3-4-FREE - 24/02/2011 - The Kabeedies, Architecture in Helsinki, Cold War Kids (Blended Babies Remix)

Hello one and all, ready for some more free music? I thought so...

THE KABEEDIES - SANTIAGO

Let's start with wonderful, Norwich and Woodbridge-based indie-popsters The Kabeedies. As the name suggests, this track has a somewhat Hispanic vibe to it while still keeping everything that has always made the Kabeedies awesome - urgent boy-girl vocals, frantic drumming and pure, unadulterated danceability. And it's got trumpets on it and all! Whilst you're over at their Bandcamp page you should also check out the 3-track EP they've put up called 'Bonus Tracks' which is also available as a free download - result!

ARCHITECTURE IN HELSINKI - CONTACT HIGH

http://stereogum.com/642201/architecture-in-helsinki-contact-high/mp3s/

And next up is Architecture in Helsinki, who in the vein of I'm From Barcelona and Tokyo Police Club, aren't from anywhere near the location in their name but are, in fact, Aussies. From Melbourne to be precise. In Contact High you have an awesome bit of falsetto-laden electro lusciousness, which somehow manages to simultaneously bounce and swagger out of your speakers. All in all, this is a very promising indicator of their forthcoming album Moving Bends, which is out on April 11th in Europe.

THE COLD WAR KIDS - MINE IS YOURS (BLENDED BABIES REMIX)

Finally, we have the charmingly named Blended Babies Remix of the brilliant Cold War Kids track, Mine is Yours. Much in the style of what Metermaids did with Sufjan Stevens' tracks on their EP Nightlife in Chicago, this reworking turns the mellow indie rock track into a sloping hip hop track. Sir Michael Rocks of The Cool Kids is on MC duties and does an excellent job, with a nostalgic, reminiscing flow that just seems to tie in very well with the low key Nathan Fillett vocal of the chorus.

Well, that's your lot for this week, hope you like them!

LEND THEM YOUR EARS - 21/02/2011 - WE SHOW UP ON RADAR

Hello everyone, as the miserable weather of February looks to give way to the equally miserable, but slightly warmer, weather of March I come to you bearing the gift of melancholic indie pop, in the form of We Show Up On RadaR

A threesome from Nottingham, We Show Up On RadaR produce a rather wonderful, low key type of indie that you could probably find nestled somewhere in the corner of a low budget, British-made Ellen Page film. Songs featuring singing spiders, the use of biological warfare as a metaphor for love and animal sports days (complete with commentary) mark out the bittersweet territory the band patrol with their glockenspiels, keyboards and acoustic guitars. Having supported Bright Eyes earlier this month, WSUOR are working on their album at the moment, with the rather ace I'll Be A Ghost having been made available as a free download on their Bandcamp page. You can get it just below, because I'm nice like that.

Sounding at times like The Boy Least Likely To, after they've listened to a lot of Super Furry Animals and then got somewhat upset about the fact, WSUOR certainly strum at some pretty effective heartstrings. So far they've released Mountain Top and Spider on a Thread as a limited run double A-side single and a 6 track EP entitled A Loaf Of Bread, A Container Of Milk & A Stick Of Butter and do a really quite wonderful line in charming artwork and animated videos as seen in this delightful visual accompaniment for It Should Be You and Me... 

So, all in all, WSUOR are making the kind of music to cuddle up to, sweet but tinged with sadness, laden with school music class percussion and charm by the bucketful. And that is why, dear Sir/Madam/other, you should lend them your ears.

We Show Up On RadaR have various homes on this big wide web, including their Myspace - myspace.com/wsuor , Bandcamp - weshowuponradar.bandcamp.com , Facebook - facebook.com/pages/We-Show-Up-On-RadaR/28073963604 and their profile page on their record label Hello Thor's website - hellothor.com/index.php?/artists/we-show-up-on-radar/

There are currently no plans for any live shows, but hey, these things can change.

3-4-FREE - 17/02/2011 - Adele (Jamie XX Reshuffle), Jack Rundell and Moby

Word up peeps and peepettes, here's some free music for your lovely, lovely ears -

ADELE - ROLLING IN THE DEEP (JAMIE XX RESHUFFLE)
http://stereogum.com/637331/remixtape-vol-i/mp3s/





Jamie from the XX once again puts his remixer hat on and adds to his dazzling array of reworkings with this mess-around of Adele's most recent single. It's not quite up there with his unbelievable remix of Florence & The Machine - You Got the Love but the minimalist electronica additions to the bluesy, ballsy original make for a rather brilliant listen. Also available at the link above is an entire album of recent remixes collected by Stereogum, including Mogwai re-imagining Yuck's Rubber and Diplo's remix of Sleigh Bells' fantastic Tell 'Em.

JACK RUNDELL - SMALLEST KID IN SCHOOL
http://jackrundell.co.uk/       (click on records)

Ipswich singer-songwriter Jack Rundell is nice enough to make pretty much everything he wrote from 2005-2009 up on his website to download for free. My favourite of his songs, which tend to channel the spirits of Adam Green, The Holy Modal Rounders and The White Stripes to make a brilliantly quirky anti-folk-punk-rock racket, is Smallest Kid in School. The song is a tale of befriending, and feigning affection for, a weirdo so as to get to drive his awesome car.

MOBY - SEVASTOPOL
http://rcrdlbl.com/artists/Moby/track/Sevastopol





Moby is back with his own unique brand of chin-stroking, radio friendly vegan techno music in the form of the Be The One EP, available to download all over the place. Whilst, in these days where we have things such as MGMT and Holy Ghost!, this may seem to be rather less relevant than when Moby was first becoming something of an icon there is still something equally soothing and challenging about Sevastopol as it beeps and boops and soars in equal measures.