# Exploring Non-Signed, Small Label, or Just Plain Free Music on the Web.



## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

I wondered if any of you enjoy exploring the half a gazillion music uploads all over the web. From Soundcloud, to Netlabels, to pay-what-you-feel sites, the volume (in numbers, not decibels) is overwhelming, but once in a while I've discovered some real gems, and even artists I'd like to pay to support.

Here are some examples:

From Soundcloud (a site I usually find pretty annoying with its automatic seemingly unstoppable playlists), a group called Mayflies Landing with vocalist, multi-instrumentalist Sarah Fazackerley, with a song called Paper Pedestals, a nice bluesy combination of early Grace Slick meets Herbie Mann maybe? I love her vocals, and it's a free download.

I'm also into electronic music, IDM, ambient, glitch, and whatever you call the half a billion related genres. There are tons of free downloads especially at Netlabels and the Internet Archive in general. It can be frustrating finding the gems, but they are out there, as in these examples:

Nest - Nest EP sort of ambient.

Planet Boelex - Misplaced EP a kind of ambient or even (gasp) new age vibe, but very nice.

Two Quiet Suns - True Anomaly sort of a groove jam.

There are other genres available at Netlabels too. It's just that electronic is so much easier to produce in a home studio I suppose. If you dig deep into the Internet Archive there are also lots of live shows from groups like Phish and other big name acts -- not professional quality recording, but often interesting.

Then of course there is Ektoplasm, loaded with, again, mostly electronic music. In this site one is expected to pay for the download on a kind of honor system, and I have always complied, although some of it is labeled as free also. Almost the entire site is top notch if you like this sort of thing -- though I for one avoid the more thump-thump-thump-thump type of dance styles.

Are there others? What artists / samples / downloads have you found of interest in your explorations?


----------



## brotagonist (Jul 11, 2013)

Years ago, I attempted to stagger through the offerings, but they were very spotty and rarely of interest. I came out very appreciative of the record labels that do the curating for us, to save us the hours of wasted time.

Now, what time I do spend exploring non-label offerings is almost exclusively classical music that I find on YT (live performances, new composers' works on specialty YT channels, etc.).

I guess I'm just not into finding another Grace Slick or Herbie Mann (I've long ago finished with the originals), so there are simply better ways for me to spend my time.


----------



## tortkis (Jul 13, 2013)

Though I usually pay for download, Bandcamp provides streaming of most of the albums for free. Some artists even offer download of their albums for free (or "name your price"), in any format of mp3 (320kbps), flac, wav, etc.

Some of the artists / labels I like very much:

Dave Seidel
Microtonal drones.

Delphine Dora
A "pianist, improviser, singer, and songwriter from France." Lyrical & experimental.

Kill Rock
Pop & microtonal ambient.

Elizabeth Veldon
Extremely prolific noise artist "working mainly with found sound, feedback tones and loops."

Kimiko Ishizaka (piano)
Open Bach project.

Irritable Hedgehog (label)
One of my favorite labels. Their releases include albums of R. Andrew Lee (excellent pianist mainly playing Wandelweiser / minimal music such as works of Dennis Johnson, Jürg Frey, Eva-Maria Houben, etc.), David D. McIntire, and a fantastic new group EIO.

Populist Records (label)
A wonderful young label of minimal & experimental music. Scott Worthington's _Even the Light Itself Falls_ was one of my greatest findings last year.


----------



## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

Oooh - gotta check these out!^


----------

