Posts Tagged ‘free music’

LAKE R▲DIO and “Witch House”

Even after a little research, I’m not sure exactly what qualifies music for the “witch house” genre, other than often including triangles in names. But I’ve now come across two things I like that are apparently in that genre. I probably would not have given them a chance had I heard the genre name before I heard the music.

The more recent of these two discoveries is Lake Radio. Lake Radio is Caden Moore, and I came across his album Dream House while looking for interesting free music at Bandcamp.com one night.

Here are a few other albums on the same label, all of them worth a listen. Musical styles vary, and they are all either free or pay-what-you-want:

I also recommend these two sampler albums, which include songs by the artists listed above and others (some of which may well deserve to be mentioned specifically as well–I’m still making my way through them):

I mentioned that I’ve come across two so-called witch house musicians that I like. The other is an Australian who goes by Horse Macgyver (and who has in the past been known as ///▲▲▲\\\ and _v_o_i_d_).

I don’t know of an official download source for Horse Macgyver’s music. (The Bandcamp page seems to be broken as of this writing.) But you should be able to find something if you search for Horse Macgyver Void EP.

Here’s a sample (Youtube link) that might help you decide whether it’s something that would appeal to you.

 

Some Music from Finland

Some time ago, I discovered that there are “netlabels” out there that offer lots of free, high-quality music. (Examples include Kahvi Collective, Ubiktune, and Soft Phase.)

Kyoto Republic was one of the smaller netlabels I came across, but it ended up having a high concentration of releases that would end up becoming lasting favorites of mine. And most of these releases turned out to be by just one person, Finnish musician Ilkka Hänninen.

Hänninen has released music under several names over the years, including Jean Nine, Trailing Space, and Finnish Pop Sensation, with my favorites being the Trailing Space albums. Aside from the Kyoto Republic page, you can find more of his work on the Jean Nine Bandcamp page. Until recently, you could also find some at trailingspace.net.

If I were to recommend a couple of albums to sample, I’d probably go with these two:

I’d like to be helpful and describe the type of music that I’m referring to here, but I can never keep my genre names straight. Appropriate terms might include post-rock, space rock, down-tempo, and IDM.

A compilation album on the Kyoto Republic site, These Days Are Not for Us, introduced me to the work of Jori Kemppi (who has also released music under the name Jori TJ Kemppi). I found Kemppi’s music somewhat challenging to track down. Fortunately, he released a 2012 album, Genmaicha Sessions, that includes some of his best tracks:

As of this writing, some songs by both of these musicians seem to be available nowhere but on their Last.fm pages: