Music/News: 13 Dec 2013
The Hot Press Newsdesk

Free Music Friday

Jape and Villagers collaborate, Le Galaxie give us a new video and Damon Albarn teases his new album. All that and more as we prove Friday the 13th can be lucky for music lovers...

We’re suffering serious side-ache following Johnny Vegas’ righteous rant last night at the so-called Channel 4 ‘Comedy’ Awards – hurry up somebody and YouTube it! – but we’ve still managed to assemble another bumper Free Music Friday full of pre-Crimbo jingly jangly goodness.

This week’s streaming fun starts at [link]3voor12.vpro.nl/luisterpaal/albums.html[/link] where new offerings from Toy, Deltron 3030, Soviet Soviet, Rude Awakening and bEEdEEgEE await; it’s quality rather than quantity at [link]www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2013/dec/10/ezra-furman-day-dog-album-stream[/link] where you can cop a pre-release earful of Ezra Furman’s Day Of The Dog; [link]pitchfork.com/advance[/link] has a collection of Ariel Pink rarities awaiting your attention; and depending on where you and your computer live [link]albumstreams.com[/link] is the gateway to the latest from Samantha Crain, Burial, Moon Taxi, B.o.B., Wanda Group, Chris Garneau, Dr. Dog, Ariel Pink, Loom, Sammath, Mark McCabe, Library Kids, Peter Bradley Adams, Galeb & The Seagull, Head For Cover, Mad Decent, Howl Arts Collective, St. Vincent, Honour Crest, Evergreen Terrace and a tonne more.

Not content with gigging together in Galway, Cork and Dublin over the next couple of weeks, Jape and Villagers have gone and recorded lo-fi cracker ‘Ribbon Ribbon Ribbon’.

Check it out at [link]soundcloud.com/richiejape/ribbon-ribbon-ribbon?utm_source=soundcloud&utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=email[/link]

In what is a meeting of great musical minds, Cronin have teamed up with former JJ72 man Mark Greaney to pay Christmas homage to the late and very great Gene Pitney.

The result is a wonderful version of Mr. P’s ‘Something’s Gotten Hold Of My Heart’, which was also a hit a while back for fellow admirer Marc Almond.

Another of our favourite FMF things this week is the Winter 2014 Digital Sampler from Wyoming’s ultra-hip Asthmatic Kitty label whose roster includes Sufjan Stevens, Lily & Madeline, Land Of A Thousand Rappers, Chris Schlarb and Helado Negro.

Incidentally, if you’d like to leave a couple of euro in the tip jar no one will object!

Our contractual obligation to have some Christmas fare is fulfilled by the Eastside Manor Sessions album, which includes tinselly offerings from Brooke Waggoner, Humming House, Jars Of Clay, Street Corner Symphony and Angel Snow.

Not content with playing their first Dublin Olympia headliner tonight – it’s going to be, as the young people say, bleedin’ rapid – Le Galaxie have produced a superb vid for ‘Lucy Is Here’.

We won’t spoil the shock ending; suffice to say it includes zombies, chainsaw-wielding homicidal maniacs, Jason Friday The 13th types and the lads in extremely loud silver lurex jackets.

Their new album isn’t due till next year, but Cashier No. 9 are giving fans Crimbo pressie covers of Syd Barrett’s ‘Terrapin’ and Harry Nilsson’s ‘Sunbeam Song’ to pop on to their iTunes.

If you haven’t already, make sure to download Bitter Rocc’s wonderful MMXIII album from [link]www.hotpress.com/bitter-rocc-mmxiii[/link]

We’ve branded it ‘urban soul’ but there’s so much going on musically you can make up your own genre!

In one of the year’s more unlikely hook-ups, Flaming Lips, Ke$ha and The New Fumes have collaborated on a somewhat avant-garde cover of Stone Roses’ ‘Elizabeth My Dear’.

Personally, we think it’s a bit of a dog’s tasting menu with paired wines but you may feel different!

Gentle Jones is the guest vocalist on ‘21 Grams’, a cracking tune from the upcoming High Elders album, Forest Of Pencils, which has a bit of the hip hop Arctic Monkeys about it.

America’s National Public Radio would like you to meet Dessa, a Minnesotan rapper ‘n’ spoken word artist whose free download session suggests she’ll soon be more than just a local hero.

Over to Chicago where WXRT Radio gift us a new track from Portland heroes Blitzen Trapper at [link]wxrt.cbslocal.com/2013/12/05/get-blitzen-trappers-thirsty-man-free-download[/link]; another [link]wxrt.cbslocal.com/2013/12/05/black-joe-lewis-retuns-with-electric-slave-come-to-my-party-free-download[/link] one from Black Joe Lewis who manages to be funky, bluesy and soulful at the same time and grammar Nazis Their/They’re/There – great name – who have an upfront album taster at [link]wxrt.cbslocal.com/2013/12/03/free-download-their-theyre-there-new-blood-from-analog-weekend-ep[/link]

David Turpin comes up trumps again with this gorgeously atmospheric video for‘Fur', the third single to be lifted from his We Belong Dead album.

Busta Rhymes and Q Tip have come up with one serious mother of a 28-track mixtape, The Abstract & The Dragon, which weaves in A Tribe Called Quest, Redman, Talib Kweli, Missy Elliott and lots more.

St. Vincent is trading the title-track of her new album, Birth In Reverse, for your email address.

Damon Albarn has provided us with the briefest of scene-setters for his new solo album, which we’re expecting in the first quarter of 2014.

The only other info we have at this stage is it's been assembled with XL Records boss Richard Russell.

"Richard does the rhythmic side, and I do everything else," Albarn says. "It's sort of folk soul."

And that, sadly, is yer' Free Music Friday lot. Make sure to zap your pre-Christmas links through to @stuartclark66