Archive for December, 2005
One last little gifty before the yuletide arrives. Recently spotlighted Zooey has two more FREE MP3s to offer on the “GREY CHRISTMAS EP” which consists of a vocal and instrumental version of, you guessed it, “Grey Christmas“. Grab it here.
That’s it for me and the holiday offerings I’m afraid. I probably won’t be posting until sometime next week. Thanks for all the support and feedback and I hope you get everything your heart desires this Chrismakuh. Be well.
December 24th, 2005
Beatport is definitely in the holiday spirit ’cause they’re giving away an hours worth of music. Right now, you can get two FREE really terrific DJ mix sets. The goods are available from the front page or by following these links:
A thirty-one minute mix by here Seb Fontaine and Jay P
A thirty minute mix by Nic Fanciulli & Andy Chatterly
You have to “view track list” before the download button appears. You also have to be logged in or create an account.
The gift of music is the best gift of all. Great free music is just icing on the (fruit)cake!
December 21st, 2005
Talk about strange bedfellows! Lean Cuisine has teamed up with the OM music label to offer FREE MP3 downloads of their deep house, downtempo and dub tracks.
Regular Guide readers will recall that I’m particularly fond of Kaskade (an OM Lounge mainstay) who has two tracks available here. The group of 15 tracks also features two other Molly O’ favorites: Rithma and Soulstice. Whatever the reason for this unlikely pairing, I’ve got a new found respect for Lean Cuisine.
Grab your tracks here: Lean Cuisine MP3 & Player.
[There’s one annoyance: the ID3 tags are not filled in on the downloaded tracks, so you’ll have to do that yourself. If you download as much music as I do, you’ll find that to be extremely aggravating. In my opinion, tracks should never be posted for download if the information tags are not complete (or with artist and title at the very least.]
December 19th, 2005
I am very pleased with this six month experiment of mine and I’ve been happy to share with you the many hours of music I’ve enjoyed and found with just a little effort. Off the top of my head, Cuebism and Emorej are probably my favorite finds. There were plenty of other discoveries I really liked this (half) year as well but it came down to this: how many times did I actually listen to it? That’s where iTunes is especially handy as it keep tabs on the most listened to songs! Then it was simply a matter of seeing if the most popular songs were even still available to freely download. I was a bit saddened that Koushik’s excellent “Be With” was no longer available… that definitely would have made the cut.
Three notes: A) This is intended as an MP3 CD as the contents will not fit on one audio CD. and 2) If you use iTunes as your MP3 jukebox, the playlist is organized to play with the Crossfade preference on (between 10-12 seconds). and 3) Click the cover image to download a PDF of the artwork.
Mondial >> Stand By Your Story (scroll down to “Mondial”)
Cuebism >> Getting There
Bitstream Dream >> Windmills
The Octopus Project >> The Way Things Go
French Kicks >> Following Waves
Morcheeba >> Lighten Up
Imogen Heap >> Hide and Seek
MysteryMen >> Waiting (scroll down to find)
Climber >> Horns
Solvent >> Wish (scroll down to find)
Oddessy 9 >> Night Flight To Venus
The Baldwin Brothers >> Dream Girl
The Bots >> Never Fall In Love
Betafish >> Dubu
Emorej >> It’s OK
Baumer >> Take Whats Mine
South >> Loosen Your Hold (under Downloads, MP3)
The Plantains >> I Feel Love
bonus (not featured on the Guide, but too good to not to share):
Nouvelle Vague >> Love Will Tear Us Apart
Disclaimer:
All works remain copyright of their respective owners. MP3 files were found posted on sites with the artists and/or labels permission. Out of respect for the copyright holders, please do not re-distribute this collection.
December 16th, 2005
Wowsza! The hits just keep on coming today! The band 50footwave is offering their FREE MUSIC EP for download at ThrowingMusic.com. I was a fan of Throwing Muses back in the day, my favorite being the strangely odd yet appealing song “Mexican Women” that you’d think someone like me wouldn’t like… but I did.
Grab your 5 song EP in FLAC or MP3 formats.
December 15th, 2005
French band Zooey offers up a plethora of beautiful and interesting MP3 downloads, all for FREE naturellement!
Their 11 track album, “PIQUE NIQUE ET JEUX DANS L’EAU”, (translated by Babelfish as “Spade Screws And Plays In Water” – I have to believe there is something culturally lost in translation) is a stunning melange of mellow franco-electronica. Sometimes it’s moody synth/guitar, a la Cocteau Twins, and othertimes more glitchy, ever-so-close to what passes for pop these days with male and female vocals. Highlights from the album tend to be the tracks with French titles in my opinion, like the title track featured in the sidebar player, but I also happen to very much like “Weekend“, “Memory” and “Easylanding“. They also seem to be fascinated with a beaver island as it’s the name of an album track plus the name of an EP. All in all, 15 tracks are available to download plus a Zooey remix of “Intention” by Pull.
Visit Zooey’s download page here.
December 15th, 2005
Who knows ‘how’, ‘why’ or ‘where’ these come from but Molly cares not when FREE means such quantity. I haven’t had a chance to listen to any of these selections so I have no idea of the genres nor do I have any recommendations to make. Head on over to Freep3-2 and grab all that you wish. Please feel free to leave comments on which albums or songs you’re enjoying. I’ll make updates as soon as I come out from under the enormous backlog of listening I have to do.
[linkage via the always excellent Largehearted Boy]
UPDATE No. 1:
There are also 3 FREE MP3 mixes by Slabco artists under the mix tape section at slabco.com
December 15th, 2005
One of the hardest thing about doing this blog is having to turn the other cheek (so to speak) when it comes to music that I happen to like or want to spotlight but it seems to be posted without the consent/approval of the artist or the record label. Such is the case (at this time of year, especially) with lots of other blogs I read and admire. While fundamentally I believe that the primary function of MP3 blogs is to spread the love of music, the joy of music – to expose those savvy but not-in-the-know, to get the word out, to create “buzz” – not to gather or horde or disseminate copious amounts of free stuff just because one can. I have to believe that music blogs are doing more good than harm; for music sales, for artist recognition, for discovery in general. So, while a famous non-meat eater in New York’s burrough has links to lots of holiday MP3 albums created by bloggers, I humbly offer some decent FREE MP3s I’ve found in my travels:
Linear >> Carol of the Bells (Electro version)
Madison Park>> Winter Wonderland (Vocal Mix) [via Arjan]
Ryanhardt >> Have Yourself A Jazzy Little Christmas
Snowden offers 4 FREE tracks off their LICORICE EP (although only 3 are holiday songs).
It’s a shame some big-name crooners like Michael Bublé, Harry Connick, Jr. or even Chris Isaak don’t offer any holiday cheer (in the form of a free song) to their fans on their websites. Considering how many times the same “standards” are covered, it would have been nice if they offered something in the true spirit of the season, not just commercialism. Please feel free to let me know if one of your favorites has made a track available for free that I might have missed!
December 13th, 2005
Oh happy day! Mix No. 10 is up at Mercedes-Benz.
Either it’s me and my connection or MB is having some site problems; page loading was excruciatingly slow and “download all” refused to do so. Hopefully, you won’t have the same problems I’m having. Expect a mini-review and selects after I finish part II of my year-end best of.
December 13th, 2005
I spent hours today going through almost all of the 800+ MP3 files in Download.com’s Electronica section (I was looking for some filler material for a personal project), Let me tell you, with a little patience and an appetite for discovery, there are some gems to be found. Here’s what caught my ear:
Oddessy 9 >> Night Flight To Venus – Similar to a previous Molly O’ pick “Horns” by Climer. Very well done.
Bitstream Dream >> Windmills – Lush breakbeat? Not sure how to classify this but it’s gorgeous and winter-y. I’m spinning.
The Moontrane Conductors >> killadub – Just a touch of reggae makes this a keeper.
The Baldwin Brothers >> Dream Girl – What a fantastic track! Featuring Miho Hatori of Cibo Matto, it reminds me of the best tracks off the Verve Remixed series. If you want to create a stylish and sophisticated atmosphere during cocktail-hour, this is the track for you.
Of course, I found more than four songs but these are the best of the bunch. Enjoy!
December 11th, 2005
This has been a terrific year for music in my estimation, probably the best since ‘91-92 in terms of the wealth and breath of great poptronica. My year-end ‘best of’ is more aptly a selection of my favorite single releases, songs that I listened to the most and brought me the most amount of pleasure.
I’ve been studying my peers in this field and they all seem to echo the same sentiments: Last year it was all about the Scissor Sisters. 2005 is the year of the Franz Ferdinands, The Kaiser Chiefs, the Clap Your Hands and Say Yeahs, The Arcade Fires, Spoons, The Killers and Anthony and The Johnsons, et-cetera et-cetera blah blah blah. Frankly all those bands and their ersatz counterparts bore me to tears. Now, don’t read more into that statement and think that I’m saying they’re all no good. On the contrary, they have their place… just not on my playlists. All these faux-glam-indie-emo rock outfits have a sameness that I disdain. They are not “greats” in the same sense as Elvis, The Beatles, Bowie or Elton John or even Madonna. They may have some longevity but I sincerely doubt they will be remembered in the annals of rock-n-roll history. Just the same as I believe you can’t manufacture an “idol” every season. Not all of my favorites will make it into the Hall of Fame either, but at least I’m not blindly regurgitated popular sentiments. [Sorry, too many selections to show album art on all of them!]
Now, onto my favorites:
Favorite New Old Song Discovered This Year:
Xploding Plastix >> Sunset Spirals – Where was I when this came out?? Wish I had been clued into this release back in 2003. Sparkling vocals courtesy of Sarah Cracknell (of Saint Etienne fame).
Merit Badge:
Mylo >> DESTROYROCKNROLL – While technically a 2004 release, Mylo gained the attention he so justly deserved for “Drop The Pressure” this year. The entire disc is genius. It’s criminal that iTMS doesn’t carry this album and that it’s still only available as an import after all this time.
Best Mash-Up (tie):
Party Ben’s “Walking With A Ghost In Paris” (Mylo’s “Paris Four Hundred” vs. Tegan & Sara’s “Walking With A Ghost”)
Team 9’s “Square 1″ (Coldplay’s “Square One” and Bronski Beat’s “Smalltown Boy”)
Runners-Up:
Madonna >> Sorry, Jump, How High – The masses justifiably embraced a return-to-form from Her Madgesty. A flat-out terrific disc makes runner-up status sheerly cause of it’s late-in-the-year release. CONFESSIONS has brought me a great deal of enjoyment… but only for the last couple of weeks.
Coldplay >> Speed of Sound – Bland? Maybe. But there’s a great quality to their take on generic rock. Nobody does it better.
The Finalists:
14) Junior Senior >> Take My Time – Sad that another group can utilize the talents of the B-52 girls better than the B’s have been able to in years. [Import only; Not available at the iTMS]
13) The Pussycat Dolls >> Don’t Cha (Ralphi’s Hot Freak 12″ Vox mix) – If there was a more perfect club stomper this year, I didn’t hear it.
12) Fannypack >> Nu Nu Yeah Yeah (Double J & Haze Radio edit) – Originally discovered on Fluxblog earlier this year, this terrific ditty has the sound I wish American R&B artists were emulating. I think I would have new-found respect for Beyoncé if this were her release.
11) Feist >> One Evening – Sultry, smokey gin-joint, crackling fireplace in the background music for displaced lovers.
10) Mint Royale >> Little Words – Swirly, gorgeous piano and strings. “I know they’re just little. But I mean those little words.” To me, way deeper than little.
9) The Juan Maclean >> Give Me Every Little Thing – I love the intro to this song and then how it shifts into – what I think – is a very macho, footballers/rugby players chant, kind of like New Order did with the World Cup song a decade or so ago. The video is hilarious, too.
8) Morningwood >> Nth Degree – From it’s opening notes, you know you’re in for something special. Pop/rock that plays well in the car, in the club and in the bowling alley. Cheeky and talented, I expect big things from Morningwood. [Thanks to the good people at Captiol Records for supporting my Morningwood habit and supplying me with links and a CD]. Watch the crafty video here [quicktime].
7) Sebastien Tellier >> La Ritournelle – Meaning “the old story”, this sparkling gem is a testament to love unfading. It also has an old-fashioned, yet contemporary sound you just don’t hear very often. Plus, I can’t resist a song that uses strings to their fullest. Truly original and stunning.
6) Kylie Minogue >> I Believe In You – Except for the vocal pitch break at the end, this is a nearly perfect example of poptronica; smart, catchy and groovy. 9.9 out of 10. I believe in you, Kylie. Come back to the Five and Dime when you’re up to it.
5) Annie >> Me Plus One – While everyone was swooning over ‘Heartbeat’, this song snuck in, took its hold on me and would not let go. Allegedly the story of Geri “Ginger Spice” Halliwell, it makes for an interesting story-based song, unheard of in the popsphere for its ability to skewer but yet remain delicious and hooky.
4) Deep Dish >> Dreams – This revisionist version of the Fleetwood Mac classic does the unthinkable: makes a perfect 1970s anthem into bouncy, driving music. At least they had the good sense to re-use Stevie and not some crap soundalike.
3) Royksopp >> Only This Moment – More Nordic goodness. I’m fascinated by the lyrical structure of this song. It’s so seamless and blends two voices into one. Trust me, THE UNDERSTANDING is a wholly fantastic release. More accessible that their last album, MELODY A.M., it shines with the likes of “Beautiful Day Without You”, “Follow My Ruin” and “49 Percent”.
2) The Legends >> He Knows The Sun – What more can I say about this one? Watch the video here [quicktime].
1) Ladytron >> Destroy Everything You Touch – Cooly robotic in nature but more warmth than you’d expect. They managed to keep the chill of goth but make it available to the masses. My pick for the best single of the year. Not only is it the best song, but the video is awesome, too. You can watch it here [windows media file].
All available songs at the iTMS are grouped into an iMix here. I’ll be posting part II of my year-end Best Of in a week or so… Watch for it!
December 8th, 2005
If your band has a song and would like to be featured on my Guide OR if you are a part of the promotion process at a record/net label and have a band you think is appropriate for MO’PGTMFM, then email your .MP3 (or .MP4) files to mollopoverty@gmail.com or use the CONTACT page to reach me.
I’m always looking for exclusives and material you can’t find elsewhere in the MP3 blogosphere. Who knows… the scoop you provide might just be the thing that puts us both in the major leagues!
December 1st, 2005