Techno Anyone?

I'll try most anything, but I haven't had the desire to try "Techno". Maybe it's about time?

Here are some downtempo, lounge-beat compilations I find really cool that are not overly electronic -- all the "Bhudha Bar" (there are 5 to 6 double-CDs out by now) cds are great. Several "Hotel Costes" mixes produced by Stephane Pompougnac, these are all good. Double-cd compilations called "Paris Lounge", "Berlin Lounge" and now "Paris Lounge-2" are all good. Most cds by Theivery Corp or also under "Jet Society" are very good listening. Also, there are a ton of stuff under "Chillout" and everthing "IBIZA".

Electronic composition is probably some of the most progressive stuff out there right now - in any genre of music. I love Jazz, but a lot of new jazz is pretty stale. And modern classical compositions are often painfully contrived sounding. Electronic composers like many of the ones mentioned above, in contrast to DJ's - who often play music that sounds like it came out of a cracker jack box, (ie. uninspired repetitive generic), are creating some really interesting sounds and arrangements using purely electronic means or electronically manipulated samples. Faultline, Orbital, E*vax, Solvent, Hessen, Krueder & Dorfmeister, Underworld, Nils Petter Molvaer, Air, Radiohead, Beck, Nortec Collective, Couch, Silo, Arovane, to name a few. And also some of the pioneers of electronica mentioned above like Kraftwerk, Yello - 'Flag' is also a great one.

Not really sure about where the boundries are on techno as a category (really good stuff isn't usually right in the middle anyway),but the new Squarepusher and his Feed Me Weird Things disc are pretty interesting. Steve Fisk, 999 Levels of Undo is sonically amazing and hasn't been hard to find for under $5 in the bargain bins.

Crystal Method and Chemical brothers are my most listened to techno choices. Also, the new UberZone "Faith in the Future" disk is pretty wicked, so are some Prodigy recordings.

Chris