FMA Blog

Hi everyone, this is Ysabel from Musiio. Kicking where Hazel left off and serving up Indie Rock this time! 

Indie Rock, an umbrella genre that is identified more by its ethos than a musical approach, is one that is not easily - or can be - objectively identifiable by ear. In making music that suits their personal taste more than selling records (a major label thing), Indie bands exploit that freedom to explore sounds, emotions and subjects that can have limited appeal to the mainstream audience. Music that may seem too whimsical, too melancholic, too delicate, too raw, too abrasive for the general public, yet balancing these leanings with a pop sensibility. 

With the ever-growing list of subgenres and styles, the right question here is then - How do you like your Indie? Personally I’m big on garage-influenced Crumbsnatchers and Night Beats, and new wave artists a la Single Bullet Theory. 

Share your favourite indie style by commenting on this post!  

Ysabel @ Musiio 

Soisloscerdos con ganas de que llegue el Netlabel Day 2018. El 14 de Julio, fecha elegida por cuarto año consecutivo, compartiremos, al igual que muchos netlabels de todo el planeta, música en estado puro, libre y personal, en nuestro caso, música techno. Gracias por el apoyo a todos los que os acercáis a esta cultura.

- Ant GM, nos alegrará con su techno, concreto, analógico y afilado.

- Langax, nos cede más canciones, esta vez muy acid. Además se han añadido al esfuerzo dos colaboradores, Ángel García y Halted Instant, aportando sus remixes de una canción del EP.

- (029) se apunta a última hora, aportando su gran techno, directo a la pista. Gracias!

The FMA is full of strange sounds, and some are downright otherworldly! There is an instrument known to some called the waterphone, and it's played with a bow or mallets. This instrument is made of an array of metal rods connected to a bowl that has water inside a central handle (see photo above for some examples). This allows for ethereal and eerie sounds to emerge when a bow is drawn across the metal; different rods generate different tones. If you've ever seen a scary movie, you've probably heard the sound of this amazing instrument. Recently, Philp Gayle appeared on WFMU to perform and has generously shared the recording with us at the Free Music Archive. Listen below:

"Loading..", our debut EP has been re-released as a USB cassette by Enough records (electro, Portugal) and Nación Libre records (punk, Mexico).

Pretty like a tape but useful like a USB drive!

New Release!

Autor:       Chuzausen

Titulo:       Dr. Default

Género:    Electronic, Downtempo, Ambient

Formato:   EP digital

Fecha:       Junio 2018

Licencia:   BY-NC-SA

I am headed to DC in July, Iceland in August (Reykjavik and Akureyri), and the at-least yearly visit to Louisville in December. Get me your demos now so I can discuss with the blocSonic team before meeting in person.

And if you live in the Minneapolis or St. Paul, hit me up any time!

I've left you with some music from DC, Iceland, and Louisville!

We are back once again with another genre and another playlist. Our A.I. is working hard everyday to create colourful and helpful playlists. 

Excitingly, we limited this one to the newer material from the FMA, to see what gems we could find. Don't get me wrong I love a classic, but I was curious to see what difference searching a new segment of the database made. See what you think! 

Comment on the post and let me know if you have any feedback or suggestions on what genres you would like to hear next! 

Hazel @ Musiio

Hailing from Portland, Oregon, Lithics pays homage to the art-punks of yesteryear with their impatient, deliberate guitars that march along in argument, sparse percussion that propel the songs along, and delightfully deadpan, imaginative lyrics. In the past year, they've visited WFMU twice (once to appear on Liz Berg's program and once, most recently, on the Evan "Funk" Davies show), and if you haven't heard about them by now, do yourself a favor and give them a listen. 

Recommended if you like the Fall, Bush Tetras, or DNA. 

WFMU, the major driving force behind FMA's creation - and its continued existence! - continues its campaign of badassery by adding music to the Free Music Archive on a regular basis. At this time, there are more than 20,000 tracks in their collection!! If you have a favorite show from WFMU, consider looking at the collections FMA has compiled, organizing live sessions by DJ/show. Some hosts only have one or two live sessions and some have hundreds of tracks waiting to be streamed or downloaded! 

You can scroll through the growing roster (more than 100), or check out this handy-dandy alphabetized list to browse through.

Find your new favorite band! 

'Into Hyperspace' is the third EP by the Finnish band Astrometrics. As is usual — yet always unexpected — the recording process took longer than was anticipated, but the band is satisfied with the result and already looking forward to starting the recording of the next release over the summer. The band's melodic electronic rock, influenced by old as well as new elements in the genre, is given its distinctive sound by a DIY synthesizer based on the Commodore 64 sound chip. The lyrical themes range from personal introspection to general space rock topics as well as more particular matters of geek interestlike the history of the calculus.'Into Hyperspace' is the biggest release from the band yet, including four songs - and one of them is completely in Finnish, which is something they've never done before."I think this is the best recording we've released so far", says the bass player and band promoter Kalle Alho. "It's also the most personal release for me because it features one track written by myself (titled "Lentomatto", "The Flying Carpet"). It's a bit different kind of a song than what we've heard from the Astrometrics earlier. I was nervous to introduce the song to the band but they all took it well and together we shaped the song into what it is on the record." "It was great!", the bassist says. "It's one of the things in our band that I admire the most - that it's not genre music - we can do whatever we please and are always open to new and different ideas. I know that certain type of eclecticism might turn some people off - for they don't know what to expect - but for me personally it is a huge source of inspiration and satisfaction."