There’s a handy RSS feed (link) that alerts you to what free music downloads have been added to Amazon.com. Amid unfamiliar names in the past week or so is one that’s a fairly regular subject of Disquiet Downstreams: Greg Davis, whose “Curling Pond Woods” (link) is a bit of low-key folk whimsy, guitar and piano amid field recordings of antic birdsong. At least that’s how this suite, all of six and a half minutes in length, begins, before rising in a digital approximation of orchestral grandeur, and adding a sour synth line and a sturdy backbeat. It’s the title track of his great album of last year, from Carpark Records. Also available, and from Curling Pond Woods, is “Brocade (Rewoven)” (MP3), an experiment in phase-shifting acoustic guitar that comes across like some long-awaited collaboration between Robert Fripp and Steve Reich.
Sound Design MP3
Judging by a recently uploaded example, Chris Herbert‘s forthcoming album on Kranky is to be looked forward to. At six and a half minutes, with little to no contextual setting by Kranky, the song, titled “Chlorophyl” (MP3), opens a narrow sliver of a glimpse into another, considerably private realm. Utterly quiet, with a pulse-soothing beat, it takes several listens to reveal itself, like a dark room slowly brought into focus. First come the contours: a crackle that suggests old vinyl, a warm blanket of earthly hush, and that unwavering but organic beat. Then come the details: little snaps in the sound bed, the vinyl crackle transforming into more of a door creak, thin layers of wisps as simultaneously compact and flaky as fine phyllo. And then there’s that beat, so steady that over time, as the other sounds make themselves more apparent, it softens and recedes, becoming the equivalent of invisible. Kranky and Herbert encoded the track at 192kbps, relatively generous for a promotional download, but necessary given how much aural information is buried in there. Kranky explains that Herbert lives in Birmingham, England, and is a member of a collective called Modulate AV. More info, though not much more, at kranky.net.
Atari-Powered Post-Dub MP3
The guys in the Seattle-based group Foscil name a single piece of equipment in their bio at Fourth City Records: the Atari ST, on which they reportedly did all the composition for their self-titled album, which came out yesterday. A full track, “Coelacanth,” is available for free download (MP3), and while the ancient fish of its title is even more old-school than Foscil’s retro Atari setup, the name does set the tone for a song that ekes dub out of timestamped boomchika beats, resuscitating them with life-enabling echo. But Foscil isn’t merely interested in the antiquated; it uses its Casio-flavored rhythmic foundation for something verging on post-rock chamber music, with horn harmonies locating a sweet spot between Herb Alpert romantic background soundtracks and Tortoise’s lo-fi chamber pop. More info at fourthcity.net.
Homebrew Experimental Tape MP3s
So, musician and tinkerer Gijs Gieskes isn’t entirely clear about what he’s up to, but among his recent experiments is an apparent second attempt to create a sequencer using standard cassette audio tape… and, as if that weren’t extraordinary enough, he works a Game Boy into the contraption, too. As Peter Kirn first reported over at createdigitalmusic.com, Gieskes’ written descriptions don’t quite do his accomplishments justice, but a handful of photos (here) and some MP3s help. The two MP3s are about two minutes long each. One works the sound back and forth in a thick field of video-arcade noise, and that syrupy, elastic give of tape is evident throughout (MP3). The other works some voice into the mix, sounding like a Dr. Demento interstitial on fast forward (MP3). Both employ the popular Game Boy sound software LSDJ (Little Sound DJ, at littlesounddj.com). The effect is altogether, in a word, manual, an unlikely manifestation of the human touch. More info, and other experiments, over at gieskes.nl, though be prepared for a web interface as self-obscuring as Gieskes’ musical pursuits. If the widely covered tape mixes of DJ Aptem (see item two here) struck your fancy, then Gieskes is your thing.
Matmos, Four Tet Waxcast MP3s
Want to hear vinyl-only tracks by Matmos, Bowery Electric, Nurse with Wound, Meat Beat Manifesto, Four Tet, Pan American, Kid 606, Tortoise, Cyclobe and others? Download the July 24 podcast from brainwashed.com (MP3). In what he dubs a “waxcast,” Internet DJ Jon Whitney sews together nearly 75 minutes of music from artists and labels whose websites are hosted at brainwashed.com. The Bowery Electric is a throbbing chunk of monastic drum’n’bass from 1998, previously marooned on an out-of-print 12″. The Meat Beat Manifesto is a dubby remix by Plug (aka Luke Vibert) dating from 1996; it opens with a third-stream horn salvo, segues into John Barry guitar, and takes flight from there. The Tortoise is a remix of the mallet-wielding post-rock ensemble by glitch duo Autechre. Those are just three of the highlights. The whole thing ends with a Matmos song off a split 7″, which appears to end on a locked groove, four or five lo-fi minutes of which close Whitney’s show. Of course, these once-rare tracks aren’t vinyl-only anymore. They’ve been digitized.