The second selection from yourmusic.com comes from one Ronnie Martin aka Joy Electric.  The disc in question is roughly his 9th full length album “The Otherly Opus.”  For a brief history check out the entry on Wikipedia here and for a sample of the music here’s a song from the album.

My introduction to Joy Electric came way back in college.  I don’t recall who really introduced me to him, but I definitely remember how it was described as Nintendo music with lyrics.  I think the song that really sold me on Joy Electric was “The Cobbler” from the “Old Wives Tale” EP.  I hadn’t really listened to much if any of his stuff before that.  I don’t know that I’ve ever heard all of his first full length “Melody” except for whatever tracks have been included on various compilation albums.

I’ve always had a love for electronic music and Joy Electric was an interesting addition to the musical palate.  What probably helped get me into him more at the time was listening to and then later doing the “Christian” specialty show on ASU’s radio station.  Tooth and Nail Records should really have given my co-host Duane and I some serious kick backs since probably 60% or more of what we played came from them.  Granted at the time they were really the most prominent source of music from Christian artists that wouldn’t be described in the same vein as cheddar or smoked gouda.

What cemented my love for Joy Electric was when he put out “The White Songbook.”  Up until this past month this was probably my favorite disc of his.  It was the first volume in “The Legacy Series” which I’m still not sure what exactly entails.  “The Otherly Opus” is the 5th and last volume in that series.  “The White Songbook” came out after I had graduated from college and when T&N had made a shift in musical style to a lot more pop punk bands therefore not giving me a lot of reasons to keep up with them quite as much.  While I really liked “The White Songbook” I also didn’t really keep up with Joy Electric much after that as well.  It was my favorite album of his, but he wasn’t necessarily my favorite artist. So when future releases came out I thought about getting them, but never did.  At one point I borrowed “The Tick Tock Treasury” from Thurston and later picked up “The Ministry of Archers.”  At the time I felt like it was kind of the same thing repeated and didn’t quite meet whatever expectation I had given the standard of “The White Songbook.”

“The Otherly Opus” brought a new perspective and a renewed love for Joy Electric.  What I had felt at one time for “The White Songbook” was found again with this album.  While I had enjoyed “Robot Rock” and “CHRISTIANsongs” I always felt like they were too beat heavy while not being very danceable.  “The White Songbook” and really the whole “Legacy Series” was a different animal.  These were not albums meant to be dance music (as was probably most of JE’s music), but really well crafted albums built around synthesized sounds.  Part of it was probably my own perspectives on music changing as well as the albums themselves.  Regardless, I am definitely going to pick up the Joy Electric discs I don’t have at this point.

In an attempt to provide some more regular content on here I decided I would start at least this one continual series.  There is this site called “Yourmusic.com” that Chris introduced me to awhile back.  Basically you fill up a queue and then they send you a CD from the queue once a month for $6.99.  At the time Chris told me about it I thought it was kind of an interesting idea, but didn’t think much about it after that.  Over the past year I found myself adding any number of CD’s to my Amazon wish list that I came across and decided this year I’d go ahead and do the Yourmusic thing as a way to pick up some of those random discs and whittle down that wish list for relatively cheap.

Well the first disc I got was Daft Punk’s “Alive 2007.”  I had been eyeing this thing since it came out, so for $6.99 I decided it was time to get it.  This was probably what pushed me over the edge to join Yourmusic in the first place.  As the name slightly insinuates, this is a live disc.  Apparently Daft Punk puts on a pretty amazing show, especially for two guys dressed up as robots.  Here is a taste.  The disc itself is pretty good.  12 tracks with roughly two of their songs mixed together on each track.  Basically it’s a Daft Punk DJ Mix of Daft Punk songs mixed by Daft Punk.  While some of the songs on their studio CD’s tend to get a little repetitive, the live mixes tend to change up enough to keep it interesting.

I remember hearing them for the first time way back in college.  My roommate Josh had their “Homework” CD and was listening to the single “Da Funk.”  Like Yourmusic, I didn’t think too much about it at the time.  It wasn’t until I heard “One More Time” a few years later that I was hooked.  I don’t recall exactly where I heard it first.  Probably on WKNC 88.1.  I absolutely LOVE that song.  Every time I hear it I’m compelled to listen.  “One More Time” led me picking up their “Discovery” CD. Later I got “Homework”, “Human After All”, and now “Alive 2007.”  “Discovery” is by the far the best of the bunch with “Alive 2007″ coming in at 2nd.

Since everyone has had something to say this election season for better or worse I thought I would drop a little something into the mix.  Not any opinions on the candidates or the issues, though.  Those have been written about, argued about, and beaten to death for me at this point.  Really, I don’t care that much for politics in general.  That being said, I did go vote.

I vote at the fire station up the street from my house which is within walking distance.  Sadly it was raining, so I ended up just driving there on my way to work this morning.  It wasn’t too crowded at around 7am and apparently not many folks with last names starting with “A-H” were up and at it this morning so that helped speed things along.  I got my ballot and as I was standing there looking around I thought how rudimentary it all seemed.  We live in an age of seemingly unlimited technology and yet I’m getting ready to fill in bubbles on a scantron sheet.

That was the first thought that went through my head, but the second was the one that had the stronger effect on me.  As I continued to look around while waiting for a spot to open where I could fill out the ballot I had this thought or feeling that’s kind of hard to put into words.  Here I was in this fire station with all these strangers I’ve never seen before (with the exception of my neighbor), yet there was this spirit of community.  I had this momentary nostalgic flash of being in a small town where maybe I did know all these people and we’d be seeing each other later at the store or the church potluck.

Sure I do other things surrounded by strangers like shop at the mall or eat at a restaurant, but this was different.  Regardless of who we were voting for, everyone was united in this same task of doing something that works to effect something greater than each of us.  It wasn’t about the devisiveness and other junk that’s been so prevelant in the campaigning leading up to this point.  It was about people looking to make a difference and doing their part to accomplish it.  In an age and nation that pushes individualism so hard, it was refreshing to be ever so slightly reminded of what genuine community feels like.

Sometimes it’s the little things that are the most amusing.  I generally listen to iTunes at work on shuffle and recently I noted something odd when a song came on.  I felt like I had heard part of it recently, but knew I hadn’t heard that particular song.  What came on was this and what I had heard earlier was this (giant robots = awesome).  OK, done listening?  Anyway, while this was not a new revelation to anyone else in the world, I had not up until that point gotten the connection.  It is probably just as well since realizing it on my own brought that similar feeling as that of going to see a movie with a great twist that totally blindsides you at the end.  After checking the credits on “X&Y” I noticed that the songwriting credits for “Talk” listed the last names of members from both bands.  And there is your fun musical trivia for the day.

P.S. As a bonus I’ll leave you with this.  And when you’re done watching go read this.