Shake That Little Foot Sees 300K+ Downloads on FMA

B'Gosh and Begorrah! When an as yet unnamed band joined together in Liverpool in 1993 recording an unnamed album of traditional music, none present might have guessed how beloved that album would become around the world.

Eventually, the band became Shake That Little Foot. After getting their original tracks from the recording engineer, the band released the album online, and everywhere it is shared it becomes a favorite.

Since Oddio Overplay uploaded the album to the Free Music Archive, there have been more than 300,000 downloads there alone. That's a lot of new ears enjoying Shake That Little Foot!

Today, we are celebrating the success of an unnamed band's lovely unnamed album made for the joy of music and shared for free with the whole world. Hurray for Shake That Little Foot!

(Last promoted 20 May 2010)

MUSIC COPYRIGHTS: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License
IMAGE: Painting on the cover is "The Dancing Couple" (1663) by Jan Steen housed in the National Gallery of Art (US)
NATIONALITY: Euro: UK: England: Liverpool
CLASSIFICATIONS: Folk; Americana; American Folk; England; English Folk; Banjo; Fiddle; Old-Time; Celtic; Mountain
FILED UNDER: Digital: Traditional: Multi Region

Uncle Neptune Returns

Our beloved Uncle Neptune has returned to the Internet with a reissue of his first album now on Happy Puppy Records.

Happy Puppy Records | FMA | CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Company) | Kazoomzoom | Archived Official Website

Music License: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License
Artist Location: Canada

Jarrell Perry's Rhythm and Blues

Jarell Perry's controlled voice soars in layers through his self-released LP, Simple Things. The contemporary R&B album was released on his website this spring and is making quite a splash.

Idolator says, "... it’s Perry’s vocal skills alone that might be the most impressive part of this whole package: a melodic, full-bodied blend somewhere in between Miguel and Usher. Seriously — the man knows how to wail with conviction."

MTV's Buzzworthy notes, "In addition to co-writing Fat Joe and Chris Brown's 'Another Round,' Jarell's worked with everyone from Cormega, Thurz, and Cadence Weapon, to Usher, to producers Diplo, Hassan Johnson, and Boi-1da."

Jarell Perry - Simple Things (continuous mix) by JarellPerry

Official Website | SoundCloud | Facebook | YouTube

Music License: All Rights Reserved
Artist Location: California, USA

New Sounds of São Paulo, Brazil

Sounds and Colours is a magazine promoting South American music and culture. Their compilation Nossa, Cara! New Sounds of São Paulo showcases some of the best sounds coming from Sao Paulo.

Sounds and Colours writes:

Nossa, Cara! New Sounds of São Paulo is a labour of love highlighting what we think are some of the most exciting artists to be found anywhere in the world, never mind stacked up on top of each other in the same city.

Nossa, Cara! New Sounds of São Paulo in partnership with Brasil Music Exchange features a wide variety of music being made in São Paulo today. M. Takara 3, Psilosamples and Guizado represent some of the exciting electronic music coming out of the city. Chankas and Bodes e Elefantes make music which has a fearless approach to sonic exploration. The sounds of north-eastern Brazil are represented by Iara Rennó, Juçara Marçal e Kiko Dinucci and Metá-Metá (featuring Juçara and Kiko with added Thiago França). R. Brandao and Lurdez da Luz show the way forward for São Paulo hip-hop. They are joined by Tulipa, Bruno Morais and Lulina, who continue the MPB tradition in delightfully absurd ways, Karina Buhr, Juliana R and Bárbara Eugênia who bring a number of new ideas to the Brazilian cantora tradition, and Rafael Castro, who confounds with each new slice of dexterous folk or rock he puts to tape. 

Nossa, Cara! New Sounds of São Paulo is available from the Sounds and Colours website and from Bandcamp.

Official Website | SoundCloud | Bandcamp | Facebook

Music License: © All Rights Reserved
Artist Location: São Paulo, Brazil

Sylvain Rifflet

Last summer, composer and reed multi-instrumentalist Sylvain Rifflet and his group Alphabet released a remarkable album simply titled Alphabet. The Free Jazz Collective review states that among the bounty of great albums released last year,  there are few "that contain compositions and performances possessing the conviction, immediacy, and joie de vivre of Alphabet."

Sylvain Rifflet shares his album Alphabet with you on his website. Also, preview and purchase the album at Amazon.

Personnel: Sylvain Rifflet - compositions, saxophone, clarinets, computer, toy instruments, electronics; Joce Mienniel - flutes, computer, toy instruments, electronics; Benjamin Flament - vibraphone, percussion, electronics; Philippe Gordiani - guitars.

New group, New Compositions, New Sounds: Sylvain Rifflet Introduces Alphabet
Alphabet is a mix of all his influences, from acoustic to electronic music, from pop-rock to contemporary music, from Tom Waits to Cliff Martinez alongside Steve Reich or Phillip Glass.

The review at All About Jazz reports that the album:

... presents an ensemble using electronics, sound manipulation, minimalism, classical ideals, film score suggestions, trance music—and, yes, jazz—as the "basic elements" that lead to the "complex entities" that are his compositions.

Rifflet's pieces can best be viewed as hypnotic sound collages for quartet. While no two numbers sound the same, Rifflet does revel in the opportunity to create balance between change and consistency throughout.... While it takes a track or two to acclimate to Rifflet's world, it proves to be a wonderful place to visit once the ear has made its adjustment.

Sylvain Rifflet's next album is dedicated to the music of Moondog!

PERPETUAL MOTION: A celebration of Moondog (Teaser)

Official Website | Metisse Music Profile | myspace | Selmer Profile | Vimeo

Music License: © All Rights Reserved
Artist Location: Paris, France

Funk Diva Saidah Baba Talibah

Canadian chanteuse Saidah Baba Talibah is bringing the funk sound today, as powerfully as diva Betty Davis did in her day. Saidah's album (S)Cream is funky, sticky, rocking, and waiting for you.

Press release: Satisfying and soulful. Raw and raunchy. Inspiring, tantalizing and scandalous. Dripping with sensuality. Saidah Baba Talibah will take you on a trip, get you high, bring you to your knees and take you to that place called grace, all in one album. Known as an electrifying performer, Saidah Baba Talibah has a powerful voice, which goes from a seductive, soft purr to a powerful bellow at the turn of a dime.

Now Magazine (Canada's largest weekly): "There’s Rock n' Roll. And then there’s the Rock n' Soul of buzzy Toronto-bred vocalist Saidah Baba Talibah, daughter of Tony and Grammy Award-nominated icon Salome Bey, 'Canada's First Lady of Blues'. Strong bloodline notwithstanding, Saidah is a fierce artist that isn't afraid to combine rock/funk/soul in all of her performances!"

Official Website | Noisetrade | Bandcamp | Facebook | iTunes | Amazon

Music License: All Rights Reserved
Image: Saidah Baba Talibah for Kamoy Magazine
Artist Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

The Guitaret Album

The Guitaret is an an electric lamellophone instrument by produced by Hohner andinvented in 1963 by Ernst Zacharias. It was only produced for two years. The Guitaret has a tone something like an electric thumb piano (kalimba) and a plucked guitar or banjo.

Champion of the instrument, Michael Peters (Tonlab), released an album featuring the Guitaret a few weeks ago with several fellow performers.  The 11-song compilation is aptly titled The Guitaret Album.

See Vintage Audio Berlin's online museum for photos of the instrument. Hohner offers downloads of the original Guitaret product flyer and player's guide.

Owners of Guitarets are invited to join the Facebook Guitaret Fan Club where these artists gathered and planned this release.

Michael Peters Official Website | Hohner Guitaret

Music License: © All Rights Reserved
Images: the original Guitaret product flyer and player's guide by Hohner

Film Noir Spy Themes from GeeNerve

Suspense Dance Delights by GeeNerve (Guido Erfen) is an album we promoted years ago at Oddio. On listening to these film noir spy themes again, we knew we had to share this gem on Blogio, too. See the liner notes for more info. The notes are included in the cover art booklet, as well.

So Healthy Music, the label and netlabel Erfen co-founded, still offers several additional releases for your pleasure.

Official Website | So Healthy Music Label | Internet Archive

Music License: Creative Commons BY-NC-SA
Artist Location: Cologne, Germany

Discount Hi-Fi, Friends Making Music

Discount Hi-Fi is or was a business in the Porter District of Gainesville, Florida, USA.
Discount Hi-Fi is also the name of a band in the same town. Discount Hi-Fi is an album by the Melodicans, also of Gainesville, and made up of some of the same friends as the band Discount Hi-Fi. It is also the name of an album by fellow Florida band Honey Chamber.

The Letter by Discount Hi-Fi is an album of melodic pop rock. This is the fun album that had the Oddio Team digging for more information.



Meanwhile, Discount Hi-Fi by the Melodicans is an album of reggae tinted pop songs.



Cheers to all the musician friends who make this music together.


Music License: Both albums © All Rights Reserved
Image: Discount Hi Fi, Gainesville, FL by Samfeltus
Artist Location: Gainesville, Florida, USA

Stealing Orchestra's Deliverance Album

Possibly the best experimental album ever made is now made free to all.

Stealing Orchestra has chosen to give you their album Deliverance as a gift on the anniversary of its original release.

Read more at the Free Music Archive and in the original release Blogio post.

Highly recommended.

SoundCloud | Facebook | Free Music Archive | myspace | Label | Wikipedia | Discogs

Music License: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives
Artist Location: Portugal

New David Byrne and St Vincent EP

David Byrne writes today of a 5-song EP from David Byrne and St. Vincent:

"After the release of Love This Giant last year, we did a tour of North America and Australia that was like nothing we’ve ever done before—drums, keys and Annie and I supported by 8 choreographed brass players. We did the new material, but also a lot of recognizable songs, arranged for that group. The sound is incredible, and it’s a bit of a visual spectacle as well. We were pretty excited at how it turned out. The critical and audience response was great too! Touring a group that size with a fairly complex show is a big financial gulp, so it has taken us a while to collect enough offers in North America and Europe, but now they are in and we kick off in a few weeks.

"One of our business folks had the idea that we might offer a taste of what we’re up to—so we put together an EP to give folks a taste of what to expect. It has one song that didn’t make it on the record (a waltz featuring some lovely glass harmonica), a couple of energized remixes of some of the album tunes and two live tracks of the sort of more familiar material we do in the set. Did we say it’s FREE? We’re very excited at how this whole project came out so we want more folks to discover it. Download it below!"

The David Byrne and St. Vincent tour begins in June. The Brass Tactics EP comes with cover art and a credits and lyrics booklet.

Music License: all rights reserved
Image: Byrne and Clark, courtesy lovethisgiant.com

Planet Hopping Week: Mexican: Eva Maria

We are concluding our globe-trotting adventure! The last stop on our Planet Hopping Week is Mexico.

Our final artist is famous ranchera and ballada singer Eva Maria (Eva Maria Ramirez-y-Santana). She shares four of her albums on Jamendo.

Her award-winning album Dos Caras is a classic.

Eva Maria's other albums on Jamendo:

• Reencuentro
• A Mis Hermanos (Luz de Luna)
• Fuego Nuevo

Music License: Creative Common Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike
Artist Location: Ciudad de México, México

Planet Hopping Week: Guyanese: Terry Gajraj

We are continuing on our globe-trotting adventure! The sixth stop on our Planet Hopping Week is Guyana in South America.

Our sixth artist is East Indian Guyanese singer Terry Gajraj. His album Phagwah in Guyana celebrates the Hindu Festival of Color (Holi, Phagwah, Dol Jatra, Basantotsav).

About 45% of Guyana is East Indian, so the Indian culture thrives in this South American nation, as in several Caribbean island nations.

Terry makes this album available for free on his website where you can hear songs from and purchase his many other albums.

Official Website | YouTube | Facebook

Music License: All Rights Reserved
Artist Location: Guyana

Planet Hopping Week: Jerusalem: Ofri Eliaz

Continuing on our globe-trotting adventure, the fifth stop on our Planet Hopping Week is tricky, because this ancient culture has established communities in North Africa, the Balkans, Western Europe, and the USA. We are talking about Sephadi Jews. Sephardic refers to the descendants of Jewish settlers, originally from the Ottoman Empire, who lived in the Iberian Peninsula, in Spain and Portugal, until the Spanish Inquisition.

Our fifth artist is Ofri Eliaz. Her album Ya Salio De La Mar: Ladino Songs is sung in the Spanish dialect Ladino.

She writes:

In 1492 the Jews were expelled from Spain. They were forced to leave without their belongings, but they carried with them their heritage, their language (a dialect of Spanish called Ladino) and their love of music to their new homes. For centuries, the heartfelt and melodic music of the Sephardic Jews accompanied them all in the nations they settled, from North Africa to Balkans to Turkey, Greece, Italy and America to present-day in Israel. Those diverse influences are evidenced in their culture and music.

Wherever they settled- they established and lived in close-knit communities, maintaining their own customs and traditions. Music played a major part in their communal life and on special occasions -- days of sorrow or joy -- they sang the ballads handed down from generation to generation....

Most Sephardic Jews in the United States trace their heritage back to the lands of the former Ottoman Empire. The Sephardic musical heritage is most noted for its rich body of "Romansas" ( ballads), "Cantigas" ( folk songs), and "Endechas"( laments) in Ladino, may of which go back to Medieval and Renaissance Spain and are found in variants throughout the Hispanic world.

This vibrant Sephardic song culture has been passed down within communities throughout the Mediterranean, as well as in Israel and the Americas. While contemporary interpretations have tended to present it as "early music", Sephardic music actually belongs to the Middle Eastern musical sphere. Much of it utilizes the system "magams" or modes, common to Turkish, Arabic, Greek, Persian and other Mediterranean and near Eastern music. The instruments traditionally used to accompany Ladino singing (from Turkey and the Balkan) are typical of Ottoman Turkish popular music at the turn of the century, and include oud, kanun, tanbur, djumbush, dumbeg, tambourine, as well as other instruments.

Official Website | Jamendo | Jamendo Blog | Facebook

Music License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike
Artist Location: Jerusalem

Planet Hopping Week: Brazilian: Various Artists

Continuing on our globe-trotting adventure, stop four on our Planet Hopping Week is Brazil.
 
Contemporary composer Aldo Brizzi wrote the music for Brizzi do Brasil, an album of songs written for Brazilian and Portuguese artists, such as Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, Teresa Salgueiro of Madredeus, and Carlinhos Brown. 

Italian born Brizzi lives in Salvador Bahia. He writes:

The original idea that inspired this recording was to write a musical based on the libretto of the Mexican poet Francisco Serrano, a story about Orpheus who descends into hell, and who, instead of meeting Eurydice, encounters Alice in Wonderland.

I prepared four demo songs for the producers of the project, and these were a bit removed from the usual projects for which I’m known. I proposed the idea to Alan Foix, director of a studio in Paris which received subvention from the Ministry of French Culture, and he became enthusiastic about the project. From him I obtained space and support to record some pieces. It was during the World Cup in France, and the presence of many Brazilian artists in Paris helped.

The original release of the album, Brizzi do Brasil, is available for free download at last.fm, and the reissue is available for purchase from the usual music sources

ALBUM: Official Site | Making of | Song Info + Lyrics | last.fm | Amazon | Amazon (reissue)

BRIZZI: Official Website | last.fm | Facebook | Amazon | myspace | YouTube

Music License: all rights reserved
Artist Location: Brazil; Italy

Planet Hopping Week: Vietnamese: Thuy Hanh

We are continuing on our globe-trotting adventure! The third stop on our Planet Hopping Week is Vietnam.

Our third artists are Thúy Hạnh with Thạch Cầm and Bảo Cường. They celebrate their homeland in song on the album Hương Quê Mẹ [My Motherland]. It is made available by the Hồn Quê website.

Music License: All Rights Reserved
Artist Location: Viet Nam

Second Volume of Popular Ambient Album

Last year, Canadian recording artist, CBC radio technician and producer, and independent label operator Lee Rosevere released Time-Lapse: Volume 1, ambient minimal electronic reworkings of classical works.

Now, Rosevere has released Time Lapse: Volume 2, a set of his own long-form ambient compositions. These new works are "intended for meditation or just relaxing to," according to the Happy Puppy Records label on which the work is released.

By the end of track four, "Squinting at the Sun," listeners at Oddio Overplay headquarters reported feeling relaxed and at peace. If we can pipe this into global political and financial institutions, perhaps this album will save the world.

Enjoy both of the instrumental Time Lapse albums at:

Free Music Archive - Volume 1 | Volume 2

Internet Archive - Volume 1 | Volume 2

FMA | CDbaby | alonetone | CBC Music | Bandcamp | Happy Puppy Records

Music License: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported
Artist Location: Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Unexpected Music Source

A recent Blogio post mentioned that the automotive manufacturer Toyota gives away music releases. They have been doing this since at least 2010 on their Scion A/V site. Some recordings are no longer available for download, but many are.

Here are some that the Oddio Overplay gang have enjoyed. Visit to see what Scion A/V releases interest you.

1. The Melvins - The Bulls And The Bees (hard rock, heavy)
2. Bare - Altitude (bangers, dubstep)
3. The Gates of Slumber - Stormcrow (metal)

4. Corrosion of Conformity - Megalodon (hard rock, metal)
5. Various Artists - Label Showcase: Profound Lore Records (metal)
6. The King Khan Experience - The King Khan Experience (rock)

7. Midnight Magic - What the Eyes Can't See (disco, funk, R&B)
8. Reigning Sound - Abdication...For Your Love (garage rock, pop)
9. Static Revenger - Music In Motion (house, electro, dubstep)



Music License: all rights reserved

Spooky Orchestral Works from Nigel Simmons

Nigel Simmons is the gifted young American composer whose work "Devil's Candy Shop" opens the Calling All Fiends horror compilation at Oddio Overplay.

 

Simmons has two collections of his orchestral works available on SoundCloud. Nigel Simmons also shares a fun rock album, Nana Man, on Bandcamp.

Official Site | SoundCloud | Bandcamp

License: not found

Location: Ellensburg, WA, USA

Post-Rock from Dresden

ne:o are a five-piece group in Dresden, Germany, who blur genres between rock, jazz, and electronic music. They sometimes remind us of The Art of Noise and the great jazz-post-rock experimental bands.

Other times they call to mind Jaga Jazzist, who Wikipedia labels as Jazz, Nu jazz, Acid jazz, Electronica, Experimental rock, and Post-rock. ne:o drifts between those realms, too.

German netlabel Aaahh Records shares two albums by ne:o in which the band really shines, studio album illoj and a live performance album direkt. Both album pages have donation buttons for you to show your appreciation.

Official Website | Aaahh Records | Bandcamp | Donate | Shop | last.fm

Location: Dresden, Germany
Music License: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported
Image: Peter Seyfarth