Spencerwire Radio - First Edition

My oldest son hates to dig through piles of music to find one thing he likes.  He'd prefer the ability to have someone else find it.  I can understand that.  Personally, I tend to be just the opposite, willing to scour music sites, bins, etc., to try and find something new and different to listen to.  Since discovering Jamendo.com I've been doing some scouring. Enter the first edition of Spencerwire Radio, about an hours worth of music and commentary for you to consider.  If you like anything here, feel free to take a trip over to Jamendo and download the music for free.  All music is released (as stated in the earlier blog post on "Heifervescent") under one of three Creative Commons licenses.  In most cases, this means that you cannot use this music for commercial purposes, but you can download it, burn it, share it with your friends without fear of any repercussions.  Cool, yes?  So click the "Play" button, and then read the reviews on the tracks below.

Royalty-free music for professional licensing

RedEyeC opens things up with the single, "Tsunami," with shades of Pink Floyd, Alan Parsons, and a little bit of straight up rock guitar. It is a compelling, not quite instrumental track that evokes a rush of emotional tides. There's some great lead guitar work here, and the relentless bass and back beat, combined with the chant like vocals are simply intriguing.

Heifervescent follows up with a pop, radio-friendly, instrumentally diverse and ear friendly "Billy Comes Home." It's one of three tracks involving Singer/Songwriter Andy Doran on this radio show. Try not to sing along, no really... see if you can help yourself.

If you like what you heard on track two, then you'll be strangely puzzled at the similarities of vocal style on Cannula's "Dreamcatcher." Cannula has a very RUSH feel to it, albeit a much more pleasing vocal style. The song construction here is flawless and production values throughout all of Andy Doran's group offerings are impeccable.

If Heifervescent and Cannula exhibit some of pops greatest accomplishments, then Diablo Swing Orchestra throws out the rules on "Heroines." Diablo is a testament to what happens when you combine elements of progressive rock, jazz, operatic vocal styles, and blend them vigorously. It's wonderful, but it defies categorization.

Fresh Body Shop skips along with "Bring Me Down." Understated vocals, and chirrups of electronic noodling front this pop/rock party time tune. Percussion instruments are odd and yet add just the right texture here. There are several offerings from "Fresh Body Shop" on Jamendo, so you will likely hear more from them on future radio shows.

A little bit of blues, a little bit of jazz and a little bit of folk, is Bela Ruse's "Push On." The vocal here is in front of everything and demands to be heard. It's a different vocal style, but a pleasing one. Instrumentation is minimalist, but just the right touch for this track.

NYCO is both Rock and R&B on "Side Of The Road." It will keep your toes tapping, and if you have a dance floor handy, it will keep the rest of you moving too. Good background vocals and instrumentation are just the right touch to the lead vocalists slightly gravely vocals, smoothing with just the right touch, the rough edges. Don't get me wrong, those rough edges need to be there! Great track!

A bit art-rocky but heavily pop influenced, Zamza's "Flyin' Away" is a bit reminiscent of a female led "Men At Work." It has very similar vocal intonations. Midway there's a heavy use of echo, but it works.

A mid-tempo ballad, Burly's "Cinnamon" is a nice break in the action from the pop and rock above. Just a nicely paced and sweet number.

Another group that you'll be hearing more from (probably at least) on future radio shows is Julandrew. This folk/pop duo has just the right touch of 'quirk' and "Crazy" is a good example of their delightful style.

Alter Etno changes things up a lot. "Fairytale" is a story in a song, complete with a very cool spoken word intro. I absolutely love this track! Check out Alter Etno's EP on Jamendo and sample the rest of their work. Very, very, very interesting stuff, and not your same old, same old by any means.

The third Andy Doran track in this radio show is the return of Heifervescent and "When Stars Fall From Grace." This track is from their "Pond Life Fiasco" offering. I can't seem to get enough of this group. So I hope you will indulge me and just enjoy this track. Heifervescent has a true power-pop sound.

I really hope to hear more of the artist Rogier Van Den Brink which has the delightful little single "My Angel Told Me So." It is so reminiscent vocally of Boz Scaggs, although not annoyingly completely like him. It is a bit of a Jazzy Pop lounge number.

Consider the final track in this radio show, the closing credits. Manuzik's "D'où je suis" is an instrumental only track, that uses a cool little piano trill loop and a harp-sound pluck and frankly, I just like it. It makes a great book end to this radio show. Until next time.

Heifervescent: Five Albums worth of Wonderful Pop/Rock

There's something absolutely hypnotic about U.K. Singer/Songwriter Andy Doran's project "Heifervescent."  I recently stumbled across Jamendo.com while listening to music on another site, TheSixtyOne.com.  Since then I've been like a kid in a candy store, listening to the many great offerings on Jamendo.  For those not in the know, Jamendo.com is a site that represents artists who are willing to, under restrictions of one of three Creative Commons licenses, offer their music for free download.  That doesn't mean that these artists don't deserve money and credit for what they do.  "Heifervescent" is a great example of that.  Don't believe me?  Take a listen to the tracks here.

Royalty-free music for professional licensing

At the time of this writing, there are 45,208 offerings available in every conceivable genre; But I digress.

"Heifervescent" is a true collage of sounds and styles.  There is music with harder edges and more mellow tones, but it all fits together in a very unique and wonderful sound scape.  Please take a listen.  I'll try to update this review with some specifics as time allows.