Kano is a great compiser. Her stuff varied alot from one anime to the next, from orcehstral, classical, acapela, to rock, techno or jazz. She does not limit herself to one mucisal genre. Thats one reason I like her stuff, it almost never gets old and she has talent for matching her music to the style of the anime that is withou equal.
FLCL's the pilows rocks, even if a japanese blues singer is almost as painful as a japanese rapper. They really have a punk feel and I had to go download their whole library as soon as I heard the forst chords in the fight music from the first episode.
On a related note, nobu's music from final fantasy (almost all of them) might not be the coolest thing o admit to listening, but its great classical and thematic music.
The akira soundtrack also has some great precussion- the drum and voice work together adds up to an awesome combination, which john williams ripped off quite well for [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img]uel of the fates"
The evangelion soundtrack has some good points too, but it's all over the place, some good tracks but some are really bad too. It's a tough call.
I also love the opening theme to Hellsing, but I can't recall the name of the group that does it. Cool groovy blues/jazz. And for once, it's jap-scat that doesnt require a xxx rating.