WFMU's Free Music Archive sampler
Sampler pack of FMA tunes issued July 2008. Artwork by Greg Harrison.
prepping for Talk's Cheap 4/14/2009
preparing for my show in the morning...might play some of this stuff
Morning Ritual
Morning Ritual starts out with the title track from Lucky Dragons, into more beach-boombox worthy electronics from Bronhard/Going/Public and Ducktails. Then Portland trio Explode Into Colors come in like 'the late night love child of Fela Kuti and ESG' (that quote's from Tommy). Their track's attached to this post.
This mix also has some early Ghanaian guitar music courtesy of Excavated Shellac, Brazilian sounds new (Curumin) and old (Bohemios da Cidade), bagpipes from Dust-to-Digital's Black Mirror compilation, Iranian singer Mamak Khadem accompanied by santur, and Swedish blues from drums+vox duo Wildbirds and Peacedrums. Threw in a little vibraphone / reverse-chipmonk from GianCarlo Felipe's Mink Lungs, and Mudboy caps things off with 'Dawn Treader'. Mudboy is Raphael Lyon, proprieter of the Free Matter For the Blind label, and he's playing on my radio show this week with Area C.
photo CC by-nc-sa 2.0 azzief! (via flickr)
April in July: Abstract Blues + Cornelius
We're livin in the past, it's April in July, been raining off and on for the last month off and on every day, my bike's gettin rusty, and so am I.
If you're in NY or anywhere else in the world, experiencing some atmospheric confusion (which I hear is a world-wide phenomenon and a sign of The End Times), here's some abstract blues to go along with it
Franz Schubert
Music at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum presents: Performances of the compositions of Franz Schubert. Here is a sampling of the Schubert performances currently available for download at gardnermuseum.org.
Franz Schubert (1797-1828) wrote chamber music, symphonic works, solo piano pieces and, most significantly, German art songs, or lieder. Schubert was a Viennese composer on the cusp of the Classical and Romantic eras. Though he died at age 31, Schubert wrote more than 600 songs, setting the words of master German poets to music with unrivaled skill. His songs elevated lieder from a marginal to a respected art form. In his lifetime, however, Schubert had difficulty supporting himself financially through his music, and often relied on friends and family for support.
Schubert’s accomplishments in writing lieder are perhaps best described by his close, lifelong friend Joseph von Spaun: “In this category he stands unexcelled, even unapproached … Every one of his songs is in reality a poem on the poem he set to music … Who among those who had the good fortune to hear some of his greatest songs does not remember how this music made a long familiar poem new for him, how it was suddenly revealed to him and penetrated to his very depth.”
Guinea Worms rarities
in anticipation of Will Foster & Co's show at WFMU Fest, opening for Pissed Jeans, Friday Oct 2nd at the Music Hall of Williamsburg
ESP-Disk'
A mix of music from the legendary experimental imprint ESP-Disk, in celebration of their 45th anniversary show at the Bowery Poetry Club in Manhattan, November 9th 2009. ESP-Disk is curating a collection of their music right here on the Free Music Archive
Future Music
Tracks for Billy Jam to play on "Put the Needle on the Record" on WFMU
(image Creative Commons by-nc-nd DarkMatter via flickr)
Fuzzy Neon Jams
here's a little mix I made, inspired in part by The_Painters' request for sounds somewhere within the fractal of GloFi X PlasticCrimewave. Starts off warm, ends cold
Image: Archie McPhee Glow Chamber, Seattle WA Creative Commons BY-NC (via flickr
live 2k9 Talk's Cheap
A track off of each Talk's Cheap live session from the year that was 2009.
Talk's Cheap airs Tuesday mornings, 9am-12noonET on WFMU 91.1-FM and wfmu.org. Playlists & streaming archives can be found here.
Thank you to all of these amazing artists, please give 'em some love!!!
Happy Holidaze
A mix of holiday-themed music from the FMA...just in draft mode for now really because I'm about to get on a train !!
In the meantime... what else should be on this mix???
The image is Creative Commons BY-NC via Caruba on flickr.
Click on the name of each track for licensing and more info.
2009 focus / folkus mix
A mix of some favorites from this past year.
Starts with meditative instrumental tracks, moves on to sparse folk with hypnotic fingerpicking and spacious sounds.
The Barcelona-based Selva de Mar (pictured) and the mysterious No Regrets For Our Youth are curated by Halas Radio out of Israel.
"Sound philosopher" Roland P Young, typically a freejazz clarinetist, performed this thumb-piano piece live at WFMU for This Is the Modern World with Trouble.
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.
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.
When I heard this Gato Loco de Bajo set on WFMU's Transpacific Sound Paradise, there was something captivating in the group's sparse low-end. Equally captivating is Gothenburg, Sweden's Sarah Assbring, known as El Perro Del Mar, who stopped by WFMU's Sound and Safe for a short set in support of her new mini-album, Love Is Not Pop.
ISSUE Project Room artist-in-residence Matana Roberts, who has been composing and performing Coin Coin -- "a series of musical portraits and narratives exploring family history and bloodlines" (read more). Amolvacy is the trio of Dave Nuss (No-Neck Blues Band), Shiela Donovan, and Aaron Moore of Volcano the Bear. Check out Nat Roe's overview if you have yet to dig in to the Volcano the Bear & related rarities.
Joe Morris' Flow Trio released a fantastic album on ESP-Disk earlier this year. It was a prolific year for Hexlove, the project of drummer Zac Nelson, who capped things off with a collaboration with Zach Hill (read more).
Theo Angell is a founding member of Hall of Fame. This live recording comes from Maria Levitsky's program on WFMU, where the eponymous album (released by Amish Records) was a universal favorite. Closing things out is minimalist guitarist Alexander Turnquist, whose second album "As the Twilight Crane Dreams in Color" was released by VHF Records this summer.
2009 FMA Hip-Hop mix
Some of the finest Hip-Hop flavored beats to crash the FMA this year.
Los Angeles California's Aesthetics Crew traveled to Beijing China for this collaboration with Mandarin MC Naughty Ray.
Up next we got a track off of J Dilla's post-humous release courtesty of Nature Sounds, produced by Pete Rock featuring Black Thought of the Roots. Dilla's legacy lives on in producers like 6th Sense, who had an amazingly productive year that included a bunch of free net releases on his Notherground Music imprint. First we got a track from The Kid Daytona off Come Fly With Me, then the 6th-Sense produced "2-0-0-9" featuring The Kid Daytona, 6th Sense, & Harlem's Cash. If you dig these 6th Sense beats, he uploaded an album's worth of intrumentals for you to tinker with, It's a 6th Sense Beat Yo.
Advantage Music Group and Domination Recordings released a free mixtape, Chapter 2 Street Soul, featuring some of today's finest MCs and producers. This track finds Sweden's Ill Knowledge collaborating with Philadelphia-born, Copanhagen-based Malay Sparks. Domination Recordings also released Breez Evahflowin's Breez Dees Trees, and this radio-safe promo features guests Shaneeka Harrell and Swave Sevah.
The Comfort Fit track was part of Error Broadcast's debut compilation Bag of Nothingness. It was also featured by BlocSonic on Volume 23 of their netBloc series, compiling highlights from the netaudio world.
Buraka Som Sistema brought the Portuguese/Angolan sound of kuduro to KEXP on the heels of the US release of Black Diamond. (image = Buraka Som Sistema live at Sonar in Barcelona via Flickr).
Italy's Zona MC "is the lone Artist to conceive and realize a Rap Style using Italian Language" (via curator Homezero)
Anti-Pop Consortium made their triumphant return this year with Fluorescent Black (Big Dada), and this track "Apparently" was recorded live as part of WFMU's All Tomorrow's Parties NY broadcast. Big Dada and APC were kind enough to share stems from an album cut for a Free Music Archive remix contest, the fruits of which can be heard here (winner announced Jan 2010).
Next we've got three killer instrumental tracks. Abby Lee Tee hails from Austria, and was recommended by our friends at Phlow Magazine. Pre and Custodian of Records both come from the great state of New Jersey.
You may recognize Opio from his work with Souls of Mischief and Heiroglyphics. Going solo, he released a free Creative Commons EP, Everybody Loves the Sun, in April 2009.
Capping things off, DJ Ilya Monosov and the Hedonic Islands. You might recognize Monosov from his collaborations with Preston Swirnoff, The Shining Path, or his fantastic 21st Century Punks 12'' on Holy Mountain. The Hedonic Islands feature former Stones Throw recording artists Dudley Perkins aka Declaime, and Georgia Anne Muldrow, who each had a pretty prolific 2009. Looking forward to more in 2010!
Stuck in a Groove (2009 mix)
We start with the organic Afro-Latin sounds of Har-You Percussion Group (from 1967's Sounds of the Ghetto Youth, reissued by ESP-Disk earlier this year). Then Prince's favorite latin-funk band Brownout (via Six Degrees Records). Then some break-worthy funk from The Years, part of Los Angeles' Vosotros family.
Then Orquestra Popular de Paio Pires and Montreal's Smoked Meat Fax Machine douse the funk in electronics, which Chicago's Chandeliers refract into kaleidescopic Dirty Moves.
Next, the Brooklyn-based gobally-minded duo of DJ /rupture & Matt Shadetek, with a track off their new mix Solar Life Raft (theAgriculture). Read more about the inspiration behind "Underwater High Rise" and listen to the unmixed extended original on Dutty Artz.
Raleigh Moncrief was one of the many exciting released to come from the Obstructive Vibrations label in its first year of existence. Teengirl Fantasy (two dudes from Ohio in case you were wondering) made a splash with their free TGIF EP.
Track Birthday co-runs the consistently awesome UpitUp netlabel, and that album was recommended to the FMA by Pluspunkt.
Hit play on the Gunhead track...amazing hip-hop via Maltine Records out of Japan, develops and the Japanese rap begins after a couple minutes, this is like the ultimate dance party jam!
Finally, a fantastic homage to some of the amazing music coming out of the Creative Commons remixing website ccMixter. "Raidin' The ccM Century" includes music from BradSucks, MC Jack in the Box, DJ Vadim and many more. The track was featured on BlocSonic's netBloc vol25. And it was mixed by Fourstones, aka Victor Stone, who's been at ccMixter since the beginning.
Click on the track title for more info and licenses.
Needle image Creative Commons BY-NC-SA Marco via Flickr.
Radon Collective
Sounds from the Radon Collective, in honor of the Radon 10th Anniversary broadcast on WFMU (Brian Turner's show 12/29/2009)
"It's a rare case where an experimental music label actually wanders the world without a real home base; Scott Nydegger's Radon label is such, picking up new additions to its roster in unlikely locales, and intermingling its players to create some unique sounds." -Brian Turner / WFMU
Radon is a US/earth-based label/collective with music from Steve MacKay, Sikhara, Smegma, Liquorball and more
More info: www.sikhara.org, www.urckrecords.com, www.soopa.org
http://freemusicarchive.org/label/Radon_Collective_Label/ (photo via flickr)
Pizza Punk 2009
Looking back on this year of awesome punk rock and pizza, here are some tracks that stuck out to me.
Part of my overly ambitious year-end series that I will probably never finish...!
(Image Creative Commons BY-NC-SA Aaron Landry via flickr)
International Sounds 2009
Some of my favorite international sounds of 2009.
Argentina's Hijo De La Cumbia released his debut album, Cumbia de los Barrios, on DJ /rupture's Soot label.
Vieux Farka Touré, son of the great Malian guitarist Ali Farka Touré, is from Fafa, a Six Degrees Records release.
Many of the KEXP recordings come from Jon Kertzer's radio program.
Many of the WFMU live tracks were recorded for Rob Weisberg's Transpacific Sound Paradise. For those in the NYC area (or ever planning to head this way), Rob keeps a fantastic list of upcoming World music events, as well as local restaurants, all linked from the TSP headquarters (also the source of the fantastic image used for this mix).
The recording of Djara -- New York's premier Haitian rara group -- comes from one of Rob's remote broadcasts from Barbés, a fantastic venue (and record label!) in Brooklyn.
The Orkestra Keyif and Zlatne Uste track was part of WFMU's coverage of the 2009 Golden Festival, a grassroots Eastern European music and dance festival organized by NY Balkan music pioneers the Zlatne Usted Brass Band. The 2010 event is slated for Jan 15 & 16, more info here. If you won't be able to make it to NY you can live vicariously through WFMU's Transpacific Sound Paradise.
This mix ends with an emersive raga from an on-air preview of the annual NYC Indian Classical all-night festival this pat May.
Though it's not featured on this 2009-oriented mix, Excavated Shellac is an amazing resource for impossible-to-find international 78rpm recordings. Joe McGasko made an excellent mix featuring some of his favorite shellac excavations here.
10 more 4 o' 10
Can't get enough listmaking! This is a mix of some more of my personal favorties, to be re-posted to the WFMU blog as part of a larger post...where a lot of my other favorites from the FMA and beyond are also listed. I'll add the link in a sec
Here's to eternity!
(image is Creative Commons by-nc-nd via crystalginn / flickr)
Zlatne Uste Golden Festival 2009 sampler
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)
Live on WFMU as broadcast on Rob Weisberg's Transpacific Sound Paradise program January 16, 2009
>> More live recordings from last year's Golden Festival
>> More info about the 2010 Golden Festival (schedule, tickets, map)
As their Octopus logo implies, 
WFMU / aQ SXSW 2010 preview (mp3s)
(img = Stevie Ray, waiting for his lift to last year's Mayyors set) Oi, hey, Texas, ready for thirds? 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 announce that we'll both be back and once again broadasting from Encore (formerly Spiro's) on 611 Red River Street on Friday, March 19th! Two stages (one of which is the outdoor amphitheater), 14 acts, and no Metallica playing next door this time (so we dont have to worry about Lars' dressing trailer blocking anyone's way in). Liz Berg, Jason Sigal, Scott Williams, Brian Turner and Diane Kamikaze will be holding the FMU broadcast fort down starting at 7PM (Central Time), Andee from Aquarius will be there, and hopefully you as well. Once again, 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!
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 will hopefully be carrying most of the sets in some part via WFMU during the evening, and like last year hope to feature posts for later download via the Free Music Archive. Check out more info on the artists HERE, and hope to see you THERE!
¡FMA Jams! March2k10
We surpassed the 18,000 mp3 milestone this week. That's nearly 4 times as much free quality audio as when we launched the FMA less than a year ago -- a lot to keep up with!
To break it down for you, we highlight a few gems from the FMA on this here blog (RSS), on Facebook, and on Twitter. And I've made a mix of some of the sounds that've bent my ear lately -- most of them uploaded within the past month or so.
We're curious to know -- how do you go about browsing the FMA? Do you browse By Curator? By Genre? Search for music that fits your Creative Commons criteria? Or do you just dive right in to the Recently Added RSS feed and hit Play? We're going to combine our browse functions (by curator and by genre) with our search filters and add a bunch of filters to make it easy for you to find music that fits your criteria. You can read more about what's in store here, and leave a comment to share your feedback
click on artist or track for more NFO