Free Music Archive - WFMU Blog

WFMU @ SXSW March 19 (mp3 preview)

2010-03-17T10:50:34-04:00

After our debut show at SXSW in Austin in 2008 and our joint show with our pals at Aquarius Records from San Francisco last year, we're happy to be returning to Encore (formerly Spiro's) on 611 Red River Street on Friday, March 19th!

The show is open to badge/wristband types, but also to the general public for a mere $7! That's 50 cents a band! We're super-excited about being back and also excited about the bill (which is a pretty unique blend of the poppy, psyched-out, heavy and otherwise that seems catered to both FMU and AQ listener/customer tastes!) The lineup:

We've got a heady mix of the heavy, damaged, darkly, punk, weird, noisy, poppy, trippy sounds, some hometown NY/SF heroes representing in Austin, and even a full on Cambodian psych-pop dance party at night's end. Check out the lineup, and a mix of audio from some of the aritsts who already have some music on the FMA

OUTDOOR STAGE (covered, rain or shine)
7:00pm   Liturgy (memb. GDFX, Thick Business, Dan Deacon)
8:00pm   Speedwolf
9:00pm   Iron Man
10:00pm Moon Duo (Ripley from Wooden Shjips)
11:00pm Shit and Shine
12:00m   Pierced Arrows (aka the new Dead Moon)
1:00am   Dengue Fever

INDOOR STAGE
7:00pm   Epileptinomicon
8:00pm   Drunkdriver
9:00pm   Home Blitz
10:00pm Headdress
11:00pm Sonny & the Sunsets (feat. Kelley Stoltz and members of The Fresh & Onlys)
12:00m   True Widow
1:00am   Todd

We're broadcasting live this Friday night 8PM to 3AM ET on WFMU, and we'll feature highlights for download here on the Free Music Archive. In the meantime, check out our 2009 and 2008 SXSW collections, with music from Obits, Gunslingers, XYX, Mayyors, Half Japanese, Homosexuals, and more

The many shades of Graphiqs Groove...

2010-03-13T13:09:43-05:00

I first came across the work of Graphiqs Groove last year via Mevio's Music Alley. Six months later, I still don't know that much about them, except that they hail from Japan and describe themselves as a sound creator, drummer, and graphic designer. Graphiqs places the emphasis squarely on the Groove for their selections, crafting machine-driven and rhythmically complex house, techno, and drum and bass. The song titles are all different colors such as "Reed Gray" and "Deep Sky Blue." Different moods and textures accompany each shade, their common thread being a jazzy aesthetic that shapes each arrangement.

It's good to see these pieces as part of the Free Music Archive. Hardcore gamers out there may get some Sega Genesis flashbacks listening to some of these songs: they wouldn't be out of place as part of the sound test for your favorite racing game. For today's featured track, take "Sea Green" out for a test drive...

2010 Golden Festival Mix/Collection

2010-03-10T10:36:45-05:00

For a quarter of a century, NY Balkan music scene pioneers the Zlatne Uste Balkan Brass Band have organized the annual Golden Festival. a massive two-night grassroots Balkan and East European music and dance festival at the Good Shepherd School, 620 Isham Street (near Broadway and 207 St.) in upper Manhattan. The festival is the biggest event of its kind in New York City: The second night (Saturday) is a marathon featuring 40-50 bands and artists performing on three stages from 6pm until 4 in the morning. See: http://www.goldenfest.zlatneuste.org/

With the help of co-host / tech guru Irene Trudel and our peerless crew, WFMU's Transpacific Sound Paradise broadcast all the music from the Golden Festival's Kafana stage from 6pm until midnight on Saturday January 16th. Kafana is Serbo-Croatian for "cafe"; the stage is located conveniently near the food!

We are now proud to present a collection of recordings from the festival on the Free Music Archive. The full collection is here, while a mix of highlights is available at right (please click "i" for more info about each artist).

>> 2010 Golden Festival photo gallery on Flickr
>> 2010 Golden Festival mp3 collection on the Free Music Archive

Richness Comes for Free

2010-03-03T15:37:17-05:00

The real wonder of WFMU, the nurturing freeform motherwolf to the Free Music Archive's enthusiastic internet pup (which loving parent happens to be, ahem, having its annual fundraising marathon at the moment), is that it offers listeners the opportunity to map his or her own constellations of musical reference points. It starts out acousmatically enough--you hear a completely off-the-wall track, and well, you just may love it but still, the connection to your musical world seems more or less nonexistent, and, well, you're not sure, the whole thing's sort of new, maybe a little nerveracking but wait--suddenly you hear another track, one which connects the referent-less one you just heard to one of your preexisting favorites, and behold: you've got a new beloved song, set in place like an armillary sphere's realm of the fixed stars, and drawn into your very own burgeoning network of celestial giants--a constellation of jams.

The Free Music Archive, in this conception, offers the listener a 21st century map of the skies as useful as any that's guided previous generations of humanity. If the genius of radio is that it can pinpoint a specific coordinate in the musical universe and cast it in brilliant light--a forgotten song streaking across the sky like a comet--well, then, the genius of the FMA is that it can refer you at a glance to the solar systems and galaxies of which each mysterious body is an indispensible component.

I've been thinking a lot about this while navigating the FMA of late--with all the content it's been building up over the last year, it's really taken on an astonishing complexity--and noticing that artists I've seen here before have reappeared in various guises, uploaded labels' worth of audio or otherwise tripled or quadrupled their presence here on the site. It's really inspiring to see the Archive--whose ravenous wolfcub dream is to be a reliably great depository for the varying currents at work in music today--beginning to really map out previously uncharted galaxies; looking at previous blog topics alone, we've Providence's Free Matter for the Blind, which, in addition to the extraordinary audio zines already mentioned, has presided over a label curatorship packed with full albums by the likes of Leif Goldberg and Area C and, well, just see for yourself. So too have the works of previously-spotlit Montrealers brought plenty of new work to the table--check out tapelabel Campaign for Infinity's steadily-growing list of great bands. Lots of incredible WFMU Fest sets from last fall are now up--including that of Talk Normal, about whom I wrote in November.

You get the point--as the site grows, so too do the complexities of the constellations on our trusty and ever-richening charts. As we listen, so we discover. Keep it up.

New York Noise legends Ike Yard return

2010-02-26T16:47:11-05:00

Founded in 1979, the downtown art band Ike Yard created a new sound by tapping into the UK post-punk dub of PiL and Joy Division, the Neue Deutsche Welle of DAF, and the krautrock experimentation of Can. Their 1982 album 'A Fact A Second' (released on Factory Records) has stood the test of time and is considered a classic in the minimalist genre. -John Allen/WFMU

Ike Yard disbanded in 1983, but reunited a few years back in conjunction with their 1980-82 retrospective CD on Acute Records. The lineup features three of the four original members -- Stuart Argabright, Kenny Compton, & Michael Diekmann. On January 29, 2007, WFMU's John Allen hosted a set of new music from Ike Yard.

A track from that session, "Traffikers", will be released on a new Ike Yard full-length titled Nord, coming spring 2010 from Denmark's Phisteria label.

This month, Phisteria releases the Öst EP -- the first new Ike Yard recordings in 27 years. The 10'' is limited to 250 copies, with two new Ike Yard tracks, and two remixes from Phisteria acts Waldchengarten and Hinsidan.

In the interim, Ike Yard founding member Stuart Argabright has had many other projects. His short-lived group The Dominatrix wrote the techno-clash song "The Dominatrix Sleeps Tonight" in 1984, and the music video was featured at the MoMA's Looking At Music series. He has also done significant -- even Emmy-nominated sound design and soundtrack work. Argabright visited WFMU in 2009 with Outpost for a tribute to JG Ballard. Enjoy a first-wave Ike Yard clip after the jump

Judge Judy: Teeth Mountain v. Shams

2010-02-25T03:49:04-05:00

Lord, this one sounded too good to be true when I heard it was in the works a few months back. And it also helps confirm my suspicion that all the stuff on Judge Judy, Maury, Springer, what have you, are totally made up. On Monday's episode of Judge Judy, Teeth Mountain's Kate Levitt accused Jonathan Coward, AKA Shams, of killing her cat by throwing a TV on top of it. The witnesses are Andrew Burt from Teeth Mountain and Narwhalz, who unfortunately doesn't speak much in court but who distinctly refers to Judy as "Mama". For you animal lovers, this story is not true - although Shams does fuck around with dead birds on stage and burn them as part of these...like...satanic rituals or something. I'm not sure if they're dead when he finds them.

Teeth Mountain are on tour right now in the Northeast US, making their way to Mexico in March -- tourdates here. More Teeth Mountain on the FMA here

The Wizard

2010-02-18T14:19:10-05:00

One of the all-time great artistes of the accordion was a diminutive Sicilian immigrant with bad eyesight and a bum lip named Pietro Frosini. Although he was barely five feet tall, he stood head-and-shoulders above the players of his day. Even today, among accordionists, he is considered to be one of the greatest players who ever hoisted the instrument. He lived up to his renown as "The Wizard of the Accordion."

What made him so special? Well, technical facility for one thing. The dude could play rings around just about anybody. He wasn't just fast, but flawless, his playing almost liquid in its sure and smooth motion. Not only that, but he was doing it on a chromatic accordion, a beast harder to master than the standard piano accordion. Chromatic accordions rely on a button system instead of a keyboard system, with more complicated fingering patterns and other arm and wrist gymnastics. The buttons are set up on the chromatic scale of half-step intervals instead of the standard major and minor scales most employed by musical instruments. Frosini made playing this challenging instrument sound easy.

Frosini was indeed technically accomplished, but what makes him such a master is that he also had taste. His playing is rarely busy. Take a listen to his version of "Wedding of the Winds" and see if you don't agree, and then read on below for more about the "Wizard of the Accordion."

Ex a plectrum ludio ludius

2010-02-11T15:49:18-05:00

Last year on a short trip to London, I had the good fortune of catching a gig by the duo Brethren of the Free Spirit, a collaboration between guitarist James Blackshaw and lutenist Jozef Van Wissem. As I listened to the players interact, I remember feeling that the music was somehow modern and ancient at the same time. Shades of art music, classical music, and folk music colored what I heard, but none of those terms adequately described the hypnotic, gauzy yet focused sounds coming from the stage. James Blackshaw's circular guitar playing anchored the duo, but what really got to me was that lute player, whose brightly plucked instrument added something almost spiritual to the music.

That was my introduction to Jozef Van Wissem, the lutenist whose records under his own name are among the most satisfying acoustic records around. His record on Important from last year, It Is All That Is Made, is a sublime piece of work that I can't seem to get tired of. I soon found out that the prolific gentleman has been recording since 2000, and he has made a bunch of records. Listen below to a track from his 2008 album, A priori. It's a beautiful track that captures a lot of what is special about his sound. And, if you like this track, the whole album can be downloaded from the FMA for free here.

the kids are alright (no, really they are...)

2010-02-08T17:52:15-05:00

At 36 years of age, I find myself growing more restless by the day. There are times that I feel twice my age, destined to become the ranting old coot that throws stuff from his front porch at passersby just because I can. I resent the fact that my waking hours are spent at a place doing duties I could care less about and then having to steal back time and fight off sleep to do what I'm passionate about. I resent a lot of sh*t, actually.

With that being said, it's nice to look upon the youth and see boundless potential, to know that there are heads coming up behind me that are light years ahead in possibilities. Consider the young lord out of Hollywood, Florida named Black Ant, beatmaker in training. Judging from his Free Beats Sel. 3 collection, he is well on his way to being a pad-punching, knob-twiddling Jedi. Joints like the horn-drenched "government funded weed" and the head nod-inducing "Underdog" make me smile, plus they have me excited about what this hip-hop wunderkind will be creating in the next five years.

Sit back, relax, and take a minute and change to achieve bliss with the spaced-out selection "Oh K." And once it's over, remind yourself that the brother's still in high school...

Smersh: NJ's Prolific Legends of the Cassette Underground

2010-02-05T16:47:53-05:00

When Mike Mangino and Chris Shepard started writing music together in the late 1970s, their goal was not to develop a repertoire and play gigs, or even to perform live in front of any audience. Everything they needed was right there in Piscataway NJ: a basement full of musical toys and instruments, novelty space microphones, a TR-606 (the same "Roland" who was listed as a member of Big Black), a SH-09 (Cabaret Voltaire's favorite synth), and -- perhaps most importantly -- a tape recorder. Every Monday night, they'd write a new song from scratch. A couple hours later, the song was recorded, never to be performed again.

By 1981, this dedication to spontanious creativity had already produced countless recordings, and the duo began releasing cassettes as Smersh via their own Atlas King label. A definitive Smersh discography may not even be possible, but this one lists more than 30 Atlas King cassettes. As these tapes traded their way across continents, Smersh developed a devoted following in places far beyond Piscataway, leading to releases on dozens of other labels from across the globe. A 15 song sampler featuring some of the many highlights from Smersh's vast discography, spanning 1983-1993, is now available here at the Free Music Archive.

My obsession with Smersh began relatively recently, when I first heard the song "Sweet Little Bishop" in the WFMU library, off a 7'' released by Sweden's Börft label in 1991 (listen). Then it got stuck in my head for several days straight. My subconscious couldn't remember what it was at first, mixed it up with some bizarre Prince song. But then i remembered that mysterious Smersh 7'' -- the one that stood out amongst the other Börft stuff in the library (Swedish artists like Frak and Enhänta Bödlar, who are also uncategorizable and each worthy of their own post!). I set about tracking down as much info as possible find about Smersh...

Faust live at WFMU Fest (mp3's)

2010-02-04T16:47:48-05:00

(Poster left Henry Owings, photo right Greg Cristman) We were honored to have Teutonic titans Faust headline the first night of WFMU Fest (which ran October 1-3 at the Music Hall of Williamsburg and also included the likes of TV Ghost, Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, Talk Normal, VeeDee, Pissed Jeans, Drunkdriver, Sightings, Aluk Todolo, Cold Cave, and the Guinea Worms); it's a rare occassion for these living legends to hit American shores. They without doubt had a healthy hand in shaping modern experimental, industrial, electronic and even pop music; in Julian Cope's words, "there is no group more mythical."

For those who were hesitant to see what a nearly 40 year old band held near and dear to their hearts could be up to, doubts were instantly dispelled as the crowd was treated to a heavy dose of Faust IV-heavy classics and crazed improvisations that seized the moment (coupled with live painting and cement mixer action). A few weeks back Faust OK'd a broadcast of the set, and I had an opportunity to chat at length with Jean-Herve Peron and his dog (streaming archive from my January 19th show is here, and you can go right to the interview segment here), and now we're happy to say you can grab the entire October 1st WFMU Fest show on MP3! Severe thanks to Regina Greene, Jean-Herve, and Scott Williams for the fantastic mix. By the way, a few other of that weekend's artists (namely Talk Normal and Teenage Jesus and the Jerks) have all posted some Mp3s from WFMU Fest on the Free Music Archive. Enjoy!

Celebrating Haitian Rara with Djarara, Alan Lomax, and the Other Side of the Water documentary film

2010-01-27T18:32:43-05:00

Barbés is hosting a celebration of Haitian rara music this Thursday night. From the Barbés site:

Rara is festival music usually played by marching bands. The music is played on drums and homemade bamboo horns (sometimes replaced by PVC pipes) and is often associated with certain aspects of Vaudou rituals. it's also a purely celebratory music which can have political and protest overtones.

This event was inspired by the re-issuing of Alan Lomax in Haiti, a legendary set of recordings commisioned by the Library of Congress in 1936-1937. At 7pm, the event begins with a presentation of recordings from this 10-disc box set.

The event also features a performance by Djarara, New York City's premier Haitian rara group, who have been active for two decades. Djarara performed live from Barbés this past September, with their amazing array of PVC pipe horns, in an event that was broadcast on WFMU's Transpacific Sound Paradise. Two medleys from the performance can be heard below.

Djarara is "the only sustained rara band in America" according to the producers of The Other Side of The Water, a new documentary film that follows the group "through a hidden New York landscape of vodou temples, underground economies, violent politics, and ground-shaking music." The documentary is co-produced by Magi Damas and director Jeremy Robins, whose previously collaborated on the 2004 documentary "The Cause of Pierre Toussaint". The Other Side of the Water will screen at Thursday's event, and you can watch a preview after the jump >>

Chandeliers: Activity EP

2010-01-27T14:20:29-05:00

Clearly the Chandeliers keep getting better with every release. Their new Activity EP (to be released in the future, on Captcha Records, fka HBSP-2X) will be issued as a split w/ fellow neon Shape Shoppe Chicago contemporaries Lazer Cystal.

This new stuff reminds me of futuristic beat deconstructers like Raleigh Moncrief, but more subversively funky. And in-league with fellow Chicago natives and collaborators like Icy Demons, Bronze, Michael Columbia, Lazer Crystal (who'll be on the other side of the Activity EP), and Mahjongg. More from the Chandeliers on their blog, tumblr, or after the jump

Free Abuse from Lydia Lunch

2010-02-03T23:21:32-05:00

"Marry me for money!" a man in the crowd yelled as Teenage Jesus and the Jerks approached the stage at the Music Hall of Williamsburg for the final night of WFMU Fest last October. Frontwoman Lydia Lunch invited the fan closer to the stage, calmly instructing him, "Open your mouth." The man did as he was told, and in return got a mouthful of Lydia's spit. The crowd reeled with delight and disgust; the performance had begun.

These no wave legends assaulted New York for 30 minutes, 30 years after their first run, with the same harsh, guttural vocals, piercing guitar murder, and thumping minimal drums. Teenage Jesus and the Jerks' lineup this time featured original members Lydia Lunch (vox, guitar) and Jim Sclavunos (now on drums), plus ex-Swans bassist Algis Kizys.

We're lucky to have a few songs from TJJ's incredible WFMU Fest set to offer you, check out "The Closet" below. And after the jump, a mix of ugly music dedicated to Lydia Lunch.

More WFMU Fest goodies: a rocking performance by Talk Normal, and be sure to check out Faust's set on Brian Turner's archive from this week. More on the way...

Golden Festival 25th Anniversary this weekend (audio preview)

2010-01-17T10:01:37-05:00

Every January, NY Balkan music scene pioneers the Zlatne Uste Balkan Brass Band organize the Golden Festival - a massive two-night grassroots Balkan and East European music and dance festival at the Good Shepherd School, 620 Isham Street in the Inwood section of Upper Manhattan.

The Golden Festival is New York's largest Balkan music event, with multiple stages, Balkan & Middle Eastern refreshments, Balkan arts vendors, as well as beautiful Balkan textiles on display. From international stars to local musicians, modern Balkan stylists to folk traditionalists, over 40 bands provide hours of ecstatic listening, dancing and partying. (via Zlatne Uste's website)

The Golden Festival celebrates its 25th anniversary this Friday and Saturday, and tickets are available here.

For those who won't be able to attend but want to live vicariously, Rob Weisberg's Transpacific Sound Paradise program will broadcast live on WFMU this Saturday from 6pm until midnight NY time. The TSP broadcast will take place from one of the festival's three stages, the "Kafana" stage (Kafana is Serbo-Croatian for "cafe"; and the broadcast hq will once again be conveniently located right next to the beer line!).

To get an idea of what's in store, here are a few highlights from last year's TSP broadcast.

Radon 10th Anniversary bash on WFMU

2010-01-13T17:58:14-05:00

Years ago I first came in contact with the Radon label via my pal Marlon, hearing a live set by Italian avant-rock composer Daniele Brusachetto, learning about his fellow countrymen OvO and then finally being sent a pile of CDs (mostly samplers) from the transient Radon head Scott Nydegger coupled with frequent correspondences enthusiastically talking about the state of experimental music made us fast friends. As I got familiar with the many facets of this label, Scott made sure that I was introduced to everyone in his orbit, and what really impressed me most is that Radon dealt with its business and artists unlike few others. Everyone was scattered around the world, because Scott just floated around meeting people and putting the music out from wherever he was (as opposed to working out of an office and dealing with the biz); anyone who shared the vision was invited in and were all friends. Fractured breakcore from Ripit, industrial tubthumping from Sikhara (Scott's outfit), introspective psychedelic drone from Fabrizio Polumbo under the name (r), and glorious ascensions from Steve Mackay (saxman then and now for Iggy and the Stooges) all intermingled under the Radon umbrella.

Through the years quite a few units of the stable has landed in the WFMU studios on various shows; Mackay put out an LP backed by some heavyweight improvisers on Qbico called Tunnel Diner culled from sessions on my show and Acapulco Rodriguez's as well (some MP3's here). Koonda Holaa, aka Kamilsky, is an eccentric Czech ex-pat who holed up for years in the high Mojave and also visited FMU (check him out on the Free Music Archive, he's terrific) and actually landed surreal opening slot for the Stooges in Moscow a few years back. Now, Radon takes a break, but to celebrate a good decade, Scott invited me down to Jason LaFarge's Seizures Palace studio in Brooklyn (in the cavernous Gowanus space where Martin Bisi also made all those great Lydia Lunch, Sonic Youth and Swans records) and we recorded a full on American/Portuguese summit jam of Sikhara, HHY & Drums of Habnom and United Scum Soundclash. It's a gorgeous, free-flowing hour of microscopic sounds, Neubauten-esque tribal percussion blowouts, scabby sampling and a simple celebration of the joy of free sound in a gigantic room. I aired the program on December 29th, but you can grab this session below.

Please also boogie over to the Free Music Archive's Radon offerings. Much excellence to be found. Somewhat saddened to hear of the label's hiatus, but other imprints like Soopa and Urck seem to be picking up some of the slack with a similar level of vision and social circles.

Anti-Pop Consortium remix contest winners

2010-01-11T14:02:09-05:00

We're very excited to announce the winner of the Anti-Pop Consortium "Reflections" remix contest! It was extremely difficult to pick -- we received 50 submissions from all over the world that reimagined APC's innovative hip-hop in a kaleidoscope of styles and unclassifiable genres. And this was not an easy song to remix, we're very impressed by all of the talent that's out there. Here's a note from Anti-Pop Consortium:

Thanks to all of the artists that took the time and effort to create these hot remixes. Each remix had a different approach which made it difficult to decide on a winner. The arrangements and attention to detail were very impressive. And if you were brave enough to incorporate the "tempo change ending" we salute you!

It was a pleasure to listen and we wish you all much success in your future musical endeavors...Thank you.

-Anti-Pop Consortium

drum roll please....

Grand Prize:

1st thru 5th place:

Honorable mention:

>> All remixes can be heard here <<

C. Spencer Yeh/Chris Corsano/Nate Wooley Live on WFMU

2010-01-13T17:50:46-05:00

I confess it's taken me longer to get this post together than it should have. I definitely have the holidays to blame, some family obligations, the usual work, the usual play. But honestly the main reason is that I have been thinking about what to write, and how best to articulate why I am such a huge fan of these three musicians individually, and then why getting them to play as a group on my show was such an enormous coup. And I think I figured it out.

C. Spencer Yeh (violin/voice) is probably best known as the founder of Burning Star Core, a noise band with a surprising elasticity in terms of sound, timbre, texture, form. He has played with probably every major "noise" artist you can think of and in weirder situations with people like Jandek. Chris Corsano (drums/percussion) has been moonlighting with Bjork of late, and has a longstanding free jazz duo with Paul Flaherty that peels paint. Again, he's collaborated with an enormous range of stylists and kingpins, from free jazz masters to heavy noise blasters, from pop stars to beardos. Nate Wooley (amplified trumpet) is a specialist-in-all-styles type player who digs Charlie Shavers and grew up playing in big bands, has spent time doing lowercase music, traditional-sounding free jazz, post-bop, electroacoustic improv and extreme/harsh noise. The three are primetime improvisors, it's the defining element that links all three. But what appeals to me about each of them is that they don't really "fit" anywhere. Noise, free jazz, post rock, bebop, punk, scuzz. If you are to play with them, you are to accommodate them, to get with the sound and discard the baggage, to open it up wide and be humble and just cruise.

They put in two long pieces. The first was a culmination of a handful of live performances of Nate Wooley's Seven Storey Mountain, a version of which was released on Important Records (with David Grubbs and Paul Lytton). The second is unadulturated free improvisation. Please enjoy. Many thanks to Mike Sin for engineering.

But Dad, It's Smokey

2010-01-06T21:44:36-05:00

When I logged on to the FMA this morning, I really wanted to hear something happy, something that would make me feel a little more excited about starting my day. Lo and behold, after a couple of "not quite right"s, I found my tonic for today: Smokey!

I talk not of bears or Miracles here, but of Mr. Smokey Hormel, a man who needs no introduction to guitar enthusiasts. He's one of those guys whose guitar tone is pretty much recognizable out of the box; you've no doubt heard him on records by Tom Waits, Beck, Joe Strummer, Johnny Cash, and about five thousand other people. Lately, Smokey has gotten interested in Congolese dance music from the late 50s and early 60s, and that's the kind of stuff he's doing with his new outfit, Smokey's Secret Family.

Back in September of last year, Smokey's Secret Family appeared on one of WFMU's broadcasts from Barbés in Brooklyn, a series of remote broadcasts shepherded by Rob Weisberg of the Transpacific Sound Paradise program (Saturdays, 6 to 9). Here is a track from that concert, and a fine one it is.

Focus/Folkus 2009 (mix)

2010-01-08T22:41:30-05:00

It's been very difficult for me to even think about my Free Music Archive year-end list. I mean, we haven't even been around for a year yet, and there are already three times as many mp3s as when we launched in April. My lists keep expanding, while at the same time I start realizing how much I haven't had a chance to hear yet, and I start to go a little bit insane!

It is worthwhile though to take a moment and reflect as time speeds on by, and I thought I'd start with this mix and just focus...We'll begin with some meditative instrumental tracks, then move on to sparse folk with psychedelic fingerpicking and spacious, hypnotic sounds that sooth the mind and body.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS:

The Barcelona-based Selva de Mar (pictured) and the mysterious No Regrets For Our Youth are curated by Halas Radio out of The Israeli Center for Digital Art.

"Sound philosopher" Roland P Young, best known as a freejazz clarinetist, performed this thumb-piano piece live at WFMU for This Is the Modern World with Trouble.

This dark folk track from Koonda Holaa and The Beetchees comes from one of my favorite releases of the year, 10 Acres of the Finest Sand, a split release between Bar La Muerte and Track Brack Records. Koonda Holaa is Kamilsky, a world traveler who came of musical age in the 80s' Czech underground. For something completely different, try the track with Otto Von Shirach.

Orquestra Popular de Paio Pires, from Portugal, released their self-titled album on the Clinical Archives netlabel. The Moscow-based netlabel has really lived up to their motto "expanding the definition of music" this year, both in quantity (this was their 262nd release) and quality -- they've been receiving world-wide recognition from sources ranging from Phlow to The Wire.