Todays Tune: Sting - Shape of my Heart

Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner, CBE (born 2 October 1951), better known by his professional name of Sting, is an English musician, singer-songwriter, activist, actor and philanthropist. Prior to starting his solo career, he was the principal songwriter, lead singer and bassist of the rock band The Police.
Sting has varied his musical style throughout his career, incorporating distinct elements of jazz, reggae, classical, new age, and worldbeat into his music. As a solo musician and member of The Police, Sting has received sixteen Grammy Awards for his work, receiving his first Grammy for Best Rock Instrumental Performance in 1981, and an Oscar nomination for the best song. He is a member of both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

Todays Tune: The Punisher Theme

The Punisher is a 2004 American comic book action film, based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name, starring Thomas Jane as the antihero Frank Castle / The Punisher and John Travolta as the villain Howard Saint, a money launderer who orders the death of Castle's entire family.

Todays Tune: Badiel & Skinner ft. Robbie Williams & Russel Brand - 3 Lions 2010

"Three Lions" is a song released in 1996, the official anthem of the England football team for that year's European Championships, held in England. The music was written by Ian Broudie, with comedians David Baddiel and Frank Skinner providing the lyrics. It is also popularly known as "Football's Coming Home" that appears on the covers in a number of single releases for the song.

Todays Tune: Giggs ft. The Streets - Slow Songs

Nathan Thompson (born 1983), better known by his stage names Giggs or Hollowman, is a British rapper from Peckham, South London. He is the leader of SN1 (Spare No 1), a branch of the Peckham Black Gang, alongside his brother Joe Grind, Spender, YG (Young Giggs) and Gunna D. Other artists within this group include Kyze and Tiny Boost. The group's main producers are Simple, Boomblast, Unit 10, Universe and Pablo.

Todays Tune: Leonard Cohen - Here It Is

Leonard Norman Cohen, CC, GOQ (born September 21, 1934) is a Canadian singer-songwriter, musician, poet and novelist. Cohen published his first book of poetry in Montreal in 1956 and his first novel in 1963. His work often deals with the exploration of religion, isolation, sexuality and interpersonal relationships. Famously reclusive, having once spent several years in a Zen Buddhist monastery, and possessing a persona frequently associated with mystique, he is extremely well-regarded by critics for his literary accomplishments and for producing an output of work of high artistic quality over a five-decade career.

Musically, Cohen's earliest songs (many of which appeared on the 1967 album, Songs of Leonard Cohen) were rooted in European folk music. In the 1970s, his material encompassed pop, cabaret and world music. Since the 1980s, his high baritone voice has evolved into lower registers (bass baritone and bass), with accompaniment from a wide variety of instruments and female backup singers.

Over 2,000 renditions of Cohen's songs have been recorded. Cohen has been inducted into both the Canadian Music Hall of Fame and the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame and is also a Companion of the Order of Canada, the nation's highest civilian honour. While giving the speech at Cohen's induction into the American Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on March 10, 2008, Lou Reed described Cohen as belonging to the "highest and most influential echelon of songwriters."

Todays Dump: Computer Composer Indistinguishable From A Human

Here are two of it's creations.

Emily Howell 1

Emily Howell 2

The software is called Emily Howell and was created by UC Santa Cruz professor David Cope. Check out Triumph Of The Cyborg Composer.

Todays Tune: Louis Armstrong - We Have All The Time In The World

Louis Daniel Armstrong (August 4, 1901 – July 6, 1971), nicknamed Satchmo or Pops, was an American jazz trumpeter and singer from New Orleans, Louisiana.

Coming to prominence in the 1920s as an "inventive" cornet and trumpet player, Armstrong was a foundational influence on jazz, shifting the music's focus from collective improvisation to solo performers. With his distinctive gravelly voice, Armstrong was also an influential singer, demonstrating great dexterity as an improviser, bending the lyrics and melody of a song for expressive purposes. He was also greatly skilled at scat singing, or vocalizing using syllables instead of actual lyrics.

Renowned for his charismatic stage presence and deep, instantly recognizable voice almost as much as for his trumpet-playing, Armstrong's influence extends well beyond jazz music, and by the end of his career in the 1960s, he was widely regarded as a profound influence on popular music in general.

Todays Tune: DJ Vadim - Oneself

DJ Vadim (aka Vadim Peare) is a prolific DJ and producer, born in Leningrad, USSR (now Saint Petersburg, Russia), raised in London and currently residing in both New York and Port-au-Prince, Haiti,[citation needed] whose music combines hip hop, soul, reggae and electronica. He has been described as "one of the few artists creating genuinely new work in the Hip-Hop field" and an artist who "cannot be ignored".

Todays Tune: Omni Trio - Renegade Snares

Rob Haigh, also known as Omni Trio, is a British electronic, ambient and experimental musician.

In the early eighties he released a series of experimental ambient albums under the names Robert Haigh and Sema - the most notable being ‘Three Seasons Only’ and ‘Notes From Underground’. He also contributed to several Nurse with Wound projects and formed an industrial avant funk band called The Truth Club together with Trefor Goronwy, who would go on to join This Heat, Camberwell Now and become involved with music in the former Soviet Union..

In the nineties Rob developed a unique style of what has become known as ‘ambient Drum and Bass’ and released six acclaimed albums under the name Omni Trio. The Omni Trio sound is notable for its intricate orchestrated production and atmospheric sound palette. Omni Trio was one of the original drum and bass producers, who first released for Moving Shadow as early as 1993. He produced several massive anthems in the period now known as "old skool", including the piano-led "Renegade Snares", "Thru the Vibe", "Feel Good" and the classic "Mainline". Both these featured on his first LP, The Deepest Cut (1995), which is recognised as one of the first jungle albums.

He followed up quickly with Haunted Science in 1996, which included well known tracks like "Trippin' on Broken Beats" and "Nu Birth of Cool". Mainstream trends in dancefloor-oriented drum and bass rapidly diverged from his musical style, and subsequent albums Skeleton Keys (1997), the Detroit techno-influenced Byte Size Life (1999), and Even Angels Cast Shadows (2001) produced no big hits on the scale of his early singles, but they further cemented his reputation as one of the finest album-oriented musicians in drum and bass. Indeed, he was the first artist in the genre to produce six full-length artist albums. The track First Contact made it on the GTA III's MSX FM.

Since 2004 after the release of the sixth and final Omni Trio album ‘Rogue Satellite’, Rob has been working on a solo album of "post Minimalist sonic landscapes" called ‘From the Air’ and is collaborating with experimentalist Hafler Trio.

The Omni Trio song "Renegade Snares" is featured in the video game Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition, "First Contact" (off "Even Angels Cast Shadows") is featured in Grand Theft Auto 3.

Todays Tune: Moby - Extreme Ways

Richard Melville Hall (born September 11, 1965), better known by his stage name Moby, is an American DJ, singer-songwriter, and musician.

He sings and plays keyboard, guitar, bass guitar and drums. Moby became a successful artist on the ambient electronica scene, and achieved eight top 40 singles in the UK during the 1990s. In 1999 he released the album Play, a mix of melancholic chill-out, ambient music, and upbeat electronica, that was critically acclaimed and produced an impressive eight hit singles (including his most popular songs "Porcelain", "Natural Blues" and "Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad?"). Play became a commercial and cultural phenomenon, selling over 10 million copies worldwide(the biggest-selling electronica album ever) and with its eighteen songs receiving an unprecedented licensing in films, television and commercial advertisements.

His follow-up album, 18 (2002) was also successful, receiving positive to mixed response. His next offer, the mostly upbeat Hotel (2005) received lukewarm reviews and poor sales in general. Moby released his most recent albums, Last Night (2008) and Wait for Me (2009), finding good reviews and moderate sales. AllMusic considers Moby "one of the most important dance music figures of the early '90s, helping bring the music to a mainstream audience both in the UK and in America.

Todays Tune: Muffler - Mermaids

DJ Muffler is Konsta Mikkonen, Finnish born drum and bass DJ and producer, who currently also lives in London and Tallinn. He has released approximately 50 vinyl releases, two CD albums and made DJ mixes for various magazine cover CDs, including Knowledge in 2004 which consisted exclusively of his own music.

Muffler is one of the few artists who has recorded for almost all known high profile drum and bass labels such as Moving Shadow, Hospital Records, DSCI4, Formation Records, Commercial Suicide, Frequency Records, Outbreak Records, Urban Takeover, Trouble On Vinyl and recently on his own SighCo Recordings.

Other artist names used in the past are Konsta, Constant, Unknown Soldier, Axis Of Evil and Alloy.

Todays Tune/Dump: Hatten är din!

Does anyone remember this? Is one of the first internet memes I remember...

I think the language is Swedish - someone please correct me if i'm wrong.

Update: I think the song is in Arabic - subtitles are Swedish.

Todays Dump: Karl Pilkington's girlfriend Suzanne... (for real this time?)

Is this Suzanne???

Todays Dump: Dust-Me Selectors

I have just stumble across this great plugin for firefox: http://www.sitepoint.com/dustmeselectors/

It finds all the unused css styles on a page you are visiting - useful for developers wanting to strip out any old ones that got removed and forgotten about.

Todays Tune: RSD - Naked Mario Kart

RSD (three capitals) is the alias of Rob Smith under which he releases dubstep records. Rob Smith is a dub producer from Bristol with critical acclaim. He has released music as (a.o.) Smith & Mighty, More Rockers, blue & red and RsD.

Todays Tune: Burial & Four Tet - Moth

Burial (born William Bevan) is a musician located in London who produces electronic music containing elements of dubstep, 2-step garage, and house music. His eponymous debut album was released in 2006 to critical acclaim. The Wire magazine named it their album of the year, along with achieving fifth place in the Mixmag 2006 Album of the Year list, and eighteenth in the best of the year list of The Observer Music Monthly supplement. Burial's second album, Untrue, was also released to critical acclaim and was the second-highest rated album of 2007, according to the review-collating website, Metacritic.

Kieran Hebden (born 1977 in Putney, London, England, United Kingdom) is a post-rock and electronic musician. Hebden first came to prominence as a member of the band Fridge before establishing himself as a solo artist under the moniker of Four Tet.

Hebden's music typically eschews the traditional pop song format in favour of a more abstract approach—his sound and melodies incorporate elements of hip hop, electronica, techno, jazz, and folk music with live instrumentation.

Alongside recording his own material, Hebden has also performed remixes for a number of artists including Aphex Twin, Anti-Pop Consortium, Bonobo, Beth Orton, Explosions in the Sky, Super Furry Animals, Radiohead, Manic Street Preachers, Matthew Dear, Sia, Nathan Fake, Bloc Party, Andrew Bird, Kings of Convenience, Battles, Madvillain, and Black Sabbath. Hebden's recent output includes a number of improvisational works with veteran jazz drummer Steve Reid, and a collaboration with Burial.

Todays Tune: Buju Banton - Hills & Valleys

Buju Banton (born Mark Anthony Myrie, 1973, Kingston, Jamaica) is a Jamaican dancehall, ragga, & reggae musician. They has also recorded Pop & Dance songs, as well as songs dealing with political topics. Banton is politically outspoken & influenced by Marcus Garvey.

Todays Tune: Bruce Springsteen - Streets Of Philadelphia

Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen (born September 23, 1949), nicknamed "The Boss", is an American singer-songwriter. They records and tours with the E Street Band. Springsteen is widely known for his brand of heartland rock infused with pop hooks, poetic lyrics, and Americana sentiments centered on his native New Jersey.

Springsteen's recordings have tended to alternate between commercially obtainable rock albums and somber folk-oriented works. Much of his status stems from the concerts and marathon shows in which they and the E Street Band perform intense ballads, rousing anthems, and party rock and roll songs, amongst which they intersperses whimsical or deeply emotional stories.

His most successful studio albums, Born to Run and Born in the U.S.A., epitomize his penchant for finding grandeur in the struggles of every day life in The united states, and the latter album made him one of the most recognized artists of the 1980s within the United States. Because of his support for the presidential campaigns of Senator John Kerry and President Barack Obama, Springsteen has gradually become identified with liberal politics. They is also noted for his support of various relief and rebuilding efforts in New Jersey and elsewhere, and for his response to the September 11 attacks, on which his album The Rising reflects.

They has earned numerous awards for his work, including twenty Grammy Awards, four Golden Globes and an Academy Award, and continues to have a strong global fan base. They has sold over 65 million albums in the United States and 120 million worldwide. They was a 2009 recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors.

Todays Tune: DTH - Guns Of Brixton

An interesting cover of The Clash song - Guns Of Brixton from German band Die Toten Hosen.

Die Toten Hosen is a German punk band from Düsseldorf. They have enjoyed decades-long mass appeal in Germany.

The band's name literally means "The Dead Trousers" in English, although the phrase "tote Hose" is a German expression meaning "nothing going on" or "boring". Their name is figuratively best translated as "The Deadbeats".

Todays Tune: Bob Dylan - Mr Tambourine Man

Bob Dylan (born Robert Allen Zimmerman; May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter, musician, painter and poet. They has been a major figure in popular music for two decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when they was at first an informal chronicler, and later an apparently reluctant figurehead of social unrest. A number of his songs such as "Blowin' in the Wind" and "The Times They Are a-Changin'" became anthems for the civil rights and anti-war movements. His early lyrics incorporated a variety of political, social and philosophical, as well as literary influences. They defied existing pop music conventions and appealed hugely to the then burgeoning counterculture. Dylan has both amplified and personalized musical genres, exploring numerous distinct traditions in American song – from folk, blues and country to gospel, rock and roll and rockabilly, to English, Scottish and Irish folk music, embracing even jazz and swing.

Dylan performs with guitar, piano and harmonica. Backed by a changing line-up of musicians, they has toured steadily since the late 1980s on what has been dubbed the Never Ending Tour. His accomplishments as a recording artist and performer have been central to his career, but his greatest contribution is generally thought about to be his songwriting.

They has received numerous awards over the years including Grammy, Golden Globe and Academy Awards; they has been inducted in to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame and Songwriters Hall of Fame. In 2008 a Bob Dylan Pathway was opened in the singer's honor in his birthplace of Duluth, Minnesota. The Pulitzer Prize jury in 2008 awarded him a special citation for what they called his profound impact on popular music and American culture, "marked by lyrical compositions of odd poetic power."

Dylan released his most recent studio album, Christmas in the Heart, on October 13, 2009. It comprised traditional Christmas songs, including "Here Comes Santa Claus" and "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing". All Dylan's royalties from the sale of this album will benefit the charities Feeding America in the USA, Crisis in the UK, and the World Food Programme.