Well, I'd forgotten for a while that the Mercedes Mixed Tape actually existed, and hence hadn't been downloading it. What a tragedy - I missed a BUNCH of them. They're up to mixed tape 11 not, so I'm pretty sad that I missed out on so man. After all, this is FREE music that's actually GOOD! For those of you not in the know, the Mercedes Benz Mixed Tape is an album compilation put out every 6 to 9 weeks by Merc specifically designed to show off new talent in music. They give it way free, which you can't complain about, and generally, even if you haven't heard of the artists, the music is incredible. It's mainly Acid Jazz style chilled out or even trip-hop type stuff, but it's easy listening enough that even if you don't like those genres of music, chances are you'll enjoy this.

Well, I haven't given the new album a proper listen yet, but I definitely look forward to doing so sometime over the next week. Speaking of new music though, two new discoveries in the easy listening category, both of them with their own takes on the "story telling female vocalist" genre pioneered by Aimee Man and Tori Amos - Rachael Yamagata and Brandi Carlyle - have both been in heavy rotation on my iPod somewhere between all of the tech podcasts I listen to, such as TWIT, Engadget, Security Now and Digg Nation.

Tags: mixed-tape