Lair of the Asp

Well, this looks promising... An album inspired by the work of prolific author Neil Gaiman will be released this summer by Philadelphia-based independent label Dancing Ferret Discs. The project, tentatively titled "Where's Neil When You Need Him?," is expected to arrive July 18, according to Dancing Ferret principal Patrick Rodgers. Rodgers, who is came up with the album's concept and is acting as music supervisor, asked artists he knew were fans of the writer to compose material based on their favorite Gaiman character or story. Some fashioned songs after his more popular work, such as the comic book series "The Sandman," while others took their inspiration from such rare pieces as his short story "The Goldfish Pool." The most high-profile contributor to the compilation is Tori Amos, a longtime friend of Gaiman's who occasionally name-checks the writer in her lyrics. In fact, the album's working title is a line taken from her song "Sp

As much as I always liked "Speak & Spell" I'm happy to see that it is being remastered, the other two albums as well. ------------------------------------------------------------ From www.netmusiccountdown.com: Audiophiles will be happy to know that the albums of Depeche Mode will be fully remastered and reissued over the next year. According to the band's official web site, the re-releases will also contain 5.1 surround mixes and bonuses. The first CDs to be released include "Speak & Spell" (with executive producer Daniel Miller), "Music For The Masses" (with executive producers Dave Bascombe, Alan Wilder and Daniel Miller) and "Violator" (with executive producers Flood, Alan Wilder and Daniel Miller). For more details, visit Depeche Mode's special "Remasters" micro-site at:

From the "if it seems too good to be true, it probably is" files... It seems that going for the cheapest illegal way is not always the smartest thing to do. Over the past few weeks Side-Line has been inundated by e-mails from readers from all over the world including the USA, UK, Belgium, France, Holland etc telling they have been the victim of fraudulous use of their credit cards after having entered their credit card to buy illegal download albums for just one dollar, the so-called 'MP3-1dollardeals', from illegal MP3 websites. These sites, mostly based in Russia, are acting online as being from the UK, USA, Germany etc under over 40 domainnames (including the popular MP3sugar, Audio Store, ...). They have now started picking victims amongst their clients (believed to be several millions) at random to use their cards for other means. Several of these download sites are also using so-called official credit card verification companies which are in fact bogus companies

This is good news. I like Gary Numan and think he actually keeps putting out good music, I'm not sure anyone else is paying attention, but I'm glad he's doing it none the less... Out via Cooking Vinyl in Europe, Metropolis in America is Gary Numan's "Jagged" album. The brand new album from electronic pop pioneer Gary Numan is his first studio album in over five years. Co-produced with underground electronic artist DJ Ade Fenton "Jagged" is said to be an aggressive, forward-looking album which takes the best elements of his previous work and gives them an anthemic, contemporary twist. Tracklisting: 01. Pressure, 02. Fold, 03. Halo, 04. Slave, 05. In A Dark Place, 06. Haunted, 07. Blind, 08. Before You Hate It, 09. Melt, 10. Scanner, 11. Jagged. To listen to sound samples from this release check below.