We've treated you to a few sneaky previews, now you can bag yourself High Elders' luscious Forest Of Pencils album for free or grab one of the 25 luminous green cassette copies that are yours for a fiver. High Elders is a collaboration between our favourite Carlow bedroom electronica merchant, Auxiliary Phoenix, who'll be chatting to us in the first Hot Press of 2015, and Delaware's Gentle Jones.

The years rolled back this week as Yusuf, AKA Cat Stevens, performed a free NPR download set that mixed tunes from his new Rick Rubin-produced Tell 'Em I'm Gone with the classic 'First Cut Is The Deepest' and 'Father & Son'.

American National Public Radio has also caused us to fall in love this week with St. Paul And The Broken Bones, an Alabaman outfit whose former bank teller frontman is as funky as fuck.

New and recommended from the Noise Trade stable are old skool Brooklyn funky guys, Crown And The M.O.B.; Wilmington, North Carolina's Beta Radio who readily admit to being Fleet Foxes fans, and Mumford-y Californians Branches who treat us to a full-on festive knees-up.






There's all sorts of excitement about the forthcoming Belle & Sebastian album, Girls In Peacetime Wants To Dance, which hits shelves on January 16. For those who simply can't wait, there's another taster in the shape of 'Nobody's Empire'.

Perfume Genius lives up to his name with this striking looking video for 'Fool'. From roller blades and blokes with beaks to religious fervour and designer clobber - it's part of an Urban Outfitters series of promos - it's all going on. There's no word re: Irish gigs, but the Artist Also Known As Mike Hadreas has lined up a London Royal Festival Hall show on June 10.

The usual geographical niceties apply but if you and your device happen to be in the right place http://albumstreams.com can sort you out with new music from Charli XCX, Temple Invisible, The Pass, Thea & The Wild, Brika, Laurel, Peppina, Threepwood, Blind Guardian, Toshes and Screaming Females; Poppy Ackroyd, Sau Poler, Matt Watts, Cloudkicker, Beans On Toast, Trip To Dover and Silk Rhodes are hanging out at http://3voor12.vpro.nl/luisterpaal/albums.html, and http://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/dec/08/malcolm-middleton-and-david-shrigley-music-and-words-exclusive-album-stream has former Arab Strap man Malcolm Middleton and visual artist David Shrigley's wonderfully weird spoken word album.
Russell Brand has kept his word and assembled a special Irish water charges edition of his YouTube polemic, The Trews, with Unite The Union's Brendan Ogle guiding him through the controversy.

Matthew E. White has issued a teaser trailer for Fresh Blood, his first full-length album for Domino which drops in March.

Mixtape of the Week honours go to $hy Glizzy whose Law 3: Now Or Never looks like the collection that's finally going to take him out of DC and plonk him firmly in the gangsta mainstream.

Glen Hansard and Damien Dempsey teamed up on a version of 'The Auld Triangle', which warmed many a Right 2 Water protest this week.

Nordic Noir being the new rock 'n' roll or summat, Team Hot Press is mega-excited by the coming next month to Sky Atlantic of Fortitude, which includes Ireland's very own Richard Dormer and The Killing's Sofie Gråbøl among its equally mega-cast.


Finally, a visit to [link]www.declanorourke.com/news[/link] will sort you out with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra-assisted 'The Start Of Christmas'.
And that is yer Free Music Friday lot for another week. If you want to make the final 2014 cut send those links to @stuartclark66