Opening Pandora's box...

Pandora is the web-based radio station which runs off the Music Genome Project. Its a great idea, breaking down 10,000 songs into a series of "genes", which describe the core attributes of each track, and using these to suggest other artists / tracks that you might like, based on similarities between songs... as an example, Moby's We are all made of stars, is tagged with the following: electronica roots, disco influences, rock influences, a thin male vocal performance, a laid back male vocal, ambiguous lyrics, use of tonal harmonies, melodic part writing, dry snare, a tight kick sound, a synth bass riff, layered electric guitar riffs, synth riffs, trippy soundscapes, a synth-electric sonority...

I typed Hybrid into Pandora and got the following tracks:
Hybrid - I'm Still Awake: a good start. At least it recognises Hybrid...
Nick Rodes - Come Alive (Tiga Remix): not bad. A little derivative for me. Apparently shares the same "ambiguous lyrics" as Hybrid...
Snapshot - Fluke: classic stuff. Along with The Orb, Orbital, Underworld and Red Ninja, Fluke put me onto techno with their first album Techno Rose of Blighty and the awesome Peel Session which follwed...
James Hardway - See Through Me: nope. Not a good choice. Nothing to it...
IPG - Thinking About Tomorrow (IPG Dub): nice choice. You may not have heard this one, but it's a Beth Orton track form a remix album. A rather inspired choice by Pandora...
G-Spliff - I Know (Melancholic Outtake): nice track but we're getting far too downbeat here.
Moby - We are all made of stars: need to get back to basics here, but not a horrendous choice...

All in all, it was a slightly empty experience. I'm sure that, if I registered, and even subscribed, I'd be able to get a pretty good station going which reflected my musical tastes... but isn't that why I have 4000 songs on my iPod?

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