It’s Friday, which means a) we survived the apocalypse and b) it’s time for another installment of our regular roundup of downloadable MP3 goodness from around the web. This week we have Prince Rama welcoming in the post-apocalyptic age, along with Thee Oh Sees covering the Velvet Underground, another beautiful home recording from Marissa Nadler, melancholy songsmithery from Willy Mason and El Perro del Mar, retro-futurism from Chrome Canyon and Ital Tek, and various other goodness for your downloading delectation. Since all this action costs precisely nothing, what are you waiting for? All the download links await after the jump.
Thee Oh Sees — “European Son” Thee Oh Sees got arguably the most difficult task on the upcoming Velvet Underground and Nico covers album, taking on epic freeform eight-minute closing track “European Son.” They do a surprisingly good job of it, though — download it here and see what you think.
Prince Rama — “Welcome to the Now Age” So in Prince Rama’s world, one of the bands who’ll inhabit the album chart in the week of the apocalypse will make curious reggae-inflected music about a nebulous post-millennial philosophy. Better that than OneDirection, eh? You can download this glimpse into the future via Stereogum.
Marissa Nadler — “Devil Town” Another gem from Marissa Nadler’s Soundcloud — a home-recorded version of Daniel Johnston’s “Devil Town.” It’s amazing what you can do at a home studio these days — Nadler deftly employs several subtle layers of vocal harmonies while still retaining a sense of intimacy that makes it sound like she’s set up camp in your living room. You can download it here.
Billow Observatory — “Pankalia” The curiously named Billow Observatory is a collaboration between Danish producer Jonas Munk, aka Manual, and Auburn Lull guitarist Jason Kolb. The duo create slow-burning, atmospheric music that falls somewhere between post-rock and Fripp & Eno. This is from their self-titled collaborative album, which is due out early next month via new Brooklyn label Felte. The record is great and definitely worth hearing — in the meantime, you can download this track via Pitchfork.
El Perro del Mar — “Hold Off the Dawn” As we mentioned yesterday, we’re loving Pale Fire, the new album from Gothenburg singer/songwriter El Perro del Mar. As with the rest of the record, this balances quiet melancholy with breezy pop melodies to excellent effect — you can get it via Stereogum.
Willy Mason — “Carry On” And speaking of quiet melancholy, here’s a new track from old-beyond-his-years alt-country singer Willy Mason. We’ve always liked Mason at his most stark and minimal, and he’s rarely sounded more restrained than he does on this, the title track from his upcoming album, his voice accompanied only by a restrained guitar figure and subtle washes of synth bass. You can get the track for free via his Soundcloud.
The Ruby Suns — “Kingfisher Call Me” Yay for the return of The Ruby Suns! This is the first single from the band’s new record Christopher — you can get it for free (in exchange for an email address) from the band’s label Sub Pop.
Chrome Canyon — “Memories of a Scientist” (Matthewdavid remix) We thoroughly enjoyed seeing retro-futurist theremin warlock Morgan Z and his Chrome Canyon crew at CMJ, and we’re pretty keen to snap up any of his music that we can get our hands on. This dubby, bass-heavy remix from LA producer Matthewdavid certainly fits the bill — it’s available via XLR8R.
Ital Tek — “Pixel Haze VIP” On a not dissimilar note, here’s some suitably futuristic disco from Brighton producer Ital Tek, courtesy of Self-Titled. You can download it via the magazine’s Soundcloud page.
The xx — “Fiction” (Druid Cloak remix) And finally, sometimes the best remixes are those that don’t mess greatly with the mood of the original. So it goes with this reworking of The xx’s “Fiction” by shadowy producer Druid Cloak — it adds plenty to the mix, but still manages to retain the original’s minimalist, downtempo feel. Get it via XLR8R.