free mp3s

Milkcrate is an interesting site/project, maintained by Sebastian Tomczak, that explores making music with minimal source materials:

Milkcrate is not a band or a particular group of people. Milkcrate adds a further set of constraints of space, time and materials to create music within.

The rules…

• The objective of milkcrate is to write, record and produce as much music as possible, creating a completely finished product within twenty-four hours of beginning the session
• No member of the group is to leave the environment, within reason
• All materials and raw sources used to create music must be explicitly non- musical
• All the materials must fit inside or on a milkcrate
• There is a limit of one milkcrate per person
• At least one member of the group must be productive at all times

These rules are modular in nature; milkcrate sessions may have additional constraints, so long as they do not break the existing ones.

The results are very interesting, with a huge amount of variety. Use the site as a source of inspiration or just download some great free electronic music.

I’ve put a few previews below as teasers – but check out the site for some real inspiration.

 

 Singapura - uses only glass as source material [0:58m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Dawn Bells - uses only a blank sheet of paper as source material: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Of Daedalus, Part A - Empty, solo milkcrate: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Remember the Ukrainian electroacoustic guru Younnat – the guy behind the very cool mechanical sampler interface, the Socket Sampler?

Younnat, aka Oleg Serdyuk, uses a variety of strange musical instruments and makes some pretty interesting music, too.

Some of the other unusual controllers which Serdyuk uses in live performances are:

• Genius Speed Wheel 3MT
• Logitech Joystick Attack 3
• Logitech Gamepad Dual Action
• Genius KB-06X
• Bulb kit

He’s shared his debut EP, The Duct, at the Internet Archive. Preview the release below:

 

 The Day After Tomorrow [4:37m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Yesss! [5:37m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Cardiologists Decided To Not Go To Bed [4:23m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Chris Randall wears a lot of hats: producer, label head, blogger, software developer and key figure in the nascent “grindhouse” style of electronic music.

First and foremost, though, he’s a musician, and he wants to load up your iPod with a bunch of free music. So that pretty much everything you listen to will be his music, but under different names.

Randall’s not into all that “music wants to be free” Internet hippy crap. He wants to get paid for his music, but he understands the value of a little peak-a-boo tease, too.

Because of that, he’s shared dozens of free electronic music tracks at his personal site. They come from a variety of his music projects, including Sister Machine Gun, Micronaut & Scanalyzer. If you’re a podcaster,the music is “podsafe”, too.

You can preview a few tracks below – but visit his site to get the the motherload.

 

 Sister Machine Gun - To Hell With You [4:41m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Micronaut - Invention 1/Microprocessor [4:46m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Scanalyzer - Screamer [3:19m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Last year, we asked the question “Is Colleen Shannon The World’s Sexiest DJ?”

Colleen Shannon’s website proudly proclaims that she is the world’s sexiest DJ.

At the time, we noted that, while Colleen Shannon obviously has sexy down, “she’s got some stiff competition for the title of world’s sexiest DJ from women with clearly evident DJ skills.”

When we checked around the Web for a Colleen Shannon DJ mix, we came up empty handed.

Since then, Shannon’s updated her site and she contacted us to let us know that she’s got some free DJ mixes up now at her site. You can preview or download her Casa Caliènte (MP3):

Let me know what you think – does this back up Shannon’s claim to being the world’s sexiest DJ?

More on DJ Colleen Shannon after the break. Read more…

The Free Music Archive — WFMU’s interactive library of curated, legal music downloads — is in pre-launch-blog-mode until November

In the meantime, though, they’re unleashing free MP3 download teasers. Bands include:

• Black Math – Dark-wave buried in tape hiss, with grinding synth, electric cello, and drum machine. The three piece lists Depeche Mode and Big Black as influences, but they’re not straight up 80s. Carry That Weight (MP3)
• Olivia Block – Electro-acoustic composer Olivia Block moved to Chicago from Austin, Texas in 1996. Her work blurs the line between music and sound, organic and inorganic. Live In Toronto (MP3)
• EKG – The improv/electro-acoustic duo of Ernst Karel and Kyle Bruckmann. Karel — who has collaborated with just about everyone in Chicago, from Weasel Walter and Ken Vandermark to David Grubbs and Bobby Conn — plays trumpet and analog electronics. Bruckmann — formerly of Lozenge (see below) — plays oboe, english horn, suona, and electronics. Immaterial Side B (MP3)
• Illusion of Safety – This is the 25th anniversary of Dan Burke’s ongoing solo/collaborative project Illusion of Safety, which defies categorization but “has been called ambient, post-industrial, electro-acoustic, electronica, sound collage, improvisation, and power electronics” according to illusionofsafety.com: The project “intrepidly charts the terra incognita where sound, silence, noise and music intersect. Using conventional instruments, sound generating devices and random objects, IOS hews sonic sculptures that deliberately provoke, mesmerize and even affront listeners”. Time Remaining (MP3)
• Mahjongg – Their live show involves two drum sets, a percussion station, guitar, bass, several electronic workstations, a vocoder, and a smoke machine. Tell The Police The Truth (MP3)
• TV Pow – TV Pow is the electroacoustic trio of laptop composers/free-improvisers Michael Hartman, Brent Gutzeit, and Todd A Carter. Note: this track could shred your speakers. Terran Time-Slip (MP3)

MP3 links for each band above. More at WFMU’s site.

 

 Black Math - Carry That Weight: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download