Urge in my area!

[zrath]

So I was doing some testing recently that involved synching DRMed music to our cellphones.
A colleague recommended I get an Urge trial account as a way of obtaining a buttload of content for testing.
And hey, he was right!
Urge is the new digital music service by MTV ("get music from the people who get music" is their slogan).
You can test-drive the service for 14 days, then everything locks up and you need to fork over your cradit card to continue.
Since I'm allergic to DRM and I HATE-HATE-HATE services with proprietary players that go tits up when you stop paying for
the subscription, I will of course NOT be continuing my Urge account past the trial period.
eMusic is my supplier, and it's gonna stay that way until more services pop up with DRM-free music that can play anywhere.

That said, Urge has been very useful in one respect: being able to listen to entire albums to gauge their worthiness.
I've been going through Urge's "Electronic Music" section alphabetically by artist name since I got the account.
I'm making a list of good albums to get on CD somewhere down the road, and specific tracks to look for.
I've also made a few discoveries.
"The Album Formerly Known As..." is not the simple reissue of Carl Craig's seminal 1995 "Landcruising" album that I
thought it was. Some of the tracks have actually been remastered and tweaked and are even better as a result!
There are also some bonus tracks thrown in. So now, I've changed my mind and I will be buying it.
I will also try to find the "Just Another Day" EP, also by Carl Craig.

"Supermodified" and "Out From Out Where" by Amon Tobin are both fantastic albums, and they're on eMusic! Awesome.
Actually, I'm finding a lot of stuff I like on eMusic also listed on Urge. Interesting...
"One Night Eight Four" by Claude Young? (Another Detroit Techno artist, like Carl Craig also is) It's on Urge AND eMusic!
The only reason I didn't stumble across it on eMusic is because it's under "Soundtracks/Other - Other Environmental".
WHAT!??!?!
IJITS!!!!
Lexaunculpt, Zen Paradox, Hallucinogen, it's all in eMusic too.

As I'm typing this, I'm listening to the "Live From Gdansk" album by Jean Michel Jarre. I didn't even know that existed.
I'm also wearing my good headphones. :) (Sony V600)
"Live From Gdansk" was apparently released in 2005. I know some of my LJ friends are fans, so here's the track listing:

1) Industrial Revolution (Shipyard Overture)
2) Oxygene 4
3) Around Mury
4) March 23 (Space Of Freedom)
5) Oxygene 8
6) Light My Sky
7) Acropolis (Tribute To Jean Paul II)
8) Rendez-Vous 4
9) Aerology (Remix by Neimo)

"Around Mury" sounds like it has backing by the National Polish Army Choir or something. Pretty nifty. Almost Russian!
The "Oxygene 8" track start out like a trance dance number then settles into its normal groove.
I don't know what album "Light My Fire" is from, but it sounds like something DJ Tiesto would whip up. It's trancey!
You can hear fireworks going off after every other track and the crowd is VERY enthusiastic!

Gracenote shows a listing for a 2-CD version of this album, called "Space of Freedom - Live at Gdansk Shipyard - Poland".
Here are the Gracenote track listings for CD1 and CD2.
This is possibly the entire gig, and I hope it's not a bootleg 'cause I'd like to own it!!


Oh, installing Urge was lots of fun.
I had Windows Media Player 11 (or as I like to call it, WiMP) installed on my laptop for a previous test.
It's an awful piece of bloatware and I couldn't wait to get it off. So I did, and it involved restarting the laptop 3 times.
With WiMP rolled back to Version 10, I downloaded the Urge thingy and ran it.
Guess what it did?
It installed WiMP 11!!!
AAAAAAAAARRRRRRRGH!!!!!
Sigh...

Well, my Urge tracks will die around the 31st, so I'll just roll back to WiMP 10 when that happens.
I only use WiMP to play AVIs and WMVs anyway. I don't keep WMAs.

I still have a bunch of albums to preview and the clock is ticking, so I'm off!

Comments

[zrath.livejournal.com]

Yes, that's it! Bleep! I had forgotten what that was called.
Porsupah had mentioned it before.
I'll certainly hit Bleep up for some tunes in the future.
Like, when I have money!
In the meantime, eMusic's 90 downloads for $20 is difficult to resist.
And thanks to Urge, I just found a buttload of stuff on eMusic to buy.
It's gonna take me several months to get it all.