultimately, what I want is a means of having my entire music collection available to me anywhere I go in the world, easily streamed in high resolution through my phone. I also know that's not bloody likely anytime soon, so music streaming services are the alternative, even if most of them pay dick. I could justify Spotify's meagre crumbs by the fact I generally only streamed music I'd already bought and paid for elsewhere, whether through Bandcamp or getting CDs. And while Spotify didn't have all the music I've gathered, they had enough... until now. Mr. Young may only take up about 3% of my total collection, but he's still an artist I play a lot (so says my scrobbling data). If he's not on Spotify, what point is there in me staying with the service? None no point, there is. So long, Spotify, then. I'll keep my account for a couple practical reasons I'll get to, but for the most part, I'm done with them.

That settled, where to next? Amazon Music? Nah, I already pay for Prime, and don't need to add to that bill. Apple Music? Seeing as how I have 0% Apple products, I think not. Tidal? Kinda pointless for blogging purposes if anyone in my readerbase doesn't have an account (no free streaming, even for sharing audio clips). Besides, something about them still rubs me the wrong way. Like, it's almost too celebrity focused, pushing their high-profile artists because they have invested shares in the app. Let me put it this way: if any of these streaming services are gonna' jump on a superstar-endorsed NFT bandwagon to the detriment of its user-base, I can totally see Tidal being the first.

I guess that leaves me with Deezer, the Yahoo! of music streaming services. Been around longer than most, is serviceable in what it provides, mostly forgotten but spoken of fondly by those who still use it (*cough*).

So I gave Deezer a trial run, and quite liked how streamlined everything is (no fuss, no obnoxious muss). The desktop app is kinda' janky, but the website interface is mostly the same and runs smoothly. Mobile app works nice as well. Decided to port over all my ACE TRACK playlists, and unfortunately discovered it caps out at 2,000 tracks, effectively splitting my Ultimate Master List into three. Ah, whoops?

That hiccup aside, I think Deezer's the one I'm going with for now. All future streaming links will be through Deezer (where a Bandcamp one isn't available), as well as all future ACE TRACK playlists. Since the Ultimate Master List would be too cumbersome to maintain in a split state, I'm retiring it. Also, all current Spotify links will remain, as I have no desire spending hours replacing them all with Deezer ones, and will use Spotify as a third option if there are none for Bandcamp or Deezer.

Yeah, despite having a comparable library, some things just aren't available on Deezer but are on Spotify (damn you, American Movement In Still Life). However, in doing my library transfer, I discovered quite a few albums on Deezer that I never found on Spotify. Let's look at those albums now!

FOUND ALBUMS:
Alex Theory - Saturn Returns
Alien Project - Activation Portal
Bandulu - Redemption
B.G. The Prince Of Rap - The Time Is Now
BKS - Dreamcatcher
The Black Dog - Temple Of Transparent Balls
Bone Thugs-N-Harmony - E. 1999 Eternal
Carl Craig - Landcruising (altered edition titled The Album Formerly...)
Deep Forest - Deep Forest
Der Dritte Raum - Spaceglider
Dogon - The Sirius Expeditions
The Dust Brothers - Fight Club
Dusted - When We Were Young (altered edition titled Safe From Harm)
Emiliana Torrini - Love In The Time Of Science
Escape - The Futurescape
Frankie Bones - Computer Controlled 2: Live In California
Fun Factory - Nonstop! The Album
Grooverider - Mysteries Of Funk
Jefferson Airplane - Platinum & Gold Collection
John '00' Fleming - For Your Ears Only
John O'Callaghan - Something To Live For
Kon Kan - Syntonic
Lab 4 - None Of Us Are Saints (playlist)
Motorbass - Pansoul
N-Trance - Electronic Pleasure
The Oak Ridge Boys - A Higher Power
Opium - Pain(t)
Quadrophonia - Cozmic Jam
RZA as Bobby Digital - In Stereo
Sven Vath - Contact
Sven Vath - Harlequin – The Beauty And The Beast
Supercar - Futurama
Supercar - Highvision
Tom Middleton - The Sound Of The Cosmos
Wu-Tang Clan - 8 Diagrams
Various - Absence Of Gravity
Various - Audioworks V1
Various - Empire Records: The Soundtrack
Various - Grooverider Presents: The Prototype Years
Various - In Trance We Trust 021: Adam Ellis
Various - Influence 1.1: A Hardtrance Experience
Various - Massive Passive
Various - Organism 02
Various - Rave-Trance 2001 (as This Is Dream Trance Anthems Volume 2)
Various - Techno Nights – Ambient Dawn (playlist)
Various - Trance To Planet X: Influence 3.3
Various - Trancespotting II
Various - Trancespotting III


Not to say these might not be on Spotify now, they just weren't when I looked when doing reviews for them. Still, quite a list, eh?

*whew*

Has this ever been a wordful. Maybe I should have split this into two different posts, but wanted to get this out of the way. I'm not going to try and convince anyone to do as I've done, as your listening habits are your own. Just know if you feel Spotify's getting too sketchy for its britches, there are options.

ACE TRACKS: November-December 2021

And... breathe again.

Good? Okay, where are we then? Last month got off to a pretty good start – creating a pre-published backlog certainly helps – but once again, life in the Real World gets hectic and distracting. I was determined to get that pile of 'B' albums done before the end of the year though, and by g'ar, I got there.

Which leaves me ready to review the final clutch of albums I'd like to call the “Before Blog Re-Launch Block". Yep, this is actually, for realsie-reals, honest-to-God the last little bit of my old music collection within sight, a small pile of 'C' albums left un-listened to since 2012. A whole decade ago. Good gooey gravy, who'd have thought I'd still be doing this so many moons later. What even was life that long ago now?

Of course, even after I get through this, that doesn't mean I'm finished reviewing my entire music collection, oh no. There's all the stuff I've bought from this past year (it's... a lot), and who knows how much more in the coming years hence. So long as musicians I like keep releasing music I like, this blog will never end, mwa-hah-ha! Or until the interweb as we know it ceases to exist, rendering text-based interactivity moot. It could happen, in my lifetime. Anyhow, here's the ACE TRACKS from the final two months of 2021:


Full track list here.


MISSING ALBUMS:
Private Mountain - Blue Mountain
Pentatonik - Anthology
Various - Adykt
Pete Namlook / DJ Dag - Adlernebel
Various - 001005
Intergalactic Federation - 1/2

Percentage Of Hip-Hop: 0%
Percentage Of Rock: 20%
Most “WTF?” Track: Nothing overtly egregious, though I'm sure the excessive amount of Neil Young will make some go cross-eyed.

Boy, good thing I did extend this playlist across two months, 'cause ain't much from November available on Spotify. Darn deliberately obscurist ambient techno labels. If you can get your Local Files to fill in the gaps, the full playlist runs nine hours, mostly thanks to a whole pile of double-digit breaking tracks. Guess it helps in pacing out all the Neil Young music, though alphabetical ordering somehow lumped a whole bunch of 'em at the end. Kinda' funny, that.

ACE TRACKS: October 2021

And that's another pile done and dusted. Of course, I've gathered a bunch more music since I began that backlog, but I've been more conservative with my music purchases this year, not quite so many random and wild splurges from Amazon and Discogs. Nope, just sticking with the primary labels and artists that have interested me, so this next run won't be so lengthy. After all, this will include the final batch of CDs from my pre-blog collection getting in, the first half of the 'C' albums. It'll be nice to soon tick off another check-box in whatever list of arbitrary goals I set for myself with this ongoing pet project. Let's load 'em up into my 16GB Sony Walkman then!

Uh huh, uh huh. Uh... wait, how is this filling up so fast!? There aren't THAT many 'C' albums included, but I'm already tapped out before getting to the 'H's. What gives? Oh, right. That new Neil Young Archives box-set. And that box-set of Lucette Bourdin. And a couple triple-LP offerings from Drum And Bass Arena. Not to mention a bunch of double-LPs too. I... guess that'll fill up an MP3 player quickly?

Looks like I ain't close to be completed after all, not by a long shot. Anyhow, here's the ACE TRACKS for the month of October:


Full track list here.


MISSING ALBUMS:
Autumn Of Communion - Zosimus Alchemista
The Future Sound Of London - Yage 2019
ASC - The Waves
Peter Benisch - Waiting For Snow

Percentage Of Hip-Hop: 0%
Percentage Of Rock: 9%
Most “WTF?” Track: Aside from the Viking metal again? I dunno, maybe a Yage remix?

This playlist opens with a the uplifting vibes of Way Out West's Ajere. It's immediately followed by the sombre urban ambience of Burial's Beachfires. Well, if that doesn't just perfectly sum up the clubbing experience, don't it!

Seriously though, the playlist pretty much plays out like that: some upbeat, peppy tune (yes, even Ensiferum) followed by a string of introspective downtime. A pretty strong outing of tunes, all said, if you have a few hours to kill.

ACE TRACKS: August - September 2021

I'll never claim to have the best laid plans, but I'd like to think I take most factors into consideration. Yet for all of my planning for the month of September, a small oversight here, an unforeseen circumstance there, and a crippling, hobbling of the self everywhere, all things that made for a very, very no-good bad time of a month. At least I didn't catch COVID...?

ANYHOW...

Actually, one thing I'm happy about is I think I've finally completed a personal project, one that I've been working on for the past decade. Maybe a smidge longer? It's nothing terribly significant to anything else in my life, but it is nice to know that it's done, no longer always lingering in the back of my mind as something that needs work on. As I enter the middle of my expectant life cycle, it's a strange notion that some things that tasked me in years past are no longer as relevant. And it does make me wonder, what's next? Like, there are still some old pet projects I've left drifting as other ones took my attention, but what happens when they all run out? Find something new? Hope something unexpected takes centre-stage? I dunno', just food for thought in a month that, for the most part, was the drizzling shits for yours truly.

Meanwhile, here's the ACE TRACKS from the two months:


Full track list here.


MISSING ALBUMS:
Beat Pharmacy - Safety In Dub
Sons Of The Subway - Ruff Rugged & Real
Higher Intelligence Agency - Reform
Toki Fuko - Spring Ray

Percentage Of Hip-Hip: 0%
Percentage Of Rock: 0%
Most “WTF?” Track: The KMFDM tracks may cause some sonic whiplash.

So I extended making a playlist by a month to give a little more variety. Then I fail to actually review enough music to make enough of a difference. Okay, that's harsh, as the few extra tunes here do help pace things out better. I needn't beat myself up for dashing my own exceptions. Would have been nice to have some of that Silent Season downtempo dub in there though. Why aren't they on Spotify anyway?

ACE TRACKS: June - July 2021

That whole 'heat dome' thing feels like a weird fever dream.

And I know, what a dangerous thought to have. We shouldn't be thinking of such events as 'once in a lifetime', no less than accepting it as some 'new normal'. Heck, there's already another one hitting the States, the edge of which is just kissing my neck of the burnt woods. It may not be blasting hot right now, where radiant heat off the pavement is enough to cook the rubbers of your soles, but it sure is humid and muggy, an almost stinky mank upon the air. I suspect this is what it's always like in those equatorial jungles.

Yet, we're still trying to carry on as if nothing's out of the norm. Folks eager to go on out-of-town vacations they were denied a year prior. Rushing to attend music festivals and theme parks, packing in like sardines in days of yore'. I even did my first day of maskless work, though more because I had an eye-infection that left wearing contact lenses an absolute pain, but at least I could again! I dunno, there's just been this feeling of everyone too anxious to return to our old normal, trumpting our medical triumphs in the face of an uncaring micro-organism, all the while others continue denying its leathality and very existence.

“Good luck, red states,” is all I'm saying.

Anyway, here's the ACE TRACKS from the past two months.


Full track list here.


MISSING ALBUMS:
Darren McClure - On Opposites
Wanderwelle - Lost In A Sea Of Trees
Mohlao - Landforms
Mick Chillage - Intervals Of Light
Sandoz - Intensely Radioactive
Hearts Of Space - Hearts Of Space

Percentage Of Hip-Hop: 0%
Percentage Of Rock: 0%
Most “WTF?” Track: Nothing of note. Easy-peasy, lemon-squeezy vibes throughout.

Man, even with extending this an extra month, that's still a lot of albums missing out of this playlist. Some of them I'm not surprised by, but the Silent Season ones did. It's not like all the offerings from that label are missing – Segue's The Island is available – just those particular ones. Seems peculiar.

Things continue to be slow-moving blog wise. As I said, feels like we're all playing catch-up to all sorts of things we put on hold this past year, so 'writing inspiration' is just low right now. It'll come when it comes, just can't push these things. At least, not when there's any life-threatening reason to. Now, about that energy-intensive, single-dwelling Arctic Destructor 3000 air conditioning unit I ordered off Amazon...

ACE TRACKS: May 2021

Well, Spotify sure got an overhaul, didn't it? Yeah, the app's continuously done things to create algorithmic-approved playlists and recommendations, but I seldom pay attention to it, sticking to my own interests and leaving it at that. This last update though, a total face-lift happened, such that you now see album art in all your playlists. Gosh, that sure is spiffy. And hey, you can actually search for songs within the playlist app. That sure saves time from using the search featuring, finding the track, then adding it to playlist. Dang it though, can't find Local Files again. Ah well, that always happens with major updates.

I'm sure some are wondering how I can continue to support a company like Spotify when it notoriously pays below a pittance to most of the artists on the app. True, but here's the deal, fam': almost all the music I build playlists with there, I've already bought and paid for elsewhere. Sometimes directly from an artist or label on Bandcamp, other times through a retailer (usually online now), and occasional times second-hand. One way or another, the artist has gotten some financial reparation before I ever add them to a Spotify playlist. Whatever percentage of a penny they get from me playing their music on the app is just added cream. Dribblets, sure, but even that can eventually add up to one of those tiny little cups.

I'm by no means suggesting they shouldn't keep fighting for better payouts from Spotify, because they absolutely should (and bitch out the greedy labels getting their fingers in before they do while they're at it). It just boggles my mind that I've encountered a few artists who still discourage me from using the app when they'd get extra money from me when I do use it. Like, they sure ain't getting payouts every time I play a CD after I buy it (though I'm sure labels would have tried if it were possible). There's being principled, and then there's being stubborn.

Anyhow, here's the ACE TRACKS from this past month of May:


Full track list here.


MISSING ALBUMS:
Various - fabric 43: Metro Area
Hypertrophy - Eternal Flames
Mick Chillage - Epinaz

Percentage Of Hip-Hop: 10%
Percentage Of Rock: 23%
Most “WTF?” Track: Nothing much this month. The Viking metal, you say? Still, you say? Oh c'mon, we should be used to it by now.

A reasonably well-rounded selection of tunes this time out. Some old, some new, some old-sounding new. Some popular, some obscure, and even a dash of cheddar too. Even the alphabetical arrangement flows well. Ooh, that's another new feature I found, instant sorting! Mind, it doesn't sort specifically to how I like, but it sure beats dragging every single track into place.