Dedicated Ears Legal / Free Album/ep List

Having been head over heels for Reverence For Fallen Trees, the first album by Holland's The Black Atlantic, I was pretty sure I would love this album as well. And I do. Geert, Simon, Kim and Mathijas have stretched their sound in more aggressive and louder ways while still maintaining the beautiful melodic core that makes the band's sound pretty unique.

 The waltz timed "Aftermath (Of This Unfortunate Event)" is the first track and has the feel of being recorded it a cavernous old church abbey. "Our silence hides nothing in this truce before sleep. One can hear the creaking of ghosts of no shape or hue. I'll admit i've used all the wrong words to position myself," Geert sings with resignation.

"The Flooded Road (Built on Sand)' is a doo-wop inspired soulful song where Geert sings, "She waits for me there clutching a child. Love was lost in the ferns and rekindled in the slope". The music has a throw back old soul sound, the types of songs people make babies to.

The drums and percussion on the title track really stood out for me. They add a bit of  harder element.

Speaking of jazz influence, on "An Archer, A Dancer" the jazz timing makes for quite a dramatic flourish. A nice counter balance to Geert singing repeatedly, almost as a mantra, "I am rudderless and adrift tonight. My pen, in sinews of the ink, dries in the maelstrom To span time."

Overall, there are a lot of slight touches, many of them jazz based that make this album full of beautiful and unconventional pop songs. Yet again, they have made an album that I can't just put on to listen to one track. I am really excited to see what direction their music takes next. I was fortunate to help get the guys some gigs here and to hang out with them as well. I was really happy for them when their song "Dandelion" was used for the Kindle Fire commercial that came out just before Christmas last year. Then that song was on Amazon's best selling singles list shortly there after. Great hard working guys, who deserve the exposure they are getting.  Thanks again to the guys for the awesome free album.

To get the lyrics for this post I consulted the best source... the inside of their vinyl album cover.  It's a beautiful package and one you will want to consider ordering so you can enjoy it as I do . You can order it  HERE.

Having had their first album download hundreds of thousand of times led The Black Atlantic to a wide exposure that led to that commercial placement. This is exactly what I discuss with bands all of the time.  Sometimes it's hard to put an album up for free and still have to pay the production costs out of pocket, but there is something to be said for getting it to as many people as possible.

The Black Atlantic are: Geert v/d Velde: lead vocals, electric and acoustic guitars, harmonies. Kim Janssen: electric and acoustic guitars, harmonies. Simon v/d Heide: drums, auxiliary percussion, piano harp Matthijs Herder: mellotron M400, harmonies, grand piano, philicorda, Yamaha CS5, Fender Rhodes, bass guitar, ukulele, nylon string acoustic guitar Released 13 January 2012

 I know is I will have one of  dusthoney's eclectic and beautiful pop music albums on my year end list. The only problem is which of her 4 albums released this year (thus far) do I choose. Early money is on Shotgun Bride. Her music seemingly has no boundaries, which is what music should do. Thanks to dusthoney for all this great left field pop music.

From her Jamendo page "semi-manic bizzaro pop album made in about a week. now with more vocals than ever before! this album was inspired by the internet. the week this album was made was spent watching countless paranoid schizophrenic conspiracy theorist videos on youtube, losing sleep by distracting myself with faraway internet friends, and developing a genuine affection for crazy broken people. this one's for you, guys. "alone with everybody" is a robotic interpretation of charles bukowski's poem of the same name."

Three intimate sounding beautifully sung songs from Milwaukee folk outfit hitide.lotide. Thanks to hitide.lotide for the free download. Thanks to Slowcoustic for the tip. He has a great blog on the quieter side of music.

Norman, Oklahoma based Young Readers is Jordan Herrera, who has created some restrained yet beautiful pop gems on his debut, Family Trees. The laconic gait of opening track "All I Have" featuring a western influenced foundation with weepy stings is the perfect match for Jordan's restrained yet effective vocals. The Western foundation is upped a few more notches on the waltz timed second track "Box Car" on which Jordan sings 'We can eat cans of beans and you won't hear me complain... And the world will drift away as you and I fall asleep in the hay... And all the sights that we'll see as we hop... from state to state... And the sound of the train is all I need to leave this place.'

On "Wooden Frame" Jordan uses some some nice imagery  in the lyrics, 'And it takes a little color... And some time to dry on canvas ...And it takes a 20x16 wooden frame ...To make his journey away seem sincere.' My favorite track on Family Trees is "Blame" a slow burning song that finds Jordan lyrics and vocals full of guilt and resignation.  There are countless songs sung about relationships. It's always good to hear a song like "Blame" that is honest and straight forward as well as heartfelt as evidenced by the lyrics ,'I hope the house is still warm ...When I lay my back against yours ...Cause in your bed I feel like a ghost ...Buried in clean sheets and dirty clothes.' When I saw Jordan play in Chicago he gave an explanation for the album closer 'Lion Tamer', which Jordan told the audience was written about a boy he used to look after who has Autism. The boy was neglected and Jordan's sadly poignant take of the situation  in 'Lion Tamer'', 'So you claim you're not the fool they say you are ...As you try to prove you're someone that you're not ...They don't understand the creature you've become ...So they lock you up and hide you in the walls.'


Jordan is a confident songwriter who has done a remarkable job on his first release, Family Trees. I think it is stunning in it beautiful simplicity and have listened to it countless times. This album will be on my year end list and I look forward to see what Jordan has up his sleeve is the future.
Jordan is currently on tour. Hi bandcamp download is a free download and you can follow him on his Facebook page I link above to find out when and where you can see him play.
My concert footage from Jordan's Chicago show yesterday will be up on youtube soon.

Entertainment For The Braindead - Roadkill  is a free download on aaahh Records net label.  This is a predominantly banjo based album. Which is awesome to me! Julia Kotowski is the driving force behind this incredibly emotional music. So hauntingly beautiful on tracks like "Dry Wood". The waltz time propelled "Relapse" is really nice the way it swells in points.  This is an overall beauty of an album that you will listen to repeatedly.

Lovira is a cello and guitar player who originally had a 4 track album that this picture is from on Jamendo. Since then he has added a lot more songs and they can be downloaded for free on his Pure Volume Page. If you like cello music this album is a must.