The charming and tragic love story of Galatea, her beloved Acis, and the sinister cyclops Polyphemus is well-explained in the Mythology Guide. The text of the libretto is available from Opera Glass (Stanford University).
Handel wrote some of his most beautiful melodies for the story of Acis and Galatea, and it was Handel's most popular dramatic work. More about the work can be found at Wikipedia.
MusOpen is an archive of public domain classical performances and sheet music. Visitors may stream all the music, but MusOpen requires a free account login to download.
We dig the psychedelic indie pop and rock of The Spectacular Fantastic and have been promoting them to readers for years.
Remember the sounds of Camper Van Beethoven and early Flaming Lips? Mix those sounds with southern twang and bigger doses of psychedelic pop and you have yourself something like the mighty friendly flavor of The Spectacular Fantastic.
Mike writes, "TSF has been many things over the years. The "band" began as a solo recording project that eventually evolved into a full blown rock and roll band and has recently devolved back into a recording project in, near, and around Cincinnati.
"I have been very fortunate to share a musical bond with many of my friends over the past 5 years or so. The members/collaborators have included Jon Schwartz, Doug Baum, William Ryan Fletcher, Roger Pott, Bryan Dellefield, and Jonathan Williams. We have played many shows throughout the region and have released several albums and a few EPs. The lineup currently consists of Jonathan Williams and myself.
"We live in the studio and are refining and practicing the art of songwriting on an ongoing basis. We may or may not re-emerge as a live band but as long as I am around, we will probably release an album here and there. We do believe in making music that is easily accessible and either very affordable or free to enjoy."
The Kowloon Walled City sound is a conglomerate of bottom-heavy sludge, hardcore, and metal set to rock the teeth out of your skull.
Their name alone calls to mind one of the most anarchic, innovative, and disturbing human experiments of all time which can set your brain on edge before you even hear the band. Then you hear the band, and they pound through your chest.
Yeah, chocolate and peanut butter are a classic combination, but that can't hold a candle to the soul, rhythm and blues, and rock classic combination brought by Vintage Trouble.
Their writeup reads, "a new kind of soul band had been born with unlimited creativity and force."
The band is strong enough to open for the Rolling Stones and The Who this summer. Acts like that are quite an endorsement. Maybe you have seen them on The Tonight Show, Conan, Jools Holland, and making the rounds.
The Vintage Trouble 4-song NoiseTrade Sampler features the lead single off their debut album, "Blues Hand Me Down"; a live track of their song "Love With Me"; an acoustic version of their song "Nancy Lee"; and a recording of their song "World's Gonna Have To Take A Turn Around".
The press release of electric boogie funk monsters Juno What?! is spot on, saying:
Juno What?! is a shameless dance party. Formed in 2008, the band has quickly become the leading practitioner of high-energy disco booty jams, and live electro-funk.
Juno What?! is bringing their illuminated madness to stages across the country. Catalyzing dance floors into sonic landscapes, the band has ignited a devoted following of fans by providing raw, electrifying shows which are devoid of the aimless wanderings of the lesser jam community. Their sound is ahead of its time yet still rooted in the foundation of early-80’s dance grooves with a devout appreciation for sternum-bumping progressive themes.
Juno What?! kindly shares two booty-shakin' albums for your pleasure on their website!
The second album is live, and just check out how they bring it live:
The Black Lantern Music label is one of the best labels putting out exciting releases right now. Their artist roster includes acts like Tickle, Eaters, Nevada Base, Ill Papa Giraffe, Burning Bright, Comma, Asthmatic Astronaut, Daddy_Scrabble, Underling, and Krowne.
Black Lantern Music writes, "Over the years we have released a massive range of hip-hop, electronic and experimental music, taking in styles as diverse as jazz, techno, crunk, future bass, synth-pop, electro, alt.rap, math-rock, dark synth, chillwave, dubstep, ambient and doomcrunk... and that's just scratching the surface."
Also in the lineup is Fiona Soe Paing, a remarkable woman producing experimental electronic music mingled with her ethereal voice singing in Burmese and English. Her music takes you to new places. Here's an example of what we mean, the song "Daymoon Sun" from Fiona Soe Paing's Tower of Babel EP+DVD.
The song is also featured in the Black Lantern Music label sampler BLM:50 Raise the Black Lantern. The label says, "This Black Lantern 'best of' features 50 tracks, some from across our back catalogue, plus a few exclusives. It's available from our Bandcamp as a pay-what-you-want download. We release most of our music free of charge, and when we do charge, that money goes straight to the artists. We're raising funds for a website re-launch - if you can donate some money in exchange for these 50 tracks, we'd very much appreciate it."
Details from Fiona Soe Paing's profile at Black Lantern:
Based in Aberdeenshire, Fiona Soe Paing has been evolving her unique brand of experimental, vocal-led electronica since 2007. One of her first home demos, sung in fledgling phrasebook Burmese, was discovered on Myspace by the legendary BBC DJ Charlie Gillett, who included it on one of his Sound of the World compilations, released internationally on Warner Music, alongside artists including Gotan Project and Devendra Banhart.
Tower of Babel EP is accompanied by a limited edition DVD of music videos by New Zealand animation artist Zennor Alexander. Their previous collaborations have been screened on The Arts Channel on Sky TV New Zealand, as well as at film festivals including Digital Fringe Melbourne and NEON digital arts festival Dundee. Fiona has performed the 'live cinema'-style set with the projected animations at venues including Auckland Art Gallery, Glasgow International Festival of Visual Art and with the National Theatre of Scotland....
In early 2012, Fiona was granted funding through Creative Scotland to make new work, and two of the new tracks are included on the Tower of Babel EP.
The 2010 EP Songs From No Man's Land is also a winner, featuring four tracks from the audio-visual performance of No Man's Land. The description reads, "Skeletal, off-world electronica from Aberdeenshire based Scottish/ Burmese producer and vocalist Fiona Soe Paing - alien lullabies envelop and mesmerize in the spaces between dreaming and waking." And just check the reviews:
"Weirdness to soothe your soul" --Tom Robinson, BBC 6 Music
"hybrid going on mutant" --The Guardian
"stylish, elegant and sinister" --New Zealand Herald
"outrageously beautiful" --Grand Central Records
All the positive reviews ring true, and Fiona Soe Paing is nothing short of remarkable. We love her.
One that is in regular play is a release featuring the sitar and tabla. This instrumental album by Mender Banah, Bab Rag Terra, was released with little fanfare and little description, but it remains among our top 1000.
Defi(g)nition are not your typical hip hop group. They deal in conspiracy theories, extra terrestrials, the occult, magic, secret societies, metaphysics, ninjas, self help philosophies, and zombies.
The size of and variety in this South African group of emcees calls to mind super-groups like Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five or the Wu-Tang Clan -- lots of messages from lots of voices.
The video for "The Madness" seems to be shot guerrilla style in locations all over Cape Town. From the beach to highway medians, each emcee has his own weird scene.
A Smile for Timbuctu was a fun band from Italy made up of Cristiano Crisci and Simone Brillarelli with designer Jonathan Calugi. Brillarelli is now now famous as Digi G'Alessio and as a founder of the Fresh Yo! label.
This happy 5-song EP, Our Corto Discorso, made for Kazoomzoom is a spin on A Smile for Timbuctu's album, Our Disco Disastro, and is played only with machines: synthesizers and a drum machine.
Just as the seed needs water, the song requires a listener. Like a small grain that blossoms into a tree, the song desires to transcend its own brevity. Inspired by these thoughts we invite you to listen to our E.P. Six songs that require no more than 16 minutes of attention, because they wish to be perceived as an integral work. A work that, worry not, intends to suit these hectic times we live in. So faced with the fleeting time in our world comes the significance of being brief.
Here we find ourselves on the web, contemplating all that is cyber and governs our world today. This is the source of inspiration for our arrangements, instrumentation, chants and effects.
And so our task, to get the rawness of a seed, those that grow into trees to turn into guitars, mix it with the electronic, virtual, digital world, appearing ever so fiercely to compete with our notion of reality - and there you go – these are our proposed aesthetics.
An aesthetic in service art itself, the art of songwriting, the art of brazilian songwriting, passionately invoking everything that was done up till now, and why not? moving on.
So now we open this door, reach out a hand, and invite you to witness our way of re-processing old emotions, those that happily afflict everyone on this world, and enjoy these seeds which hopefully will flourish within the listener.
Once upon a time there was a cool, teen pop-punk band in Iowa City, Iowa. They were called Everybody Nose, and they sang fun lyrics, rocked out, and firmly embedded hooky songs in our heads.
We loved them so much that when two of the Oddio Overplay team were married, several songs in their wedding mix were sweet, upbeat love songs by Everybody Nose. The teen band captured those raw feelings of love so well.
Then Everybody Nose broke up, as young bands usually do, and their songs were pulled from the FMA leaving holes in the wedding mix and sadness among the new fans who had found them there. Good news! We found those songs on Bandcamp!
We learned that Rachel and Luke are in Lipstick Homicide, Molly E is in The ILLS, and Trevor is now in The Blendours and The Surf Zombies (Facebook, Reverb Nation), who play all original "hot rod horror surf" instrumentals
The Blendours have released heaps of acoustic power pop in the vein of Everybody Nose. Listening to those albums leads us to believe Trevor was probably the lead songwriter for Everybody Nose. Jumping around though their Bandcamp albums, you will find many are free, such as Disability Blues [2011] and a fun covers EP, Blendours For Sale (For Free) [2012].
Occidental classical music begins with Early Music which spans from 500 AD to the mid-eighteenth century. This starts with Medieval (500-1400) and flows into Renaissance (1400-1600) before it concludes with Baroque (1600-1760).
Jon Sayles, a software developer for IBM, was introduced to Early Music when he was at college. For pleasure and to share this rare music with the world, Sayles has recorded many performances and hosts them on his website at Early Music: Classical Guitar Ensemble.
All Music describes the music of Grupo Laberinto (Labyrinth) as boisterous, amiable, good-natured, playful, exuberant, fun, rollicking, cheerful, confident, earnest, and energetic.
"Formed in 1987 in Ciudad Obregón in the Mexican state of Sonora, Grupo Laberinto specialize in corridos, rancheras, boleros, and a danceable, tropical blend similar to merengue. The group made its recording debut playing this latter style, but it quickly expanded its horizons to include rancheras, corridos, and ballads in its repertoire, a stylistic shift that widened the group's appeal to other parts of Mexico as well as the United States." -- All Music
Together, Aram Shelton on saxophone and Johnathan Crawford on percussion and both performing digital manipulation are Grey Ghost. The collaboration began in 2002 and resulted in two studio albums How To Create Words on 482 Music and the self-released Broad Oration.
Broad Oration was recorded by Jamie Wagner at Strobe Recordings in Chicago during in autumn 2005. Grey Ghost entered the studio with ideas and largely improvised the session. Aram edited and mixed the music. Johnathan designed and printed the silk-screened covers. The limited release of 100 was issued in 2005, and a digital copy is now available from Candy Dinner.
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."
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.
Sousa Marches
as composed and orchestrated
by John Philip Sousa
played by the Pride of the '48 Band
The dust has been blown away from this disk to be played every July for more than 50 years. Long associated with militaries and circuses, yuck. Instead, let's enjoy parades, marching bands, cotton candy, and smiling kids with sparklers.
This high fidelity concert of John Philip Sousa band marches represents in repertoire that which is generally considered the best of the composer's works.
As the name Strauss is synonymous with the waltz, so is the name Sousa synonymous with march music. It may even be said that Sousa is internationally accepted as the march king.
He was born in Washington, D.C. in 1856, the son of a trombonist in the U.S. Marine Corps Band. At the age of 17 he was a well-schooled musician with a thorough training in harmony and composition. He joined the U.S. Marine Corps Band in 1880 and resigned in 1892 to form a military band bearing his name. The band was a tremendous success and toured extensively in the United States and Europe. The great composer and bandmaster died in 1932 while on tour.
Our friend Lanark (FMA, Comfort Stand Recordings) released an experimental electronic album celebrating the Independence days of both his homeland Argentina's 1816 independence from the Spanish Empire and the United States of America's 1776 independence from England.
Lanark wrote, "4th and 9th of july are close enough. why not celebrate then, together, the independence of the united provinces of south and the united states of the north? that's what I did, in the form of a handful of patriotic marches, a little changed."
DÃa De La Independencia - Independence Day Lanark
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."
... 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.
For several years now, influential jazz saxophonist Steve Coleman has been offering up much of his catalog for free. When a musician of this caliber and notoriety gives away his catalog, it draws attention to the philosophy behind such action. Coleman explains:
Many people have asked me what are my reasons for giving away music for free. Well, why not? Why should everything always cost something? For me music is organized sound that can be used as sonic symbols to communicate ideas. Since my main goal is the communication of these ideas to the people, then why not provide this music for free and thereby facilitating the distribution of this music to the people. However the distribution of music in this way is not in the best interest of commercial music companies, i.e. record companies, music distributors, retail stores etc.
My reasons for providing free music comes from my belief that musical ideas should not be owned by anyone. I believe that ideas should be free for anyone to use (but not to necessarily sell to others or make others pay for the use of these ideas). The concept of a commons area where ideas can be used for the benefit of all but for the profit of no one may seem like an unrealizable concept in the world today. Basically greed runs the world today and it is because of this that the concept of ownership exits.
There would be no need to own something exclusively unless the use of it was restricted to the owner for reasons of conservation, or the owner wishes to rent out the use of the item to others for a fee. The concept of wealth also stems from ownership and control of resources. [read more]
The albums he shares include:
M-Base Collective - Anatomy Of A Groove (1991)
Steve Coleman And Five Elements - Alternate Dimension Series I (2002)
Steve Coleman And Five Elements - Black Science (1991)
* Steve Coleman And Five Elements - Curves Of Life (1995)
Steve Coleman And Five Elements - Def Trance Beat (Modalities of Rhythm) (1994)
Steve Coleman And Five Elements - Drop Kick (1992)
Steve Coleman And Five Elements - On The Edge Of Tomorrow (1986)
Steve Coleman And Five Elements - Rhythm People: The Resurrection Of Creative Black Civilization (1988)
Steve Coleman And Five Elements - Sine Die (1987)
Steve Coleman And Five Elements - The Ascension to Light (2001)
* Steve Coleman And Five Elements - The Opening of the Way ()
* Steve Coleman And Five Elements - The Sonic Language of Myth (1999)
Steve Coleman And Five Elements - The Tao Of Mad Phat (1993)
Steve Coleman And Five Elements - World Expansion (1986)
Steve Coleman And Metrics - A Tale of 3 Cities (1995)
* Steve Coleman And Metrics - The Way of the Cipher ()
Steve Coleman And The Council Of Balance - Genesis (1998)
Steve Coleman And The Mystic Rhythm Society - The Sign And The Seal (1997)
Steve Coleman - Motherland Pulse (1985)
Steve Coleman - Rhythm In Mind (1991)
Strata Institute - Cipher Syntax (1988)
Strata Institute - Transmigration (1993) (* selected tracks)
Several of these titles are already cherished albums on the shelves at Oddio headquarters. We hope that this post and Steve Coleman's generosity will bring new fans to his work.
Some of the albums that caught our attention this month at the Free Music Archive
The Free Music Archive is an interactive library of high-quality, legal audio downloads. The Free Music Archive is directed by WFMU, the most renowned freeform radio station in America. Radio has always offered the public free access to new music. The Free Music Archive is a continuation of that purpose, designed for the age of the internet.
Every mp3 you discover on The Free Music Archive is pre-cleared for certain types of uses that would otherwise be prohibited by copyright laws that were not designed for the digital era. These uses vary and are determined by the rightsholders themselves who feel that allowing a degree of free cultural access is beneficial not only to their own pursuits, but to our society as a whole. Are you a podcaster looking for pod-safe audio? A radio or video producer searching for instrumental bed music that won't put your audience to sleep? A remix artist looking for pre-cleared samples? Or are you simply looking for some new sounds to add to your next playlist? The Free Music Archive is a resource for all that and more, and unlike other websites, all of the audio has been hand-picked by established audio curators.
Not a lot grabbed us in the June lineup, so we didn't put together a playlist this month.
