Stockfinster - "Push Push" (MP3)
Stockfinster - "Knuckle" (MP3)
Stockfinster- "Gold Canyon" (MP3)
Stockfinster- "Mitglieder" (MP3)

Stockfinster (German for "pitch black") is the one man band of Malmö-based Sebastian Borg. In the liner notes to "Dead Line", Borg (who commonly appears as "batti") excuses himself for being unproductive and slow. However, for a 76 minutes opus magnus, perfectly arranged and composed like this, many musicians need a whole lifetime for. If any.

The music of Stockfinster is a mixture of Postrock and progressive Pop, essentially enhanced by many electronic elements. There is an element of nostalgia to Borg's music that stems from his melancholic melodies and the late 90's breakbeat patterns. Several time I had to think of early Lamb or other forward-thinking "Trip Hop" acts. From the world of Netaudio, Orange Crush, Endless or Nic Bommaritio might suit for comparison.

Albeit not actually at the edge of contemporary music, Stockfinster has something more valuable to offer: timelessness. Strong, atmospheric melodies, impellent beats, and a supreme production. Should be OK for the next four years, no?

MP3 Pop Music Download

Download: "Dead Line" (ZIP-Archive)
Artist-Website: stockfinster.nu
Release: Stockfinster - "Dead Line"
Netlabel: sutemos.net

Anamanaguchi - "Holiday" (MP3)
Tugboat - "El Scorcho" (MP3)
Bit Shifter - "The World Has Turned (...)" (MP3)

The element that many chip tune musicians and most Weezer songs have in common is a certain will and addiction to melodies. Catchy melodies. OBSCENE melodies. While Weezer cross their kitschy music by River Cuomo's fragile vocal performance, in case of "Weezer- The 8-bit Album", Nintendo and Atari TV games take the job. Did I mention it works like perfect?

The spectrum ranges from "band" (Anamanaguchi, :(, I Fight Dragons, and - surprise! - Bit Shifter) to oldschool gameboy-only (Tugboat, Nordloef, Arcadecoma). You don't need much more. This is the lovely liner notes Pterodactyl Squad put on:

"Do you remember that dream you had, where the sound chips from the beloved games consoles of your youth all got together and formed a Weezer tribute band? Yeah? No? OK. That dream is about to come true whether you had it or not."

MP3 Pop Music Download

Download: Weezer- The 8-bit Album (ZIP)
Release: V.A. - Weezer- The 8-bit Album
Netlabel: www.ptesquad.com

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

Monokle - "Friday" (MP3)
Monokle - "Magic Go!" (MP3)
Monokle - "Seven" (MP3)

Monokle is Vlad Kudryavtsev and Alexander Kumach, two young guys that sound like one of your favourite bands. On a basis of warm and organic IDM beats, Monokle compose epic Indiepop- and Postrock tracks that imply influence from 40 years of Popmusic ("From Can to Plaid", as Ideology says). You can find pieces of Kraut- and Progrock, 80's Pop, 90's Electronica and loads more in the Monokle music. Listening to this 45 minutes, I am amazed how seamless everything engages.

The album "Tesaurus" is super-versatile but works perfectly as an album, homogenous in mood and atmosphere. Vlad and Alexander blow their tracks up to massive hymns, including numerous stems of synthesizer, guitars and electronic gimmicks here and there. They do well, although most songs on "Tesaurus" don't need all the fuzz- Monokle have the melodies to reach out for everyone. A brilliant example that Netaudio is so much more than just electronic music!

MP3 Electronic Pop Music Download

Download: "Tesaurus" (ZIP)
Artist-Website: myspace.com/monoklemuz
Release: Monokle - "Tesaurus"
Netlabel: www.ideology.de

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

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

Did are Guido Savini, Giancarlo Maresca, Andrea Tirone and Andrea Prato from the Motor-City of Turin, which is known for its car factories and network of highways. Maybe this has something to do with their music. Because Dids sound buzzes like a good running engine. Never stopping beats, the baseline goes on without hesitation, guitars are mashing up the scene and electronic elements are everywhere adding this little bit of extra extra. "Ask U2" seems to be a forerunner for their upcoming album that will invade our dancefloors hopefully very soon.

Placed in "The Dancy Issue" in the back-catalogue of the italien netlabel Kirstens Postcard, Dids "Ask U2" EP is surely something that will find it's way all around the world. So, come on and help spreading the word!

MP3 Rock Music Download

Download: Did - Ask U2 (ZIP-Archive)
Artist-Website: www.myspace.com/didmusik
Netlabel: www.kirstenspostcard.com

His debut "I don't know what I'm doing" (2003) was well received in the online community and made him become one of the first "web-musicians" who gained attention beyond the digital world.

"[...] Despite giving my music away for free online, my songs have been licensed for television, played on commercial and campus radio, and I made enough money from licensing and sales to do a real pressing of my first CD [...] " (Brad Turcotte)

"I don't know what I'm doing", that was often compared to the sound of Beck, led to countless remixes that were featured on ccMixter, a Creative Commons remix-platform. Some of these remixes were put on the album "I Don't Know What I'm Doing Remixed".

"I put the source files for my album I Don't Know What I'm Doing online and people made a lot of remixes. I Don't Know What I'm Doing Remixed is a compilation of some of my favorites." (Brad Turcotte)

For his new album "Out of it" he allready made source files available and it will surely not take long for new remixes to come up. "Out of it" continues the melodic sound of "I don't know what I'm doing" but this time Brads indie/alternative rock comes along with stronger beats and even more obvious guitars.

Besides his great music, Brad Sucks is one of only a few "web-musicians" who fully adapted the open source licencing model to music. He uses the BY-SA Creative Commons license, that also allows commercial use of his works (Usually netlabels and musicians go for a noncommercial license that restricts commercial use).

"A lot’s changed since I started putting music on the Internet way back in 2001. Artist-endorsed free downloads were shocking. Flexible pricing was still an untested novelty. It was rare to find source files from artists and sharing music wasn’t encouraged by new artists. Recently I was asked if I’d do anything different this time around. Would I still give the music away for free? Would I still give away my source files? Would I still be easygoing about copyright? Surely I could pull back now and try to cash in. And I honestly couldn’t imagine why I’d do things different. The only reason I, a dude who made an album by himself in a country basement, has had any sort of success is because people took it upon themselves to share my music with their friends. They remixed it, they used it in their videos, they played it on their podcasts, they included it in software and games and it took on a life of its own. To sabotage that would be a huge, retarded mistake. Instead I’ll be grateful if Out of It worms around the world in even close to the same freaky way I Don’t Know What I’m Doing did and continues to." (Brad Turcotte)

If you want to know more about Brad, visit his website and listen to this Interview (Podcast), done by the Redhat Magazine.

Enough said! Now go and listen to Brad Sucks, kids!

MP3 Pop Music Download

Download:Brad Sucks - "Out Of It" (ZIP-Archive)
Artist-Website: www.bradsucks.net
Release: Brad Sucks - "Out Of It"

America Del Sur ("America of the South") is basically Phil Cardona and Taylor Ross. Friends from high school days back in Jacksonville, Florida, the band released their self titled debut at Rack & Ruin, a Dutch Netlabel online since early 2008 but with a back catalog of +70 records already.

Here, number 64 is the one you definitely need to know. Cardona and Ross manage to mix angst-ridden Indierock ("Evil Pop") and sophisticated white boy Jazzpop ("I Don't Know You") like a duck takes to water. Their drums sound like shit, the guitars are tied just beneath the chin very probably. There is some Surf in there. But just like for recent NYC darlings Vampire Weekend, it's the fine vocal harmonies that keep the whole thing going- and America Del Sur at heavy rotation in my player. Ace.

MP3 Rock Music Download

Release Site: America Del Sur - "America Del Sur"
Direct Download: "America Del Sur" ZIP
Netlabel: www.rackandruinrecords.com
Artist Website: www.myspace.com/americaofthesouth

Beep! Beep! is going for promotion and distribution of independent music and tries to create an accessible communtiy which is supposed to unite artists and their audience. By using the Creative Commons licence, the dutch netlabel offers all releases as free downloads but also promotes ‘hardcopy’ albums wrapped up in a beautiful artwork, as one can read on their website.

Their first labelsampler (Behold My Puny Bears Vol. I), which contains songs of all seven Bands that allready joined Beep! Beep!, offers some surprises. There is the Postrockers from We vs. Death who actually sing for the first time ever! You get to hear great Indierock from The Walt, Kismet and Embrace Fire, Hardcore by Schotel Van De Dag, Indiepop by Paper Tiger and very new to my ears: Dutch Singer/Songwriter Pop by Het Gloren. All in all very talented groups and high quality recordings.

The label is partly state-funded, which is a new way of running a netlabel and therefore some kind of prototype. Besides listening to the great music, it is also interesting to read their statements on free music culture and profit:

"[]...we’re not here to make a profit. Any profits will be used to maintain our little organization or goes directly to our artists."

"[]...free music on the internet = a lot more listeners, more listeners = more fans, more fans = more shows, more shows = more merch sales, more merch sales = more money for the band, money for the band = more great music for free. Internet is our friend and free music downloads are awesome!"

While other netlabels offer some EPs and Albums, Beep! Beep! goes for the complete discography of it's featured artists. So be sure that there is a lot to come!

Indierock MP3 Music Download

Download: V.A. - "Behold My Puny Bears Vol. I" (ZIP-Archive)
Netlabel: Beep! Beep! Back Up The Truck

Pourquoi me Reveiller was founded in 1998 and means "Why awaken" or in a broader sense "Why should I wake up". In 2005 they recorded their debut full length "They took my bed outside". Although the opener is called "bloody hours of nasty torture", recording the album must have been great fun because each song on their debut LP sounds completely different.

Besides the typical indie-setup (guitar, bass and drums), Pourquoi me Reveiller introduced piano, accordion, electronic sounds, samples and noise elements, that helped to create an eclectic indie-rock album, that ranges from experimental rock to acoustic pop. The Dutch septet is currently working on new songs, until those are put on an album, you can find "They took my bed outside" at Dying Giraffe Recordings.

MP3 Indie Rock Music Download

Release: Pourquoi me Reveiller - "They took my bed outside"
Netlabel: Dying Giraffe Recordings
Artist Website: www.pourquoimereveiller.com

The person behind The Heavens is Richard Green, who is involved in a couple of other bands like Ultrasound and The Somatics. As a songwriter, guitarist and singer he seems to have such a big output of musical creativity that he needs at least three bands to be satisfied.

On The Heavens EP he recorded four catchy songs with the help of some friends, who took care of other instruments, like organ, drums and bass. The Heavens are a good listen for everyone who misses the good old days of traditional Brit-Rock. Their excellent but short self-titled and self-released EP is freely available at Jamendo.

MP3 Britrock Music Download

Artist Website: http://www.myspace.com/theheavensband
Release: The Heavens - The Heavens EP

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