FREE MUSIC FRIDAY

Everton’s Europa League smiting of Lille means that Free Music Friday is in extremely good form this week, and even more ebullient than usual about the quality of the tunes, vids and trailers we’ve assembled for you. So, let the good times rock ’n’ roll!

Richard James has set up a [link]soundcloud.com/richarddjames[/link] account to release free Aphex Twins material that up till now has been lurking in the vaults. Some of it - well, most of it! - is pretty extreme and downloadable for free. We’re also loving the unlikely, but very wonderful, Aphex Swift marriage of ‘You Belong With Me’ to ‘Avril 14th’. So, go on, fill your electronica boots!

Lovers of effortless pop cool will want to help themselves to this amazing download set from Banks who treated American NPR listeners to super-sultry versions of ‘Beggin’ For Thread’, ‘Alibi’ and ‘Brain’.

Prepare to go into inter-stellar overdrive with this quite remarkable avant jazz/space rock jam from the Sun Ra Arkestra whose much missed leader claimed to be from Saturn. Adored by the likes of David Holmes and Primal Scream, there really is no one quite like ‘em!

SoundCloud has gone crazy for 8 Mile And Abbey, a seamless merging of Eminem and The Beatles which is yours for the downloading.

If you’ve yet to pick a copy up, Damien Rice’s excellent My Favourite Faded Fantasy album can be listened to in its entirety at [link]www.npr.org/2014/11/02/359335290/first-listen-damien-rice-my-favourite-faded-fantasy[/link] Worth every second of the eight-year wait! Look out for an in-depth interview with the man himself in a forthcoming issue of Hot Press…

Culture Club have premiered their new single, ‘More Than Silence’, which deploys Boy George’s ever maturing baritone to glorious effect!
Picking up where his This Is What I Do solo album left off, it’s a blue-eyed soul belter with a chorus a Swedish pop factory would kill for. He really is one of Britain’s - and Ireland’s! - finest.

Cronin up the ante with ‘See This Man’, their new single which has an epic Nick Cave/Scott Walker-ish feel to it. Another taster from the parent album that follows early in 2015, it’s one of the best things the Mullingar five-piece has ever done.

To the streams now and [link]3voor12.vpro.nl/luisterpaal/albums.html[/link] has upfront listens to Spookyland, Magic Castles, The Bloodhounds, Grouper, Run The Jewels, Lily & Madeleine, Hookworms, Saint Saviour, The Flaming Lips, Ultimate Painting and Anthony D’Amato; Big K.R.I.T., Marianne Faithfull, Bedhead, Neil Young and Bob Dylan await at [link]npr.org/series/98679384/first-listen[/link]; the usual geo-positional niceties apply, but if you’re in the right place http://albumstreams.com can sort you out with Machine Head, Cult Of Youth, Celestial Shore, The Voyeurs, Ex Cops, Little Boots, The Skull, Antemasque and Son Little; Rumer, Simple Minds and Deerhoof are to be found at [link]theguardian.com/music/series/album-streams[/link], and King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard is the quality over quantity offering at [link]nytimes.com/interactive/arts/music/pressplay.html?_r=3&[/link]

All Tvvins give it maximum sockage on this live video for ‘Know Go’, the song strangely reminding us of a heavier, Peter Gabriel-era Genesis. Which, we hasten to add, is not an insult! Catch them live in Whelan’s, Dublin (November 13); McHugh’s, Belfast (14) and Roisin Dubh, Galway (15).

Video of the Week honours go to South African rap duo Die Antwoord whose ‘Ugly Boy’ promo includes cameos from Jack Black, Aphex Twin, Cara Delevingne, Flea, Marilyn Manson and his former missus, Dita Von Teese. The viewing is as disturbing as it is compelling! The strange but rather lovely Yolandi also has a role in Chappie, the new sci-fi romp from District 9 man Neill Blomkamp.

There’s more quality eye candy from Hot Press faves Wild Beasts who’ve gone for an atmospheric performance vid to accompany the smouldering ‘Palace’. Some old school wrestling; a past his sell-by date karaoke singer; a black cobra and something a bit gunky add to the visceral pleasures.

Our video roll continues with the Maleficent movie mash-up that goes with the Young Ruffian remix of Lana Del Rey’s breathy take on ‘Once Upon A Dream’. Also premiering this week is the promo for ‘Let Me In Your Heart Again’, a previously unfinished Queen song which features on the Queen Forever album, out on Friday and also boasting the band’s Michael Jackson collaboration, ‘There Must Be More To Love Than This’ and “a stripped-down ballad version” of Freddie’s Giorgio Moroder-assisted solo hit, ‘Love Kills’.

It’s a Free Music Friday “hello” to Mind-Riot, a grungey bunch of Corkonians who’ve put together a suitably in-yer-face vid for new single ‘Low’.

Hotshot Londoners Dexters - there’s a bit of a cockney Arctic Monkeys thing going on - treat us to this demo version of ‘Ocean’.

This week’s free (but you’re welcome to tip) Noise Trade offerings come from My Goodness, melodic Seattle rockers who’ve been working with Pearl Jam and Alice In Chains producer Rick Parashar; their alt. folky neighbours The Native Sibling, and Stars, the Montreal perfect posters who are Workman’s Club bound in the new year.

She’s kept a low-profile these past few years, but Laura Izibor is back with a fab free download, ‘TV & Magazines’, which she recorded year at home in Dublin.

If you’re in need of some eye candy, we’ve just the thing; Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds’ fabulous Austin City Limits performance last weekend. From the same deep well comes this Ed Sheeran and Valerie June double-header and a veritable stormer from Nine Inch Nails.

Legendary post-punkers The Nightingales add TLC’s ‘Unpretty’ to the list of somewhat unlikely songs they’ve reworked for their Covers Club. Also worth bagging are their takes on The Troggs’ ‘That’s What You Do Girl’ and Chris & Emily’s ‘Ghost’.

Parquet Courts are streaming What’s Your Rupture, their new “somewhere between an EP and an album” release under their Parkay Quarts alias. Cop an earful at [link]soundcloud.com/krazypunx[/link]

And that is yer Free Music Friday lot for another week. If we failed to squeeze you in this time, fear not, you’re top of the pile for next time. Keep those links coming to @stuartclark66 and have an amaaaaazing weekend.