Favourite Free Music of 2012 (A – D)

Liam Doyle — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 15:39:00 +0000

Here is the first installment of our favourite free music of 2012, starting with bands beginning with the letters A to D. Thanks to all the bands featured for making us happy with good music.

Acres – Acres

(RIYL – Post-Hardcore, Ambient, Post-Rock, The Devil Sold His Soul, Rinoa)

The Act Of Estimating As Worthless – Amongst These Splintered Minds//Leaden Thoughts Sing Softly

(RIYL: A Weather, The Microphones, Trouble Books)

A Dark Horse – A Dark Horse

(RIYL: Electric President/Radical Face, Elliott Smith, Sparklehorse)

Among Giants – Truth Hurts

(RIYL – Punk, Folk, Nana Grizol, Tony Hawk 2)

And The Giraffe – Creature Collector

(RIYL – Folk, Indie Rock, Iron & Wine)

Arrange – New Memory

(RIYL – Bedroom Pop, Ambient, M83, Bright Eyes)

August Nicky Golden – Demos

(RIYL – Folk, Punk, Lo-Fi)

Balto – Monuments

(RIYL – Americana, The Head And The Heart, The Lumineers, Tyler Lyle)

Black Atlass –The Black Atlass EP

(RIYL – Electronic, R&B, The Weeknd, James Blake, Holy Other)

Blacks& – A Ghost That Follows Me

(RIYL – Dance Pop, Chill, Tropical)

Broken Fences – Broken Fences

(RIYL – Acoustic, Harmonies, The Civil Wars, Stars)

The Caretaker – Extra Patience (After Sebald)

(RIYL – Experimental, Oneohtrix Point Never, Tim Hecker, Franz Schubert, WG Sebald)

Chad Serhal – Golden

(RIYL – Acoustic, Singer Songwriter, She Does Is Magic)

Damn You Laurie – Songs So Far

(RIYL – Indie Pop, Folk, Sing-a-longs, The Evening Chorus)

Daniel & The Lion – Free Love (Single)

(RIYL – Sappy songs, Dolorean, Donovan Woods, Noah Gundersen)

Darwin Raymond – Night

(RIYL – Ambient, Instrumental, Emotive)

Dose – So This Is Where We Are

(RIYL – Electronic, Instrumental, Hip Hop, Chillwave)

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It’s worth noting that a lot of these releases are available on a pay what you want basis, meaning that if you like a particular record you’re able to make a donation of your choice. I can’t stress highly enough how important it is to support these artists in any way you can. Buy their music or go see them live or buy a t-shirt or whatever, it really is the least we (as music fans) can do.

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Darwin Raymond – Night

Jon Doyle — Tue, 01 May 2012 21:19:00 +0000

’Night’ by Darwin Raymond is part of the Feedback Loop Label. The album is based on the events leading to and succeeding his wife’s death and, as Leonardo Rosado explains on the accompanying bio – explores how a single moment of extreme sadness or joy is surrounded by blurry but nonetheless memorable situations and actions and how the present is affected by memories of the past. Raymond pays homage to his own personal moment of pain but never allows the hint of optimism or redemption to disappear. Each track had one or more overlayed immediately afer recording in an effort to capture the feelings of each distinct time.

For me at least, ambient music is much more enjoyable with some sort of context in which to hear it. Much like a soundtrack for a film, you find yourself imagining what Raymond went through when he was making the album and suddenly the music makes sense. For example on ‘Riverside’ the fuzzy drone that outcompetes the other sounds is almost like the buzz of silence after something violent and shocking. The period of stillness where everything seems to have a slight hum, a residual vibration after a disturbance. The event is somehow still present despite time moving on. Reading the aims of the album which Raymond outlines on his website I would say this is exactly the kind of thing he was aiming for. A superb, haunting work which deserves some thought beyond casual listening.

Night is available from Bandcamp to stream or you can download the album here.

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Darwin Raymond Archives - Various Small Flames

Favourite Free Music of 2012 (A – D)

Darwin Raymond – Night