Archive for the ‘free music’ Category

I bloggeth not…
April 16, 2009…but over here is one of my favorite records, Desert Equations: Azax Atra by Sussan Deyhim (myspace) and Richard Horowitz.

Thank you, Inconstant Sol
June 3, 2008I’ve been trying to reunite myself with this record, Bush Baby by Arthur Blythe, for a long time.

The Hellcows on the blogosphere.
September 10, 2007The Hellcows were one of my favorite bands to see in Portland in the late eighties, they had a very original approach to noisy art-school postpunk with lots of personality. The only thing that I didn’t like about them was that they hated my band, I mean really hated my band, and loved to talk smack about us onstage. Anyway, someone put their first EP and split single with Smegma up on a blog. Good times.

Kletka Red may no longer exist, but they made more records than I thought.
August 12, 2007I bought and enjoyed Hijacking when it came out in 1996. Definitely the most transformational of the nineties Klezmer activity (excluding Charming Hostess for having a more catholic-with-a-small-c concept of Jewish music and for dabbling in goy tuneage), well-informed by punk, Beefheart, and improv. Then I didn’t hear anything about them until I came across this blog post (via), which tells me that they made another record, Hybrid, before Soybelman hung it up, linking to free lo-fi downloads and the reissue available for sale, and also some YouTube (that’s a YT link, natch).

Listening diary: Ruggles and Berio
June 1, 2007So the first thing I did after digging on American Mavericks was go out and buy a bunch of old electronic music by Morton Subotnick (specifically #’s 1, 7, and 8 on this page). It was as great as I thought it would be. The next thing was to go get some Henry Brant (you can get you some here). That was great too. The next thing was to get some Carl Ruggles, but it took me until about a month ago, and then it was on vinyl (complete works directed by Michael Tilson Thomas, got it on ebay) so it’s taken me this long to digitize the first half. My impression was that I was going to love it as much as I love Henry Brant for alot of the same reasons, but I have to say that Ruggles succumbs to academic tedium alot more often. I’ve still got two thumbs up for it, but get the Brant first.
So then I decided to listen to some Bartok, but as I was scrolling up through the B’s I saw Berio (wikipedia), and I thought “gee I haven’t listened to that in a really long time” so I am. And it totally outrageously rocks. Don’t you love it when that happens? I listened to it when I got it, probably 12 -15 years ago, and forgot about it. It’s Laborintus 2, which as of this writing is available used for 5 bucks at Amazon. But I gonna go get me some free Berio here (vocal) and here (instrumental).

Steve Coleman too.
May 15, 2007Steve Coleman also gives his music away for free. Here’s why.
On The Edge of Tomorrow really blew my mind in 1985.

Free (as in beer) Ostertag
May 1, 2007Bob Ostertag has put as much of his own music as he is allowed to online for free. Elsewhere, he explains why.
In this case I do have a clear favorite, Say No More.