WM Recordings have put up a number of worthy artists for the past five years releasing only free albums and all under Creative Commons license. They celebrate the label's 5th birthday, 100 free albums and nearly 1000 free tracks with the release of their 100th album. WM x 100 / 100 x WM is even more special because it's a compilation album filled with a wide array of genres and recorded by musicians from all over the world. We see it as a sort of a tribute to WM Recordings - the net label that proved that free music is good music and should be shared.

WM Recordings do not simply feature a certain genre in their every album - they share a mixed variety of different genres which are sure to be liked by just about anyone.

They released WM x 100 / 100 x WM on November 7, 2009 - exactly 5 years after they have established the net label. They have shared almost 1000 tracks from artist all over the world, with a great variety of genres and remixes, and the thought of giving away free and legal music to all people around the world.

The album has various sounds from Afrobeat to Progressive Rock, to Pop and Free Jazz. Moreover, the 100th album is not dedicated to one genre or to one geographical location - all artists come from all over the world, adding a special touch to their 100th compilation.

One nice thing about this album is that you do not know what is in store for you. Once you put your music player in shuffle and pop in this album, you do not know what kind of experience would the next song give you. Take Century of Aeroplanes' You Like Woody Allen? Studio Haen Remix; at the sound of it, you might say it is some kind of club music inspired by Woody Allen. On the other hand, you would find yourself drifting off into some kind of weird hypnotizing poem which is quite amusing.

Support free music by supporting WM Recordings, and you'd have good, free, and legal music in return for it.

Tracks:
01. Happy Elf - Online
02. daghoti. - Lars don't like it
03. Dj Tôh - Drops [Studio Haen Remix]
04. Lee Rosevere - Plane Planet
05. Datapanik - Spil [Studio Haen Remix]
06. Keshco - Coma
07. Lanark - Anachoret
08. Gorowski - Mondo's Disco [Studio Haen Remix]
09. Century of Aeroplanes - You Like Woody Allen? [Studio Haen Remix]
10. Meanwhileproject.ltd - Open Source (STB)_vs_1
11. Vernon LeNoir - Another Glass Of Melonade
12. Nambavan - Live [Studio Haen Remix]
13. Sick To The Back Teeth - Fear Of Water
14. Jan Turkenburg - Hundred
15. René Vis - Music For Free

Bonus: Happy Elf - Online [VIDEO]

Related Links:
WM100 on WM Recordings
WM Recordings Website
WM100 on LegalTorrents
WM100 on Archive.org
WM Recordings on Last.fm

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.

Quick. Grab everything you know about what a music album should be. Now, grab everything you know about what music should be. Got it? okay. Put it in a box and hide it under the bed or tucked in a closet where it'll be safe from Manu Chao's latest musical project "Viva La Califata."

Manu Chao is no stranger to pushing the limits of music and it's conventions. In fact it would be rare to find any of his music settled in a clearly defined genre.

Manu Chao is usually found expanding musical concepts; from its inception passing through the way it's recorded, until it reaches a finished state that isn't always a stable one.

However, with all this said, "Viva La Califata" will stand on its own as one of his most interesting and expressing works of music. Recorded in conjunction with Buenos Aires' notorious radio station, Radio La Colifata which is notorious by being staffed by current and ex-patients of a psychiatric hospital in the area.

That should give you a sense of what you're getting into with this album. A sense that may or may not be completely wrong. If your brain told you it expected some psychedelic gabbercore like hrvatski or kid606 (both great artists if you like to experiment and have your mind blown at the same time, in the good and bad way), it is my pleasure to tell you that you're completely neither wrong nor right.

There is certainly no techno or electronica in this piece as we know it, but you can certainly get the feeling of unbound freedom of expression in this piece as you would in some of the most notorious and genre defining gabbercore songs. By this point, you're probably wondering if the author of this post is himself a current or ex-patient of the psychiatric hospital this piece of music came from. I assure you I am nowhere near Buenos Aires.

What you will find in this album is 30 of the most interesting minutes of free flowing musical creativity. A very lyrically heavy piece that relies on spoken language to deliver its sharp message. This is certain to alienate any non-spanish speaking listeners but, granted you speak the language, will take you on a trip through the minds of these patients and ex-patients.

Imagine having a brain upside down and emptied of its contents, contents which are then mixed around, some duplicated, others cut, and most stacked on top of each other, to then all be presented in rapid succession stumbling on the way. This is the only way in which I can fathom describing the music contained in this album. The messages in this pool of thoughts range from insightful critics of the psychiatric system, to observations of the world passing throughout the state of the world and their feelings about love.

This is all I can say about the music itself, but I hope that I managed to transmit at least a small piece of the powerfulness of the emotions this album evokes.

If you enjoyed this album like I did, please head over to the donation section and make a donation to keep this station going.

Related Links:
Radio La Colifata's project site
LT22 Radio La Colifata's Homepage
Manu Chao's Official Site