Great stuff!
I'm reaaally into Hiromi Uehara's music at the moment:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00fKuTD52gQ
I've been a fan of her playing ever since I heard her "Brain" album. I love that trio - great jazz! Maybe not everyone's cup of tea, but that Japanese woman can PLAY!

For specific genres, I'm mostly into melodic death metal (Arch Enemy (Nemesis) and Amon Amarth (Twilight of the Thunder God - amazing song - Viking metal is awesome!) being the main ones) and to some degree Norwegian black metal (mostly Immortal though, and they call their genre holocaust metal... There has been some Dimmu Borgir too at times, but after I saw them live, the studio albums didn't quite match the live experience). Folk metal is good at times too (Eluveitie).
All this has "evolved" over time, starting with Turbonegro, then moving on to Metallica and the likes, before it moved up some more untill it reached where it is today.
On the more "lighter" side of the metal genre, a band that I've listened a lot to is Hammerfall (especially around the time when I was playing WoW a lot, Hammerfall was awesome). Amazing power metal.

However, since like a year ago, I've been getting openings/endings from anime that I like. A lot of this is still mainly in the rock/metal direction (if not as heavy as say Arch Enemy, there are a few power metal-ish (not visual kei) songs).
This is also what I listen to mostly for the time being (I moved all my western music over to an external hard drive that is located at my parent's place), in an attempt to go more "all Japanese all the time" (although I spend waaaaay too much time on English/Norwegian forums and sites for it to be called "all the time").
A few months back I also came across this Japanese artist going only by the name YUI. Some great acoustic guitar, and a very relaxing voice. Unfortunately, it seems most of her vids on youtube gets deleted.

Lately I just listen to Polysics. Here's a live concert of theirs:
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p … 265367CD11

My tastes tend to be on the expansive side myself (my last.fm, for but a hint of what I listen to).

Generally, I love highly melodic, emotional, and/or "heavy" music, preferably music that makes me think, which covers just about as many genres as you might imagine, from metal to country to classical and in between. My very favorite bands/musicians/composers include (referencing my last.fm lists because I'm lazy) Acid Bath, Boris, J.S. Bach, Antonio Vivaldi, Envy, Electric Wizard, My Bloody Valentine, Neurosis, Nick Drake, Church of Misery, Mono... could go on forever, so I won't!

As for Japanese music, I find it a little more challenging to find stuff I really dig (and I refuse giving up my non-J music!), but there are obvious exceptions with bands such as Boris, Church of Misery, Mono and Envy, all of which I absolutely adore and could listen to all day without pause.
I've written about a handful of Japanese bands on my blog, which reminds me that I'm long overdue to write about more.

I liked that you linked to Halcyon (and on and on) by Orbital.  I have it on the Mortal Kombat soundtrack (which was how I branched into some of the other artists on the same album.  That kicked off a whole phase of Industrial music in my life.  KMFDM is still the best:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xl6kWsYmIHs    Anyway.. back to the Halcyon song.  I also have it on the Hackers soundtrack and probably also a trance compilation.  Pretty famous song.

At any rate, someone said they like melodic heavy music that makes them think.  To me that defines Bad Religion:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38sm2V_JxC4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Oe_Rxt9wB0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIFZsbEuMXE

This song gave me a chill once listening to it with headphones, so it'll probably be a favorite forever:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dg2jXlAonEA

As the youtube description says:  "They are particularly known for their sophisticated use of style, metaphor, vocabulary, imagery, and vocal harmonies (the oozin' aahs), whether reflective on matters of personal feelings or of personal or social responsibility. Perhaps paradoxically, at least at first thought, despite the band's name, Bad Religion may be accurately characterized as far more thematically concerned with questions of the essential character and implications of freedom than with religion or atheism in the more conventional and narrower sense of those terms."

Last edited by drivers99 (2009 May 22, 6:23 pm)

Mostly listen to Warp-esque electonic stuff (Squarepusher, Boards of Canada, Richard Devine etc.), east coast hip hop from the early 90s (Black Moon, Wu-Tang Clan, Pete Rock & CL Smooth, Organized Konfusion etc.), post-rock (Mono, GYBE, Do Make Say Think etc.) and sludge/drone (Boris, Battle of Mice, Belong etc.) although I've been known to dabble in jazz when feeling especially adventurous (Max Roach & Sam Rivers ftw).

drivers99 wrote:

At any rate, someone said they like melodic heavy music that makes them think.  To me that defines Bad Religion

Indeed, an awesome band. I love their lyrics, especially.

Wow, a bunch of people who love Bad Religion and learning Kanji (and twitter...).  What are the odds?

Last edited by drivers99 (2009 May 22, 9:11 pm)

I usually avoid singing footballers, but make an exception here.
悪霊退散 stumbled across this surfing.
Fiery performance from 1967.
湖畔の宿. Nostalgia for WW2 soldiers.
Horowitz in a trance. Chopin Ballade.
Gigli Una Furtiva Lagrima and Che Gelida Manina.
Finnish 1970s Jazz-rock.