It’s Friday, and we’re back with another installment of our regular roundup of downloadable MP3 goodness from around the web. This week there’s a new track from Calexico, along with Marissa Nadler covering Townes Van Zandt, a new project for Julianna Barwick, a surprisingly palatable cover of “Midnight City,” Mike D remixing Bosco Delrey, and various others. And an entire mixtape from Clams Casino. In other words, there’s plenty of interesting sounds awaiting you after the jump, and since they won’t cost a penny or land you an RIAA lawsuit, as your attorneys we advise you to start downloading immediately
Calexico — “Para” Yay for the return of Calexico, who are back with a new album called Algiers, due out on September 11 via Anti-. This is the first single, a fine example of the sort of reflective dustbowl balladry that the group does so well. Get it via Soundcloud.
Marissa Nadler and Emily Jane White — “Close Your Eyes I’ll Be Here In The Morning” While we’re on downtempo country music, here’s Marissa Nadler and Emily Jane White covering the late, great Townes Van Zandt. The track was apparently recorded into a laptop microphone, but it sounds pretty fantastic to our ears. It’s available via Nadler’s Soundcloud page.
Ombre — “Cara Falsa” Ombre is a new collaboration between the wonderful Julianna Barwick and her labelmate Helado Negro. The duo are releasing an album called Believe You Me in late August, and this is the first taste thereof, a woozy, languid jam that sets Barwick’s vocals over a slow, echo-laden beat and tripped out sounding synths. The track just premiered on Fact’s website, and you can grab it via this Soundcloud link.
Matthew E. White — “One of These Days” We’ll be honest and say we’d never heard of Matthew E. White before we came across this track yesterday (in our defense, it is his debut single). Stereogum describe the song as “bring[ing] together the warm, haunted tones of Leonard Cohen, Terry Reilly, and Dr. John,” which is pretty high praise but also pretty close to the mark. Check it out here.
Bosco Delrey — “My My Racecar” (Mike D remix) Yes, that Mike D. He’s done a fine job with this remix of Mad Decent’s resident greaser Bosco Delrey — the track doesn’t veer far from the original, but investing it with some chunky bass and a general spit and polish works a treat. Click here to listen.
Six Organs of Admittance — “Waswasa” Six Organs of Admittance generally make vaguely tripped out atmospheric psychedelia, but there’s no hint of any such thing on this track, which is a raucous guitar workout more reminiscent of Ben Chasny’s other band Comets on Fire. People who like loud guitars played fast will want to click here immediately (and, advance warning, it’s a RCRD LBL link, so you’ll need to surrender an email address in exchange for the track).
Mind Over Mirrors — “Harmattan Morning” Here’s a strangely compelling piece of instrumental strangeness from Brooklyn producer Jaime Fennelly, aka Mind Over Mirrors. It sounds like the sort of carnival music you might hear if you managed to stumble into a real-life version of Carnivale. It’s really good, in other words. Get it via 20 Jazz Funk Greats.
Saint Saviour — “Midnight City” You may well never want to hear “Midnight City” again — it’s right up there with “Somebody I Used to Know” as the most overplayed song of 2012 — but if not, it’s worth giving this cover by London songstress and occasional Groove Armada vocalist Saint Saviour a listen. You can do so by clicking right here.
Ramesh — “Berlin Without Return” A couple of weeks back, we mentioned an upcoming compilation called Snacky Tunes Vol 2, a collection of live tracks recorded on Heritage Radio’s program of the same name, and shared a live Light Asylum track from the record. A couple more tracks surfaced this week — this is by Voxtrot’s Ramesh Srivastava, and is available via Brooklyn Vegan’s Soundcloud page. Don’t worry, there’s no comment section.
Clams Casino — Instrumental Mixtape And finally, here’s an entire mixtape by Clams Casino. Go and download it right here, and enjoy the weekend just that little bit more.