If the Free Music Friday mood is somewhat maudlin today, we should remind you that our Web Scourer In-Chief is an Englishman who for reasons we can’t quite fathom is randomly going round shouting “Forza Italia!” at people.
Abject footballing depression hasn’t stopped us from assembling another quality selection of tuneage that will not in any way harm your bank balance.
Our favourite Free Music Friday thing this week is Yasiin Gaye: The Return, a second Marvin Gaye/Motown mash-up collection from Amerigo Gazaway, which samples the likes of Chuck Berry, The Temptations and Talib Kweli.
If this doesn’t make you shake your funky tail feathers, you’re obviously dead.

Hamilton, Ontario’s very wonderful Hidden Pony label celebrates its fifth birthday with a free - but you’re welcome to tip! - sampler featuring tracks from Said The Whale, Jeremy Fisher, Rah Rah, Elephant Stone, Hannah Georgas, Imaginary Cities, The Danks, Jon Samuel and Royal Tusk. Which is quite the roster!

Also new from the Noise Trade stable are a four-track remix set from indie dance maven Betty Who; a full-length offering from Little Chief, an Arkansas quartet cut from the same alt. folk cloth as The Lumineers; Flagship Romance who also have that leftfield acoustic thing going on, and Denver’s Josh Dillard who’s from classic American singer-songwriter stock.






Country legend and regular visitor down through the years to Ireland, Rodney Crowell, treats us to a stunning acoustic set which is available for your download delectation.

To the streams now and [link]3voor12.vpro.nl/luisterpaal/albums.html[/link] has upfront listens to Kasal Allstars, Lone, Cerebral Ballzy, Peter Matthew Bauer, Tomas Barfod, The Antlers, Joakim, White Lung, Slimus, Lenzman and The Phantom Four; [link]www.npr.org/series/98679384/first-listen[/link] adds Phox, Phish, Strand Of Oaks and Circulatory System to the mix; depending - yep, you’ve guessed it! - on where you and your personal device reside, [link]albumstreams.com[/link] has new music from Glass Towers, Austra, Aphex Twin, Keaton Henson, Morrissey, Jessie Ware, Total Control, Miniature Tigers, Your Old Droog, Greys, Alex G, Diplo, Allah-Las, Invasions, Luluc, Slash, Judas Priest and the oxymoron that is A Sunny Day In Glasgow, and [link]pitchfork.com/advance[/link] wants you to check out Kasai Allstars, Black Bananas, Total Control and a couple of choice soul retrospectives from the Numero Group.
Mixtape of the Week honours go to XXL Freshmen, the white hot hip hop collective whose ranks include Rich Homie Quan, Lil Durk, Ty Dolla $ign, Troy Ave, Isaiah Rashad and DJ Drama who curates the 21-track monster.

On the other side of the Atlantic, Annie Mac-approved South Londoner Grades delivers the rather funky ‘Owe It To Yourself’, which trails the EP he has coming out in August. Bondax and Kaytranada are a couple of handy cross-references, but really he’s his own man.

We’ve already lavished praise on his ‘Left For America’ single, now Northern Irish troubadour Ciaran Lavery is streaming its parent Kosher five-tracker, which is all kinds of wonderful.

Free Music Friday is delighted to make the acquaintance of Miami Cherry, AKA Dubliners Taylor Maslanka and Connor Mills whose ‘Habits (Stay High)’ is an electro pop stunner.

To celebrate the scarily good weather Ireland’s been having – expect biblical famine and pestilence to be wrought on us next week to balance things up – The Mighty Stef nipped out to Howth Pier to perform this acoustic version of forthcoming single, ‘Stella’. Out on August 29, it’s the first taster from their Year Of The Horse album, which follows in late September.

FMF simply wouldn’t be complete without new music from Auxiliary Phoenix, AKA Carlow production whiz James Strain, whose new Balii EP is free to download or a fiver if you want the hipster cassette version. Which we do!

And that, dear friends, is that for another action-packed Free Music Friday. Godspeed to the Azzurri as they attempt to put both Costa Rica and Uruguay to the World Cup sword. In the meantime, @stuartclark66 waits with bated breath for your links.