Ordinary Gweilo

A few weeks ago, Shaky mentioned liveplasma, which is a rather clever website that tries to graphically illustrate connections between bands (and now films as well).  The idea being that if you like Massive Attack, you will like Portishead, Tricky and Thievery Corporation.  I do already like the first two, but the third one is new to me, so it seems to be working in the way that it should.

The site is simple enough to use, but if you’re lazy and you want to see how it works just click on the link above to see the Massive Attack example.  Shaky says that they co-operate with Amazon in some way, but apart from links that encourage you to buy stuff I am not sure how this works.

A similar concept seems to be employed by MusicMatch‘s "Artist Match Radio", except that rather than offering you a list of artists they generate a playlist of their music.  So, if you choose Massive Attack you also get songs by Portishead, Tricky, Morcheeba, Thievery Corporation, The Chemical Brothers, Air, Lamb, Groove Armada and Moby. 

And, er, Bjork, screeching away, even though they (wisely) don’t include her name in their top 30 ‘related artists’.

Obviously the advantage here is that you can listen to these artists and make your mind up about them (shockingly, I have never downloaded any MP3s, legal or otherwise, so this is an advantage for me).  The only drawback is that there doesn’t appear to be any way of expressing your opinions on the tracks they have chosen, so you can’t customise the selection.  You can skip to the next track when Bjork comes on, though. 

I do like this concept, and I’m even willing to pay for it (only US$3 per month).  I previously tried out RealOne’s Radio Pass, but I couldn’t figure it out and so I abandoned it.  Now, about those Bjork tracks…