I was thrilled today to discover Cloudcycle, a site hosting a collaboration between three of my fave artist: Greg Hunter (a legend involved in some of the most influential electronic artist and recordings such as The Orb, Juno Reactor, Killing Joke, and now operating as Dubsahara), Mauxuam (a newcomer to me but has a winning release on Interchill Records and some great collaborations), and Master Margherita (who's bag of tricks spans from traditional reggae to psy-trance and who's output includes some of my most essential favorites).
Being familiar with the three electronic dub specialists' other work, I anticipated some really interesting results. I'm still exploring the expansive, deep tracks and have yet to be disappointed.
There are a few things in addition to the artists and music that make this an exceptional site. First they actually have high quality options. After years of being grumpy that MP3 was the only option for purchasing music downloads, I'm glad to see the momentum for lossless and high resolution formats finally taking off. Second, they have a great pricing model. You can download high bit-rate MP3 for free, CD quality FLAC for a no-minimum donation, and high rez uncompressed files for those with more discriminating ears and equipment for a minimum donation. What an intelligent way to promote, distribute, and sell. Finally, they offer samples to download, brew your own remix, then load back up to share. The project seems open-ended, organic, and under constant evolution.
Go check out Cloudcycle.
