Catching The Waves

Nice Legs; Shame About The Face

Yes, that is an actual (and full-size) album cover. Yikes. Moving swiftly on, pray place your head between two large loudspeakers and say “wibble”, for Max Cavalerra is here to shatter your earwax with five tracks of bangin' techno.

The majority of Cavalerra's The Bigger, The Better EP eschews the groovy complexity of minimal for more straightforward dance beats: the holy trinity of snare, kick and hi-hat stick closely together and move in a group from “fast” down to “take a breather” and back up to “crush the dance floor”. To illustrate, allow me to recommend  the immensely heavy opening track, Impact, wherein various noises off reverberate around a lone synth stab and a simple yet irresistibly catchy kick/snare/bass combo. Play it on a meaty sound system and watch your windows wobble.

Max Cavalerra - Impact

Similarly, the follow-up, Function, uses a "melody" consisting of just the one bass note repeated endlessly. Swathes of white noise and high-speed flummery threaten to swamp the relentless techno beat but that aforementioned religious trio keeps on keeping on. Hey, it's techminimalhousedance. What did you expect, a fugue?

In Memory of Violett is actually more, er, minimal than techno. (Self-contradiction is my speciality. It's not. It is, really. No, it ain't.) Some synths waft about in a chilled-out manner and make good use of the aural spatial field, although the intricate percussion still runs on rails. Like the rest of the album, it confirms CTW's well-known First Law of Dance Music.*

Energetic, forthright, insistent: all adjectives that apply not only to CTW's manly odour but also to 1000ccm's six and a half minutes. I must report that this tech-house track is full of the usual culprits. Yep, expect bass drops, low-passed breakdowns, hi-hats that move your noggin back and forth and the odd piquant vocal snippet. It's not overly original, but nor are olives - and I love olives.

Using the same punctuation-notation as a questionable but interesting chess move⁺, What The Bell?! is a track that shows Cavalerra's production chops. Surprise, surprise, there's some delicate chimey stuff nestling in the background of the seemingly well-mannered minimal-tech that constitutes the track's first half, but the chief attraction is the introduction of a chewy, electro-acid synth line that gets all glitchy over its bad self. It reminds me of the electro badass rather super Tom Neville. This is a good thing.

Right, it's time for me to skip gaily through the daisy-drenched uplands of free netmusic only to return  at an unspecified time and waistline measurement. In the meantime, I suggest you dump The Bigger, The Better in your mp3 player, swap its egregious album cover for a picture of Beyoncé/Britney/The Hoff/Alastair Sim, and wait for your headphones to flap up like the ears of a surprised basset hound. Netlabel music can have that effect.

Please think about sending a "thank you" email to Max, who is probably busy DJ-ing Munich to a standstill, and/or Broque.de netlabel, which should be thinking hard about adding a PayPal "tips" button to its whiter-than-white website. Thank them for all the lovely sounds. But not the pictures.

Max Cavalerra - The Bigger, The Better (link to zipped album & individual files)

Maxcavalerra.com

Broque.de netlabel

*All dance tracks are a third too long. You know it's true.

+Knowledge of this stuff has not affected my love-god status in the slightest.

There's no beer and everyone is ugly

I've a good reason for recommending Erdbeerschnitzel's Pathetik Party so soon after reviewing his Tracknames I Can't Pronounce EP. Party was supposed to have been released by a record label, but the label apparently dragged its heels so much that Erdy (Tim Keiling from Mainz) decided to release it himself under a Creative Commons licence. So, why did these ten tracks not find favour? What will you find if you go to this party? Well, the Schnitzel claims it will be dubstep, electronica, freakhouse, and "whatever", though I could easily describe it as glitch-hop, drone, electronica, minimal and "you're not the boss of me". It certainly has a far wider scope than the excellent Tracknames EP. Indeed, the Schnitz admits the album is his personal goodbye to genre-specific music.

The title track is an atmospheric and dubby piece of electronica whose gold-plated production should convince you that you're on to a good thing - just like most parties I attend. Heh. Ein Tag Namens Higke is a swinging piece of, er, freakhouse(?) where the chops come fast and funky. Now, let's have a glass of cassis to clear the palate. One and a half minutes of a curiously uplifting drone should do the trick. Thank you, Kurzer Einwand Nummer Eins.

Distantanz starts off as a fairly standard piece of minimal until it almost stops and some gorgeous synth chords gently ring out amid processed vocals; it then moves back up the gears to become a relaxed dance track with grade-A production skills. Think of it as an aural Bentley.

Some of these tracks are simply prime electronica. Air, Groove Armada, Björk and particularly Leftfield could release Wogenbeugel and you'd think, "Hmm, they're on form." Its woody synths take their own sweet time in getting to the end, thanks in no small part to chopped vocals and popping and snapping percussion coming out to play, but you honestly won't mind. In the less than three minutes of Kurzer Einwand Nummer Zwei's robotic glitch-hop, you'll find yourself trying to work out how much work went into making it, but you'll probably get distracted by its insistent swing.

By the time you've regained control of your body, it's time to let your brain loose on Die Leiden des Jungen S, where the next eleven minutes - a wild guess, but perhaps it's at this point that the record label got nervous - go some way to creating a minimal equivalent of Dark Side of the Moon. Yes, I quailed at the idea of this track. Now I love it. Erdbeerschnitzel has the ability to develop his musical ideas and does so via a reverberating soundscape, swooping, otherwordly synths, a groove that won't quit (except where Erdy decides that we all need to chillout) and a genuine sense of development. Die Leiden des Jungen S is eleven minutes long because it needs to be. It's not dance and it's not thoughtful electronica: it's both. That's a rare thing.

The last of the ten tracks, Singular, is noteworthy for warm, spliced vocals and a reminder, as if the listener needed it, that Pathetik Party is an unpredictable collection. Each fresh outing of this album reveals something new to enjoy; it has more unpredictable chops and ideas than a drunk sushi chef.

Did I say ten? I'm such a tease. You came here to earn the praise of your friends and a pay rise from your newly impressed boss by becoming Mr Cool, thanks to your discovery of the musical equivalent of a Stealth Fighter. Right. See if this gets your earlobes flapping:

Erdbeerschnitzel - Walkampfchampagne

Yes, you are now a sex god. This transformation has been achieved by a hollowed-out, distorted bass line that rolls like a loaded dice, lazy processed brass stabs, honky-tonk synths and some of the most beguiling glitchy percussion you'll hear this side of a scratched "Drums on 45" record. It's a trippy, jazzy funkout. Play it loud and you'll lose weight through involuntary movement and cut a swathe through your profession/college/nightclub/underpants. (I think the track on the Soundcloud release page is a slightly different edit to the zipped album track. I much prefer the latter so that's the one on CTW's cuddly media player.)

Why was this album not taken on by a record label? You tell me, because I don't know.

There's a prominent Paypal icon on the album's release page. Please think about pressing it or at least sending Erdy a "thank you" email. He's even been so generous as to provide you with an action figure. You could turn it into a piggy bank and save some cash for him. Just be careful where you put the slot.

Erdbeerschnitzel - Pathetik Party (link to zipped album and individual files)

Erdbeerschnitzel website

Dial M For Mmmarvellous

Here's a short but sweet package: M, a three-track EP released by British netlabel Minordust, is full of aural goodness for chillout and minimal fans alike.

Tobias Lorsbach, alias Keinzweiter, must be one of those strange beings who haunt record shops, working their fingers to the bone as they search for a rare vinyl cut, taking home nothing but the choicest grooves - only to disregard everything on them apart from the dusty crackles between the tracks. This perverse discard-the-fruit-but-keep-the-peel attitude is especially evident on the first track, Magnolia, where close-up pops and crackles are spliced with field recordings and slotted into a cool rhythm to the accompaniment of slowly alternating cool chords. A jazzy hi-hat drops in to keep things ticking along until Keinzweiter, unable to resist displaying his production chops, plays with its pitch and filtering. Like the other two tracks, Magnolia is ostensibly a restrained exploration of "noises off" and clicks 'n' cuts, but if you turn the volume up your cranium will belatedly discover that the rest of you is sitting on the washing machine and enjoying the spin cycle. See what you think:

Keinzweiter - Magnolia

Now you know what to expect - namely pops, crackles, a dash of jazz topped off with field recordings and nougaty vinyl static - you can relax, safe in the knowledge that you're now trendier than everyone else in your social circle. Put that hand-mirror down. Things get even funkier with Mircoobee, wherein a swinging jazz drum rhythm kicks off a beautiful minimal–techhouse track. Speaking of jazz/be-bop, who'd have thought, back in the '50s, that music production would advance so far that a talented producer like Keinzweiter could add myriad rhythmic clicks 'n' cuts to a fast drum beat without swamping it? Take any ten seconds from this and count the number of things going on: there's echoing conversations, crackles, synth embellishments, a bumping bass, the aforementioned jazz drumming, a lovely high-pitched synth run, and numerous tics and pops, yet they all blend together perfectly in a light stew that instantly makes Mainz, where Keinzweiter has his Batcave, one of the cooler places in Germany. Oh, all right. You all know you can twist me round your little finger:

Keinzweiter - Mircoobee

Now, off to bed with you, stopping only to give Moriaan a goodnight kiss. Let the adults dance to its funky and cheerful style. No, you can't stop to listen to its upbeat crackly goodness. And don't poke your tongue at me, you young scamp.

M is a free Creative Commons-licensed taster of a talented electronica artist. Should you wish to hear more of Keinzweiter's stuff, his new album Globus Cassus is now available for free (at an ear-shreddingly low 128 Kbps) from spontanMusik netlabel or you can buy it (at an ear-caressingly high 320 Kbps) from Beatport. My thanks to Mike Gregoire of Blocsonic for releasing netBloc Vol. 22, Life On Ceres, where I first heard Mircoobee. By the way, Vol. 23 is out today and it's utterly free, hipsters. Yes, I'm good. Daddy loves you too. Now run along.

Keinzweiter – M (link to individual files & zipped album - click on the album title when you get there)

Keinzweiter website and MySpace

Minordust netlabel

Never Mind The Width; Feel The Quality

The astute blurb on the release page at IDMf netlabel for Halogen - Length and Brecht (Remixed) compares it to a classical composition. Uncannily, the EP, consisting as it is does of one track by Halogen, a Brighton-based artist, and three remixes by other musos, feels as though it's the work of one person bent on producing a four-movement composition; there isn't the usual jarring, though often enjoyable, scramble of disparate sounds one associates with remixes essayed by musicians eager to parade their own production's fireworks.

Halogen's original track features a langorous descending piano motif in an abyssal acoustic that is so big it allows for the hammering of the top notes, whose fortississimo is made bearable by the cushioning reverb. A ghostly female vocal joins in and wraps your ears in swaddling clothes while a cello adds to the warmth. Remove 60 seconds from the five-minute running time and you have a contender for the chill-out track of the year. The combination of a cavernous reverb and a leisurely theme reminds me, scandalously you might think, of Vaughan Williams's Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis, composed specifically to take advantage of Gloucester Cathedral's superb acoustics. It's a wafer-thin connection, to be sure, but the ethos - if not the execution - is similar.

Strangely enough, the third track, the Field Rotation remix, is a gnat's todger longer than Halogen's original, but feels shorter even though the pace is funereal. A feather-light percussive rhythm, bass booms and swirling vocals blend into the mix to make something that should not be listened to while operating heavy machinery. Play it on a good stereo and alert the coast guard for beached whales. /badtaste

The tempo ups with the appearance of the Woodnote remix, whose synths and crunchy, granular goodness are the fibre in Halogen's musical muesli. It forms an impressive ending to "/Remixed/" as we must call it.

Today's recommended track, Synaecide's remix, (track two) could be described as the allegro of the four movements. Its snippets of the album's overriding piano motif and heart-stoppingly beautiful grainy vocals will give listeners a taste of what to expect elsewhere in the EP. However, Synaecide has also pressed the big red button marked (wears nose-peg in distaste) “IDM” and given us a whirlwind of glitches and clicks that provide an outlet for the suppressed emotion in the other three tracks. It becomes an electro romp with a gnarly bass line punctuated by a brief mid-riff "skip" in tempo; a compositional flourish that I'm sure RWV would have enjoyed. If Woodnote adds fibre, this adds roughage. Halogen - Length and Brecht (Synaecide Remix) is track two in the Soundcloud player below, which has barged its way in like an orange sore thumb because IDMf doesn't supply an open mp3 link for CTW's Yahoo media player, which is now feeling increasingly sorry for itself. (Feed readers click here to listen.)

Free music is rather scrumptious, isn't it?

I'm now going to undermine completely my pretentious burblings about over-arching compositional structures, etc., by advising listeners to rearrange the tracks' order so that Halogen's effort is followed by Woodnote's and then Synaecide's. That way, your ears build towards a climax (I apologise for that mental image) and then get a rubdown from Field Rotation's chill-out track: when the piano motif resurfaces, it feels like an old friend has returned. I've listened to /Remixed/ a lot and the track order is the only minor quibble I have, even though I've wibbled on about the importance of structural unity. Me = idiot. The album is a treat however you want to listen to it.

I dust memove by - sorry, I must remove my nose-peg to admit that I have nothing against IDM per se apart from the term itself, which I think is nonsensical and divisive. I especially have nothing against IDMf netlabel, which should be proud of itself for releasing such marvellous collections, and the IDM Forum, which should be proud of itself for keeping its shy and retiring members safe and secure in their little padded cells. Please keep the wardens on their toes by sending the netlabel lots of congratulatory emails and a promise of a gold watch - if a Paypal icon ever appears on their site. ;)

Halogen - Length and Brecht (Remixed) (link to zipped album & individual files)

Halogen's blog and MySpace

IDMf netlabel

Pretty Advanced

Few things get me off my sickbed quicker than the National Health Service prospect of a decent electronica album. Bitbasic, already the recipient of a CTW review (the lucky beggar!), has provided the medicine and called it, er, Leonard. He made it in a month as part of the RPM Challenge, netaudio's equivalent to National Novel Writing Month. Now, don't curl your lip. The Beatles' early albums and Mozart's last three symphonies all took less than a month to come to fruition. Leonard isn't quite in that class - but it's still a boatload of glitchy, grooving bliss.

My first (gasp! You mean there's more than one?) recommended track, Choice of Harp, ably demonstrates that sampling doesn't have to be all about chopping a choice hook or stuttering a vocal to within an inch of its life. It's one thing to slap a hip-hop beat over a sedate conversation about harps; it's another to add sub-bass and phasing synths and thus create electronica that conveys emotion.

Bitbasic - Choice of Harp

Wanton artiste that he is, Bitbasic has divided one of his songs into three parts and placed them at the start, middle and end of the album. Called Might...As Well...Not Bother, it will force those of you with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder to put them together on a playlist. It will also compel fans of Radiohead's Kid A era to send it to their nerdy perceptive friends.

*taps screen*

I said Radiohead. Wake up at the back there.

To save space, here's a summary of what else is here: Treeboy (jazz guitar & glitch); Skuppered (glitchy breakbeat with a lovely dash of chiptune); Mignon Forestry (crushed beats and soothing synths); Cdr882 (huge pads, a mid-section straight out of Pink Floyd and a headlong rush to sonic destruction); Six Junglists (breakbeat and suitably fast accompaniment); I Love Flin (chiptune, glitch, breakbeat and comedy carhorn) and Ode to Seed (ethnic percussion, reverberating sweeps, ring-modulated* percussion).

One of Bitbasic's most appealing characteristics is his gadfly nature; he can turn his hand to so many electronica genres that it's impossible to predict what's going to pop up on one of his tracks. For example, Plinks and Plonks for Stonks is a glitchy groover with acidic Daft Punk overtones and a ridiculously gorgeous sinewave-ish refrain. I can't resist giving it an outing.

Bitbasic - Plinks and Plonks for Stonks

Some of my trillions of readers flipped over Bitbasic's Grating Rainbows - they'll definitely want to meet Leonard. Although there's no tip jar or Paypal icon at Bitbasic's site, please think about sending him a "thank you/I want your babies" email.

Bitbasic - Leonard (link to individual mp3s & zipped album)

Bitbasic website

Bitbasic on MySpace

Rec72.net netlabel (German supplier of beats to the gentry)

*This is me attempting to sound knowledgeable and making a complete fool of myself.

Modem - Wooly Mammoth Stomp

 

I've followed Typepad's well-meaning advice about attracting readers to this greasy corner of the net, and have therefore used an obvious and explicit post title instead of my usual artsy-fartsy and obscure fare. Don't try to make a clever pun: just say what it is you're writing about.

*looks up*

Yeah, that's really going to help. People type that into Google all the time.

Modem, an aspiring sound designer from Tempe in Arizona, first essayed Wooly Mammoth Stomp, a fine example of IDM fast-paced, glitchy, danceable electronica, in his ModEP003 album of 2006. Two years later, with a little help from his friends, he released an EP of remixes of the aforementioned stomp. Now CTW will add some unwarranted amateurism to this hitherto orderly and professional process.

The first remix of Wooly Mammoth Stomp, by Terminal11, features a filthy electro riff, some nifty vocal stutters, an accordion and synth embellishments. Overall, it's a...wait...back up. Accordion? In an electro track? Oh well, in the wacky world of electronica one must expect the unexp...accordion? It should be disastrous, but it's so incongruous yet so well done that it somehow works.

Modem - Wooly Mammoth Stomp (Terminal11 Remix)

Following that is Captainmarmalade's Eskimo Kisses Remix, two minutes of blazingly rapid IDM glitchy percussion garnished with choppy synths and smash edits. The Nero's Day at Disneyland Remix by, er, Nero's Day at Disneyland is another two minutes of the same, albeit with a tired house-ish intro that is redeemed by smart synth work and an electro bass line.

Talve's Remix is a stealth song: this is an unremarkable, if well-produced, piece of uptempo electronica that, without announcing its intentions, engages you in polite conversation, lulls you into a false sense of security and then gently slips a cold hand up your thigh. Gradually, without any fanfare, the tempo drops and drops...and drops, until the track finally becomes slower than underfunded public transport; uncannily, the formerly percussive bleeps and blips morph into ambient pings reverberating against a shimmering synth pad. It's like sitting in a hot bath: two minutes of ooh-ing and aah-ing followed by deepening calmness and scented candles. Recommended for those who need to chill out. One might say that it's a mammoth track.

Glix's Anxt Remix is a deft slice of (dread acronym) IDM with odd flashes of synthy interest and glitchy tomfoolery. The Floorcrusher Remix by ANgR. MgMT. is a suitably aggressive reworking of the title track which confirms that every remix on this 26-minute long EP is impeccably produced and realised. There's nothing woolly about it at all. And yes, I did use the British spelling. W.o.o.l.l.y. So there.

If you like this free album, please don't forget to thank Modem. Don't forget to think about downloading his other free albums, MODEP003 & MODEP002. You could also visit his website's "Friends" section for links to the artists featured on Wooly Mammoth Stomp. End of orders.

Modem - Wooly Mammoth Stomp (link to individual mp3s and zipped album - it's a rather primitive download page. "192.rar" is the zipped album. As yet, Modem hasn't added an album cover, but you could always copy the picture he gave me for this review. Go on, rub my wool.)

Modem (much less primitive)

Modem on MySpace

This album has been rated IDM and is suitable for all IQs over 18

(I.D.M., the tag used on this album's mp3s, stands for "Intelligent Dance Music". It's a loathsome, divisive moniker so please understand that I've used it in this review's title because I'm highly proficient at weak humour.)

Listening to this three-track EP by Detroit resident Richard Sudney, released under his artistic pseudonym of Monopole, is akin to taking your seat in a darkened cinema and hearing the swish of parting curtains; suddenly, you're not in Kansas anymore. Monopole is a fan of Big Band music and jazz and, strangely enough, this shows: despite Silent Movie Surround Sound being a very modern essay in electronica, all three tracks use a clickety-clack rhythm that is a distant cousin to the purring movie projectors of those madcap years between the world wars.

Today's recommended track is, in my oh-so-swaggering opinion, an absolute stunner. Stereo-vision Radio makes epic use of hypnotic chimes, flanging white-noise, rattling percussion, dusty crackles and field recordings to steal a few minutes from your life and point you down a yellow brick road. Listen to this without interruption and you might experience one of those "I am the centre of global cool" moments that sometimes occur when trawling through the wonderful world of Creative Commons music:

Monopole - Stereo-vision Radio

It's quite a stew, isn't it? Real headphones territory. It's surprisingly fast-paced for a track that contains so much ambient noise. I especially like the compositional line that takes the listener on a David Lynch-esque journey, including a spooky bridging section that slows everything to a standstill before slurring back up to full speed. There are snatches of barely audible field recordings buried in the mix that ensure the listener is drawn deep into the track. When Monopole slams a door at the song's end and complains, "Ah, this won't work!", be sure to send him an email and assure him that it does, in fact, work rather well.

The title track, Silent Movie Surround Sound, is ostensibly about the upfront percussive glitches, but they're just the bones; the meat comes from the breathy white noise and the synths swelling slowly in the background. Again, chimes add a contemplative air to proceedings. The latter part of SMSS probably employs, like the rest of the album, manipulated field recordings from the abandoned factories and warehouses of once-busy Detroit and/or samples from the analogue electronics and outdated valve-driven communications equipment that Monopole has stashed in his basement recording studio/Dr Evil lair. 

Main Feature Intermission, with it's low-key snap, crackle and pop percussion, is the final and most straightforward of the three tracks - until drones and background noises join the party, when it claims its rightful place as the third part of Monopole's introspective trio. Like the rest of the album, there's a still, meditative quality to the composition even though every last second is crammed with notes, sounds, clicks and burrs. (If Silent Movie Surround Sound were vinyl, it'd need a duster.) Phasing synths, airport announcements, gruff percussion and echoing footfalls bring proceedings to a transcendental close. Don't they always?

Monopole is one of those musicians who makes me realise that there's still a lot of music yet to be composed. He has yoked his talent and imagination to music technology and produced some enthralling results. I hope his efforts bring him the recognition he deserves.

It's a pleasure finally to snuggle up to Test Tube netlabel, known for its exemplary presentation of experimental electronica (and alliteration). I couldn't quite click with some of their releases but now I'm happy to give them the glad eye and pat the empty seat next to me in the back row of the cinema.

Monopole - Silent Movie Surround Sound (link to individual mp3s and zipped album)

Monopole on MySpace (where you'll find other treats)

Test Tube netlabel

Yes, I'm Buff

Photo: Lewis Hine (1920) 

Just a quick note to say that Choc, the talented but naughty French electronica artist, made some extensive changes to the two of his albums reviewed here at CTW, which resulted in my links going haywire and other assorted nastiness. You'll be glad to hear that I fearlessly donned my dungarees and tinkered about; all has now been resolved. My apologies for any inconvenience and confusion. Fortunately, the backstage swearing and screaming repairs have presented an opportunity to remind CTW's readers that Choc has made some beautiful electronica. Have a look for yourself:

Choc - Sound Object Deconditioning

Choc - Urban Solstice

To answer your questions:

1. Yes, I am that toned. Especially my beer belly.

2. Another review is *gasp* imminent. Well, I say imminent. What I really mean is: it might crawl on to the net tomorrow if I can be bothered to twiddle my forefinger and depress the return key in an Oliver Hardy styleee.

Initial Confusion

 

Just about the rarest thing in netaudio land is a good vocal. Either the singing is poor, the mix is terrible or the lyrics are execrable - often all three. Vocals are difficult, hence the preponderance of instrumental music in the music-for-nothing world.

In O.C.D.N.T.N.T., Thomas P. Karni has called on various vocal talents (please see the website for individual credits), sampled their performances, chopped them up, shoved them in a blender and then popped them into an upfront mix (courtesy of Brian Gardner) that jumps out of your earphones. Push the button and listen to Thomas P. Karni - Pull The Trigger. See what I mean?

Most of the other songs on this nine-track EP straight outta Israel have the same qualities: stuttering vocals, superbly rhythmical glitches, in-your-face bass and a distinct lack of snare drums. It's the last factor that gives the dense tunes room to breathe and enables the sampling fun to ensue. The electro synths, smash cuts and playground vocals of Ultra Static Machine, for example, pack a quick-fire musical punch. Room.303 (the "." is not silent) tells the creepy, glitchy tale of nefarious secret agent activities before Yonathan Milo's sax bursts into the room with a jolly jazz lick and serenades some gorgeous vocal harmonies into the echoing distance. The rest of O.C.D.N.T.N.T. is like that: full of unexpected little tics and foibles. There's also some crunchy electro, genre fans.

The final song, Green Pills Pink and Blue, is the free bottle of water after the nightclub exertions of the rest of the album. It's a lullaby about how society, while insisting that children must be protected from bad drugs, is quite happy to ply unruly kids with ritalin and other behavioural control medication. Imagine a particularly peevish Roald Dahl poem orchestrated by Lionel Bart, although Dahl never penned anything quite as pithy as:

Central nervous system,

Central nervous system,

Central nervous system,

Fuck.

Quite. (Tsila Piran, on vocals and lyrics, has talent.) It's a lovely refrain too, the type of tune that you'll hum to yourself before realising that you're the only one doing it and the last person in the railway carriage to notice. Oh, alright. I'll break my one-song-per-review rule. God, I'm lovely. Thomas P. Karni - Green Pills Pink and Blue.

O.C.D.N.T.N.T. is released free of charge, but if you want to say thanks or give a tip you can choose the "donate" option on Thomas's website ...and see that he still hasn't got a working payment facility, even though he does say "thank you" in advance. Bless. Let's hope a few more downloads will encourage him to get the begging bowl out. Failing that, email him and say that he's made a terrific album and should make some more.

You'll have to forgive the spacey album cover - there isn't one, so I had to improvise (with permission). Hey, the Beatles didn't put a title on the White album. It's not that I couldn't get the software to work...

*bows*

Thomas P. Karni - O.C.D.N.T.N.T. (links to individual mp3s and wavs)

Thomas P. Karni home page

And finally, monsieur, a wafer-thin mint...

CTW interrupts its gentleman's-calling-card-on-a-silver-platter service to announce a credit crunch antidote for all you cheapskates peasants lovers of music who find themselves unable to fill the spare corners of your 1trnGB iPods due to the global economic downturn. Fret not - today, thanks to the hard-working people of netlabel land, CTW can recline with a cool drink and reap the benefits, as can you. It's a parasitical relationship, admittedly. Well, if bankers and bond traders can get away with it...anyway, here's a few morsels for you:

Ideology, fluffy German purveyor of hip/trip/dub-hop & dance, celebrates its 50th release with the unsnappily titled Re-iD.d 2, a remix compilation by the iD.EOLOGY Allstars. This slice of jazzy cinematic noir-hop should give you the idea: Zengineers - Un Taxi la Nuit (Dub One! la première fois). The office party must have been a good one, because Ideology has also released...

...the much more palatably titled Frühwerk, a compilation of tracks from the label's early years, when Ideology's artists were dipping their collective toes in the water.

Regular readers will already know of Phlow's Finest Hour compilations (Vols One, Two & Three):

   

...but might not know that fab Phlow has also given us Destination Cologne, a taste of the burgeoning Cologne (I nearly said Colonic) netlabel scene. Here's a track from it that's tighter than a cat's bottom: Phonout - Jutro. But Phlow haven't stopped there. Because they're rather good at what they do, and because they're evangelists for the netlabel cause, there's also...

 

...their latest compilation: Nivel del Mar - Sounds for Soulsurfers, a chill-out compilation that's well worth listening to, especially as it features some tracks from poor suckers who've already endured a CTW review. This one escaped a review thanks to my extreme laziness, the lucky blighter: Crookram - Hostile. Did Erik Satie know he could get his groove on? I like to think so.

 

Netlabelism, Belgian keeper of the Creative Commons flame, has unleashed the first in a new series of compilations based on genres. The new baby is called Netwaves Bytes: Electro 1 and concentrates on, er, electro. Try this and see if it's to your taste: Pero - El Ghost.

 

You could always join the never-ending story that is BlocSonic, who now offer 17 free compilation albums and will keep adding to this number until the internet explodes. No. 17 is entitled Refined Excursions For The Discriminating Listener.

 

 

If that isn't exciting enough for you, how about the very latest in netlabel chic, the hot-off-the-electronic-press Netaudio London 2008 Festival Compilation from the trendiest music event on the planet? (Apart from this blog, obviously.) Download the low-fi 128 Kbps mp3s from Last.fm and, if you find something you like, grab the high-quality FLAC files from archive.org.

I have yet more music for you, but I think this post has already veered dangerously close to "OMG, CTW is blowing my tiny little mind with the near-infinite possibilities of free netmusic and I shall have to propose marriage if this post goes on much longer" territory. Don't worry, my nubile slaves - CTW will let you recover for a while before providing another dose of netaudio lurve. In the meantime, to preserve the general public's morality...

*dons bow-tie and tuxedo, adopts BBC received pronunciation*

If you'd like to thank the netlabel community for the above offerings, please consider crossing their palms with silver - or copper, wheat, sugar or any other sellable commodity now that the world's financial system is kaput. Even a simple "thank you" goes a long way. Remember the unofficial motto of Creative Commons buskers:

"Netmusician - will work for praise, but money helps."

You're watching BBC 2. For our last programme of the evening, we invite you to sit back and enjoy a weighty philosophical dialogue that posits the significance of an innocent after-dinner mint. Goodnight.