Creative Commons license Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0.
It allows sharing (copy and redistribute) and adapting (remix, transform and building upon) the material (music), in any medium or format under three conditions: Attribution (name and link to the creator and license), NonCommercial (no revenue must be gained from sharing or adapting) and ShareAlike (if you build upon the work, you must re-distribute it under the same license).
Wide range of styles and techniques on a single solo artist review: pop album, movie score and a little bit of funk.
Ant Neely is one of the few artists on this blog who have their own Wikipedia article. And then there is this single free album, released on Jamendo and CDBaby. The style is… special, in that this album probably is the artist’s business card, showing off quirky production techniques and repertoire from vocal pop to dark cinematic.
Continue reading “Ant Neely – [2008] Not Fit For Human Consumption”Essential chiptune album from the (g)olden age of Creative Commons music.
Six 8-bit style tracks produced on the Game Boy, the album itself an oldie by now, coming from one of the genre’s great names. While I don’t recommend to listen to hours of chiptunes in a single run, the nostalgic vibes one can get out of this genre well justify exposing your ears to raw sawtooth, blank noise and only mildly filtered sine waves…
Continue reading “Bit Shifter – [2006] Information Chase”Debut EP of “Portugese project doing cinematic postrock”. Special treat: excellently crafted melody lines.
What I like about post rock as a genre is how consistent it is. Once you have heard 3-4 albums, you immediately can recognise it and start concentrating on subtle differences, or bath your ears in the never-ending chord progressions above percussive loops that slowly build up to a loud, but modestly self-restrained instrumental finale. And that’s what awaits you here, as well…
Continue reading “As Above So Below – [2016] Ritos I”Live recording of excellently performed classical music. Though not exactly hi-fi, the performance excels.
Without surprise, recordings of full orchestra performing classical symphonies are rare. But the productive university orchestra in Chicago is so kind to provide full recordings of some of their concerts. While they do not (and to not want) to compete with proper (and pricey) studio recordings, they give us an opportunity to try out some classics:
Continue reading “University of Chicago Symphony Orchestra – [2012] Design and Intent”Massive trip hop infused electronic compilation. 30 tracks from dance to experimental.
Netlabel Bump Foot is special in that it consists two separately numbered release channels. One is labelled bump, dealing with house and techno, foot the other for IDM, trip hop, chiptune, ambient… everything else electronic, basically. In 2009, both series hit their 100th anniversary. This one is filled with two hours of high quality trip hop, pop-y and funky electronica from the golden netlabel era.
Continue reading “Various Artists – [2009] Footprints”Slightly dark synth-pop at its best. Stomping beats and almost spoken vocals included.
If Depeche Mode and David Byrne did a collaboration (maybe they did? didn’t check), it might sound like Electric Mirrors.
Densely produced songs, with no second wasted on padding, are filled from start to finish with lyrical puns, glockenspiel interludes or gently sprinkled in ’90s pop music references.
Cinematic electronica with little percussion, but lots of atmosphere.
While I cannot recommend you to watch the movie this album is the original score to, I very much endorse its soundtrack. To paraphrase, the “documentary” is either a very crude joke or a blunt hoax by an internet celebrity. But under the ludicrous voice track, there is an ambient electronic masterpiece by Professor Kliq.
Continue reading “Professor Kliq – [2011] Athene’s Theory of Everything OST”(Past) owners of a 8 or 16 bit gaming console can apply here for a shower of fond memories.
This album has seen the light of day on an artist collective’s account named Gluteus Maximus, from Sweden.
It strongly reminds me of Hardstroke‘s electro-synth sound, but has its own edge by adding more 8-bit bleeps to the mix. Heavy pop nostalgia ahead!
Mellow indie pop. Soft vocals, slightly arts’y production, yet well grounded acoustic pop.
I have a hard time writing this entry paragraph. This short, 5 track, 15 minutes long EP by solo artist Daenjellson is not easy to classify. Acoustic guitar, violin, slightly husky voice all contribute to a hard-to-pin indie sound. Continue reading “Daenjellson – [2008] Walk Your Soft Skin on the Edges”
Deep House compilation. Fusion of podcast (as a 60 minute mix track) and compilation (10 individual tracks) in one free format.
Excellent, long running series of netlabel compilations, having amassed over 450 episodes between 2006 and 2018. This compilation features tracks from netlabels Budabeats, Broque, and others. Continue reading “Various Artists – [2010] netwaves 04.28: new beats”
