Ever since the first album I ever owned -- Which, incidentally, was The Police (Synchronicity) -- I've been in constant search of new and better music. I have tried a number of different instruments in my life, but never really had the conviction to continue with them. I played the violin in grade school, then tried my hand at the drums, and spent some time learning piano, as well. I also believe that the computer has become a powerful tool for creating music, and, with MIDI, serves as an inexpensive and reasonable substitute for a full studio for the casual guy who wants to try to be creative every once in a while.

But enough about me. Leave the creation to the artists. I try to collect any music I possibly can. I find that everything is worth hearing once. Well, almost everything.

If you've got a few minutes, download the song listed directly below, made by myself a few years back using FruityLoops. Every sound in the song (except the bass drum) was sampled from various happenings in my room (coughing, glass dropping, etc). Enjoy!

Roomy Stuff [mp3, 192kbps, 1:43, 2.43MB]

I've grown to appreciate hip hop as an art in the past 6 years or so. Like "techno," as people have labelled it, hip hop has a lot of different sub-genres which people often don't even notice. Most of the rap you will hear in the mainstream only represents a small part of the whole spectrum.

What I can do here is only to recommend some lesser-known (and some well-known) artists which I particularly like, and feel are worth mentioning. What you can do is take some time to expose yourself to their music and decide for yourself. I am a big advocate of letting people make their own choices, but I also recognize that sometimes you just need some suggestions, because not everything is so over-marketed that you can't help but hear it.