What are DJ Martian's favourite albums of the year and number 1?

Mr. Martian, you may be obsessively self-promoting and overly smug, but your music choices are interesting. After a little Napster research, I'm hooked on Cave In. Big Riff is a particularly good track, like a power-pop metal track, with sweet vocals and hammering drums. Brain Candle too, which feels like Dismemberment Plan at their best. Circulation is also a real nice find, at least the tracks that don't hammer four-to-the-floor too hard. Also, the colors they name their tracks after seem to fit the tracks so perfectly -- cf. Fred's synesthetic attempts to catalog pop singles. Lemon, for example, drops in a bit of a samba to the drum loop, to "tropify" the sound, and it works. Circulation, however, do not have "funk" except for a few tracks, such as Green, where it becomes terribly overdone and cloying.

It interests me that your tastes seem shaped more by texture than development, perhaps because you're coming from a techno/house perspective, and the rock tracks you list seem to be just the type that could be thrown over the beats you like and fit. This may be the tendency to look for that fusion you're always talking about. In fact, this fusion seems the inverse of the Garage fusion with R&B, combining the "hardest" elements of both sounds, rather than the most pop. Hmm.

"Mr. Martian, you may be obsessively self-promoting and overly smug, but your music choices are interesting."

My style of writing, is meant to inject a bit of humour, honesty and passion - please don't take it to be smug- it is meant to be OTT over the top, I am certainly not looking to win prizes for creative writing for my ramblings, rants and thoughts.

This essence is just to convey the aesthetics involved in the music - most of the music I enjoy does have a epic and grandiose style - and yes I particularly enjoy fusion or hybrid sounds. Therefore an epic, OTT writing style is appropriate

My music background of my teenage years are artists such New Order, The Cure, Killing Joke, Simple Minds, Siouxsie & the Banshees, Human League, Depeche Mode, Associates, Talking Heads and also from 1985 onwards I particularly enjoyed artists such as Colourbox, Cabaret Voltaire, The Fountainhead, Shreikback, Yello, Mark Stewart, Cocteau Twins. Who all combined electronics with rock.

If my choices of artists - turn or alert others to interesting creative music, then as a writer this is a real achievement, which ever tactics I use.

It is my belief everyone on this forum should give creative artists such as Cave in or Circulation a chance. Even if these artists are a million miles from chart success.

Gosh, who woulda known DJ Martian was such a rocker. Metal, even. Cave-in?!? I'm impressed. BTW, my top *three* albums are from Norway, so there (Mensen, Anal Babes, Turbonegro, if anyone cares, and there's no reason anyone should).