Free Music Friday

The sun's out and Free Music Friday has only one thing on its mind – barbecuing!
Yep, it's all about the beechwood and the hickory as we head to Herbert Park for the Big Grill and its accompanying lashings and lashings of craft beer. Man cannot live by food alone of course, which is why we've assembled another killer collection of downloads, streams, videos and trailers to sate even the most voracious of appetites.
Four Tet banished our Monday blues when he dropped 'Back2TheStart', an epic seven minute-plus stomper that awaits your download delectation. In Dublin last weekend for both Beatyard and a District 8 solo run, the boy Hebden is also streaming his Morning/Evening album, which has no nonsense A. and B. sides.


Also comprehensively floating Free Music Friday's boat this week is 'Israel (Sparring)', a supper-chilled freebie from Chance The Rapper and Noname Gypsy.

Dropping by the American NPR studios this week was Terence Blanchard, the funky New Orleans trumpeter who blew up a veritable storm for half-an-hour with his E-Collective. That Tiny Desk of theirs was also serenaded by Torres, the Macon, Georgia chanteuse whose new Sprinter album has been superglued to the FMF dansette these past few days.


Arcade Fire have released another trailer for their feature-length Reflektor Tapes film, which gets a limited cinematic release on September 23 and will then be available on assorted digital platforms. Directed by Kahlil Joseph who's previously worked with Kendrick Lamar and Flying Lotus, it looks absolutely gorgeous!

Editors – we've told you countless times before, there is no "the"! – further whet appetites for their October 9 and 10 visits to the Belfast Limelight and Dublin Olympia respectively with the video for 'Life Is A Fear'. It's taken from new album In Dream, which drops just before they touchdown in Ireland and has a real '80s synthpop feel to it.

To the streams now and NPR have choice offerings from hotshot Chicago rapper Mick Jenkins who refreshingly doesn't feel the need to gangsta-ise his name or replace that 's' of his with a $; Nathaniel Rateliff who introduces us to his brassy new band The Night Sweats; Casiotone For The Painfully Alone man Owen Ashworth who now wishes to be known as Advance Base; jazzy R&B merchants The Foreign Exchange  and Arturo O'Farrill's Cuba: The Conversation Continues, which is a real musical hand across the Straits of Florida.





Nathaniel Rateliff also has three tracks to give away via-Noise Trade whose other free (but you're welcome to tip!) delights this week include an intro to Halifax, Nova Scotia's David Myles who looks like a bank manager but actually makes a rather compelling quirk-pop noise and Samantha Taggart, a Franklin, Tennessee chanteuse who comes on like a countryfied Regina Spektor.



Hot Press fave Angel Haze previews her Back To The Woods mixtape with 'Babe Ruthless', a deliciously potty-mouthed restating of her manifesto.

Wexford producer New Machine does the biz again with 'King Mike Skinner', a cracking tribute to The Streets from #NewGen rapper Bonkaz. When not ensconced in the studio, the Artist Also Known As Adam Jordan performs live with Plan B, Maverick Sabre and Chip, and has a producer/songwriter deal with Sony ATV/Temperamental. As for Bonkaz, he's a key member of a resurgent South London grime scene who's been making music since he was 13 and performed this summer at Glastonbury where the reviews were all rave. His six-track Forgive Me When I'm Famous EP suggests mainstream crossover success awaits.


Cruising, the Belfast/Dublin alliance between assorted ex- and current members of Girls Names, September Girls, Sea Pinks and Logikparty, announce themselves to the world with a self-titled EP that includes the Siouxsie-ish 'The Spectacle' and 'You Made Me Do That', which comes on like early Wire. Purloining their name from William Friedkin's 1980 gay exploitation movie, they're allied to London independent Tough Love Records whose roster also includes HEALTH, Cymbals Eat Guitars, Moon King and the aforementioned Girls Names. All in all a humdinger of a debut!

Lisa Hannigan is the featured vocalist on 'Josephine', the lead single from London trio Ritual's upcoming From The City To The Wilderness album. It's 4m 05secs of immense gorgeousness, and makes even more impatient for Ms. H's long-awaited new album. 
Lisa has also recorded a tune with Glen Hansard, 'On Love', which graces the soundtrack to Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet, an animated adaptation of the classic 1923 collection of prose, poetry and essays by the titular Lebanese writer.
The Irish connections don't end there with Hannigan's former partner chipping in with two original tunes,  'Hypnosis' and 'On Children', and Liam Neeson among the voice actors. The OST is out now on Warner Bros. and well worth a listen.




Hanging this week in New Orleans was Spider Stacy who belted out a brilliant version of The Pogues' 'If I Should Fall From Grace With God' with local heroes The Lost Bayou Ramblers in One Eyed Jack's.

Team Hot Press is loving 'Sapokanikan', a Joanna Newsom love letter to Manhattan, which is accompanied by this suitably striking vid. It's taken from Divers, her first album since 2010's Have One On Me, which drops on October 23.
Produced by Steve Albini, it has us almost delirious with anticipation!

The Indiependence folk have posted a cracking aftermovie, which confirms that despite Mother Nature's worst efforts everyone attending the Mitchelstown blowout had a blast. The aerial shots of Deer Park Farm are particularly stunning. Next August really can't come around too soon!

This week marked the eighth anniversary of the death of that honest northern blagger, Tony Wilson. Leading the tributes with his 'St. Anthony: An Ode To Anthony H. Wilson' and star-studded accompanying video was Manc poet Mike Garry. We've also tracked down a So It Goes 'Best Of' and Factory Records documentary, which explains why the loveable old rogue is deserving of all the posthumous praise that's been coming his way.



Planet Parade have come up with a '70-tastic video for 'Blue Sky', their summery new single which gets its digital release on August 28. It was recorded in the duo's own Kildare single and mixed by Hozier man Rob Kirwan.

Which is Free Music Friday done for another week. If we don't develop a nasty case of gout over the weekend at the Big Grill, we'll be back in seven days with another smorgasbord  of delights. Keep those links coming to @stuartclark66