Salon's Wed A.M. Downloads • 6/09/04

[DudeAsInCool]

:strumma: In this week's Wednesday Morning Downloads review at Salon.com, Thomas Bartlett recommends "Free tunes from vocalists who evoke Billie and Sade, music someone paid $1,000 to hear live, and a 99-cent Miles Davis track that's worth every penny." Here are some excerpts from his column:

"The highpoint of my week was the P.J. Harvey show at the Knitting Factory in New York on Wednesday (see below), but Thursday brought a solid double bill (which almost turned into a sublime triple bill, with the tantalizing possibility of a secret Beth Orton show at Piano's -- but I couldn't get in) of Angela McCluskey and Jolie Holland, both at Joe's Pub. "Shame" and "It's You," P.J. Harvey, from "Uh Huh Her"

Recommended downloads:

PJ Harvey, "Uh Huh Her." (iTunes, RealPlayer, MusicMatch)

Madonna," CocoRosie, from "La Maison de Mon Reve"

There's something faintly Victorian about CocoRosie: two sisters holed up in their 18th Arrondissement Paris apartment, singing nursery-rhyme songs in impossibly wizened voices as, in the background, the rain falls and a lonely music box plays. The Casey sisters, Bianca and Sierra, create an extraordinarily evocative atmosphere of cloistered, sometimes uncomfortable, privacy, but it's their voices that really steal the show. Free Download: Madonna

"You Make Me Feel," Milosh, from "You Make Me Feel"

Finding information about Mike Milosh is not easy.....It's odd to hear someone singing so explicitly within the idiom of modern R&B over a track that could have been taken from Björk's "Vespertine," but it works beautifully. Oh, and I almost forgot to mention that his voice floats in on delicate waves that explode into exhilarating being. Free Download: You Make Me Feel

"Balloon Maker," Midlake, from "Bamnan and Slivercork"

I knew I would love this song from the very beginning, with that beautiful, soft-focus horn sample playing in the background. The obvious reference point for this music is the playfully grand orchestral pop of the Flaming Lips....The record comes came out yesterday on Bella Union, and I look forward to hearing the rest. I found this MP3 through Fingertips, an excellent resource for finding free MP3s on the Web. Free Download: Balloon Maker

"He Loved Him Madly," Miles Davis,from "Get Up With It"

If you're going to spend 99 cents on a track, it might as well be very long, right? As a rule, any track longer than 10 minutes is not available for individual purchase on iTunes or the other stores, only as part of an album. But for some reason (maybe the work of evil "jazz purists," who continue to miss the point of Davis' '70s recordings) this 32-minute masterpiece, from 1972's "Get Up With It," is an exception, and can be yours for a measly 99 cents. "He Loved Him Madly" was Davis' tribute to the recently deceased Duke Ellington, but rather than the stumbling, staggering, weeping motion of a dirge, it is absolutely static -- everything here is eerily elongated and unnaturally still, with the tone set by Davis' harmonically beautiful, ambiguously voiced electric organ playing. This is 99 cents well spent. (iTunes, RealPlayer, MusicMatch)

You can read the full review and get your free downloads here (after viewing a short visa commerical to get a free pass to salon.com for the day):

http://www.salon.com/ent/music/review/wmd/...rvey/index.html