Free Music Friday

Declan O'Rourke continues his monthly run of free single releases with 'There's Always Joanne', which from the title sounds like a paen to booty call-dom but is actually a rather gorgeous Tom Waits-ean love/lust song that borrows its piano-line from The Stranglers' 'Golden Brown'. Get it while it's hot at [link]declanorourke.com/newsletter[/link] His website also has details of how you can help Declan chose the setlist for his
RTÉ Concert Orchestra-assisted visits next month to the University Concert Hall, Limerick (February 12); Leisureland, Galway (13) and National Concert Hall, Dublin (14).
Somadrone launch into 2015 with the release of a free four-track EP, Mirror, that's full of ambient goodness. The maker of fine electronic music since 1997, the Dublin producer has also toured the globe as a member of Jape and the Redneck Manifesto.

To the streams now and [link]3voor12.vpro.nl/luisterpaal/albums.html[/link] has the latest offerings from Boxed In, Bromide, Justin Townes Earle, Matrixxman, Dan Mangan + Blacksmith, Endless Bummer and lots of the acts appearing at this weekend's Eurosonic showcase festival, which is extensively covered elsewhere on hotpress.com; [link]www.npr.org/series/98679384/first-listen[/link] has exclusive dibs on Sleater-Kinney, Belle & Sebastian,Viet Cong, Red Baraat and Until The Ribbon Breaks; the usual geographical niceties apply but if you and your device are in the right place, [link]albumstreams.com[/link] can sort you out with Alana Yorke, Teen Daze, The Decemberists, Elephant Micah, Panda Bear, Cloakroom, Alex Calder, Amen Dunes, Sylosis, The Blank Tapes, The Sidekicks, Sasha Siem and Enter Shikari, and [link]www.nytimes.com/interactive/arts/music/pressplay.html?_r=3&[/link] has the latest from professional bull-rider turned Grammy-winning country star, Ryan Bingham.
Long-time U2 associate Daniel Lanois teams up with drummer Brian Blade and bassist Jim Wilson on Flesh And Machine, a tasty sounding instrumental album, which got a runout this week when the trio dropped into America's National Public Radio.

As a 'thank you' to fans for making Caribou's Our Love album such a ripsnorting success, Dan Snaith has put together The Longest Mixtape, a 1,000-song monster which you're recommenced to listen to on shuffle.
Minnie Riperton's 'Les Fleurs', Wire's 'Outdoor Miner' and
Gang Starr's 'Credit Is Due' being the first three songs to come up for us is testament to the awesomeness of his record collection.

Heading out this week on an extensive Irish tour that takes him from Armagh to Limerick, Duke Special has a greatest hits and rarities sampler available for free download, but feel free to leave a tip! There's also a new Pledge Music album on the way, Look Out Machines, details of which can be found in our Hot For 2015 issue, in shops on Thursday January 22.

The week's other Noise Trade goodies include Sisters And Brothers, a nifty sampler from Nashville Americana merchants Vespers and a full-length album from Oklahoman backwoodsman Zach Winters who's got a bit of a Justin Vernon thing going on.




Noel Gallagher - who will soon be featuring extensively in these pages! - has premiered the video for 'Ballad Of The Mighty I', the track on his forthcoming Chasing Yesterday album that features the godlike presence of Johnny Marr. We've heard the whole thing and reckon even the pickiest of fans will be dead impressed.

We bigged it up earlier in the week, now you can bag yourself MuRli's awesome Surface Tension EP for a fiver or more. The third member of God Knows + mynameisjOhn's live set-up, the 24-year-old MC is of Togolese descent and based in Limerick where the hip hop scenes goes from strength to strength.
Try before you buy below:

It's a big Free Music Friday "howaya!" to The Klares, a rambunctious bunch of Dublin garage merchants who want us to have their Dirty Birds EO for gratis. Okay gents, we accept!

First Aid Kit have conjured up this gorgeous animated video for 'Master Pretender', the flagship single from their equally hard to resist Stay Gold album.

Hot Press fave FKA twigs makes a lot of people's dreams come true by trussing herself up in the Rapunzel-esque video for her new single, 'Pendulum'. We're just going for a bit of a lie down...

Which is the heavy-breathing cue for us to sling our Free Music Friday hooks and head for the pu..., er, our bikram yoga class. Keep them links coming to @stuartclark66