Catching The Waves

Spring Clean 2: Super Nova

Having shredded my eardrums during the years I scoured the matrix for good free music, I've come to two conclusions:

1. What did you say? Huh? SPEAK UP, YOUNG MAN.

2. There seems to be a preponderance of electronica, techno and ambient music in the Creative Commons music world.

The latter conclusion is unsurprising. Perhaps it's because of the affinity between music software, the internet and nerds open-minded individuals that most albums sound like they were made with a laptop. There's nothing wrong with that; one of the joys of CC music is that anything goes, and it's always fun to hear musicians experiment with new sounds and genres.

However, one does sometimes hanker for stuff that sounds as though it was made outside the spare room/attic/dungeon; stuff that involves strumming, plucking and blowing. Yes, I'm talking about nipples old-fashioned things like brass sections, guitarists and real drummers.

Look no further than a track picked from the compilation album Tiuqottigeloot (netBloc No. 24), namely:

Juanitos - Hola Hola Bossa Nova

Juan Naveira and his France-based collective, Juanitos, have been blasting out, and I quote, "Calypso, rock'n'roll, reggae, Cuban sound, bossa nova, reggae, gospel, electronica, soul, boogaloo, jazz!" for nigh-on twenty years. As you've just heard, they're rather good at it, although the vocals can be a little rough and ready.

Want some more? Ahem. I hope you're planning some beach parties in the near future. There's the 2009 album, Best Of, whence originally came Hola Hola Bossa Nova; the follow-up called, er, Best of Volume 2, and the latest, Welcome to the House of F.U.N.:

Royalty-free music for professional licensing

Royalty-free music for professional licensing

Royalty-free music for professional licensing

It's as retro as it gets, isn't it? As is well known, when the French start to boogie the result is always ever-so-slightly naff, then kooky, and finally triumphantly joyful and funky. Juanitos epitomise this noble tradition and long may they do so. Try these three albums (there are another three at Jamendo) and see if your hips behave. EDIT: Jamendo seems a bit under the weather today. If you want to download the albums, use the "download" link on The Best Of, Vol. 2 and visit the other albums from within Jamendo. Sorry...

Remember, these songs are CC-licensed, so they are free to download - but please contact Juanitos if you'd like to do anything commercial with them. I'm sure they would welcome some appreciative emails (and even cash) to distract them from the doubtless riveting slanging match televised debate between Messrs. Hollande and Sarkozy.

My thanks to Mike at BlocSonic for his heroic work in compiling 93(!) albums full of free music. If your mp3 player is looking a little chubby these days, pop over to his awesome website and give it a workout.

(Apologies if the Jamendo players don't appear in Google Reader or on phones. I'm an idiot, remember?)

Juanitos.net

Juanitos at Jamendo

Blocsonic

Only Connect

Kemuzik One is a compilation of folk-pop songs sung by guitar-clutching winsome individuals with tremulous and/or gravelly voices. There are three acknowledged reactions to this type of thing:

1. Buy a machine-gun;
2. Stick a candle in a bottle, chill out and enjoy the glory of life;
3. Get arrested by the roadside at three in the morning, drunk as a skunk, clad in nothing but a pair of baggy grey Y-fronts and bawling an old flame's name at the moon.

I chose the second option; guns are expensive. Option three can wait.

Kemuzik One is an unusual release, partly because it's not one of the (very nice) ambient & electronica albums that swamp the free music world, but mostly because it's a compilation that hasn't succumbed to the "one supermodel and her East German hammer-thrower friends on a girls' night out" paradigm.* There's a spookily high number of good tracks amongst the fourteen on offer, many of which have been supplied by stalwarts of the CC music scene, though I must point out that one or two of the tracks' endings suffer from harsh edits.

To demonstrate this unusual achievement, I'll work very hard and highlight the first track on the album, in the hope you'll be seduced by Dutchman Thijs Kuijken's ukelele and the seductive sing-a-long feel of a hymn to forestry, avians and flames. (Folkies, eh? Tsk.)

Continuing my laziness, let's move to the second track. Madelaine Hart has a smoky bottom range and a tremulous upper register, so comes off as a non-substance abusing Billie Holiday. Have a listen to Inside Out, wherein a Hackney-residing Australian (who played Glastonbury in 2009) will make your bottom lip wobble:

You can pop along to Jamendo to download her two (criminally ignored) free albums or buy them from iTunes and Amazon if you want to help her out.

Cementing my slothness for all time, I come to the third track, Fragile Meadow by The Black Atlantic, who are fond of wibbling on about nature. It must be something in the Dutch water.

After mentioning that The Dada Weatherman's Painted Dream comes across as Dylan backed by a slightly confused Sibelius, and noting that the late blooming of electronica in Tim Fite's misery-fest Where Is My Woman is the only proof that Kemusik One was recorded in the 21st century, I'll leave you with Allison Crowe's Effortless, in which she croons over a piano and effortlessly evokes just about every shampoo advert ever made. La Crowe's current download figure at Jamendo stands at more than 120,000, which is a cheering thought.

Ill health and the nature of writing about a compilation has perforce meant a certain brevity in my descriptions; my apologies to the fine artists who I have neglected to mention. It might be an idea for curious (and curiouser) listeners to follow the links on Kemusik's Bandcamp page and see just how deep the free music rabbit hole goes. Please don't forget to thank the musicians and/or buy their commercial music.

My thanks to everyone responsible, especially Kemuzik supremo Przemek Bobnis, for adding this very welcome platter of free folk-pop sugar to the free music buffet. With most compilations, it's usually best to cut off the thick crust and keep the tasty but disappointingly small pie; you may find that Kemusik One will force you to loosen your belt a notch.

Kemusik - Kemusik One (Bandcamp link to zipped album & individual files)

Kemusik - Kemusik One (ditto but this time on Jamendo. Ah, the excitement!)

Kemusik Compilations

*This joke is twenty years out of date and was feeling neglected.

Slightly Intricate

Pixel Mixel by Bitbasic has been festering on my hard drive for quite a while. You see, I've already reviewed two of his albums and so I'm wary of appearing blinkered in my choices. In my defence, I declined to review his most recent free outing, Sprinkling Rainbows, because I found it lacklustre. However, talent will out. (Google Translation: I love this and hope you will too.) Released two months ago by Cologne's Rec72, one of the best CC netlabels around, Pixel Mixel offers 11 tracks of bluesy, glitchy, swinging, drill-and-bass goodness, and confirms the Bitster's status as a musician to follow. That doesn't mean you can stalk him or search his dustbins.

Now, I hope I don't offend anyone, but it seems to me that quite a lot of IDM/jungle/electronica seems intent on making listeners' headphones flap like a crane who's just aborted a splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico. Over-excited by the heady glitching and sampling possibilities of computer music, some artists tend to throw glitch after squawk after screech at their tracks and, understandably, can forget some of the compositional (Bit)basics, although I readily admit that that is their prerogative, and good luck to them. However, Pixel Mixel, like the previously reviewed Grating Rainbows and Leonard, contains melodies and riffs and, blessed relief, remembers to ring the changes with different tempi and a broad palette(SP) of sounds.

To continue this deadly dull riveting line of reason, your Honour, I should add that there are three main strands to Bitbasic's music and all of them are on display here. I give you exhibits A, B and C (and recommend that your Wigness give special attention to the jazz guitar-infused, mesmerising and schizophrenic title track):

(A) Lullaby-like melodies, often formed from bell-like tones: Bitbasic - An Opener

(B) Blistering, jungle-cum-breakbeat glitchy workouts and (C) swinging, swaggering, snap-your-hips downtempo blues riffs (I refer you to the sections at 1:53 & 4:05): Bitbasic - Pixel Mixel

But all that is irrelevant. What matters is that Bitbasic's music is melodic, funky and entertaining. His tracks are well-structured, varied in both texture and tempo (this is not as prevalent in electronica as one might think) and contain tunes that will spring from your lips while you're in the bath/supermarket/jail.

Fish Restaurant combines soothing and soaring synth arcs with an utterly mad glitch breakdown about two-thirds of the way through; Milk is as mellow and atmospheric as a Pink Floyd/Lemon Jelly mash-up (I love the stabs of distorted noise that sound like a shorting electricity sub-station); and Oily Slither will appeal to the millions tens of you out there who like to hear roughed-up synths swing in a downtempo, bluesy manner. I must also mention Sift If You Like, whose wildly panning, now-it's-clean-now-it's-dirty bass is joyfully funky. All of the tracks mentioned are stuffed to the gunnels with extraneous noises, but these are slotted in so skilfully that they enhance the listening experience.

If Pixel Mixel had turned up at the weigh-in with a nice round figure of, say, eight tracks, it would be a knock-out, an almost certain winner of the yet-to-be-invented "Netlabel Album of the Year" award. As it is, it's still a marvellous release (I like all the tracks, really) and makes me thankful, yet again, that artists like Bitbasic are having such fun with the Creative Commons model. On second thoughts, it would still get my vote. I'm so soft.

(This may come as a surprise to newcomers to netlabel land, but fans of CC music often have to dodge a double-edged sword wielded by, no, not record label executives, but the artists themselves, lusting madly after triple-CD concept albums and the chance to release 18 of their best tracks in one shiny package. Many CC releases would be all the stronger if artists could refrain from spreading themselves too thinly.)

If you like the album, try Leonard and Grating Rainbows and put together what will be a very entertaining playlist that will make your friends considerably less trendy than you. Then please do your good deed for the day and send Bitbasic and/or Rec72 a thank you email.

Bitbasic - Pixel Mixel (link to individual files and zipped album)

Rec72 netlabel (So cool es schmerzt.)

Bye. What? No, I'm going. I need a crate of beer salad. What do you mean you can't get enough of Bitbasic's creamy, crunchy goodness? (Ewww.) All right, here's what I'm going to do. Just for you, I'm going to ruin my reputation for impartiality and welcome another old friend back to CTW. It just so happens that there's a stonkingly good Bitbasic track on another Rec72 release and it comes with a beautifully relaxing album picture that any ambient artist would treasure.

Heh. Yes, Professor Kliq is back in town and this time he's brought his lab rats. I'll be brief because my brain is tired and so are your eyes. Download this and you'll own All Control, a funking Big Beat track as only the Prof knows how to do it (woody synth leads ahoy!) and four remixes of said track (one of which will confirm that Bitbasic has just as distinctive a style as PK's). The remaining tracks get three thumbs up - I must see the doctor about that - and a "We're not worthy" bow to Funkmeister Zentraal, otherwise known as Rec72. (I'm sure they're following me down the street. I must secure my dustbins.) Anyway, wrap your shell-likes around this:

Professor Kliq - All Control (Harder Than the Hard Version)

The man's not ready for the bathchair just yet, is he?

Sincere apologies to the obviously talented Pisu, Akashic Grenade and RoybOt for not bothering to write a proper review of their, and I quote, "perfectly sutured gabba techno dubstepped breakbeats" but my laptop has run out of ink. All Control is good, clean fun and packs a punch. It's also free. Enjoy the weekend.

Evil Kliq - All Control Remix EP (link to individual tracks and zipped album)

Rec72 netlabel (again)

No Doubting Thomas

Regular readers will know that it's my long-term ambition to make CTW redundant, superfluous and generally as irrelevant as BP's PR department. To that end, I sometimes add similar websites to my "General Netlabel Sites" category, an honour so highly regarded in the Creative Commons music world that it reacts as though a new star had ascended to the heavens. (Yeah, right.) And lo, it came to pass that yours truly looked upon the works of one Thomas Rauskamp and was well pleased.

Thomas is the editor of Germany's Beat magazine (it's similar to the UK's Computer Music Magazine), the only Hauptstraße periodical I know of that devotes time and space (reviews, interviews and roundtables) to the Creative Commons netlabel scene. Germany's position, Cologne's in particular, as Netlabel Zentraal makes me wonder, in a chicken-meets-egg analogy, if Beat spurred on the CC music movement there or vice versa. It's rare for a commercial publication to take the free music scene so seriously, but Beat does so because it realises that it's fun, refreshing and reflects the changes that the internet has wrought upon popular culture.

Thomas's enthusiasm for the scene is so great that he has forsaken all notions of propriety and started blogging reviews of CC albums, an idea which, as we all know, is monumentally stupid. More to the point, he reviews frequently and with great insight, and invariably explains various aspects of the netlabel scene while doing so. As such, I urge you to turn your traitorous backs on CTW and slake your thirst for good, legally free music by visiting Thomas' Posterous as soon as you can. If you do, you'll wonder why you ever turned to heroin and crack to obliterate the yawning mental chasms that opened while you waited...and waited...for the next CTW post. No, don't thank me, meine leiblinge, thank Thomas: he's the one doing all the heavy lifting.

What's that? You don't believe that there are much better free music sites than this one? Are you telling me that you are...

*digs deep into my vault of puns*

...doubting Thomas? (Sorry, sorry. That was a particularly egregious joke, a low blow in the fight for Creative Commons credibility. I won't do it again.) If you visit his website, you'll find lots of lovely netlabels to explore, and you'll have found a great new resource for squeezing enjoyment out of this magical online world we call Duhweb, or Dasveb, as my German friends refer to it. Look, trust me. I should know all about these things, having been reviewing free music for a few years. After all, I've been at it for so long, I'm preposterous.

*rimshot*

Suck it, bitches.

Thomas' Posterous

Eleven Out Of Ten

Photo: Bruce Turner

Here is a true story, told in the hope that you will forgive CTW for making more comebacks than a boomerang: not ten seconds before I pressed the "Die, die, die!" button and published the very last post at Catching The Waves, one of my lackeys presented a missive, written on vellum, from a devout music fan. I sighed, pawed the letter from the proffered velvet cushion and proceeded to scream.

The letter was from a Robert Nagle, Esq. I dimly remembered some nonsense from six months beforehand, when he had contacted me and announced that he was going to investigate this "free music" mullarkey and see if there was anything worth hearing. If he found something notable, would I be interested in his conclusions? Busy as I was with matters of state, I allowed him to kiss my imperial ring - yes, thank you, that's quite enough of that, my dirty-minded readership - and shooed him away with all the panache of an in-demand haute couturier. Now, here he was again, like an audio-crazed Terminator, to announce that he had listened to 2,200 albums on Jamendo and had picked the best eleven. That's two thousand, two hundred albums, people. Murderers have received less harsh sentences than that.

The only conclusion to be drawn is that Robert is completely off his chump truly dedicated to finding legally free music and that he should be taken to a secure facility and sedated all netmusic fans and artists owe him a debt of gratitude and other clichés. Not only has he written a long article about the eleven worthy albums, cunningly titled 11 Incredible Musicians You Can Download For Free (Best of Jamendo), he has also interviewed all of the artists concerned, thus providing PR manna from heaven - and a quick ego-rub - to people who like to release free music under a CC licence. Kudos, Robert.

And that's not all. Such is his love of the free stuff, Robert has also added additional addenda to his aural adumbration (sorry, my "a" key stuck momentarily) with an appraisal of Jamendo and tips on how to get the best out of it. He also mentions old CTW favourites Professor Kliq, Josh Woodward, Brad Sucks in dispatches and recommends good blogs, i.e. the must-visit Free Albums Galore.

It was absolutely fascinating to peruse the eleven picks and travel from Hungary to Bulgaria to Germany to France to Poland and ever onwards, like a drunk student with an InterRail pass. (The train to America must have been interesting...) Some I knew (Tryad's Listen and Antony Raijekov's Jazz U amongst others) but most I didn't. Some left me stony-faced, others happy. All were worth hearing. I won't bore you with my irrelevant opinions on the albums Robert has chosen, other than to declare that the strongest of the bunch, with apologies to the other worthy candidates, is that old Creative Commons warhorse, Aleksi Virta Meets Torsti At The Space Lounge. Väinö Ala-Härkönen's opus has been out for years, got reviewed up hill and down dale, passed the 42,000 download mark at archive.org, and has its own dogbasket in the CTW household. If you don't know it but are in the market for some trippy, dubby, funky, trip-hop-funk-bigbeat-dub-hop-skip-n-jump-hop, your luck is in. Enjoy...but not on Jamendo, 'cos I can't find it there. I think the internet hates me; I'm just too sexy for it. Take two: enjoy a selected track and ignore the album cover that follows it.

Aleksi Virta - Dragons

Brrr. Almost as bad as my shaving mirror.

My sincere thanks to Robert for his efforts, which really should be rewarded with a shower of comments at his stimulating website, Idiotprogrammer. My thanks also to Jamendo, which is struggling to make its way through the global downturn, and my best wishes to the fans who are trying to save their beloved tangerine free CC music source.

Väinö Ala-Härkönen - Aleksi Virta Meets Torsti At The Space Lounge (zipped album & individual files)

Robert Nagle: Idiotprogrammer (not my opinion but the name of his blog...)

Priceless Music

It's official: Catching The Waves is the world's first zombie Creative Commons music blog. Yes, I've killed it, buried it and sowed the grave with lime, but here it is, ready to rake its filthy, jagged fingernails across the ears throat of anyone it meets. Honestly, it's not my fault.  I've finished with the damned thing but something I did in December has just raised its ugly head (out of the grave, as it were) and needs hitting with a sharp-edged spade. Besides, I know you're keening with grief at the demise of CTW, and this post will recommend a place where you can find free tunes aplenty. I'm so lovely.

Let me take you to a board meeting circa 2006. Around the polished oak table are heavies from WFMU, an American free-form non-commercial radio station that has been broadasting from New Jersey since 1958, and legal beagles from the Office of the New York State Attorney General. Think ceiling fans, drawn blinds and cigar smoke.

The chief lawyer twangs his red braces and announces that WFMU is to make contemporary music of all genres available to everyone across the state and compile a podsafe online music library.

"What am I, chopped liver?" asks a sweating radio luminary who has seen too many Woody Allen movies. "Who's going to pay for this smorgasbord?" he adds, hoping to sound sophisticated.

"Fugeddabout it," responds the lawyer, doing his best Chazz Palminteri impression. "Da Noo Yawk State Music Fund...

*CTW ignores the "You are offending millions of people" pop-up warning*

...is gonna ante up the dough. Da big record companies have been running a payola racket and we're giving youse somma da court settlements."

Hands are shaken and brows are mopped. But what to call this new archive of free music, this music archive that is free? Cigars are chomped, generic Italian dishes digested (as is one Chinese take-away, ordered by a newbie lawyer who hasn't yet been hazed at the local Masonic lodge), and legal pads filled with possible titles. At 3am, they have it: the Free Music Archive.

Bada-bing bada-boom.

In April 2009, the website went live under the joint management of WFMU and some non-profit community radio stations and venues. Go there and you'll find a constantly growing library of free music that you can listen to and download. There are also short artist biographies and links to the musicians' websites should you wish to investigate further. If you're a little overwhelmed by the volume of music and not sure where to start, investigate the curators' recommendations or take a look at the FMA's constantly updated charts. I'll let the site itself take over:

Inspired by Creative Commons and the open source software movement, the FMA provides a legal and technological framework for curators, artists, and listeners to harness the potential of music sharing. Every artist page will have a bio and links to the artists’ home page for users to learn more about the music they discover via the Free Music Archive. We also seek to compensate artists directly. Artist, album and song profiles will contain links to buy the full album from the artist and/or label’s preferred vendor(s).  Users can also “tip” an artist if they like what they hear, sending a donation directly to the artists’ PayPal account.  Artist profiles include tourdates, encouraging users to step away from the glowing computer screen and see some real live music.

Legally free music is still in for a bumpy ride, in my opinion, especially if it becomes truly popular. It remains to be seen whether the Creative Commons approach and the similar format adopted by the FMA can withstand the rigours of the internet. It's early days for the FMA (which will be refined as it grows in popularity), but it clearly has the potential to be a superb asset for fans of legally free music. Fingers crossed, everyone.

Anyone can visit and use the site, although music and editorial content is posted on an invitational basis - which brings me to the December stuff I mentioned.

*switches on megaphone*

AND NOW, AT LAST, SOME MUSIC. BUT FIRST, WITH THANKS TO ENGADGET, A JAPANESE ROBOT WILL PERFORM AN INTERPRETATIVE BREAK-DANCE SEQUENCE TO CONVEY MY JOY AT FINALLY KILLING CTW. TAKE IT AWAY, MANOI GO:

Yeah, baby.

The FMA were idiotic kind enough to invite me to put together a compilation cum playlist of tracks. They'll be familiar to regular visitors to CTW, but I hope they will serve as a good antidote to the "All free music is rubbish" argument. To whit: some free music is superb. I am most grateful to Cameron Perkins, the Culture Program Assistant at creativecommons.org, and Jason Sigal, FMA Managing Director, who were very patient with me.

To give you a taste: Karaoke Mouse - Shanghai Reggae (DJ Side's alternate take)

The Catching The Waves FMA "Mix" (I'll make you go via the Creative Commons so you can bask in the glory of the CTW logo, which is made of plasticine and a lot of swearing.)

The Free Music Archive

Eurotunnel! Thou Shouldst Be Living At This Hour

Last month, 1.2 million Norwegians sat down and watched Bergensbanen, a documentary showing ...wait for it...seven and a half hours of the beautiful snow-laden, mountainous train journey from Bergen, on the west coast of Norway, to Oslo, spiritual hometown of Earth's leggy blondes.

The NRK, the state-owned broadcasting company, has released the entire documentary under a 3.0 CC licence, meaning anyone can download, copy, remix and transmit the result, as long as they  provide full attribution. (Please refer to the site for relevant details.)

Ambient artists across the world are now flipping out. But the video is not just for cuddly, tea-drinking, sandal-wearing ocarina players. Meat-eaters are allowed to slice and dice Bergensbanen. Please do so.

What, not interested? Are you trying to tell me that nearly eight hours of a train journey might be less interesting than navel fluff? Shame on you. Here's a snippet of the journey through Finse, which doubled as the ice planet Hoth in The Empire Strikes Back. Look, if George Lucas decided that the place was exciting, that's good enough for me.

*thinks about the prequel Star Wars trilogy*

It's still worth watching. Three cheers for imaginative Scandinavian state-run broadcasting systems and national rail networks!

*thinks about last sentence*

I need to get out more.

Found via Wired. I'm so cheap.

The Glue Factory Beckons

It has long been my intention to make Catching The Waves superfluous to requirements. Some of the snarkier of you out there may have thought that that day was reached at least a couple of years ago, but it has come to my attention that there are now quite a few folks who are actively promoting the cause of CC music, whether they be musicians, netlabels or CC portals. I'll keep CTW going for a bit longer, but I think it's only fair to remind my rabid, locust-like readership that there are plenty of people who do what CTW does and more, only far more frequently and much more professionally.

*Millions of voices cry out: "Freedom!"*

Not convinced? I give you Exhibit A: Phlow's Advent calendar. (I've burbled on about Phlow before, and about how they're a force for good. If CC music ever joins the mainstream, Phlow will hopefully be at the heart of it.) Anyway, what I'm trying to say is that if you're interested in Creative Commons music and would like to know more, you could do a lot worse than pop over to Phlow right now and open a few windows in their beautiful Advent calendar, which contains various netmusic luminaries' "Best Creative Commons Music Moments in 2009". Hidden behind each window are five-track mixtapes, five recommended netlabels and five recommended albums for 2009. In short, you'll find many interesting things to hear and explore, thus helping to make CTW less relevant and more redundant, something that my bed and sore ears are only too happy to admit.

But be warned: Phlow's standards slip sometimes. Don't believe me? I give you Exhibit B: click on the outmoded recording format and enter a world of pain.

A Nice Bit Of Crackling

...is a rather quaint way of expressing admiration for the female form. It can also be applied to an appreciation of dusty, ambient-tinged trip-hop, such as you'll find in Beats for the Subverted by London turntablist Dustmotes.

The album's liner notes for the ten tracks claim DJ Shadow, Unkle and Portishead as influences. I'm not sure about the last two artists, but the similarity to the soundscape of DJ Shadow's influential Endtroducing is undeniable, particularly in Annica. There are no songs as such: Beats is a mood album, so look elsewhere for dramatic changes of key or tempo. The recurring compositional motif is a slow drum loop backed by an echoing electric/acoustic piano chord. A hissing, crackling sparseness (otherwise known as trip-hop cat-nip) is to the fore so much that sometimes, as in Attrition #2, there's more ambience than actual trip-hop, lending the album depth as well as groove. The white noise, hiss, reverb and vinyl static of the final track, Outro, is something that would more often be found filed under "drone" than "trip-hop".

However, as befits a turntablist's opus, Beats for the Subverted is a platter of relaxing grooves formed mostly of vinyl-based samples caked with overdubbed bass and percussion. In fact, it would be a late-night album par excellence, were it not for the extracts from famous political speeches littered between the mellow breaks, blended piano chords and ever-present vinyl crackles. The vocalists include such young up-and-comers as Winston Churchill and John F. Kennedy. Your MC for my recommended track, Les Main Sales, is none other than Malcolm X. Oh, go on then, have another smooooth track, Animals, complete with a less than cheerful quote from George Orwell's Animal Farm and a surprise guest appearance from SoundCloud's increasingly ubiquitous media player. [Also via CTW's media player. I can multi-task with the best of them.] So, have a crack at Les Mains Sales and Animals and see what you think:

Who knew political subversion could be so cool? Don't tell Fox News about Dustmotes A.K.A. Paul Croker or we'll all be for the high jump.

Ferdowsi features reversed sounds (a favourite technique of Dustmotes, according to the notes), a mystical, Middle Eastern atmosphere and a very American quotation from none other than Ulysses S. Grant. Told you this was subversive. Trust me, if you like Ferdowsi, you'll be in need of more free exotic trip-hop in the form of 1000 Sounds Lotus by The Orientalist.

The chief strength of Dustmotes' album is its atmosphere. Some albums feel artificial and cold; this feels analogue, warm and cosy. For instance, Forewarned's bass plumps pillows rather than pinches posteriors, and its jazz trumpet barely raises more than a mournful wail - yet they're substantial enough to complement the chopped guitar chords and another professional drum beat. You're welcome to explore the remaining tracks and ignore my laziness at not mentioning them.

My thanks to Dustmotes and Public Spaces netlabel for their efforts, but it's time for a caveat. For some unfathomable reason, the tracks on Beats for the Subverted are not available as mp3s. Yes, that's right; you can't get it in the world's most popular audio format. Now, having downloaded and listened to rather a lot of free albums over the years...

*calls therapist on speed dial*

...I'm still amazed at the lengths to which netlabels will go in order to make it awkward for would-be listeners to get hold of, er, you know, the free music. Audiophiles will love the Wav and FLAC options - and normally I'd give a round of applause for such forethought - but most people just want to download and press play, thus making mp3s a necessity. Could PublicSpaces Lab add another download option? Pwetty pweez? The more people who hear the album, the better.

Stop the press! Although PublicSpaces inexplicably don't provide a link, individual mp3 files are available from archive.org here. I'll add the mp3 stream for Les Mains Sales and Animals to my review. Many thanks to @lukelibrarian for living up to his name.

Dustmotes - Beats for the Subverted

@dustmotes - please send him a "thank you" tweet if you liked his scrumptious album.

Public Spaces Lab netlabel

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

Getting Down To A Fine Art

It seems that every other album I review has a pristine white background. But don't worry your pretty little head about it: instead, come home from work/college/the pub/prison, select Blue Swerver's The Art of Collapsing from your extensive collection of CTW recommendations, flop onto the sofa, sip something good (tea, beer, wine, life partner) and listen to smoky vocals drift over eleven electronic blues-jazz morsels. Yeah, baby. For those of you out there wondering how to blend jazz and the blues with electronica, look no further than the first track, the spookily good Untempo, which morphs from jazzy blues to downtempo IDM to electronica before culminating in a short slice of trip-hop and an ending that suits the final lyric perfectly. Less than four minutes long, its many changes in tempo and mood provide real value for money – if that's not a surreal thing to say about a free CC album. Don't blame me if you wake up tomorrow surrounded by empty wine bottles, a full ashtray and a trilby you've never seen before. As I said, it's the first track (apologies to feed readers - I'm waiting for Jamendo to do something about its invisible media player):

The Art of Collapsing is a disciplined album from Blue Swerver, a five-strong band from London. There's no egotistical jazz twiddling (which is something I love, when in the mood): all the musicians serve the song. Nick Street's electronic trickery and Robin Grey's (for it is he) bass provide a firm bedding for Adam Green's whispered/slurred vocals and Jules Fenton's judicious drumming. Ben Oliver is a dab hand at jazz-blues piano. According to them, the god Orpheus helps out on triangle. So they've got that going for them.

A true fact about track seven: Zinedine Zidane is not the name of a French footballing wizard but is actually a formula invented by Louis Armstrong in his bid to discover jazz's equivalent to the theory of relativity: Satchmo found that those five syllables, pronounced in that precise order, immediately increased a singer's hipness by a factor of cool. He died too soon to publicise his findings – so thank CTW for the research. Adam Green's vocals in the verses totter along the ragged edge between ultra-jazzy and off-key, but the chorus is the coolest, catchiest thing you'll hear all week. (Find Zinedine Zidane by clicking on a track name in the Jamendo player and choose from the pop-up playlist.) It ends with a marvellously pithy line: The rest of the week was much better/I finally had it out with my neighbour's dog/He's been pissin' on my roses/for way too long.

Speaking of which, what a pleasure it is to hear such distinctive lyrics. This from Job, where a jazz piano and light electronica help to tell the Biblical tale: They said, “Crazy, you're crazy still praying to Him.”/He said, “God is my shepherd even though he burns my skin.” Or there's this from At The Movies: Side by side at the movies/disappointing pizza and a slow walk home.

There are a couple of beauty spots in the album's otherwise flawless complexion: the vocals suffer from too much sibilance and my crappy sound system distorts the trumpet solo in Tasky, though the latter's verses of beat poetry come through very clearly, which, depending on your taste for wordplay, may or may not be a good thing.

Right, this review is getting longer than my alcohol-deprived tongue, so I shall leave you to discover the other tracks with the advice to stick the album on your "chilled Anjou/Muscadet/Gewürztraminer/Buckfast Cider" playlist, if you have one. Please think about making a donation to Blue Swerver to thank and encourage them - it's easy to do at Jamendo. I can't remember if I found The Art of Collapsing via the peerless Free Albums Galore, but that's not going to stop me from a drive-by plug. ;)

Blue Swerver - The Art of Collapsing on Jamendo & Modifythevan (zipped album & individual files)

Blue Swerver on MySpace

Modifythevan netlabel

I've been to a marvellous party

 

Still hibernating? Yes, me too. Now, I could be cruel and blast you out of your hammocks and have you on deck like the dishevelled bunch of ne'er-do-wells we both know you are, but I'm too cuddly for that. Instead, I shall grant you another forty winks courtesy of Mentz's Relocate, a little jewel of an EP that is smoother than a disgraced banker's defence lawyer.

Mentz, otherwise known as Stephan Raab, comes from The Hague and, unlike some residents of that fair city, is entirely innocent of crimes against humanity. However, he is guilty of producing some down-tempo jazz that is so laid back it's frequently roused from shop doorways in the early hours of the morning. You need proof? Your Honour, allow me to submit track no.2 from this absurdly soothing collection of four:

Mentz - Sleepy 

Yes, that was just one minute and thirty-nine seconds of coma-inducing jazzy bliss. Put it on a loop over the PA at the United Nations and the world will be a friendlier place.

For something a little livelier - only a little, mind - turn to Tumble, a smoky, brush-laden saunter through four minutes of music weighed down by little more than the odd piano chord, chimes, harp and some light percussion. It should come with its own table in a kasbah bar but instead you'll have to wait for next year's Apple conference and the unveiling of hard-light holographic drinking dens.

The final track, Shackles, drags the whole EP, tyres screaming, into life without parole for being a genocidal maniac second gear. There's a cinematic feel to it, thanks to the shimmering strings in the background and the reverberating hi-hat and cymbals. A trumpet wanders up and down a music scale looking for Harry Palmer circa 1965.

Finally, we come to Introduction, the first (heh) track, which lasts all of 34 seconds but still manages to hitch an extract from a strait-laced Xmas story to a smoke-wreathed jazz combo, thus making one cooler and the other holier. You can decide which is which.

Relocate was originally issued on the much-missed but soon-to-return Tokyo Dawn Records; Fant00m netlabel, in their wisdom, decided to reissue it (a rare thing in the netlabel world) and I'm jolly glad they did or I would have missed out on a sublime listening experience. It would be fun if they released more "lost" netlabel records of all genres, including opera. I hope so, 'cos then, if asked, they could say that they were Fant00m - of the opera.

*runs*

Mentz - Relocate EP (link to individual files and zipped album at archive.org)

Mentz on MySpace

Fant00m netlabel & Fant00m e-zine

Tokyo Dawn Records

Yes Dot Happy

Those of you who have seen Quantum of Solace, the latest James Bond film, will know that it drops the unsuspecting viewer slap-bang in the middle of a frenetic action sequence. Kriss's No.Mad does the same to the innocent listener. Press "play" and you're plunged into Adventures in Jax, a dose of bass-heavy, all-enveloping, minimal-ish house in which Kriss favours build-ups over breakdowns only to discard them suddenly, thus increasing the groove, if you get my drift. It's relentless and cooler than anything else - just like 007.

After that comes Undersun, the loudest musical element of which is a rasping hi-hat that batters the track into submission until halfway in, when swooping strings, electro eruptions and a massive trumpet stab arrive to add movement, tonal variety and pelvic gyrations. It took a few plays to get into this, but now when I listen to Undersun I seem to lose nine(!) minutes from my day. It's sneakily hypnotic.

All you'll get from the third track, Jazz Club, is a jazz piano workout pushed along by nothing more than a kick drum, hi-hat, bass and an occasional drum roll. In other words, it's standard 1950s jazz, except that the modern kick and bass have hitched a ride in the Tardis and transformed a swinging jazz session into a dance track that skips along very pleasantly. Snippets of conversation intrude and reinforce the party atmosphere. A snare drum joins in near the end - hey, it's traditional: even a classically trained pianist like Kriss can't resist the pull of the four to the floor. Apart from being righteously funky, it's also the EP's shortest track and so gets the honour of having a little triangle planted in front of it:

Kriss - Jazz Club

Still interested? Check out Check In and you'll find an understated groover with a breakdown courtesy of an airport tannoy announcement. Like most things to do with airports it takes a little too long, but it's still a decent listen that gave me the opportunity to write "tannoy".

The final effort, Stereophonic Sound, is a slow-starter that threatens to be the runt of the musical litter until Kriss uses running water as an instrument (electronica never lets you down, does it?) and essays some swirling synths and sundry reverberating noises. Defying the po-faced voiceover, Stereophonic Sound becomes a hip-swinger. Play this loud and watch your granny bust a move. Or her hip.

No.Mad validates CTW's First Law of Dance Music: all dance tracks are a third too long. The trouble is, once you become familiar with the album's five tracks, time passes rather quickly in a theory-of-relativity kind of way, undermining my mathematical construct concerning music that ventures above 120 beats per minute. The sooner CERN gets fixed, the better; Science is laughing in my face. Luckily, I can't hear Science because I'm listening to this thumpingly good EP.

It's the festive season, in case you haven't noticed. Kriss (A.K.A. Bari native Cristian Pugliese), the owner of Undercut Records, is probably not expecting any reward for his free musical efforts, other than an emailed grazie. But if you adore No.Mad, give a thought to pressing his Paypal button and sending him something of good cheer.

All that remains is to wish my millions of readers a very merry Krissmas.

[/Dickens]

Kriss - No.Mad (link to individual files and zipped album)

Kriss on MySpace (the video to Jazz Club will raise a smile)

Unfoundsoundrecords (from Philly, baby)

Here's what I had for lunch

The above cartoon (click to enlarge) from Penny Arcade is the perfect accompaniment to the announcement that Catching The Waves is now on Twitter. I don't know whether this will be of any use to anyone; we'll see how it goes. But if you want to read the once-yearly update of a sloth browsing the internet, you've found the right place. You may also find some rather good free music, released with the full knowledge and approval of the musicians and netlabels who made it. It's up to you whether you give them any money, you bums.

Other thoughts:

• Please visit Penny Arcade;
• It's Typepad's fault, not mine, that Twitter doesn't align in the sidebar;
• It's Twitter's fault, not mine, that my username is "catchingthewave";
• I promise not to tweet about what I had for lunch.

Okay, I have to go now. Poop time. While you're waiting for me to return to the table, please listen to Flu - Também and try not to think about the noises you can hear coming from the cubicle. If you like the track - and why wouldn't you? - there's more Brazilian samba-ish funk at the link below. In fact, there's twelve more tracks of the stuff, it's all free, and some of it might find favour with you. My thanks to Flu for the highly enjoyable album and my sincere apologies, too, for being too lazy to review it properly. Installing Twitter drained all the juice from my personal battery.

Okay, poop is coming out. You could always ask the management to turn up the volume.

Flu - No Flu do Mundo (link to zipped album and individual files)

Flu on MySpace

Bump Foot netlabel (One of the many reasons to like Japan.)

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.

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

Triple Word Score

*taps screen*

Still here? Life gets in the way, etc. Thank you for your patience.

I'm torn. I have in my hands an album and its remix. How to choose? What to do? There's only one way to settle it. In the immortal words of Harry Hill: FIGHT!

In the blue corner, weighing in at 11 tracks, 24 minutes and 16 seconds, is an instrumental hip-hop album, Scrabble by Cresh Frazy, released in 2005.

In the red corner, weighing in at 11 tracks and a much heavier 38 minutes and 41 seconds, is Scrabble: The Unauthorized Remix by Qu.one, released earlier this year. The remix packs a punch but the original has the reputation. Let's get rrrrrrrrready to reviewwwwww. Now, listen closely: no gouging, no low blows and break when I tell you to. Come out fighting. Scores at the end of each round.

Crayola - Listening to the original chime-laden slice of trip-hop is a cool way of spending three minutes; its remix maintains an hypnotic groove that makes my head go up and down. 0-1

Krillionix - There's an 80's fretless bass in here: feel the fear. Fortunately, there's some breakbeat, piano and flute to ease the pain. Qu.one gives Cresh Frazy's beat a steroid injection. It feels chunky. Your speakers will like it. 0-1

Piano Lessons - A piano riff reminiscent of John Carpenter's Halloween gets bashed about by an acid bass and hip-hop one-two. Qu.one's bass line benefits from a much punchier sound. Again, it's 0-1 and the crowd is baying for blood.

Pleasant (Interlude) - This is a snippet of dialogue from Pleasantville, a film about the contrast between today and the 1950s. The remix is bit-crushed and delayed to within an inch of its life. 0-0. The crowd boos, unappreciative of this lifeless round.

In Hindsight - The remix is twice as long as Cresh Frazy's chillout original. Despite lots of ambient crackles and a tempo that accelerates towards the end, Qu.one overextends himself and comes off worse. 1-0

The Nex - At just over a minute long, this is a relaxing piece of breakbeat-ish electronica. Again, Qu.one beefs up the sound and the bit-crushing, but then slips in a little drum and bass to invigorate the track. 0-1

War - Two minutes of lightweight breakbeat. The remix slaps on an additional five, yes, five minutes, and a heavier kick and snare, but not much innovation. The judges wimp out: 1-1

Live @ The Latin Quarter - Ooh, latin jazz and breakbeat. The remix has nothing to do with such trifles, preferring a housey dance feel. 1-0. The crowd roars. Cresh Frazy is coming off the ropes!

Art Test (Interlude) - Almost a knockout from Cresh Frazy. Bruce Dern extols the virtues of an art course while sounding so bored that it's a wonder he stays conscious to the end of the advert. Qu.one's version, though containing more overtly funny lines, can't compete with the almost comatose Dern. 1-0

Visualeyes - Cresh Frazy mooches around an ambient intro, then wallows in a gentle guitar and trip-hop track; it's soothing and groovy. The remix does away with the noises off, ups the tempo and drops the hammer; it's energising and groovy. 1-1

Outriz - Breakbeat, vinyl crackles and jazzy guitar. I'm happy. The remix samples Thank You For The Music, a fitting end to Qu.one's tribute to Cresh Frazy's opus. He's also, you've guessed it, beefed up the bass and beats a bit. 1-1

So Qu.one slugs it out and wins 7-6 on points. Congratulations to the new kid on the block. Don King is waiting for you. Run away!

Qu.one's album doesn't remix Cresh Frazy's original so much as give it a wax and polish. There are no great compositional flourishes but it definitely sounds better - it's heavier, crisper and hence more immediate, though he's overfond of bit-crushing, IMHO. But the bulk of the credit must go to Cresh Frazy - they're his tunes. Let's say that the boxing board of control is referring the decision to arbitration.

Like a lot of people, I don't have the wherewithal to buy an album and its remix just for the fun of comparing them. Thanks to the netlabel scene, I've been able to contrast and compare these musicians' works and keep an eye out for them in the future. Why not visit their sites (and the good people at Sixteensteps netlabel) to boost the traffic of all concerned? I must stop ending these reviews with cheesy brochure-speak. There, did it.

By the way, Cresh Frazy owes me treatment for carpal tunnel syndrome. Try typing his moniker and see how many mistakes you make. And a special thank you to Typepad for its crappy picture editing.

Cresh Frazy - Scrabble (link to individual mp3s)

Cresh Frazy's MySpace

Qu.one - Scrabble: The Unauthorized Remix (link to individual mp3s and zipped album)

Qu.one's MySpace

Sixteensteps netlabel

 

Let's Do The Time Warp Again

Netmusic enthusiasts are rushing to hear French musician Degiheugi's latest release, Only After The Show, because they've already heard the subject of today's egregiously late recommendation of an album that was released a whole three years ago. (Yep, Catching The Waves might as well be called Behind The Times.) Anyway, though Degiheugi's current work is fine and upstanding, it's his 2005 opus, Aquilon, that gets CTW shaking its finely toned and not-at-all-sagging booty.

Aquilon is a pretty seamless whole; tracks bleed into each other in a manner reminiscent of a concept album. No, don't run away. You'd be missing out. It's chock-full of samples, though I've no idea what is entirely original, what's been chopped up or what's been lifted wholesale. The album is ostensibly an instrumental hiphop workout but it's actually a finely detailed piece of experimental electronica. It's like buying a second-hand car from a back-street garage, only to find that you've acquired Herbie.

First off is Comme un enfant sans mère, which starts off with a crushing drum beat, calls in some dubby elements and then quotes from Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child, a well-known Negro spiritual. (Please note that I use the word "Negro" in its historical context only. Don't hit me.) It's a head-nodder.

The second track, Intro: Aquilon, (yes, intros should come at the start - don't blame me) makes good use of doom-laden strings, ambient drones and record scratches to place the listener in a comfortable armchair and a glass of something special, warm with the knowledge that a good album is underway.

There's some witty sampling in Un jour de printemps, featuring a sample from Greenfields by The Brothers Four. Degiheugi raises the pitch of "Once there were green fields..." so that it sounds like the Munchkin Massed Choir, slots it into a trip-hop rhythm, and then cuts it to just the first syllable, punning on the basic funk rule of emphasising the "one", the first beat of four. He also throws in some Spanish guitar, some gently mewling trumpets, and all of a sudden a track that could have been irritating becomes delightful, getting deeper and more reflective as it progresses, notwithstanding, and here my cup doth overflow, a breakbeat workout near the end.

My Rickety Piano is like something Michael Nyman or John Adams might have pounded out on their Steinways late one night in a who-can-use-fewer-notes contest. (A Steinway is not a euphemism. Get your minds out of the gutter.) A two-note piano riff gets chopped up and sampled until it sounds, well, rickety. It's a confident piece of music.

Mild-mannered hiphop is a feature of Ami, tu veux devenir poete until it rips its suit off to reveal a Superman drum 'n' bass costume, turning an atmospheric piece of maudlin Franco-jazz into something more invigorating.

My baby don't cares the shows [sic] introduces Nina Simone to glitchy beats and a thudding distorted bass. I'm not sure if this track is entirely successful. It's followed by Soldier In The Sky, an unusual mix of dub and electro with contributions from Virus and DJ Oscan.

Hot Girl (trip hop with naughty female noises), Entr'track 1 (lo-fi pop) and Plus de Souvenir are each just over a minute long, cleansing the listener's aural palate before serving meatier fare. Plus de souvenir is a dusty jazz loop with a trip-hop beat. CTW is defenceless against that sort of thing.

Baby Boom is helpfully self-descriptive, as you'll discover on hearing a baby gurgle delightedly through a breakbeat romp. For Organe au Gramme, Degiheugi produces a laid-back electronica piece reminiscent of Moby's Play. A thumbs up, in case you're wondering.

The album ends with Le Pince Oreilles, which is over ten minutes long. Hey, it's a netlabel release; no kow-towing to corporate record companies here. If Degiheugi wants to slap a Pink Floyd-ish cinematic/prog rock/trance/trip-hop epic on the end of the album, good for him. If you've bought into Degiheugi's ethos by now, you'll be a little annoyed that it's so short; it might even be the best thing on the album.

Aquilon is available from the mellifluously named Electrobel and Degiheugi's own site, where you can also pick up the previously mentioned Only After The Show. If you're hungry for music, visit both sites, have a rummage, download Degiheugi's stuff and then leave a donation at your preferred site. Or both of them. Or neither, if you must.

I'm so reasonable. Sickening, isn't it?

Aquilon L.P.-01 on Electrobel netlabel (Zipped album only. Sorry.)

Degiheugi's home page

Degiheugi's MySpace

Electrobel netlabel

 

Hit It Again, Sam

You know how sometimes you're walking along the street and you suddenly become Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca, pondering how to merge jazz, hiphop, the Middle East and 20th century music into a pleasing, full-bodied cup of coffee? You get that too? See, I knew it wasn't just me. Tell me if this sounds familiar:

You're strolling down the shadowy alleys of a souk when a gold-toothed chap stands in your way and tries to interest you in a double bass, some reverberating middle-easterny woodwind, a cheeky saxophone and his shop's finest hand-made dusty beat. You agree to his offer, providing he throws in a completely new riff right at the end of the track. You shake hands and walk off with La Mousse des Femmes.

Life is good. Looking up at the roofline, you Applaudir Les Oiseaux and the backing they give to the chime-laden drum beat that serenades you along the streets. However, one whiff of the uncompromising, rather monotonous next rhythm and you hurry past the hunched figure who offers to show you Sous Les Cotes. Brrr. Salvation awaits as you pop into a cool, calm bar, and listen to Eol et Leo tinkle the ivories, crush some drums and waft soothing strings over the clientele.

How much more of this do you need?

All too soon, the song is over and you must face the sultry streets once more. Ah, Etre Un Papillon, you think, and float away on a jazz piano and drum loop...

There, see, I knew you'd understand. Either we're crazed or we've been listening to Impressions, a five-track sampler EP by ThoTho, available from...

*busts a move*

...Dusted Wax Kingdom netlabel, Bulgarian purveyor of lo-fi, crackly, dusty hiphop to the gentry, and the rest of the world if it asks nicely. ThoTho, a lover of Stravinsky and DJ Krush (that's the kind of talk that CTW likes to hear) comes from Dijon (goodness, the French are so funky nowadays) and has released Impressions in the hope that it will encourage you out there to buy the full album. If you do, you'll find an iTunes link at ThoTho's MySpace. Failing that, send a donation to the very huggable and kissable Dusted Wax Kingdom, where you'll find a few pearls of lo-fi hiphop and triphop.

If you download ThoTho's EP, not only will you have a few head-nodders on your hard drive, you'll also be able to peruse the Lovecraftian album cover in all its sepulchral glory. Why not make a poster out of it and scare yourself silly?

ThoTho - Impressions EP (link to individual mp3s and zipped album)

ThoTho's MySpace

Dusted Wax Kingdom

P.S. Marvin of the marvellous Free Albums Galore took my little jest about his site's acronym in good heart. Phew.

By the way, the French weren't always quite so funky...