A good page to start with. Tracks are economically described, sound quality is good, some of the music is tolerably interesting.

A bunch of tracks you can pay for, plus, if you scroll down, two free mp3 tracks on this page, CHILDREN OF THE SUN and MUSIC FOR SOLO GUITAR MVT.2 DANCE ALONE

Contemporary classical music.

CHILDREN OF THE SUN is "This is the tune for Jazz Orchestra. Instrumentations are: 2 Flutes, 2 Clarinets, Bass Clarinet, 2 Trumpets, 2 Flugel Horns, 3 trombones, Bass Trombone, Tuba + Rhythm Section (Piano, Bass, Drums). This tune was performed by Pros in NYC."

Hugh Cook: "I downloaded this and gave it a whirl. Sounded to me like pretty smooth and mellow sophisticated jazz. I think this is one I'll keep. I usually work with my headphones plugged into my ThinkPad, the mp3s playing. This strikes me as being tolerably sophisticated music for adults, not stuff for teens who just want to blow their eardrums out."

MUSIC FOR SOLO GUITAR MVT.2 DANCE ALONE is "This piece is the 2nd movement of 'Music for Solo Guitar'. I compose this in 2001. 3/4 time, presto(fast). Basic idea is coming from the Aeorian Mode. I tried to combine some latin rhythmic elements in this music."

Hugh Cook: "I'm not a great guitar fan, but I have a CD by Segovia, and so, because my exposure to the instrument is so limited, this track inevitably reminds me of Segovia.

"This guy is Japanese, and, if you know anything about Japanese music, you know that production standards tend to be flawless. This track is crystal clear. Duration is 2:58 and the bit rate is 320kbs, versus 128kbs for the CHILDREN OF THE SUN track.

"My own mp3s, which I rip from CDs with a basic ripper called DEEP RIPPER, which you can find online as a free download for Windows, are at 128kbs, and sound just fine to me."

Hugh Cook: "Country sucks big time, if you ask me. (You're not asking, but I'm telling you anyway. That's my nature.) If you want to explore the country resources on this site, you're on your own.

Hugh Cook: "Having spent most of the past several years living in the cave of my own thoughts, I'd never encountered the word 'electornica' until 2006, and at first I thought it was a misprint. Then I realized it was that stuff that, way back when, back when I was a kid, back when we were still making fire by rubbing two sticks together, we called 'electronic music'.

"My daughter, two years old as of 2006, is a fan of electornica, techno being her favorite. She smiles and dances to it."

Hugh Cook: "I liked the name, DEEPDARKTRANCE. A groovy name, I thought ... 'groovy' being a term we used a long, long time ago, back in a different universe, a forgotten world which no longer exits.

"I downloaded DARK PARADISE, of which the artist says:

Dark, moody house version of the song New Frontier by Donald Fagen. Just made it for fun, If you like it, download it and enjoy. Peace

"So who is this Donald Fagen? And what is this 'House' stuff? Things, it seems, have changed a bit since the invention of the harpsichord. I'm not quite sure that I like this perpetual change business. I'm an English teacher by profession, and I don't like hitting words that I don't understand. Offends my ego.

"Having downloaded DARK PARADISE I found it runs to 8:20 at 128kbs, a 7.64 mb download, effortless with the flawless broadband connection we enjoy in our house here in Yokohama, Japan, thanks to our cable TV company.

"All of 2005 and most of 2006 I was marooned in New Zealand, undergoing cancer treatment, and had to endure the Third World Internet which the New Zealand government lets the telecommunications monopolists get away with.

"DARK PARADISE opens with a kind of electronic rush which sounds a bit like wind and water, then, a little into the track, a drum beat starts up. I'm not quite sure what I'm supposed to be expecting, but this sounds to me like music you would dance to, late, late into the night, possibly while operating in a pharmacalogically enhanced state.

"I think I'll keep it around and play it a few times, and see if it grows on me. In the small hours of the morning, zoned out by sleeplessness, I find myself entering my own pharmacalogically enahanced states, without having needed to take any pharmaceuticals.

"There are nights on which this music might suit my mood.

"I liked this one sufficiently to scroll down the page to see if there were any more free downloads, but it seems there's only the one free mp3 on this page. Given that I'm currently convalescent in the aftermath of cancer, and am only working three hours a day, five days a week, teaching conversational English, this is not going to be the year in which I splash out for paid music."

Hugh Cook: "The drill down rubric at the top of the page seems to indicate that RICK GROSS is a subset of something called "Christian Rock" and that I have somehow drilled down to a place which is not "acid." Do I really want to be here?

"Well, I've downloaded one of Rick's mp3s, so let's give it a whirl ... "All the way to Jerusalem" sings the singer ... okay, Christian rock is alive and well, if you're interested ... the song is cryptically entitled "richgross+newsong.mp3" and the scrolling information in WinAmp alerts me to the existence of something called "tenstring.com."

"I think that's a sufficient dose of Christian rock for the time being. Don't want to overdose on this stuff, you know.

"Rick, I'm sorry, isn't going to make it into my personal mp3 archive. But there are a lot of eager Christians out there, right? My two-year-old daughter is one of them, goes to a Christian daycare center here in Japan, and routinely says the prayer she is taught at grace, not always at appropriate moments. When down on her knees praying to the porcelain rabbit in the garden, for instance."

Hugh Cook: "A lot of dollar signs here, but, hey, everyone has to make a buck, right? (Me included.)

"They're nice enough to have some free downloads on this page, as of October 2006, and, being curious about this 'ambient' stuff (have heard the word but don't have a concept) I have downloaded LO and ANDROMEDA 4.

"ANDROMEDA 4 is billed as:

Hindi song at start: All the different names of God (Ram) Beloved husband of Sita. Hindu translations of Jesus (Ishwar) and Allah 4th and on, give people wisdom and common sense for peace and brotherhood, to know that all Gods are one God.

"Don't think the Caliphate would like that idea, somehow. All Gods are one God? That's not the kind of thinking we want to have around at a time like this when we're trying to get his holy war stuff properly started.

"Anyway, how's the music?

"Track is a decent 6:45. Some squigglly electronic stuff at the start, then silence, thunder, then someone starts chanting, and, yes, if nobody told you were you were, you'd know you were in India. I think. Electronic fireworks going off ... some kind of drum beat you could, I think, dance to. (Don't dance myself, except when my two-year-old daughter is dancing to techno, and I dance with her.)

"The sound I've described as 'electronic fireworks,' like a burst of air under pressure or something like that, keeps cutting in, and doesn't let me, personally, settle into the rhythm of the percussion track which, I think, is trying to take me somewhere.

"The track is mostly music, the names of God, if they're there (did I miss something?) certainly not dominant.

"Replay.

"Okay, at about the 32 second mark, I hear chanting, but I can't confirm that it's the names of God, or even a selection of them, because I can't personally hear what is being said.

"Anyway. There is, it seems, yes, at least a sampling of this 'ambient' stuff on the site."

Hugh Cook: "I was curious to know what 'heavy metal' might be. I mean, isn't all metal heavy by definition? So I clicked around and found MEGALADON, and my eye was caught by the song title REST IN HEAVEN.

"My thought was, hey, what is this? Heaven!? Rest there? What's going on here? Some kind of Christian invasion of the metal scene, a Crusade in our time, a mission against the infidel? Or what?

"Well, there's a link to the lyrics/story, so you can click and see for yourself what the words say.

"Someone put their heart into this song, and the last line ends 'Your Memory is Your Victory.' "The explanation to the background of the song is as follows:

Tragic events that happen in my family. Rob,wrote Rest in Heaven to play harmony, of their memory.Bright Light to Star Bright. May peace be with you.

Link to click for lyrics of REST IN HEAVEN by MEGALADON

"Okay, I was touched. I've spent a lot of time thinking about death and dying in the last couple of years, spending a lot of time in hospital, expecting my own death to be, quite possibly, not far around the corner. So someone's serious thinking about death is something I do not take lightly.

"So, having downloaded the REST IN HEAVEN mp3, how does it play?

"It's 3:24 at a respectable 192kbs, better quality than I habitually rip CDs at.

"Opening is electronic with, to my mind, something reminiscent of an organ about it. Beyond that, what was, to my mind, a pretty average vocal performance with drums and guitars in the background.

"STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN it isn't. A good try (I'm a musical zero on the creative front, so I'm in no position to criticize) but, having downloaded one track on the page, I find I'm not in any rush to go download any of the others.

"However, I decided to give the page one more shot, and looked for a song title that would fit better with my image of 'heavy metal,' and chose to download the track UNLEASHED.

"A much longer track this time, weighing in at 9:20 and made available at a much higher quality than the previous track, all of 320kbs. A faily big file, 21.3 mb, no fun at all to download over a dial-up modem, if that's what you're stuck with.

"So how does it play?

"Well, it opens with a kind of snarling guitars opening which fits much better with my 'metal' concept than did the REST IN HEAVEN track. May not be the greatest music in the world (I'll reserve judgment on that for the moment) but if you're in the market for serious hearing damage then, hey, crank the volume all the way up, and you have every chance of arriving where you're going.

"Personally, I keep the sound down, because I've decided that, although I live under the shadow of the possibility of the recurrence of cancer, my guess is that if I trash my hearing then I'm going to live long enough to regret it.

"As I work my way deeper into the track, I get the feeling that, yes, this is the kind of mood that I want, the kind of mood that sends me back to my cache of Led Zepplein tracks at three in the morning, when I'm in the zone and nothing is impossible.

"Way to go, guys."

Hugh: "Just love the names in this section of the site. Chose to download CELL 600 from a page which apparenlty has 18 songs, all downloadable.

"CELL 600 is 5:59 at 128kbs.

"Played it with no expectation of what to expect. Noisy, but I have to say that the sound isn't as organized as I'd like. I'd like my chaos and dementia more cohesively disciplined than this, thank you very much.

"Maybe this track was lovingly labored on, and maybe immense pains were taken over its construction, but, to my mind, it sounds like someone improvising, with one part not having much of a relationship to what came just before.

"But if you're lonely for noise, no discordant factories in your isolated neighborhood, well, yes, here is noise. Much louder than I, personally, would risk at full volume.

"In fact, this track kind of makes me start feeling nostalgic for harpsichord music."