Free Music Collection: August 2010

As summer rolls along thankfully the free music does too. Befitting the weather outside, this month’s collection is still heavy on the looped lo-fi and synth tunes, but still has plenty of beats to satisfy those not headed to the beach for the weekend. I’m sure as the days get shorter we’ll see a drop off in the tropical bedroom jams but until then download a few, head outside and enjoy the soundtrack to sunshine.

I’d be remiss not to thank smokeDON’Tsmoke, No Modest Bear and Life:Aquatic for doing the dirty work of digging a lot of these up. They continually expose me to new artists.. I highly recommend checking them out.

I realize a library like this can be a bit overwhelming so if you need new music daily follow me on twitter @thinkorsmile. I post links there as they are discovered. Like me on Facebook if your not into twitter.

Make sure to check out my mixtapes which pull a lot from the free music found here. You can have a listen to the latest mix on the Soundcloud player in the upper right while your exploring. Enjoy!

Think or Smile | Free Music Collection: August 2010

SYNTH POP, CHILLWAVE & LO-FI BEACH JAMS:

• unouomedude – Marsh EP – lo-fi summertime pop.
• Monster Rally – Palm Reader – tropical surf pop.
• Wise Blood – ‘+’ – lo-fi drones of familiar sounding beats.
• Beat Connection – Surf Noir EP – sunny and hard hitting, waved out and tropical.
• Evenings – North Dorm EP– loopy glo-fi – the sound of an end to a long day.
• PEPEPIANO – Trash Castles EP – catchy psych pop.
• The Fruhstucks – Parade, I Don’t Care EP– experimental indiepop outta Spain. kinda chill yet kinda bouncy.
• Com Truise – Komputer Cast Vol. 1 | Vol.2 | current – more synth disco electro 80′s soundtracks.
• Kumon Plaza – Cliff – slowly moving 8-bit synth poptronic.
• AMDISCS mixtape – fuzzy electronic synthpop.
• Dream Boat – Fevers EP – heavy drone pop on repeat.
• Jaded Hipster Chior – Sticks EP – looped dreamy spacepop.
• Sumsun – Super Spacey Sunburnt Summer – title says it all.
• Kassette Klub – No Mundo sa Lua – late 60’s and early 70’s psychedelic music from North and South America.
• Dead as Digital – We Get By W/A Little Help – blogger compiled mixtape of recent lo-fi.
• Brian Gossett (since78) - Sun Fiesta– for a pool party.
• Brian Gossett (since78) - Black Water– summer and the lifestyle of living in a beach town.
• smokeDON’Tsmoke – Let’s get Together – summer tunes mixtape.

BEATS, HIP-HOP & MORE BEATS:

This section goes out to Mary Anne Hobbs for exposing the world to the beat scene.. your BBC show will be missed.

• TAKE – You Are I AM We Be – left fleld experimental, 80’s soul, and hard crunchy beats.
• DJ Kutmah – Throwing Stones (Stones Throw Podcast 61) – gritty hip-hop mixtape that’ll have your head noddin for 50 min.
• J Dilla – Donut Shop – it’s dilla, need I say more.
• Space Ghost – Ghostly EP & Wallflower EP (follow mediafire links under Influences) – beats in an atmosphere of chill.
• Dirty Science – Exile Radio Remixes – dirty hip-hop beats remixed.
• ProF – The Door – Lost World– turntable made off beat instrumental and vocal hip-hop.
• Greymatter – Mind over Matter – glitchy spaced dubstep hip-hop.
• Big Boi Mixtape for Dummies – early cuts with OutKast to a few songs he contributed guest verses to, all mixed together for your next bbq.
• Freddie Gibbs –  Str8 Killa No Filla mixtape – midwest hip-hop.
• Dam-Funk – The Future of Modern Funk – funky electronic beats, did I say funky?

ELECTRONIC & ECLECTIC:

• Various Assets – Not For Sale: Red Bull Music Academy London 2010 – a once-in-a-lifetime set of musical circumstances: collaborations between people who’d never met.
• Faux Pas - Vanderbilt EP – chopped up, dreamy future pop.
• Ra Cailum – Leaving EP – glitchy loops build to create oddly poppy soundscapes.
• Diplo – Chasing the Dragon (mix for pomp&clout) – 60′s rock psychedelia.
• Nonprojects | A Mix by Asura & Anenon (for Kitsune Noir) – West African and Caribbean polyrythms, vocal free jazz, endless electronics & filth.
• Niederflur – Kompakt Exclusive Mix – classic and new minimal techno.
• Magda – RA Podcast 215 (limited time) – old post-punk/disco/electro.
• Oval – Ringtone EP – electro-acoustic riffing full of angular, colliding guitar sounds.

AMBIENT & CHILL OUT:

• Shigeto – What We Held On To EP – a dollop of blown-speaker low end with a few elegantly disheveled vocal samples and liberal use of piano.
• Foxes in Fiction - Swung from The Branches – breathy and ethereal.
• Holy Spirits – The Afternoon Blood – floating and even lofty baroque pop.
• Wishyunu – A Day No How – pretty chill even for dream pop.

MISC:

• Summer Mix Series 2010 – piles and piles of summer mixtapes, seriously, piles – good luck.

If you’re feeling any of these artists show ‘em some love and go see them live. Or if you have any music to share hit me up on Twitter, Facebook or good old fashioned email.

Sascha Ciezata: Short film for Imperial Bedrooms

“The Crossing Place” is a short animated film by Sascha Ciezata created in honor of the release of Imperial Bedrooms by Bret Easton Ellis, Ellis’ follow up to Less Than Zero. I wish I could compose a more intelligent post about the novels but I’ve not read either of them. The reason I’m sharing this short is because that’s about to change. It’s not very often that I see hype for a book and actually want to read it, but Sascha managed to put together such a good promo that I plan on grabbing Less Than Zero tonight so I can get caught up.

The short I found to be completely mesmerizing. It’s minimal looping illustrations coupled with Andrew McCarthy’s narrative had me entranced the way an animated gif would have back in 1991. I think part of the intrigue comes from the fact that he created it on the iPhone, another testament that you don’t need tons of money to make something.. just a head full of ideas and ambition. I’ve been wanting to do animated shorts of my own collages lately and seeing this may just be the motivation I needed.

Btw – This may not be safe for work.. depending on where you work.

Think or Smile Mixtape 0×004

Summer’s in full blown hot as hell mode so I thought it was about time for a high humidity mix, something warm and sticky. This summer has been flooded with new tunes, tons of lo-fi drenched in synth, samples and beats so I’ve been in heaven. A few notables for me have been Star Slinger – whose been sampling/spitting out some really nice chillwave hip-hop, Com Truise – whose 80′s movie soundtracks have been massaging my brain with warm bubbles, Ohio’s Pepepiano – whose catchy psych pop tunes have been stuck in my head for the past week, and Cosmic Sound – whose old school synth loops are on repeat in my subconscious. Some of the usual suspects resurface from previous mixes too, like Moodgadget’s Shigeto, Brainfeeder’s Take, Ghostly’s Matthew Dear, and Javelin. They keep putting out fresh shit.. so I gotta show ‘em some love.

If you dig this mixtape check out my Free Music Collection. A lot of tracks are pulled from free legal downloads which I’ve been compiling monthly.

You can also listen to the most recent mixtape in the Soundcloud player (in the upper right) while you browse. As always feedback is much appreciated. And feel free to share, blog, tweet it or send me any fresh tracks of your own.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD

Think or Smile Mixtape 0×004 | Tracklisting:

As always, if you’re feeling any of these artists show ‘em some love and go see them live. Enjoy!

Sebastiaan Bremer: Divine Spark from the Heavens

Sebastiaan Bremer is a dutch artist working out of New York. This my first encounter with his work even though he’s been exhibiting since the 90′s. Much of it involves manipulating photographs with ink morphing it into something entirely un-photographic. From what I can tell though, this series marks a departure from a darker body of past work, opting for less manipulation and lighter subject matter.

When I first saw these I was mesmerized and instantly curious as to how he made them. Turns out it’s merely acrylic paint and inks applied to a snapshot, but that simple technique applied to these already gorgeous photos really makes them that much more captivating. It seems to capture and freeze the movement of imagination, or the feeling of wonder brought on by being trapped in a snow globe of bubble gum. Looking at these I feel like I’m suspended in time but can’t help imagine an atmosphere full of pop art drippings falling from the sky. You’d think an experience like that would warrant a slight freak out but the people in the photos are completely nonchalant, which I think is why I can’t stop thinking about these. Juxtaposition of the mundane and the strange are typically a good recipe for my imagination to run wild.. but in this case it’s putting a smile on my face at the same time.

Ross Ching’s Distortions: Experimental video project

Distortions is a film experiment by Ross Ching inspired by a work of reflective art. Aside from the really nice footage he captured with a Canon 7D deep within the Anza-Boreggo Desert, what I love about this is that it’s merely an experiment. A project done out of love, for the sole purpose of just seeing where a technique can take you, like Clemens Kogler’s phonovideo experiment. What you’re seeing above is distorted video played back on a rotating monitor with a chrome cylinder placed in the middle. When it’s reflected back by the cylinder it takes out the distortion to reveal the original video. Seen in tandem though is where the beauty of the experiment shines through. As you watch it everything begins to blend together, the distortion and the reflection become more than a sum of parts. Landscapes become abstracted and you’re faced with thinking about what new place has just been created? While the soundtrack isn’t something I’d typically post here, it’s still absolutely worth a watch for visual aesthetic alone.

Ross has also done a nice job of explaining the idea behind Distortions and documenting how he created it. If your interested you can read more here as well as see the undistorted version.. more proof the Canon 7D can do no wrong.