Free Music Dump: Wandering Sounds, Available Now To A Loving Home…..

Well hello there pop pickers!

As I’m busy watching YouTube videos of corgi puppies (because i have no dignity or self-respect left, I’m not going to get bogged down in flowery prose right now.

Are you skint? Are you stealing money from your wife/girlfriend/family to pay for you disgusting snuff habit? do you also like music but get that strange feeling they call “Guilt” every time you log onto the Pirate Bay? Well then this post is for you!

OK, first up is some deeply psych’d out electronic tape sounds from a nice couple of dudes from Brooklyn who go under the name of ANTIQUE SHADE. Their EP, “Homeward Bounds” blends a nice mix of woozy new age synths with found beats and Sci Fi aesthetics, as cracked dialogue drifts in and out of the music. Ver melodic. If you like the work for Pye Corner Audio, then this is a definite must to listen to!

 

For our next choice, we’re going decidedly darker, into our favourite pagan wooded world of Witchery Housey sounds. The self titled EP from VEILS, has all the Witch House hall marks, thick, bitumen walls of bass synth, DIY B-Boy beat-box rhythms and emaciated fem-ghouls whispering in the background. But the production on this is actually really good. you can definitely hear the quality of production rise in the last year as people have learned to master their production software and work a bit on the musicianship. But if you love your nu-goth gravewave sounds particularly desolate, then Veils are for you!

 

Well after all that heaviness, it’s time for something a little softer and soothing to the ears and the soul. And what better way to lift you off to the sun than this, the self titled EP from NOVA DRONES.  The solo project of a San Francisco man named Michael Grellman, the EP contains 5 tracks full of dream pop with shimmering guitars, and drifting vocal over songs that are minimal but tuneful and melodic. Even though it´s soothing, it does have the occasional melancholic aspect to it. Classic US indie music.

 

Of course, no edition of the Free Music Dump would be complete without some righteous brutal noise. And luckily for us all, I have something lovely from Iceland, in particular Crust metal bangers NORN. I actually reviewed them live a couple of weeks ago at a metal festival. This is what i had to say about them (And this hasn’t even been published yet, so this is an EXCLUSIVE!)

OK, we’ve had some hard rock and stoner sludge. But now we want METAL! In particular some crusty, gnarly shit that can only come from the backwoods of Sweden and practiced by Teutonic types weaned on bark moonshine and virgin’s tears. And our prayers were answered with NORN. They upped the stage antics by coming on sporting not the usual corpsepaint, but some really well done zombie makeup. Their set combined blastbeats with hard riffage and some classic black metal snarls. It was rough and they certainly weren’t pretty (the bass strings on the intro to “10,000 Years” sounded really loose and thwacky), but their eyeballing frontman managed to shake loose the clagging hangover in our heads. I AM AWAKE NOW, YES!

Yes Indeed. This EP is a little rough (hence the word Demo in the title), but if you want proper no frills crusty black metal, then this is the one for you!!

 

Hmmm… i think I’ve given you more than enough for you all to be going on with. If you want more, then the internet is out there for you to explore it. I’m not your dad you know.

 

Free Music Dump: Amateur stuff? Who gives a shit! It’s free isn’t it??…..

Happy May Day Comrades!

Well today has been a hive of activity down here at the fa… no, wait a minute. Actually fuck all has happened. Mostly because i went out last night and pretty much obliterated my senses with that nasty alcohol stuff. So today has been a complete write off as I’ve tried to crawl headfirst into my own shoe.

Add to this, i have been a little negligent on here of late. Damn i hate it when i slack off like this. So i need to get things cracking back into shape. And what better way to do that is by proving you hearty fans with some wonder free music and stuff. Because as we all know, amateurs are killing it for the professionals and stuff, what with making music on their own terms and… just giving it away!

So let’s get started with some rather sinister stuff straight from Poland, the place that all god fear Icelanders fear to tread. Named after a brand of esoteric Jewish mysticism, MERKABAH are a 3 piece who’Ve been making some incredibly left-field space rock since 2007. Moments of free improv sax thrusts, mixed with heavy rock riffing and spacious space air. it’s the sort fo shit you want to play when you need to scare the neighbours into thinking that you’Re into some kind of death sex cult or something. For fans of the band Shining. Niiiiice!

 

OK, time for a slight shift in tempo and mood, with some sprightly avant pop in the form of “EP” from MARY OF EGYPT.  Lots of piano with soft airy harmonies that betrays a slight folkish element. Even though they’re from Brooklyn, I could imagine a track like “For Zina” being played on a Kids TV show from the BBC in the ’70s. For fans of Icelandic krútt pop.

 

Next up is some wibbly psychedelic music that was recently premiered on the excellent blog 20 Jazz Funk Greats. the artist MOTION STUDIES has release his debut EP “Hearts Will Beat” and it’s a 3-track  smash and grab of creepy electro pop stuff that is a little chillwave-y but with a real infusion of house, is far too danceable for that. Clicking rhythms and minimalist synth sounds with some decent vocals. A good result methinks.

 

Last, but not least, is some proper old school dance music to get your juices flowing. MOODYMAN is the alias for Detroit musician Kenny Dixon Jr. Well known for his strident views about dance music and the lack of black talent that is breaking through the genre today, he cuts an imposing, sometimes controversial figure in the scene. And recently he released a free EP titled “Picture This.” A mix of funked up techno, chunky electro and some blissed out jazzy soul beats, it certain puts its money on the table, musically speaking. For something this high quality being given to you for free, you’d be a complete idiot to pass it up. If you like what you hear, you can download it HERE.

 

Right I’m off back to bed. See you all in a couple of days…

 

Free Music Dump: Fresh and Streaming, Totally 100% Organic n’ Stuff….

So as you can tell, things have been a tad quiet this week on the blogging front. A mix of work and fleshworld crises have conspired to give this blog a case of the tumbleweeds.

But what better way to entice all those fair weather readers back by offering them some TOTALLY FREE MUSIC that won’t see them undergoing a full on body cavity search by MIAA, STEF or any other copyright protection agency that you choose to mention.

So let’s get right down to it…

First up is the EP “Little Bits” by Chicago band MAGIC CITY. Some chiming, clanging dream pop that’s very put together if i say so myself. Has a nice post-cocteau Twins feel to it. With spring round the corner, this’ll be a good little addition to your playlist.

 

Next in our selection is an interesting gem by San Francisco solo artist FOIE GRAS. Here’s we have simple sparkling shimmering high-end drones that offer a tempting mediation on summer cityscapes at 5am on a Sunday morning, when the only people you’Re likely to see are clubbing casualties trying to get home, joggers in the park, the odd homeless person and elderly dogwalkers. Suffering a comedown? then listen to this…

 

After all those simmering ambient drones, time to perk things up a little bit with some daytime electro. And for that we have “Al Bum’s” by COOLIO FRANCO. Not much info on this person, except to that they’re from New York, but the album has some lovely blissful electro beats. Sometimes you don’t have to spend the day listening to stuff that propels you to destroy beautiful things. sometimes you want to listen to music that has a nice “whoosh” effect on you. Al Bums’s has that feel. Music for Friday afternoons when you’ve left work early and you’ve just been paid.

 

Last, but by NO means least is an album from a totally special guy. My good friend Bram E: Gieben has release some new tracks under his alter ego TEXTURE. the man is a fucking tyro. Here’s the blurb from his soundcloud…

Texture is an emcee / vocalist based in Glasgow, Scotland. He is a member of the Chemical Poets, co-curator of Black Lantern Music, and co-host of the Shallow Rave podcast. He has written about music since 2005 for The Skinny, Weaponizer, Dangerous Minds, Clash and other blogs and magazines.

That makes me tired just reading it! Well his latest release sees him tap into his Witch Haus reserves for the aural Sects label to produce some groggy, dispersed sounds and beats. Cracked music for cracked minds. Make sure you take drugs when listening to this. That’s an order!

 

Right that should see everyone flocking back to these shores! I welcome the hits! It validates my existence!!!

 

 

Music Dump Special: It’s too dangerous to go outside: The Shadow Ring and “Hold Onto ID”

So you know  how it is. Some days you sit in your fetid flat/apartment/hole and you find yourself chaffing at your surroundings. the walls are closing in on you and it’s suffocating. But then you look through your window to the outside world and it looks a much more terrifying place, so you decide to stay in instead. Hey, we’ve all been there, even myself on a Sunday after a particularly heavy period of chemical fuelled self-abasement.

But it’s not often that you get involved hearing a piece of music that truly encapsulates the overwhelmingly damning nature of urban domestic life. That is until you’ve heard the music of THE SHADOW RING, one of the most bewildering, challenging acts I’ve come across for a long time.

In the world of ’90s British music, these guys were truly an anomaly. While everyone was riding the wave of Britpop, “Cool Britannia” and a steaming torrent of coke, heroin and bullshit, the Shadow Ring with no real coherent underground scene to tether it,simply fell through the cracks of the alternative indie scene, making barely a ripple. Instead of writing a long bio, there’s a fine piece about the band and their music HERE.

I became aware of The Shadow Ring last year when the track “Hold Onto ID” (from the album of the same name) appeared on “The Disappointment Engine” mixtape form Blackest Ever Black. Even amongst the unsettling, minimal, dark sounds the BEB are universally known for curating on mixtapes, this track was like nothing I’d ever heard of, It was so nihilistic as to be truly destructive.

Needless to say, thanks to the internet, i acquired a copy of the album and listened intently. And as aesthetic qualities go, The Shadow Ring paints a fairly bleak picture. The main feeling you get from listening to “Hold Onto I.D” is that of a state of mental deterioration as you slowly slip into kind of abstract parallel world, at once weird, but instantly recognisable where the trappings of suburbia and modern living become a form of Kafkaesque Interzone nightmare. Where going to the shops for bread and paying the gas bill at the post office is a trial, where the bank ATMs display secret messages that only you can read, and the neighbouring streets seem like an impenetrable maze intent on trapping you forever.

So you stay inside and lock the door. But even then there is no escape. The walls close in on you, you swear that there are crack addicted mice (or even worse midgets) scuttling under the floorboard, the fridge is trying to steal your soul and the permatanned celebs you view on TV are watching, talking, gossiping, judging your every move (shit, maybe they ARE!)

All this mental turmoil is accentuated by the oppressive mood produced from the album’s music. The ultimate bedroom/kitchen hovel sound. The sound of hope slowly dying on record. Rhythms are banged together from whatever’s at hand (drinks glasses, spoons on tables, etc). Threatening atonal electronic squalls, and detuned destroyed guitar sounds. All the while the dampened, flattened dour monotones of vocalist and guitarist Graham Lambkin

The mental environment created by “Hold Onto ID”  has certain similarities with the lonely suburban world of Greg Feely from Grant Morrison’s “The Filth”. There he is a man who lives alone with his cat and spends his day in drudgery and his evenings masturbating to porn (he may also be a secret agent for a secretive cleansing force known as “The Hand”) whereupon his life slowly falls apart.

But the closest parallels with “Hold Onto ID” can be found with JG Ballard and his story “The Enormous Space”. There, a middle class suburban man, soon after experiencing a severe car crash and being hounded by his estranged wife for a divorce, decides to embark upon an experiment where he will never again leave his house and will survive on whatever the house will “Provide” him. Insanity commences as his small home slowly engulfs him to become his entire universe. “The Enormous Space” was adapted by the BBC as a TV drama titled “Home” starring Anthony Sher.

So you fancy splintering you personality over the kitchen floor while doing a dump in the cat’s litter tray muttering about signals coming through the Radio and infecting you brain? the you’re not alone! Try out the Shadow Ring now… then get some professional help!

HOLD ONTO ID

 

Nordic Interstitial Thresholds: Interzone Cultural Awareness Day…

Promote | Mixcloud – Re-think radio, posted with vodpod

YES! after what seemed like an eternity (several weeks), the juggernaut that is the NITcast is back on the air, providing you with that aural meow meow high that the rozzers can’t touch you for (yet).

So this month’s mix has no chat from me, which is good as (a) my voice is terrible , and (b) i actually couldn’t think of anything decent of eerie to say. So i left some lovely white noise in its place, which is much better for everyone concerned.

I thought I’d still split the mix into two parts, the first i titled “The Gateway”, the second “the City”. Listen for yourself if you think those are apt titles.

If you like what you hear, you can download a decent quality version HERE (remember to right click, then select  ”Save link as”)

PLAYLIST

High pitch polytone irdial…

Portishead – Silence

Ayshay – Excerpt from FACT mix  307

Troupe Majidi – Essiniya (Nass El Ghiwane)

Omar Souleyman - Hafer Gabrak Bidi

Muslingauze – Abu Nidal

Logan 5 – Believe

Chris Carter - Moonlight (Neurotic Drum Band Version)

BL▲CK † CEILING - DRE▲MS

Ayshay – Warn U

5 Note Version – Czech Lady Irdial

Reptilicus – Initial Conditions

Blues Control and Laraaji – Awakening Day

Eroc – Der Prophet

Space System – Sorrow Show

▼ịǭҐEϗ₠ – cIRCLE

Source Direct – Stonekiller

Robert Hood – Towns That Disappeared

Popoh Vul – Kailash: Last Village

The Caretaker – Everything Is On The Point Of Decline

 

Free Music Dump: 100% Fresh and steaming from the udder!

Right! 2012 is now here and this blog has been inactive for long enough. It’s time to get back on the hamster wheel of blogging and begin feeding the beast that knows no name. Well actually, it’s called Kevin, but don’t tell him he’s a beast – it hurts his feelings….

So the best way to ge things going is to throw some delicious morsels of free music, the same was a local crime lord will throw frozen turkeys at crack addicts during Thanksgiving. yes, it’s time for a free music dump!

So what’s first from my sonic bag of tricks? Ahh, this’ll do for starters, “Solar Lights Don’t work At Night” by GOD BOWS TO MATH. An indie rock band from Auckland, NZ. It’s not too bad a listen as it’s loaded with grumbling bass, and slightly emo-atonal guitar lines with a slight Post Hardcore bent. It’s pretty well produced ans is worth the 13-odd minutes of your time.

 

Next up is a bit of sleazy electro squelch from LOVE SPELLS. Their debut album “Paradox” is free to download from bandcamp and it’s chokka with slowed down, screwed up disco sounds and Lo-Fi beats that you would get from your typical dystopian futurescape ála Kandinsky. For the unwashed locals, this is what Nolo would sound like if they listened to French electronic artists from the early 80′s instead of The Cars

 

OK now is time to REALLY rip things up, with some ringing, tingling grime sounds from Birmingham, courtesy of LADY LESHURR. She released this free album/mixtape on the site Hood Tapes and, maaaan, it just continuously piledrives into your brain with some seriously hypertime rhythms. 2012 is certainly going to be the year several female grime MCs are going to break through in the UK and this lady HAS to be one of them. You can check for yourself by downloading the album HERE. (Thanks to Joe Muggs for suggesting this on twitter…)

 

Now to finish things off, time for a little bit of Nepotism. I have a lovely friend in the USA named Jeffrey Owens, As well as sharing a love of music and comics, he also likes to tinker with electronic sounds under the pseudonym TERRAN. He’s released a free EP titled “10 Noises” on Bandcamp and despite the name, it’s actually rather soothing in its own unique way. Each track is a short sharp jab of power electronics and oscillating wave functions. An Ideal palette cleanser from all the MOR molasses that stick to your ears from regular radio use….

 

Hmm, i think that’s a decent start to the new year, don’t you think? Now be off with you! I’m going to conduct some nasty experiments with an A-Ha 7″…..

 

 

Music Dump Special: Les Joyaux De La Princesse

I’m staying in tonight as i have no money (edit – this is not true as i ended up going out and getting squiffy with my mucker Louder). The nights in Iceland are now becoming loooong and entrenched. Out in the country you can feel very alone, with only the ghosts of the past and the hidden folk present to torment your soul. In light of this I’m in a bit of a giving mood this evening, something that has the stench of history clinging to its bony frame. For this only an artist such as Les Joyaux De La Princesse will do.

The work of French solo artist Erik Konofal he has been making music for nigh on 25 years and has worked with the likes of Muslimguaze, Death in June and Blood Axis. Each release is often a VERY limited run, with each copy itself a detailed handmade collectors item. It has become the situation that these issues ahve become valuable collectors items.

The music is a mix of original dark ambient and industrial compositions with samples of old speeches from French radio and classical works. Each release sonically tries to convey the ambience of facets of 20th century French history often from the ’30s and ’40s. Often things like the WWII resistance or the then Vichy government. But instead of glorifying or taking sides, it feel more like a musical history lesson as you receive whispers of past spirits coming to warn the present, like a French Leyland Kirby of the ’30s.

The is Extreme mood music of the best kind. So for this dump, you’ll be getting his debut release “Aux Petits Enfants De France”, and “in Memoriam”

Now if you excuse me, I’m off to commune with the spirit of the lost nation of Toulouse Lautrec…

You can try out Les Joyaux De La Princesse HERE

 

Music Dump: Prurient “Bermuda Drain”

My God, i can’t even remember the last time that i got round to doing one of these posts. It feels that time and the real world seemed to get in the way of  laying out some of my music to your willing ears. I can’t even be arsed to even go back and recount what the last album i gave to everyone was.

But no need. That was then, this is NOW! And now that October is past us, we’re just about to enter into november, surely the nastiest, coldest most misanthropic month of the calendar. So with this swirling in your noggins, for the next few weeks, you all need to be given music that reminds you all that the world is a desolate unforgiving place.

And for this music dump session, I’m going to give something for my main man Aðalsteinn, who is celebrating a very special day today with his shiny new missus. It’s noise music’s most “poignant break up album”,  Bermuda Drain from PRURIENT.

Released earlier this year, Bermuda Drain is the latest album from the brainchild of Dominic Fernow. THe main is a gigantic tyro in the noise scene in the US. he runs the record label Hospital Records, but has released a bewildering array of releases on other labels. Oh, and he is also a member of hot US darkwave band Cold Cave.

And it was the association with Cold Cave that has influenced this release. According to interviews, it seemed he felt he was reaching a bit of a cul-de-sac with regular noise music and was looking to take it a different direction, And with “Bermuda Drain”, he meshes his noise aesthetic to an intense, shiny platinum edged synth music. The overall feeling you get is that of when you heard the Terminator OST for the frist time. It’s so cyborg in its scope. The effect of all this is that you get a much better contrast of sonic wash, as opposed to the usual lazy crunches, screams and squealing feedback. Not that there isn’t loads of that in BD, but it’s just a part of the whole listening experience. The actual paradox of feral noise and decent song structure.

Oh and it’s such an oppressive, melancholy record borne out by the mood of the synths and the anger in his vocals. Take “Palm Tree Corpse” for example, fantasising about sticking bits of wood inside of dead partners that ends with him yelling like a wounded animal over the saddest synths imaginable. It’s pure break up song material, if the person doing the breaking up was a psychopathic stalker that collects his own waste in jars.

After all that, i can’t really recommend this album enough. So do me a favour and have a listen for yourself.

If you liked Bermuda Drain, then you can try it HERE.

 

Music Dump: Sleater Kinney, “All Hands on the Bad One”

A bit of a quiet evening here so far, and I’m in a good a benelovent mood. So i’M going to toss you some sonic scraps from mah table of plenty. you know you want it. Beg for it! BEG! Now there’s a good doggie.

For this week, I’ve been listening to a lot of my old Bratmobile and Bikini Kill records. Nice stuff it is too. Lots of righteous indignation and real gender politics set to crackling riffs and noise. For this week’s music dump instalment, I’m going for a band that was part of the late-era word of riot grrrl. What you’re getting is “All hands on the Band One”by SLEATER KINNEY.

Sleater Kinney formed in the same music nexus that spawned the majority of Riot Grrrl bands, the own of Olympia in Washington State, USA. Made up of members of Heavens to Betsy and Excuse 17, they started making music with Sleater Kinney as a bit of a side project to their own stuff. Naturally their original bands splits up so they got a drummer and became SK full-time.

Their music is your classic punky alt-rock that you got from the US in the early 90s (sonic youth, throwing muses, bratmobile and other Riot Grrrl bands etc). You had a lot of lot note based riffs as they had no bassist often with wild vocals that lurched between banshee shrieks and soothing honey melodies. With all this they often had politically charged lyrical themes from War to Consumerism and gender politics, often holding up a mirror to the gender issues often affecting the music scenes in the country at the time.

“All Hands on the big one” released in 2000 is their 5 album and sees them make a bit fo a change from their earlier slash and burn approach to their music. This is probably because they had started to apply some craft and had gained a huge amount of self-confidence in their ability to play. As such the music has a deeper melodic quality from previous efforts. Oh there’s still the riffs, but they’re making them groove instead of grate. And naturally, there’s still the hard-hitting lyrics (check out  ”You’re No Rock n’ Roll Fun,” with the lyrics “Like a piece of art/ That no one can touch/ Your head is always up/ In the clouds/ Writing your songs/ Won’t you ever come down,”).

AHOTBO is a great little gem of pulsing thrusting rock that has a message, but doesn’t forget that sometimes you just want to dance and jump around a lot.

You can try “All hands On The Big One” HERE

 

Nordic Interstitial Thresholds: “I sleep the Endless Sleep….”

Nordic Interstitial Thresholds: “I sleep the En…, posted with vodpod

 

As promised it’s the beginning of the month, so a new NITcast is up and running! And after the sunny delights (and admittedly the slackness) of the last two months as the sunlight played havoc with my endorphins, the month sees the return of the Darkness (NOT the band) in a big way.

This mix is a blends of gothic sounds, 80s post punk, classic Industrial music and some modern feel-bad tracks Was particularly happy getting hold of that Winston tong track. And the “Nuclear Broadcast Warning” message was an absolute bastard to get as it’s not really anywhere on the tube, but i have my ways and means. Yes if we were going to be bombed to oblivion in the 1970s, that is the message we would have heard coming through the BBC!

If after listening to this, you want a lovely HQ version of this to download, then please click on THIS LINK. you know you will need this when you go to work today….