240405 18:19

AITANNA 77 [SPAIN]
love is colder than death mp3
+
IRISH [JAPAN]
coma and pray mp3
a great find this week - the unassuming porteguese net label, test tube, home of beautiful abstract electronica, soundscapes, alt-folk and more. first up here is mikel martinez from spain, and his aitanna 77 project. his e.p. is entitled 'spring is coming soon' and features one of the few instances where folktronica genuinely gets it right. too often for me, folktronica seems to be just an retro-fit electro remix of straight-up folk. here the two seem to co-exist much more effectively, it's glitch as an instrument, the electronics are at the centre of the piece, and married seemlessly with acoustic guitar and xylophone. further back in the releases we find japanese artist irie yoshihisa, confusing known as irish. here there's lush, warm electronica at play - it's almost by-the-book IDM were it not for the japanese vocal that injects itself into the track in a way that's both reassuring and utterly disturbing. irish also has to be commended for releasing a track with the title 'we played for about one hour but only 20 minutes had been recorded'. full length e.p.s from both these artists, and more, can downloaded for free from test tube. go and get lost in the music right here.

CHICA AND THE FOLDER [GERMANY]
daleko (dinky rmx) mp3
another example this week of being thrown off-balance by a vocal - this time from monika's chica and the folder. monika, along with shitkatapult and b-pitch control, are one of the killer berlin labels at present. the 19 months saw great releases hit the market from their stable - barbara morgenstern's 'nichts muss', robert lippok's 'falling into komeit', cobra killer's '76/77' to name but three. rightfully, there's a label retrospective now on the shelves entitled 'monika force' and it's where this little twitchy remix hails from. there's not too much info on chica and the folder out there - this piece takes an interesting view of the original album, where the writer talks him/herself out of their own theory that the band are 'nothing more than a joke'.

ULTRASOM [BRAZIL]
hey mick mp3
from the same label that brought you tetine (see post 030405), ultrasom are a six piece from sao paolo, commandeered by mainman adriano cintra. the band was re-formed in its second (and current) incarnation via an apochryphal story involving cintra losing out to carol parra in an arm-wrestling contest - the forfeit would seem to have been that she joined the band. the above mp3 has a hook and a swagger that takes me right back to the stranglers and proves (after what seems to have been a long fruitless search) that rock'n'roll is alive and well in brazil, despite being lambasted by the mighty forces of samba, bossa nova, drum'n'bass et al over the years. [label site]

god bless vice recordings - for picking up one of the greatest japanese bands of all time, the boredoms, and releasing their previously japan-only new album 'seadrum/house of sun' on may 10th. the album consists of two 20-minute pieces, which - according to pitchfork - are "the result of editing down a bunch of boredoms sessions from the past few year". epitonic still has some old mp3s from the 98 album 'super ae' for download, but if the boredoms follow their own traditions, expect the unexpected from the new album. [vice site]

this week's show - the album featured on today's show as 'gilles peterson in africa', compiled by the renowned dj and broadcaster. it's a superb collection of both old and new school african music and, thankfully, shies away from the usual afro-house fillers that seem to clog such releases. CD1 is full of 70s african jazz, check out oscar sulley and feqadu amde mesqel, while CD2 brings it up to date with the marvellous konono no.1, carl craig's take on cesaria evora and san francisco's osborne, from the ghostly offshoot spektral. more info here. this week's playlist is here.



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180405 09:16

MALCOLM MIDDLETON [SCOTLAND]
a happy medium mp3
malcolm middelton is one part of the scottish band, arab strap - renowned for their dark, twisted tales of modern life, usually involving being down the pub and fighting with your ex-girlfriend. if it sounds banal, it's far from it - arab strap have an incredible ability to give the everyday trials of life a deep gravitas, there's drama in the humdrum. there's a scottish word 'dour' which means (generally) miserable, unhappy. too often arab strap are landed with the 'dour' tag, but listen deeper and there's plenty of humour and positivity in there, if only in the realisation that we're not in alone in such tribulations, we're all in the same boat. middleton's second solo album is called 'into the woods' and features contributions from fellow scots mogwai and the delgados, as well as from strap member aidan moffat. the track above is a perfect marriage of uptempo beats and beautiful harmonies matched with the lyrical refrain: 'woke up today, realised i hate myself, my face is a disease'. more at middleton's site, and at the glasgow label chemikal underground.

RETINA.IT [ITALY]
sambush mp3
retina.it are an electronic duo made up of lino monaco and nicola buono. their label, mousikelab, was founded in 2003 and one of their primary releases last year was a self-penned, self-titled back-catalogue compilation of tracks from which the above mp3 is taken. click here for free label downloads from retina.it and more. a more recent label release is a compilation entitled 'condominum' with brings together iceland's mum, russia's dj vadim, italy's populous and many more. unlike retina.it, who seem to specialise in beats (albeit metallic or micro), the condominium comp is very much of the abstract side of contemporary electronica. dare i use the word ambient? ahh - there goes a flashback... [retina.it site]

DJ BC [US: BOSTON]
quem vai encontrar a festa da maconha? (who is going to find the pot party?) mp3
a quick mention of this sweet bootleg from dj bc, mixing m.i.a.'s 'galang', a 1962 bossa track called 'quem quiser encontar o amor', plus gloria gaynor, dj paris and some dialogue from an anti-drug movie. more bootlegs from dj bc at his site.

baile funk trainspotters - if you want to see what the scene is like in brazil, check out dj marlboro's fotoblog. as one of the main proponents of the scene (and apprarently responsible for a phenomenal % of the musical output), this is a great visual insight into what's happening.

last week's radio show - the feature album was tetine's new baile funk mix cd 'funk carioca'. to buy, check out mr bongo's shop. for more on tetine and baile funk, check out the posts below from 11.04.05 and 03.04.05.



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130405 19:33

this an free-mp3-free post / no music today, sorry. instead, by way of good community service, i recommend you take time off from your free music searches and put a small amount of cash towards war child music. here's some info on the project: "warchildmusic.com is a not-for-profit company set up by war child. for every £1 you spend downloading tracks war child will receive around 70p to continue their work in some of the world's most troubled regions. the charity is currently active in The Congo, Afghanistan and Iraq and continues to work with children in the former Yugoslavia almost 10 years after the war there subsided."

so, for only one UK pound (or equivalent), you - for example - can download a preview track from four tet's new album 'everything's ecstatic', a brand new track from morcheeba (thought they were out for the count?) and - most importantly - two exclusive remixes from bjork's medulla album: an unreleased 'who is it' remix by electronic producer vitalic and a far-out, freakfest remix of 'where is the line' by mike patton (fantomas / faith no more). do the decent thing - pay the piper, help war child, get some top flight tunes.

elsewhere: file sharing is killing music? think again.

i've also updated my mp3 blog index (on the right) and recommend you pay these good folks a visit sometime soon:

radio free polygon
comfort music
lemon red
boom selection
benn loxo du taccu
aurgasm
disquiet
just for a day
silver's boogaloo
popadopalis

so it goes.



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030405 21:25

TETINE [BRAZIL]
eu sou tigrao mp3
earlier today i was reading simon reynolds critique of m.i.a., and followed an interesting discussion on a track called 'injeção' by deise tigrona. the track has been around for quite a while but some folks out there believe that it has been 'borrowed' wholesale by m.i.a. for her track 'bucky done gun'. you can decide for yourself as it features on a compilation album entitled 'slam dunk presents funk corioca' [buy]. slam dunk is a radio show (broadcast on resonancefm.com) hosted by two brazilians (originally from sao paolo), bruno verner & eliete mejorado. happily for us, they also make sweet music together under the name tetine. and its not just music either, there's a whole make-up bag of performance art thrown in, including their tribute to playwright bertold brecht "eletrobrecht" and their personal tribute to their influences "música de amor" featuring covers of stereolab and lionel ritchie. the above track from the duo is straight-up, filthy electro rock + booty bass - a million km away from traditional braziliana. [site] you can find a great deal more on tetine, including four more free mp3s, at bizarremusic.com.br.

MUGISON [ICELAND]
sad as a truck mp3
sea y (original version) mp3
sea y (arto lindsay & melvin gibbs rmx) mp3
iceland's mugison is a wonderful contradiction of styles - from his abstract soundtrack album' niceland', to the downtempo folktronica of his excellent debut 'lonely mountain' (released through matthew herbert's lifelike label) and finally to the beat-heavy, fuzzrock mp3 'sad as a truck' from his second album 'mugimama is this onkey music?' (sounds like something beck should be making if you drew a more leftfield graph from 'loser'). and then there's the small matter of drafting the outstanding arto lindsay in to remix one of this track, in collaboration too with melvin gibbs, ex-rollins band. audacious and gloriously eclectic, sample mugison's entire output at mugison.com

MOE LODIN [SWEDEN]
hello snow mp3
beautiful downtempo vocal electronica from moe lodin, courtesy of those tasteful people at race will begin. i can find little information on moe, scratch that, i can find NO information on moe. here's what i can tell you: (1) he's released 3 e.p.s., all of which can be downloaded from his website. (2) the race will begin tracks combine together as an e.p. called 'broken yamahearts' and (3) one of moe's collaborators is daniel lineberg who runs the swedish electronic label bevlar and records as dumb dan. if you have anything more for me, you know where i am.

today's fat planet: playlist now online. for more info on today's feature album from sri lankan-born m.i.a., click here. next week's feature album comes from norway's annie 'anniemal'.

r.i.p. bass wolf from japan's guitar wolf [story].

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