Whether you like it or not, Valentine's is that day of the year when the world just crushes on your shoulders with sappy feelings, chick flicks, decadent chocolates and expensive flowers.

It's already Friday - tomorrow is the BIG V-Day and you haven't gotten around to getting a nice card for your special someone.

But no need to panic, because here at blogTO, we are thinking about you.

I made a little cute card you can just download and print to tell your boyfriend, girlfriend, brofriend, friend's mom or pet rock how much you care for them!

noteTOself is a weekly roundup of some of my freshest sketches. Perhaps it will be your new BFF for your Wednesday middle-of-the-week crisis?

Budget Loves Best

This Saturday, what better way to celebrate the crappy winter than with the long awaited CD release from Toronto's electronic champion Lowfish and its very suiting title Frozen and Broken.

Gregory de Rocher aka Lowfish is a veteran when it comes to the electronic scene in Toronto. Him and friend Jason Amm aka Solvent, through their own releases and those from their label Suction Records, have shaped a unique robot sound locally and internationally, made-up of analogue synths, drum machines and rusty old glitches.

In Frozen and Broken, Lowfish continues to build on his distinctive electro sound but this time adding a little bit more of an introspective vision, making this album a great winter companion.

noteTOself is a weekly roundup of some of my freshest sketches. Perhaps it will be your new BFF for your Wednesday middle-of-the-week crisis?

Basics First

Toronto-based blogger and techno guru basic_sounds got together once more with synth master Minisystem for their fourth collaborative mix project Various Artists Mix - a beautiful journey into some of the best Minimal Techno.

Whenever I think of the term Techno as an overall genre, even though I'm a big fan of this music, I can't avoid giggling to myself while I visualize in my head the phrase God Hates Techno from the classic early Threadless t-shirt design or the sample from Samantha Fu's (aka Soulwax) Drugs, Dirty Dancing & Pounding Pounding Techno Music.

Almost two years ago, I downloaded a track called Magnetic Friends under the artist name Ghost Machines. The track became one of my instant favourites and it has made into pretty much to all my playlists since. But I couldn't remember where I had downloaded the MP3 from, and all my searches to find the artist or more tracks ended in black holes in the web. So I just assumed the track was a rare oldie; probably from someone in the likes of Automat, Alexander Robotnik or Mr. Flagio, since I was downloading a lot of that music back then.

It wasn't until last week that the story came to a happy ending when I was listening to music from Toronto's band Parallels.