Obsidian Shell « Angelic Asylum »

I have presented you so far mostly with electronic music of ambient or psychedelic varieties, only once with a bit of swing metal. So here comes some gothic metal.

Obsidian Shell was created out of the ashes of Hungarian gothic metal band Restart which split after one five-track demo in 2006. Restart’s vocalist, bassist and guitarist formed Obsidian Shell (sans drummer and keyboarder) and released their first album 2009.

1. My Arrival 1:07
2. Orphanage 4:19
3. Fear 5:00
4. Dream 4:17
5. Endsequence 3:34
6. Starfall 3:27
7. Summoner of the Wind 4:34
8. Second Birth 4:33
9. Wings of Cruelty 3:53
10. Farewell 5:49
11. Misanthropia 2: Eternal Darkness 10:10

Angelic Asylum was published on 3^rd of October 2010 via Jamendo.

Gothic metal with female vocals seems to have been quite popular and probably still is - I just did not found most of it convincing. My interest rather lies with progressive and technical death metal or - as might be expected - crossover with various electronic styles. Gothic just doesn’t fit my bill and frankly sounds quite a lot like a caricature.

Now, Obsidian Shell is classified gothic but except for the fact that it is sung by a woman I just don’t see it much. It has some electro metal and otherwise a drum set and guitar playing that I would place with industrial extreme metal but is neither. Mostly engaging and appealing. The lyrics appear to be rather of a gothic nature though…

• Free streaming and download in MP3 from the Internet Archive 
• Free streaming and download in OggVorbis from the Internet Archive 
  
  

Direct download of the OggVorbis version of the complete album from the Internet Archive:
DOWNLOAD

See also: Discogs | Last.fm | MusicBrainz | RateYourMusic

Angelic Asylum ℗ 2010 Obsidian Shell ℅ Henrik Csató

Angelic Asylum by Obsidian Shell is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at http://www.jamendo.com/album/76571.

Sky Effect « Freedom Eye »

Sky Effect is still a relatively new project of psychedelic electronica created by Ukrainian musician Viktor Korchinsky.

1. Processes 8:57
2. Back in Space 6:03
3. Wayting 7:12
4. Yes & No 5:51
5. Transpher 7:04
6. Channel 7:54
7. Connected 7:30

Freedom Eye was published on 14^th of November 2013 via Jamendo and is ongoing proof that indeed new music to discover is out there. Downtempo music with ambient and psychotronic sound with lots of great ideas that I wish Viktor would have released in lossless FLAC. It would make a great release for Ektoplazm.

• Free streaming and download in MP3 or OggVorbis from Jamendo 
• Free streaming and download in WAV, FLAC, MP3 or OggVorbis from the Internet Archive 
  
  
  In this player each track is featured twice.

Direct download of the OggVorbis version of the complete album from the Internet Archive:
DOWNLOAD

See also: Discogs | Last.fm | MusicBrainz | RateYourMusic

Freedom Eye ℗ 2013 Sky Effect ℅ Віктор Корчинський

Freedom Eye by Sky Effect is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at http://www.jamendo.com/list/a128626.

mindthings « Life’s Path »

mindthings is the downtempo project of Clément Peres from Bordeaux in France.

Life’s Path was his second album by Jamendo.

1. Our Lifes, Our Destinies 2:12
2. Sounds From the Past 4:16
3. Emotion Vibes 4:52
4. Night Rains 3:24
5. Life’s Things 3:12
6. Artificial World 2:41
7. Cold Water 4:14
8. Exponential Tears 3:28
9. Reversal Situation 2:04
10. The Last Time on This Earth featuring Maya de Luna 1:56
11. AfterLife 2:50
12. Rebirth 2:29

Life’s Path was released on 5^th of February in 2007 under a Creative Commons license. It’s electronic downtempo music with a good deal of piano-playing and an occasional beat. The Last Time on This Earth features vocals by Maya de Luna, not exactly a favourite of mine; I've never been a fan of this kind of dream pop. But Emotion Vibes is worth a repeated listen…

• Free streaming and download in MP3 or Ogg Vorbis from the Jamendo 
  
  

Direct download of the MP3 version of the complete album from the Internet Archive:
DOWNLOAD

See also: Discogs | Last.fm | MusicBrainz | RateYourMusic

Life’s Path ℗ 2007 mindthings ℅ Clément Peres

pan « Sick Monkey »

pan was the initial name of Maik Sommer’s music project that he started in 2005. He later renamed it to pan:core.

Sick Monkey is the first release of this young project, released by Jamendo.

1. On/Off 2:18
2. LFO Rider 7:02
3. Kikis Fax 1:41
4. Som Noiz 6:18
5. Nstnt Akzn 3:48
6. LFO Rider II 5:22
7. Fuckin’ My Neighbors 9:24
8. Nazis 2:31

Sick Monkey was originally released on 28^th of July in 2006 (in lossy MP3 and Vorbis) and later (on 3^rd of November 2009) released in lossless FLAC under a Creative Commons license. Maik simply used the electronic and experimental tags to describe the music; it is descriptive of the approach but not the style. I would describe it as noisy (as in power noise) and technoid industrial music.

• Free streaming and download in WAV, FLAC, MP3 or Ogg Vorbis from the Internet Archive 
  
  

Direct download of the FLAC version of the complete album from the Internet Archive:
DOWNLOAD

See also: Discogs | Last.fm | MusicBrainz | RateYourMusic

Sick Monkey ℗ 2006 pan:core ℅ Maik Sommer

Diablo Swing Orchestra « The Butcher's Ballroom »

Sometimes a professional band offers its music through a free license for promotional reasons. That's what the Diablo Swing Orchestra did with its first album.

1. Balrog Boogie 3:53
2. Heroines 5:23
3. Poetic Pitbull Revolutions 4:52
4. Rag Doll Physics 3:53
5. D'Angelo 1:54
6. Velvet Embracer 4:05
7. Gunpowder Chant 1:51
8. Infralove 4:54
9. Wedding March for a Bullet 3:14
10. Qualms of Conscience 1:16
11. Zodiac Virtues 4:48
12. Porcelain Judas 4:09
13. Pink Noise Waltz 6:07

The Butcher's Ballroom was originally released on 17^th August 2006 in hardcopy by Gillioutine Grooves, the label owned by the band itself. Almost three years later, on 24^th July 2009, the album - a mix of avant-garde metal, swing jazz, traditional European music and classical soprano singing - was made available under a Creative Commons license.

• Free streaming and download in MP3 from Jamendo
• Free streaming and download in MP3 or Ogg Vorbis from the Internet Archive

Direct download of the MP3 version of the complete album from the Internet Archive:
DOWNLOAD

See also: Discogs | Last.fm | MusicBrainz | RateYourMusic | Wikipedia

The Butcher's Ballroom ℗ 2006 Daniel Håkansson / Gillioutine Grooves

Silence « L'autre endroit »

Occasionally a meteor appears in the world of music. Some shine brightly, some others are rightfully forgotten. But then there are thoses that are hardly visible in the sky but whose remains can be rediscovered and get a late appreciation. Among those latter meteors belongs the project Silence by graphic designer Vincent Girès who in late 2005 released three small albums.

1. Cellule 3:40
2. Realité 3:51
3. Stop! 4:08
4. Expérience 1:25
5. Effacé 6:03
6. Sale 2:19
7. Particule 4:28
8. Larmes 3:22
9. Follow Me 3:59

L'autre endroit got some sort of pre-release on 28^th November 2005 on Community Audio (still without any artwork) and was eventually released and properly licensed in January 2006 on Jamendo.

• Free streaming and download in MP3 from Jamendo
• Free streaming and download in MP3 or Ogg Vorbis from the Internet Archive
• Free streaming and download in FLAC, MP3 or Ogg Vorbis from the Internet Archive ^[1]

Direct download of the MP3 version of the complete album from the Internet Archive:
DOWNLOAD

See also: Discogs | Last.fm | MusicBrainz | RateYourMusic

L'autre endroit ℗ 2005 Silence ℅ Vincent Girès

^[1] Vincent's old webpage silence-world.tk printed as copyleft notice "ces œuvres sont libres, vous pouvez les redistribuer et/ou les modifier selon les termes de la Licence Art Libre."

Esther Garcia « Incidental »

Now, you might ask "Is it all just electronics here at HBB"?

No, let's take Esther Garcia Gonzales, Spanish composer and pianist. Having studied at the Conservatorio profesional de música Arturo Soria for eight years and at the Escuela Superior de Canto de Madrid for four years, Esther has written mostly orchestral music for various audiovisual projects and companies in Spain.




Incidental was released 22^rd March 2013 via Bandcamp for sale. Esther later (5^th April) released an MP3-only version under a Creative Commons license. If you like the album as much as I do you might consider buying her album on Bandcamp.

• Free streaming (and purchase in FLAC, MP3, ALAC, AAC or Ogg Vorbis) from the Bandcamp © 2013 All rights reserved.
• Free streaming and download in MP3 from Jamendo

See also: Discogs | Last.fm | MusicBrainz | RateYourMusic


Incidental ℗ 2013 Esther Garcia Gonzales

Epic Soul Factory « Volume One »

Nothing enhances a moving picture more than sound, especially if it is as emotional as a good film score. Good film music has become so popular that now there's even music movie-style without the million dollar movie to go with.
Some artists now have specialized to provide us with good music that plays to the ear without the limitations that film techniques require. Epic Soul Factory, made up of four film composers from Spain, is one of them.

1. Rising Legends 1:52
2. Titan 2:32
3. Iron 1:52
4. Poltergeist Attack 2:07
5. Amazona 1:44
6. El prendimiento 3:06
7. Dusty Universe 1:58
8. La búsqueda de Ianna 2:39
9. Creo en ti 4:06
10. The Fall of Gilead 3:32
11. Sugiriendo u crimen 1:04
12. The End 3:31

Epic Soul Factory - Volume One, their first album, was originally released 15 August 2010. Only on 17 February 2011 they released it in a downloadable format through Jamendo but with an altered tracklist.

Here you can listen to the originally released version in streaming only.

• Free streaming and download in MP3 from Jamendo
• Free streaming and download in MP3 or Ogg Vorbis from the Internet Archive

Direct download of the MP3 version of the complete album from the Internet Archive:
DOWNLOAD

See also: Last.fm | MusicBrainz | RateYourMusic


Epic Soul Factory - Volume One ℗ 2010,2011 Epic Soul Factory ℅ Eduardo Jiménez, David de la Morena, Fran Soto, and Francesc Vilà

mend « In Spite of It All »

Sometimes it so happens that an artist has released some stuff years and years ago, sufficiently long enough that said music has gone out of print ages ago. One option is to try to find a new publisher, a new label to reissue the music. Or the artist makes the music available for free.

That's what Idahoan synth pop band mend did in 2008 when they re-licensed their music under a Creative Commons license.





In Spite of It All was the first album, originally released via Altered Music in June 2002. It was reissued via Jamendo and Bandcamp 22 October 2008.

• Free streaming and download in FLAC, MP3, ALAC, AAC and Ogg Vorbis from Bandcamp
• Free streaming and download in MP3 from Jamendo
• Free streaming and download in MP3 and Ogg Vorbis from the Internet Archive

Direct download of the MP3 version of the complete album from the Internet Archive:
DOWNLOAD

See also: Discogs | Last.fm | MusicBrainz


In Spite of It All ℗ 2002 mendmusic ℅ Corey Hennis, Todd Mahoney, and Chet Slater

Halo Effect « Hammer the Gear »

Being a long-term Depeche Mode fan myself, bands highlighting the now classic period of DM as the world's foremost synth pop band in the second half of the 1980s have long held a special interest to me. But not everything can be considered a success. Here, Italian band Halo Effect finally reached a level that their music can be recommended.

1. Hammer the Gear (Celtic Tribes Remix) 5:27
   Remixed by Celtic Tribes
2. Hammer the Gear (Spektralized Remix) 3:50
   Remixed by Richard Bjørklund aka Spektralized
3. Hammer the Gear (Divider Remix) 5:46
   Remixed by Divider
4. Hammer the Gear (FabrikC Remix) 5:24
   Remixed by Thorsten Berger aka FabrikC
5. Hammer the Gear (Naukilot Remix) 4:51
   Remixed by Naukilot
6. Hammer the Gear (Deadtronic Remix) 3:49
   Remixed by Deadtronic
7. Hammer the Gear (This Took Long Enough Remix) 4:48
   Remixed by Controlled Collapse

Hammer the Gear was the first remix single, released 1 September 2009.

• Free streaming and download in MP3 from Ionium Records
• Free streaming and download in MP3 from Jamendo
• Free streaming and download in MP3 and Ogg Vorbis from the Internet Archive

Direct download of the MP3 version of the complete album from the Internet Archive:
DOWNLOAD

See also: Discogs | Last.fm | MusicBrainz | RateYourMusic

Official Video



Hammer the Gear ℗ 2009 Halo Effect ℅ Marco Cattani, John Andrew Peverieri, Alessandro Polinori, and Federico Rosi

2Invention « In Aeternum »

Around 2002 two young musicians from Poland decided to make trance music together. Calling themselves Thomas Eccard and Neal Cerrone, their early releases, while as a whole being trance music, still owes some to French disco trance artists from the 1970s, Cerrone (of Supernature fame) being an obvious one.

1. Lonely Man (Intro) 0:48
2. In Aeternum (Hrd Remix) 7:52
3. Lifeout (Original Mix) 6:38
4. Lonely Star (Light Mix) 3:23
5. Symphonic Life (Based on Adicted) 5:06
6. We Can't Be Free (Original Mix) 4:07
7. Sweet Salsa 3:23
8. I Love Her 3:38
9. Minimal Perception (Original Mix) 4:12
10. Deeper Love feat. Gorski 4:11
11. Loneliness (Original Mix) 4:28
12. Help Me (Original Mix) 4:56
13. Bye (Outro) 2:04
bonus tracks
14. For Niczyja 1:28
15. Hope 1:03

In Aeternum was released 22 May 2007. The original download was released with a Attribution-NoDerivs license while today the download page displays a Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike. To be the safe side let's assume that you may share it under the conditions that you must attribute the work to its creator, that you may not use it for commercial purposes and that you may not transform it in any way.

• Free streaming and download in MP3 from Jamendo
• Free streaming and download in MP3 and Ogg Vorbis from the Internet Archive

Direct download of the MP3 version of the complete album from the Internet Archive:
DOWNLOAD

See also: Discogs | Last.fm | MusicBrainz | RateYourMusic

Incidental ℗ 2007 2Invention

Sonocore Records Presents « Nex Gen Volume 02 »

Once you've started with Volume One and getting to the second Volume, you realize that there is more variety to the Jumpcore Frenchstyle thingy than it initially appears.

1. DJ Toxik Waste - Intro 1:53
2. DJ Marvel - The Sound of Life 6:38
3. DJ Det's - Don't Stomp (Original Mix) 4:14
4. G-T3K - Play It Hard 6:43
5. Noize-R - Chicago (Original Mix 2007) 6:12
6. DJ Endy - Wind It Up (Vocal Mix) 5:32
7. DJ Baback vs Greg Kalas - Fuck the Poing (Mad Jumperz Remix) 5:40
8. V-Bass - Serum 4:19
9. DJ Toxik Waste - The Sins (Crazy Dancer) 5:18
10. DJ Guit - Follow the Fucking Voice 5:50
11. DJ Toxik Waste - Strike Back 4:40
12. NTX 13 - The Ninth Gate 6:41
13. Middle M - Last Home 4:47
14. V-Bass - Serum (DJ Guit Remix) 5:28

Nex Gen Volume 02 (stylized simply as Nex Gen 2 on the cover) was released 24 July 2007. Besides Toxik Waste and Noize-R themselves are returning V-Bass, DJ Guit and NTX 13, while DJ Marvel, DJ get's, G-T3K, DJ Endy, DJ Baback, Greg Kalas and Middle M are new additions. Jean Jacques Bartholoméï (of the Mad Jumperz) makes a special appearance by way of a remix. Similar in diversity both in style and quality one track stands out to me, if nothing else for utilizing a Star Wars theme composed by John Williams. If you look closely at the track title you'll find it easily enough.

• Free streaming and download in MP3 from Jamendo
• Free streaming and download in MP3 and Ogg Vorbis from the Internet Archive

Direct download of the MP3 version of the complete album from the Internet Archive:
DOWNLOAD

See also: Discogs | MusicBrainz

Intro, The Sins (Crazy Dancer), Strike Back ℗ 2007 Toxik Waste ℅ Karol Morsa
The Sound of Life ℗ 2007 DJ Marvel
Don't Stomp ℗ 2007 DJ Get's
Play It Hard ℗ 2007 G-T3K
Chicago ℗ 2007 Noize-R ℅ Guillaume Speurt
Wind It Up ℗ 2007 DJ Endy ℅ Andy Arnout
Fuck the Poing ℗ 2007 DJ Baback & Greg Kalas ℅ Frédéric de Backer and Grégory Bastin
Serum ℗ 2007 V-Bass
Follow the Fucking Voice ℗ 2007 DJ Guit
The Ninth Gate ℗ 2007 NTX 13 ℅ Chris Dee
Last Home ℗ 2007 Middle M ℅ Caroline Poncet