FMA Blog

Here's a classic from Olneyville Sound System. Like their namesake System—the inspirational former workplace of David Byrne that churns out hot weiners covered in a legendary meat sauce—OSS also specialize in a flavor that is distinct to the Olneyville neighborhood of Providence RI.

OSS make bass and drum music. Not to be confused with "drum 'n' bass." This is real raw bass sludge from Dan St. Jacques (Landed, Six Finger Satellite) and Adam Autry (Boredoms' Boadrum, Plate Techtonics). Their sound is akin to Lightning Bolt doing ESG, concise noise-funk with the experimental humor of Men's Recovery Project. "These Guys Don't Take Requests, They Don't Play Showtunes" comes from their '97 Load Records debut Because We're All In This Together, which featured "anti-blues" harmonica by Roma and maniacal vocals by Jon Von Ryan.

"Olneyville Sound System was very influential on Usaisamonster," Colin Langenus wrote in a post describing a recent collaboration Adam Autry. The Colin L Orchestra joins in on a rare OSS Brooklyn performance this Saturday at the Silent Barn. Providence's Russian Tsarlag, recent WFMU guests Source of Yellow, DJ Greg Fox, and a ventriloquist who goes by the name of Bernard Herman are also on the bill.

Feel free to request "These Guys Don't Take Requests" at an upcoming OSS show, but they'll be playing new material. Word is they have a new album tracked at Machines With Magnets. I got to see some of it live about a year ago and it is going to rule. We'll hear some when they swing by Talk's Cheap / WFMU on April 18th. For a deeper voyage into the history of OSS, check out On Safari, recorded live at Providence's defunct Safari Lounge.

Franz Ignaz Danzi (1763 – 1826) was a cellist, composer, and conductor in the royal courts of Mannheim, Munich, Stuttgart and Karlsruhe. His greatest contribution to music was establishing the quintet for bassoon, clarinet, flute, horn and oboe as a significant chamber music form.

Danzi lived during an important time in the history of European classical music. His career spanned the transition from the late Classical to the early Romantic periods. As a young man he knew Mozart. He was a contemporary of Beethoven and a mentor to young Carl Maria von Weber.

Soni Ventorum Wind Quintet performed the Wind Quintet Opus 67, Nos. 2-3 of Franz Danzi made available by Pandora Records and now appearing on the Free Music Archive. Soni Ventorum was officially founded in 1962 when Pablo Casals asked them to become the woodwind faculty of his newly founded Conservatory of Music of Puerto Rico. Members of the ensemble were on faculty at the Conservatory of Music of Puerto Rico and members of the Puerto Rico Symphony. After leaving Puerto Rico, the members were reunited as faculty of and as the resident wind quintet of the University of Washington the next 30 years. Through their concerts, tours, and recordings, the Soni Ventorum Wind Quintet established an international reputation. See the group's official website for more of the history of this highly regarded quintet.

For the fifth year, WFMU's Transpacific Sound Paradise brought us a live broadcast from the massive annual Balkan and Eastern European music and dance bacchanal, the Zlatne Uste Golden Festival. We present here 14 different artists who performed this year, who are performing everything from Bulgarian dance staples, to music from the Golden Age of Egyptian Cinema, to traditional polyphonic acappella folk from Georgia.

Black Sea Hotel is the Brooklyn-based vocal quartet of Corinna, Joy, Sarah and Willa. Their set from last year included traditional songs learned under a plum tree in Bulgaria, but with their own distinct twists and arrangements, since many of the songs were originally sung by larger choirs.

Brazda is a New York-based Balkan band that plays fresh arrangements of traditional repertoire from Bulgaria, Macedonia, Greece, and beyond.

Supruli is a Georgian choir directed by Carl Linich (also of Tenores de Aterúe). Its members have studied in Georgia -- listen and hear why polyphonic singing is so captivating to music scholars.

Yale Women's Slavic Chorus performs songs from Macedonia, Russia, Georgia, and Bulgaria.

Zikrayat, who specialize in Egyptian film music's golden era, accompanied by live dancing on stage at the Golden Festival for this rendition of the song "Tahey" by an unknown composer whose song now lives on.

If this trove doesn't satisfy your Balkan and Eastern European jams fix until the festival returns in next January, be sure to explore our collections from 2012, 2011, 2010 & 2009.

Arabic/Egyptian Music
from the Golden Age of Egyptian Cinema
Zikrayat

Vocal Arrangements of Bulgarian and FYR Macedonian Folk Songs
Black Sea Hotel

Punk, Jazz, Folk,
Tango & Klezmer
Guignol Band

Traditional Bulgarian Music on Kaval, Gaida, Gadulka, Tambura & Tupanve
Lyuti Chushki

Traditional Village Songs from All Over the Balkans and Eastern Europe
Yale Women's Slavic Chorus

Romani Music Performed by NYU Students & Community Members
Raklorom

Balkans, Heavily FYR Macedonia. Clarinet, Accordion Drum & Vocals 
Gogofski

Bulgarian Solo Improvisations on Gadulka (aka. Bowed Rebec)
Nikolay Kolev

Bulgarian Dance
Staples Live
at Golden Festival
Balkan Fields

Danceable Gypsy Tunes from Eastern Europe.
Plus Klezmer & Hungarian
Rozsa

8-Piece Balkan Band with Fresh Arrangements of Traditional Repertoire
Brazda

FYR Macedonian
Village-Style Dance Music (Lzvorno)
Niva

Traditional Polyphonic
Acappella Folk
from Caucasus Georgia
Supruli

Young People's Band Performing Traditional Music in a Modern Way
Zlatni Makedoncinja

None of this would have been possible without Rob Weisberg, host of Transpacific Sound Paradise. He'd also like to thank the Golden Festival founders and organizers, the Zlatne Uste Balkan Brass Band and the festival committee; co-host and tech guru Irene Trudel; and to the rest of our our illustrious crew: Mark Koch, Juan Aboites, Chuck Dean, Dan Barker, Jason Sigal, Matthew Cherchio, Bryan Koniarz, Ariana Hellerman, Katie Gentile & Nick the Bard.

This is Snoop Dog's favorite Music for Video collection, because it's perfect for drizzle.

A mix of mellow, reflective and moody songs, perfect for watching Spring rainstorms outside your window. It's like lying upside down off the edge of your bed thinking about someone far away. Like walking home early in the morning, after sleeping somewhere you shouldn't have, while the streets are still wet. It's a mix that makes you want to throw away all your adderall and start feeling again.

Ak'chamel, The Giver of Illness hail from Hexas. That's Houston, Texas, under a spell. 

Inspired by Sun City Girls, Master Musicians of Bukkake, Hayvanlar Alemi and related strains of psychedelic improv and raw international music, the collective's self-released cassettes would sound right at home on Sublime Frequencies ("Radio Hexas?"). Tune into Old Norse Mara and The Divine Vine Tapes as throat singing and mysterious glossolalia meld with analog percussion, wind instruments, metal strings and chimes to cast a malevolent witch-doctor spell.

Houston may not be the most receptive environment for Ak'chamel's shamanic performances, but they have graced a handful of unconventional venues around town, including a laundromat, a clothing store, and an attic. Formerly known as Chairs, you may encounter Ak'chamel at FMA, Bandcamp, Facebook and beyond.

In the decade that he has called Montreal home, Nick Kuepfer has ventured through a wide range of sonic territory: from playing with infamous noise rockers AIDS Wolf to layering minimal guitar compositions with ambient drones, his contributions to the city's musical community are stunning in both their quality and diversity of sound. Keeping with his tradition of collaging unlikely sonic textures, Nick's live performance during the Constellation Records-curated Montreal Sessions found him alternately plucking and bowing an acoustic guitar over unearthly tape loops. At once rich and subtle, this piece will reward those who listen closely.

When we founded Upitup Records 10 years ago, we started out as a bunch of friends sharing their homemade tracks having great fun doing so. Looking at it today, I guess we're proud to say Upitup still is the same thing – just with a whole lot more friends.

Even though a lot has changed since we started in the Spring of 2003 (the web still kinda looked like this and releasing free music felt pioneering) we soon wondered whether something like "underground" culture existed on the internet – or whether it's all equal. We really strived to keep up the homebrew spirit that guided us through all these years, keeping it fun while at it. We hope we've inspired you to look at music as more than a commodity, and to think beyond the definitions of established vs. DIY culture. In a sense that has always been our true mission, and we're doing our best to keep the original spirit alive. 

In celebration of our 10th Anniversary, enjoy this collection of tracks from the label's legendary contributors and favorite artists. It's available for free download, as always.

This month on Wood & Wire we're delivering new, experimental Australian music from two exceptional solo artists, Melbourne's Drill Folly and Hollow Press from Adelaide.

No Love Lost (WW15) is the debut release from electronic producer Sarah Phelan, under the name Drill Folly. Sarah has been making music for a number of years as a founding member of Melbourne's Tantrums, whose debut EP Anomie was released on New Weird Australia in 2010, featuring remixes from Collarbones & Worng. As part of Tantrums, Sarah has played live supporting Unkle, Mount Kimbie, Caribou, Four Tet, PVT, Xiu Xiu, My Disco, Jason Forrest and more.

This debut release is designed to be listened to on your own, in headphones. Sarah notes: "This is about expressing human emotion through machines. This is about therapy ... immersion ... escape ... about words being insufficient ... about trying to remember and remembering to forget. This is about not letting things sit on your hard drive until you die."

Beginning in early 2012, Adelaide’s Hollow Press has been using drone, glitches, field recordings, voices and industrial sounds to create his work. His first two albums, Fleeting Joy and Between Us were released digitally and on CD by US label Drug Arts. A remix album of his work was released in early 2013 with reworks from The Atlas Room, Shisd, Delphine Coma, Amanda Schoepflin and more.

The third Hollow Press album in the span of a year, Heads in Dust (WW16) is a collection of blissful and at times unsettling songs - an abstract soundtrack to someone’s innermost, darkest thoughts, as it drifts seamlessly though sonic atmospheres. Clearly Hollow Press loves the darker shades of experimentalism, exploring ambience, mingling sounds, wave-like-synths, bells, and distorted voices, resulting in a captivating and significant Australian experimental album.

If you love punk music, it's an incredible time to live in NYC. In celebration of the current surfeit, New York's Alright will be kicking off 4/20 weekend with a slection of comtemporary punk and hardcore bands from around the world. In anticipation, you can download this free mix of bands who will be playing the fest including the Altered Boys, Bad Noids, CREEM, Hounds of Hate, No Class & Nomad. These are all live performances expertly recorded on WFMU's Distort Jersey City with Deed Runlea.