One of the interesting things about Shine is the production path used � some digital instruments which Miss M has programmed for herself plus a few naturally recorded ones. It gives the album a distinctive sound � unlike her more machine oriented recordings in the 80s and 90s. Its strange how much this work is ignored on Last FM. Everyone�s favourite tracks seem to be the ones recorded between 1967 and 1976. It looks as if Night Ride Home may be the most popular of her later stuff. NRH has Slouching Towards Bethlehem as the standout track for me.

I have been looking up Henry Cow/Art Bears material on LFM � and also some of the summary views elsewhere on the net. Its surprising it happened at all yet alone for about ten years all things considered, especially with so much self-conciousness and debate about the means of musical production including a deliberate resistance to the forces pushing them into being a conventional rockband. And its not a surprise that that kind of endeavour couldn�t make it into the 80s.

I am researching Brazil on behalf of the works. Its one of the BRICs � Brazil, Russia, China and India � the four economies set to overtake the G7 in the coming decades. In fact Brazil is the country whose economy is most like the top OECD countries � its rate of economic growth is not as rapid as the other BRICs and it has a large public sector. Even so its largest trading partner is now China. Brazil is also where Toyota set up its first foreign factory at the end of the 1950s � before USA for example. The food sector in Brazil is growing at a faster rate than the richer economies and so foreign food firms are buying into the Brazilian market and Brazilian food majors are buying US and European food firms.

I find I rather like Florence and the Machine � but according to Lucy Kellaway in the Financial Times she is universally popular.