Category: best of jamendo

Interview with Jose Cruz (JCRZ)

Recently writer and critic Robert Nagle made a list of 11 Incredible Musicians You Can Download for Free . Many of the musicians on this top list make their music freely available on Jamendo, a free and legal music sharing site. Several musicians appearing on this list also gave interviews to this blog (Read the other interviews). You can also download a free sampler containing full songs from artists profiled here.

JCRZ is a French electronic musician named José Cruz who has produced 12 albums for Jamendo. of which Sit Down & Dance 2.0 is the most accessible of JCRZ’s 12 albums: fun, dancey, very pop and energetic. The melodies are simple and the electronic effects are understated. There are occasional voice tracks, but mostly it is electronic. It is straight/ conventional techno, but the formula is just right. The tracks that jumped out immediately were: Dreamsequence and Attraction Zero, and also Rollercoaster especially. All three are hard and very fun techno tracks. One Day Ago reminds me of some of the Suzanne Palmer remixes (that voice certainly sounds like her!) Also notable was the more serene/dreamy Memory Lost which reminded me of Paul van Dyk. (so did Fallen Angel). JCRZ’s other albums are worth checking out, especially Kind of Music and Fractal Attraction. In Non-compliant Human Being, JCRZ does two amazing dream trances, Red Javeline (Sun Mix) and Blue Javeline (Moon Mix). I especially love the 16 minute Red Javeline, which has an otherworldly magic, stretching outward to the sky and ending in a kind of lovely musical fog. In Checksum of Life, songs like Touched by an Angel and the lackadaisical Urban Interlude are so simple and joyful that one wonders if they were created in a happier and simpler era. His latest album Volume 10 doesn’t exactly cover new territory, but it is still enthralling music.

(more…)

1/13/2010
Interview with Thomas Eccard (2 Inventions)

Recently writer and critic Robert Nagle made a list of 11 Incredible Musicians You Can Download for Free. Many of the musicians on this top list make their music freely available on Jamendo, a free and legal music sharing site. Several musicians appearing on this list also gave interviews to this blog (Read the other interviews). You can also download a free sampler containing full songs from artists profiled here.

2 Inventions is a team of two Polish musicians Thomas Eccard and Neal Cerrone. They live in a small town Mielec (which is actually close to Lutsk, Ukraine, where I lived for a year). They do electronica with many kinds of flavors and moods, with a house sound, but also lots of pieces that begin with piano (like Paul Van Dyk). Two words come to mind: shimmering and pulsating. Their album, In Aeternum combines lots of disparate electronic elements without seeming too synthetic or techno. The most remarkable track I love her reminds me of Daft Punk along with pulsating reverberations which blur throughout the song. It a wonderful dizzying effect. The main melody is synthesized piano and South American pan flute (?), while the background is traditional, with various sound effects thrown in for fun. It seems almost ethereal. Deeper Love is danceable disco containing a sample on a single phrase. It doesn’t really go anywhere, but I really had a lot of fun being there. It’s like party music you pay no attention to until a friend points it out. Loneliness has lots of fireworks, but it doesn’t really begin until midway with the introduction of the soulful melody upon which the rest of the song builds upon. (That’s one quality I like to this electronica: how the long intros build to a dramatic silence, and then the main melody starts–take that, Beethoven!)

(more…)

1/13/2010
Interview with Vavrek & John Holowach (Tryad)

Recently writer and critic Robert Nagle made a list of 11 Incredible Musicians You Can Download for Free . Many of the musicians on this top list make their music freely available on Jamendo, a free and legal music sharing site. Several musicians appearing on this list also gave interviews to this blog (Read the other interviews). You can also download a free sampler containing full songs from artists profiled here .

Tryad is an amazing musical group of people who never met until they produced an album. Listen, their second album is often ranked as the #1 most frequently listened to out of Jamendo’s 29,000 free albums. It is quiet, mysterious, unsettling, full of piano and strong rhythms, pauses, occasional crashes and silences (it’s labeled as “Industrial Classical Pop”). Although it includes a core group of performers, most of the songs are built upon songs by other Jamendo artists. The results are astonishing. Struttin’ is a kind of funky protest song about the music industry. Breathe is an intimate song that poses a question to an imaginary lover. Alone is a meditation on solitude that almost seems … joyful. Lovely is an uplifting romantic ballad that offers consolation to a sad individual (“trees and galaxies/can’t you see/just like these/you are so lovely/how could you ever think you’re separate from everything”). Mesmerize takes a lovely song by Brad Sucks, embellishes it with piano and gives the original melody a new meaning…and profundity. This is a powerful song by Vavrek based on a piano melody by Antony Raijekov with a solemn rhythm. The mysterious Waltz into the Moonlight uses gentle tapping sounds to give the song a steady momentum.

(more…)

1/13/2010
Interview with Adam Szabo (Ant on Wax)

Recently writer and critic Robert Nagle made a list of 11 Incredible Musicians You Can Download for Free . Many of the musicians on this top list make their music freely available on Jamendo, a free and legal music sharing site. Several musicians appearing on this list also gave interviews to this blog (Read the other interviews). You can also download a free sampler containing full songs from the artists profiled here .

Ant on Wax is a great Hungarian electronic composer who got started at 14 by producing music for children’s birthday parties. The album Control is a techno danceable album with a sultry female singer named Aliem. It’s outrageous, hyperkinetic and lots of fun. Control features great breakbeat and dizzying speed. Invent gives me geek orgasms. Nothing like Tomorrow is like Motown at a rave party. I ain’t easy is Praga Khan lite with cowbells and a little Stereolab frivolity. Nothing like Tomorrow is a great dance number; Invent is an exhilarating dash to a finish line (love the geeky lyrics; what the heck do they mean?) It gives me geek orgasms whenever I hear it.

(more…)

1/12/2010
Interview with Hannah Sheehan (No Really)

Recently writer and critic Robert Nagle made a list of 11 Incredible Musicians You Can Download for Free. Many of the musicians on this top list make their music freely available on Jamendo, a free and legal music sharing site. Several musicians appearing on this list also gave interviews to this blog (Read the other interviews). You can also download a free sampler containing full songs from artists profiled here.

Hannah Sheehan is an acoustic singer-songwriter from Tennessee who recorded 10 tracks from her album Rust all on a single day in a San Diego recording studio. The resulting is astonishing. Clemens has a voice that when you first hear it is both angelic and striking, reminiscent of the folk singer Jewel, Ann McCue or a feistier Joan Baez. During a sustained note, she has that ability to change moods almost instantly and effortlessly. Rust is the song that captured me first; it leaves me drained and speechless every time I hear it. Beginning of the End is a slow and philosophical lullaby that says farewell to all kinds of things (she sings “Sit back and watch the city self-destruct” with a sense both of foreboding and acceptance). Have I mentioned that Clemens writes her own songs? Floodplains is a heart-rending song about a collapsing city (“Yesterday was a party/today it ends; this is a city that breaks /but never bends”). Other songs are more upbeat. You go is a heartfelt song about missing someone and not being able to enjoy pleasures in the same way during his absence. (Compare to John Denver’s Leaving on a Jet Plane). Clemens also performs as a member of the singing female duo Minor Vine and released a brighter and livelier EP album Undo Undid. In 2011 she was in a band called Smokemonster and released an EP called Frisky Whiskey.

(more…)

1/12/2010
Interview with Lonah

Recently writer and critic Robert Nagle made a list of 11 Incredible Musicians You Can Download for Free. Many of the musicians on this top list make their music freely available on Jamendo, a free and legal music sharing site. Several musicians appearing on this list also gave interviews to this blog (Read the other interviews). You can also download a free sampler containing full songs from artists profiled here.

Lonah’s Pieces has been one of the all-time favorites by listeners on Jamendo. Lonah is a Paris group described (with the help of Google Translation) as "dreams plastered to jazz and electro-rock hallucination." Noting influences as wide as Apollinaire and Ionesco, the band has an absurdist and even surreal style, combining jazz piano, rock guitar and techno beat. The female lead singer Raphaëlle (described as a former KGB spy — not for political reasons, but simply for the free vodka), has a dreamy and luscious voice, and yet the band complements her talent nicely with lots of interesting acoustic and electronic effects. One of my favorite pieces Les Amantes de cristal is a slow romantic dirge that reminds me of Mazzy Star (but with more melodrama and electronic effects). Fractale is a lovely understated song with a delightful keyboard, strings and a rapid catchy beat. Some of the more traditional arrangements use violins (Crepescule) while the melancholy Paris la mort use xylophones (reminding me of a lullaby even though the lyrics seem more melancholy). The final 2 songs Ombre and Visage d’ébène are tentative and philosophical and generally upbeat. The latest album Take your spoon and run is a bit of a departure. The lead song is a great electronic/dance song (in a Ladytron way) and Raphaëlle’s lyrics are absurd and fun. Mornings is a melodramatic rock ballad which ends in a great finale with the piano. Je te connais Beau Masque is a jazzy and whimsical song you’d expect to find in a Paris nightclub catering to rich Asian tourists. Whenever I listen to Lonah’s songs, I am never sure what is going to happen next; there are always rapid and unexpected shifts in style/rhythm/tempo. See also the early album Au fond du temps . In this interview I spoke with Eric who plays bass guitar. By the way, they have a fun fake-biography on their webpage. It’s in French, but Google Translate can be your friend.

(more…)

1/12/2010
Interview with Vae (Intergalactic Tourist)

Recently writer and critic Robert Nagle made a list of 11 Incredible Musicians You Can Download for Free. Many of the musicians on this top list make their music freely available on Jamendo, a free and legal music sharing site. Several musicians appearing on this list also gave interviews to this blog (Read the other interviews). You can also download a free sampler containing full songs from artists profiled here .

Väinö Ala-Härkönen (VAE) is a young Finnish electronic musician whose music is described as cosmic-funk or intergalactic disco. Aleksi Virta Meets Torsti At The Space Lounge is a marvelous collection of whimsical pieces based loosely on the idea of an intergalactic spy. (By the way, Aleksi Virta is an actual Finnish musician, and Torsti is the imaginary character who is Virta’s sworn nemesis in the album). Vaino even wrote up a silly fake diary (which I reprint in full at the end). I loved this quirky little album a few years ago and love it even more today. Lots of sampling, random voices, hard beats, unexpected arrangements and instruments. Whirlwind Pistols Dub is a reggae funk beat with a fun harmonica melody trapped inside. Cosmos Bossa is a silly tooting bit of work, reminiscient of Ugress’s Swing e Sesso. Nebulae Herb (my favorite) is a hard pounding dance number with great organ background. O Tema de Viagem Especial has a jazzy South American feel, with rapid horns and lots of pounding. Dragons is a exciting bit of jazzy-funkiness. True Dwelling Place is a jumpy, eerie piece with a fluttering almost hypnotic quality, as though it were random noises and melodies spinning about a drunk man’s head before he fades to sleep. Update: Apparently Catching the Waves blog is a fan too:

Väinö Ala-Härkönen’s opus has been out for years, got reviewed up hill and down dale, passed the 42,000 download mark at archive.org, and has its own dogbasket in the CTW household. If you don’t know it but are in the market for some trippy, dubby, funky, trip-hop-funk-bigbeat-dub-hop-skip-n-jump-hop, your luck is in.

(more…)

1/12/2010
Interview with Serge Robinson (Improvisational Pianist)

Recently writer and critic Robert Nagle made a list of 11 Incredible Musicians You Can Download for Free. Many of the musicians on this top list make their music freely available on Jamendo, a free and legal music sharing site. Several musicians appearing on this list also gave interviews to this blog (Read the other interviews). You can also download a free sampler containing full songs from artists profiled here .

Serge Robinson is a jazz piano improvisationalist who spends hours upon hours on the piano, inventing all sorts of new melodies depending on where his fingers take him. They recall the usual piano repertory (Chopin, Satie), and each improvisation consists of two parts (each about 30 minutes). The melodies traipse and linger and pause; they are more impressionistic than melodic, with the occasional flourish and moments of solemnity or daintiness. Now here’s the punch line. Robinson has about 100 improvisational piano compositions, each lasting about an hour long. (I’ve only listened to about 20). I recommend #85, 87, 95, 105, 106, 112, 77. Email me in a year and I will tell you if the other 100 albums are just crap. About Serge Robinson’s improvisations, Free Albums Galore wrote: “Serge Robinson has a soothing touch on the keyboard and enough virtuosity and imagination to pull it off…. any of the albums will give you a hour of deep and thoughtful music, reminiscent of Keith Jarrett’s own improvisatory excursions yet mindful of classical and impressionistic influence such as Satie and Faure…. Each album has two thirty minute improvisations… jazz in style yet more suited to a lazy classical mood. “

(more…)

1/12/2010