Here’s something a bit different: an instrumental album, at times ambient, at times very in-your-face. Really, you’ll have to hear Silence’s L’autre endroit for yourself, which is pretty easy via either the Jamendo player or via Bittorrent.

Artist Page
Album Page
.torrent for this album

And for those of you who would like a sort of Jen Knapp/Ane Brun-ish type female indie singer, with keyboards instead of guitars, Allison Crowe’s This Little Bird may just be your cup of tea. She’s quite good, and I say this with the full weight of my constant snobbery at my back.

Artist Page
Album Page
.torrent for this album

Yeah, I know, it’s Wednesday, and I skipped a week. Shut it.

Today I feature some high quality, eclectic music from a band called Meridiano Zero. The album is AmberDrops

I was actually surprised at the quality of this release: the sound is much better than what you usually get from netlabel acoustic stuff. That said, if you grew up in the eighties on an Indian reservations and your parents were the Grateful Dead and Led Zepplin, you’ll probably like this. Or, I have no idea. Just give it a shot, will you?

Label Page
Album Page
Download Link

Yep, it’s that time again. And I’ll spill the beans: this week’s FMT comes after several hours of weeding out the not-quites and so-not-going-to-happens. I like doing this, but seriously, people. Get on the ball.

In any case, today’s FMT features another instrumental release, Jean Nine’s Whispers and the Storm. But this one you’ll have to listen to for yourself: don’t just take my word for it. It begins with some goth-tinged synth, ventures into postrock sprinkled with piano and strings, and then for the coup de grâce switches to triphop before settling back down to its postrock underpinnings.

That was a long sentence.

One note: the files are encoded as Ogg Vorbis, so you’re going to need a player capable of handling this fine format. WinAmp full edition, for instance. Also those of you using Linux will notice that Ogg Vorbis support is generally built right in.

Label Site
Artist Page
Download Zip File

I know, I know. I’m boring, and so you have two FMT’s in a row. I assure you there are lots of things I’d love to write about, but between my work, my woman, and my (not drinking any) wine, I seem to have lost most of my free time. Not that I’m griping. I’m just saying.

This week’s FMT comes courtesy of 12rec.net, a pretty fantastic Netlabel I found the other day. Fantastic because it’s the home of bands like Milhaven, and records like Milhaven’s Bars Closing Down.

Now, some of you know I’m a sucker for postrock. I’ve said as much before. I’ve this funny idea that — in terms of pop music, at least — postrock is the new instrumental Common Practice Period.

That said, Bars Closing Down is not spectacular postrock. It’s solid, and it’s competent (two things very difficult to find on the Netlabel scene, at least when looking for music that is a) not electronica, and b) any good at all), which is enough for me to recommend you download Bars Closing Down and give it a listen.

Zip set; 192kb MP3
Release Page
Label Page

Okay, so I was sick and I missed Tuesday and it is instead Free Music Wednesday. But let’s not quibble about technicalities.

The real question is this: what does a 10-piece drums and bass outfit sound like in their seminal years? Keiretsu, a UK band consisting of horns, guitars, drums, and other live effects, answers with their debut EP, “Seismosis”.

You can download the .zip here, if you so wish. It’s fun music. Danceable music. But above all, it’s free music.

In music today, you can do a few things to expose yourself to new music (and depending on how you do it, there’s a good chance you can be rehabilitated and re-integrated into society, even!):

* Buy an album with an inflated price ($15 - $21 or so, probably helping to fund major labels and the godless RIAA Nazis)
* Buy a reasonable priced used album ($10 or less, but no additional profit to the majors or the RIAA)
* Buy the good songs and skip the filler by buying online ($1 - $4, probably both helping fund the majors and RIAA, and infested with Digital Rights Management or Digitally Restricted Music or whatever you want to call it).
* Buy from the artist themselves (usually a good price, but also harder to do, and you have to search out the music yourself, but also helping to support the artist directly)
* Be a pirate (free, doesn’t fund the majors or the RIAA, has no DRM, is easily available)

Isn’t it sad the easiest thing to do is be a pirate these days? I mean, it’s a crying shame that getting music online is so difficult that it’s simply easier and monumentally cheaper to just download uTorrent or Ktorrent or Limewire or Soulseek and download away. Which really speaks to the atmosphere of the major labels, though not so much with indie labels, who would rather sell you nothing at all than drop their prices. Which, of course, makes no sense, and speaks to how much of a cartel the major labels have become.

But in the interest of helping you escape all the above paradigms, I’m going to post a link to an excellent album its creators are offering for free: download the ZIP file of Dead Heart Bloom’s Chelsea Diaries here.

Also, enjoy.