Catching The Waves

Pigeons In Flight

 

Franco Bianco is an Argentinean producer of dance/techno/minimal of such depth and imagination that his music could be described as experimental. For example, Origenes (yet another excellent release from Miga netlabel) is ostensibly a minimal EP, but the further it goes the broader it gets. Bear with me.

Migros Budget, the first track of five, features a ragamuffin intro, the tightest of beats, a rock-steady bassline, fluttering percussion, layers upon layers of funky hi-hats, beautifully reverberating, echoing noises and a breakdown fit to grace any slab of electronica. Phew. And did I mention that it's a slayer of a dance track that walks softly and carries a big stick?

Franco plays with the reverb of the opening drum roll of Complejos Out of Stock and then drops a rolling rhythm (stuttering sighs and high-pitched synths fill out the beat beautifully). The latin piano riff is great fun (though I'd have preferred a richer piano sound), especially when it departs in a welter of echoes and then makes a choppy, funky return.

After those two excellent examples of minimal/techno, the EP stretches its legs and offers Patriarca, which might be the world's first attempt at gothic minimal. What sounds like Native American chanting (forgive my ignorance) slips in and out of ghostly synths lines and unpredictable percussion. The gnarly, spooky bass line, the ambient noise of insects, and the chimes and glitches all combine to produce an atmospheric listen that's also a head-nodder. This is not your ordinary dance music.

To further the point, your ears will have to move to Africa for the opening salvo of drums and chanting that open Intensidad Juraschek. White noise snares and (comb-filtered?) percussive elements skitter across the drums before intensifying into a metallic snowstorm of a breakdown. It's intense.

The title track conforms to the general rule of every dance track ever made: it could lose a third without any harm. However, unlike most dance tracks, it starts with a bleating goat and ends with a rhythmical, echoing children's conversation embedded in a sea of synths, percussion and bass. Origenes could be described as danceable ambient. It's a terrific example of studio wizardry and compositional imagination.

It's amazing to think that such a superb little album is available for free. Let's hope that Origenes encourages music fans to catch one of Franco's many tour dates. (Yes, I know he's just finished a world tour - you should know by now that Catching The Waves is more behind the times than Rupert Murdoch. Heh. Did you see what I did there? Times/The Times? No? Tsk. I blame the credit crunch.)

Franco Bianco - Origenes (link to individual files)

Franco Bianco

Miga netlabel

This review's title is, of course, a tribute to the maestro of mid-tempo, John Shuttleworth.

BS + CC = \m/

You might have already seen this trippy album cover in my review of Fake It, a preview track (with a meaty rock riff) from Out Of It, the newly hatched album by Brad Sucks. Now the other nine tracks are here and my employees at CTW Towers are flooding the mosh pit so I can throw the goat and indulge in a little crowd surfing.

Out Of It contains multi-tracked vocals, crunchy, fuzzy riffs, lots of geetar strumming and a plain ol' backbeat; it's indie rock/pop, plain and fairly simple, replete with quirky love songs and dissertations on life in general. To wit: Total Breakdown is the best upbeat rock song about living with a mentally unstable partner that I've ever heard; There's Something Wrong is a jolly campfire singalong that compares love to a brain disorder; and "I was laying on the floor when you were gone, like you were something I could die from" is the first line from the excellent Bad Sign, a song that deserves regular radio airplay.

One of the album's few weak points is Certain Death, a prime example of a good song ruined by a Led Zep/When The Levee Breaks-type snare drum and (thank you, rock cliché gods) too much cowbell. Fortunately, the hard rock of Understood By Your Dad is robust enough to stand up to Brad's drum kit (as are the lyrics). Although all of the songs are fun, I've just enough space to tip the hat to the title track's catchy brand of optimism and the Lennonesque You're Not Going Anywhere, a sacrificial plea from a friend/lover. Try inserting a Liverpudlian "well, well" at about the three minute mark of YNGA and you'll see what I mean. I hope.

As with Brad's previous album I Don't Know What I'm Doing, Out Of It is released under a Creative Commons licence: you can download the mp3s for free or pay whatever you think they're worth. A CD will cost you $10. Despite the credit crunch, I stumped up some cash for the mp3s - I like Brad's music, and this is the best way to guarantee that he keeps making it. He's also released the source files and acapellas for all ten tracks so you can remix them, you mad things.

I've now heard 22 of Brad's tracks and loved them all. If you're in need of a set of good, solid, reliable rock songs that hit the spot, download Out Of It, set your phaser to "singing in the shower" and enjoy. Better still, tell your friends and family. No need to thank me for the good music: I already know you're cool and vice versa.

Lastly, a small but vital point - I wouldn't have heard Brad's music if he hadn't released it with a Creative Commons licence and made it available for nothing. Now that he's seen some of my cash, I can reveal CTW's First Law of Free Music:

BS + CC = \m/

Brad Sucks - Out Of It (link to zipped album & individual files)

Brad Sucks

Just to avoid any doubt: "BS" stands for Brad Sucks...

The Future Is Bright; The Future Is Orange

It's just turned September, which means that in my part of the world the sun is getting strip-searched on its way out through Customs, and Celts are coming out of hiding from that hot thing in the sky. Therefore, it's time for something autumnal. Nest by Nest should do the trick.

When it came out last year, a great deal of the netlabel community thought Nest was wonderful; it now falls to Catching The Waves to make up an excuse for this recommendation play tail-end charlie for those who are new to the concept of Creative Commons music and so might have missed this the first time around. If you know anyone who has open ears but is a bit sceptical about free music, doubting both its provenance and quality, please tell them about this six-track EP, released by Serein netlabel, and how its ambient scrapes and drones blend with gorgeous piano tones to create a work that is full of atmosphere.

How to describe it as you bash people over the head with it? Think of glacial piano compositions warmed by Welsh harp, woodwind, violins, field recordings and clever techy stuff, and think of Debussy, Satie and cinema soundtracks. This is perfect soundtrack material, if that's not doing Nest, the album, and Nest, the piano-playing duo responsible for Nest, the album, a disservice.

That was a close one - nearly created a temporal loop with that last sentence. Back to the music:

The opening thirty seconds of lodge, with its lilting piano and aural flecks and tics, will tip you off that this is going to be good; kyoto (which should be played to Earth's last politicians as the water laps around their necks) features oriental cadences and plucked strings and will confirm your suspicions; and marefjellet makes good use of that Welsh harp, finally convincing you that this is a terrific album. I shan't go on too much because charlotte, cad godeau, and trans siberian are all equally, hypnotically good. (Cad godeau starts off like late Tchaikovsky or Sibelius in his little-known Ambient period. Heh.) Trans siberian is the most blatantly ambient track, if anything ambient can be blatant, and features steam trains, various chimes and wheezes and the inevitable piano ushering listeners to the end of life winter the album.

I could go on at length about the subtleties, discipline and structure inherent in each track but I'd probably make a fool of myself.

[Insert your own joke here]

But I do think this album deserves the plaudits it has received; in Nest, the songwriting, the studio production and, to get far too pretentious, the sheer awareness of sound, rhythm and melody have come together to make a lovely and uplifting collection of music. It's like listening to a crisp winter's day. In fact, it should come with complimentary candles, a warm bath, and a view out over a snow-flecked forest. Just don't let the neighbours see you.

And while you're in the bath, please think about purchasing the CDr.

Nest - Nest (link to free individual files at archive.org)

Serein netlabel (remastered, extended album on sale from 31/01/10)

Strings That Go Bump In The Night

   

Goths, emos: walk away now. You're lovely people but I don't want you to be subjected to this slab of emotion when you're clearly in a vulnerable state. Go and read some Neil Gaiman, play World of Warcraft and get a good night's sleep - only then, when you're in a happy place, should you listen to this non-Gothic EP of folky electronica.

Long story short: I really wasn't in the mood for anaemic music that doddered about like a drunken geriatric, and banished Canciones del Futuro to a dark and distant corner of my hard drive only because I couldn't be bothered to delete it. One day, my cantankerous media player popped it in a playlist and told me that (this may not come as a shock to you) I'm an idiot. This three-track EP by Ghosts and Strings, released by Resting Bell, reminds me why the netlabel scene is so exciting. Some of the sounds you'll hear: guitars, Appalachian Mountain Dulcimer (yeah, me too), broken autoharp, drums, cello, flutes, field recordings, found objects and children's toys.

The man responsible for this mélange*, David Molina, aka Ghosts and Strings aka Los Veneremos, is not only a composer/musician; he's also a sound designer and recording engineer, which means that his epic, cinematic, ridiculously intimate songs float on a warm, soft bed of reverberating goodness.

Wondering why I disliked this at first? The musical contents of the first track, Heights, include a stately bass drum, a lo-fi lunatic whispering a glitchy, martial tune in your left ear, and a wobbly flute.

*cups ear*

Is that sympathy I'm hearing? Why, Internet, you're too kind. But don't worry, Heights is a grower - there's an atmospheric synth accompaniment, a few noises off, and a whispering vocal that says: "I can change. I can do this. I can change." It feels like telepathy.

Up next is Searching, which starts with chimes and clangs (probably that broken auto harp and dulcimer thingy), then drops a low mechanical bass groove and lets loose a snare that sounds like a vase smashing on the floor. If that's not enough, the emo vocal and guitar and bass accompaniment will have you floating away in no time.

Exotic birdsong opens Judgement Day, is met by a lovely guitar refrain and then, magically, joins in with the rhythm. His voice is not the strongest, but Mr Molina compensates by panning, chorusing, eq-ing and reverberating it until your ears accept it as just another instrument, although it's one which delivers such a paean of regret that it will leave fans of sci-fi, castles and black roses with mascara running down their pasty faces. I did warn you.

Canciones del Futuro is an innovative, beautifully weighted EP that gave me one of those wonderful "I am now the centre of global cool" listening moments. I hope you experience it too.

Ghosts and Strings - Canciones del Futuro (link to zipped album & individual files)

Ghosts and Strings on MySpace

Resting Bell netlabel will press a damp flannel to your clammy forehead and spoonfeed you with some of the most beautiful, meditative and inspiring free music on the net.

*this word is delivered free of charge