Remember, as usual, all of these mixes are free to download and listen to.

IDM

FMControl released an online album that supposedly took two years to create. The album’s called “Objects 2007-2008,” and it’s really neat; very similar to Autechre during their glitchier days.

Posted below is a video from one of my favorite artists, Blamstrain. Blamstrain is actually Juho Hietala, a Finnish musician who happens to create some of my favorite stuff ever — if you ever see his album Ensi, absolutely pick it up and give it a listen, as it’s some of my favorite stuff ever. Anyways, he released a new track called Galaxy Sports in which he made available in Youtube (in HD! Internet HD video — that’s taking off right now) form so he could be a VJ that reaches out across the world. Oh, and the track is really good too:

Ambient

Mort Deuce released a new little mix, check it out.

Here is a link to a mix released by The Orb. A mix by The Orb? Where have I seen that before?

Techno

Omar S released a new mix. It’s a required download for any techno junkie — Omar S is one of the few guys who you know when you download something you will like. Download directly here.

Here is one of the most underrated mixes I’ve ever heard. This is Detroit techno at its best — slightly minimalist, but still bumpin’. This was done, by the way, by Marco Passarani, a really fantastic DJ in general.

Welcome to the first of your two posts today. Check out all this new stuff! Remember, it’s all free to download and check out and not illegal to have!

Techno
Luke Slater released a live mix he played in Glasgow in January. If you’re going to listen to any mix I post today — do this one. It’s 100% rad.

Placid released another mix. The Sounds of Detroit, it’s called, but it’s definitely cool and Detroit-sounding. “Apologies in advance for the sometimes questionable mixing,” he said about it; I don’t care about the technical aspects of it so long as it sounds good. And that it does.

Surgeon released a live tracklist that he played in Leeds. More good stuff.

IDM

Pi.o.tr has a new release entitled Guarded. Cool album.

Idiot Dog Brain released a couple of tracks available for download on his website.

Ambient

Darren Harper released a variant of the Buddha Machine. For those unfamiliar with what the Buddha Machine is, here you go. This is actually a really, really cool variant.

The Orb

The Orb released a new track! OOPA is the name. very ambient and psychedelic, as that seems to be the way that The Orb is going today instead of the dub music that they seemed to hang onto.

Any questions or comments you have, let me know!

The Brewers are finally starting to do something!

The biggest news of the day comes from Tom Hardicourt. The Brewers have inked a 2-year, $18 million deal with Prince Fielder in order to buy out two years of his arbitration and keep him on the team.

The deal in itself doesn’t sound too bad, as it’s kind of a wash — Prince Fielder rated as about a 2.2 adjusted VORP for 2008. The average win in 2008 was valued at $4.5m. That cost in 2009 might go down due to the struggling economy — unless you’re the Yankees — so Prince’s value can be placed around $9m or so per year. That’s about what he’s worth. Not bad.

However, instead think about this in terms of what these players tend to be worth in the real world. Fielder compared himself to Ryan Howard when originally coming up with an arbitration figure. Last year, an arbitration hearing thought Howard was worth $10 million, and this year, he’s submitting a figure of $18 million. This bloated figure is largely a product of unjustified media hype on a high-strikeout, high-HR lefty with poor defense. They don’t think Prince is quite as good as Howard, however, the comparisons are close enough where during next year’s arbitration, Prince’s salary would climb so high that he would be paid far more than he’s worth. The deal makes sense for Prince, too, because he’s getting this as guaranteed money just in case he unexpectedly loses time due to poor play or injury. It’s insurance for Prince, and good economics for upper management. Other teams might also be more inclined to aggressively try and trade for Prince since his salary is set for the next two years and is less of a wild card because he utilizes Scott Boras as his agent.

As was noted in my pitching preview, Milwaukee’s probably not going to spend any more money. This may be a bit of a rebuilding year/let overpaid contracts die year, but the team’s still not competitive enough to be a playoff contender or threat. Hopefully we can soon rid ourselves of the Suppans and Halls and not get burned a third time. For a mid-market team, to waste that much of your payroll on subpar players won’t get the job done. One of the things I like to see is that owner Mark Attanasio has increased payroll every year since he’s been here, giving a team like Milwaukee a better chance and more leeway to give out bad contract. Florida or Tampa Bay couldn’t give a career 4.7 ERA pitcher like Suppan $44 million over 4 years.

On a different note, over the past year or two, I’ve become obsessed with The Orb. For those unfamiliar with them, The Orb is an electronic music group consisting of Alex Paterson and other guys who have rotated in and out. They started out in the early nineties pioneering ambient house and other dub-induced chillout music. Most of their stuff is ambient, but they tend to go all over the place sometimes, consistently creating fresh, innovative music out of whatever they find. One of their most popular songs, A Huge Ever Growing Pulsating Brain That Rules from the Centre of the Ultraworld, sampled such things as nature sounds, science fiction radio shows, and Minnie Riperton’s song “Lovin’ You,” for example, and most of their other stuff samples other songs and puts them together nicely.

A different popular song, Little Fluffy Clouds, ripped off an interview with Rickie Lee Jones in their song. Jones got angry and went to court for ripping off her copyrighted material. Eventually they settled, but Paterson has noted fans would go nuts if they found out where the drums came from.

Anyways, being an ambient, downtempo, sample-based band, they have longer mixes and remixes of their songs. On an old internet radio website called Groovetech, The Orb would play a few of these mixes– they came to be called “Thursday Tea Times.” Most were 2-3 hours long and incredibly enjoyable. My boss first alerted me to these mixes — he got a few from a friend, and since he knew I liked The Orb, he sent them along my way. I had four mixes of varying length, and all at terrible quality (96 kbps).

There are more of these mixes. Recently I was able to come across them due to some dumb luck and kindness by an absolute stranger– link to them here. These are my personal favorite pieces of music in the whole world, so get used to them. Download them all and listen to them and buy Orb albums.

The sweet thing is that these guys are still going strong.