Free Music Roundup

I love free music! Especially free music that is being handed out legally and with love. A ton of good stuff has come out recently! Check it out:

2014 was a great year for (free) label compilations. Here are some of my favorites:

  • Ghostly International x Adult Swim presents Ghostly Swim 2 — Mostly ambient electronic noise with beats.
  • Noumenal Loom Compilation 1 — Georgia underground label specializing in haunted electronic tones and quiet guitar compositions.
  • Secret Songs shh#ffb6c1 — This was one of my favorite albums of 2014. I said A compilation from Ryan Hemsworth’s Secret Songs netlabel, these songs all feel like the future to me.
  • Asthmatic Kitty Digital Sampler, Autumn 2014 — AK consistently put out some of my favorite music. Label run by Sufjan Stevens.
  • Flannelgraph Records Winter Sampler 2014-2015 — I was not prepared for the quiet greatness in this group of tunes.
  • DFA Records Holiday Remix EP — When some of my favorites (Sinkane) are remixed by some of my other favorites (Busy P, CFCF), everyone wins.

Towards the end of 2014, while I was still in my Christmas music hole, I found that a few cool free EPs came out, too:

  • SpineePretty Green — From PC Music, this is over the top electronic glory with a remix from Anamanaguchi!
  • Leno Love CraftPlatinum Planet EP — From Secret Songs, this gets that PC Music vibe and adds a 90s R&B/Sega Game Soundtrack feel.
  • Chindamohere+there EP — Charming and chiming, this self-released debut EP should warm your chill heart.
  • Via VegrandisJil Sent Me/Birds To Me — A cover of a forgotten song (by Mortal) and a new romantic standout.

There some good stuff out that you can pay for, too. Here’s some recent good stuff you might have missed:

  • GeoticSunset Mountain (Eon Isle) — Part of Baths’ ambient Geotic project, the Eon Isle series of albums focuses on a single instrument. The Sunset Mountain installment is all voices, and sounds, according to a twitter friend, “like the music they must have in Rivendell”. $7
  • Vapor LanesA Thin Film — Violent noise coalesces into beautiful melodies and gives you feelings. $7
  • Solid Mas/Jim GuthrieOne Of These Days I’ll Get It Right — Beatmaker Solid Mas takes Jim Guthrie’s music from the Swords & Sworcery Soundtrack, the Indie Game: The Movie Soundtrack, among others, and gives them the blender treatment. Fans of Jim Guthrie will obviously be into it, as will fans of sample-masters like Prefuse 73 and The Avalanches, but anyone who likes good things will dig this. $5.99 CAD

 

 


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