Free legal albums!

Download Speak Slowly now! (Couldn’t get album art for this one, I’m afraid.)

This is one of my most surprising little finds for a while. Stars Of Heaven were from Dublin and played sort of…folk/pop/new wave music. I can’t assign them to one genre, but it’s a familiar sound and one that works very well.

I used the past tense here because the band is no-more. They were about in the 80s and were very short-lived. It seems they didn’t enjoy the complexities of the recording industry. It’s a shame, but they have two albums available for free download on the record label’s website. If you like this, I suggest you check it out.

The sound is kind of REM-ish. I prefer this to REM, however! I guess you could describe it an REM done by Irishmen. The music is relaxing but very far from boring. It’s all very professional and smooth sounding. Everything on this record works so well, and I honestly am going to be listening to it for years to come.

Claire Hamil is probably one of the most well-known artists I’ve posted thus far. She has a Wikipedia page, even –

You can get any background you want on her from that. There’s no point in me going into it. She seems to have been pretty successful, although not hugely. She reminds me of Allison Crowe, although not for any more reason than the fact they’re solo female artists who have been around for a while.

The music on October is highly varied. It starts out sounding very jazzy, and it changes throughout. It speeds up and it slows down. We’ve got folksy stuff and rocky stuff in there. If you like variation, this is definitely a record for you.

Claire Hamil has a lot of music you can download for free. I’ve posted October here because it’s the only one I’ve got round to listening to and therefore know it’s a good one. If you enjoy it, feel free to have a look at her other stuff. I sure as hell well. Go here to download (or donate, hey, it’s up to you!).

Although I have no information about him, I do know he is signed to the same netlabel that a lot of the stuff I’ve posted here before is on, such as The Notes And Scratches and Casey Meehan. It’s a pretty awesome netlabel – check it out -www.rockproper.com

Anyway, Samuel Stiles does pretty, slow folk music. His voice is mid-range and it’s relaxing to listen to. It’s sad music, but it won’t make you sad. Good Sunday music, or good for evening time, when you get home from a hard day and just want a glass of wine and some time to relax on your own.

The process for choosing the band and album to write my first review on this site about was a completely random one. It wasn’t until looking at a large image of the album cover that I noticed “LOOK OUT” was written in small letters. This is an inside joke, and approximatly 1-2 of you will see the humour in this.
Anyway, onto the musical side of things now- The Big Bang EP by Azoora consists of 6 songs. Well, 3 songs, but with 2 versions of each of them. The first 3 songs would be jammed somewhere in the acoustic-y folk rock genre…if such a genre exists.
The opening song, Cruise Control, is probably the standout track on the EP. Starting with soft, folky guitars and spoken lyrics, it builds up with the inclusion of some electronic-ish drums and a mighty catchy chorus.
The second song, Lying Back- Fire in Our Eyes is similar in format; in that it starts of soft and builds into another solid folk-rock song.
The final song of the first half of the EP, She’s Coming, is probably the weakest of the 3. But considering the praise i give to the first 2 songs, this doesn’t really mean much.

The second half of the EP is essentially a set of remixes of the first half. Well, sort of. The band have many tastes and ideas, and therefor deliberatly record 2 versions of their songs.
The 2nd half companion song to Cruise Control, Cruise Control Attacks!!!, is basically an electronic version, and is the strongest of these “2nd version” songs.

Overall, The Big Bang EP is sure to be an enjoyable addition to any music library.
You can download the EP here. If you enjoy it, other Azoora releases are availabe for FREE AND LEGAL downloading here!

Andy Wagner is a folk musician from Chicago (I think). This is his only free release, and is but a mere 25 minutes long. He had a second album, and it is available on his website (though you have to pay for it…but I’m not gonna talk against paying for music!).

Andy creates peaceful, relaxing folk music. It’s instantly enjoyable and good for calming the soul. The record is pretty damn short, but to me it gives the desired effect perfectly with it’s length. Any longer and I may have grown tired of listening, and any shorter and I’d be craving more. He has a good voice, and he’s obviously very into his music. If you’re looking for a more DIYish Bright Eyes or Elliot Smith, you should give Andy Wagner a listen. Or give him a listen if you’d just like some relaxing folk music.

Dave Hughes is a folk-punk musician from Glasgow, Scotland. The music (at least in this EP) is a lot more on the folk side of things, but it’s still got enough…uh…punkiness to stop it being pure folk.

I saw the end of Dave Hughes’ set (supporting The World/Inferno Friendship Society) last week. I didn’t catch enough to really feel much for what I thought of the music, so I was pretty excited to find out he offers his music for free online. Awesome. I could check him out and see if he is worthy of my blog!

Turns out he was worthy of my blog. The sound is pretty amateur and anything but polished, but honestly, I think it adds to the feeling. The best folk-punk (in my opinion) is a little rough sounding. It’s all very catchy nevertheless, and (aha, this is a love/hate thing) you can here his Glasgow accent strongly on some of tracks (which I feel adds to the folksiness of it). The Sinners and Saints EP has 5 studio (or uh…basement/garage maybe) recorded tracks and a live track. The live track is the one I caught last week. It’s catchy. It got me intrigued.

So, if you’re interested, download the EP, or check Dave out at www.davehughesmusic.co.uk/ (where you can download his entire back catalog for free!).

I don’t know much about Ralph Buckley and to be honest his website bugs me too much to bother navigating about. He is no relation to Jeff Buckley as far as I can tell, however! He’s a singer/songwriter anyway and makes some real pretty and catchy folky/indie music with a dash of blues thrown in. If you like this album I’ll upload more. His website offers all tracks as individual mp3s, which is not what I want to offer you people. Request more if you wish and I’ll be happy to upload!

The Dada Weathermen is a folksy music project by a guy from Paris. The vocals share great similarity of those of Conor Oberst (Bright Eyes), but don’t let that put you off! The music is pretty similar, but it has a lot more to it. More atmosphere and more melody. We even have some bluesy influences thrown into the equation.

The music is mostly peaceful and delicate. Pretty stuff that makes you feel calm. The strings section is used to great effect, making the music that bit more interesting.

If you like Bright Eyes you’ll like this, and if you don’t like Bright Eyes you may very well like it anyway!

Abscondo is a folk musician from the US who is currently residing in Slovakia. He is also part of another folk project, named Sungod Abscondo, and from what I gather they play very similar music – ie – acoustic folk music.

This is music by one man and his guitar, and it is both peaceful and emotive. His voice is very similar (in my opinion) to Brian Molko, the lead singer of Placebo, although Abscondo’s voice is somewhat softer.

The stand-out track for me here is the title track Stages, although everything on it is well-crafted music you’d quite happily listen to in a coffee shop or a similar relaxed, small venue.

Menhris Of Er Grah is a folk band (apparently, though I’m pretty sure it’s just one guy) from London. This is his debut album and the only free record he offer. It’s a gentle and peaceful acoustic record. It’s easily listenable due to it’s length, though personally I find it makes perfect background music, and it’s good for having a calming effect, since it’s pretty rather than interesting.

Seemingly this record has been downloaded over 40,000 times, which is pretty impressive for such a small “band”.