MPFree - August 2015

31st August, 2015, by Helen Weatherhead Team Mary Anne Hobbs

Today’s MPFree comes from Talib Kweli’s latest album, ‘F--- The Money’ (we should warn you now that the link below will show the album’s full title, complete with expletive, so please avoid this if you’re likely to be offended). You can actually download the entire record from his website for free! But, hey, it’s Monday. We don’t want to overwhelm you…

Download Talib Kweli - Butterfly

'F--- The Money' comes just one month after Talib Kweli surprise-released a ten track record called ‘Train of Thought: Lost Lyrics, Rare Releases & Beautiful B-Sides Vol.1’. It features collaborations with Miguel & Patrick Stump, Cassper Nyovest, Styles P & Nire, NIKO IS & Ab-Soul, and Steffanie Christi’an, and, according to Kweli, has been downloaded a million times already!

‘Butterfly’ is one of Mary Anne’s favourites on the record, but check it out and see for yourself!

Friday 27th August 2015, by Kellie Redmond Team Laverne

This slice of sonic sunshine from Ishivu’s Matt Karmil remix is just what we all need now that autumn is waiting with its coat to usher in the next season. Forget the morning chill in the air: download today’s dreamy electro/house instrumental MPFree and extend those summer vibes indefinitely:

Download Ishivu - Gryning (Matt Karmil Remix)

Ishivu is a DJ/producer from Sweden. But we don’t know much else about him other than that he has created this glorious deep house gem via Trunkfunk Records, which has been given the stellar remix treatment by UK DJ/ producer Matt Karmil. What we have discovered, however, is that Ishivu was asked to the describe the track if it were a fragrance. Which is rather nice/random. Over to Ishivu: “A lush forest floor, evocative with notes of pine, oak moss, musk and sandalwood, saturated with coumarin and a touch of ginger, vanilla and bergamot to round it off. Tagline: Please buy my mixtape.”

Thursday 27th August 2015, by Kellie Redmond Team Laverne

There are two reasons to thank Dam-Funk for his new EP 'STFU'. One: you can now use up a difficult combination letters when playing Scrabble. Two: it's a funk-tastic instrumental number that your ears will thank you for

Download Dam-Funk - STFU

Dam-Funk aka LA-based Damon Riddick returns with this new free EP of splendid electro-funk instrumental as a cheeky taster of his forthcoming full-length second album, Invite The Light, out later this year. He’s been supporting Todd Rungren on tour this summer in the US, and we’re hoping he brings his live experience to the UK soon. In the meantime, we’ll get our groove on to this laid back quartet of quality sounds. Dam-Funk. Damn right.

Wednesday 26th August 2015, by Kellie Redmond Team Laverne

Not only do they have one of our fave ever band names, but The Island Of Misfit Toys have also bestowed upon us this wondrously theatrical and angsty indie-pop morsel ‘Moral Melt’ – gifted to you as today’s MPFree

Download The Island Of Misfit Toys – Moral Melt

The Island Of Misfit Toys are a Chicago-based collective who first surfaced back in 2011 with their debut album, ‘Bear Hair’. With an apparent penchant for giving their records Dr Seuss-esque titles, the group’s follow-up ‘I Made You Something’ will be with us by the end of this week. And if this lead track ‘Moral Melt’ is anything to go by, we’re in for a sonic treat. The song packs a powerful punch with in-your-face high-emotion vocals from frontman Anthony Sanders, driven by equally high-energy indie-pop melodies. It feels like what Ben Folds would sound like belting his heart out in a West End musical. But in a good way.

Tuesday 25th August 2015, By Cheeka Eyers Team Laverne

To share our excitement about new material from The Cadbury Sisters, today’s MPFree is 'Drifting' from their new EP 'Sarah'.

Download The Cadbury Sisters - Dreaming

The Bristol based sisters; Mary, Jessica and Lucy Cadbury have moved away from their folkier roots and embraced a new pop-infused sound. After teasing their audiences all summer with hints of their new material at festivals, finally we have our hands on their recently released EP. With heartfelt lyrics, this single is about the last days of a relationship when two people move apart. However, don’t get your tissues out just yet, their pop sound means you’ll at least be tapping your feet (admittedly while thinking about heartbreak).

Monday 24 August, by Cheeka Eyers Team Laverne

Matthew Herbert played Meltdown on Sunday so we asked him to make a track for us linked to the festival. He constructed a piece sampling doors opening and closing at the Southbank Centre.

Download Matthew Herbert – Something At The Door

This is what Matthew said about the making of the track:

“Actually, the doors are a really exciting part of this building. There’s always something great going on behind all of them. It’s like an advent calendar. You realise [the Southbank centre is] a giant concrete structure with these cavernous bases. A lot of the sounds really tell you the story of the building. There was a reason why they called the movement Brutalism; a giant concrete-dominated structure with all these amazing things going on inside it.“

Thursday 20 August, by Ashley Clivery Team Laverne

As we’re sure you’re all aware, we’re huge fans of the likes of Four Tet, Caribou, Burial – the instrumental and sample kingpins if you like. So when we stumbled across this on the ol’ internet, we just had to jump on it.

Download Valet – Clouds (Recycle Culture Magellanic mix)*

Valet is the project of Portland, Oregon musician Honey Owens, and the original to the track appears on the album Nature. Her first in 8 years. Recycle Culture is better known to his parents as producer Erik Moline, and there’s plenty of his works and mixes online to check out. Borrowing wildly – we like to think – from Four Tet’s epoch making This Unfolds, Clouds is a surf-shimmering, glimmering beauty of a track complete with wide vocal samples and metal percussion that lifts the soul **cliché klaxon**. Listen to this and not feel inspired, we dare you.

*now this is quite tricky to find, but head to the video for the track. Directly underneath, you'll see 'mp3' and the name of the song, right click and save as.

Wednesday 19 August, by Ashley Clivery Team Laverne

Today’s MPFree is a lush instrumental number from a person we can only describe as Tecs Evergreen. We say person, as we can safely say we know literally nothing about the artist in question…except that they’re from New York.

Download Tecs Evergreen – Skyline Drive

The enigmatic New York artist is releasing second album If Only Then, via San Francisco based imprint Dusty International. And to celebrate this fact, they’re giving away the beautifully woozy Skyline Drive away as a free download. As we enter Autumn, this track appropriately contains the sounds of a rainy day…at least we hope that’s rain. As we learned from Martyn Bennett, things aren't always as they seem.

Tuesday 18th August, by Merrily Grout, Team Laverne

Please take care with your Tuesday MPFree, as this track is full of woozy sinister noir vibes that may lure you into a false sense of security!

Download Shabazz Palaces – The Mystery Of Lonnie The Døn

Shabazz Palaces are a Seattle-based experimental hip-hop group led by Ishmael Butler, aka Palaceer Lazaro (formerly Butterfly of jazz–hip hop group Digable Planets). This new track comes courtesy of the latest instalment of the Adult Swim Singles. Shabazz Palaces are in good company as this year’s lineup of Adult Swim Singles also includes tracks from Flying Lotus, Run The Jewels and Chromatics, to name a few.

Monday 17 August, by Ashley Clivery Team Laverne

The MPFree today comes from an associate of The Coral’s James Skelly, and it’s a lovely slice of psyche-folk complete with heart-rending vocals and cinematically wide sitars.

Download Marvin Powell – Buried

This is Marvin Powell’s debut single, ‘Buried’. He’s an enigmatic singer-songwriter from Liverpool and signed to James Skelly’s Skeleton Key Records. He started performing at several of Liverpool’s famous acoustic nights, where he was eventually picked up by James. He cites Neil Young, Simon and Garfunkel and Joni Mitchell among his influences – we never would have guessed - and he says of the track: “It would send a shiver down the spine of the most hardened Nick Drake fan.” He’s not a far wrong. It’s a beautifully balanced track, and is available for free download right now.

Friday 14 August, by Frank Palmer Team Laverne

The weekend is nearly upon us, but we’re not done just yet. Last task before class is dismissed: wrap your ears around this atmospheric epic from United Sounds of Joy. ‘The Sun That Hides a Darker Star’ is your final MPFree of the week.

Download United Sounds of Joy – The Sun That Hides a Darker Star

United Sounds of Joy is the new project from Alex Vald and Michael J Sheehy, formerly of 90s indie outfit, Dream City Film Club. ‘The Sun That Hides a Darker Star’ is their first song under this new guise, the aim of which, in their words, is ‘to make lounge music for the future dystopia we’re living in.’ If David Cronenberg directed a spaghetti western, we reckon it would feel a little like this.

Thursday 13 August, by Frank Palmer Team Laverne

Today’s MPFree comes to you directly from the source. Trevor Moss & Hannah Lou got in touch to tell us about their new album, Expatriot, and we’re pleased to offer you the lovely title track for absolutely nada.

Download Trevor Moss & Hannah Lou – Expatriot

Trevor Moss & Hannah Lou release their fourth album in October. It’s been three years since their excellent La Ferme De Fontenaille caught our attention, and we’re happy to welcome them back to the fold. This new album was recorded with legendary producer, Ethan Johns – whose work includes Ryan Adams’ Heartbreaker, the first two Kings of Leon records, and countless others – and the resulting songs are sounding terrific; this is bright, warm, intimate music.

Wednesday 12 August, by Frank Palmer Team Laverne

With today’s MPFree, we’re offering you a three-and-a-half minute holiday. Ryan Hemsworth’s bleached-out ‘Afterglow’ is a shimmering dream of a tune – the perfect midweek escape.

Download Ryan Hemsworth - Afterglow

This is the first we’ve heard from Ryan Hemsworth since last year’s album, Alone for the First Time, but that doesn’t mean he’s been off the scene. Aside from running the consistently excellent Secret Songs label (the output of which is frequently featured on this blog) he has offered up an excellent remix of Mitski and produced Tinashe's most recent mixtape. There’s no word on whether more new music is on its way; the only description Hemsworth offers with this new song points listeners towards 'fiona apple in "the first taste" music video (1996).' Your guess is as good as mine…

Tuesday 9 August, by Frank Palmer Team Laverne

While most, when travelling by plane, watch two rom-coms and fall asleep on the benevolent shoulder of the stranger beside them, Four Tet’s Kieran Hebden took advantage of the time afforded him by a recent flight and constructed this out-and-out banger.

Download Four Tet – BACK2THESTART

After the intricate, meditative ambience of Four Tet’s stunning new album, Morning/Evening, ‘BACK2THESTART’ more or less does what it says on the tin; this is a melodic slab of techy garage that harkens back to the early days of a now legendary career. After dropping this corker in a DJ set and being hounded with track ID requests, Kieran uploaded it to Soundcloud. Perhaps it’ll make an appearance at his Brixton Academy all-nighter in December, where he heads up a bill featuring Daphni, Joy O, Pearson Sound and more – and for which tickets sold out in less than two minutes.

Monday 8 August, by Frank Palmer Team Laverne

The weekend is over and it's back to the grind, folks. It's not all bad, though: we’re starting off another week the right way with a summer jam from Real Estate’s Martin Courtney. ‘Vestiges’ is today’s sun-soaked MPFree.

Download Martin Courtney – Vestiges

Recorded with Jarvis Taveniere and Aaron Neveu of lo-fi psych outfit, Woods, ‘Vestiges’ is the first original material we’ve heard from Real Estate frontman, Martin Courtney (though he did contribute a Guided By Voices cover to a compilation back in 2010). This is definitely familiar territory for Courtney – this shimmering suburban slow-burner could easily have found its way onto Real Estate’s last record, the excellent Atlas.

Friday 7 August, by Ashley Clivery Team Laverne

Big Fridays require some big tunes! So we thought we mix something from the dancefloor, with ambient synth-based and orchestral elements. Think of it as Nils Frahm written a massive trance album.

Download Luc Angenehm & Christian Bachmann - Golden Road (Original Mix)

Luc Angenehm was born Duesseldorf and grew up in Langenfeld, Germany. His parents encouraged him from a young age to practise the piano, he then got introduced to a wide range of house music by his older sister and began collecting equipment that could help him merge the two forms. Christian Bachmann “makes electronic music that has nothing in common with David Guetta” and is based in Berlin…so that’s all fine. This track takes the duo into Holden / Nathan Fake / Luke Abbott territory; territory that’s not to be messed with but Luc and Christian thoroughly deserve their place in the pantheon of greats. Golden Road is taken from Luc’s LP, Miss Jean, which we’re expecting to see later in the year.

Thursday 6 August, by Ashley Clivery Team Laverne

The MPFree today comes from a little-known producer and multi-instrumentalist Dave Marlow. And when we say little-known, we mean there really isn’t a lot of info about this guy. On his Facebook page he says: “Signed to no-one...but dreaming”, and this track will certainly help you to dream.

Download Guiville – You Can't See Me ft. Annika Mattsson

You Can’t See Me takes us back to the late 80s, Cocteau-inspired etherealism complete with sweeping reverbs, simple but lush guitars, and overlapped vocals…it’s a sonic pool of electronic wist. The vocalist in question is Annika Mattsson from Sweden, and Guiville is based in the UK. When he’s not giving his stuff away for the Friday Freebie Downloads playlist on Soundcloud, he’s working with Brighton-based band Bentcousin, who are due to be releasing an album later this year.

Wednesday 5 August, by Ashley Clivery Team Laverne

Today’s MPFree comes from New York-based duo of Devon Craig Johnson and Nasimiyu Murumba, better known as Baeb Rxxth. Reminding us Lindstrom and Christabelle, these are great news sounds from NYC and a free download…it simply cannot fail.

Download Baeb Rxxth – Gutter

Devon is a “guitarist, keyboardist, bassist, DJ, remixer, model, event producer, and video creative” who met Murumba at one of his own parties a few years back. Nasimiyu has several releases under her belt so far, including 2012’s Rules Aren’t Real and 2014’s EP Dirt. Her influences spread far and wide, being half-Kenyan and half-Scandinavian, born in Minneapolis, and citing the capital of culture, New Orleans, as home. It can only make for interesting music. This is the first we’ve seen of the duo with Nasimiyu saying: “I think of us as a production team. We’re side-by-side on drum machines, samplers, and synth bass keyboards, building these big fun, sound houses to shelter what had begun as just my weird little singer/songwriter piano demos.”

Tuesday 4 August, by Ashley Clivery Team Laverne

MPFree today comes courtesy of New Zealand sextet The Phoenix Foundation, although this has had quite the reworking from Crowded House frontman, Split Endz co-frontman, and fellow Kiwi hero, Neil Finn. And it's the first time Neil has remixed anything.

Download The Phoenix Foundation – Give Up Your Dreams (Neil Finn Remix)

The original is taken from their album of the same name, due out in September, but this version that you can download now has been completely reinterpreted by one Neil Finn. The band’s main guy Samuel Scott says of the lyrics: “I wrote [it] after listening to the Sonic Youth album ‘Goo’ and the whole thing was about giving up on our aspirations...but it turns out it was actually an anti-motivational aerobics pop smash.” Sounds like the perfect template for Mr Finn to jump on board and do his thing. He says: ""I was delighted to be asked to remix this track for The Phoenix Foundation who I love. I have never done one before and enjoyed being able to take apart and reassemble someone else’s music, it’s like landscaping your neighbours garden while they’re away on holiday."What we have here is now an ethereal, ironic pop garden smasher that you can download for free right now.

Monday 3 August, by Ashley Clivery Team Laverne

Every time we play the likes of DJ Shadow and Public Service Broadcasting on this show, it always goes down smooth. So when we saw this pop up on ye ol’ internet – which basically manages to merge the two, thrown in with a bit of Divine Comedy sense of humour – we jumped at the chance of bringing it to you as an MPFree.

Download Messrs. Kelly I.A. & Richards J.V.M - Computers?

This is duo Iain Kelly and Justin Richards. Justin is currently a music lecturer at Salford College and mixes teaching with private production work and “occasional trips to the seaside”. Ian was previously in Kalima, the jazz band on Factory Records. He now “combines writing and music with a predilection for sitting in the woods trying to work out what to do about it all.” He’s also been stuck in a lift with Bjork. It’s on the The Rural Audio Club label - a new pop up label/ shop based in rural Shropshire, the building also houses Iain’s cache of vintage musical and letterpress equipment. Nerds…you have been warned!

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