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Free Music - Vol 2
by Trey Spencer
April 22nd 2009 | 48 Comments
Welcome to the second installment of Free Music. These recurring features are simply a place for people to find music by artists that are willing to allow their music to be downloaded free of charge. Their reasons for doing this are as varied as the music presented here, but the one consistent element is simply a desire to be heard. Of course, a few of these artists provide a place for donations but they leave that choice up to you. If you do happen to come across an artist here that you truly like, you could consider a donation or even a simple review or sound off to help further their music. What I don’t want this to become is simply another place to pillage music that you only listen to once before rating and never listening to again (as is often done on blogspots and torrents). To move closer to achieving that, the amount of artists has been scaled back from the first one. I’m sure there were plenty of bands on the first volume that got overlooked simply because there was so much to go through. So, give a listen to the songs on this feature and read the descr1ptions and hopefully you find something worthwhile.
French Teen Idol would most conveniently fall into the post rock genre, but they do enough to set themselves apart from the conventional post rock band to make this meaningful. Their music is very mellow making abundant use of keyboard melodies and spoken word samples. They also ignore the big crashing crescendos in favor of consistently mellow excursions that are moved along by electronic beats similar to early God is an Astronaut. Guitars are used sparingly over the course of this album which allows the keyboards and electronics room to breathe, but when they are used they maintain the same mellow, melodic sound as everything else. A positive for those with short attention spans is that they don’t extend their song lengths simply to increase their durations. All of the songs begin quickly, make their impact and move on without all of the extra self-indulgence and silence. This is highly recommended to fans of early God is an Astronaut. 
PSY/OPSogist (Entire Discography) [Instrumental Hip Hop] This is some very good instrumental hip hop that works best as a complete album. The beats are huge and groovy and move at a moderate, almost trance-inducing pace. They never allow that to happen though because they’re also constantly morphing unexpectedly which keeps things fresh, despite the lack of vocals. Over these beats are a wide array of samples and sounds from piano and guitar to an array of found sounds. These various elements aren’t used to create catchy, memorable moments that will get stuck in your head. Instead they move in and out of the songs steadily, creating more of a feeling of actual movement than of listening to a static and cyclical song. Due to this, the lack of vocals never becomes a concern because the songs seem to constantly press forward towards new sounds and ideas. In the end this just feels like a slow-jam trip that rarely jolts the listener out of the groove that the music so effortlessly creates. (Review)
Iron Thrones – Visions of Light [Melodic Death Metal] From the generic name to the underwhelming album cover, it should be obvious that originality is not this band’s strong point. That doesn’t mean that they’re not great at what they do, it just means that it’s obvious where they got their ideas from. As generic as it is, this is simply a solid melodic death metal album. It has the slick production that contains just enough kick to remain edgy and the proggy melodies that fans of Opeth salivate over. In fact, it’s pretty easy to tell that the heavier side of Opeth plays a large part in these guys’ influences. The riffs all sound vaguely familiar and the arrangements feel reused, but the band still manages to remain relevant. They achieve this by not succumbing to boring mellow sections and padded song lengths, and they keep the aggression as the main element of almost every song. Another thing they have going for them is the strength of their vocalist who keeps things going with a powerful growl. Fans of Opeth should check this out because, despite the lack of originality, it is still enjoyable and that has to count for something. (Review)
Everybody Loves Irene (2 Albums) [Trip Hop] This Indonesian band specializes in female-fronted trip hop and haunting melodies. The band’s major asset is their vocalist, Irene Yohanna. Irene delivers her vocals in a sensual, evocative way that makes her sound very provocative even if she is just singing about ice cream or something equally random. The band backing her aren’t slouches either, though. They excel in laid-back beats, haunting melodies and a weird streak that proves that someone is a fan of Hooverphonic. The band’s debut, The Very First Thing You Must Learn About Flying…, is the more conventional of the two albums, delivering solid trip-hop that slowly turns into something more quirky and experimental on later songs. The second album takes that experimentation and weird style even further, with mixed results. Of the two, their debut ends up being stronger so starting with it should be a no-brainer.
Catfight on a Hotdog – Men of the Cloth EP [Electonic/Ambient] Catfight on a Hotdog is a two-man project delivering quiet electronic ambience. Over the course of this three-song EP there is an abundance of random sounds, subtle melodies and even the occasional guitar in the mix. These songs don’t adhere to the conventional format of recurring themes as much as they seem to constantly (but slowly) move forward. It really adds to the experience of listening to this album if it is known that the three songs combine to form a story. The macabre story here is that of killing a priest with an arrow. The opening track conveys the arrow flying through the air, while the second track is of the arrow hitting its mark, while the final track closes things out with the pandemonium that occurs after such a horrific event. A bit of trivia taken from the review is that the waveform of the first track even resembles an arrow. (Review)
Auditory Aphasia - The Peripatetics [Progressive/Alternative] Auditory Aphasia is a hard band to pin down. I could see fans of The Mars Volta’s instrumental work loving this album because there is a lot of off-the-wall craziness within quite a few of these songs. From latin-influenced rhythms and instrumentation to big brass sections that come out of nowhere. In a nutshell, the band plays a progressive/alternative hybrid that utilizes extended instrumental sections that consist of flowing piano melodies over edgy, inventive riffs that occasionally break down into pure dissonance. Over the course of the album are mellow acoustic sections, as well as an array of influences including electronica, jazz, funk, metal, and much more. It’s an album that takes a few listens to really be able to follow and due to the amount of things going on there is always something new to hear. Unlike The Mars Volta, the vocals aren’t prone to being a deal-breaker for potential fans. His vocals aren’t anything special but they’re solid and delivered in a non-grating midrange and they’re often layered in a way that adds a cool feel to them.
This is simple, yet well-done acoustic rock that features In the Red guitarist/vocalist Mike Hale on vocals and guitar with subtle female backing vocals. Some might feel that an entire album of full of acoustic guitar and two vocalists could easily stagnate, but this album doesn’t. The strength of the guitar melodies and the excellently conveyed emotions keeps every song necessary. Mike Hale’s vocals are a large part of the emotional aspect of the music with beautifully crafted lyrics that are delivered in a very straight-forward and vulnerable manner. The female backing vocals serve to accentuate the songs and also work to provide the contrast necessary to keep things feeling fresh. The lyrics themselves all seem to take a very self-reflective look at life, and it appears that Mike may have a few regrets in his. Despite the dejected feel of the songs, quite a few of them also seem to have a line of hope that runs through them as well. It’s a cool balancing-act that Mike pulls off quite well. There is the rare appearance of other instruments such as piano, but they’re used sparingly. This minimalist approach is ok, though, because the music is so well done that nothing more is really needed.
shEver – Oceans of Illusion [Doom] Some may surprised to read that this all-female doom album doesn’t make use of any keyboards, doesn’t contain “beautiful” melodies, doesn’t contain any soprano vocals, and the band don’t all wander around in bright frilly dresses. Now that all of the stereotypes for female metal bands are out of the way, the real band can be described. This is raw funeral doom with some ripping growls, down-tuned riffs and excellent songwriting. The band does make use of the occasional violin or other instrument but the main elements are simply down tuned guitars, fuzzy bass lines, lethargic percussion and guttural growls and screams. Earlier I mentioned the lack of soprano vocals, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t any clean singing present. The clean vocals used are just as dark and miserable as the rest of the music and they are only used as an accentuation to the growls, almost never as the main vocal. The band do a good job of keeping the songs from feeling redundant by introducing subtle dynamic changes such as switching from distorted guitar to clean guitar or something similar. These slight changes aren’t exactly innovative, but they work and lead to an album that fans of funeral doom should enjoy. 
PAX & Pry (2 Albums) [Rap/Hip-Hop] Pax & Pry are a European hip-hop duo that has released two albums for free. They definitely have that stereotypical European hip-hop feel to them, but that’s not exactly a bad thing. In my experiences with Euro hip-hop, the artists seem to pay just as much attention to their music as they do their rhymes and that is no different here. The samples and loops are used really well and they’re able to flow over them effortlessly. The cool thing about these releases is the various formats the band has offered for download. On their website they offer their music in MP3 and Wav format, but that’s not the coolest part. The cool part is they also offer instrumental and acapela versions of their music and encourage fans to take those elements and make them their own. In the words of the band themselves: PAX & PRY hereby challenge you to use our material as ingredients for all new dishes, be it breakdancing video's, lyrical tattoo's, eclectic philosophies or vocal instrumentals. Feel free to send all your creativity to pry@paxandpry.com. Open source music, baby! (Review)
Gizeh Records Sampler – 2009 [Shoegaze/Dream Pop/Post Rock compilation] Every artist on this sampler could easily fall under the dream pop, post rock or shoegaze classification. The album seems to be broken into sections with each genre getting its own space. It begins with the shoegaze sounds of Trespassers William and Glissando, each delivering their own blend of mellow female-fronted ethereal sounds. The dream pop section almost kind of blends in with the post rock section and starts with the noisy Redjetson. The band has a very alternative rock sound, but the flowing guitar sounds and vocals move it beyond that simple classification. The real post rock begins with the 13 minute offering from Detwiije. They seem to forgo the big build ups and move pretty quickly into the crashing climaxes. The rest of this album’s bands continue to provide entertaining takes on their particular genre and are worth a listen as well. This compilation is a great starting point for people interested in getting into these styles of music, and also not a bad album for those already into them. The productions are all stellar, the melodies are beautiful, the vocals are great (when present), and none of these songs will make you want to do anything other than lazily lay around eating snack foods.
Kidcrash (2 Full Albums & Various EPs) [Emo/Screamo] This band combines beauty with anger, and melody with dissonance; often in a very jarring manner. The band seems to utilize guitar harmonies as often as they do discordant, atonal chords but it works really well. The chaotic nature of these riffs combined with the ferocious percussion provides the perfect backdrop to the hardcore screams of their vocalist. The influx of harmonies and random dynamic shifts could be considered math rock in delivery, but this is much more raw and disjointed sounding than your average math rock band. It’s obvious from the music that these guys can all play really well, but special mention should be given to this band’s rhythm section. The drummer and bass player manage to provide a solid bottom end and rhythm to the chaotic riffs, but at the same time they’re able to contribute to the commotion with their own energetic and inventive playing. None of these songs sit still long enough for one to really begin to grasp what is going on and that is a good thing. As soon as a riff or section begins to sound familiar, the band changes things up; sometimes only slightly and sometimes the changes are harshly different. (Review)
 D-Alternative – Hidden Chamber [Goth] D-Alternative is a two-person outfit consisting of Andree and Doti. They play a sparse form of gothic rock that almost solely consists of piano, percussion and the vocals of Doti. The main element of most these songs is the piano. It’s the piano melodies and tones that set the mood for each song. These piano melodies do an excellent job of establishing a mood and a setting for Doti’s vocals. Her vocals are haunting and eerie, as should be expected from a goth band. The lyrics are also your typical doom and gloom, but they’re presented in a very classy way. The thing that sets this band apart from a lot of modern goth bands is that the music, lyrics and vocals are all done in a very stylish manner that avoids the whiny influences that modern goth seems to adhere to. Instead the band focuses on the minimalist approach of the genre’s founders, sticking with simple piano melodies, unobtrusive percussion and despondent , haunting vocals that come across as eerie, yet sensual. 
The Safety Fire [Prog/Math Metal] I don’t know if it was due to budget constraints or if it was the band’s choice, but this is some very raw music. The reason that it’s a surprise is because the style that they play is progressive/technical metal, but they seem to take a big page from the early work of Nirvana in terms of delivery. That association begins with the band’s vocalist who delivers a majority of his lines in a kind of Drill Instructor shout that reminds me of Kurt Cobain’s throat-shredding moments on the Bleach album. The other way I’m reminded of that album is that despite the fact that the band gets into some fairly technical music, they deliver it with reckless abandon that seems more bent on driving the overall sound than displaying their individual talents. In case I’m not being clear in this descr1ption, it works. The vocalist also makes use of another vocal style that sounds like a less controlled version of Richard Patrick (Filter). It might sound odd to mention Nirvana and Filter within the context of prog/math metal, but those elements are definitely present. Maybe it’s because this is a newer band, but they pretty much wear their influences on their sleeves. Over the course of the album are little snippets of Meshuggah, Tool, Mudvayne and even Protest the Hero but that reckless delivery sets this band apart from the pack. Hopefully it’s an aspect that they continue on future albums. ----Free Music - Vol 1----
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Comments
There we go, vol 2 is complete.
If you haven't checked out vol 1, than you should do that too:
[b]http://www.sputnikmusic.com/feature.php?id=5661[/b]
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PSY/OPSogist is excellent, guna check out auditory aphasia wen i can...great work as always willieiwanttoputmyhandonyourbut
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This is fantastic, except a couple of edits are needed for the Catfight on a Hotdog:
1. It's a 2 man project, but that reviewed EP was made by one of them.
2. The EP is now compatible with iTunes.
Anyway, amazing work on this Willie.
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So, are Eucharist too boring to include in this final version?
Nice job otherwise. I really really wish the Iron Thrones zip file wasn't so HUGE.
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Thanks guys. The edits will have to wait until tomorrow because if I create this on a mac and edit on a PC things go crazy.
As for Eucharist, they'll be on the next one. This originally had 26 artists but a decision was made to cut this in half in order to make it more accessible and to spend more time on descriptions.
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I downloaded that in a minute, I don't know what you're complaining about...
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last post was to ninjuice
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Awesome list, BUT Sean Fournier easily should've made it.
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fyi to everyone, Iron Thrones is very awesome. and a big hi5 to pax & pry fans.
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Well y'all must have amazing internet cause 126 freaking megabytes takes forever for me to download.
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ninjuice more like winjuice
actually no because he has slow internet
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Now you know what I have to go through everyday...till I can move out at least.
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The Pax and Pry albums are really good.
Great job with this Trey.
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Kidcrash's latest is incredible. I made an attempt at proliferating that stuff on a couple social networks, to partial success. I'll have to check out the rest of this stuff.
Also, if one generally detests hip-hop, would he by any chance whatsoever enjoy PSY/OPSogist?
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Awesome list, will check out some of these.
I recommend Art Rush - satirical white-boy electro funk. Very entertaining.
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Brilliant list, very well done. I love a lot of these.
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Woohoo! I will be checking this out real soon
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This is fantastic. Thanks trey.
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Wow ive heard of auditory aphasia before, there decent but the full length had pretty bad production.
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oh man oh man oh man someone else who has heard of The Safety Fire! Man, i salute you! i love those guys and have pretty much followed their every move since 2006.
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awesome been waiting for this for a while
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Gunna check out Auditory Asphasia and Pax & Pry. PSY/OPSogist rule. Good job Willie
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@Waior: I don't even know who Sean Fournier is. I'll look into him for a future one.
@Notintheface: If you like Trip Hop you may like PSY/OPSogist. The best thing to do would be to listen to the song on the player at the very top.
@Rasputin: Catfight band updated.
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This turned out really well and it's excellently written/researched. I think maybe you could leave a line or so's gap between the text and banners: it's already very narrow because of the way the page is set up, so maybe spacing it out a bit would make it easier on the eye.
Also, am I the only one who's only getting 30 second samples on the playlist? Perhaps it's a licensing thing outside the US :/
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You didn't mention how Jokes is the best album ever.
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@Britney Dive: No, I'm getting 30 second samples too. It was playing whole songs as of Sunday night. I'll look into it.
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shEver sounded very interesting. Going to look further in them. Very nice write up Willie.
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Thanks. There are a few more on here that I think you'd like (Iron Thrones, The Safety Fire, and maybe D-Alternative).
@Dave: Yeah, the music player site must have changed something up because the player on Vol 1 is only playing 30 second samples too.
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Ya PSY/OPSogist clearly rules pretty hard.
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sweet. i'm probably the last sputnik user to see volume 2 up. great work as always and thanks for the music!
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^
Nope.
Looks like there's some good stuff here!
Needs more punk, though. Next one needs communityrecords.org, those guys rule hard.
Getting Kidcrash now!
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oh Trey, was listening to The Safety Fire and noticed you're one of the top listeners for the band haha
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is all this stuff from jamendo?
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@foreverendeared: Well, at least you know I did my homework and didn't just give each album one half-assed listen. I listened to every one of these things at least three times before I did the write-ups. That's the longest part.
@poweroftheweez: No, only D-Alternative.
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meh, a lot of stuff didn't interest me. Kidcrash, Gizeh sampler, PSY/Opsogist, and maybe D-Alternative I'll check out.
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Thanks for featuring me/us.
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Im so gonna check out some of this. The 30 second previews of most are good. I think i need to finally review something. Thanks Trey, your my hero.
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Cool. There's a lot of things on here that could be reviewed. Remember, too, that there is a Vol 1 of this feature with a ton more bands to look into.
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Willie=awesome fucking guy
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Kidcrash is awesome. This series is awesome.
Keep up the good work.
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I don't know which Mod decided to edit this feature, but they totally jacked up the layout and left it that way... I don't know how long it's been like that but it's fixed now.
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I uh must have been sleeping under a rock since April 26th. Everybody loves Irene sounds special.
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Do you like Opeth? The Iron Thrones album might be something worth looking into if you do.
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Thanks for the list. Auditory Aphasia is so great. I will check out some more of these bands later.
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