Free legal albums!

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!).

Noes Lomismo are a punk rock band from Chile. They were formed in 2004 and have released 4 EPs since then, as well as this record; their only full album.

The record is entirely sung in in Spanish, as you will be able to tell from the track titles. It’s really catchy stuff, and there’s even more than a few tracks with some brass instruments thrown in there. It’s not ska by any means, but the brass section adds an element of interest.

This was one of those albums I became fond of instantly. It’s fasted-paced and powerful. We have 17 tracks here in less than 40 minutes. Even for punk music, that’s pretty damn short! Not that that’s a criticism. This record is distributed by Lepork Records, who are also the record company behind The Leftouts and Mamushkas. Go here if you would like to visit their website (although I will, no doubt, listen to and possibly post some other stuff on the label at a later date, since it obviously has some great bands on offer).

Anyway, back to the album. Solid punk rock. Punk rock you want to dance to. If you can speak Spanish you’ll love it, and if you can’t, you’ll love it too.

Nomoredolls are an Italian female-fronted rock band. Normally I try to give everything as specific a sub-genre as possible when I post them here, but this is nothing other than rock. Rock with a pretty defined pop aesthetic, yes, but rock nonetheless.

The sound is very professional and well-polished (OK so I say that about half the stuff I post here…but it’s a quality a lot of you probably don’t expect from free music). The music is fun and diverse enough to keep one entertained for the album’s run-time of 46 minutes. The vocals are impressive, and the lead singer has a voice that can go relatively high and low while remaining strong the whole way through.

To be honest, this is one of the best female-fronted rock records I’ve ever heard. A lot of female-fronted rock is too “in your face” or, well, just a bit boring, but Nomoredolls are not at all like that. It wouldn’t matter if the singer was male or female, although this particular female definitely gives a lot to the music with her vocal talents.

This record is barely even an EP, but I don’t get the feeling Mr Khalid has a whole lot more to offer, and it’d be a shame to just bypass him because of it, so I’m posting anyway, even if 4 songs (with 2 remixes) doesn’t exactly make this valid for the “albums” part of the blog title.

Mr Khalid is a bit of an enigma…more of an enigma than any other artist I’ve had trouble finding info about. I don’t even know where he is from! I’m not sure which language the music is even in. I could risk a guess and say Arabic, but that is nothing more than a guess, and an assumption based on some of the comments on one of his songs on Youtube.

Alas, let’s not get caught up in background info. Mr Khalid does peaceful, pretty (modern “pop”) R&B music with very strong…Eastern influences throughout. If you’re into pop/the modern definition of R&B, this is a definite must-have for you. If it was in English I’d expect to be hearing it on the radio. I don’t imagine a lot of people browsing free legal music are going to be big chart-music fans, but y’know, sometimes giving this stuff a listen can be a good thing…don’t miss out on it due to snobbery!

Download it here.

Charlie Hilton is a 21 year old hip-hop producer from london, and this is his first (and only) mixtape released thus far. It’s good stuff and keeps your attention throughout. If you’re a fan of hip-hop, check this out…it’s awesme stuff and there’s a whole lot to it and some nice varied tracks with lots of great samples. This may be my favorite of all the hip-hop stuff I’ve posted.