Catching The Waves

BBC via CTW

2009-10-28T19:20:50+00:00

EDIT: I, er, forgot to include links to the videos. Mistake now remedied. *Blush*

Good lord, there's no sound to this video. Has CTW gone stark raving mad? Have the BBC's editorial standards finally fallen through the floor?

[/60s Batman]

Fear not, my media munchkins. The BBC has released this video as part of their efforts to film a major new series, Digital Revolution, that will analyse the impact of the internet on an unsuspecting world. I've made a chump of myself on the DigRev website numerous times through self-contradiction and concentrated blathering, and you're more than welcome to do the same.

Yes, yes, you cry - but what about the video? Well, the video (actually a "rush" or unedited film) was released under the BBC's special Digital Revolution Licence, which is similar to a Creative Commons licence, but with a less catchy acronym. The Beeb want you to download it, chop it up, remix it, mash it, generally have your wicked way with it, embed it on your website (should you so choose) and then return it, rosy of cheek and slightly flustered, to the Digital Revolution website, all in the spirit of openness and sharing that makes the internet such a *cough* kind, gentle, unassuming and forgiving place. DigRev's Dan Biddle tells me that you can also download a higher quality .mov file without the BBC logo, if you don't want your opus to be sullied by any mention of the planet's finest broadcasting organisation.* Please note: the download or embed link is immediately underneath the video on the BBC website.

Watch the film and you'll see some stunning images of a design classic that moves beautifully, shows serious stamina, asks searching questions and would be just the ticket for a period drama. Aleks Krotoski isn't too shabby, either.

But there's more you can mangle. How about 12 minutes of the fluffy Stephen Fry, untouched by editorial hand or sartorial taste, burbling on about the benefits and dangers of the internet? The video & download info is here.

Or the fragrant Arianna Huffington, co-founder of The Huffington Post, chatting about citizen media, editorial hierarchies and political activism? Go on, you know you want to. Video & download link here.

I hope you have fun playing with these rushes (and all the others). Please think about joining in the debate at Digital Revolution and helping to refine what might become the geeky equivalent to David Attenborough's Life on Earth.

*Thanks for agreeing to get Tomorrow's World back on our screens, Dan. Lunch with the Director General was most pleasant. ;)

Comfort Blanket

2009-10-26T16:57:20+00:00

I don't know about you, but the arrival of autumn gives CTW the chance to drink hot chocolate, kick clouds of fiery leaves into the air and don a snug duffel coat made of free ambient-ish electronica.

Hailing from Spokane in Washington state, USA, Joseph Snodgrass, otherwise known (and who can blame him?)* as The Lights Galaxia, is an ambient/electronic musician who has capered onto the CC front lawn with Global, a collection of four tracks that's more comforting than a mug of liquid caramel topped with marshmallows. Carl Sagan's ghost has helped fluff the pillows and smooth out the sounds. No, really.

We begin with Forever Arriving - any jokes about my review schedule will see your Internet Membership revoked - wherein the ambient voices and clattering of everyday life underpin drifting piano and synth chords that refuse to resolve until the final moments. By the end, there's nothing left to listen to but people in the street, time having come to a standstill. You won't be raving/head-banging/having it large/enjoying your banker's bonus to this record.

After that, it's - TA-DAH! - my recommended track, which is an adult lullaby that should appeal to fans of (Danish music astronaut) Trentemøller and (Oxfordshire studio rats) Radiohead. In While She Sleeps (Morning Edit), you'll hear gossamer-thin, intimate synths meld with other fluffy, pulsing synths, the flapping of butterfly wings, and pixies drumming on acorn shells. In other words, it's a very clever collection of layered pads combined with lightly percussive synths and just plain percussion that's panned across the stereo spectrum so as not to clog up the mix. How to describe it further? It's like bunnies kissing.

The Lights Galaxia - While She Sleeps (Morning Edit)

Tokyo Metro takes two full minutes of chewy, crackly, ambient strap-hanging to get underway under the power of a brooding, surprisingly funky bassline and reverberating guitar accompaniment; it ends with an ambient tail that's long enough to return the mood of the track back to the original platform. Good stuff. The soundscape reminds me of DJ Side's low-passed, reverberating Bittersweet Love EP - which is more good stuff.

The final stop on the global tour (Mr S, you can have that dreadful pun free of charge for your promotional T-shirts) is The Last Lights In The City. The central motif is the oh-so-soulful epiano blues/jazz chords that swap so slowly that there's time for separate notes of each chord to pan from one ear to the other and back again. The steady diet is leavened with more Trentemøller-ish synth murmurings. If you're in doubt: it's gorgeous. You'll have to listen to it in the shower because if you hear it whilst having a bath you will undergo a short coma and wake up with your big toe stuck up a tap.

Global is intended to be a preview of a full concept album about the increasing urbanisation of the Earth, The Cities Global, to be released in 2010; I suggest that it wets the whistle most effectively. Please keep an eye out for the album, or at least let Joseph know you enjoyed it.

The Lights Galaxia - Global EP

Luxus-Artica Records International (1st release!)

Hang on. Sit down. I'm not finished. As luck would have it, just as my dinosaur-like cerebral cortex was deciding to write about Global, I discovered that one of my favourite music blogs had already written about it. Hurrah, said I, for I'd been looking for an excuse to mention this music bolthole for ages:

Travis Noble's Hiddenplace Music is a calm, soothing blog that, unlike the mongrel Catching The Waves, specialises in reviewing ambient and downtempo music. Reasons to drop by: interesting, high-quality selections; authoritative, judicious reviews; a "blog news box" that collates CC releases, thus providing the curious visitor with hours of exploratory fun, and a restrained blog design courtesy of Travis's secret identity as a graphic designer. Oh, and there are six mixes of netlabel music to explore. I must mention the excellent Solipsistic Nation podcast that Travis put together in January, highlighting his pick of the best netlabel releases of 2008. I've listened to it quite a few times over the last year; its blend of chat and dreamy ambient music is so beguiling. Yes, 2008. Yes, I am that out of date. You should see my haircut.

Hiddenplace Music (gets a spot in *gasp* CTW's General Netlabel Sites category)

*I'm so naughty. Sorry, Joseph.

Street Busking

2009-10-18T21:12:01+01:00

We weturn to the wonderful, wassailing world of Josh Woodward to weveal that he has a bwand new album, Bweadcwumbs Breadcrumbs, for you. (This is a cause for celebration, as I hope my previous review of his work will make clear.) The convention at such moments is to recommend the new album in the hope that you will download it, unwrap it, fall in love with it and then explore the artist's back catalogue. However, being a perverse sort of blog, CTW has decided to buck the trend and recommend an older album by Josh in the hope that you'll enjoy it, etc., etc., and then explore his new album. Contrary to my usual behaviour, I do have two good reasons for this apparently deviant thought process.

Firstly, Josh has just changed the Creative Commons licensing on all his music to Creative Commons Attribution 3.0, meaning that anyone can use his music for any purpose as long he is attributed. As he says:

"You're welcome to use my music, free of charge for your projects. This includes movies, ads, podcasts, YouTube videos, karaoke, background music for your grandma's 90th birthday celebration, anything. There's no problem using them for commercial purposes. You can use them as is - instrumental or regular, or you can hack them apart to use in your songs or projects.

What's the catch? Just one: you need to provide attribution. A simple mention of my name and the song title in the credits, with a bonus if you give my website URL. If for some reason this isn't practical, it's possible to arrange a paid license for my music through Jamendo."

Such largesse means that the Woodward back catalogue is now accessible to all and sundry to do with what they will. I hope this generous decision provides Josh with the oxygen of publicity and the H₂O of cash.

Secondly, Josh has remixed his 2005 album Crawford Street, something that pleases me greatly because such a superb collection of songs deserved a livelier recording. Before I wibble on about how Crawford Street is an avenue of delights, try this for size - it's suitable for anyone who finds zoos to be depressing places:

Josh Woodward - Twelve Monkeys

That's the thing about Woodward; not only does he write memorable melodies, he pens lyrics that stay with you. Here's some of the topics you'll come across in this collection: small and big-town prejudices (Can't Take Our Love Away); first loves and living/losing the American Dream (Thanks For Coming); an actor hates the violent B-movie he's making (Shower Scene); overhearing a "domestic" next door and falling in love with the battered woman (Hey Ruth) and religious fundamentalism (The Spirit World). All that may sound worthy and dull, but the winning lyrics, sparkling guitar work and butter-smooth vocals ensure that you'll soon be swaying with pleasure, like a cobra facing a snake charmer. Personally, I think Thanks For Coming should come with a free chaise longue and a bottle of Anjou/Thunderbird/Buckfast Cider.

A quick confession: in recommending free CC albums, I try to avoid over-egging the pudding. Just because a record is free, it doesn't follow that it's any good; I prefer to let the music speak for itself. Either you'll like it or you won't.

*takes anti-hyperbole pill, fails to wait two paragraphs before operating heavy machinery*

But I think Crawford Street (and other albums like the previously reviewed Dirty Wings and The Simple Life) place Josh Woodward firmly in a long line of modern American troubadours that include Dylan, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson and Leonard Cohen. His music should be better known.

Another name to drop: Bruce Springsteen. If The Boss had written Big Disco Ball, a sentimental and romantic encounter amongst urban decay, he'd be blinded by his audience's lighters/camera-phones. Find somewhere quiet and let this steal a few minutes of your life:

Josh Woodward - Big Disco Ball

*still waiting for pill to work*

Visit Woodward HQ and you'll find Crawford Street's songs and lyrics, seven other albums, photos, videos and a polite request for donations and sales. If the sounds find favour with you, please think about rewarding J. Woodward Esq. for his endeavours or at least send him an email with the subject line, "I thought you were a dirty, good-for-nothing hippie but now I've put your name on my organ donor card as a recipient". Or similar. Go on, you can do it.

*pill kicks in*

I'm not sure about the Autotuned vocals and eurotrash synths on Waiting Takes Time, the last track on CS. Hey, even Homer nods...off in front of the TV. Ah, a classical allusion and modern satire in one sentence. Anyone got an anti-ego pill? Edit: someone not unadjacent to JW says that Waiting Takes Time is a parody of Cher's infamous Believe. D'oh!

Before I forget, here's the cover of Breadcrumbs because I'm not stingy and because some of you need visual prompts. ;)

Josh Woodward website, Crawford Street and Breadcrumbs

Manchester United Nil

2009-10-12T23:17:47+01:00

I like to be on the cutting-edge of the forefront of the avant-garde of the zeitgeist, which is why I'm reviewing Obscure II, an album that has been freely available on the net for just two whole ...years. Sigh. I am the antithesis of trendiness.

Right, drag yourself away from the advert for moisturising handcream that is the album cover and take note: Obscure II is the soundtrack to the depiction of dark corridors, nasty creatures and artistic blood-spatter patterns that are to be found in the 2007 survival-horror computer game of the same name. You're now surmising that you're set fair for death metal, guttural vocals and maybe even a hairy frontman exploding a hot water bottle through sheer lungpower. Well, no. There's not even an exploding codpiece, because metal this ain't. Or rock.

The reason? Obscure II, otherwise known as Obscure: The Aftermath, is the work of Olivier Derivière, a Frenchman who has studied composition and orchestration at the Nice National Conservatoire, jazz and film scoring at Berklee College of Music, and who went on to spend a year working with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and some hick called John Williams. So expect to hear some decent orchestration. However, Monsieur D. also created the soundtrack for last year's Alone In The Dark, another (though much more popular) grim wade through ghouls and gore. So expect to hear some decent electronica. Indeed, the electronica elements (drums/guitar/synths) are meant to represent the "corruption" of the traditional instruments and vocals that form the meat of the composition.

I find that most cinema and game soundtracks sound necessarily disjointed given the piecemeal demands of the format. Ideas aren't given time to develop or suffer from compression due to the exigiencies of drama. Outcast II doesn't avoid that fate but it does contain some exquisite singing from the Childrens' choir of the Paris Opera (Latin text galore), forthright back-up from the Boston Symphony Orchestra and enough melodic depth to keep the listener happy. It's strange that I find cantatas, masses and requiems from the classical repertoire to be satisfying, even though they too are, by their very nature, programmatic, or to use the technical term, "bitty". Perhaps I'm just a fuddy-duddy. But I'll have to get used to it, for it seems that game and cinema soundtracks have now mostly replaced liturgical rituals as a source of employment for composers. For Kyrie and Dies Irae, read Training and Boss Fight.

Enough verbiage. There are no mp3s for me to link to (grrr), but Monsieur D. has kindly supplied a media player that will drive me to tears while I install it. You're at liberty to play whatever you like, but I'll recommend two tracks you could try first:

Infested People - This is two minutes of the Boston Quartet (members of the Boston S.O.) going at it hammer and tongs. It starts off as if Shostakovich had written a 16th string quartet, goes along at a fair clip, morphs into some Philip Glass/John Adams at the 01:34 mark and ends far too quickly. I'd love to see the score released or, better still, the movement worked up into something more substantial. It's an entertaining piece of modern classical music. There's a sentence you don't see every day.
Corruption with Rage and Melancholy - With such a terrible title, this had to be the opening track and main theme of Obscure II. It's a goodly stew of strings, ethereal vocals, electronic growls, and acoustic/electronic percussion. The voice and violin solo near the end is especially affecting. If you like this track, you should like the album.

Obscure II won the Milthon award for best soundtrack at the 2007 Paris Game Festival, and I can see why. I'd never have heard the album (which is not Creative Commons-licensed) if Olivier Derivière had not made it available to download for free, and now he has a new fan who is considering buying Alone In The Dark, all his subsequent compositions, and any Derivière-shaped soap figurines that might appear in time for Christmas.*

I apologise for cobbling together an album cover from Obscure II's game packaging but there were no suitable images to go with the zipped album file. By the way, remember that guff about composers turning away from religious formats in order to earn a living? Monsieur Derivière is currently composing an opera and a... mass. Honestly, I can't win.

Olivier Derivière - Obscure II soundtrack (zipped file only, scroll to third album on page)

Olivier Derivière - blog and flashy website

*This is, of course, in jest. I don't wash.

Four Seasons In One Play

2009-10-03T23:24:24+01:00

A description of this very modern EP requires a word that was fashionable 40 years ago: mellow. Humeka's Temperate Climate, out on Argentinean netlabel Miniatura, might well be a collection of minimal and thus lead the listener to expect nightclub exertions, but in fact it's more suitable for relaxing and cooling down. In fact, were one being extremely pretentious, m'darlings, one might describe it as "high chill". (All rights reserved. Any unlicensed use of this term is liable to prosecution and the enforced middle parting of your hair.)

The kernel of the album is Humeka's four tracks, each representing one of the four seasons. It starts with Summer Ends, whose low-passed synth and gentle crackles and pops should alert you that this is indeed temperate minimal, as in mild-mannered and restrained. It's like supper jazz for electronica fans. Innumerable snippets of sound are scattered across all four of Humeka's tracks and panned through the full 180 degree aural field, though I'm sure that some sneak round the back of the head, too.

The first minute or so of Fall Arises toys with experimental electronica before easing into an 80s-type bass line and very modern clicks 'n' cuts. You'll hear an interesting bridge of rhythmical ambient before the track meanders back to relatively down-tempo electronica. A Late Spring is a fairly anaemic six minutes of dance that needs more variety to sustain my interest.

However, Sol Sistere, Humeka's last track of his four, has a bit more fibre to it. Check out the insistent sing-song background synths and a barely discernible pad for that lovely intellectual depth that minimal fans - well, the ones that are prone to self-deception - insist exists in their outwardly plain and simple snare/kick art form. (My blushes.) Its marvellously warm yet coldly digital synth riff, subdued percussion and scrambled background vocals will aid the contemplation of life's conundrums, namely: will our first contact with one of the countless civilisations residing amongst the universe's 100 billion galaxies be benign or bellicose, and does a cure for hangovers exist outside of the fantasy world of P.G. Wodehouse?

Humeka - Sol Sistere

Cuddly, isn't it? It's got that indefinable "something" that grabs the ear and won't let go.

But Temperate Climate doesn't stop there. Humeka (a Frenchman – there goes the neighbourhood) has recruited some minimal netlabel gangsters founders to add mixes, namely Christian Walt, co-founder of Interdisco; Tilman (Klamauk), choenyi (Stereo-Type, Random Access, Kreislauf, Miniatura); Sven Laux (everything, but especially Tisch, Insectorama, Tropic, Meerestief, MV, Archipel, Miniatura, Mischievous); Grifin (Silicate) and our old friend Keinzweiter (spontanMusik), who got subpoenaed with a CTW review a few months ago. You have my permission to explore those links and see how deep the netlabel rabbithole goes.

These capocannonieri have indulged themselves, meaning that the mixes are fine examples of minimal-techno but completely oblivious to CTW's world-famous dictum re. overlong dance tracks. It falls to me to convert the First Law of Dance Music into algebraic form, where y = dance track and x = bliss.

y - 0.333r = x

Despite this, there's enough good stuff here to get you through the working week. There are no less than three mixes of Summer Ends: Christian Walt adds a subtle bass that pulses very nicely under Roll-Royce glitches; Tilman's mix features some nicely treated acoustic percussion, and Keinzweiter just can't help adding some funky global warming and his trademark dusty vibe to Humeka's calm essay. All three up the tempo and aggression, though nothing that shakes the leaves from the trees.

The choenyi Orangophilic remix of Fall Arises drops the minimal tag and threatens to be a boring house-ish workout, but redeems itself by shoving pops, burps and clanging percussion at your ears, which will flex and warp to the hypnotic, driving rhythm. Sven Laux's reworking of A Late Spring improves on the original; the swelling synths remind me strongly of the terrific Cactus Y Volcanes by Alta Infidelidad. A funky bassline that's a cross between a clavier and a slap bass injects some adrenalin into Grifin's mix of Sol Sister, but it's one of those mixes that renders the original unrecognisable and replaces it with a serviceable dance track...which, on reflection, is growing on me.

Nearly every synthesiser on this album sounds low-passed, if not muffled, providing a subdued bed of sound for the minimalist percussion that dominate the higher frequencies.* It's the most well-mannered album I've heard in a while, only grabbing your interest when you decide to give it. All in all, Temperate Climate is one of the many jewels on display in the Creative Commons shop window. I suggest you throw a brick through that window, but first make sure you wrap a “Thank you, Humeka and his cronies” email around it.

Humeka - Temperate Climate EP

Humeka on MySpace

Miniatura Records

*I have my thumbs in my waistcoat pockets and am projecting confidence in my opinions. We both know I'm bluffing.

Scores Galore

2009-09-27T14:24:27+01:00

Photo: Luz A. Villa

I'll have you know that the International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP) is a Canadian umbrella organisation for the Petrucci Music Library, a collaborative repository of public domain and CC-licensed music scores. "This is a wonderful idea, O handsome one," I hear you say, "and I shall be only too pleased to investigate further when the project has come to fruition. In the meantime, I'm off to explore the differences between crunk, hyphy, moob, and chopped and screwed hip-hop. Peace."

*chuckles to self*

Not so fast, my jewellery-encrusted friend. The Petrucci Music Library has been up and running for over three years, and can now offer the small matter of 17,421 works and 37,157 scores, all of which are searchable by composer name, time period, genre or instrumentation. This means, and I'm sure you're ahead of me here, that musicians now have access to scores (downloadable as PDF files) from just about any century in the Western calendar that has four figures in it. If you ever fancied exploring the Renaissance repertoire, now's your chance. Tallis's Spem in Alium, Bach cantatas, Haydn string quartets, obscure atonal claptrap* from obscure 20th century composers - they're all here, many of them with the separate instrument parts as well as the full score.

Three concerns strike you. Is this Petrucci Library thing legal? Is it useful? Won't it harm music publishers? It's time for some small print:

"As the IMSLP servers are physically hosted in Canada, IMSLP has to follow the Canadian Copyright Law. All scores submitted to IMSLP either belong to the public domain, or permission has been granted by the holder of the copyrights so that the files can be submitted to IMSLP (as is the case of contemporary composers who wish to have their works submitted to IMSLP). In other words, being legal is the point of IMSLP, and all of its content that is accessible is legally available in the U.S. and Canada. Anything not allowed in the EU is clearly marked as such."

Remember, it's your responsibilty to check a score (ISMLP has assigned a helpful copyright review code to each) to see whether it is public domain in your country, be it in Europe or the rest of the world. Fortunately, the Petrucci Music Library is actually a huge Wiki-page (as in Wikipedia) so it's easy to find the relevant information. Most major 20th composers are still under copyright; the only stuff you'll find from that era are scores released under a CC licence. Don't expect to see Shostakovich or Bernstein. The IMSLP forums are happy to help with any inquiries.

As for its usefulness - ask any musician who would like to play some of the classical repertoire's warhorses or, better still, investigate some dusty sonata, string quartet or vocal piece. It sounds like a superb way of rejuvenating some hitherto ignored works. This must be a good thing, surely?

Now, the tricky bit. Won't free access to scores damage publishers' incomes? Well, it's important to remember that, depending on the regional and legal circumstances, these scores are free for anyone to download and use. It's one of those grey areas that the internet has created. Just as I can't stop someone releasing their three-hour long Creative Commons album of electronic drones and cat genitorture, music publishers can't (yet) deny access to scores that have fallen out of copyright. The cat is out of the bag (and looking somewhat frazzled). Some of these scores are so obscure that publishers would lose money if they were to release a professionally bound edition. However, many musicians, given the choice, would also like to own a properly edited and produced copy of, say, Beethoven's piano sonatas. I like to think that there's room for both approaches. In fact, I've made room for this excellent website in the CTW sidebar under "General Netlabel Sites". Trust me, it's better than a Nobel.

One small but vital point: the Petrucci Music Library has, wherever possible, placed a link to Amazon on a relevant score's Wikipage. Wonderfully, this means that the user is pointed to a variety of commercial recordings and scores, and is thus tempted to splash some cash, a particularly good thing when dealing with lesser-known works. Who knows, the IMSLP might even be responsible for increasing the sales of some CDs and scores. This is undoubtedly another example of the internet being the best thing since man found an amusing use for grapes and hops. And no, that's not another hip-hop genre. Please consider pressing the IMSLP "Donate" button if you feel the same.

To finish, some music. (Yes, I know. I'll try to review some albums in the near future.) Here's Artur Schnabel in 1935 storming through the first movement of Beethoven's Piano Sonata No.21, the Waldstein:

Beethoven - Piano Sonata No. 21 (Waldstein): Allegro con brio...and here's the score page at the Petrucci Music Library.

International Music Score Library Project/Petrucci Music Library

* I said that out of sheer devilry. I'm fond of atonal claptrap - in small doses.

For Cheapskate Audiophiles Everywhere

2009-09-16T00:37:56+01:00

Make sure you've made out your will. Secure pressure doors. Tighten all straps. We're going in.

Some musical cultures, particularly hip-hop, thrive on fearless sampling of others' work; laptop lotharios love to chop up vocals, melodies, rhythms and musical hooks, mangle them and then, heedless of prosecution by an irate lawyer, make something new from the resultant collage. Some take the risk for the sheer pleasure of splicing and dicing; some because they can't think of anything original themselves; some to take revenge against the musical establishment, and some (most, I would suggest) because they can't afford to pay a hefty licensing fee to the relevant artist and/or record company. All well and good if you have the stomach for it and don't mind trampling on other musicians' rights.

Fair enough, but wouldn't it be better to use samples that don't require crossed fingers and a nervous gulp? I'm thinking not only of would-be musicians and film-makers, but also teachers, students, pupils and other cash-strapped desperadoes. If nothing else, the CC sampling world is tailor-made for anyone, of whatever age, locale or background, who needs a sample for a song, a play, a radio production, a lecture, homework or a particularly annoying doorbell, to use what they need without fear or favour. Many charities would benefit from exploring what's available.

Experienced musos will be familiar with the sources I'm about to suggest, but those new to the Creative Commons culture of sharing are about to discover one of the many things that makes the internet a sink of depravity an Eden of fun, frolics and funky stuff.

*taps lectern*

Please take note of the licensing details for each sample. Some will allow you to copy, share, chop and mix to your heart's content; others will not. In most cases, a simple attribution will suffice to placate the copyright holder, but it's prudent to check. Be doubly cautious if you intend to use these samples in a commercial situation; you might have to agree to a licensing contract.

Right, here we go. Click on the images to visit the sites. (I know - a CTW technological breakthrough! I'm partying like it's 1999.)

CCMixter does exactly what is says on the tin. It supplies gazillions of CC samples (and samplepacks) that can be used for remixes galore. But there's more, he rhymed: thousands of songs, all of which detail the CC samples used to make them (thus allowing anyone to cherry-pick their favourite parts and use them in their own songs); editors' and users' picks of the best songs; podcasts; forums; oh, and samplepacks and song stems from top CC people like Brad Sucks and top, formerly non-CC people like DJ Vadim. Samples can be searched via tempo, CC licence, and just about any tag you care to mention. CC Mixter is a friendly, welcoming place. Feel free to download songs & samples, make stuff of your own, upload it and get it heard and reviewed.

You'll find lots of sound effects at SoundBible.com; it's especially handy for movie scores, games designers or people who want to scare the crap out of kids on Halloween. Take note of the two main sections: Free Sound Effects and Royalty-Free Sounds. The latter are CC & public domain, so you can use them commercially - as long as you check the licence before using.

Blips is a marvellous collection of high-quality glitchy samples, packaged into coherent collections and ripe for re-use in any number of genres. I'll let Blips describe this little gem of a site: “a repository of blips and bleeps, clicks and cuts, pops and plops”. The CC license is most generous, permitting users to employ Blip samples for non-commercial & commercial purposes. Just tell the poor blighter that you've done so.

The Freesound Project is a serious-minded endeavour that hasn't forgotten how to have fun:

The Freesound Project aims to create a huge collaborative database of audio snippets, samples, recordings, bleeps, ... released under the Creative Commons Sampling Plus License. The Freesound Project provides new and interesting ways of accessing these samples, allowing users to

browse the sounds in new ways using keywords, a "sounds-like" type of browsing and more
up and download sounds to and from the database, under the same creative commons license
interact with fellow sound-artists!

We also aim to create an open database of sounds that can also be used for scientific research. Many audio research institutions have trouble finding correctly licensed audio to test their algorithms. Many have voiced this problem, but so far there hasn't been a solution.

Freesound differs from a site like CCMixter in that it deals only in snippets of sound, not complete songs. There's an amazing array of sounds to be previewed and downloaded. Electronica fans get a free supply of heroin to try and wean them off the aural crack.*

The One Laptop Per Child project is one of those causes that brings a smile to the face. This admirable project helps children from deprived areas and countries to rip the latest stream of Inglourious Basterds research and learn and play and communicate and generally grow up to wear spectacles and too-short trousers. It warms my heart. I could bang on about the 10GB of free samples...

I'll say that again.

...the 10GB of free samples it supplies via a Wikipedia page, but OLPC does it much better than I possibly could:

Loops, Grooves, Licks, Stings, Hits, Pads, Melodic Motives/Themes/Phrases, Sound-Effects, City and Country Soundscapes..., Motors, Machines, Toys, Guns, Explosions, Swords, Armor, Cars, Jets, Pot & Pans, Acoustic and Synthetic Noises, Acoustic and Electronic Drums, Voices, Western and World Instruments, Real and Human Animals, Industrial and Natural Ambiences, Film and Game Foley, and more, more, more! This huge collection of new and original samples has been donated to Dr. Richard Boulanger @ cSounds.com specifically to support the OLPC developers, students, XO users, and computer and electronic musicians everywhere. They are FREE and are offered under a CC-BY license for downloading and use in your teaching, your demos, your research, your music, your remixes, your games, your videos, your slideshows, your websites, and your XO activities. Each of the 7000+ samples is 16-bit, WAV, Mono, normalized to -3dB, and provided at 3 sample rates - 44.1K, 22.5K and 16K.

Amazing, non? Pah. Regarding the last site in this article, OLPC is but a Sampras to its Federer, a paper aeroplane to its space shuttle and a lager shandy to its ten pints of wallop. Last but not least in this pantheon of free CC samples is the only real Tardis in existence:

Bit of a letdown, isn't it? That's the actual size of the Internet Archive's logo, so don't send your complaints to me. That tiny temple contains all the knowledge of the known universe an absolutely immense reservoir of material. I don't have the space to describe the miraculousness of the IA., or archive.org as it's commonly known. Suffice it to say that you'll find digitised historical collections (academics will be forever grateful), texts, audio, moving images, software and archived web pages. In other words, for our purposes: films, TV adverts, radio programmes, speeches, sounds, music and just about anything else that could be considered ripe for sampling.

How big is the archive? Think OLPC to the power of infinity - and beyond. I've had great fun listening to radio episodes of the grand-daddy of police procedurals, Dragnet (from the 1950s, young hipsters), wonderfully hammy recountings of the Sherlock Holmes stories and, a guilty secret this, watching old TV commercials that are at once hilarious, touching and deeply disturbing. The site is too vast to comprehend in a few short visits. Some people discover it and never leave. As always, check the licence if you intend to do more than just listen to or view the contents.

To stop these useful links being trampled in the deluge of sparkling prose that pours forth from this 'ere website, tomorrow I'll add a new (and rather ungrammatical) category to Catching The Waves: “Free & Legal Samples”. If I put much more stuff in that sidebar's collection of precious artefacts, this website will start to list. List. List. Geddit? List as in lean? List as in a column of items? No? Tough crowd. It's pearls before swine.

Anyway, I hope that all of you out there, hoodies, geeks, hipsters, tutors, pupils and grannies alike, will enjoy exploring these excellent and useful sites. Finally, as a way of thanking archive.org for its hard work, and as a reward for all of you (me included) who have made it to the end of this article, here's a short behind-the-scenes film of Catching The Waves hard at work detecting, downloading, selecting and reviewing music for your listening pleasure. The audio is in no way suitable for chopping and splicing. Not at all. Goodnight.

Living Stereo 1958

*This might not be true.

Polished Nuts

2009-09-11T22:11:29+01:00

Italian instrumental hip-hop via a German netlabel, brought to you by a global idiot: truly, the internet is an electronic group hug. Cristiano Crisci Digi G'Alessio is an Italian producer of crispy beats, as you'll find out if you listen to Shiny Brazil's nine tracks, most of which are under two minutes long - meaning you'll find them either irritatingly brief or just the right length; a sort of musical biscotto, if you will.

Signore G'Alessio's musical signature seems to be a "tape-stop" effect, used most noticeably in the opener, Lo french touch, where it's frequent deployment could be interpreted as an extremely slow form of "ducking", music production fans.* He's not afraid of a dominating, if not downright overpowering, snare drum. (Less is more, in my ever-so humble opinion.) While it's not the most ground-breaking EP I've ever heard, there's enough tasteful sampling and mellow 70's soul flavour to keep cheapskate Creative Commons hipsters happy long enough to tie their cravat and dance in front of the mirror.

Today's suggested track is a slow groover and will serve as an aperitif to your weekend/chocolate & TV binge/recovery from a traumatic hangover/jailbreak:

Digi G'Alessio - Messicani sulla luna

The flutes, brass and organ really tied the room together, didn't they?** Messicani sulla luna leads nicely into something funkier, Il Tiratoio, with a bass that only just sneaked past the mixing desk. The other tracks on this unabashedly cheerful and upfront collection of hip-hop are as frothy, fun and fleeting as, er, beer froth. I'm still waiting for the latest edition of Similes for Dummies.

Shiny Brazils owes its passport to the check-in staff at iD.eology, the Cologne netlabel that will release anything as long as it takes James Brown's advice: whatever it is, it's got to be funky. This week, the Cologne crew has released two more free albums as well as Shiny Brazils, thus giving you two chances to turn up your nose at CTW's recommendation and confirm, as if you really needed to, that I'm an idiot and you're a hip-swingin' mutha from the crushed-velvet side of town. Either way, you whine win.

Digi G'Alessio - Shiny Brazils

Digi G'Alessio on MySpace

iD.eology netlabel

*One of CTW's traditions: every now and then I try to display some musical knowledge and always come up laughably short.

**Ah, The Big Lebowski. The internet issues a free DVD to every new blogger. It's true.

Time Off For Good Behaviour

2009-09-06T12:16:06+01:00

Some CTW readers might have been frustrated recently by reading my reviews of the fabulous Professor Kliq here and here only to find that they can't listen to the praiseworthy music. To cut a long story short, Patrick Haour, the very nice if tremendously hirsute Head of Music at Jamendo, suggested to the Prof that it might be a good idea to withdraw his albums because they contained a few samples taken from commercial works and therefore contravened the original artists' copyright agreements. The Prof duly complied, and hence I had to leave notes on the relevant reviews apologising for the absence of top-notch funky, ambientish Big Beat.

However, the recidivist has returned and is ready to pay his debt to society. The Prof has reworked some of the tracks from his albums and compiled them into a completely fluffy, legal and non-litigious collection of tracks entitled Community Service 2005-2009. As a certain shame-faced muso admits at the end of Apt 808, the first track on the album: "I, er, got an email from Patrick and, er, [nervous chuckle] yeah, looks like we got some cleaning up to do." Cue the sound of a vacuum cleaner. Heh.

A minor quibble: the album's mastering level seems a little high compared with Le Kliq's previous records, and occasionally there is a preponderance of high frequencies that are a tad harsh on my battered ears. This might be a consequence of the tracks' remodelling or, more likely, my impending decrepitude but worry not; overall, they're still a pleasure for the eardrums.

Having spent no little time on reviewing his previous criminal records - look, there's no way I was going to resist that pun, so deal with it - I'm not going to bore you further with my opinion of the Prof's retooling of old works. All I will say, apart from the fact that Der Kliqster must be the love-child of James Brown and FatBoy Slim, is that you should kliq (Ach, CTW, you kill me viz dis ting you call “hughmer”) the list in the Jamendo player and play Bust This, Bust That and The Most Beautiful Day. (RSS subscribers, you'll just have to don rubber gloves and strip-search Catching The Waves if you want to hear the music.) After that, thank the heavens for the wonderful world of Creative Commons, download Community Service (2005-2009), and share it with your friends, families and parole officers. You might also consider leaving a small donation at Professor Kliq's Jamendo page to help him with his rehabilitation into society.

Remember, play these tracks first (click on the album's title and you'll get a pop-up list): Bust This, Bust That = big beat/electronica nirvana, and The Most Beautiful Day = big beat/superb downtempo funk/nutty voiceover. If you don't play them before the other tracks - well, I know a guy called Otis who's feeling a little lonely now the Prof is free to walk the streets.

Professor Kliq - Community Service 2005-2009

Professor Kliq website

Jamendo

Knit One, Pearl Two

2009-08-31T15:02:00+01:00

So, being an internet hipster, you'll be wanting a bit of the ol' boom-bap. Rise from your slumbers and emit a half-baked "yay", for fLako (German beats via Berlin & London) and Noir (New Orleans rap) have combined to produce Pearls, a six-track EP released by the righteously funky Kwatro netlabel.

Disappointingly, only two one of the tracks are is available to hear outside of the zipped free full album. Kwatro are so hip it hurts, but it's awkward to get hold of their music. Pearls is available via a zShare account, which will strike fear into anyone not particularly au fait with the net - like my good self. It's ostensibly a matter of following the download instructions, but that's not the point. Netlabels, trust me on this: we surfers (ok, me) are mostly simpletons - if you want your releases to be heard, make it easy for visitors to download them. Netlabels with a one-click download system are the way to go, though I'd like to make it clear that I'm extremely grateful to all and sundry for the free music. End of moan. Are we still friends? Handshakes? Hugs? How about a quick -

*slap*

Sorry. I got carried away.

Back to the sounds: Milky Way is a low-key tale of crime and commerce backed by fLako's understated rhythm and smooth soul; Paparazzi sees a Hammond organ massage a dreamy background vocal and a gentle beat before Noir crashes in, as rappers do, with a snare drum and his opinion of fame and fortune. Edit: Paparazzi is now available only as part of the zipped album file. Don't hit me.

fLako x Noir - Milky Way by flako

While fair tracks, I would have chosen some of the other four on the EP to entice listeners, particularly Cosmic Theory and the head-nodding wOoop, the latter title doubling up for the sound you'll make when the beat drops. None of these outings are longer than three minutes so there's little chance of the beats outstaying their welcome.

Now, you might be one of the many who love hip-hop and find nothing more immediately satisfying than a dusty drum-beat that's tighter than my budget, but who ...hate rap. C'mon, own up. Noir makes a good job of spittin' (Yeah, kids. CTW is down with the, er, lingo) on Pearls, but, like it or not, some people want to get to the main course without interference from a maitre'd. What to do, what to do? I know, let's see if fLako can help to find us some beats that don't feature bad language and...

Sigh. Still, that's the only swearword on the whole fucking album, wherein you'll find twenty (Recession? What recession?) snippets of instrumental hip-hop goodness. Most of the twenty tracks on The First Space Shit On The Moon are less than two minutes long, yet they're not just extended loops; they're instrumental hip-hop miniatures that are wonderfully varied, from the rankin' Shake It Harder to the slinky Crying On The In. What vocals there are consist of the merest snippets that act as a musical counterpoint rather than the dominant theme. Whether you're a hip-hop listener or producer, there's a lot to enjoy and learn from. How much variety is there among this fistful of beats? Let a master wordsmith paraphrase for you:

All right, we got white boom-bap, black boom-bap, Spanish boom-bap, yellow boom-bap, we got hot boom-bap, cold boom-bap, we got wet boom-bap, we got [sniffs] smelly boom-bap, we got hairy boom-bap, bloody boom-bap, we got snappin' boom-bap, we got silk boom-bap, velvet boom-bap, Naugahyde boom-bap, we even got horse boom-bap, dog boom-bap, chicken boom-bap! Come on, you want boom-bap, come on in, boom-bap lovers! If we don't got it, you don't want it! Come on in, boom-bap lovers!

You can't beat Shakespeare.

But there's a small problem. You've guessed it - only two tracks to hear outside of the free zipped album. These are Sparkling Dust, a cheerful, dub-ish slice of boom-bap, and Desert Ride, a dusty beat with a hint of rock music - a track that'll hint at the variety to be found on The First, etc. Again, they're not the tracks I'd have chosen, but we all know that I am to discernment what ice-cream is to athleticism.

fLako Sparkling Dust by flako fLako Desert Ride by flako

The loose, almost sloshed, nature of some of the rhythms and synth sounds remind me of the previously reviewed Comfort Fit, whose new commercial release, Polyshufflez LP, is available from Tokyo Dawn Records. (Incidentally, TD's 24-carat back catalogue contains an almost unknown entity: free and genuinely good hip-hop. Run, Forrest, run.)

My thanks to the good volk at the always superb Phlow, where one of their many album discussion threads pointed me to fLako. So, if you don't mind braving the aforementioned pestilential download scheme, please scoop up these two lovely slices of beat-based distraction from real life. Stick your chest out and have a go. After all, it's one small shit for man...

fLako x Noir - Pearls (scroll down the page, find the download link, go to zShare, press "download" and wait 50 seconds. Bleurgh.)

fLako – The First Space Shit On The Moon (straight to the zShare link)

fLako and Noir on MySpace.

Kwatro netlabel

Enjoy It While It Lasts

2009-08-25T00:34:54+01:00

You'll see from the title of his quirky album that QuarterBIT, a talented cove from sultry Barcelona, has loosed his floe of ambient on the icy waters of the internet without so much as a glance at his spell-checker. Ah me. You should know by now that free music can't afford sub-editors. Besides, this is the internet; anyone can make a tipo typo.

There's not much point in listening to this on your daily commute unless you have high-quality noise-cancelling headphones. The Antartica Files is a pure ambient album, by which I mean that it's all field recordings, so it'll get bullied by extraneous real-life ambient sounds like planes, trains and automobiles. And other John Hughes films.

Hey, where do you think you're going? Come back here, buster. Listen up. I know it's ambient. I know it won't make your rump do the rumba. Nevertheless, if you're feeling a bit jaded about music or you love sounds for their own sake, try one track - then I'll let you go. As you'll hear, there are few more beautiful sounds in this world than church bells, especially the deep, round, full chimes that appear towards the end of Church. Lovely.

QuarterBIT - Church

Just about the only track here that sounds overtly manipulated is Harbor Harmonic, where seagulls compete to see whose mournful screams sound most like a mellow Eddie Van Halen. It's either a marvellous layering of different recordings, some tasteful pitch automation, or Hitchcock was right and the birds are up to something.

QuarterBIT - Harbor Harmonic

This being ambient, there's an obligatory inclusion of crashing waves. Most ambient beach recordings tend to concentrate on the higher frequencies; not so in Antarctica Surf (correct spelling!), where you'll feel the weight of hundreds of tons of ice-cold water pound a pebbly shore.

Parade features some jolly car horns and a trad jazz band that will go in your right ear and out your left like a hot knife through ICan'tBelieveMyGreyMatterIsSoPliable Butter.

A female relative of mine (who has dropped a couple of ankle-biters) says this type of album is good for someone who is with child. Perhaps she's right. Mind you, I think she was listening to something a bit more vigorous a few months earlier.

There are so many details here that will tickle the tired ear: a motorboat that sounds like a wallowing warthog; a droning fly; snatches of conversation; footfalls; querulous sheep, a clanking gate (a nice way to end the track Sheep); and water, water, everywhere, be it running water (At The Glacier), lapping waves & bubbling streams (The Ice Island) or churning, frothy pools (The Waterfall).

I hope the above verbiage gives you an idea of what to expect. I suggest you find a quiet corner, press “play” and let the magic of audio transport you to everyday but wondrous places around the world. If you need more of the same, stick your head out of a window and listen anew.

There will be some strange people out there who insist that music should include esoteric things like instruments, notes, melodies and rhythms. Yeah, I know; weird. Still, CTW is a fat broad church so I've done something startling and included a second album for your delectation.

This classy compilation of burgeoning ambient artists is the most recent product from the same label, PublicSpaces Lab, that released The Antartica Files. As this is not a proper album review, it's fitting that the album is named Ceci n'est pas une pipe. The sound quality is excellent throughout, there are some winning tracks lodged between the plethora of ambient sounds and drones, and four dimensions (time & space) and the truth (laziness) are forcing me to cut this review far too short.

Somio has pulled a flanker with San Feliz, a track inspired by numerous sojourns to northern Spain. It's far too upbeat, cheery and hip to be described as ambient. But we won't complain, will we?

Somio - San Feliz

And despite lettering that's driving my Anglo-Saxon keyboard round the bend, Løser's Núr is definitely worth a listen. The unimportant stuff: drones, trip-hop, ethereal vocals, camera noises. The important stuff: it's good. If you like ambient-ish downtempo grooves with a dash of electronica, this'll be your pint of porter.

Løser - Núr

Not bad, hmm? Ceci N'est Pas Une Pipe also comes with an excellent booklet that gives lots of information about the contributing artists, including one QuarterBIT. And that's it. C'est tout. Run along, gang. You might get some music next time.

QuarterBIT – The Antartica Files (link to zipped album)

QuarterBIT on MySpace

Various Artists – Ceci N'est Pas Une Pipe (link to zipped album)

PublicSpaces Lab netlabel

Nice Legs; Shame About The Face

2009-08-17T15:22:21+01:00

Yes, that is an actual (and full-size) album cover. Yikes. Moving swiftly on, pray place your head between two large loudspeakers and say “wibble”, for Max Cavalerra is here to shatter your earwax with five tracks of bangin' techno.

The majority of Cavalerra's The Bigger, The Better EP eschews the groovy complexity of minimal for more straightforward dance beats: the holy trinity of snare, kick and hi-hat stick closely together and move in a group from “fast” down to “take a breather” and back up to “crush the dance floor”. To illustrate, allow me to recommend the immensely heavy opening track, Impact, wherein various noises off reverberate around a lone synth stab and a simple yet irresistibly catchy kick/snare/bass combo. Play it on a meaty sound system and watch your windows wobble.

Max Cavalerra - Impact

Similarly, the follow-up, Function, uses a "melody" consisting of just the one bass note repeated endlessly. Swathes of white noise and high-speed flummery threaten to swamp the relentless techno beat but that aforementioned religious trio keeps on keeping on. Hey, it's techminimalhousedance. What did you expect, a fugue?

In Memory of Violett is actually more, er, minimal than techno. (Self-contradiction is my speciality. It's not. It is, really. No, it ain't.) Some synths waft about in a chilled-out manner and make good use of the aural spatial field, although the intricate percussion still runs on rails. Like the rest of the album, it confirms CTW's well-known First Law of Dance Music.*

Energetic, forthright, insistent: all adjectives that apply not only to CTW's manly odour but also to 1000ccm's six and a half minutes. I must report that this tech-house track is full of the usual culprits. Yep, expect bass drops, low-passed breakdowns, hi-hats that move your noggin back and forth and the odd piquant vocal snippet. It's not overly original, but nor are olives - and I love olives.

Using the same punctuation-notation as a questionable but interesting chess move⁺, What The Bell?! is a track that shows Cavalerra's production chops. Surprise, surprise, there's some delicate chimey stuff nestling in the background of the seemingly well-mannered minimal-tech that constitutes the track's first half, but the chief attraction is the introduction of a chewy, electro-acid synth line that gets all glitchy over its bad self. It reminds me of the electro badass rather super Tom Neville. This is a good thing.

Right, it's time for me to skip gaily through the daisy-drenched uplands of free netmusic only to return at an unspecified time and waistline measurement. In the meantime, I suggest you dump The Bigger, The Better in your mp3 player, swap its egregious album cover for a picture of Beyoncé/Britney/The Hoff/Alastair Sim, and wait for your headphones to flap up like the ears of a surprised basset hound. Netlabel music can have that effect.

Please think about sending a "thank you" email to Max, who is probably busy DJ-ing Munich to a standstill, and/or Broque.de netlabel, which should be thinking hard about adding a PayPal "tips" button to its whiter-than-white website. Thank them for all the lovely sounds. But not the pictures.

Max Cavalerra - The Bigger, The Better (link to zipped album & individual files)

Maxcavalerra.com

Broque.de netlabel

*All dance tracks are a third too long. You know it's true.

+Knowledge of this stuff has not affected my love-god status in the slightest.

Whatever Floats Your Boat

2009-08-04T19:14:29+01:00

Sorry about the small album cover. Come on, you've missed my traditional difficulties with graphics, haven't you? At least there are waves.

Paper Navy is a four-piece band from near Nashville, Tennessee, that draws its inspiration from be brave, you can do this Country & Western and American pop from the 70s. I think they've drawn their instrumentation from the past, too, because there's not a whiff of a synth, digital effect or anything with a microchip in it. Doctor Who could smuggle All Grown Up into a Nashville record shop circa 1972 and no-one would be any the wiser.

Pleasingly for those of us with OCD, today's recommended track, Swan Song, adheres to its title and is the last track on All Grown Up. It's a charming, foot-tapping folk song with a surprisingly bleak attitude and a jaunty whistled riff that will rest awhile in your cortex before continuing its search for a spaghetti western it can call home. (Somewhere, Sergio Leone is gnashing his teeth in frustration.) Have a listen via the first appearance at CTW of Bandcamp's media player:

<a href="http://papernavy.bandcamp.com/track/swan-song">Swan song by Paper Navy</a>

(Apologies to feed readers: Google Reader hates me. Please visit the link at the end of the review or visit CTW and get grimy.) Apart from being unable to resist whistling that riff for the rest of the week, you'll notice from the lyrics that there's none of that twee "my jiggling dashboard Jesus will guide me through the roadworks of life" C&W nonsense. (Please note, anonymous angry internet person, that CTW respects all creeds from devout to aetheistic. I'm so fluffy.) Instead, All Grown Up takes an existentialist but pragmatic view of life. For instance, I Can't Read essays the following thought: Do we persist out of fear/The afterlife ever near/I'd be remiss were I not a critic/So God save the cynic.

The title song is a lament for childhood by someone who isn't too keen on adulthood. It's child-like guitars, rocking singalong chorus and Beatles-ish backing vocals will soon have you singing All Grown Up at work, shortly before you curl up in a foetal position and force the boss to call social services. But I regress digress.

If you're a fan of the album Homecoming by that quintessentially American folk-rock band of the 70s, America, then make a bee-line for Factories, where Shawn Anfinson's folky vocal harmonies about bitter-sweet love and longing should remind you strongly of that classic bit of, er, Americana.

Make Time is just about the simplest, most everyday love song I've ever heard. How's this for a lack of artifice: I'm not a superstar/but I can cut the grass and clean the car/And I'll make time for you/I love the woman I'm married to. That's either the apogee or the death of romance. Answers on a postcard, please.

To save this review turning into a boring list of song descriptions, allow me to be lazy inform you that in All Grown Up, Paper Navy have produced an album that is more than the sum of its twangy Telecaster-laden parts; it's a beautifully produced set of hummable songs that display a questioning sensibility about modern life. Not all albums need the latest whiz-bang effects to make their point: music fans know that there'll always be a place for good melodies, harmonies and lyrics, pure and not so simple. Now, having avoided doing my job properly given this lovely album a thorough reviewing, it falls to CTW to encourage you to send some "thank you" emails to Paper Navy and ask Shawn how the band managed to record the tracks in his laundry room and yet still produce such a sparklingly pristine set of underpants songs.

I apologise for being so witty overdoing the strikethrough gag.

Paper Navy - All Grown Up (link to zipped album and individual songs in most formats)

Paper Navy website

Trail Mix

2009-07-25T17:53:08+01:00

Raised in Bogotá, Colombia and of Japanese descent, Nobara Hayakawa is trained in jazz singing, holds degrees in Graphic Design and Fine Arts from Universidad Nacional de Columbia and Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, and is currently a lecturer at two Colombian universities. But I won't hold that against her; CTW accepts anyone, no matter how clever.

In the first track out of six, Trail, Ms Hayakawa sings in Japanese and wordless vocals; the latter are used for most of the album (with a splash of English), so all you monoglots out there can relax. It's about "the love/hate pendular movements that one experiences under the effects of a caprice” and there is indeed a little tension in the stunning wash of vocal harmonies that dominate this song. The luxuriant vocals are panned either side of the insistent, tinny percussion that nags away as though someone was tapping on the computer screen to get your attention.

Nobara Hayakawa - Trail

Now you know that Ms Hayakawa can hold a note or three, you might expect some decent singing in the next track. Clever you; you're right on the nose. In fact, there are some lovely swooping vocal phrases that are strongly reminiscent of Kate Bush. What you might not expect is a hoover, even though the track is named Hoover Love. Take your mind out of the gutter. It's surreal to listen to this charming song's tick-tock percussion and piano and then hear a vacuum cleaner start up in the background, begin to roar like a jet engine and then, for a few enchanting seconds, match the song's pitch before slowly fading away. If nothing else, it'll change your opinion of carpets.

Alas is a gentle vocal workout with a soothing piano accompaniment and synth embellishments. Towards the end of the track, a bass pad underlines the wistful atmosphere. Nobara responds by exploring her lower vocal register.

To Desalejar, where the listener will enjoy some crusty distorted vocals, a memorable synth melody and another lovely bed of vocals. Again, her swooping lines, overt emotionalism and willingness to incorporate unusual ambient sounds into her songs lead me to think that Ms Hayakawa is a Kate Bush fan – and that's before I mention the steam whistle coda. Of course, I might be wrong. We all know that I'm an idiot.

The hums and ambient noises at the start of Fuzzy Lady are interrupted by an amplified, reverberating slow drag down a guitar string - it's the nastiest sound you'll have heard since your least favourite teacher last scraped chalk down a blackboard. It's followed by a piano, the obligatory enchanting vocals and - to continue the earlier household cleaning theme - a washing machine. There's also a voiceover from an ancient detergent advert, jazzy piano chords, cooing vocals, sleepy guitars and a drum machine that sneakily ups and drops the tempo as the mood takes it. Would you expect anything less? I didn't like Fuzzy Lady at first, but subsequent listens have revealed it to be a beautiful piece of ambient-ish, atmospheric electronica.

Finally, the first minute of Homelessness, consisting as it does of lacklustre synths and distorted rumbling, is rather disappointing, but its second is fortunately hijacked by a very low-fi drum beat and an ear-meltingly gorgeous melody – sung in English, no less. It was written "after reading too much Paul Auster and crying too much for the same ghost". Artistic hangovers are evidently more spiritual and productive than my cheap and nasty alcoholic ones.

There's no Donate button on the album's release page at Intervall-audio, but the netlabel does have a shop dedicated to German & Japanese electronica, mainly from Düsseldorf & Tokyo, so feel free to let your wallet run amok. Nobara Hayakawa's website is similarly absent of shiny money buttons, but I'm sure she'd be delighted to receive a few emails saying how her album has made the world a better place. She's also on the lookout for musical collaborations, so don't be shy.

My thanks to Phlow, Free Albums Galore and everyone else who has already commented on Trail. I have never claimed to be original - just handsome.

Nobara Hayakawa - Trail EP (zipped album and preview mp3s on netlabel release page)

Nobara Hayakawa - Trail EP (zipped album and full individual mp3s, baby, at archive.org)

Nobara Hayakawa home page

Intervall-audio netlabel

There's no beer and everyone is ugly

2009-07-17T22:11:52+01:00

I've a good reason for recommending Erdbeerschnitzel's Pathetik Party so soon after reviewing his Tracknames I Can't Pronounce EP. Party was supposed to have been released by a record label, but the label apparently dragged its heels so much that Erdy (Tim Keiling from Mainz) decided to release it himself under a Creative Commons licence. So, why did these ten tracks not find favour? What will you find if you go to this party? Well, the Schnitzel claims it will be dubstep, electronica, freakhouse, and "whatever", though I could easily describe it as glitch-hop, drone, electronica, minimal and "you're not the boss of me". It certainly has a far wider scope than the excellent Tracknames EP. Indeed, the Schnitz admits the album is his personal goodbye to genre-specific music.

The title track is an atmospheric and dubby piece of electronica whose gold-plated production should convince you that you're on to a good thing - just like most parties I attend. Heh. Ein Tag Namens Higke is a swinging piece of, er, freakhouse(?) where the chops come fast and funky. Now, let's have a glass of cassis to clear the palate. One and a half minutes of a curiously uplifting drone should do the trick. Thank you, Kurzer Einwand Nummer Eins.

Distantanz starts off as a fairly standard piece of minimal until it almost stops and some gorgeous synth chords gently ring out amid processed vocals; it then moves back up the gears to become a relaxed dance track with grade-A production skills. Think of it as an aural Bentley.

Some of these tracks are simply prime electronica. Air, Groove Armada, Björk and particularly Leftfield could release Wogenbeugel and you'd think, "Hmm, they're on form." Its woody synths take their own sweet time in getting to the end, thanks in no small part to chopped vocals and popping and snapping percussion coming out to play, but you honestly won't mind. In the less than three minutes of Kurzer Einwand Nummer Zwei's robotic glitch-hop, you'll find yourself trying to work out how much work went into making it, but you'll probably get distracted by its insistent swing.

By the time you've regained control of your body, it's time to let your brain loose on Die Leiden des Jungen S, where the next eleven minutes - a wild guess, but perhaps it's at this point that the record label got nervous - go some way to creating a minimal equivalent of Dark Side of the Moon. Yes, I quailed at the idea of this track. Now I love it. Erdbeerschnitzel has the ability to develop his musical ideas and does so via a reverberating soundscape, swooping, otherwordly synths, a groove that won't quit (except where Erdy decides that we all need to chillout) and a genuine sense of development. Die Leiden des Jungen S is eleven minutes long because it needs to be. It's not dance and it's not thoughtful electronica: it's both. That's a rare thing.

The last of the ten tracks, Singular, is noteworthy for warm, spliced vocals and a reminder, as if the listener needed it, that Pathetik Party is an unpredictable collection. Each fresh outing of this album reveals something new to enjoy; it has more unpredictable chops and ideas than a drunk sushi chef.

Did I say ten? I'm such a tease. You came here to earn the praise of your friends and a pay rise from your newly impressed boss by becoming Mr Cool, thanks to your discovery of the musical equivalent of a Stealth Fighter. Right. See if this gets your earlobes flapping:

Erdbeerschnitzel - Walkampfchampagne

Yes, you are now a sex god. This transformation has been achieved by a hollowed-out, distorted bass line that rolls like a loaded dice, lazy processed brass stabs, honky-tonk synths and some of the most beguiling glitchy percussion you'll hear this side of a scratched "Drums on 45" record. It's a trippy, jazzy funkout. Play it loud and you'll lose weight through involuntary movement and cut a swathe through your profession/college/nightclub/underpants. (I think the track on the Soundcloud release page is a slightly different edit to the zipped album track. I much prefer the latter so that's the one on CTW's cuddly media player.)

Why was this album not taken on by a record label? You tell me, because I don't know.

There's a prominent Paypal icon on the album's release page. Please think about pressing it or at least sending Erdy a "thank you" email. He's even been so generous as to provide you with an action figure. You could turn it into a piggy bank and save some cash for him. Just be careful where you put the slot.

Erdbeerschnitzel - Pathetik Party (link to zipped album and individual files)

Erdbeerschnitzel website

Dial M For Mmmarvellous

2009-07-07T22:36:51+01:00

Here's a short but sweet package: M, a three-track EP released by British netlabel Minordust, is full of aural goodness for chillout and minimal fans alike.

Tobias Lorsbach, alias Keinzweiter, must be one of those strange beings who haunt record shops, working their fingers to the bone as they search for a rare vinyl cut, taking home nothing but the choicest grooves - only to disregard everything on them apart from the dusty crackles between the tracks. This perverse discard-the-fruit-but-keep-the-peel attitude is especially evident on the first track, Magnolia, where close-up pops and crackles are spliced with field recordings and slotted into a cool rhythm to the accompaniment of slowly alternating cool chords. A jazzy hi-hat drops in to keep things ticking along until Keinzweiter, unable to resist displaying his production chops, plays with its pitch and filtering. Like the other two tracks, Magnolia is ostensibly a restrained exploration of "noises off" and clicks 'n' cuts, but if you turn the volume up your cranium will belatedly discover that the rest of you is sitting on the washing machine and enjoying the spin cycle. See what you think:

Keinzweiter - Magnolia

Now you know what to expect - namely pops, crackles, a dash of jazz topped off with field recordings and nougaty vinyl static - you can relax, safe in the knowledge that you're now trendier than everyone else in your social circle. Put that hand-mirror down. Things get even funkier with Mircoobee, wherein a swinging jazz drum rhythm kicks off a beautiful minimal–techhouse track. Speaking of jazz/be-bop, who'd have thought, back in the '50s, that music production would advance so far that a talented producer like Keinzweiter could add myriad rhythmic clicks 'n' cuts to a fast drum beat without swamping it? Take any ten seconds from this and count the number of things going on: there's echoing conversations, crackles, synth embellishments, a bumping bass, the aforementioned jazz drumming, a lovely high-pitched synth run, and numerous tics and pops, yet they all blend together perfectly in a light stew that instantly makes Mainz, where Keinzweiter has his Batcave, one of the cooler places in Germany. Oh, all right. You all know you can twist me round your little finger:

Keinzweiter - Mircoobee

Now, off to bed with you, stopping only to give Moriaan a goodnight kiss. Let the adults dance to its funky and cheerful style. No, you can't stop to listen to its upbeat crackly goodness. And don't poke your tongue at me, you young scamp.

M is a free Creative Commons-licensed taster of a talented electronica artist. Should you wish to hear more of Keinzweiter's stuff, his new album Globus Cassus is now available for free (at an ear-shreddingly low 128 Kbps) from spontanMusik netlabel or you can buy it (at an ear-caressingly high 320 Kbps) from Beatport. My thanks to Mike Gregoire of Blocsonic for releasing netBloc Vol. 22, Life On Ceres, where I first heard Mircoobee. By the way, Vol. 23 is out today and it's utterly free, hipsters. Yes, I'm good. Daddy loves you too. Now run along.

Keinzweiter – M (link to individual files & zipped album - click on the album title when you get there)

Keinzweiter website and MySpace

Minordust netlabel

Never Mind The Width; Feel The Quality

2009-06-28T23:02:24+01:00

The astute blurb on the release page at IDMf netlabel for Halogen - Length and Brecht (Remixed) compares it to a classical composition. Uncannily, the EP, consisting as it is does of one track by Halogen, a Brighton-based artist, and three remixes by other musos, feels as though it's the work of one person bent on producing a four-movement composition; there isn't the usual jarring, though often enjoyable, scramble of disparate sounds one associates with remixes essayed by musicians eager to parade their own production's fireworks.

Halogen's original track features a langorous descending piano motif in an abyssal acoustic that is so big it allows for the hammering of the top notes, whose fortississimo is made bearable by the cushioning reverb. A ghostly female vocal joins in and wraps your ears in swaddling clothes while a cello adds to the warmth. Remove 60 seconds from the five-minute running time and you have a contender for the chill-out track of the year. The combination of a cavernous reverb and a leisurely theme reminds me, scandalously you might think, of Vaughan Williams's Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis, composed specifically to take advantage of Gloucester Cathedral's superb acoustics. It's a wafer-thin connection, to be sure, but the ethos - if not the execution - is similar.

Strangely enough, the third track, the Field Rotation remix, is a gnat's todger longer than Halogen's original, but feels shorter even though the pace is funereal. A feather-light percussive rhythm, bass booms and swirling vocals blend into the mix to make something that should not be listened to while operating heavy machinery. Play it on a good stereo and alert the coast guard for beached whales. /badtaste

The tempo ups with the appearance of the Woodnote remix, whose synths and crunchy, granular goodness are the fibre in Halogen's musical muesli. It forms an impressive ending to "/Remixed/" as we must call it.

Today's recommended track, Synaecide's remix, (track two) could be described as the allegro of the four movements. Its snippets of the album's overriding piano motif and heart-stoppingly beautiful grainy vocals will give listeners a taste of what to expect elsewhere in the EP. However, Synaecide has also pressed the big red button marked (wears nose-peg in distaste) “IDM” and given us a whirlwind of glitches and clicks that provide an outlet for the suppressed emotion in the other three tracks. It becomes an electro romp with a gnarly bass line punctuated by a brief mid-riff "skip" in tempo; a compositional flourish that I'm sure RWV would have enjoyed. If Woodnote adds fibre, this adds roughage. Halogen - Length and Brecht (Synaecide Remix) is track two in the Soundcloud player below, which has barged its way in like an orange sore thumb because IDMf doesn't supply an open mp3 link for CTW's Yahoo media player, which is now feeling increasingly sorry for itself. (Feed readers click here to listen.)

Free music is rather scrumptious, isn't it?

I'm now going to undermine completely my pretentious burblings about over-arching compositional structures, etc., by advising listeners to rearrange the tracks' order so that Halogen's effort is followed by Woodnote's and then Synaecide's. That way, your ears build towards a climax (I apologise for that mental image) and then get a rubdown from Field Rotation's chill-out track: when the piano motif resurfaces, it feels like an old friend has returned. I've listened to /Remixed/ a lot and the track order is the only minor quibble I have, even though I've wibbled on about the importance of structural unity. Me = idiot. The album is a treat however you want to listen to it.

I dust memove by - sorry, I must remove my nose-peg to admit that I have nothing against IDM per se apart from the term itself, which I think is nonsensical and divisive. I especially have nothing against IDMf netlabel, which should be proud of itself for releasing such marvellous collections, and the IDM Forum, which should be proud of itself for keeping its shy and retiring members safe and secure in their little padded cells. Please keep the wardens on their toes by sending the netlabel lots of congratulatory emails and a promise of a gold watch - if a Paypal icon ever appears on their site. ;)

Halogen - Length and Brecht (Remixed) (link to zipped album & individual files)

Halogen's blog and MySpace

IDMf netlabel

Getting Down To A Fine Art

2009-06-19T23:15:39+01:00

It seems that every other album I review has a pristine white background. But don't worry your pretty little head about it: instead, come home from work/college/the pub/prison, select Blue Swerver's The Art of Collapsing from your extensive collection of CTW recommendations, flop onto the sofa, sip something good (tea, beer, wine, life partner) and listen to smoky vocals drift over eleven electronic blues-jazz morsels. Yeah, baby. For those of you out there wondering how to blend jazz and the blues with electronica, look no further than the first track, the spookily good Untempo, which morphs from jazzy blues to downtempo IDM to electronica before culminating in a short slice of trip-hop and an ending that suits the final lyric perfectly. Less than four minutes long, its many changes in tempo and mood provide real value for money – if that's not a surreal thing to say about a free CC album. Don't blame me if you wake up tomorrow surrounded by empty wine bottles, a full ashtray and a trilby you've never seen before. As I said, it's the first track (apologies to feed readers - I'm waiting for Jamendo to do something about its invisible media player):

The Art of Collapsing is a disciplined album from Blue Swerver, a five-strong band from London. There's no egotistical jazz twiddling (which is something I love, when in the mood): all the musicians serve the song. Nick Street's electronic trickery and Robin Grey's (for it is he) bass provide a firm bedding for Adam Green's whispered/slurred vocals and Jules Fenton's judicious drumming. Ben Oliver is a dab hand at jazz-blues piano. According to them, the god Orpheus helps out on triangle. So they've got that going for them.

A true fact about track seven: Zinedine Zidane is not the name of a French footballing wizard but is actually a formula invented by Louis Armstrong in his bid to discover jazz's equivalent to the theory of relativity: Satchmo found that those five syllables, pronounced in that precise order, immediately increased a singer's hipness by a factor of cool. He died too soon to publicise his findings – so thank CTW for the research. Adam Green's vocals in the verses totter along the ragged edge between ultra-jazzy and off-key, but the chorus is the coolest, catchiest thing you'll hear all week. (Find Zinedine Zidane by clicking on a track name in the Jamendo player and choose from the pop-up playlist.) It ends with a marvellously pithy line: The rest of the week was much better/I finally had it out with my neighbour's dog/He's been pissin' on my roses/for way too long.

Speaking of which, what a pleasure it is to hear such distinctive lyrics. This from Job, where a jazz piano and light electronica help to tell the Biblical tale: They said, “Crazy, you're crazy still praying to Him.”/He said, “God is my shepherd even though he burns my skin.” Or there's this from At The Movies: Side by side at the movies/disappointing pizza and a slow walk home.

There are a couple of beauty spots in the album's otherwise flawless complexion: the vocals suffer from too much sibilance and my crappy sound system distorts the trumpet solo in Tasky, though the latter's verses of beat poetry come through very clearly, which, depending on your taste for wordplay, may or may not be a good thing.

Right, this review is getting longer than my alcohol-deprived tongue, so I shall leave you to discover the other tracks with the advice to stick the album on your "chilled Anjou/Muscadet/Gewürztraminer/Buckfast Cider" playlist, if you have one. Please think about making a donation to Blue Swerver to thank and encourage them - it's easy to do at Jamendo. I can't remember if I found The Art of Collapsing via the peerless Free Albums Galore, but that's not going to stop me from a drive-by plug. ;)

Blue Swerver - The Art of Collapsing on Jamendo & Modifythevan (zipped album & individual files)

Blue Swerver on MySpace

Modifythevan netlabel

Cologne Commons

2009-06-12T15:59:16+01:00

I have temporarily conceded my claim to be the centre of global cool to a deserving cause. Today and tomorrow sees Cologne (for geographically challenged readers: yes, that's in Germany) host a festival and workshop of Creative Commons culture including music, art and various forms of media. The idea is to investigate and promote the possibility of a free sharing culture that will be beneficial to all, while not entirely ignoring the possibility of a crazygonuts weekend of drink, dance and debauchery.

There will be workshops, how-to's, panels and expert discussions; musicians and VJs will demonstrate in a quiet, subdued manner how CC sound and visuals might cause one's heartbeat to raise ever-so-slightly; and all involved will try to counter the media's demonisation of shared media as the province of scoundrels, charlatans, thieves and Country & Western fans pirates.

Anyone lucky enough to attend in person will not only hear some great music and see amazing videos but will also learn a lot about promoting CC culture on the internet. An exploration of the Cologne Commons website will reveal links to the hard-working funksters who are part of the Cologne Network. Their efforts should ensure this weekend will be a huge success - but I suspect they might be feeling a little fragile on Monday morning. Is there such a thing as CC aspirin?

Next up at CTW is, oh, I don't know, maybe some free music? The last few days have seen a spate of public service announcements and, fun as they've been, it's time to get back to my stock in trade, which is wibbling about free music that you can download and listen to at your leisure. It's the best way I know of supporting the great things that are happening in the CC world. Besides, I need to get my hips a-swingin'.

While you're looking at the Cologne Commons website, feel free to download their two compilation albums, cunningly entitled:

Cologne Commons Compilation 01 and, wait for it...

Cologne Commons Compilation 02.

You'll be more stylish in no time. Anyway, whisk yourself to Cologne via this magical interwebulator Tardis button thingy:

The Italian Blog

2009-06-09T14:25:21+01:00

Every now and then, I try to convince you that I am not some sort of free music deus ex machina but merely an online simpleton who likes to recommend things that he likes. You, of course, refuse to acknowledge any flaw in my perfection and insist that I am the source of all that is good, free and funky. Not so, planet. There are those who deserve a place in the pantheon that is CTW's “General Netlabel Sites” category. The gilded olive wreath goes, rather appropriately, to Eldino, a native of the Calabria/Marche regions of Italy.

What has he done to deserve this Nobel-like honour? Well, he has taken it upon himself to curate netlabel music. All of it. The lot. Come with me into the heart of the matrix and grasp the scale of his madness.

For the last six years, Eldino has collected and catalogued everything he could lay his hands on. A "Netlabel Music Meter" on his website shows that he has collected...wait for it...316GB of Creative commons/netlabel music. To put that into perspective, the iPod Classic stores 120GB of music, which translates to 30,000 songs, albeit songs stored at a rather lo-fi 128kbps. Actually, Eldino's meter is eight months out of date: he currently has nearly 400GB of netaudio in his private collection. He must have over 100,000 tracks; all free, all legally downloaded. Not only that, he has tagged every track correctly, assigned the appropriate album cover, rated the music and even placed albums in a logical and easy to understand hierarchy of folders instead of emulating the mess of files that you'll find on my most people's hard drives.

His chosen task is Sisyphean. No matter how close he gets to scooping up everything with a CC licence on it, there will always be an obscure Lithuanian label who decides that what the world needs now is 100 albums of tuba nu-jazz. And Eldino will cry a little, bend himself to the task and try to push the huge boulder up the hill once more.

Why is he doing this extraordinary thing? He is thinking of posterity. Netlabels and artists come and go. Without him, countless songs and albums would have been lost in the depths of the net. Anyone looking for anything online knows that the internet is a near-impenetrable jungle; we often discard our accidental discoveries, dismissing them as worthless, on our search for treasure. It is not for us to decide what is worth preserving; Eldino is giving the Future the chance to pick and choose.

Visit his site and you'll find various articles (mostly in Italian, some in English) on Creative Commons culture, occasional album reviews, tutorials on proprietary and open source software, and tips on how to fill your mp3 player without becoming a pirate. Anyone who is curious to find out just how deep the netaudio rabbit hole goes should join his five news feeds, where you will discover oodles and oodles of albums to wade through. You have my extra-special permission to ignore CTW and discover things for yourself. (My ambition is to make CTW redundant.) But I warn you, your cerebellum will explode. Only experienced Italians with an encyclopaedic knowledge of the internet and an obsessive compulsion to bring order to chaos will be able to stand the strain. I'll take a wild stab in the dark and suggest that Eldino is probably the world's leading expert on netlabels & CC music, although Mo Sauer of Phlow or Marvin of Free Albums Galore might give him a run for his money.

I'm sure you've read of philanthropists who have handed their collections over to museums. Eldino has compiled an archivist's dream of Creative Commons material, but it's still less than half of what is floating on the electronic high seas. Wouldn't it be lovely if someone far-sighted from the Italian government or, better still, the Creative Commons rewarded Eldino's ~~insanity~~ industry and diligence by offering him some financial help or - and he might prefer this - seconding an attractive secretary to his side? For now, he ploughs a lone furrow. We salute him. Please visit his site and, should you feel like it, send him an email thanking him for his Herculean efforts.

I must also thank Eldino for helping me to convert CTW into a mobile phone format. (Wanting to go mobile was akin to a toddler deciding to upgrade the Hubble telescope.) He is an evangelist for the Creative Commons music scene and was happy to help.

Il Blog di Eldino