Dynamoe - five albums

The music group Dynamoe appears to be quietly but steadily doing the free and legal thing for awhile now. They have three full albums with the earliest going back to 2001, and two compilations of unreleased materials. I figured it is time to give these guys their due. They have a solid professional sound that ranges from electronica to trip-hop to soul jazz and are deserving of a bigger audience.

The interesting thing to me is how each album has a distinct sound. Jump Start is from 2001 and is clearly a electronic music album clearly in the Techno / House tradition. It is purely instrumental, heavily percussive, and sounds like it should be played onthe dance floor. Not my cup of tea but good for what it is.

Coming Home is from 2004 and more to my taste. The opening track”Absent” is out of the acid jazz/jazz fusion arena and features a soulful vocal and great Richard “Groove” Holmes styled organ. Most of the album stays in the groove with jazzy solos and urban beats. “Geneve” is an especially tasty instrumental with a good sax solo and some nice arranging. “Mistress of Spice” has a nice female vocal paired with a slow-tempo blend of soul and trip-hop. The entire album sets off a calming but groove-filled atmosphere. This is the one I would recommend most.

In the Wake of Time is the latest and was released in 2007. The band has now shifted to a more commercial sound of smooth jazz and trip-hop. Vocals are now in the forefront giving a decidely mainstream feel. Yet there is still a tight interaction with the band members. and good arrangements throughout. “You Convinced Me” has a Tricky influence while “Rita Come Here Quick” is a track ready for prime time. This is a good album for easy listening; not as good as Coming Home but more my type than Jump Start

Rounding up the pack are two compilation albums of unreleased materials from 1998-2000 and 2001-2003. Mainly electronic dance music, the first collection does have some really funky tracks. I especially like “Chinese Food” and “Yellow Cab”. The second collection has a lot of soul and jazz oriented materials such as the trumpet sampled “If it Twinkles Snatch it”. Like most collections of unreleased material there is an unevenness but still plenty of good tracks.

All albums are available from Dynamoe’s web site in either 128kbps or 192kbps MP3 format. If you enjoy the music, be sure to support the band by sending them a donation.

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Ray Garrido - Tropicotrip

The Breathe compilations have become an anthology series that I look forward to with anticipation. However, the Breathe netlabel is also getting into single artist collections with this luscious album by Mexican multi-instrumentalist Ray Garrido. Tropicotrip is an exotic journey that is part hip-hop, part lounge, and very spacey. The first track “El Mar” is an instant fix for your nerve, a 12 minute musical vacation which is followed by the equally relaxing “Luna Llena”. The trip get a little heavy with “Satre Trip” but the combination of beats and melodies never bore. From there on, Garrido continues this mix of techno beat and exotic moods through the eight delectable tracks. This is a good relaxing album that can be used for mood music but bears well under attentive listening.

Tropicotrip is available in 320kbps MP3.

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The X-Structure - five albums

The X-Structure is a four man electronic project based in South Africa. Various definitions of their music come to mind: Down-Tempo, Trip-hop, Chilled-Out, Breakbeat, all having a certain accuracy. Yet this ensemble does what the best of its kind does well and that is creating an atmospheric gestalt that allows you to bypass the artificial boundaries and just dig the sounds. The X-Structure has four albums, all under creative commons license, that should please the connoisseur of trippy music.

West-Coast Trip is a good example of that down-tempo grind meaning it is relaxing with a taste of the groove. “Strive To Honor” has a nice beat and a melody of the trip-hop variety while “Subversive” send out industrial vibes that suggests its title. This is a good album for background listening and just plain chilling.

Days of Nights is another good chill-out album. Obviously it’s going to hard to get through this review with breaking a record for the use of the word “chill” but that is the term that describes this laid-back ensemble the best. Actually this album is a bit light in tone with the first two tracks having a Mike Oldfield feel to it. Other tracks like “Gumshoe” are fairly lush and cinematic.

Earth Epic gets to a odd start using samples from Neil Armstrong and Martin Luther King to create a form of social message with a repeated line, “There’s nothing that cannot be done”. I’m not sure it is a successful blend of message and music but again we have a collection of good down-tempo in the rest of the recording. This album appears to be sort of a travelogue of sound and visions with a global focus.

Their latest release in 3 in 1 and is just that: three tracks on an EP. It is a bit short at less than 20 minutes but it may also be your best intro to this electronic ensemble. “Create Equally” is a another socially minded track while “Give Freely” and “Dream On” tend to be a bit mystical in feeling. I like this album a little better than the others but whatever one you choose will give what is promised: relaxing grooves, a heady sound and down-tempo delights.

And for those who must have a complete collection, there is also The Remix Experiments Part 01. There are remixes that feature the voice of Shannon Hurley. Shannon has a really nice voice and for that alone these tracks are worth downloading. Yet I can help thinking that these song versions were a sort of afterthought.

All albums are available in 192kbps MP3.

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3 in 1
Earth Epic
Days of Night
The Remix Experiment Part 01
Westcoast Trip

Various Artists - Tao

Simply put, Tao is a concept of the fundamental nature of the world, a world that is constantly fluid, continuing and changing rather than the static definition of a never changing reality. The Tao Te Ching by Lao-Tzu is the best literary depiction of the concept and remains one of the most significant spiritual works of all times. The tecnoNucleo net label has put together a 28 track and almost 3 hours long collection of musical interpretions of this seminal work. The tracks include a wide range of experimental electronic artists who uses various means including field recordings, sampling, electronic drones and more to complete their interpretations. Like the concept itself, there is no absolute and finite meaning to these works. The meaning is in the sound, creating an intuitive feeling and holistic environment rather than any intellectual definition. And in this way this anthology succeeds. This is a album that is meant to be felt rather than understood and in that sense, it becomes a highly spiritual experience.

This online anthology is available in Flac, Ogg Vorbic and MP3 formats.

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Glass Candy - three albums

I acquired Glass Candy’s debut album Love Love Love in 2003 when it was released and it still gets regular play on the CD player. Glass Candy has a somewhat campy sound that wavers between goth, punk and disco. Often billed as Glass Candy and The Shattered Theatre, Its primary attribute is the tortured voice of Ida No who often sounds like she is channeling Siouxise and Deborah Harry at the same time. She also reminds me a lot of Wendy O. Williams on the more turbulent songs. Johnny Jewel’s pulsing electronic riffs are also instrumental in giving the music a somewhat ominous sound.

Glass Candy has placed three of their earlier albums, plus quite a few demos, on WFMU’s new Free Music Archives, a rather unusual move for an established band that is still going strong. Love Love Love is more punk and goth than the others making it danceable but disturbing. “Crystal Migraine” and the title track are standouts but I also recommend the over-the-top “Love on a Plate”. There is an interesting take on The Rolling Stones’ “Last Time”. The Sick Sounds of Glass Candy has more of an electro-pop sound and shows strong Italo Disco influences. “Your Dream Lover’s on Video Again” and the following “Life after Sundown” are representative tracks, both unusual in their seven minutes plus duration. “La Brea Tar Pits” is a good atmospheric instrumental piece. The third album is titled Iko and the title track is the classic New Orleans “Iko” made famous by a number of musicians including Dr. John. Glass Candy’s version has little to do with the song’s Cajun roots which is why it is so interesting. However its jaunty rhythms also makes it one of the happier tracks by this band. There are two other tracks plus three remixes. As these albums become more recent it appears that the group is paying more attention to the disco aspects of their sound. Overall, I find Glass Candy to have a distinctive sound that will appeal to a number of rock, punk and electronic dance enthusiasts.

The three albums are available in 256kbps MP3. If you enjoy the music, support the artists by buying their CDs.

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Love Love Love
The Sick Sound Of…
Iko

Le Chatmou (de Mr Hoffman) - two albums

I asked my wife what she thought of Le Chatmou’s two free and legal online albums. She hesitated and then said “Very French”. It’s hard to elaborate on that response but I’ll try. Jerome Hoffman aka Le Chatmou makes music of a cinematic quality that would sound perfect in some French films, perhaps a Truffaut film or a Roberto Benigni comedy. Samples and electronics set up soundscapes that are a bit lounge in style but have a modern 21st century feel. Denrees Perissables starts after a exotic kitsch intro with a sexy number called “Lenteur” and then adds a bit of a disco mentality in “Dimlix”. The full environment is light but not forgettable, groovin’ but not beat heavy. “Un Dimanche Soir” is a briefer EP of 17 minutes that has a light breezy “Sunday Evening” feeling. “Galia’s Song” is film noir while “Danse Avec L’Ocean” is a beautiful and too brief atmospheric work. I think this EP has a bit more variety but I wish the tracks were a bit longer. All are under 3 minutes. Still it is another nice effort from Mr. Hoffman.

Denrees Perissables is from Vaatican Records and is available in 224kbps MP3. Un Dimance Soir comes from the Bumpfoot net label and can be downloaded as 320kbps MP3.

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Denrées périssables
Un Dimanche Soir

Planet Boelex and Lisa’s Antenna - Little World

Planet Boelex is a electronic music project out of Finland and is essentially a solo effort by musician Ossi Peltonen. He has recorded some nice earlier works with netlabels Monotonik and Kahli Collective. Swedish indie pop chanteuse Lisa’s Antenna joins Planet Boelex on this delectable sound experience titled Little World. It is a warm bath of a journey through IDM grooves, orchestral-like nuances and soft but sweet vocals. It reminds me a bit of Everything But The Girl except this is a more intimate and involving sound. The opening “Are You there?” and “Fall” are good examples of this calming musical spa. This is a late night music designed to help you forget the stresses of the day.

Little World is available from the Soft Phase net label in 320kbps MP3 or lossless FLAC format.

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Jopy - three albums

Jopy’s meditative music is a cut above a lot of the ambient / electronic music that is freely available over the internet. The three albums on his web site are lush soundscapes that flirts with the lyrical but never quite surfaces into melodies. Long drones, found sound, and barely decipherable voices all play a part in these hard to resist ambient sound waves. There are occasionally some noticeable beats as on Bojihanga’s “Piti” but even then they tend to become lost in the layers of sounds. Bojihanga is a good place to start due to the quiet and spacey vibes it sends out. I’m not sure if it is intentional but there is an eerie similarity to the Indian devotional music called Dhrupad which makes me wonder if Jopy had some spiritual motive in the creation of his music. It is certainly meditative and spiritual sounding even on the tracks like “Samadhi” which has a disquieting industrial feel.

Grasping is also quite meditative, often more drone-like. Yet it still remains complex enough to involve the active listener. The mood tends to be darker but Jopy has time for a little subtle humor in “Backyard Barbecue I”.

Third Generation Dirtfarmers is probably the bleakest of the album yet there is a touch of humanness in these tones and drones, like a warm heat struggling to escape the cold ground. I recently finished reading The Road by Cormac McCarthy and I couldn’t help thinking that this album would be good background music for the novel. There is the same combination of bleak hopelessness struggling with relentlessness hope.

All three albums will be appreciated by ambient and minimalist music fans and are available in 256kbps MP3..

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Tracing Arcs - Fin

Tracing Arcs has an unusual but pleasing sound. While trip-hop in design and jazz in concept, there is a sense of free association in their album titled Fin. Luscious female vocals almost ramble in their lyrics and often the song ends abruptly rather than resolve. The result is a dream-like soundscape that lulls you into a trance, and a pleasant one at that. One of the more interesting aspect of the band is the use of an acoustic bass that gives a jazz-like grounding to some tracks. It works especially well on “A Pig & a Cow” and “Desperate Measures”. Another favorite track is the rather heady “Crytalk”. This is an exceptional album of sensuous sounds.

The album is available from Dusted Wax Kingdom in 320kbps MP3.

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Japanese Gum - Without You, I’m Napping

Japanese Gum is an Italian duo of rock and electronics that really got my head spinning. Their brief EP titled Without You, I’m Napping is just under the 15 minutes duration limit I arbitrarily use for this blog but there are enough musical ideas crowded into these three tracks for a couple of albums. The Japanese Gum sound is a traffic jam of psychedelica, progressive rock, space electronics, and vocals that sounds like The Mary and Jesus Chain in a time warp. “Chlorine Blue” starts pastoral and then builds up to the vocals until it is a throbbing wall of sound. I can not make out the lyrics on “Cannibalism Next Door” but it barely matters as organ and percussion set the stage for what can only be described as an industrial ritual chant. The final track is “Part-Time Assholes” and, despite the weird title, is a memorable post-rock symphonic poem. While this album is too brief to be more than a first course, I have to admit I went away with very satisfied ears.

The album is available as a free download from their web site in 192kbps MP3. If you enjoy the music, support the artists by buying their CDs.

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Voodoo Economics - if : then :: iminami

Philadelphia’s Voodoo Economics is a hard act to classify. There are traces of hip-hop, trip-hop, techno, industrial and even goth throughout the tracks on their album titled If: Then:: Iminami. Yet no one genre dominates. In various reviews, the word ‘quirky’ comes up often. The band’s fondness for fragmented riffs and odd time signatures certainly sounds quirky. While this may keep them off the commercial radar there is still plenty of intelligent music from this very professional sounding band for music lovers to admire. “Air Barriers” is one of the more accessible tracks but it adequately demonstrates the hallmarks of this group. Alison Conard’s vocals have a sort of David Lynch / Julee Cruise surrealism about it and the cryptic lyrics certainly add to that perception. Conard also contributes guitar and keyboard while drummer Justin Gibbon and bassist Jeremy Prouty adds much to this odd music. This is a unusual but exciting album.

The album is available from Jamendo in VBR MP3 format.

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The Kyoto Connection - two albums

The Kyoto Connection plays chilled out electro-pop mixed with a generous amount of Japanese sounds. Their 2008 release titled The Kyoto Connection II is now free and online. While the Japanese influence was not quite as dominant as I expected it to be, their music is still full of unexpected surprises in the engaging electronic arrangements. I find “Painting With Lights” especially intriguing for its trip-hop vocals and Oriental background drones. “Voyage I - Let The Light In” is the kind of pretty new age track that is both delightful and soothing while “The Prisoner” has a dance-pop quality that is infectious. All three of the “Voyage” tracks are quite beautiful. I played this at a gathering of people who had very different tastes in music and almost everyone was asking me who it was and where they could get it. This is very engaging music that should be enjoyable to a large audience. The album is available from Jamendo in VBR MP3 format.

Their first release from 2006 titled The Kyoto Connection I is also available. In fact you can get both of these albums from their web site. They ask that you register first but you don’t have to. Just click the download button. You can also get the first album from The Internet Archive. Both of these albums are Creative Commons licensed. It’s pretty much the same formula, relaxing electronic music with a dash of world groove but it is a great formula. “Fly” and “From Earth to The Sky” are stand-out tracks. The album is available in 192 kbps MP3. If you like the music, support the artists by buying their CDs in higher quality sound .

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The Kyoto Connection I
The Kyoto Connection II

Kalte - The Lanthanide Series

Drone albums are esy to come by on the internet. Good drone albums are difficult to find anywhere. Kalte has released The Lanthanide Series and it is an exceptional display of minimalist drone-based soundscapes. Kalte is a duo consisting of sound artists Deane Hughes and Rik MacLean who seem to like cold and icy tones that hang and echoes in your ears. Since they state that this album was inspired by the barren Canadian winters, it sort of makes sense. The overall mood is bleak and solemn but there is still plenty of beauty in this music. This may not ever crack Billboard’s top 40 but I suspect its haunting sounds will stay with you a lot longer than anything on the hit list.

The Lantanide Series is available from the Stasifield net label in VBR MP3 hovering around 256kbps.

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The Kirbi - two albums

The Kirbi is Russian electronic artist Denis A. Fomenko. His music, best defined as IDM but overlapping into ambient and downtempo, encompasses some of the most melodic and diverse music to escape from a laptop. It travels just below new age and is far away from the Techno redundancy of beat and breaks that tends to inundate the net label electronic scene. While it can be body moving, as on the lively “Armada” from the album Island of The Unrealized Soulsfrom the Vorbic net label, there tends to be more Vangelis in these tracks than Fat Boy Slim. The title tune and “Ocean Heart” are shining examples of the cinematic paces The Kirbi can put his laptops through. The tracks are all live performances but sound quite studio friendly.

Another good effort by this artist is the 2008 online release Mannequins which can be found on his web site discography along with a few other free and legal offerings. The Kirbi appears to be exploring a bit more on this effort. With the exception of the six minute “Om”, all tracks are about two minutes or less. This is more a sense of a depiction of moments than a musical composition. Yet these 31 tracks can get under your skin in the hour duration of this album. Both of these albums can be interesting journeys for the listener.

Both albums are available in 128kbps MP3.

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The Island of The Unrealized Hopes
Mannequins

Various Artists - Destination Cologne

I have always been partial to collections that portray the musical pulse of a city or region. I’ve featured a few including sound snapshots of St. Paul/Minneapolis, Melbourne, Urumqi, and London (Ontario not U.K.). This time around Cologne, Germany gets the compilation treatment by the essential MP3 site Phlow Magazine on their new collection, Destination Cologne. The focus is mainly the electronic dance scene. There must be a pretty decent scene if you can tell by this beat heavy collection. Those into electronic music or the dance club scene should enjoy this album.

Destination Cologne is available in MP3 format.

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Pixieguts – four albums

Pixieguts is a bizarre name for someone with such a pretty and sensuous voice. The Australian vocalist specializes in cyber-collaborations with electronic artists throughout the world. The results are collected on three albums under her own name and a team effort album with Wales’ electronic sound artist Dementio13. All these albums explore various territories of trip-hop, drum & bass, IDM, trance, and pretty much anything else lurking in the electronic music scene. Pixieguts brings a lot of talent to these tracks but how she interacts these studio producers and remixers is the real treat.

Her three online albums are titled Pixieguts!, Evolution, and Walking on Mercury. They all have interesting collaborations exhibiting a good amount of variety. The cast of collaborators is internationally diverse including Dementio13 (Wales), Crimson Death (Canada), Dj Sid-the Apocalypze (USA), Iannis Loumakis (Greece), Mario Dujic (Croatia), Metricks (Portugal), The Peach Tree (Australia), Phase Speed (New Zealand), DJ Brody (England), Baxandall IP (Poland) and others. Whether it is the techno rush of “Long River (Titee’s Remix)” of Pixieguts, the haunting “Lullaby (with Dj Sid-the Apocalypze)” from Evolution or the rave beats of “Determination (with Electromagnetic Impulses)” from Walking On Mercury, something always interesting is going on.

However my favorite tracks are the ones with Dementio13. Pixiegraf collects all the collaborations between Pixieguts and Dementio13. Most , if not all, of these can be found on the other three albums but it is nice to have them together in one place. Part trip-hop and part ambient with just the right amount of beats, Dementio13 delivers the perfect atmosphere to Pixieguts’ somewhat ethereal vocals as evidenced on such tracks as “Antartica”, “Currawong Rice”, and “Pacific Highway”. This is my favorite of the albums due to the strong interaction between the musicians and the unrelenting groove even on the quieter tracks. Start with this collection but if you like what you hear, check out the rest.

All four albums are available from Last.fm in 128kbps MP3 but you can also download Walking On Mercury from Jamendo in VBR MP3 around 192kbps. If you like the music, support the artists by buying the better sound quality CDs..

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Walking on Mercury
Pixieguts!
Evolution
Pixiegraf

S.N.O.W. - Sound Noise and Other Waves

For the most part, the musical project S.N.O.W. is a quiet affair. Sound artists Federico Mosconi and Mauro Graziani creates sculptures of tones and noise. They describe the music as “sonic representations of experience and dream, expression of a moment, through life memories and towards an imaginary future” which gives a good idea of the complexity and drama that these seven tracks can deliver. Most of the music is ambient in nature but occasionally a track like “Crashing in The Snow” provides a good amount of industrial-like tension. This is an exceptional example of electronic experimentation that straddles the border between calming music and the avant-garde.

The album is available from Mauro Graziano’s web site in 128kbps MP3.

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Dub One! - Dubplates From the Madhouse

Dub One! has a unique global sense of musical madness. The five tracks on Dubplates From The Madhouse orignates from Berlin but teems with the sound of Jamaica. Hip-Hop, Techno and Reggae are shaken not stirred into a mesmerizing soundscape. “Jack Pot” and “Odd Man’s Planet Dub” turn out mellow and urban funky at the same time. However my favorite track is the raga/reggae “Sitar Sensi”, a hip-hop global contender if I ever heard one. Dub albums are usually not something I listen to regularly but this one may stay in the Ipod for quite a while.

The album is available from the iDeology net label in 192kbps MP3.

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March Rosetta - two albums

The primarily avant-garde Clinical Archives net label isn’t exactly known for releasing pop music but that is exactly what they have done with March Rosetta’s Late in Time. The album of ten melodic songs is admittedly intelligence pop music but the easy beats and complex, often surrealist lyrics are hard to resist. Many of the tunes, including the upbeat “Landscape” has a Brian Eno pop sensibility surrounding it while the pensive “When You Were Down” reminds me of early Peter Gabriel. March Rosetta, which is the electronic music project of musician Thomas Carter, weaves a pleasant and hypnotic spells throughout this album which is one of the best free online releases of the year.

The earlier To Wash Against The Hudson River Running is much closer to Clinical Archives’ avant-garde leanings. You can’t get more different then these two albums. This recording is quite experimental. It is less a musical composition and more of an exploration in sounds, or as the artist states it, an exploration in “extremes of sound and silence, and the darkness of mankind’s dual nature”. There is a haunting often dark presence in these five soundscapes. While Late in Time is grounded in tonality, To Wash goes the totally opposite direction daring us to find our own way in his aural labyrinth. Again I am reminded of Eno, but this time at his most adventurous. This is challenging but interesting music. Both sides of March Rosetta is worth the listen.

Both albums are available in 320kbps MP3.

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To Wash Against The Hudson River Running
Late in Time

Degiheugi - Aquilon

Degiheugi loves his samples. He tends to take old and usually familiar material, surrounds them with rich beats and manipulates them until they are his own. Then he’s off to something else. This makes his free online release titled Aquilon somewhat disjointed often sounding like wandering but conventional House. But when it gels, like on “Commes un enfant sans mere”and “My Rickety Piano”, it can really be a treat. I especially like the reconstruction he does on Nina Simone with the track “My Baby Don’t Care For Shows” and the very hip-hop / dub “Soldier in The Sky. Most of Aquilon falls into the trip-hop genre but it is quite an unique effort. Definitely worth a try.

The album is available in 192kbps MP3 from the Electrobel netlabel.

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Various Artists - Net Audio London 2008 Showcase

Does anyone know how the Netaudio festival in London went down? If the album is any indication, it must have been interesting at the least. The compilation titled Net Audio London 2008 Showcase was released before the show to highlight the bands that were going to appear. It is a nice collection leaning toward the techno side with a hearty sampling of electro-punk, ambient, experimental and other side dishes of the electronic genre. Favorites tracks range from a beautiful soundscape from the alway fascinating D’Incise to the tongue-in-cheek techno-exotica of Disrupt’s “Samauri Showdown” to the industrial punk “Hello Africa” by Indian Jewelry. But the show stopper comes at the beginning with A.R.E. Weapon’s “Don’t You Fucking Die on Me” a stunning piece of electro-punk that manages to channel both Iggy Pop and The Doors. You might not like every track on this album but there is a good chance you will find enough to make the download worth it.

Net Audio 2008 London Showcase is available in 128 MP3 files from Last.fm (one of the festival sponsors) or from the Internet Archive in huge but better quality FLAC files.

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MP3 files
FLAC Files

Brad Sucks - Out of It

If there is anyone who can be called a Creative Commons License superstar it has to be Brad Sucks. His first album titled I Don’t Know What I’m Doing was one of the first albums featured on Free Albums Galore back in 2006. It got rave reviews from just about everyone and is still one of the most popular albums on Jamendo. His long-awaited second release, Out Of It is now here and it still has all those poppish nuances and melodic hooks that made the first album so popular. While I did find his songs a bit too similar to each other, I must admit that tracks like “Dropping Out of School” and “Certain Death” keep running in my head long after I play it. This is another nice album from Mr. Sucks (Sorry, couldn’t resist).

Out of It is available from Jamendo in VBR MP3.

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Avenpitch - ten song sampler

Todd Millenacker of Avenpitch was generous enough to send me this ten track online sampler of their music. I previously reviewed the compilation series TC Electropunk in which Avenpitch provide some of the highlights so I was please to be able to listen to their sampler. I was not disappointed as Avenpitch has a fairly unique blend of punk and electro-pop that reminds me of of a 21st century post-punk version of such entertaining old school punk bands like Offspring mixed with 80s styled New Order. Take a listen to the sharp melodic hooks all over “Butterfly Radio” and you’ll know what I mean. If you’re the dance maniac type you’ll probably trip all over “Jack The Idiot Dance”. I didn’t find a weak song on the sampler but “Replay”, ” Maybe I Was Wrong”, “Wreckage” and the wonderfully rude “Dusseldorf” are impressive leaders of the pack. Anyone who consider themselves knowledgeable on the indie rock scene needs to become familiar with this excellent band.

The free album is available in 192kbps MP3 and can be downloaded directly from the link below. If you like the music. support the artists by buying their CDs.

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Various Artists - Their Finest Hour

Phlow bills itself as the “MP3 culture magazine” and it is an essential site for those looking for free and legal online album. although the bulk of reviewed albums tend to be in the electronic arena , there is a nice amount of folktronics, indie rock, ambient and a few other genres. It is a regular stop for me as I search for the best online albums.

Phlow has been regularly releasing their own compilations since the beginning of January. These include a series of collections appropriately titled Their Finest Hours featuring tracks from the artists that have been featured on the web site. So far there are three volumes and they all deliver some fine music to while away your time. For the most part the tracks are what I would call”Chill-out” due to the calming mood they place on the listener but there are a number of dance worthy tunes. You will find a lot of music here and it is hard to pick favorites but I am partial to Superbus’s “The Place” and Bobby Baby’s sweeter-than-sugar “Bye Bye Snow”, both on volume 1. On volume 2, I would call your attention to the tracks by Iambic2, Incognito Travelers (whose previous EP I have reviewed here), and The Twombley Spiders. Volume 3 keeps up the good quality with such gems as Soto’s “My Blue Plane”, My Awesome Mixtape’s “The Giant Squid”, Sabian’s can’t-stay-off-the-dance-floor “Rhode-O”. These three compilations should please any kind of musical palate.

their Finest Hour is available in MP3 format at varying bitrates but none under 192kbps MP3.

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Vol. 1
Vol. 2
Vol. 3

L’eau du Robinet - two albums

L’eau de Robinet is a project from Polish electronic music artist and producer Cristopher Pokora. Being a rather eclectic listener of music, I really appreciate the creative sampling and arranging of varied sounds throughout this album . The sampling of jazz motifs, turntablism, spoken dialogue and more are manipulated into an adventurous but very easy going session of jazz, lounge and even a little hip-hop . His album titled Tap Water Drinkers is light enough to be background music but will still give you surprises with each attentive listening. Try “C’tait Don” for a witty duel of flute and vocal samples or “L’ile Desert” for a wilder but still jazzy treat.

Still Dreaming is L’eau de Robinet’s second album. It’s another nice collection of calming soundscapes with just the right amount of beats. The tracks range from dreamy (”Forbidden Dreams”) t0 Jazzy (”Chicas”) to slightly dark and weird (”Cinematic Monkey”). Both albums will provide you with some good trip-hop styled vibes.

Tap Water Drinkers and Still Dreaming are available from Random Flow in either VBR MP3 or Ogg Vorbis format.

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Tap Water Drinkers
Still Dreaming