The Walla Recovery – With Trembling (2012), EP, free download

The cello-folk quartet The Walla Recovery delivering through NoiseTrade this 7 track EP for free download. Start they musical journey back in 2001, The Walla Recovery mentioning as influences bands like Yo-Yo Ma, Nickel Creek, Goo Goo Dolls, but reminded me of a more melancholic Smashing Pumpkins or The Cure as well. I like how the cello gives a dark shine for this songs, everything is smoothly arranged and gently performed. Labeled eventually “Chamber-Folk-Rock”, this is a very tasty experience. Warm and very humanly close.
So, listen and grab the download, consider leaving a tip if you’d like what you hear and want them to make more music. Read more The Walla Recovery – With Trembling (2012), EP, free download

Jethro Tull – Roots to Branches (1995)

Between their debut, “This Was” in 1968 and their 21st in 2003 with “The Jethro Tull Christmas Album “, Jethro Tull has delivered albums with distinctive sounds crossing genres and styles, merging prog/art rock, hard rock, heavy metal, jazz, blues, folk, classical, Elizabethan, and world music. I heard Ian Anderson’s music for the first time with the 72’s album “Living in the Past” and even if I wasn’t an unconditional fan of Tull, Anderson, we have to admit it, delivered quality materials throughout the years. “Roots to Branches” released on 4 September 1995, probably is not as acclaimed as “Thick as a Brick” (1972) or famous as “Too Old to Rock ‘n’ Roll: Too Young to Die!” (1976), but definitively is a colorful trip into a musical universe filled up will all the spices from Anderson’s workshop. Read more Jethro Tull – Roots to Branches (1995)

Kauan – Kuu.. (2011)

“Kuu” is the Finish word for “moon” while “Kauna” means “long”. Kauan started by Anton Belov in February 2005 at Chelyabinsk, Russia. Belov also play under the moniker Helengard with Alina “Witch_A.” Roberts (Inferno, ex-Semargl) and in the project called inea with Ilya Rikhter (from K Seven and R Is For Rockets). Kauna started as a folk black band and in 2006 Lubov Mushnikova joined the band as a violin player. The duo moved in the direction of folk doom and grown into folk rock/post rock maintaining their gloomy, epic sound. Even though the band is from Russia, they writes lyrics both in Russian and Finnish language. “Kuu…” is their forth full-length album and it’s probably their most sophomore, experimental and colorful release up to date. Read more Kauan – Kuu.. (2011)

The Nightwatchman – Union Town (2011)

During an interview in October 2010, Rage Against the Machine frontman Zack de la Rocha allegedly confirmed that a new album is in the works, with a possibility of a 2011 release. All the fans waiting this since 1999 and obviously most of us hoping for more killer tracks such as “Killing in the Name”, “Bullet in the Head”, “Bulls on Parade”, “Testify” and “Guerrilla Radio”. It’s not a big secret, RATM are one of the most activist and lefty rock band of the scene, extremely involved in politics, maybe too involved. Well, growing up “behind the iron curtain” in a so-called communist system, I have a quite different experience and implicitly a totally different view about what “left” actually means. On the other hand, the troubled times we’re living in and the obvious failure of the capitalist system I thought will somehow release and satisfy these guys. Well, it seems not. It seems they wanna “slayer the dragon” right till the end and dance on his grave. Some things I can understand, others not, everybody must be aware of his own limitations. I know that the United States has had a two-party system for over a century and well, it’s not quite the “free world” we dreamed about and democracy is only an illusion while all the information we received are filtered, censored and distorted, but still, I will never ever waving a fucking red flag knowing at least what guys like Lenin, Stalin, Castro, Ceausescu and Kim Ir Sen did.
The Nightwatchman is the alter-ego and solo act of Rage Against the Machine, Street Sweeper Social Club and former Audioslave guitarist Tom Morello. It was formed in 2003 as an outlet for his political views – while some claim Audioslave was playing apolitical music, still, they played on May 6, 2005, a free show in Havana, Cuba and became the first American rock group to perform a concert in the socialist republic of Cuba.So… Read more The Nightwatchman – Union Town (2011)

The Felice Brothers – Celebration, Florida (2011)

This is the American dream, or the sparking of it, what’s left from it. Ian,James and Simone Felice, sons of a carpenter, used to play on Sundays at their father’s afternoon barbecues. They stayed in a little apartment in Brooklyn and The Felice Brothers started as a band playing in the New York City subway stations at 42nd Street and Union Square and in Greenwich Village. Ian is the main vocalist and plays the guitar and piano, James contributes vocals and plays the accordion, organ, and piano, their friend Christmas Clapton, previously a traveling dice player plays the bass guitar. Simone Felice was the drummer as well as a vocalist and a guitarist, he is also an author, having released books entitled “Goodbye Amelia, and Hail Mary, Full of Holes”. Simone left the band in 2009 and now leads his own band: The Duke & the King, Dave Turbeville was put behind the drum kit and Greg Farley is the fiddle player. They album “Through These Reins and Gone” released in 2006 made it onto Radio Woodstock WDST’s top 25 albums of 2006 and in 2008 it was announced The Felice Brothers had signed a record deal with Team Love Records, since they traveling the country in their “Short Bus”, touring extensively. Read more The Felice Brothers – Celebration, Florida (2011)