Essential tunes to expand your mind :-

[Hugo]

Also:
Future Sound Of London
Shpongle
Younger Brother
Pete Namlook
Speedy J

[samartin]

Shpongle is a tad odd, quite liked their stuff tho', always liked Orbital but never listened to them properly. Some great stuff there

edIt/Ants is pretty cool, never heard of them before, interesting ideas.

Thanks to those posting, it's good to see what I've missed out on.

cheers

[salamanderanagram]

uhh, try listening to shpongle when you're a little less sober.... it might make more sense if you ingest some psychedelics first

in that same vein, check out OTT, hallucinogen in dub, and bluetech

[Radian]

Shpongle is a tad odd, quite liked their stuff tho', always liked Orbital but never listened to them properly. Some great stuff there

Despite Shpongle's blatant references to drug culture, I suggest that their music is best appreciated when you're sober The effortless way they drift from one ethno-musical style into another (sometimes several times in one track) is what first alerted me to there being something worthy about them.

For example, the track My Head Feels Like A Frisbee launches with typical vocoder japes that slide into up-tempo indo-dub (I'm inventing a lot of my own terminology to describe this ) But after three minutes there's a shift to what seems like a mutant "River Dance" which transforms into a Latinesque, Stricktly, Bollywood. As if that wasn't roaming far enough at six minutes the whole thing travels through some kind of Klezmer ska beat. All these themes are re-visited before the track is out.

Successfully capturing any one of these styles in a sequencer and making it groove is a triumph, but seamlessly integrating so many into something that retains the band's identity seems like a miracle to me

[Hugo]

Alot of talk about Shpongle here (which is great), but don't forget about the equally brilliant Younger Brother - also a Simon Posford project.
http://www.discogs.com/artist/Younger+Brother

[samartin]

Shpongle is a tad odd, quite liked their stuff tho', always liked Orbital but never listened to them properly. Some great stuff there

Despite Shpongle's blatant references to drug culture, I suggest that their music is best appreciated when you're sober The effortless way they drift from one ethno-musical style into another (sometimes several times in one track) is what first alerted me to there being something worthy about them.

I read the biography of the Shpongle schpeel on Spotify and checked out "...And the day turned to night", wicked track. So now listening to "Are you Shpongled?"

I totally missed the drug references in what I listened to already, never been into the drug culture so maybe that's why I missed it!

[Radian]

Alot of talk about Shpongle here (which is great), but don't forget about the equally brilliant Younger Brother - also a Simon Posford project.
http://www.discogs.com/artist/Younger+Brother

True, and let's not forget Raja Ram's venerable influences The reason I went into some depth about the work of these particular artists is that their arrangements are at the more creative end of the spectrum and provide an object lesson in how to avoid loops becoming monotonous (something I'm trying to learn from).

[bluemind]

I'm currently hooked on the knife and fever ray. The postal service is also great inspiration