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| Track List: 1. KKFS - First Day, Some Lake 2. Kilowatts - Glob Story 3. Ruairi Lazers - Blown Subs 4. Rochie - The White Grass Bending 5. Bogsnarth - Acid Casualty 6. Antenne - Blue Light 7. Spark - The World Has Spoken And Blow 8. dgoHn - roasted 9. Darren McClure - Dec_19 10. Aligning Minds - sEkrAT 11. Cube - Rampant Zoo Sex Orgy 12. Atomly - Medianoche 13. the Square Root of Evil - Frolic 14. Peekay Tayloh - Vast Minority 15. sawe - Brain Cloud 16. Domotic - Ma Stereo 17. Sunny D. Levine - Got Something For Ya 18. Secret Mommy - Bowls 19. Venetian Snares - Peeing_yelloq 20. Zephyr Nova - Patterns and Parallels 21. Nedavine - Nihongo De 22. Svenedikt - The Attack Of The Jellyfish 23. The Flashbulb - Smoking Blue Midi 24. Santosh - I Am Not Mad 25. Lee Hutzulak - Drops 26. Polichinelle - Dans My Poitrine 27. Orangebox - Our Lines 28. Sky Barstow - Can We Leave This Place 29. Peter Fuhry - No Is A Wonderful Word 30. Alice Rose - A Poem In Slow Motion Running Time: 82 Minutes Released: 2006 |
So hot on the heels of one odd free music project comes another from the same label which predates it. 30 songs in 30 days by 30 artists. 27 of which are free on LastFM here. As with 52 Weeks - Fall I have not heard of the majority of artists here, though obviously Orangebox and Sky Barstow were in the prior listen, and Venetian Snares ring a bell for some reason.
In finding the release date for this work, I stumbled on http://freemusicarchive.org/ which could be dangerous. I am not sure I really want to go digging through for reasons of time and wonder. It did at least let me recover the three tracks LastFM did not make available from this album, though.
I suspect this 82 minutes will feel like a shift... only one way to find out.
It starts simply enough with a piece that is incredibly repetitive in nature and could be a soundtrack for a skit or sketch in some kind of black and white film. It is not something I want to hear again. Like 52 Weeks - Fall the artists have shaped their tracks to produce seamless transitions, and track 2 has pretty much the same underlying rhythm as track 1. It breaks down into a more interesting electronic mashup but again, is not a keeper. Whilst I quite like the overlay, the beat pattern does my head in.
There is more of a break before Blown Subs starts and this is more tolerable, even tuneful in places. I think the beats have a bit to much weight to them, but this is actually a reasonable ambient track with airs of the FTL soundtrack by Ben Prunty which will be coming later. It gives way to The White Grass Bending in a nice switch that gives me hope I might actually salvage a few keepers from the 30. Two are gone already and this one is probably going to join them after devolving from a promising start. The beats get less interesting, and the overlay is too weak to hold interest.
Acid Casualty picks things up again though... from a keys-based start to interesting patterns that remind me of that track from Dark Side of the Moon (the name of which escapes me now). This is never music I would listen to a lot, but I am hearing merit for occasional play. The first vocals enter with Antenne's Blue Light - quite light and sparse over a spacious backing, this tune grows on me as it goes. Already I am keeping as many as from the last effort, and so far it's a 50% hit rate. Hurrah!
Downhill again now though... good job I can keep half an eye on the BBC's Transfer Deadline Day coverage whilst doing this, to keep myself amused by the outrage and entitlement of their audience pieces if nothing else. I am not engaged as a fan of any team involved, which allows me to snigger and harbour scornful thoughts about the correspondents. That said, there were some great team formation graphics produced earlier in the day after ManUtd signed Falcao. I particularly liked this one (who knows how long it'll be here).
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| Man Utd 2014/15? |
I am not well disposed to sEkrAt before it begins. The leet-speak capitalisation annoys me much more than the crappy alternative spelling for secret. When the tune starts it is more of the same, so-so, nothing electronic ambient that cannot decide what it wants to be, jumping from one tempo and sound combination to another at whim. Still - it is not called "Rampant Zoo Sex Orgy", and you have to wonder about anyone who names a tune thus. It is worryingly a much more enjoyable tune to listen to, and even their vocal sampling seems to work reasonably. Not quite a keeper though.
I somehow managed to close my typing window with the palm of my hand, whilst typing. Thankfully the regular saves mean no wasted effort. I hate this trackpad.
I do not want to sound too harsh here; these tunes were all pulled together in a day each, so it would be wrong to expect too much. A number of them are disappointing in that way that leaves me thinking they could have actually been something if they had had ample time and effort applied. It is a neat idea - especially since the artists are from all over the world and so many may not even have had a day to get done and pass on (the supposed format of the working).
As I go through and tag all the tracks I got from LastFM as "last fm download" I am embarrassed for whomever left the other tags I see, a direct result of too many numbers substituting for letters. In that time a few more dull tracks have blown by, taking me to half way. Unless there is something good soon, my patience will be severely tried!
Even without exploring more of the free music archive I have more "odd" stuff like this to come. I am certain that OLO Worms fall into this category, for instance... I do not believe I have listed to Yard Is Open at all since picking it up on the strength of the delightful I Shot Shrieff (I only just realised it is not "sheriff") from Bare Foot.
More guff has passed, whilst I fiddle with graphic placement and fail to find a decent location and margin. I should have written more up top, but I have not got anything more to add. I really want out of this listen now but there is still half an hour and 9 tracks to go. I thought for a moment that The Attack of the Jellyfish was going to be good. It started well then fell apart before pulling itself together again. Unfortunately the falling apart overrides the rest in my appreciation. Smoking Blue Midi also starts reasonably, but does not grow and so gets thrown out... oh wait. There is a little development there and actually I think this may be a 4th keeper. The transition to I Am Not Mad is cool and that song continues the upturn. It really helps that they are short works though... not leaving time to really get too bored providing there is a little change-up in there somewhere.
The listen practically stops for a track, there is so little going on. Like a background noise recording but with no attention paid to turn it into anything. Colour me unimpressed. Still, down to 5 to go; it will all be over soon.
Word to the wise, do not search for "poitrine" at work. I could not place the word (my French is very rusty) so the internet told me it is "chest" or "breast". Guess which it had images of? I do not feel bad for not recognising the word now. The track of which it forms part of the title is dull, dreary. It gives way to the Orangebox track I grabbed after hearing their effort for 52 Weeks, but I am immediately disappointed. There is much less of interest in this tune, and it will be purged with the rest.
Seriously flagging now waiting for the end and a chance to scrub out my brain before going to bed. I am vaguely hopeful for the last track because of the title, but I do not really expect that hope to be well founded. It is certainly nicer than most of the disc, and the hope was not a million miles from the mark. There is more music here. A keeper to end with.
Glad this journey into the wonders of free music has ended though. 52 Weeks was short enough to endure, but almost an hour and a half for a total of 6 tunes worth holding on to is a rough trade. 20% return in terms of tracks. Still, it could be worse. For a long stretch it looked like 10%
The other 80%? Purge them with fire (or, y'know, just hit delete).
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