Catching The Waves

It's What I Do Best

Some techno/dancefloor music tries to hammer a spike through your temple; some brushes its lips against your ear and inveigles you into bed. When I tell you that Entering Sleep Mode is the product of Frenchman Vincent Raude, an experienced proponent of dub, jazz and drum 'n' bass who is exploring the world of minimal, you'll have no trouble deciding which type of techno this is.

Trainscommin, the first of three tracks, starts off with a relaxed, dubby feel about it, as though your ears have settled into a comfy leather sofa in the corner of a good bar. Gradually, tiny little pops and clicks augment the exemplary kick-snare pattern until your corner of the bar is filled with comely members of the opposite sex, attracted by the hip-jogging bass and the pervading air of coolness.

Or This is a fairly standard minimal techno track, allowing you to swap phone numbers with the aforementioned group of babes/hunks (your mileage may vary), but it's beautifully produced with an upfront bass/drum combo backed by washes of echoing synths and a scratchy hi-hat that keeps everything moving.

Finally, you impress your new fan club by ordering a fashionable aural cocktail. (Be careful when using that last phrase.) Driving Upwellings features a modest can't-quite-tune-this-radio riff backed by dubby pulses, rolling kick drums and a driving hi-hat. You could play this track at a planet-splitting volume yet it would still sound as though you're eavesdropping on a Women's Institute lecture about jam-making, by which I mean it sounds warm and comforting, although WI women occasionally let rip, so don't think that Driving Upwellings doesn't bring the funk.

If you want to convert a friend who isn't into techno/dance to the ways of The Church of Scientology Minimal, Entering Sleep Mode is a very good place to start. The more you listen to it, the more you realise that Monsieur Raude has packed a lot into each track, yet his compositions feel spacious and subtly groovy; the mix is warm where you want it to be, powerful when you need it. All in all, it's iron-fist-in-velvet-glove material, courtesy of weapon-against-the-forces-of-darkness netlabel, deepindub.

Of course, the real reason I'm recommending Entering Sleep Mode is because it's fun to stare at your reflection in the album cover and pretend that your disembodied head is speeding through hyperspace.

You're all doing it now, aren't you? Heh.

Upwellings - Entering Sleep Mode (link to zipped album and individual files)

Upwellings on MySpace

deepindub netlabel (Warning: you are entering a whirlpool of free and excellent dub, minimal and techno. I know - I'm wonderful. Thank me later.)

Woodward Ho!

 

Let me explain that title: Josh Woodward is worth listening to; Westward Ho! is one of the very few places in the world that includes an exclamation mark in its name; and Catching The Waves is the type of website that can't resist a dreadful pun. Plus I wanted to reassure you that, in this context, the word "ho" has nothing to do with ladies of the night.

I must thank the fantabulous Free Albums Galore for pointing me to Josh Woodward's music. Not that I took any notice. "Maybe later," I thought, ignoring FAG's sage advice. It took a song on netBloc Vol.12 to get me scurrying for more of the same; Shadows in the Moonlight will have you singing along to it or I'm a monkey's uncle. I'd love to hear this arranged by Benjamin Britten and added to his gorgeous A Ceremony of Carols. Maybe one day. When science can revive his corpse.

So, my one track recommendation for today is (ta-dah!): Josh Woodward - Shadows in the Moonlight

There are three sides to Woodward's music: folky, poppy and rocky. There are also three sides to his lyrics: jokey, bitter-sweet and just plain bitter, you sons of bitches. Here's an example of the latter type of lyric from the opening of I Want To Destroy Something Beautiful:

My dear, I'll give you sixty seconds to disappear
And if you don't get out of here... who knows?
Cuz I've been trying to find out if an angel bends or breaks
Or shatters like a stone

Chilling. Good stuff.

Visit his website and you will find 145 free songs. That probably sounds unpalatable. OK, try this: of the seven albums of goodness that you can download for free, please start by downloading the excellent Dirty Wings; if you like that, grab Josh's latest release, The Simple Stuff (Parts 1 & 2). Looking at his website, it seems to me that he has done everything possible to exploit the Creative Commons movement, making it as easy as possible for everyone to hear his music. I quote:

Feel free to download, burn and copy my music for your friends. In fact, I insist that you do it. If I find out that you have slacked around and not burned copies for all of your friends, I'll sic Grover after you. And you do not want Grover after you, trust me on this one. If you want to buy a physical copy of my CDs, that's cool too. I want them to be affordable for anyone who wants one, so I'm selling them on a name-your-own-price basis from my online store.

I think he deserves to see some bullion, not out of sympathy for his undoubtedly worthy efforts, but because his music is highly enjoyable. Although his rock and folk doesn't break any new ground, he is undoubtedly a fine songwriter. Josh has also provided lo-fi previews, lyrics, musical notes, videos for many of the tracks and even instrumental versions of his songs, ripe for remixing. You might think "overkill" but you might also find yourself stealing back to the website in the dead of night for just one more hit of the good stuff. You've become a Woodward Ho.

SORRY, sorry. Bad taste, I know. Why is it that I'll say things on the net that I'd never say in real life? It's probably because no laptop has ever punched me. I'm sure Microsoft are working on it.

Josh Woodward - Dirty Wings (link to zipped album and individual files)

Josh Woodward - The Simple Stuff (Part 1) & (Part 2) (link to, etc.)

Josh Woodward

Not Drowning But Waving

 

A little help, if you please. Those of you who read CTW via a feed will note the appearance of an orange RSS icon next to the blog's title and the disappearance of a "subscribe to this blog's feed" link in the sidebar. This means that you can now read CTW via a syndicated feed instead of crouching in front of your computer screen, drunk, unshaven (especially my female fans), surrounded by paper plates and overflowing bins, shouting the odds and thumping the "refresh" button every few seconds in a bid to slake your thirst for new recommendations from the best free music website that has the words "The", "Waves" and "Catching" in its title. I've also pulled back the curtains to allow feed readers to read posts in their brazen, wanton entirety rather than the teasing paragraph that winked suggestively at passers-by.

So, to that bit where you help me: being an idiot, I'm not sure if my upgrades

*falls to the ground laughing*

...if my upgrades have worked. Would any of my readers be kind enough to post here or send me an email (catchingthewaves@yahoo.co.uk) to confirm that the RSS thingy is working properly for all the different feeds/aggregators out there? Pweez? (This is not an attempt to boost CTW's popularity - it's cool enough already. Yeah, baby.)

No, thought not. You're a surly bunch of buggers, aren't you? Right, if no one showers my improvements with praise or at least a thumbs-up then I shall be forced to keep using this bloody awful, eye-wateringly ugly Typepad template as punishment. There, sorry now, aren't you?

If you can hear any banging and scraping and swearing, it'll be me wrestling my blog to the ground as I try to improve it ever-so-slightly over the next few decades. Seriously, it'll take decades.

4th Deserves A Medal

There'll be a few glum faces at the otherwise happy and smiling Olympics, not least among those charged with organising the London Olympics opening ceremony, but the glummest will belong to those competitors who finish in fourth place. All that effort, all that smog, and no shiny medal to show for it. But I think a specially minted platinum medal should go to Emmerichk for his new EP, 4th, out now on Berlin's Yuki Yaki netlabel.

Emmerichk's album is full of clicks 'n' cuts, drones, rustling, crackling, muffled echoes, and somnolent rhythms. It sounds awful, doesn't it? Furthermore, there's barely a single melody or recognisable acoustic instrument on the album's six tracks. It sounds like a Playstation rattling inside a cement mixer wrapped in a blanket. How can anyone call this music?

Listen to this on the average PC/laptop speakers and you'll agree that it sounds awful. But wait, don't delete it - put your headphones on or fire up a good stereo system and press "play". It now sounds wonderful. 4th is addictive, enthralling and groovy. The album is decorated with fluttering hi- and lo-passed noises, with weighty bass elements and kick drums, and with gorgeous echoing sounds and timbres that explore the entire sonic range. This subtle album forces you to listen intently, and once you do you'll realise that it's full of invention and genuinely original and enjoyable music. It walks softly and carries a big stick. You can even dance to it.

Again, I'll recommend just one track. If you like it, there's a good chance you'll want all the others. But please try to listen to it via a decent sound system or headphones. If the mix was a car, it would be a Rolls-Royce.

Recommended track: D7

What with titles like that and the album being called 4th, plus Emmerichk being spelled the way it is, you'll have an interesting time discussing this music. Emmerichk hails from Mexico, by the way, so he's yet another talented electronician (have I just invented a word?) from that part of the world. Thank goodness for the internet, which allows me to send a funky thumbs-up to Central and South America. I hope you've all enjoyed today's visit to Catching The Waves, the only blog currently issuing certificates of approval to entire continents.

Emmerichk - 4th (link to individual files and zipped album)

Emmerichk on MySpace

Yuki Yaki netlabel

Don't Drop The Soap

By and large, I don't like interminable club mixes that thump on until doomsday/chucking-out time. But, being the open-minded and sexually irresistible chap that I am, I'm always willing to give something the benefit of the doubt. Today's beneficiary of my largesse is Daniel Gardner's two-track EP (alright, a single) called Under The Shower Tower. It's four to the floor and eight minutes long, so I should hate it. However, despite listening to the title track with arms crossed and lip curled, at the halfway point it dawned on me that I was hearing a top-class, beautifully produced, tight piece of music that wouldn't leave my booty alone. Alland Byalo's remix is sufficiently entertaining, too. You can't resist lyrics like: "Never have I been so dirty - never have I felt so clean."

Furthermore, the release is a welcome reminder that Thinner netlabel has returned from a lengthy sabbatical. There are 101 releases (this is not a figure of speech - it's that many) to download and enjoy, courtesy of this dedicated and very slick netlabel. Netlabels are one of the modern wonders of the world, wouldn't you agree?

Finally, I must thank Daniel Gardner, a most experienced Canadian slayer of dance floors, and Thinner, German gateway to hot netmusic, for making Catching The Waves the fecund, trendy website that you see today. Recommending something just twenty-four hours after its appearance? I tell you, it's nosebleeds all round in CTW's production department.

Daniel Gardner - Under The Shower Tower

Thinner netlabel

Fabergé Eggs? I'll Take Two

Imagine, if you will, a craftsman hunched over a workbench, his concentration bent on producing a matchless gem fit for none but the cream of society. Further imagine, for the sake of an uninspired analogy, your nose pressed up against a jeweller's shop window as he places a Fabergé egg on a cushion of crushed velvet. If only you had access to the riches inside.

Let's face it, buster - you ain't gettin' no steenkin' jewellery. But do not fret. Succour is at hand in the form of one of the internet's great untapped music resources. If you visit blocSonic you'll get the following free musical Fabergés:

• Sixteen (you heard me, sixteen) zipped compilation albums, each painstakingly sourced from netlabels and Creative Commons websites around the world, available for free download in lossless FLAC format or mp3 (with a choice between 320kbps and 192 kbps). All tracks can be downloaded individually, which is good news for the many people without broadband.
• Highly professional and distinctive packaging artwork in tif, eps and pdf formats for your CD and jewel case, should you need something more tactile than an mp3 file.
• A substantial PDF file giving full track information and biographies, etc. of the artists. From netBloc 16 onwards there'll be a brief Q & A session with each artist.

As with all compilations, the tracks will elicit the following reactions: yuck/meh/dat is da shit, boyeee. With 16 albums to choose from, CTW's modus operandi was to download the 192 kbps mp3s, compile an enormous playlist in Microsatan's Windows Media Player and whittle the list down to tracks that rang my bell. Those tracks left standing in the rubble are the ones I will download at the better-sounding bit-rate of 320 kbps. I can tell you're impressed.

Of course, the compilations serve as a great starting point when searching for free netmusic. We all know how difficult it is to find music that suits our tastes perfectly, so being able to sift through blocSonic's compilations makes things easier and is also a lot of fun. Sites like blocSonic, Free Albums Galore, Phlow and Netlabelism are vital signposts on the open road to free music, and will help artists who don't have the backing of a record label to contemplate/sustain a music career, or who simply enjoy the buzz of releasing their music to a global audience.

BlocSonic should go from strength to strength. But here's the rub: given the high production values and the superb value for money (the music is free, donations to the artists are optional but welcome), the download figures are criminally low. It seems to me that the netlabel/Creative Commons scene is music's best-kept secret. Please, do me a favour - email your friends and colleagues with a link to blocSonic. They'll think you're terribly trendy, you'll walk a little taller, and the netlabel scene will continue to gather momentum. And, dammit, CTW's sidebar of "General Netlabel Sites" is far more exclusive than any hawker of trinkets to high society, so if blocSonic's been allowed to perch there for the last few months then you can rest assured it's worth visiting.

*gets off high horse*

The illustration at the top of this article is the cover for the latest compilation, Sweet Sixteen. Not only does it look lovely and give you an idea of the high standard of presentation common to the entire blocSonic website, it stops me having to use the blocSonic logo as the main illustration. I mean, as lovely as it is, it's this big:

 

..and the CTW computer boffins can do nothing with it. Stop laughing.

netBloc Volume Sixteen (Sweet Sixteen) (link to zipped album and individual files)

blocSonic

Bongoes In, Brains Out

Have you heard about those groovy new trousers called "flares"? And that spunky young singer, Elton Presley? If not, you should check them out. They're going to be big, especially so if you take into account the average Western diet. I bet you're glad that you have Catching The Waves to keep you abreast of the latest trends - like today's album, which parachuted onto the internet a mere, er, three years ago.

This sample-heavy six-tracker, a collaboration between one-man-band The Coconut Monkeyrocket (Tallahassee, Florida) and brotherly duo Martinibomb (Portland, Oregon) is cheerful and good-natured, according to CTW (Wardrobe, Narnia). It conjures up a mental image of mini-skirted chicks dancing on a beach, their arms by their sides, hands palm down, shaking their voluminous hair to the sound of surf guitar, bongoes, old films, advertisements and big fat brass sections. Sprinkle with a little funk, mambo and big beat and you have a lo-fi fun fest.

No exhaustive analysis of each track this time, folks. Instead, I shall resort to my lazy tried and trusted tactic of recommending one track to see if you're going to like this EP. Download this:

Bloops, Bleeps, Bongos* & Brass

...and I wager you will feel better after listening to it. It's the type of track that will get people's lower regions to move rhythmically - which is always a good thing. The rest of the kooky (there's no other way to describe it) album is available below. The Coconut Monkeyrocket have a new album for sale, With Birds, if you're in the mood for more carefree fun and want to support free netmusic.

The Coconut Monkeyrocket and Martinibomb - Split! EP (link to zipped album and individual mp3s)

The Coconut Monkeyrocket

Comfort Stand netlabel (sadly retired but still making its catalogue available)

*The plural of bongo has an optional "e", thank you. We're both right. And funky.