Salon's Wed A.M. Downloads • 8/25/04

[DudeAsInCool]

In this week's Wednesday Morning Download colum (Staples of virtuosity), Thomas Bartlett offers up the following free downloads; here are some excerpts from his column:

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Two months ago, I featured "Static on the Radio," a duet between Jim White and Aimee Mann from White's recent "Drill a Hole in That Substrate and Tell Me What You See." At the time, it was available only for pay, but Insoundhas recently posted a free download of the track, so if you skipped it the first time around, grab it now. It's a marvelous song.

"Have a Little Faith," Mavis Staples, from "Have a Little Faith"

Mavis Staples, now 56, has had a long and successful career as the lead singer of the legendary Staples Singers. She's just released her first solo record since 1996, and her first since her father (and bandleader), family patriarch Roebuck "Pops" Staples, passed away four years ago. The title song, "Have a Little Faith," is a warm, groovy track that harks back to the Staple Singers' classic Stax soul/gospel sound.

"Me and Mia," Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, from "Shake the Sheets"

Ted Leo makes the ultimate ectomorph rock: lean, taut, wordily cerebral, driven entirely by nervous energy... The combination of tight, jittery punk energy and perfectly chiseled, catchy melodies is irresistible. "Me and Mia" is the opening track of Leo's upcoming "Shake the Sheets," his third unassailably brilliant album in a row. This is as good as punky indie-rock gets. Free Download: "Me and Mia"

"You Are the Light," Jens Lekman, from "You Are the Light" EP

In the time that I've been writing this column, no single song has generated as much appreciative mail as "Black Cab," by Jens Lekman, a young Swede with a Magnetic Fields fixation. Now he's back with a new EP, "You Are the Light," and a full-length album on the way, titled "When I Said I Wanted to Be Your Dog." Some things are different this time around -- primarily that Lekman, formerly a DIY bedroom auteur, recorded this record in a real studio with real musicians -- but never fear, his Scandinavian-teenager-as-Stephin-Merritt shtick is still firmly in place. His references have also expanded: This song has big-band horn stabs, Scott Walker-ish orchestral pop bombast and a Motown-style chorus, complete with female backup singers. Free Download: "You Are the Light"

"Legacy," Maylay Sparks, from "Graymatter"

Rahsheed, aka Maylay Sparks, is an obscure but highly regarded emcee from Philadelphia. On his solo debut, "Graymatter," he teams up with a number of European artists including Danish producer DJ Noize, who provided the beat for this track. It's the production I'm most excited about here: slightly sloppy (in a good way) trip-hop drums, a fat, heavy bass line, a beautiful, woozy string sample, and underneath the whole thing, the supremely comforting hiss and crackle of old vinyl (the most viscerally nostalgic sound that exists? For me it certainly is). It's the perfect, soft-focus backdrop for Sparks' sharp rhymes and aggressive, staccato flow. Free Download: "Legacy"

"Last Walk Around Mirror Lake" (Boards of Canada remix), Boom Bip, from "Corymb"

Boom Bip is, apparently, an instrumental hip-hop artist from Cincinnati. Since I've never heard his music before, I have no way of knowing how much of the beauty of this track can be attributed to his original and how much is the work of Boards of Canada, who did this remix....nobody I've heard follows up on Eno's early experiments as successfully as Boards of Canada do. Free Download: "Last Walk Around Mirror Lake" (Boards of Canada remix)

You can read the full review & download the songs after watching a small ad at Salon.com:

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