If, like me, you live in a major American city, you're probably facing the same radio choices I am: the "alternative" (read Third Eye Blind) station, the classic-rock station, the rap station, and the pop station. The world of American radio is not a friendly one for a fan of electronic music. You might get an hour of electronic music programming at 2am on Sunday mornings from your local community college radio station. But that's only if you're lucky.
Radio on the Internet is a blessing for fans of electronic music. There are an incredible number and variety of stations to choose from. Some exist only on the Net, and some are Net feeds of traditional radio stations. Some play only specific types of house, like Philosomatika (which I've mentioned
before) with Goa trance, and some span the whole spectrum plus a few other genres. Let's take a look at some of my favorites.
Capital Radio -- I'm originally from London, England, and miss my hometown radio stations very much. Imagine how happy I was to find that Capital Radio now broadcasts online. Capital's a mainstream radio station that plays a bit of everything, but with England's charts generally being heavy on the electronica, you'll hear some good tunes. On Neil and Simone's Late 'n' Live Show (Sundays-Thursdays 10pm-1am GMT) I heard garage darlings Artful Dodger's new one , "Please Don't Turn Me On", within 10 minutes of tuning in.
Radio One -- Another English traditional-radio station. Like Capital, Radio One plays a diverse selection of music, but still gives you a healthy dose of house. I listened to DJ Judge Jules spinning live from the club Godskitchen in Birmingham on a Friday night. Jules played fast, melodic house, full of swirling synthesizers and female vocals. He also threw on a remix of Lipps, Inc.'s disco classic "Funkytown" at one point. I could hear the background noise of the club: people clapped, whooped, blew whistles in time to the music. It made me feel like I was right there with them.
Philosomatika -- A Web-only station that plays Goa trance MP3s with no DJ chatter. Because it's a continuous stream of music, I can see putting this on at a party-loading the Web site, turning up my computer's speakers and just blasting it. The WinAmp track window lists artists and song titles, which is not only informative, but also amusing, because Goa trance artists generally have over-the-top-trippy names like Infected Mushroom and Hallucinogen.
