It’s Friday, which means another installment of our regular roundup of downloadable MP3 goodness from around the web. This week there’s Nite Jewel and Nicholas Krgovich covering Frank Ocean, the return of Beth Orton, a cranking new track from The Soft Moon, singles club downloads for Com Truise and Dirty Beaches, How to Dress Well channeling Janet Jackson, and various other free stuff awaiting your delectation. 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.
Nite Jewel and Nicholas Krgovich — “Thinking About You” Here’s something polarizing to start this Friday’s post with: Do you love or hate the idea of Nite Jewel and Vancouver singer Nicholas Krgovich taking on Frank Ocean’s sublime “Thinking About You”? Make up your mind at RCRD LBL.
Beth Orton — “Magpie” We’ve always had something of a soft spot for Beth Orton, so we’re rather pleased to see that she has a new album on the way. It’s called Sugaring Season, and this is its opening track. “Magpie” is very folky and very English, and makes clear the debt that latter-day folk types such as Laura Marling owe to Orton — it’s available via Stereogum.
The Soft Moon — “Die Life” If you happen to be making a sci-fi movie that needs a theme song, you could do a whole lot worse than this fairly pounding instrumental from Flavorpill faves The Soft Moon. It’s the first taste of their new album Zeros, to which we are looking forward a great deal.
Captain Murphy — “Shake Weight” The mysterious rapper who goes by the name Captain Murphy surfaced on a new Flying Lotus track for Adult Swim’s Singles Program a couple of weeks back, and this is one of his own productions: just like his work on that song, it’s weird and psychedelic and kinda cool. Get it here.
Com Truise — “Chemical Legs” And speaking of Adult Swim, here’s the latest installment in the aforementioned Singles Program — a new track from the ever-excellent Com Truise. Get it via Stereogum.
Dirty Beaches — “Elizabeth’s Theme” Also via a singles series, this time run by Vancouver indie label Kingfisher Bluez, is this new track by Alex Zhang Hungtai, better known as Dirty Beaches. It’s quite the departure for Hungtai, a reflective instrumental piece, and we really rather like it — see if you agree here.
How to Dress Well — “Again” How to Dress Well covering Janet Jackson? This makes perfect sense to us. You can grab his version of “Again” right here.
Madness — “Death of a Rude Boy” Ska veterans Madness are still around, believe it or not, and they have a new album due out in the wake of their performance at the Olympic closing ceremony earlier this week. The first single from the album is called “Death of a Rude Boy,” and you can get it via The Quietus.
Marilyn Manson — “Slo-Mo-Tion” (Dirtyphonics remix) Marilyn mighn’t be looking so great these days, but he still has a way with a thumping pseudo-industrial tune. This remix veers perilously close to The Crow soundtrack/Skrillex territory, but it’s still worth a listen, if only as an illustration that the dance/rock divide is pretty much entirely non-existent in 2012. You can get it via RCRD LBL.
Prince Rama — “So Destroyed” This snuck out at the end of last week, so we thought we’d include it here for posterity’s sake. Prince Rama, bless them, are very much an acquired taste, but if you’re into their neo-hippie psych meanderings, you’ll doubtless be fascinated by the concept behind their upcoming album, which according to Pitchfork involves “Prince Rama ‘performing’ as ten fictional bands that (fictionally) had top-ten hits on the eve of the apocalypse.” Um. Get this track — which is by fictional outfit “Rage Peace” — via the ‘Fork.