Metapop with a wink

Gillicuddy - "de mannetjesolifant gaat op reis naar de oostzee" (MP3)
Gillicuddy - "sh-dah" (MP3)
Gillicuddy - "instrumental #2" (MP3)

What might come aleatory on first listen complies just right as soon as the concept unfolds. German songwriter Gillicuddy combines the most different genres on a short-lived EP, typically in one song. This has been true for "Shmalhans is Kuechenmeister" and "The Repeating Thoughts" but is brought to perfection only now.

Take "de mannetjesolifant gaat op reis naar de oostzee" as an example. First part is technical Noiserock, Jesus Lizard-style. Then Gillicuddy slows down the Jazz and pushes the song in a direction reminiscent of Sonic Youth: slightly detuned guitars, decent but uneal somehow. These fade into multilayer field-recordings you are never allowed to trust. Eventually, the secret is revealed, and the elephants of the Baltic Sea make their appearance...

This song is the wildest. However, despite the versatility, a typical atmosphere of humorous darkness comes with all songs on "The Yaouhl! Mashups". This brings forth consistency, proofs the musical craftsmanship of Gillicudy and guarantees for great listening pleasure. His best up to now, without the slightest doubt.

MP3 Avantgarde Pop Music Download

Download: "The Yaouhl! Mashups" (ZIP-Archive)
Artist-Website: www.gillicuddy.net
Release: Gillicuddy - "The Yaouhl! Mashups"
Netlabel: Clinical Archives

Related posts

• Wo0 – “With the Flowered Minds” (Phantom Channel) (1)
• Virot & Friends – “Release Party CD-R” (Clapping Music) (3)
• Various – “Format” (Fällt) (0)
• V.O.M. – “Камень” (Clinical Archives) (3)
• V.A. – “A Whale in a Manger” (4-4-2 Music) (1)

Raleigh Moncrief- "Goldrush (Chandeliers Remix)" (MP3)
Raleigh Moncrief- "Similies" (MP3)
Raleigh Moncrief- "Combed Over Chrome" (MP3)

Ah c'mon! I can't find out ANYTHING about neither "Raleigh Moncrief" nor the remixers (?) "Chandeliers" and "Dash!". Obstructive Vibrations, please! Moncrief is from Cali, is he? Everything I got is the private Myspace of designer Brandon Kalarney and these five tunes...

Well. "Combed Over Chrome" is massive. Spliffed-out and dirty. Fresh and experimental, yet catchy and compatible with any Hip Hop and Dubstep dancefloor. Astro Nautico, well-informed source for Bay Area Rap as usual, says "Hudson Mohawke and Matthew David had a baby and named him Raleigh Moncrief", and that's a good comparison indeed.

All five tracks are dope. While "Combed Over Chrome" features heavy beats and glittering synth arpreggios, "Goldrush (Chandeliers Remix)" focuses on IDM-ish melodies and baaad ass bass. With "Similies", Raleigh Moncrief fuses wobble-wobble Dubstep with an Old School Hip Hop beat and Mohawkesque synth leads. Timeless. Eventually, "Quiet Please" closes the chromo dance with a deep 'n' dirty piece of solanaceous Dubstep that equally sounds L.A. and London. OMG what a BOMB!

MP3 Hip Hop Music Download

Download: "Combed Over Chrome EP" (ZIP-Archive)
Netlabel: obstructivevibe.com

Astrowind - "Lost And Found On The Moon" (MP3)
Astrowind - "Mute Pilot" (MP3)

Astrowind are Kriipis Tulo and Mahi Bukimi. I follow them since their first releases at long-gone ElektroSound Netlabel and their retro-style synthesizer Ambient always made a little bell ring in my head. After two record that did not get me too much, this one is just right again. "Fresh Wind in the Valley of Dreams" is released on the young Moldavian Netlabel Silent Flow.

Astrowind play old Russian synthesizer, record their jams live on tape (!) to carefully rework them at home (I love the idea they do it with a cutting knife and Scotch tape but I guess on this account they do NOT do analogue). Outcome is multicoloured streams of dense synthesizer Ambient, enhanced by extensive pedal processing and vocal samples from Soviet cosmonautics (In particular, "Fresh Wind in the Valley of Dreams" is dedicated to A. A. Leonov).

Astrowind music flows like water. And like water can vary from runlet to tsunami, Tulo and Bukimi play with dynamics as well. Modus operandi changes from lovely to destructive, from contemplative to rude health - but the overall mood is august mellifluence. The cosmonautics reference works beautifully as well and given this, the link to 70's German Kosmische Musik ain't too far-fetched. Lovin' it.

MP3 Ambient Music Download

Download: "Fresh Wind In The Valley Of Dreams" (ZIP-Archive)
Artist-Website: astrowind.net
Release: Astrowind - "Fresh Wind In The Valley Of Dreams"
Netlabel: Silent Flow

Brian Grainger - "Summer's Parting Ways" (MP3)

Recently, my focus shifted a bit from the Ambient and post structuralist music I have been reviewing for Phlow since the beginning. This is quite a natural process. But every once a while, a record hits me like a slingshot and throws me back in time. This happened for Tiago Sousa's debut LP (available via Humming Conch soon). And it happend for "Sawdust Aromatics" by the likes of David Tagg and Brian Grainger.

Allow for a brief historical abstract. David Tagg was behind the wheel at Expanding Electronic Diversity. In 2006, David and Brian Grainger of Milieu Music met to first found a band and subsequently launch the experimental music imprints Install Sound and Second Sun Recordings, the later of which is an exclusive market place for their own collaborative music. "The Future of  Modern Guitar", as we can learn at the SSR info site.

For "Sawdust Aromatics", Rope Swing Cities (another key player in US experimental music) compiles two songs of each Tagg and Grainger, giving a total running time of +50 minutes. Brian Graingers pieces are intensively harmonic mediations on simple guitar motives. The epic "Summer Parting Ways" exactly feels like late Summer paralysis, with a wonderful synth texture beneath delayed guitar. The howling and otherworldly processings in the later half of the song are mesmerizing.

David Tagg, in contrast, focuses less on harmonics but the Gordian entanglements of field-recordings and processed guitar. Rather sound design than song, Grainger's composition are more easily to get into. Still, beyond the crackling textures of David Tagg's music, a lot of goodness can be found.

MP3 Ambient Music Download

Download: "Sawdust Aromatics" (ZIP)
Artist-Website: David Tagg | Brian Grainger
Release: "Sawdust Aromatics"
Netlabel: ropeswingcities.com

Related posts

• offthesky – “Subtle Trees” (Rope Swing Cities) (3)
• Wo0 – “With the Flowered Minds” (Phantom Channel) (1)
• Various – “Format” (Fällt) (0)
• To4ka.Dna – “ZVUK” (Constanta) (2)
• Slow – “Dual Box” (Resting Bell) (3)

"Reintroduction" by Huw Roberts (MP3)
Daniel Maze - "Steampunk" (MP3)
Neuf Meuf - "Zul" (MP3)
Herzog - "Perhaps She'd Like To See Me Fall Apart" (MP3)

Huw Roberts, the face behind Serein, is a critical mind that shaped the label's identity for the last three years, choosing artists and artwork with greatest care. Roberts starts Serein 4.0 with a mesmerizing mix of favourites and unreleased material. Highly recommended if you are digging rich and analogue-ish Ambient music.

For the future, Huw Roberts promises new release by The Inventors of Aircraft, 1000 Hours of Staring (sooo looking forward!) and the Phlow Mag darlings Nest. Website looks clean and beautiful, only the loss of all previously released material is a miss - still, via archive.org, everything remains accessible. Watch this place!

Reintroduction by Huw Roberts

01 Marcel Türkowsky - Kuro Sawa
02 Herzog - Perhaps She'd Like To See Me Fall Apart
03 Nest - Kyoto
04 1000 Hours of Staring - Deliverance (unreleased)
05 The Inventors of Aircraft - All, Nothing
06 Stephane Leonard - Words in Progress (unreleased)
07 The Inventors of Aircraft - The Black Dog
08 Michael Trommer - Long Line Building (unreleased)
09 Nest - Wheatstone (unreleased)
10 Segue - Half Way (unreleased)
11 Marcel Türkowsky - De Dodu
12 Huw Roberts - Atlas Oryx (unreleased)
13 Pine - Flume (unreleased)
14 1000 Hours of Staring - Wintincubator

Release Page

Bettina's favourites from the back catalogue

1000 Hours of Staring - Co-operative Thread (ser006)
Neuf Meuf - It's Cold in Space (ser009)
Nest - Nest (ser013) @Phlow
Daniel Maze - Red After Image (ser016) @Phlow

Oskar Hallbert - "21 (Unsent Letter)"
Oskar Hallbert - "03 (From the Stockholm Tape 2)"

Oskar Hallbert is a Swedish composer who does not only incorporate instruments like piano, guitar and woodwinds in his music but intensively focuses on blurry field recordings and the warm hiss you got from cheap microphones. Beauty, in case of Hallbert, seems to happen as in passing. Like not intended. In a sudden, harmonies cross and form melodies, then move apart again. A moiré effect.

This is wonderfully fragile- and the more you don't expect a song to touch you the more you're moved if it does, eventually. For me, Oskar Hallbert is a kindred spirit to Vienna wunderkind David Schweighart whose album is online for free with 12rec. Netlabel and worth every second as well.

Hallbert's EP "Sids Apartment" (ZIP link!) was out on Rainmusic in 2008. You easily will agree that the French label is the perfect place for music like his. "1123581321345589" was released on an US CDR label before, now luckily Zymogen re-publishes the 10 + 79 tracks (!) for free. Take your time and enjoy this tender trip into bliss and beauty!

MP3 Folk Music Download

Download: "1123581321345589" (ZIP)
Release: Oskar Hallbert - "1123581321345589"
Artist-Website: myspace.com/oskarhallbert
Netlabel: zymogen.net

Anton Mobin - "Micro-Climat" (MP3)

What struck me about "Micro-Climat" on first touch was the bass-heavy physicalness of Anton Mobins' aural quilt. He interlaces field recordings with musical elements (some percussive, some traces of instruments) and drops smithereens of conversation (French language). Mobin a.k.a. Anthony Baron uses the full range of the audible spectrum, from high frequent noises to subsonic audio events. Most of the time, his Music Concrète-composition is beautifully pure although most sources are hard to guess. Every now and then, however,  Anton Mobin radically enhances the  intensity of his track, resulting in bursts of curiously non-aggressive noise I have scarcely heard before.

Rich and refreshing, Anton Mobin places himself right between the IDM-influenced Electro-acoustica of d'incise, Preslav Literary School and Brooklyn noise pioneers Black Dice. Thanks to konkretourist Netlabel which I discovered only with this release!

By the way, Marco Medkour, one half of konkretourist, will present his "Soundmap of Cologne" at the Cologne Commons festival this weekend, 12th to 13th of June. Another exciting project.

MP3 Experimental Music Download

Download: "Micro-Climat" (ZIP Archive)
Artist-Website: audioblog.arteradio.com/ANTON_MOBIN
Release: Anton Mobin - "Micro-Climat"
Netlabel: www.konkretourist.de

V.O.M. IV - Part II, Track I (MP3)
V.O.M. IV - Part II, Track IV (MP3)
V.O.M. V - Part I, Track IV (MP3)

V.O.M. again. The name stands for Magical Unicellular Music, and this strange name makes sense on different levels. Magical - something happens between the tracks, something unexpected, something one can not explain. Black magic rituals, Voodoo, call me names. Unicellular - the most simple form of life, evolutions successful all-in-one model. Reduced to the max. Music - well, yeah, music! V.O.M. is primitive, hypnotic, threatening... I'm prone to call it Minimal.

V.O.M. was born from Minsk performance collective Solntsetsvety (Солнцецветы). On this release for the Russian Clinical Archives Netlabel, Magical Unicelluar Music is V.O.M. IV and V.O.M. V, Minsk and Moscow, respectively. Two bands, united by the ideas given above.

Listening to "Камень", it is hard to distinguish who is who. Both bands play primitive, noise-driven Krautrock, repetitiv and hypnotic. Instruments are guitar-bass-drums, plus sporadic electronic gimmicks, the whole thing mainly instrumental. V.O.M. record music half-improvised, with a stunning amount of DIY/Punk-inspired energy that sets them apart from New Age and esoteric music. In my opinion, early Can, the endless songs of Neu! and 80s' Postpunk, especially Pop Group and Sonic Youth, are good references.

The whole album makes up one hour, 40 minutes. Naturally, not every single jam is excellent. But tracks "Part II, IV" (V.O.M. V) and "Part I, IV" (V.O.M. IV) will give you a good idea about the Magical Unicellular Music sound. If you dig these, you will love the album!

MP3 Rock Music Download

Download: "Камень" (ZIP)
Artist-Website: myspace.com/unicellularmusic
Release: Magical Unicellular Music - "Камень"
Netlabel: clinicalarchives.blogspot.com

2nd rec is a German record label that released CDs some years back. When sales went down, 2nd rec decided to sell-out and re-start as an experimental online label. "Jars, Jams & You" by Italian Sicilian duo Tellaro is available for download only, and you can choose the price, including downloading the full-length album for free. We support 2nd rec and want to convince you to pay something valuable for this wonderful record.

Tellaro are Francesco Cantone and Tazio Iacobacci. Their electronic Pop music is build from a billion sources, like a beautiful Frankenstein patched up from the junkyard of 40 years' pop culture. The download package comes with a 17 sides pdf booklets including notes for every song, charming and interesting. We learn about friends making political speeches, grandmother and baby sister Iacobacci singing a song, Tazio's uncle from the US playing slide guitar, etc. etc. Most contributions include vocal performances, not necessarily singing though.

Wonderfully, all this makes up for a fresh, interesting and hymnal Pop record. Clever Pop music, notoriously underrated, in good tradition with acts like The Books, The Beta Band, Evil Superstars or the Anticon posse. Prelisten tracks "Dario Whorenges", "Life Goes On" and "Bad News Don't Need To Be Introduced" to become a believer. Then, believe it, every single tune on "Jars, Jams & You" will be worth the bucks you spend for the download!

MP3 Pop Music Download

Download: "Jars, Jams & You" (Chose-Your-Price Download)
Release: Tellaro - "Jars, Jams & You"
Artist-Website: myspace.com/tellaro
Netlabel: 2ndrec.com

Caroline - "Wonderlust" (MP3)
Linda Bjalla - "Tomorrow" (MP3)

To my ears, the influence of Japanese music is bigger on the spectrum MiMi represents. This is not J-Pop but Japanese Pop. Subtle, melodic, eccentric every now and then. Mawkish by chance.

The compilation starts with Asako Fujimoto a.k.a. asakomusic. She travels around the World and accordingly, her music is conglomerate of Folklore and awkward Pop music. Caroline Lufkin afterwards conducts a hymnal Popsong, with some electronics assembling her otherworldly voice. Bewitching. Izumi Mizawa's music sound like processing the lush and warm melodies of Caroline to something artificial- a study on aural harmony

Reiko Matane a.k.a. le mépris a.k.a. pillowdiver is well known for her album on Aerotone. The track on "M100" is a shoegazing piece of Dronepop... solid. Back to the real Pop music with Linda Bjalla (Izumi Suzuki). Piano-drive neoromanticism, not shying away from glockenspiel and reverberated vocals. Got me, somehow. Miki Odagiri deliver Creation Centre-style Avantgarde Pop with loads of loose ends- nice, but I have a certain problem with the vocals...

MP3 Experimental Pop Music Download

Download: "M100" (ZIP)
Release: Various - "M100"
Netlabel: clubotaku.org/mimi-125x125

FourColour - "sets02" (MP3)
Taylor Deupree - "Silver Trees" (MP3)

Fällt rounded up an impressive collection of musicians. "Format" opens with a beautiful and suble guitar impression by 12k's Taylor Deupree. The influence of this guy on modern day Ambient music is not to overestimate! FourColour a.k.a. Keiichi Sugimoto (Cubic Music) delivers wonderfully dense Ambient/ Drone meditation on bubbling synths. The collagists' Avant-Pop of The Focus Group (Julian House) is unsettling but fascinating.

In the later half of the album, there is Steinbrüchel to mention. His composition "b|ton" sounds like a microscopic study of background noises and unwanted hissing of a tape machine. Interestingly, it is based on a guitar recording by Daisuke Miyatani, the grand maestro of accidental folk. Music like dust. Hard Sleeper fuses field recordings, rural Acid and warm Ambient, giving an undogmatic piece of electronic music. Only Lawrence English, usually a sure shot, was sort of a disappointment to me.

MP3 Ambient Music Download

Download: "Format" ZIP
Release: Various - "Format"
Netlabel: www.fallt.com

Diatribes + Demierre + Bourquenez - "Tornade" (MP3)

Jacques Demierre uses the piano as a source of sound rather than a classical instrument. Part Cecil Taylor part John Cage, his play is full of little noises and surprising tonal cascades, percussive and herein the perfect complement for Cyril Bondis' poetic and introspect drums. Between the clusters, there is a lot of space- or none. A refreshing and rich concept that requires concentrated listening admittedly.

On two tracks, Plaistow head Johann Bourquenez joins the gang. His approach to piano is much different from Demierre's delicate boned experimentalism. "Tornade" rushes the listener with the energy of  a, well, tornado and leaves the wastelands, Jacques Demierre and Diatribes can perform their subtle improvisations on afterwards.

MP3 Free Jazz Music Download

Download: "Piano(s)" ZIP
Release: Diatribes, Demierre & Bourquenez - "Piano(s)"
Netlabel: insubordinations.net

New Earth Objects - "Part 2" (MP3)

New Earth Objects is Clemens Wegener, Marian Reinig and Tommy Neuwirth. Not much is known about the band- anyway, we've got this wonderful live recording! Within 73 minutes and basically four tracks (ranging 12 - 27 minutes), the band creates their very own sound vision blending minimal Electronica, Krautrock and Pop.

Synthesizers go along with decent sound gimmicks, super simple drums and hushed vocals. Warm textures are played out to maximal duration, drums and beats are a meditation on structure, a natural pulsing rather than an instrument to agitate the crowd. Especially the first two tracks are absolutely bewitching. "Slow down, slow down..." - must have been a special performance!

MP3 Pop Music Download

Download: "Live at Schmiede" ZIP

Artist-Website: myspace.com/newearthobjects

Release: New Earth Objects - "Live at Schmiede"

Netlabel: headphonica.com

Patterns - "Idle Eyes, Sore City" (MP3)

In the meantime, the band released a split LP with The Falcon Five and another shared 7" with fuckuismyname, and  Patterns' full-length debut is about to be done according to the band's blog. A good moment to get familiar with Germany's finest Postpunk outfit!

The band play nervous and awkward DC-style Punk- and Mathrock, charged top to bottom. Their melodies are unconsumed, all grooves and breaks come tight. Of course I have to mention Q & Not U and Les Savy Fav, but I guess Patterns are fine with this comparison. Sooo good.

MP3 Rock Music Download

Download: "People I Adore" ZIP
Artist-Website: myspace.com/pttrns
Release: Patterns - "People I Adore"
Label: ursaminormusik.de

XYDZO - "A Bali Na Bega" (MP3)<
XYDZO - "Djug" (MP3)
XYDZO - "Kuhtu" (MP3)

First off, the term Folklore might be misleading. Ulmar's approach to music is fully electronic, XYDZO is not about going back to the essentials, restoration or whatever. While listening to "Y" the reference that came to me repeatedly was "My Life in Bush of Ghosts" by Eno & Byrne.

Back in 1981, Ambient music pioneer Brian Eno and Talking Heads frontman David Byrne hooked up to create a artificial documentation of tribal music, ethnic field-recordings and Avantgarde Pop. Ljekio Ulmar adopts a similar position. He takes elements from Russian and African Folklore, popular and electronic music and glues it together to something new and exiting. This is wonderfully successful due to his substantial understanding of Pop music and music in general (is the title "Y" itself a meta-reference to the Pop Group's abrasive debut from 1979?).

The album is full of hits. Some will convince on first touch, for some you might need more time. But every single tune features a fresh idea and makes sense in the dramaturgy of the album. Essential listen! Asked for my Netaudio top ten EVER, "Y" would be in.

MP3 Folklore Music Download

Download: "Y" ZIP
Artist Website: myspace.com/xydzo
Release: XYDZO - "Y"
Netlabel: pulsations-for-you.ru

No Snow - "zdb" (MP3)

No Snow is Lyon duo Gael Moissonier and François Virot, the later who was reviewed for his delightful split release with Karaocake and Marie Marie Cells a few weeks ago. However, to get an idea about the Snow music the Virot-link doesn't help an inch.

After some self-distributed CDr on Moissonier's Zero Jardins imprint and two compilation appearances, No Snow hooked up with Portuguese Merzbau Netlabel for an untitled one-track EP. This single 22-minutes song "ZDB" feels like being displaced from a bunch of savages, hidden in their wet dark cave, tortured by tribal drums and subsonic waves of bassguitar.

No Snow are a performance band and obviously not interested in writing songs. Rather Art Brut than Popmusic. They embrace the noise and chance of a live improvisation, distilling their very special Bat Cave aesthetics. On the one hand, there's a clear early 80's No Wave/ Post Punk influence. On the other, No Snow work in the tradition of recent visionaries like Black Dice or the Animal Collective. Low-down brilliant, I'm serious.

MP3 Noise Music Download

Download: "Untitled EP" ZIP
Artist-Website: myspace.com/nosnowww
Release: No Snow - "Untitled EP"
Netlabel: Merzbau

Imachi Akira - "Noise Dreams" (MP3)
Imachi Akira - "Untitled" (MP3)

"Lycoris Radiata" is wonderfully diversified! The album kicks in with the ambient "Noise Dreams". The tracks sounds rather dreamful than noisy and charmed away my misgivings that Imachi Akira is just another Netaudio Noise-musician. "Birdpia" afterwards entangles Electronica, gentle guitar-chords and field recordings. Alone, the mix is a bit awkward with the clicks n' cuts quite prominent (which is true for some of the tracks and the only major drawback.

At "Aware Si Mono", Akira pulls out the echo chamber, mixing warm noises with harmonica and his guitar pickings.  The title track "Lycoris Radiata" surprises with massive guitar feedback and distortion noises, while "Silent Way" just afterwards shows the way back to Dub and Jazzy soundscapes. Double bass and piano work superb.  "..." is the last track on the album and with it's introspect Folk-motives, all these little noises and lo-fi atmosphere it reminds me of Rain Netlabel or, more explicit, Daisuke Miyatani or Beddoes (from whom you will hear somewhat later).

Central to Imachi Akira's album is the twelve-minutes "Untitled". On top the murmur of a streamlet, a very simple synth bubble is heard. Minute by minute, additional layers of synth loops are introduced. With increasing complexity, motives form in-between what is really played. That recalls Steve Reich's early works or Philip Glass indeed, but Akira keeps it down to earth by hitting-in a powerful piano track at halftime. The epic ending is noise, and then, the silent creek again. Wow.

MP3 Electronic Music Download

Download: "Lycoris Radiata EP" ZIP
Artist-Website: imachi.org
Release: Imachi Akira - "Lycoris Radiata EP"
Netlabel: electronicalabel.ru

Wo0 - "Sunkissed Ladymoon" (MP3)

Wo0, founding member of the Belgrade Noise Society, has an interesting approach to "play" his guitar. He uses the pickups of his instrument to receive certain frequencies (from cell phones, radio transmitters, and similar).  Processed by multiple effect pedals and amplified to Rock n' Roll volume, mesmerizing drones emerge that are carefully interlaced and focused in an all-live setup by Wo0. The outcome sounds familiar yet fresh and disturbing.

Warm distortion, rich of overtones, harmonious feedback that underlines Wo0's drones like Möbius strips, you might want to name the experimental moments of Sonic Youth or Montreal's GYBE! for reference. But it's different altogether as no melodies are formed and no "songs" are sung.  Wo0 adapts the physical presence of Noiserock for his textural Ambient Drones. May I name Glenn Branca for a more suitable comparison?

MP3 Ambient Music Download

Download: "With the Flowered Minds" (ZIP-Archive)
Artist-Website: www.myspace.com/belgradenoise
Release: Wo0 - "With the Flowered Minds"
Netlabel: www.phantomchannel.co.uk

The compilation brings together three young French artist, all situated between edgy Pop- and some kind of lo-fi Folkmusic. Karaocake is the solo outlet of Paris-based Camille Chambon. With four self-published records and a lot of tourring through Europe, the US and Canada in the back, Chambon comes off quite professional. Her loose lo-fi Pop miniatures don't do fortunately. Charming introspect home recordings, and a beautiful voice.

Marie Marie Cells hit the spot more rude. Rumbling bass meets juvenile male vocals meets lurching keys that sound like 90's Shoegaze. A strange combination, but somehow this cheeky Paris boygroup has a knack as well.

François Virot finally delights us with two high quality outtakes from his recent "Yes or No" album. In brutal falsetto, only acompanied by his acoustic guitar, Virot performs his awkward Indiepop. Somewhere between Panda Bear and Stephen Malkmus, François Virot proves himself as a skilled songwriter with loads of ideas and a stunning feel for melodies.

Video "Cascade Kisses"

PS: Read about Virot's No Snow-release at Merzbau Netlabel very soon!

MP3 Pop Music Download

Download: "Release Party CD-R" ZIP
Artist-Website: Karaocake | Marie Marie Cells | Francois Virot
Release: Virot & Friends - "Release Party CD-R"
Netlabel: clappingmusic.com

Sleepmakeswaves - "One Day You Will Teach Me To Let Go Of My Fears" (MP3)
Sleepmakeswaves - "So That The Children Will Always Shout Her Name" (MP3)

The EP kicks off with "I Will Write Peace On Your Wings And You Will Fly Over The World" - a 7:22 minutes long track that kicks off hard to slow down and build up again. Some parts of the song can even be associated with a metal-like style.
"Exits To Nowhere" brings you down again and gives you some time to prepare for "One Day You Will Teach Me To Let Go Of My Fears", which is the strongest and most beautiful track on their EP.
After a pretty calm and "minimal" introduction, that only features some ambient background sounds and two guitars, the song develops a fascinating middle-part from 1:30 to 4:10. As soon as the distorted guitars, the strings and the drums set in, the song takes you over. Completely. This is one of the best postrock-pieces I have heard in a long time. Open up for it and it will take you over, too. But listen to it loudly!
After this musical highlight it is quite difficult to keep up the beauty and brilliance of "One Day You Will Teach Me..." but still, "In Today Already Walks Tomorrow" in a whole has the power to grab you and hold you close enough to make you stay with it.
The subtle electronic variations, the well placed eruptions and the perfectly arranged build-ups create something that deserves a bigger attention to this australian quartet. More than 1000 Downloads in the first week after the re-release on the Lost Children Netlabel might be the beginning of something big. Certainly a band to keep ones eyes on!

MP3 Postrock Music Download

Download: "In Today Already Walks Tomorrow" (ZIP-Archive)
Artist-Website: www.sleepmakeswaves.com
Artist-Myspace: www.myspace.com/sleepmakeswaves
Release: "In Today Already Walks Tomorrow" (Lost Children)
Netlabel: Lost Children Netlabel

Kalte - "Spagyric" (MP3)
Kalte - "Mariana Arc" (MP3)

For their releases, Stasisfield create highly processed images playing with the effects of extrem enlargement, blur and digital halftoning. The art for Kalte's "Lanthanide Series" is especially beautiful. Pallid coloured pixel strings fall like northern lights over a dark background, giving both an idea of alienation and pulchritude. Same is for the music.

Fully synthetic, enhanced with a little bit of scraping noises, Kalte music is quite kalt (which is "cold" in German). But in between the multiple layers of sound, harmonies dwell like fungi in the dark. "Buzzes and drones intertwined in a mesmerizingly thick blanket of static", as the label puts it in fine precision. Their minimal Drones remind me of Direwires & Freder, offthesky or entia non.

Got some time for a ride through the night? Start now, start right here.

MP3 Ambient Music Download

Release: Kalte - "The Lanthanide Series"
Download: "The Lanthanide Series" ZIP
Artist-Website: kaltemusic.com
Netlabel: stasisfield.com

offthesky - "Swallow Shallows" (MP3)
offthesky - "Symphony for Exiting Entropies" (MP3)

Jason Corder's Ambient music rises from the ashes of a thousand instruments like fume from a wasted fireplace. It escapes the crashed corpora of violins, guitars and chimes. It's fluid and ghostlike, drifts from here to there, but once it had entered your ears, you can't get it out of your head. His tickeling textures swarm with micro-tonalities and bring forth that wonderful richness offthesky can be recognised by in all his releases.

In a way, Corder appears like someone who rather captures sound, more like a scientist who knows where to point the microscope to to reveal the beauty of the unseen. For a music video, I'd put someone catching insects with a butterfly net on a late Summer hayfield. In slow motion and back light. Humble beauty! Listen to "Swallow Shallow" and join my praise. A veritable Ambient masterpiece, you name it.

MP3 Ambient Music Download

Release: offthesky - "Subtle Trees"
Download: "Subtle Trees" ZIP
Artist-Website: www.offthesky.com
Netlabel: www.ropeswingcities.com

The puerile happiness you discover in this fabulous release will overwhelm you the first time. That's because "Binjoum" is the equivalent of a childrens room. Coloured toys are spread all over the place and you're confronted immidiately with a bunch of kids showing you all their favorite toys. Who will you pay attention to?

But stop! Before you leave the room in panic, give Thiaz Itch a chance. Explore his instrumental tracks, listen to his songs where he sings like "The Gardener's Lament" or "B Line".  And get convinced by his original instrumentation, his happy, funky music with lots of twists and weird surprises.

Truely individual and sometimes hard to take! But in the right mood, Thiaz Itch is fun, fun, fun!

MP3 Electronica Music Download

Download: Thiaz Itch - "Binjoum" (ZIP-MP3-Archive) (FLAC-ZIP)
Artist-Website: http://thiazitch.free.fr/
Release: Thiaz Itch - "Binjoum" @ bedroomresearch.com | Thiaz Itch - "Binjoum" @ archive.org
Netlabel: www.bedroomresearch.com | http://prootrecords.free.fr/

One thing I like a lot about demos, b-side compilations, live recordings, and, well, certain Netaudio releases is the fact that the music can be quite rough. Unhewn both in sound and songwriting, Dublin Duck Dispensary's  "Luanqibazao" is a good example for what pearls might easily be overseen upon flighty observation. 13 tracks and drafts for Popsongs to come, much excitement can be found in here.

"Bible Stories" is the demo version of an early Arcade Fire tune, "Prestidigitation" features lopsided drums and a happy-sad synth melody that makes you think of Nicholas Thorburn's Unicorns (a big guide very likely!). "I Smell The Blood" is a wonderful guitar-driven Popsong, "Brain Damage" a Wire-style assault of compressed Punk energy. Between a few dubby experiments, "The Death Threat" is another fine Indiepop song you might want to be familiar with. Did I mention the Beta Band for comparison? Stephen Malkmus? Bobby Aherne's influences are legion, but alltogether he manages to make to sound fresh and unique.

Check this delicate live performance!

MP3 Pop Music Download

Download: "Luanqibazao" ZIP
Release: Dublin Duck Dispensary - "Luanqibazao"
Netlabel: www.rackandruinrecords.com
Artist-Website: www.myspace.com/dublindd

While this is definitely not easy listening, being mostly fairly bleak, and often very intense or harsh, Livosky’s multi-layered compositions truly take you on an emersive journey. The music is at times reminiscent of early Skylab, or the Future Sound of London although Djet’s style is definitely his own. The thing that makes Djet special is his meticulously crafted transitions between often radically different styles of music. Those who appreciate innovation and progressive music should have a listen. Get your headphones, shut your eyes and drink it in.

The one thing I would say against the album is that the mood is fairly bleak. Some of the album is a bit too warped and dark for my liking such as "Soap Opera" or "Muddy Muse," but those who aren’t averse to a bid of the dark-side, will enjoy his creations here.

The album is really best listened to in it’s entirety, but if I was to pick out individual tracks, my favourites would be Belledanse, Aloe, Dusty dreams and Southeast waltz.

MP3 Music Download

Download: Djet - "Free Translation" (ZIP-Archive)
Artist-Website: Djet
Release: Djet - "Free Translation"
Netlabel: Vaatican Records

While some of Laurent Peter's older recordings have a strong foundation in 1990's electronica acts like Autechre, Squarepusher and SND, his style slightly shifted in recent years.

With "Stase / Contre Stase", Resting Bell releases a two track EP of post-industrial field music, a one-hour mediation on noise, textures and Collage Ambient, to make use of the term I introduced for Preslav Literary School a few months ago. Two tracks that stand like monoliths, two tracks that sum-up the glitch aesthetics, d'incise stands ultimately for.

The awesome thing about "Stase" and "Contre Stase" is that both tracks work equally well as pure sound design and pieces of recycling art as well as virtuoso Ambient music. Beneath tons of field recordings, humming, hissing, scratching and environmental noise, Peter introduces tonal textures and layers of glittering synth drones that makes his deconstructions a hell of a good listen. Music that demands your attention, that forces you to reflect. Take some time and relearn to listen. d'incise is the perfect teacher.

You can purchase a wonderful CDR edition of "Stase / Contre Stase" by getting in contact with d'incise. There's a limited edition of 7o copies. Hurry!

MP3 Ambient Music Download

Download: "Stase / Contre Stase" ZIP
Release: d’incise - "Stase / Contre Stase"
Artist-Website: www.dincise.net
Netlabel: www.restingbell.net

Well, Techno. What a odd genre, equalizing cheap rave tunes and serious sound science all in the name of the bass drum. Andrey Kiritchenko, as you probably can guess, is rooted far out at the experimental edges of what you know as Techno music. For the self-released "Sinemagiq" EP, he goes for the basic fundaments of electronic dance music: repetition, tribalism, straight but effective melodic minimalism.

Seven tunes, arranged like a good DJ set, with a limited set of sound that appear all quite brownish to me- take a look at the awesome cover artwork by Dmytro Nikolaenko to get an idea what I mean. Everything sounds very organic, wooden by chance, and there's a knarz in there that's substantially different from the Berlin squarewave Rockers the kids are so mad about these days. Kiritchenkos music is dark, driving and develops a hypnotic pull that's hard to resists. From the disharmonic siren in "00" to the fat UK-style bass synth in "06". Highly recommended.

MP3 Techno Download

Download: "Sinemagiq" ZIP
Release: Andrey Kiritchenko - "Sinemagiq"
Artist-Website: www.nexsound.org/akir

The overall style is experimental electronic music. Some of the ringtones at Nexsound work extraordinarly well (try Kotra's sonic aural attacks or the invidious high frequency beeps provided by Zavoloka), other sound fine but might fail to cross every day's noise (I/DEX, Nole Plastique, Bluermutt)...

Perfidious SEO (Search Engine Optimization) update for nexsound.org, serious customer service or simply a new form of music? It's not quite clear what's the intention behind this project, but i dare say it's probably not the first mentioned. Anyway, I like the idea and think some more Netlabels should ask their artists to produce something similar. Which artist would YOU like to hear on your iPhone?

Free MP3 Ringtones Download

Download: Ringtones ZIP
Release: Nexsound Free Ringtones
Netlabel: www.nexsound.org

To4ka.Dna (TOЧKA means "dot") is the alter ego of Russian Sergey Misyureff. As we get to know on the Constanta website, he's involved in many different musical projects - none of them which can be found on the internet, and very spare information is available on Misyureff himself either. So... we have to focus on the music!

Sergey Misyureff's debut as To4ka.Dna is an impressive collection of five pieces of dense Ambient music, rich in texture and monochromatically stained in autumn colours; the artwork, as it should, gives you a good idea about the music.

"3'34"" starts with guitar feedback, decent cracklings and some simple synthesizers. "Odno Slovo" combines processed strings with a hypnotic bass fundament. Atop, you get to hear several little noise. The tunes rises to epic when a heavily reworked electric guitar comes in: Wow! For the titletrack, Misyureff gets a tiny little closer to Pop harmonies, at the same time expanding borders with field recordings and ambient noise.

Another sound artist from East Europe or Russia with a highly unique sound and big talents in songwriting. To4ka.Dna is on my watchlist.

MP3 Ambient Music Download

Release Site: To4ka.Dna - "ZVUK"
Direct Download: "ZVUK" ZIP
Netlabel: www.constanta-label.ru

The Owl Dudes are Jesse Johnson and Paul Wig, two white breads from boomtown Portland, Oregon. They published their debut "For The Feelers" by the hands of UK La Familia label, one of the most miraculous and enigmatic Notlabels I know. We get to know nothing about the Dudes despite free access to their songs in MP3 format. That's fairly enough, no?

"For The Feelers" consists of nine rather short tracks and drafts, blending into each other like a mixtape. Part vocal part instrumental, the Owl Dudes take the best from Hip Hop, Punk and electronic music to create something exciting and new. Their snotty raps sound tight and draw influences from both Hip Hop and US Hardcore.

Beats are scattered loosly about their tracks, changing seats with noisy textures and unexpected samples which is excellently matched by the trashy sound of the EP. Where some of the vocal tracks make you think of Anticon-head Sole and in face of the Ambient textures Odd Nosdam has to be mentioned, the Owl Dudes do something very unique and refreshing.

Night time, owls at work.

MP3 Hip Hop Music Download

Release Site: Owl Dudes - "For The Feelers"
Direct Download: "For The Feelers" ZIP
Netlabel: www.8302.net/familia
Artist Website: www.myspace.com/owldudes

"Autumn Bricolage" is the MP3 re-release of Adam Thomas' first album as PLS, published on CDr back in late 2006. Thomas labels his way of compositing "Tape Music" which means that he's using old tape decks, dictaphones, radiobroadcast rather than digitally piling tracks. Enhanced with various found sounds and field-recordings, Collage Ambient is the new genre I'd like to coin (ah, by the way, that's Musique Concrète, no?). Half way music, halfway aurual investigation, "Autumn Bricollage" is subtitled "Soundscapist Compositions Set In English Parkland".

For experimental electronic music, the way things are recorded and the specific hardware used are of utmost importance. The approach of PLS results in rich textures and a specific sound that makes his tracks unique and memorable. Analogue hissing blends with lo-fi field-recordings, minimal melodies are introduced, synth textures correspond with the tonal shift in the found sound of an air con hum (or whatever). The whole album mixes seamlessly so please make sure to listen to the whole thing rather than just the track I picked!

Anonymous Soundcapist (photos by James Grey)

MP3 Ambient Music Download

Release Site: Preslav Literary School - "Autumn Bricolage"
Direct Download: "Autumn Bricolage" ZIP
Netlabel: www.clinicalarchives.blogspot.com
Artist Website: www.myspace.com/preslavliteraryschool

Adam Thoma's Label: www.myspace.com/glossesfurdiemasses

Darren McClure "Miniature Forest Remix" (MP3)

offthesky "Miniature Forest Remix" (MP3)

Usually, I avoid talking about the same Netlabels over and over again. But this release is too important to keep it in the closet just because I wrote about Brometer and IOD two weeks ago. The Green Kingdom, Detroit-based musician and graphic designer gave out the song "Miniature Forest" from his self titled CD debut for a bunch of house-keeping IOD artists to let them redraft his delicate Ambient textures.

Exile-Irishman Darren McClure takes the original with him on a trip underwater. Not a trip to abysmal pits but a smooth skin-dive through colorful coastal waters. SEM-mastermind Alexandre Navarro treats the song with his cine scope delay mainly. Navarro's edit is pretty close to his own sound of semi-experimental, melancholy guitar Ambient and brings forth a sniveling feel of prairie vastness. Letna (SEM) and Mexican Manrico Montero (of Mandorla-fame) rework the track from a similar minimalistic point of view, the former with a good amount of Pop, the later with a rather dark approach. Both at huge success.

My favorite remix comes from Jason Corder a.k.a. offthesky, a guy you probably have heard of. His "Miniature Forest" is the most song-like rework and so full of fresh textures, strange sounds and beautiful melodies that it's a pleasure to zoom in and listen closely. Did I mention the best place for Ambient music is the Netaudio scene? Go download the proove!

MP3 Ambient Music Download

Release Site: The Green Kingdom - "Miniature Forest"
Netlabel: www.semlabel.com/iod
Artist Website: www.thegreenkingdom.wordpress.com

"The Western Lands" is a Folk record. Despite all the processing, Sousa's guitar-play is what makes up all songs on his album. A handful of simple melodies, some improvisation and a lot of repetition, an trashy amp and the courage to go public with it, Tiago Sousa doesn't need too much to release a cool album.

Weightlessly draped on the infinite howl of a fuzzy guitar, piano and acoustic guitar come together for a beautiful waltz at "The Roads To Western Lands". It's stunning to hear the instruments merge, interfere and ab initio build new structures. Imagine Belgian Free Folk-collective Kaboom Karavan in a slightly more traditional arrangement. Focusing on the interplay of noisy, electric guitar and fine unplugged pickings on top, "Waghdas" is another good example for Tiago Sousa's approach to experimental (Folk) music. With it's haunting distortion grim, first drone "Can Any Soul Survive (...)" is the one extreme, while calm piano/ guitar ballad "The Valley" shows Tiago from his rather dreamy side. Chapeau Tiago!

Make sure to check the excellent liner notes at Resting Bell for some infos about the concept of "The Western Lands" and take a look at the attendant photo session.

MP3 Folk Music Download

Release Site: Tiago Sousa - "The Western Lands"
Netlabel: www.restingbell.net
Artist Website: www.merzbau-label.org/tiagosousa

Visit Merzbau Netlabel as well

Most innovative music needs repeated listen. Consider Free Jazz: the unexperienced ear can't sort out the fractalized grooves and widespread harmonies. Autechre might sound random if you're not used to experimental electronic music. Madlib's beats for himself as Quasimoto can be considered as unfinished drafts someone accidentally dropped rhymes on top.

Internet & Kool are neither Free Jazz or IDM but can be compared with Madlib, Kid Koala or cLOUDDEAD. Both guys are well-known producers and label heads from the (East-) Berlin Rap underground. Internet spins the wheels as DJ V-Raeter and forms the duo Sichtbeton alongside MC Lunte. Kid Kool is Felix K., founder of Dubtech label Hidden Hawaii, journalist and producer. He's also part of the Hungry Men crew. As a band, Internet & Kool produce loose sample-based Hip Hop, sometimes smooth and atmospheric, sometime rough and edgy and closer to radio play than truebred Rap. Dressed to size with a fine sensibility for Pop structures, "God Likes The Picture of You" is a fresh piece of intelligent Hip Hop music.

MP3 Hip Hop Music Download

Direct Download: DJ Internet & Kid Kool - "God Likes The Picture Of You"
Netlabel: www.hungrymenrecords.com
Artist Website: DJ Internet | Kid Kool

IOD Netlabel is run by Alexandre Navarro. He had a good time with EKO and Standard KLIK Music from 2005 to 2007 but decided to go "for real" with SEM in 2008. Up to now, SEM published two beautiful CDs (The Green Kingdom and Navarro's solo debut "Arcane" ). The tiny Netlabel IOD is used to host the free back catalogue of it's Netaudio-precursors and features fresh downloads every now and then. Alex, we'd like to see some more enthusiasm, some more promotion for IOD because EPs like "Three Feet Of" by Brometer need to be heard!

"From One Two" is a composition of subtle brilliance. Loopy guitars, organ, chimes, some dull beats and everything is filtered through omnipresent field-recordings. Like a Four Tet-remix of a Nick Drake song. Elegantly entangled, "A Trap" fuses forward- and backward guitars with tape hiss and ghostly synth beeps. A midnight walk trough the moor can be imagined at "Rotation" . A slow synth pulse, grumpy noise and a wobbling synth-line makes me think of the recent Portishead album. So much talent! Hope to hear more from Mark Sargison and Brometer soon.

MP3 Folk Music Download

Release Site: Brometer - "Three Feet Of"
Netlabel: www.semlabel.com/iod
Artist Website: www.brometer.co.uk

I am sure Oskar Rudzki digged a lot of Autechre, Squarepusher, Plaid and listened closely to musicians from Warp Records and the early era, the so-called "intelligent techno" era. His art is filled with details, details, details and a love for extra ordinary sounds. But wait, this ain't IDM in the old-skool way. Phonout loves - I guess - old school breakbeats which he enjoys to chop up to build new fascinating beats. With "Da ni" he created a nearly perfect album where tricky production meets soul, melodies and grooves. A deep and excellent soundtrack to read science fiction literature.

MP3 Music Download

Download: Phonout - "Da ni" (ZIP-Archive | ZIP Archive 2)
Artist-Website: www.phonout.de
Netlabel: Zimmerlautstärke

McNeill and Phantom Chanel introduces nine rather unknown Ambient composer, all of them working at the edge of Electronica, Drone and something like Postrock. Mercury synth-textures, drifty memories of guitar and a lot of noise are the common elements. Wonderful!

Engine7 opens the mix with his trademark sound of Electronica beats and deep Ambient harmonies. Bleeding in, Parhelion (Ihor Dawidiuk from Toronto, CAN) basically produces sugar Noisepop that sounds like received from the bottom of a glacier lake. Experimental band Brakhage (CH) shift the overall sound to something more sparse and dark, extensively using field-recordings over bass-saturated instrumentals. Michael Henaghan aka Mosca, next to Engine7 the only artist I was familiar with, resembles this sound with his subtle melodies buried under a lava flow of down-pitched synth textures. Finally, youngster Lee "Svefn" Chapman takes you home with a high-spirited piece of Drone muzak from his recent EP "Lightness".

MP3 Ambient Music Download

Release Site: V.A. - "Phantom Channel Presents - Part I"
Direct Download: V.A. - "Phantom Channel Presents - Part I" (ZIP)
Netlabel: www.phantomchannel.co.uk

Solaire can not be labelled as a typical post rock band, because they are expanding the range of this genre by introducing lyrics, samples (that partly seem to come from original movie quotes) and easy to follow guitar melodies that somehow make the songs predictable. But this impression of predictability won’t last for long, because their repetitive and catchy melodies seem to be a thoughtfully placed stylistic device to prepare the forthcoming musical eruption, that creates a unique and intense moment. Their debut full length "…and then I strapped explosives to my body" is a collection of those intense moments and it is available at the dutch online promotion and distribution platform for independent bands, as well as record label Dying Giraffe Recordings, where you can download some of their songs for free, published under a Creative Commons License.

If you want to know what they look like, you can click here to see them in action in their video to “the great went”, directed by Margarita Kouvatsou.

Free MP3 Download

Release Site: Solaire - "…and then I strapped explosives to my body"
Artist Website: http://www.solairemusic.com/
Artist Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/solairemusic

While some of his former releases were either a bit too poppy or a bit too noisy for me, his full-length debut is just right. Not only well-balanced and "quality music" in terms of craftsmanship, slippy Maze can't be hold to any style conventions. "Delightfully strange", as Huw Roberts puts it on the liner notes.

Warm in tone and texture, Maze mixes processed instruments like flutes and strings with a lot of crackling noise and programed beats. His melodies are splendid and lush and create an artificial 70's Progrock-feel that goes along with the analog sound very well. The idea seems to resemble Jan Jelinek's approach to Krautrock on Kosmischer Pitch.

It is hard to pick certain songs as the whole album works best at full listen... my personal favorites are the first three tunes: "Steampunk" for it's wishful slide guitar, the flutes and the wafting beats, "Nested Companion Template" with it's cut-up vocal samples huge tonal synth-pads and finally "Subtropical Blasting Officier" which is just an incredibly weird piece of, well, Maze muzak. Yummy.

Don't forget to check the delicious artwork!

MP3 Electronic Music Download

Release Site: Daniel Maze - "Red After Image"
Direct Download: Daniel Maze - "Red After Image" (ZIP)
Netlabel: www.serein.co.uk
Artist Website: www.maze.walltapper.com

Other netlabels Daniel Maze released his music on:

Netlabel: Test Tube
Netlabel: EKO
Netlabel: 12rec.

“Sweets For The Wild 3” comes along as a double-album featuring 22 songs by 22 artists. Because most of the bands are French, you can gain a pretty interesting insight to the French indie scene. All songs are well produced and of high quality. While most of the songs are easy to follow, some of them need some time to get used to, so be patient. One thing is for sure: your patience will be rewarded, because there is a lot to discover: new and upcoming bands and more importantly, a lot of interesting approaches towards pop music.

“Sweets For The Wild 3” is freely available as MP3 and OGG and while you are surfing the Another Record Website, make sure to check out their other releases, too.

Free Indie Music MP3 Download

Release Site: V.A. - "Sweets For The Wild 3"
Direct Download: Volume I MP3, OGG, Volume II MP3, OGG
Netlabel : http://www.another-record.com