Friday Freebies

Meursault
God Don't Like it have a free Download of Meursault’s 'Crank Resolutions' up for grabs. It's taken from their 2nd album “All Creatures will Make Merry” which is due out at the end of May.

Wounded Knee
I caught Drew aka 'Wounded Knee' last week at the warm up to the Dead Parrots 3rd birthday bash, alongside the ever fabulous RM Hubbert. Both of them put on top performances, so I must admit that I was well chuffed when I stumbled across his newest release, The Ayrtime.Org EP, it's available for free download here.

The Pernice Brothers
You can download an MP3 from their upcoming record “Goodbye, Killer,” which is out in mid June, all you have to do to get the new song “Jacqueline Susann” is click here.

Glasgow Podcart
the lovely Podcart folk have put up a few more sessions up for download, including sessions from Beerjacket, Julia and the Doogans and Dead Boy Robotics, they're all available for free download on their Bandcamp.

Beneath Us The Waves
A bootleg recording of Beneath Us The Waves live at the Liquid Ship for Elba Sessions is up for free download here.

Dananananaykroyd
Those pesky kids and their fun ways, they've only gone and recorded a cover of the Friends theme tune for all their Facebook/Twitter followers. Seeing as I don't want you lot missing out you can download it here.

Sleigh Bells
This weeks hipster freebie comes from the amazing Sleigh Bells, I cannae wait for their album to come out. If the demos that are floating about are anything to go by then this could be something pretty damn special. Until then you can get an inkling of what to expect by downloading "Tell 'em" over on their homepage. Sweet as the proverbial fucking nut.

Go-Away Birds
The latest offering from the band made up of folk from Zoe Van Goey and Gold Help the Girl has just been up for grabs. Head on over to their homepage to download their latest EP 'Those Bombs' which is available completely gratis.

Ash
Those wacky Irish men are still banging away at their A-Z compilation, what larks they are. They have 3 tracks up for free download, including a remix by Mogwai, just over to their homepage and you'll find the links on the right hand side of the page.

Throwing Muses
A new Throwing Muses demo, "Freesia" is up for free download here.

Hair Rocket
A free download of Pennsylvanian indie pop outfit Hari Rocket's debut EP 'Don't Leave A Light On' , is up for free on their Bandcamp (cheers to Drunk Country for the tip off).

The Monroe Transfer
The London post-rockers got a cracking review on Line of Best Fit this week, if you fancy giving them a go then head over to their Bandcamp where you can download their song 'Waltz' for free.

Muscle Club
Their song 'We Don't Watch We Stare' is up for free download, and as you probably already guessed it's up on their Bandcamp. Don't you just love Bandcamp, so simple yet so fucking brilliant.

Casino Queen
The Lo-fi Edinburgh outfit have an EP up for free download, and yep you guessed it, it's Bandcamp time. Fuck I am starting to feel like one of the American Pie movies going by the number of times I've mentioned the 'B' word this week.


Interpol
In a first for Friday Freebies, I have embedded a download link so you don't have to bugger off anywhere else. As I know how much you all love it here, all that beautiful green-ness. Aye, anyway, NYC hipster folks Interpol have a new song up for grabs. Download it below.

Kowalskiys Komplimentary Korner

Arran Arctic
Sign up to his mailing list and you get an acoustic version of one of his album tracks!
Just click here.

Fresh Meat Monday - Beneath Us, The Waves

photo by John Linton

Would you care to introduce yourself?
Of course. Hi, I'm Neil and I'm from Scotland but am living in Warsaw in Poland just now. Primarily, I'm a musician and composer, occasionally writing under my own name but more often than not as beneath us, the waves. I also run and manage the too many fireworks record label and am part of a photography and podcasting collaboration, We Sink Ships. So, yeah. That's me.

How would you describe the music you make?

Um... I guess the music I write is a mixture of contemporary, minimalist classical music and more experimental, ambient soundscapes. I've been quoted recently as saying it's "glacial" but that wasn't me. haha. Someone else said that. I just liked it.

How did you start out making music?

I started as a teenager really, with an old battered eko acoustic guitar with action so high I could barely fret the strings. By my early 20s I played in a band called Troika who were very schizophrenic in the music that they played, skipping from instrumental post-rock to early 80's new wave inspired post-punk. It was really fun but ran its course. During and after Troika, I continued to run too many fireworks while trying several aborted solo projects before giving up for a few years entirely in 2006, concentrating instead in photography. Last year, I started to write again, this time in a completely different way. People seemed to like what they heard and I had the confidence to keep going.

What process goes into the way you write songs?

Procrastination and panic. hahah. I write mainly on my computer using Cubase or Ableton Live with piano and strings samples to demo the songs. I've been teaching myself music theory and more recently I might develop a piece entirely in my head and on paper but more often than not I sit down and mess around until something sounds familiar and comfortable.

What can people expect from your live shows?

I'll be performing the shows with a live string quartet so that's pretty exciting. There will be more performance than just me sitting behind a piano occasionally prodding a midi controller. One of my songs, "The Secret to Snow" seems fairly popular but we decided early on that we couldn't perform this one live as I would need to increase the musicians on stage by adding two guitarists, a bass player and a drummer. That said, we're considering playing it just the once at the last show in Stereo on the 12th April if the other bands on the bill will help out.

What are you all listening to at the moment?

I'm listening to, and being influenced quite a lot by Arvo Pärt, Max Richter and Ólafur Arnalds at the moment. I've also recently got into a guy called Richard Skelton. Beautiful music. As well as that, there's an amazing record label from southern England called Schedios records whose owner, Clem Leek is a tremendous young musician and also signed up an wonderful pianist called Anna Rose Carter. Definitely worth checking out. I'm excited by some of the bands I'm playing with in the next couple of weeks too, The Scottish Enlightenment, Japanese War Effort, Euan McMeeken, Maple Leaves and the Last Battle.

What can we expect to see/hear from you in 2010?

I'm working on an e.p. of ambient soundscapes where each song will be influenced or inspired by Polish, Scottish and Icelandic folk music respectively. If there's time before release, I'm hoping to have one of the songs remixed by friends of mine which will be very exciting. Other than that, I've started working on my first classical release for later in the year. I'll also be planning to follow up my first shows this month with more in summer and late autumn while also doing some shows in Poland. I'm very excited that I've also been asked to score strings for other artists, so there may be periods of "radio silence" through the year while I work on these. As if I wasn't busy enough, Too many fireworks will also be relaunching as a net-label later in Spring so there's that to come as well.


Beneath Us, The Waves - Elegy for Tramway (MP3)


beneath us, the waves has the following live dates lined up
29/03 - Roxy Art House, Edinburgh (DJ-set) - with Benni Hemm Hemm, Tisso Lake and Skeleton Bob
30/03 - The Wee Red Bar, Edinburgh - with Japanese War Effort and Euan McMeeken (Kays Lavelle)
01/04 Liquid Ship, Glasgow - Elba Sessions gig along with Scottish Enlightenment
12/04 - Stereo, Glasgow - with Maple Leaves and the Last Battle
To buy tickets for the Stereo gig just click on the pretty picture below.
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