The Barnes and Nobles bookstore near where I work is one of the few that I know of that still allows you to listen to snippets of music before buying the CD. They've got a cool system where they've got the first ten seconds of a song digitally stored somewhere and all you have to do is scan the barcode of the CD to listen to the tracks. Unfortunately when you've got a song with a long musical intro, it doesn't help... but I'm rambling off subject a bit.

I was killing time waiting for a friend and just loitering around the music area in New Age (yes, this is a New Age group, if you're not into that, you can stop reading). Most were out and out crap, but one caught my attention - it was Lesiem: Mystic Spirit Voices (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0000636SR/qid%3D1058821421/104-1096259-2036767).

I'm a music fan, I've got almost every single genre represented in my CD collection. Lesiem falls in that pseudo-Celtic-sounding, sorta New Age category. It doesn't have that annoying techno beat that defines a lot of cross-new age / techno albums, but it's got a little bit of that Gregorian-chant thing going on. The cover described it as "Enigma meets Pink Floyd" - that's a pretty good description.

On the heels of the RIAA subpoena post (http://pub149.ezboard.com/fthedruidsgrovegeneralot.showMessage?topicID=1823. topic), I thought I should point out that I downloaded a few of Lesiem's songs from the 'net, and that led to me buying their other two albums.

If you like Celtic and Chant type albums with a little bit of new age funk mixed in, I think you should check out Lesiem. Their CDs are taking up 3 of the 6 slots in my car right now ;)

I'll look for that, Stormy.

I subscribed to E-music for awhile and found some interesting new age stuff too. I burned out on new age quite some time ago, but it seems like it's evolved a bit lately.

I really like the E-Music idea, I just wish more main stream artists would distribute their stuff that way!

Anyway, I recommend:

Earthlan: The Beautiful Collisions of Nations.

It's sort of World Beat and new age, if that helps. Lots of influences from middle east, africa and probably elsewhere.

Then there's this one, hard to classify. I think I found it under New Age, but it fits that description only vaguely. Had influence of metal, jazz and hip hop in it too. Is pretty cool:

Bill Lasswell: Cyclops

Finally, not in New Age, but I found a singer I like a lot. Karrin Allyson sings a lot of jazz and stuff. My favorite albumn of hers I've found so far is From Paris to Rio. And then the song O Pato is so charming. :) It's about a duck and goose and swan doing the samba.

The store FYE is one I know of that lets you scan a barcode and the whole CD, full songs, is availible for listening. Too bad their prices are out of whack.