My new favourite bands

Ever since orbital disbanded in 2004, coupled with the demise of Red Snapper in 2002, my interest in music waned a little. I wasn't hearing anything new that interested or excited me ("new" in the sense of being new to me rather than recently released).

Thank goodness for Last.fm and its handy "similar artists" function (which, by the way, pisses all over Pandora's limited catalogue and its - erm - rather "creative" artist comparisons). Searching for similar stuff to Orbital brought up lots of bands that I was into already, but "Red Snapper" brought some really interesting stuff to my attention.

As a result, I have been going on a massive music bender of late and spending money on a whole bunch of CDs (I know, I know, it's all MP3s these days - I'm so old fashioned). This has left me scratching my head and wondering I hadn't delved into the Ninja Tunes catalogue years ago but, hey, I've always been a bit slow on the uptake.

Anyway, here is some of the cool stuff that I've discovered recently, stuff that has rekindled the ebbing flames of my love of music, or something:

• Xploding Plastix - A brilliant blend of jazzy instrumentation and electronic blips and burblings. Goes some considerable way to filling that dance/jazz/funk fusion type void left by Red Snapper
• Amon Tobin - I'd been hearing his name for years, had sort of heard a few bits and pieces but didn't really know what his stuff was like. And then I bought the album Supermodified. What have I been doing all these years? The man is a fucking genius! Lovely dark atmospheres, complex rhythms and melodies hinted at rather than heard... wonderful moody stuff.
• Rjd2 - Instrumental hip-hop with a curious hint of glam rock, especially on his Since We Last Spoke album. Imagine, if you will, a sound that falls somewhere between DJ Shadow and the rock-influenced bigbeat of The Chemical Brothers (less melancholy than the former, more balls than the latter). And Rjd2 deserves a medal for giving The Horror from his debut album Deadringer to the world.
• Four Tet - "Folktronica", apparently. Acoustic instruments and sweet, moody melodies blended with intricate drums and electronic effects. That description doesn't really do Four Tet justice - you really won't have heard anything quite like them.
• Laurent Garnier - Bit of a god of the dance scene, this French DJ and producer was instrumental in bringing deep house and Detroit techno to the Manchester scene in the late 80s and inspiring the likes of The Stone Roses and The Happy Mondays to mix techno elements into their rock sound. Not that I was there or anything - I just read that somewhere. But he makes damn good electronic music. The Sound Of The Big Babou from his Unreasonable Behaviour album is a great slab of techno.

And that's not even mentioning Mouse On Mars, Bonobo, Blockhead, Funki Porcini, etcetera. Yup, there's lots of excellent and innovative stuff out there to discover - you just have to dig for it.