Unlocked Recordings

Revisiting the fun Unlocked Recordings collection at the Internet Archive. The current Music Modernization Act was passed into US law on October 11, 2018. This law helps to preserve and increase public access to early sound recordings.

For more information on this change, see these posts by the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Internet Archive, two leading champions of the Internet and information availability for all.

At this time, there are 750 albums from before 1972 in the Unlocked Recordings collection, including artists like Mrs. Miller and Orson Welles, and covering classic pop, old time radio, traditional folk music, and classical performances.

Enjoy spinning some of these classic records you might never have otherwise heard! Cheers to the Internet Archive for bringing these recordings to new ears!

Donate to the EFF and Internet Archive for the good of the whole world and to be one of the cool kids.

You can click this collage to see a full-size image of covers of all 750 current albums in Unlocked Recordings collection.

Shake That Little Foot Sees 300K+ Downloads on FMA

B'Gosh and Begorrah! When an as yet unnamed band joined together in Liverpool in 1993 recording an unnamed album of traditional music, none present might have guessed how beloved that album would become around the world.

Eventually, the band became Shake That Little Foot. After getting their original tracks from the recording engineer, the band released the album online, and everywhere it is shared it becomes a favorite.

Since Oddio Overplay uploaded the album to the Free Music Archive, there have been more than 300,000 downloads there alone. That's a lot of new ears enjoying Shake That Little Foot!

Today, we are celebrating the success of an unnamed band's lovely unnamed album made for the joy of music and shared for free with the whole world. Hurray for Shake That Little Foot!

(Last promoted 20 May 2010)

MUSIC COPYRIGHTS: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License
IMAGE: Painting on the cover is "The Dancing Couple" (1663) by Jan Steen housed in the National Gallery of Art (US)
NATIONALITY: Euro: UK: England: Liverpool
CLASSIFICATIONS: Folk; Americana; American Folk; England; English Folk; Banjo; Fiddle; Old-Time; Celtic; Mountain
FILED UNDER: Digital: Traditional: Multi Region

Celtic and Nordic Folk From Ogham Ensemble

La Ciudad de México might not be the first place you would expect to hear Celtic and Nordic folk music. That is unless you knew composer and musician Alex Daniels and his bands were performing it. Daniels is in three bands that cover a lot of geography— Kali Deryav (music from the Balkans, Turkey and the Caucasus), Ogham Ensemble (Celtic and Nordic music), and Tres Tristes Tangos (Klezmer and Tango).

Alex says, "I feel that I need to learn different musical languages (and learn them as deeply as I can) to have what it takes to make the music I want to do, but it also makes me very happy to play in these groups."

This lively set of tunes from the Ogham Ensemble is a real treat. You can also enjoy most tracks from their Ogham album.

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MUSIC COPYRIGHTS: All Rights Reserved
IMAGE: album cover
NATIONALITY: Amer S: México: Ciudad de México
CLASSIFICATIONS: Celtic; Nordic; Folk
LANGUAGE: (instrumental)
FILED UNDER: Digital: Traditional: Euro: West, North
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Americana from Sisters in Pennsylvania

Noisetrade: From the hills of Pennsylvania comes a debut self-titled album from The Hello Strangers, a sister-fronted (Larissa Chace Smith and Brechyn Chace) Americana duo, whose haunting harmonies and witty, noir songwriting are the backbone of their sound. Produced by award-winning Nashville producer Steve Ivey, the album features 11 originals and 2 covers, and features Jim Lauderdale on vocals, and "Que Sera, Sera," a tribute to the sisters' Grandfather, who sang with Doris Day.

Genres: Country, Americana, Roots Rock
For Fans Of: Kathleen Edwards, Lucinda Williams, Ryan Adams, Johnny Cash, Emmylou Harris

"The Hello Strangers don't need classifications. They are just – for lack of a more sophisticated term – Damn Good." - Chuck Dauphin, Music News Nashville/Billboard

Official Website | Noisetrade | Facebook | Twitter

MUSIC COPYRIGHTS: All Rights Reserved
IMAGE: album cover
NATIONALITY: USA: Pennsylvania: Mercersburg
CLASSIFICATIONS: Country; Folk Pop; Americana; American Folk; Blues Rock
LANGUAGE: American Engligh
FILED UNDER: Digital: Traditional: Americas: North: Folk, Country

Ail Fionn

At the heart of Ail Fionn are Matthew on saz, a 7-string Turkish instrument, and Inge on mandolin. This album of dreamy, semi-improvised, psych folk songs was recorded with friends at the Higher Grow Studio in Sint-Niklaas, Belgium.

Performers:

• Inge - mandolin, fiddle
• Matthew - saz (a.k.a., A Tiny Window and heard on Kazoomzoom)
• Sven van Mol - electric bass guitar, bandir, bass drum, shakers
• Abdul Kader - bandir on 1 and 6
• Christy - darbouka on 9
• Mickey - percussion and bells on 3, 4, 5 and 7

Keywords: mandolin; saz; baglama; drone; droning; acoustic; atmospheric; folk; free psych-folk; free psychfolk; free psych folk; freeform; improv; improvisation; improvisational; improvisatory; improvised; improvising; jam; jamming; lofi; lo-fi; organic; other; psychedelia; psychedelic; psychfolk; psych-folk; space; spacey; spontaneous; modal; elf; elven; fairy; faery; pixie; Sint-Niklaas; Flanders; Vlaanderen; celtic; Irish; Irish trad; Irish traditional; traditional Irish; Irish folk; Ireland; Cornwall; Cornish; Cornish folk; Cornish traditional; traditional Cornish; traditional; Sweden; Swedish; Swedish folk; Swedish traditional; traditional Swedish

Music License: © CC BY-NC-SA
Image: Inge traveling in France at the time with mules and a wagon built by Matthew, original here

Cape Verde Traditional Music

Mendes Brothers Ramiro and João are a duo from Cape Verde, the nation of islands in the Atlantic 350 miles off the coast of Africa. They are accomplished musicians, and Ramiro has written songs for fellow celebrity performers, such as the legendary Cesária Évora.

Among the Mendes Brothers recordings shared on Jamendo is their 1995 album Bandera. In his Allmusic review of the album, Mark Romano writes:

Bandera is an old and sacred Cape Verdean music style that has been preserved for over 500 years. The music is performed exclusively during the saints' festivals. There are two or more drummers, an entourage of call-and-response chanters, and masked dancers. Bandera is set on a beautifully syncopated 3/4 rhythmic pattern with a very simple and repetitive melodic structure.

This is the first time that bandera was transposed from its traditional music format to contemporary expression. The brothers have interpreted this ancient music and have done it admirably. With updated technology they have brought this music to a wider audience. The tracks are deeply rooted in the traditional rock bed of West Africa but also swing with a thoroughly modern intensity. The semba/ coladera tracks combine Cape Verdean coladera dance rhythms with Angolan semba. The mixture results in extended fiery marathons, percussion-laden with riffing horns. This is Cape Verdean music at its finest, with plenty of percussion and bass accompanied by call-and-response vocals and some great chops on the horns. Highly recommended.

Official Website | Jamendo | myspace | Facebook | iTunes | last.fm | Amazon

Music License: © Creative Commons BY-SA
Artist Location: Cabo Verde (Cape Verde, officially the Republic of Cape Verde)

Klezmer and Classical Reinterpreted by City & Eastern Symphonia

In it's heyday of the late '80s to mid-'90s, City & Eastern Yass Bend was the greatest Klezmer Band in the Netherlands, famous for its weekly concerts in "Het Syndicaat" in The Hague. The group was founded by Marcel Cuypers and Wilma Paalman. It morphed into other groups over the years based on the instruments and performers. All specialized in unorthodox interpretations of classical and folk music. Through their idiosyncratic versions of forgotten classics, City & Eastern Symphonia breathed new life into centuries old music.

The City & Eastern Symphonia album Time Release is a chronological overview of music beginning in antiquity at the time of Confucius and Pythagoras, working through the Middle Ages and classicism, to come to the brink of the twentieth century. It features compositions by Mozart, Mussorgsky, Brahms, Tchaikovsky and Satie, among others, focusing on Asian-style pieces, like "Danse Arab" and "Turkish Marches". They also sing Roma and Swedish folk songs.

Performing are Marcel Cuypers, clarinet, piano, vocals; Astrid Rubenowitz, violin; Wilma Paalman, cello, zang; Alain Labrie and Erik Schurman - guitar; Jan den Boer and Peter Wassenaar, contrabass; Rupert Rubenowitz - percussion; and Marcel van der Schot, accordion.

Cupers shares many other recordings on his site, as well. Time Release has long been a favorite at Oddio Headquarters.

Marcel Cuypers | Wilma Paalman

Music License: © All Rights Reserved
Image: Candid photo of some members of City & Eastern Symphonia from website of Wilma Paalman
Artist Location: The Netherlands

Chamber Jazz from The Tim Ware Group

On his official website, Modern Mandolin Music, Tim Ware, American mandolinist and composer, shares two of The Tim Ware Group albums and relevant sheet music.

The albums are The Tim Ware Group (1980) which launched the group to prominence and Shelter From The Norm (1983) with album cover art by renowned designer Michael Cronan. These albums are still relevant and much sought after today.

The Tim Ware Group helped define the emerging genre of "New Acoustic Music", a genre blending influences from bluegrass, jazz, and international folk traditions using only acoustic instruments. Ware is also a notable artist linked to the genre of "Chamber Jazz".

Chamber jazz is a genre of jazz based around small, acoustic-based ensembles where group interplay is important. It is influenced aesthetically by musical neoclassicism and is often influenced by classical forms of non-Western music.... It is also noted for using instruments not normally associated with jazz. For example, chamber jazz will make use of the oboe, mandolin, cymbalum, or the tabla.

The non-Western influences or instrumentation make chamber jazz at times listed as a kind of world music. At other times the fusion of neoclassical with jazz is deemed to be New Age and several albums of chamber jazz were released by Windham Hill Records. Windham Hill itself was co-founded by a musician linked to chamber jazz and was initially known for folk or world music.
-- Wikipedia

Music License: All Rights Reserved
Image: Press photo of The Tim Ware Group, c. 1980
Artist Location: California, USA

Positive Messages To Get You Through

"Imagine what you could do, if you just believed in you?" -- Dawn Pemberton

Message Positive is an uplifting 18-track mix on the Free Music Archive with songs of positivity and inspiration to act.

The compilation jumps nations and continents and visits the genres of hip hop, soul, rhythm and blues, funk, ambient, chill, reggae, dub, rock, folk, singer-songwriter, rockabilly, blues, electronica, pop, novelty, children, dance.

Message Positive features Axial, BJ Block and Dawn Pemberton, The Crevulators, Eaters, Great Lake Swimmers, Higgins, Ill Papa Giraffe, Jon Rauhouse and Neko Case, Kelley Stoltz, Neko Case, Nobody's Bizness, Propaganda Anonymous, Salakapakka Sound System, Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars, Spinnaface, Spinningmerkaba, Uncle Neptune, and Underling.

Every moment is a once-in-a-lifetime experience, baby.

[Download Message Positive]  

UPDATE: Sorry. Download stopped working when mix featured on FMA, 
so here is a rebuild. Hope it works for you now.
 

Music License: see individual track for license
Image: "Happy Sun" by pinkpuffball

Free-Jazz from White Russia

Viktar Siamashka and Co, a free-jazz quartet in Mink, Bielarus, just released their Biotope album on the avant-garde netlabel Black Square (Чёрный квадрат). These spontaneous improvised pieces were recorded live "in anticafe Fisher House, Miensk, Bielarus" and fans of improvised free-jazz will want to hear this one.

Siamashka performs beautifully on woodwinds and brass. The group -- Viktar Siamashka (winds, percussion), Eryk Arlou-Shymus (double-bass), Maxim Iukin (voice, percussion), Raman Jarash (big drum) -- holds together as if they have played these pieces for years.

"Free music from 'the last dictatorship in Europe'. Spontaneous improvisation. Operative composing. Something at the intercrossing of free-jazz, folk, academic and electronic music. All compositions were created together, alive, 'here and now' and without the using of phonograms or rehearse fragments."
-- Viktar Siamashka and Co

Official Website | Black Square |  Album Review on Experty.by (Belarussian music site)

Download album
Black Square | Internet Archive

Location: Minsk, Belarus
Music License: Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0

Indie Pop from The Wind Whistles

"Tom and Liza are the Wind Whistles and they live together in the suburbs of Vancouver, Canada. As an indie folk duo, they both sing and both play acoustic instruments (guitar,bass). Sometimes they play alone and sometimes they bring friends, more times not.

"They think they sound like a cross of Lemonheads and Violent Femmes while people tell them they sound like a cross of the Decemberists and the Moldy Peaches. Beginning in the spring of 2006, they've done the usual artist thing: demo, radio, festivals, tours, friends and lots and lots of shows. In 2007, they have released their first full length window sills and try to spread it around as much as they can. Thats why they have decided to re-release their 12-track LP under a creative commons license."

Facebook | MySpace | Donate | Shop

Download album

Archive.org | Aaahh Records

Location: Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Music License: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported

That There Is Truckin'!

Back in 2008, Roctober Magazine hosted a big piece in issue 46 on the history and highlights of a type of fourth generation American country music known as "truck driving" music. To celebrate the release, Roctober gave away truck driving music cassettes featuring covers of classics and originals by the Roctober staff.

Jake, the Roctober editor and a key player behind the legendary dance show Chic-A-Go-Go (yay!), offers the truckin' songs on Dinosaur Gardens. He writes, "For those of you who missed the party, or who don’t have a cassette player, we are posting the compilation in its entirety here, including the 'bonus track,' a rare 70s soul 45 that is the all-time funkiest trucking tune."

Also included at Dinosaur Gardens are the stories of the cover songs and bonus tracks, adapted from the pages of the magazine. There are article excerpts at Roctober's website, too. You can still get your hands on your own copy of Roctober #46 for just $4!

Roctober Store | Chic-A-Go-Go Facebook | Roctober Reviews Blog

Location: Chicago, Illinois, USA
Photo:  "Red American Truck (Kenworth Truck Typ W 900, Bj. ca. 1985, 240 PS, 12800 ccm, 6 Zyl.) - West USA" by PRA, 2007.
Photo license: Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported
Cover improvised by Oddio Overplay

Kevin Seconds Solo

7 Seconds was formed in the 1980s and remains among the longest lived of any group from the first wave of California hardcore punk with legendary records, like Crew and Walk Together, Rock Together.

Frontman Kevin Seconds continues to perform and record with 7 Seconds and has branched out into other avenues with his solo work. His release Don't Let Me Lose Ya is far from hardcore. The album is singer-songwriter relaxed rock and American folk "with the vitality of someone who is content to follow his muse," to quote Quote Unquote Records.

The album's label, Asian Man Records, describes it this way:

"Kevin Seconds' new album makes apparent what longtime fans already know: Kevin Seconds is a pop troubadour with a protest singer's heart, writing catchy, impeccably well-crafted tunes. "

Don't Let Me Lose Ya is available for free download with a suggested donation of $5. You can also purchase the album in LP, CD, and cassette formats at Asian Man Records.

Official Site | Donate | Buy Album |  Wikipedia | Bandcamp | Facebook | Myspace

license: Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike

Hearing Green

Sláinte (slawn-cha), Gaelic for "cheers" or "good health", was a Celtic band based out of Tacoma, Washington in the USA. The band serves as an early case study for the benefits of making music available for free online. Sláinte were one of the most downloaded artists on the original mp3.com, which wasat that time  a major site for free and legal music downloads. Their self-titled first album was available at mp3.com both for free and for sale, and they sold hundreds in a time when most did not yet trust online sales transactions. (more here)

Here are two CDs and a collection of bonus material by Sláinte, as well as an album of folk, celtic, and bluegrass from the five piece string band Shake That Little Foot and a collection of Irish works presented by miscellaniac.

Sláinte!

U.S. Army Band Ensembles

The United States Army Band has been the premier musical organization of the U.S. Army since 1922 when Army Chief of Staff General John J. “Black Jack” Pershing directed that it be formed to emulate the premier European military bands he had heard during the First World War. The Band has been known as “Pershing’s Own” ever since.

The Band provides musical support for US leadership, including all branches of government and for a spectrum of national and international events in support of public diplomacy, community and international relations, recruiting initiatives, soldiers and their families, and music education programs. The U.S. Army Band was also widely known during its early years for radio broadcasts featured on several national networks.

The U.S. Army Band and it's smaller ensembles periodically offer selected recordings on their websites. Here are some of the releases and collections currently available.

click images to enlarge

	US Army Strings - Strings Selections Classical, Strings, Modern Composition, Peoples Music | changing selection of songs The U.S. Army Strings, a premier ensemble of the U.S. Armed Forces, provide a musical backdrop for many of the country's most notable events. Their mission is to serve as musical ambassadors for high level military and government events at home and abroad, as well as in concert for public audiences. The elite musicians that comprise this ensemble have been trained at the most prestigious music conservatories and universities in the country. This versatile ensemble performs as The U.S. Army Strolling Strings, mixed chamber ensembles, and The U.S. Army Orchestra.
	US Army Blues - Live At Blues Alley (at online jukebox) Jazz, Blues, Swing, Big Band, Brass, Percussion | 11-song album + PDF booklet The U.S. Army Blues is the premier jazz ensemble of the United States Army. After informal beginnings in 1970, this 18-piece ensemble became an official element of the Army Band in 1972. Comprised of exceptional jazz musicians from across the nation, the Army Blues strive to fulfill their mission through public concerts, educational outreach, and the preservation of the tradition of America's unique art form: jazz.
	US Army Concert Band - Marches Of America (at online jukebox) Marches, Military, Orchestra | 15 of 18-song album + PDF booklet Headquartered in Washington, DC, The U.S. Army Concert Band has performed in concert venues such as Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall, Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, and Hollywood Bowl. The ensemble participates in ongoing, educational outreach and often appears at national and international music events.
	US Army Blues - Something Old, Something New: Yours to Borrow From the Blues Jazz, Blues, Swing, Big Band, Brass, Percussion | 9-song album + materials listed below "Introducing "Blues + YOU": play-along tracks available online--free of charge--so musicians can practice with mp3 downloads in a variety of configurations! Tailored to intermediate and advanced players, this unique product will become an invaluable resource for both college and high school jazz programs. The newest recording from The U.S. Army Blues, Something Old, Something New: Yours to Borrow From the Blues has tools to use and tunes to enjoy!" Materials include: Complete arrangements with score and individual parts as PDF files Separate full-band mp3 files minus lead trumpet, lead alto saxophone, lead trombone, and each rhythm instrument Mp3 files of rhythm section only for solo or full horn section practice
	US Army Chorus - Chorus Selections Male Choral, Classical, Vocal Pop, Folk, Military, Americana | changing selection of songs In 1956 The U.S. Army Chorus was established as the vocal counterpart of The United States Army Band and is one of the nation's only professional men's choruses. From its inception, The U.S. Army Chorus has established and maintained a reputation of excellence in the performance of male choral literature. Beyond the traditional military music and patriotic standards, the repertoire of the Army Chorus covers a broad spectrum which includes pop, Broadway, folk, and classical music.
	US Army Chorus - Christmas With The Chorus Male Choral, Classical, Vocal Pop, Folk, Holiday, Nonsecular, Christmas, Winter | 18-song collection

license: US Government Public Domain

Seattle's Best Female Vocalist

Seattle-based singer/songwriter Shannon Stephens earned the Best Female Vocalist title in the Seattle Weekly 2012 Best Of issue. Preview and download her free EP, Cold November, by clicking the cover in the widget or here. Official Website | Facebook | Asthmatic Kitty | Bandcamp photo by Ankur Verma

Slavic Girls in Dissonant Harmony

Women and girls singing in traditional Eastern and Southeastern European dissonant harmonies are featured in this free compilation of Free Music Archive tunes.

licenses: see individual track info

painting:  A Northern Idyll, by Konstantin Korovin, 1886, oil on canvas, housed at The State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia

Alan Lomax Archive Online

Alan Lomax was an international ethnomusicologist. The nonprofit organization Lomax founded in New York, Association for Cultural Equity, is now providing thousands of the recordings from his exciting career online!

Morning Edition has a radio feature today about the new public archive:

"Folklorist Alan Lomax spent his career documenting folk music traditions from around the world. Now thousands of the songs and interviews he recorded are available for free online, many for the first time. It's part of what Lomax envisioned for the collection — long before the age of the Internet.

"Lomax recorded a staggering amount of folk music. He worked from the 1930s to the '90s, and traveled from the Deep South to the mountains of West Virginia, all the way to Europe, the Caribbean and Asia. When it came time to bring all of those hours of sound into the digital era, the people in charge of the Lomax archive weren't quite sure how to tackle the problem."

photo: Folk musicians at a wedding in Multan, Pakistan, by Hameed Chughatta.
license: Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 1.0 Generic

New from Axial

Brand new free album from Axial (São Paulo, Brazil) just released!

Axial are long-time favorites at Oddio. Axial are Brazilian artists who blend soft vocals, organic sounds, synth beds, and electro glitches with gorgeous results.

License: Creative Commons Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike

Huun Huur Tu Tour

Huun Huur Tu is still on their US tour, so if you live in the North and East, do yourself the favor of an historic night out to see these Tuvan greats who are humbly playing at intimate clubs and schools.

Huun Huur Tu are a traditional Tuvan group performing ancient music on ancient instruments accompanied by khoomei throat singing. Their music is remarkable.

I've been stalling on listening to their new album, ETERNAL, because in it they are paired with electronic composer Carmen Rizzo. I didn't want to hear this group I love and respect reduced to "world electronica." Time Magazine's poetic review is enthusiastic the new CD and all I've read elsewhere are positive reviews, so I did finally listen. It works. It actually works. This new album is beautiful and ethereal. Listen to samples and free downloads for yourself. What do you think?



"Pour a glass of something, close your eyes and let your soul soar through those boundless Tuvan skies." -- Veronica Zaragovia for Time Magazine