Reviews of (legitimately) free netlabel and/or Creative Commons music. Yes, the music is completely free. Yes, the musicians know. Yes, they welcome donations and purchases. No, you won't be arrested. Dive in.
The power of music compels me* to renounce my bid to make CTW the world's first bi-annual blog. Curses. The wielder of the musical taser is one Nit GriT who, from his San Andreas Fault-defying temple in San Jose, jolts the world with, er, jolts of righteous dubstep. "Oh, not dubstep," I hear the internet cry, "Wubs are past their sell-bwy date." Fear not, speech-impedimented planet: Nit GriT doesn't really make dubstep - he makes music. There's quite a difference.
Listen to just about any of the many free tracks that Nit Grit has magnanimously and shrewdly made free to download, and you'll find that he's not interested in making the world's most twisted bassline or the most disembowelling drop. (You can have that last image free of charge.) Rather, he uses the genre's tropes, e.g. a snare on the third beat, two-step shuffles, wobbling basslines and huge bass drops, to support his musical ideas. The bowel-shattering stuff is just an added bonus, although I might think differently were someone to play this at me on Boxing Day afternoon.
The eight free EPs on Nit GriT's website, most of which contain just two or three tracks and thus allow the listener quickly to decide whether the 21st century is to his/her liking, are collectively a delight for fans of down-tempo, twisted electronica. Heavy Machinery is probably the most aggressive grouping, so I'm going to recommend the three track EP, Synthetic Heaven, as the best introduction to the NiTtY GriTtY world. (My laptop's shift key now hates me.) The first track is a phial of medicinal audio:
I've no idea why Soundcloud no longer lets me embed its player, so you'll just have put up with the clunky thing above this sentence. Still, don't let that put you off the music. If you need further proof that NiT GriT is worth hearing, try his fabulous remix of an already good track by Eastern European world music ensemble Stellamara:
It's beyond me why advertising mavens haven't thrown chequebooks at Stellamara and Nit GriT for those six minutes of euphoria.
I'm not going to write about the various albums in my usual detail because I hate computers and I'd rather tie a knot in my unmentionables than wrestle with Typepad any longer than I have to. Suffice it to say that NiT GriT hasn't forgotten the dub element of Dubstep and that if you compile a playlist of all the free tracks he offers on his website, you'll soon be dubstepping through more GriT than the Mars Rover Curiosity. Yes, I just said that. You can't expect good free music tips AND humour.
Judging from his Soundcloud statistics, I'm the last person on the net (apart from you, of course, my trusty reader) to have heard NiT GriT's music. But his increasing popularity doesn't mean that he lives on fresh air. If you like the sounds, please think about visiting his website and - in no particular order - sending an appreciative message; leaving a donation via Payal; or buying a spiffing t-shirt.
*whispers* If you look closely at the Soundcloud tracks, you might find a top-notch remix of a soul classic - but I can't recommend it because I doubt it has been cleared. Search at your own risk...
*Max Von Sydow wakes up at night screaming at this album cover. Kids, ask your grandparents.
Hello, children. Let's make a noise. Compilations are not my cup of Assam; they are notoriously hit and miss. However, 80 Hz Sacred Surplus maintains a surprisingly high level of inspiration and is thus worth draining to the dregs. This brew escaped nearly four months ago from the increasingly impressive IDMf netlabel, itself the progeny of the feisty and informative IDM Forums, and is also a product of IDMf's “bass community”, so reinforce your floors before listening.
80 Hz Sacred Surplus shows some thought in its execution: its ten tracks of electronica are not so lengthy that the listener will need a haircut by the time the needle drops off the groove. I'll do the unimaginative thing and count them off, finger by finger by thumb, with the proviso that my limited knowledge of electronica tends to label anything with an electronic beat as IDM, Electronica, Drum 'n' Bass, Techno or Electro depending on the time of day and my blood alcohol level. If you want something calmer from IDMf, please see this dusty review.
We begin with Circus of Mind's downtempo Jiggawatt, which features “yo-yo” filters so prominently I suspect Native Instrument's Massive synth has had its nads mangled. (If I guess wrong, I wouldn't be risking much to bet that at least one of the tracks here uses that ubiquitous box of tricks.) Rather than the expected drum fills, Jiggawatt's relaxed transitions are comprised of rises: a nice compositional touch. A lovely, analogue-ish synth reminiscent of 80's Doctor Who follows an extended breakdown, and is joined by a stereo field plump with chopped-up children's shouts and yells. No, sorry, the chopped-up shouts and yells of children.
Conservations II by Michael Knead opens with a spine-tingling pad whose filters gradually open just in time to usher in a sound so deep and amorphous that it's almost like a bass pad than a bass line. Somehow Mr Knead manages to stop the bass frequencies from swamping the track; there seems to be plenty of room for light percussion and high-pitched synth flourishes. Although it's beautifully engineered, Conversations II is rather anonymous; but at two and a half minutes long, it refreshes the palate.
After a gentle start to the album, Lebeux's Breathless ups the tempo with a metronomic beat, intensifying pads and a drop into classy drum 'n' bass. These elements are joined by panned, echoing vocals, bell-like synths and a memorable slurred synth that sounds as though it's being goosed. The halfway point treats the listener to some lovely synth flourishes. You'd think that the further addition of arpeggiated, delayed synths would prove too much, but an adept spatial mix keeps Breathless sound of wind and limb.
Only You by SB-Six consists mostly of a thumping, staccato bass line and sampled vocals that syncopate with the drums and said bass. As you might guess, it's not a particularly complex track, but it is well done. SB-Six has engineered a track with weight; it'll sound impressive pumping out of a large sound system.
Speaking of which, 80Hz gets more aggressive with the appearance of Lucky One's SuperKontraBass, where a whistling, clapping crowd warns the listener to get ready. The eponymous bass is a nice, halting, electro noise with, I think, a hint of supersaw, but it doesn't justify its name until the bridge, when Lucky One stands on his keyboard and squeezes a thick, low sound out of the speakers. I'd prefer to see this strong mid-section swap places with the flanking techno-ish parts, where a faster tempo paradoxically seems to slow the excitement. However, I also detest oak-infused red wine, so what do I know?
Tapping noises at the start of Qianta's efemeight might fool headphone-wearers into thinking someone is tapping on their cans. The succeeding hypnotic, almost metronomic, mid-tempo rhythm, supported by a subtly pulsing bassline, is like trip-hop with a dash of espresso, if that makes sense. Melodic interest is supplied by panned and delayed burbling synths, which are high- and low-passed respectively, so that they pass like blips in the night. The warm, soothing atmosphere is reminiscent of Lemon Jelly, if the internet goes that far back. It's a beautifully understated track but perhaps needs more development than the occasional reversed beat at the end of a bar.
IG88's Seahorse Paternity Test (Toronto is Broken remix) has something rather weird in it. After consulting Groves, I feel sure in stating that it's actually a human of the female persuasion singing what is technically known as a “song”. Why has no-one tried this before? Anyway, some studio wizardry has married high-passed, affecting vocals to drum and (chewy) bass, resulting in a bouncing baby of a track. It's sophisticated and catchy. Could it be today's recommended track? Ah, the tension...
A big, fat, jolly synth riff is the backbone of Stereoglyph's Cruisin, but the addition of sly piano stabs and a lovely wash of white noise during a breakdown ensures that there's plenty of meat on the bones. At the halfway mark, Stereoglyph opens his filters, so to speak, and we're treated to a wall of wahs, percussion, more white noise and, yup, another synth. Phil Spector would like this.
It's a rare piece of music that can appeal to speedfreaks and hip-hop heads at the same time. With Test Mat, Neuroscientist has, most appropriately, created a (young) Frankenstein's monster of a track. If you're the type of person who likes to hear LFOs and oscillators tortured beyond endurance, strap yourself in. The menacing main riff threatens to wreak havoc with the accompanying rapid percussion, but it keeps being interrupted by a choppy chord (all examples of clever sound design), and later is interrupted by a sharp slice of breakbeat at the end of each bar.
Then, four minutes in, Neuroscientist drops his big, mad hammer of doom and a lumbering hip-hop beat rises from the laboratory bench. Play this amalgamation of IDM & boom-bap to instrumental hip-hop freaks and, especially when the hi-hats kick in, watch them freak out à la Gene Wilder. Two quibbles: Test Mat could lose one of its six minutes and not miss it; the inclusion of a sample from, if I'm not mistaken (I could be), the 1959 album How To Speak Hip endangers the track's CC status. Unless Neuroscientist has clearance for this dialogue, his track really shouldn't be issued under a CC licence.
We Are Made From Soil, according to Concierge_Weetr. Craftily, IDMf have left the most experimental track until last, surmising that the excellence of the other songs will push nervous listeners onwards to a barrel-meets-Niagara-Falls dénouement. You'll hear some devilishly echoing vocals that should never be listened to with a hangover, but you'll also hear eerie pads over a squelchy bass. Not an easy listen but a satisfying one.
The whole album is a treat, but I'll continue a CTW tradition (while pleading to the heavens for netlabels to proffer plain mp3 links as well as all manner of embedded media players) and recommend one track for the "tl;dr" crowd:
If you enjoy the entirely free 80Hz Sacred Surplus, please think about sending a thank you email to the IDMf netlabel and/or the artists involved (details at IDMf). I'm sure they'd love to hear from you.
My apologies for writing the word "synth" too often.
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.
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:
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.
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.
Once upon a time, it was fashionable among the music press to denigrate heavy rock, prog rock and heavy metal (think Led Zep, Deep Purple, Yes, Rush, Motorhead) as boringly repetitive. The mantra went that rock relied too much on a single riff played over and over again ad nauseam, with endless guitar and, save us, O Lord, drum solos for light relief. Where was the innovation, the rebelliousness, the spunk? Hence, said the poet, punk. Almost overnight, the Gods of Rock were kicked upstairs to Valhalla, from where they grimaced at the usurpers who had saved music from the tyranny of repetition by thrashing out three-chord riffs at four beats to the bar. No, I don't quite understand it either.
Which brings me to electro. Or house. Or fidget house. Or fuss-budget techno doodah or whatever new genre has spawned on the sticky floors of European nightclubs. Today's slab of sound hails from Italy's Sostanze netlabel and features - how shocking - repetitive riffs in a four-to-the-floor situation. Why don't the critics stamp on such music as they did for whiskery rock? Three reasons:
The sonic variation inherent in intensely filtered synth riffs sustains listeners' aural interest. (Impressed? Yes, my brain is a sponge of pleasure.)
For all its repetition, electro contains more rhythmic variety than the average 70s rock song, due to breakdowns and glitches, although prog rock has a "Get Out Of Jail Free" card. Rush is/are exempt from this discussion anyway 'cos they are fab.
Raver Boom by Bebop The Dog is a five-track EP that minds its manners. Most of the tracks are less than five minutes long and all start quite sedately before dropping an electro bomb a minute or two later. My recommended track features no intellectual fibre whatosever (it rhymes "Aztecer" with "ass-kicker") but has a considerable amount of what car fans call "grunt". Two minutes in and your undercrackers will thank you.
It's a little raw in places, but it's energy on a stick, isn't it? And it's free.
The start of Intro is deceptive - keep a finger on the volume control or else the absolutely monstrous rising tone will pop something dear to you, be it speakers, eardrums or other body parts. Bebop The Dog gives you 60 seconds to recover before unleashing a riff that's stickier than toffee candy floss. The same could be said for the second track (which might actually be the EP's highpoint) Come Back and, er, all the other songs. (Who mentioned repetition?) I'm curious as to how the dancefloor will receive these tracks - they lack the pristine production of a top studio and producer - but I'm sure they'd provoke one or two hipsters to bust a move and flutter their eyebrows at the DJ.
Right, onwards. The title track (Raver Boom, for those who aren't taking the smart drugs) bounces cheerfully under a ragga vocal and some Daft Punk low-pass filtering. Bad Boy has fun swapping its introductory pitch-wobbling synth riff, dropping it for a fairly mellow electro bass riff (if there is such a thing) and thus embarking on a stop-start odyssey that gives poor dancers some cue points with which to regain their dignity. I laughed at the dog bark that bursts into one break. The dub-like siren is the icing on the wobbly cake.
The EP ends with Loop a Looza, the highlight of which is the dive-bombing bass line. It's not the most memorable of tracks, mainly because the dive-bombing bass line will interfere with your short-term memory.
In short, Raver Boom will supply electro, fidget and (my eyes!) nu rave fans with the recommended daily intake of breakdowns, white noise sweeps, bouncing kick drums and gritty bass lines. I am therefore grateful to Bebop The Dog and Sostanza netlabel for the free CC fun. If you enjoyed the album, please show your gratitude by sending them a "thank you" email or a donation or a bill for your new hearing aids.
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.
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!
These six tracks by Melbourne musical urchin Synaecide are a grimy compound of electro and, I'm sorry to have to use this term in the presence of women and children, IDM. They're also louder than a drag artists' karaoke night. Not knowing whether Synaecide sports an outrageous afro, I can't say
if he follows Phil Spector in all things - but his production
values mimic the incarcerated producer's famed "wall of sound". Your ears will
fill with as much gritty electronica as they can take. This
would quickly become tiresome were it not for the fact that the music
is dynamic; there are breathers, changes of tempo and most
welcome changes of volume, thus ensuring that Scientifica remains engaging.
First off, there's some delicious sampling work in Venom (feat. Anamé), where a cigarette lighter never sounded so good. The whispered vocals seem a little low in the mix until Anamé opens her lungs and the track soars, backed by chilly background vocals and synths that might as well have been replaced by a recording of barrage fire.
Stuttering and bit-crushed vocals feature heavily in The World Is High, a serving of gritty IDM that, like a few of Synaecide's compositions (see the reviewed remix of Halogen's Length and Brecht) doesn't really hit its stride until the track's midpoint. But it's worth the wait.
Dissolve (feat. Dima Shafro) gets through a few distorted, angsty
vocals before dropping a rather catchy electro riff. It doesn't do much
else, but it's almost a relief to find a relatively straightforward
electro track slipped in between the chaos that surrounds it. After testing it to destruction in CTW's Sound Pound (you don't want to know), I've come to the conclusion that the amount of enjoyment derived from Dissolve, and specifically its layered high/low synth riff, depends on the volume at which it's played. Try going to 11.
Today's recommended track is The Penny Drops, in which Synaecide, thanks to more sampling cleverness, literally spends drops a penny like it's going out of fashion. Electronica fans will enjoy the coinage abuse and go on to appreciate the growling, juddering yet jaunty electro bass, a tangled lead riff that would feel at home in the soundtrack of a filmed Philip K. Dick novel and the eventual appearance of a call-and-response riff - another characteristic but pleasurable compositional motif of Syn's. File under "Gifted". Right - deep breath - it's SoundCloud player time:
The rapid-fire chiptune arpeggios that mark the start of Close Bracket (feat. Apache) soon team up with glitchy percussion, yet both quail when faced with an epic electro-sort-of-trance wall of sound, and a clever-clever vocal that just about holds its own with the electronic fireworks. It's energy on a stick.
The title track delivers yet more electronica impressiveness: drums that splatter all over the place, a (Great) wall (of China) of synths, high strings and a gnarly bass, which, taken together, will result in complaints about poor sportmanship in World Cup qualifiers ringing in the ears.
It seems that Synaecide, curse him, is blessed with the ability to churn out memorable music that walks the fine line between "bloody noisy" and "invigorating". Want further proof? Try his Scientifica II, an estimable track from the equally estimable Continuum, a compilation of brain-spankingly ambitious IDM from, er, the IDMf netlabel. (Continuum deserves a much, much longer review but I'm kicking it out of bed because I need some sleep. Don't look at me like that - taxis don't come cheap.) Suffice it to say that the IDMf crew and members, to drop into London vernacular for a moment, are having it large.
For those of you who require sparkly things to attract your attention, please see below. Ooh, shiny.
My thanks to all at IDMf for the consistently entertaining releases. I'm sure they'd have to lie down in a darkened room if anyone from Teh Internets were to send them a "thank you" email. By the way, does anyone else think the term IDM would be more palatable if it were pronounced "iddum"? No? How very dare you. Mark my words, you'll all be sorry.
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.
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.
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, Halogen - Length and Brecht (Synaecide Remix) adds roughage.
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. ;)
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.
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.)
Frustratingly, Guns Blazin' is unavailable at the moment due to a slight copyright problem. *folds arms at the Prof* Naughty boy. But don't worry - he's cleaning things up and planning to release a squeaky-clean version, plus more besides.
Brace yourselves. I am now sitting stark naked at my laptop. My clothes, once Savile Row's finest, smoulder on the floor behind me, rent asunder by a force of nature. No, I haven't been at the chilli dip again. You see, I made the mistake of turning the volume up a smidgen when listening to today's recommendation. In Guns Blazin', Professor Kliq has produced an album capable of protecting the planet from rogue asteroids.
If you're a fan of big beat (hitherto believed extinct), hip-hop, trip-hop, electro and all-round catchy electronica, take my advice: this album will make your backbone slip. Professor Kliq is influenced by Bonobo, Coldcut, Amin Tobin, and loves jazz and hip-hop. He's also influenced by the 30 hours a week he works at a gas station and is understandably looking forward to studying Audio Production & Design at Columbia in Chicago. I think he can skip "Pounding Beats 101".
Guns Blazin' sounds rather like a scrumdown between the Chemical Brothers and Propellerheads. It's got beats that cascade over robust bass lines, extensively sampled greats like James Brown (and other people/bands who I won't mention) and spliced movie dialogue. It sounds like Fatboy Slim and Mylo's lovechild. It's loud, funky and fun. It sounds like a record made by an absurdly talented 21-year old bursting with energy. He says, "I'm just a kid in my bedroom."
The Prof understands when to leave a great beat alone, when to drop it, and when to drop it with a slab of stone-cold electro-hop. He also realises that there are few things better in music than adding to a rhythm until it reaches Ground Funk Zero, that place where the listener surrenders and waves his arms in the air like a happy orangutan.
Jamendo, which is otherwise near-perfect, doesn't supply individual mp3 links to wild-eyed loners like myself who want to use their own media player on the world's greatest free music blog that has a surfing catchphrase for a title. [EDIT: Incorrect. I'm an idiot. But now the player's in this post, it's staying.] Instead, I'll have to use Jamendo's rather pretty media player. Here goes nothing.
Good God, it worked. (Not in RSS feed readers, it didn't. *sigh* You'll have to visit CTW, my legion of fans.) To celebrate this small miracle, I'm going to recommend more than just my usual single track (on the understanding that they're all far north of rather good), so try these: Ode to Charles, in which Professor Kliq exploits Charles Manson's rantings and produces an atmospheric, guitar-drenched, thumping head-nodder; The Dirtiest - three and a half minutes of religion, energy, sex and drum breaks; Street Wisdom - a no-nonsense display of hip-hop wizardry with a chemical flavour, and the electro-tinged and rhythmically-adept big beat of Bust This Bust That.
The Prof's latest platter, The Scientific Method, Volume II, (now also available for free from Rec72 netlabel) ties in ambient noise and field recordings with the aforementioned innate funkiness. Its rhythms and mesmerising atmosphere made me drool like a hungry dog, but space prevents me from reviewing it. Maybe later. Anyway, it might be a redundant review; if you like Guns Blazin', you're going to scoop up everything this artist has done with a Kliq of your mouse. Ouch. Sorry.
To summarise: Guns Blazin' prised cash from my gnarled, clenched fingers. Now that, ladies and gentlemen, means it's good. If you feel the same, please think about leaving a suitable donation in Professor Kliq's charity box at Jamendo.
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...
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