Share the Music!

Back in the 1990s I was addicted to a music magazine called CMJ. Every month they featured a free CD of singles by nobodies (who later turned out to be famous). The selections were bizzare, provocative, always fun. I subscribed  to that music magazine for about 5 years, more or less.

Tonight I got around to ripping the music from these CDs onto mp3s. (I’d already burned CDs from the best months). I’ve discovered these things.

• Even though I could have sworn I knew these CDs backwards and forwards, in fact  I apparently overlooked a lot of these songs. Or rather I had certain favorites that I listened to over and over, and other CDs I listened to hardly at all. a lot of the songs I listened to while ripping sounded like the first time to me.
• All in all, these CDs contained about 1000 songs, more or less. Out of these, I probably loved about 1/4 of the songs, felt pleasantly indifferent to another 1/4, totally forgot that another 1/4 existed, and felt slightly repulsed  about the other 1/4.
• This time I listened, I am pretty open to every single kind of sound. Nothing I’ve heard so far sounds particularly horrible yet.
• These 1000 or so songs sounds like an awful lot. But I just learned that CMJ has been offering free downloads since 2005. (About 200-250 are available on the website).
• But the SXSW Music Torrent for each year includes about 700 songs. And I’ve been downloading  that torrent for the last 4 years. That’s about 3000 songs!
• In 2001 and maybe in 2002 I downloaded lots of copyrighted music off the file sharing networks. Mainly Indian and Chinese stuff.
• Between 1998 and 2001 I bought about 100-150 Russian and Ukrainian CD. I have not ripped all these CD’s, but I’ve ripped a good number of them.
• For a while I was downloading music through IUMA and IRATE radio, two free music hosting services. Maybe 1000 songs.
• In 2003 and 2004 I downloaded creative commons music from archive.org (mostly electriconic , Netlabels, and old folk stuff). A lot of it was experimental crap, but I found some gems (500-1000 mp3s?)
• In 2003 I listened to a lot of online music hosting services such as Dmusic, the Houston Chronicle, webjay. I probably found 500 songs from these, especially webjay.
• From 2005 to the present I have been listening exclusively to Jamendo. In fact, I have reached the conclusion that anything that is decent and non-sellout eventually appears on Jamendo. So far I have downloaded about 200 albums and listened to about 800 albums. If I download an album, that means I listened to it already and enjoyed it.

Now here’s the funny thing. I don’t consider myself that into music. Sure, I love music and it’s hard for me not to listen to it (especially when i am working).  But I don’t go to many concerts (the last I went to was for Ann McCue ), and I don’t really follow the musical world closely. What is there to follow? I buy a CD maybe once a week (usually at live concerts), and make it a point to give online tips.  Actually I’m behind on that. I expect to give out some tips to favorite artists over the next few weeks.

Every year South by Southwest (SXSW) releases a gigantic bittorrent file consisting of all the mp3s downloadable for free on their website. Here’s the unofficial bittorrent which includes bittorrents for previous years as well. I will be attending South by Southwest Interactive in Austin, Texas (March 8 through 12), so if anyone is going, feel free to look me up.

A few years ago I raved about a female Scottish rocker named Kate Cassidy. A few years ago I heard this amazing song called Shame the Devil (mp3) which I had been telling friends was one of the most remarkable songs I’d heard in a long time. Interesting lyrics, a piercing almost melancholy tone and when it is over, you are uplifted with a sense that finally you know music.

If you believe in honesty,
If you believe in dignity
Tell the truth and shame the devil

In her official bio, I learn that she has done a lot of creative work in the US, mainly in New York. The raw power of her voice compares to ” Sheryl Crow, Joan Baez, Bonnie-Raitt, Aretha Franklin, Maggie Bell, Tina Turner, Tori Amos, Melissa Etheridge and Alanis Morissette.” (I would add Kelli Clarkson to the list).

Recently while driving about Houston I had my mp3 player stuck on random play (long story), and I unwittingly came across another Kate Cassidy tune which I had never heard before. Rainbow City (mp3), a remarkable song that allows Cassidy to do all kinds of vocal embellishments. It’s a slow acoustic song that lets Cassidy do all kinds of vocal embellishments. It sent shivers down my spine.   There’s no harm in trying, tonight I feel like dying / waiting here for you. Here are some free links to mp3s.

Now I hear some live footage of her concerts is available. Here’s the video of Rainbow City and video of Shame the Devil. A lot rougher than the studio versions, yet still captures the energy and Kennedy’s personal singing style. 

I find it remarkable that Kate Cassidy has such a bluesy sound and yet was not born in Texas or Oklahoma.  It just never occurs to Americans that people in other countries could impersonate American sings so easily and effortlessly (with Texas Lightning being an obvious example). In the last few years she has been collaborating on a German fusion group Mike Burn and Friends which does a variety of styles. Here is the song page for that group.

Last week I visited an electronics store to buy several things, among them a CD player to replace a cheap one that broke. I don’t listen to many CD’s, but once in a while, I use it (usually when cleaning house). That’s why I was surprised — no, astounded –that Frey’s Electronics no longer sold any kind of CD players. I think I counted one multidisc changer for $300+, but certainly nothing under $100.  In contrast, I saw two rows of mp3 players and a single row devoted entirely to Ipod stereo systems.

And yet the monetization route for many musicians is almost totally dependent on selling CD. People, how many times do I need to repeat this? CD’s never sell anymore!

[In]ace is Dirk Murschall,  a German dj who runs subsource, this great source for creative commons mp3 mixes. I had listened and downloaded the mixes several years ago from archive.org , but got around to listening again.

Last night I found myself listening to this great mix called the Largest Slot Machine with generally slow unobtrusive melodies with occasional flurries (here’s the playlist) . It’s an amazing piece, slow and full of astonishing moments.   I was fascinated by the whole thing while driving through Houston traffic. Now at work I’m listening to Natural Techno another hour long set.

I appreciate the ability to create a good set, but it would be nice to know what songs are on what parts of the mix. (The DJ produces a songlist, but it’s hard to match up the tracks). 

There is a lot to listen to and this site. For example, here are some Soundscape releases by various artists. (I don’t think I’ve listened to them yet; I honestly can’t remember).

All of these pieces are great things to listen to in the background during long sustained moments. This is great music to write computer code by.

This is a little break from my usual reviewing of Creative Commons music.

2 Music videos I came across recently.

The video for Robert Miles’ Children (which I heard all the time in Ukrainian clubs). It is a striking understated video.  It is so typically European:  dreamy, impersonal, slow-motion, non-story-oriented, stylized, and captivated by landscapes and the flurry of people in a way that American music videos never are.

I heard this song for the first time  in a Lutsk, Ukraine disco with a military airplane in front. It sounded so familiar and smooth and it cooled everybody down after a long pounding night of techno.  A wikipedia article writes about the song:

The creation of dream house was a response to social pressures in Italy during the early 1990s: the growth of rave culture among young adults, and the ensuing popularity of nightclub attendance, had created a weekly trend of deaths due to car accidents as clubbers drove across the country overnight, falling asleep at the wheel from strenuous dancing as well as alcohol and drug use. In mid-1996, deaths due to this phenomenon, called strage del sabato sera (Saturday night slaughter) in Italy, were been estimated at around 2000 since the start of the decade. The move by DJs such as Miles to play slower, calming music to conclude a night’s set, as a means to counteract the fast-paced, repetitive tracks that preceded, was met with approval by authorities and parents of car crash victims.

(Hear the original 7 minute mix here) .

Also, on a totally different note, I found some video versions of music by the Shaggs: My Pal Foot Foot , You’re Something Special to Me  and I love. If you don’t know what the Shaggs are about or think it’s a joke, read Susan Orleans’ article about the group.

One good thing about Youtube’s blanket licensing agreements with music companies is that it’s an easy way for fans to share (and even to transform) songs in a way that doesn’t piss anyone off.

Here’s another Jamendo blog in Deutsch Al’s Depesche .  Lots of good stuff. I’ve been listening to his 78 song list (and probably blogging about at least a few of the songs). Mainly vocals with a traditional rock sound. Oh, well; I need to listen to something different from the usual trance/electronic/experimental. 

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). 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!)

Sweet Salsa is the most light-hearted and mindless, though it does get repetitive. We Can’t Be Free blasts off in traditional techno style, but it is too swift to get people on the dance floor.

The title song In Aeternum starts with the usual techno stuff, but after the 2:30 minute mark  a sort of monastic drone enters and eventually converges with  the galloping introduction.    The last three pieces are piano adagios with light electronic accompaniment for  mood.

Zenkman is a German electronica composer from Koln who produced the peppy and  jumpy Hard Way that just soars and transmogrifies.  Starting out an ordinary techno tune, it takes about 8 minutes to get going (!) and then goes haywire for 22 whole minutes.  In his album Froomp, he aims for more subtle effects. Avantgardia is swift but a lot more sedate, with lots of slow passages. Froomp and Balsam both try to keep the tempo down while weaving a context texture (it works somewhat well in Balsam).  In his latest album Studio-Nights, he does an incredibly danceable and fun tune, Go Crazy, which just pulsates the whole time. This is classic Zenkman and a major crowd pleaser. Equally excellent (but far more downbeat and spiritual) is The Ritual (1999 - Mastertape 303). I couldn’t follow all the variations (especially near the end–way too strange for me!), but at about the 4-6 minute mark,  the piece turned serene and magnificent. I felt like a tourist on a train watching the landscapes sail by.

DJ Amber produces long trance pieces that are pounding, hypnotic and usually uptempo. My favorite is the 60 minute mix  City Dweller which just zips along. At about the 25 minute mark, the piece goes crazy. "when everybody in the world wants …the same damn thing…you gotta call that love."  Also notable  Cantankerous  . Oddly, DJ Amber showed up at SXSW a few years ago. She has a podcast with a5 minute  Wonder remix which I thought was unbelievably fast and  fun in a Beastie Boys kind of   way.  (Update: Looks like she took down some of her mixes; shucks!  But her podcast still is probably going to kick butt).      

Miszmancs Tappancs  is a  Hungarian electronic composer (I don’t know if it’s one person or more than one).  The album Hörcsögzene has 4 tunes. The first two (the better tracks) sounds a little like a synthpop or music from a carnival:  fast and upbeat, with a traditional ethnic sound  (despite the electronic instrumentation). Hörcsög néptánc combines the artificial bandura strumming with a mechanical back melody behind it. My favorite was the second piece, Locsifecsi, which reminded me of Gershon Kingsley’s Popcorn.  Locsifecsi is intricate, magical stuff…If only I know what the titles meant!

One great thing about Jamendo is that it lets you search by country. That can be fun. Just for fun, I searched for albums by Greeks and found the always interesting Strange Zero.

There’s a lot of dizzying techno (See Antiseven in Happens in a City) and This Morning in their Last Night E.P.  But for slower tempo, try the wonderful and soothing Walking with None She (which deserves the full eight minutes given to it).

In their album Delusional Disorder, they have lots of great numbers: 22 (a great  techno number with a solo piano and soaring orchestration; one almost forgets it’s electronica).  In other songs they sample random statements from politicians and mass media.   Amnion (my fave piece on the album) starts out as trance-dance electronica, punctuated by laser noises and random voice interjections. Zeroland begins with a Martin Luther King sample and continues with a fateful clanging. It’s an eerie, mysterious piece with a hard pounding backbeat and lots of audio channels coming in and out.   

These are both great albums. The lesser album Blue Tree 7 Miles has moments, though they are not as frequent. The songs are more sober, spiritual,  more anonymous and have that airy supernatural quality of the TV show X-Files. The title song is lowkey and casual, with a faint beat to keep you skipping ahead. Twin Eyes is a great small piece, probably the most interesting of the album; it alternates between the elegiac vocal samples and the generic backbeats. the song is calming, even soothing. Headphones has a mechanical sound…almost great background music for a factory, but by the end I felt neither better nor worse than how I was when I started.

Overall, a great set, with Delusion Disorder being a favorite.

I had heard about this project before, but during my long spam-induced absence from musical blogging, I totally forgot to keep up with it. Indiesh did one review per day of creative commons music for 365 days. One can only assume that after those 365 days the blogger Grant Robertson died of exhaustion. I recognize quite a number of the artists, but a lot were completely new to me. Will listen and report back.

Interestingly, for 2007 Robertson & Indiesh will be focusing on CC musicians who use video to promote their stuff.

Aleksi Virta is a young Finnish electronic musician whose music is described as cosmic-funk and eclectic. He hasn’t settled on a style yet; he seems to be trying on many different hats in his  Meets Torsti At The Space Lounge  (which was one of the first musical pieces I heard at archive.org).  I loved it then, and started listening randomly to it today, loving it even more. The cosmic-funk description sounds about right.  Lots of sampling,  random voices, hard beats,  unexpected arrangements and instruments.

True Dwelling Place is a jumpy, eerie piece with a fluttering almost hypnotic quality during the slower parts. 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 (which in my book is the ultimate compliment).  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.

Incidentally, in my haste I never got around to doing a write up of Ugress. I’ll get around to that fairly soon.

If you want to hear one of my favorite songs, download the mp3 here. Here’s some information about this song. It’s a song sung during Ramadan.

Sit Down & Dance 2.0 is a jamendo techno album. I have enjoyed JCRZ’s other albums as well as Kind of Music and Fractal Attraction. This album is the most accessible of JCRZ’s 3 albums.

It is fun, dancy, 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).

I’ve been listening to jamendo for a long time (having starred 170+ albums). I would certainly rank this one in the top 10 albums I’ve heard on jamendo.

In short: awesome!

Here’s a great ambient composer from France, David Schombert.

Understated melodies.

Recommended tracks:

• Quiet Life Series Vol 3: Soul Trip, Floating Variations in Eb, Exploration
• Electron: Astro, Y2K  (More techno/electronic)

I assume the other volumes are just as good, although I can’t remember if I listened to them yet.

Here’s some music reviews I’ve been writing on NetLabels.

Good novelty music from the 1950’s and 1960’s. See also Stephen Micus’s Where in the World

I’ve found some remarkable tracks on IUMA, and most recently this amazing Houston indie rock band called Lima Sugar. Wow! They have such a wickedly wild sound, and Liz Sowers, the female lead (who calls herself “Laura Petrie of pop rock”), has a rockin’ voice, backed up by strong pounding electric guitars (love that guitar solo in Some Other Time (MP3) ) and all sorts of cool reverberations. Hobart Rowland writes:

Much more fun is the self-titled debut CD from Houston’s Lima Sugar. Lead singer Liz Sowers’ pipes are a revelation, well-conditioned and refreshingly mannerism-free. If Tanya Donelly could crawl into the body of her former Throwing Muses bandmate Kristen Hersh, the resulting vocal overlap might sound a little like this. The rest of Lima Sugar gives Sowers plenty to work with, dishing out heady hard rock that’s elementary by nature but never far from a juicy hook or memorable chord change. In these ways, and maybe a few others, Lima Sugar subtly straddles the fence between comfortable and chaotic. This is a band that warrants further study.

Let me say that listening to IUMA bands can be an awful bore sometimes; some of the music is not just ill-conceived or awful; they are downright painful to listen to. But discovering groups like Lima Sugar somehow makes the long slog worth it. I’ve spent some time trying to describe this band, and I keep coming back to early Blondie (which consisted not only of Debbie Harry’s dynamite voice, but also great numbers and musical backup and production). I actually located a Corpus Christi record store that sold me a copy of their Debut CD, and I will definitely follow up with my review of the CD.

Two other numbers to listen to, also great: Am I Right (MP3) and Running Down My World