Free Music Collection: May 2012

We’ll pick up where we left off, piecing together our scattered interest to form a new whole.

Free Music Collection: May 2012

Mutual Benefit live at SXSW 2012: For rare stretches of time, things can be perfect, and this was one of those times. Recorded by Tonje of the great No Fear Of Pop, this beautiful backyard set/stand-up routine (and our favorite moment of SXSW 2012) can now live on forever.

  • The Wandering Lake - Ashame: Another stunning collection from the Fayetteville folk-ist that pulls at those Young Prayer-esq strings via guitar, piano, and isolated vocal.
  • Some Ember – Hotel of Lost Light: Brought to us by the ever-reliable Crash Symbols, Some Ember’s debut LP is a ‘body music’ saga narrated with power and séance atmospherics, distinctly dark but not without some glowing embers of pop.
  • Marble Lion - Foliage EP: This short EP (that snuck by last year) finds a young Montreal band in experimental mode, clearly getting heady on their quest for catchy.
  • Dreampeter - Boneglow // Delusions Split: Dreampeter split in half to chill in different corners of the warped-pop sandbox, making this resulting Split quite the playground.

  • Unlimited Free Milk Shakes – Art Week 2012 Compilation: Newly friendship-founded label, Unlimited Free Milkshakes just released this compilation of some of their friends, label affiliates, and lovers, music. It’s full of lo-fi gems, from tape-pop, dream pop, beats, and more. Don’t sleep on it.
  • Friendzone – Collection 1: A beautiful compilation of the collective Friendzone artists. Soft and waving beats. This is something I’d want to play constantly at my spa, if I were to ever open a spa for some reason.
  • PORTALS April Mixtape: This monthly mixtape is strong. Full of exclusives from some of our favorite projects. Perfect for a pure listening experience, and a discovery session all in one.
  • Gay Vegan Vinyl Cassette Compilation – C86: An amazing weirdo collection of some of Japan’s most rare gems. This one is all over the place, but really worth a listen!
  • M|O|D tape I and II: M|O|D crew are making some serious strides to prove themselves. And after these two compilations of each of the five young producers, it’s clear that they are well on their way. Here is the nasty trap beats your all to still booty has been waiting for. Listen and get down.
  • Svengali – Volume 1: More amazing young electronic producers collecting their efforts to bring us beautiful sounds. Don’t want to miss out on each of these amazingly talented artists.
  • Blacks& – A Ghost That Follows Me EP: LA based pop project debut their sound with this sugary sounding three track EP. Solid minimalistic goodness.

Support music you love. See shows, buy physical releases, show love.

Note: Due to bandcamp’s terms of service artists are required to charge a minimal price after a certain number of free downloads. If that’s the case after our posting you can always stream it and if it moves you, support them with a purchase.

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Free Music Collection: April 2012

Free Music Collection: April 2012

  • Celista – LP: The beats know no end. Mysterious “Icelandic” producer makes smooth and enticing beatscapes – personal favorite is the Biggie sampling “Brooklyn” $
  • RUMTUM – Beat Tapes I & II: Columbus producer off the heels of his release with fellow producer Monster Rally, has been releasing some really solid beat tapes. 16 minutes each, they are perfect for losing yourself for a moment in a day.
  • Maston – Voyages: The ‘one man psychedelic pop band’ from LA has a knack for flooding the nostalgia spaces in your brain, and simultaneously bringing you something fresh. $
  • DAY JOY – Animal Noise EP: Some extremely solid dream pop from the heart of Florida. Look for the mediafire link to the right of the page.
  • Thrupence – Voyages EP: The thoughtful beats of Jack Vanzet somehow cross over into the world of naturalistic music. Creating something natural out of something unnatural is quite the feat to behold.
  • Bronson – Moth: More experimental heartfeltedness than you can handle. Oddly straightforward croons, cutting to the core with the honesty of it.
  • XXYYXX – XXYYXX: The 16 year old Floridian is achieving sounds light years beyond his age. This is his sophomore s/t album filled to the brim with advanced beats, bright atmospheres, and doped-out samples. Color me impressed. $

  • Steam Orkestre - Steam Orkestre: Kitchen appliances falling down a bottomless pit, followed by an executive meeting underwater, followed by an impromptu assembly line by the spirits of deceased factory workers, and so on.
  • M. Sage – Chautauqua: 4 loops recorded and repeated at 10 minute intervals to make “cassette meditation music for slow afternoons in a landscape.”
  • Teen Suicide – DC snuff film: That surf punk band that decided to make some extra cash playing birthday parties but then decided one song in that they’d made a huge mistake and broke into a set of noise that left 2 kids really stoked and 13 others crying in their mother’s arms. They eventually warmed to the idea and softened up, but for most (and by the time the infamous skate witches made a cameo), the point of no return had already been crossed.
  • Walrus – Onetwotree: Adorable, slightly anxious hop-on-pop from Halifax.
  • Acid Aura – All Flows EP: For those sad souls who ride two bicycles… this should slide right into your headspace designated for acoustic ambient.

 

Support music you love. See shows, buy physical releases, show love.

Note: Due to bandcamp’s terms of service artists are required to charge a minimal price after a certain number of free downloads. If that’s the case after our posting you can always stream it and if it moves you, support them with a purchase.

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Free Music Collection: March 2012

Colors run, heavy from rain. Even the dawn sky must release the relics it’s collected from the shadowy seas below and shifting vapors above. The atmosphere can’t dissolve them all.

Free Music Collection: March 2012

 

  • Albatross – Murder b/w Caspers Theme: Life Aquatic Records second ever release is this unbelievably rich production from Sydney. Makes you either wanna dance, or take a nap.
  • Leaks: This is a 17 year old Aussie producer who makes subtle post-dub fragile lullabies. Here’s his soundcloud full of free tracks.
  • Persona La Ave – MUSIC TAKES ME HIGHER: A love letter of sorts to music, done in the funk filled, weirdo-beat styling that only Persona La Ave can pull off.
  • Forty Ounce Clothing / Crash Symbols – Dope Island Fuck: These two swaggering entities make love and create an amazing compilation of exclusive tracks from some of my favorites.
  • Ruddyp / XXYYXX – Split EP: These two young beat makers gonna have your head bobbing so hard you might get shakin’ baby syndrome for your brain.
  • Love List 3 – Smoke Don’t Smoke mix tape: A mixtape I made in honor of the three years I’ve been with my lady. An annual tradition of lovelike jams, and sexy sounds.
  • Gremlins – Gremlins: A super collaboration group formed from the likes of Toro Y Moi, Braids, Coma Cinema, and Ricky Eat Acid. It’s as eclectic bouncing and demented as you could hope for. $

 

  • M. Sage – Music for Cubist Guitar: The follow-up to Music for Interior Shadows, Music for Cubist Guitar is a new sequence in the auditory relationship between M. Sage and the subtlety of objects. Inspired by Cubism, Sage shattered his own guitar-centric folk and stretched it across time, turning ordinary chords into serene, crystallized wavelengths of sound.
  • Sunny Dunes: French producer Kira Perov aka Sunny Dunes has a way with atmosphere, and a number of astral-minded releases at bandcamp.
  • Kiss Kiss Fantastic – Dark Matter: Kiss Kiss Fantastic have care-packaged an album full of cozy shoegaze splendor and generously air dropped it over our entire community for no charge.
  • Welcome Back Saillors – (Love) That’s All: Sailors, masters of the dream pop sea.
  • Flashlight Tag Presents Sky Gem: Tyler recommends this mix be flown with “a decent pair of headphones and a nice hot cup of green tea.”
  • Ad Hoc – On Repeat: With less than a week to go, it’s important that we direct to the Ad Hoc Kickstarter, by way of detour through this excellent playlist they put together.

 
Support music you love. See shows, buy physical releases, show love.

Note: Due to bandcamp’s terms of service artists are required to charge a minimal price after a certain number of free downloads. If that’s the case after our posting you can always stream it and if it moves you, support them with a purchase.

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Free Music Collection: February 2012

Again it is time to bring our collection of specimens in from the cold, and collectively generate enough heat for them to bloom and cross-pollinate.

If you are a regular to this garden you’ll notice a plot missing. Nada, of Friends With Both Arms, has found herself with a bounty of new opportunity that needs her love and attention. Her presence here will be missed but I know she has nothing but good things on the horizon. Follow her progress or say hello @fwba.

Free Music Collection: February 2012

  • Lay Bac – Shortcuts: Deep cuts, and dancy vibes will cut you right to the core.
  • PORTALS Mixtape #1: Full of so many good jams you’ll wonder if good music super novas really do exist.
  • Beat Culture – Tokyo Dreamer: If beats could be friends, then this album would be full of some of your best. Oh an did I mention there’s enough Beyoncé samples to make you want to put a ring on it.
  • Flights – Anywhere But Where I Am: Sounds so sweet for the winter months. These folk introspections are meant for quiet nights and thoughtful mornings.
  • Magical Mistakes – Special Friends EP: Birthed in a small village in Japan, and drawn together by the power of the internet, this is some of my favorite electronic sounds around.
  • easily suede – Signalling: Drifting in and out of consciousness, these are some experimental sounds that touch the soul.
  • Handbook – Nomadic: The prolific producer is back with another album full of some of the sweetest hip-hop inspired beats this side of the internet equivalent of the Mississippi.

  • IN INDIA: Almost a year old, this meditative psych-soul set seems to have floated by without reaching nearly enough ears (or minds). Thanks for sharing, Tonje.
  • Birkwin Jersey – Old Hands: Graeme Coop’s second release with Absent Fever is another flurry in a very distinct snow globe of electronic.
  • Green & Gold: This is the first entry in a monthly No Fear of Pop column curated by Holly Friedlander Liddicoat of Australian blog East To West. Stream and read up on a number of promising artists from downunder, and leave with them all in a zip.
  • Coma Cinema – Stoned Alone (remastered): Stoned Alone ages well (it was an S&S favorite of 2010 and remains a very dear and isolated listening experience). Matt Cothran decided to remaster the album “with the intention of preserving the lo fidelity that it was recorded under while making it more vibrant”, so Stoned Alone has now literally gotten better with time.
  • Gem Drops Two: 20 forward thinking producers from the west coast beat scene get compiled into “an electric melange of uptempo and downtempo jams, hazy dream melodies, and space station future-flights.” Yes free, but any donations go straight to the American Cancer Society.
  • Zebra Katz – Ima Read EP: Ima Read Ima Read Ima Read, in five trance-inducing varieties.
  • Software – FADER Mix: Joel Ford and Dan Lopatin showcasing all the progressive sounds their label stands for in one long heady flow. Megafortress, OPN, Airbird, etc…

Support music you love. See shows, buy physical releases, show love.

Note: Due to bandcamp’s terms of service artists are required to charge a minimal price after a certain number of free downloads. If that’s the case after our posting you can always stream it and if it moves you, support them with a purchase.

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Free Music Collection: January 2012

The undisturbed soil of 2012 awaits; a new light enters frame, bending our horizon with promise. Instruments calibrate, bodies acclimate; we’re lured by the unheard sound. A series of monthly transmissions back home will chronicle our findings, and this here, is the year’s first:

Free Music Collection: January 2012

  • Sean Nicholas Savage – Flamingo: Our favorite Canadian psycho lounge singer finalizes 2011 with his third album. It’s as simple and brilliant as it ever has been.
  • Joseph Stallion – White Lodge EP: This mysterious producer appeared out of nowhere. But with tracks like “How I Won The War” we can hope he stays around.
  • Kwala – Projectionss EP: A beautiful project introduced to me by my buddy Jake at Speaker Snacks. Gentle free flowing beats for down time or uptime. Mostly just good.
  • King Mob – Empathy: A short, but soulful EP from this Denver project. Somehow both electronic and R&B, but most of all, not disappointing in the least.
  • Landon Speers – Spooky Mulder: You don’t know you want it, but you want it. It’s quiet, it’s strange, it’s synthetic, it’s beautiful.
  • INNIT – Vol. 4: A mix featuring some of Japans most interesting electronic producers, from a collective focusing on these artists. Well worth your time.
  • Thrupence – Serenade/Promenade: A beat tape comprised of throw-away sounds made new. And I’m glad they were, cause this is a 30 minute journey I’ve spent a lot of time listening too.
  • Cultus Vibes – Together: A year end compilation of some truly great artists. Brought to you by one of the purest-hearted digital labels around. Feel the warmth, and enjoy the family affair that is this compilation.

  • Lykke Li – The Lost Sessions: Lykke Li gave away some tracks from “The Lost Sessions” She advises to spread it like a kindlly flu filled kiss. Hmm, ew.
  • When You Awake “We All Go Twang” Collaborative Mixtape: Leave it up to me to bring the folk to the FMC! Someone’s gotta. When You Awake is one of my favorite blogs for just that genre: the twangy/acoustic/folk rock stuff. It’s especially fitting for this season. Artists covered everything from Lucinda Williams to Tom Petty to the Magnetic Fields.
  • Old Ugly Christmas Compilation: The Edmonton label put out a Christmas compilation featuring artists and friends performing their favorite Christmas jams, including my personal favorite: Jessica Jalbert performing “Until the World Lets Me Go”. It’s stunning.
  • Gorilla vs. Bear December 2011 Mix: GvsB final mix of the year, and it’s a goodie!
  • RAJA – The October Series, Red: The first first album to be released. It’s chock full of thickly layered old school hip-hop beats and smothered with arbitrary, often hilarious samples. You can hear Madlib and J Dilla influences strong and clear.
  • RAJA – The October Series, Which: The second album from the series. Here RAJA takes a distinct turn into his darker side. The tracks are still layered thick, but the tempo is cut in half and beats are dirty and electronic. Think Salem meets Gold Panda.
  • RAJA – The October Series, Color: The final album of the trio. The tracks wander around a bit, but are mostly stripped down and littered with beautiful piano fills. Falling along the lines of James Blake and Mount Kimbie, the album is an apparent homage to RAJA’s deceased grandmother.

  • Campfires – Slaughter tropes: The pleasant tambourine-backed strum of 60s sun pop in a garage, as heard by the dad sitting in the kitchen.
  • Kwala – Shabang: Jarringly pretty little sequences of pennies dropping, and vocals start/stopping, entire tracks cracked open, disassembled. Self-proclaimed post-brostep soul beats.
  • Sad Souls – Object of Perception: Another glimpse into a microcosm that loops in perfect symmetry and climate; guitar-based, wordless, endless.
  • Friends Records – Friends Records 2011: Nearly two hours of exclusive Baltimore sounds from our friends at Friends. Includes Co La, Future Islands, Dustin Wong, that magnificent imprisoned Flock of Dimes bride, and so many others.
  • Catamaran – Catamaran: Air travel via mood ring. A surreal, full spectrum destination: golden reggaeton, teal flare gun haze, and a well-placed sax finale.
  • NO MODEST BEAR - Sounds of 2011: A splendid year in blog, summed up by the one and only, Oskar.
  • Crash Symbols – Dope Mountain Fuck Vol. 2: A mega-comp of ambitiously scoped, unclassifiably dope, future varieties, 25 total—big time Crash Symbols activity right here.

Support music you love. See shows, buy physical releases, show love.

Note: Due to bandcamp’s terms of service artists are required to charge a minimal price after a certain number of free downloads. If that’s the case after our posting you can always stream it and if it moves you, support them with a purchase.

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Think or Smile | Nathaniel Whitcomb © 2012