If you miss the good old days of the 90s when you put on the radio and hear 311 or the Red Hot Chili Peppers creating some funky tracks; you'll probably enjoy listening to Everybody Left.

Describing their sound as post ska, reluctant reggae and Funk-Hop; the band sure knows how to throw down catchy beats that don't require much thought.

This British Columbia group is composed of Stephen Chatterton, Eric "The Red" Wickman, Steve "Shaggy" Fissel, "Ad-Mac" Adam McIntyre, Steve "Saxman" Cowie  and Martin Milbo Schoeps.

Released back in June 2010, this self titled debut serves as a band introduction of sorts. They were formed out of  frustration from the various members with their respective groups at that time. According to the group, they were "4 guys joined forces to create the music that they wanted to make. Not wanting to conform to any set genre or sound, they just wanted to play music and record a CD. Before the CD dies off completly (sic)."

The entire album is self-produced and was recorded in Off The Goose Studio, the band's own. What resulted from this is a fusion of reggae pop and funk with hints of hip hop. Even though they shun the comparison, their sound does echo off Sublime quite a bit. Tracks like Rock Slow and Treble in Paradise are upbeat and the type of tracks you can imagine playing in those 90s videos of guys driving around the neighborhood in their top down cars.

Pretty much, the entire 7-track compilation echoes with this sentiment. It's made to be played in the background to a laid-back, lazy day. If you are looking to trigger some 90s reggae funk nostalgia, you should take a listen to this one. It's available as a free download over at BandCamp.

Related Links:
Everybody Left on BandCamp
Everybody Left on Facebook
Everybody Left on Myspace
Everybody Left Official Website

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Gracing the pages of our blog the second time around hip hop and dancehall artist, Ray Sytes, is back with an exciting new mix. Tote My Flag has everything any hip hop lover will enjoy, like mad beats, catchy hooks, great vibes and awesome mic skills courtesy of Sytes and company.

Ray Sytes is a Guyanese born rapper/musician that is proud to showcase his heritage as well as his love for Brooklyn and Queens.

With a colorful repertoire and collaborations with some of the best producers and rappers, including a song with a multi-platinum artist in his previous record, Sytes is definitely bent on making more than a ripple on this big sea of hip hop.

Tote My Flag is the first mixtape from Sytes' Welcome To The Far South series. The singer has also released a full compilation titled, Guyanese Pride, which included the song Everybody Else - a track in which he collaborated with rapper T-Pain.

Sytes doesn't only create music to please his fans, he sees his sound as a way of promoting his home country as well. His mixes feature contributions from other renowned musicians, all while skillfully combining several music genres. The album exudes reggae & hiphop beats but also incorporates smooth R&B rhythms showcasing the artists' true flexibility.

Straight hiphop cuts like, My City and Star Bwoy Remix ft. Mavado, beautifully shows the artist's mic skills. His penchant for reflective lyrics and beats is among the things that draw listeners to his sound. On the other hand, as a salute to his roots, Nike Song, Push It and title track, Tote My Flag celebrate more of a dance-hall vibe. Of course, Sytes doesn't stop there. He also explores his melodic side on tracks like Remember Me, Call On Me and Can't Back Down.

Discovering his love for hip-hop at a young age, Sytes credits his blossoming love for the music by watching artists like LL Cool J, Run DMC and Big Daddy Kane spit out rhymes on TV. He was initially a part of Major League Hustlaz with childhood friend, Big Vegas. After two records with his friend, he was confident enough to head to the studio and write/record his own songs. This time around he was bent on exploring and incorporating his passion for other types of music. He successfully does this and released Guyanese Pride along with other mixes like this current one.

Tote My Flag is an excellent compilation that has a little bit of everything. If you're looking for great music to play at your party, a simple movie night with your partner at home, or maybe just something to play on your music player - this one should be perfect.

Related Links:
Ray Sytes Official Website
Ray Sytes on DatPiff
Ray Sytes on Facebook
Ray Sytes on Twitter
Ray Sytes on MixTape Factory

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Dub One! is a Berlin based producer widely known for his playful melodies that take it's listeners on one unforgettable journey through music. Blow Dubs EP, his latest album released on the famous iD.EOLOGY Netlabel, is no different. Filled with laid back off-beat rhythms, salsa influenced sounds, and horns of all shades, it is a five track release not to miss.

The dub genre grew out of reggae music in the 1960s and quickly became known for it's typical use of echos, reverbs, panoramic delays and occasional dubbing of vocal or instrumental snippets. So enjoy the relaxing sounds of Blow Dubs from the very capital of Germany.

Dub One! started playing the piano at the early age of five and soon became addicted to music. As a teenager he strived to become a famous jazz pianist, however, in 1998 he changed his mind and decided to produce dub music instead. From 2004 to 2008 he than worked on the co-op project "Authist & Dub One!" together with a:urban. Their albums released on both the iD.EOLOGY and Musicartistry netlabels brought them wide acknowledgement and some great reviews.

Dub one!-massive dub job (rubber mix) by Dub One!

The track Massive Dub Job starts with a highly nervous arpeggio and the necessary panoramic delay. The sound than moves from your right to your left ear, while the deep horn blows are setting just the right accents. There is no vocals, just a plain yet highly addictive instrumental work.

Yoni Yogi Dub follows the same rules as Massive Dub Job yet instead of horns it introduces solo guitar spiced up with some vocal samples.

The highlight of this five track album is definitely Salsa in Dub in which acoustic guitar and relaxed drums harmonize with the vocal samples accompanied by the very special salsa piano.

This album is a wild mixture of dub, trip-hop, reggae and salsa and I am sure that, just like me, you will love it for it's creativity. It's worth every downloaded bit.

 Related Links:

Dub One! Official Website
iD.EOLOGY Netlabel
Starfrosch. Download Free MP3.

Dubbed as a "producer who can do no wrong" New York native, Max Tonnone, releases his latest project, Ghostfunk. For those of you not familiar with the DJ/producer, he is known for his eloquent and interesting mash ups; his first foray was a combination of Jay-Z's raps with the music of alternative icons, Radiohead, creating "Jaydiohead." The project even caught the attention of the rap king himself. Since then the producer has worked with the likes of the Beastie Boys and has released countless mash-ups featuring his cool skills.

This time around, he has set his eyes on another prominent rapper, Ghostface Killah from the Wu-Tang Clan, mixing his skillful rhymes with awesome old-school African funk, high life and psychedelic rock to create this wonderful gem. If you look at the producer's repertoire, he already has several successful mash-ups under his belt. Prior to releasing this one, he worked on a 5 song project called, Selene. Instead of a mash-up though, Max was paying homage to the science fiction movie, Moon. He also released, Mos Dub, back in 2010, a mix of Mos Def and urban reggae. A follow-up was released in the latter part of 2010, entitled, Dub Kwelli.

Ghostfunk exposes listeners to a whole new way of experiencing old music. Mixing unconventional sounds like reggae and funk into existing cuts breathes new life to them. Max has a knack for balance; taking almost two different sounds and beautifully incorporating them into one coherent and amazing track. From Make It N.Y., The Same Girl and even the low-down, funky, Astro Easy Love - the songs are skillfully created making it hard not leave it playing on your player all day.

Tannone certainly has a huge number of tricks up his leaves. Personally, I love the entire record. I'm generally apprehensive when it comes to mash-ups but these definitely do all artists involved some good. Pretty great compilation to check out. It's even hard to believe this one's offered for free download.

Related Links:
Max Tannone Official Website
Max Tannone on The Benjamins
Max Tannone on Myspace
Max Tannone on Facebook
Max Tannone on Twitter

BNegão & Seletores de Freqüência come from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil with a mix of Hip-Hop, Regge, Dub, Jazz, Samba, Soul, Rock, Dance, Metal, Baile Funk and as a description on the artists' myspace page reads their music is often characterized as explosive. In fact 'explosive' is just what I though when I first listened to their album Enxugando Gelo ('Drying Ice').

Enxugando Gelo originally posted as a free download on Overmixer (a Brazilian collaboration between Overmundo and ccMixter) in 2003.

The album soon became one of the most acclaimed Brazilian releases of the year and one of the most prominent examples of Creative Commons-licensed music in Brazil leading the band on a long tour in major capitals across S. America and Europe in 2004, 2005, and 2006.

Rapper BNegão joined Seletores de Frequência (”Frequency Selectors”, in portuguese) after leaving the Brazilian hip-hop collective Planet Hemp, where he shared lead vocals with Marcelo D2. BNegão, however, is mostly known for being a great lyricist. His lyrical wit can be even seen in the 2003 album with tracks such as "Nova Visão", "Enxugando Gelo" and "A Verdadeira Dança do Patinho" for which words are set forward to criticize the Brazilian government.

Seletores de Frequência includes six members featuring Gabriel Muzak on guitar, drummer Pedro Garcia, Kalunga on bass, DJ Rodrigues, Paulo dos Santos on vocals and Pedrão on trumpet.

If you would like to follow the lyrics, you can find them here.

Related Links:
BNegão & Seletores de Freqüência on MySpace
BNegão & Seletores de Freqüência on Free Music Archives
BNegão & Seletores de Freqüência on Facebook

Juanitos first showed up on our blog all the way back in June 2009. And now with more of great albums under its belt (including over 400 concerts and hundreds of thousands of downloads - if not more) I thought it might be a right time for a little re-introduction; especially that after our crazy winter I'm sure we are all in need of some 'summer night party' sounds.

Heading straight from Chamébry, France, the band is incorporating everything from latin soul, exotica, punk, rock'n'roll, reggae, acid jazz, surf rock, and funk into its spontaneous and "100% good vibes" musical collection.

Moreover, as the artists are constantly on the lookout for new tones to add to the mix, each release brings something fresh to the table. This time Soul Africa, the most recent album (2010), brings us a wonderful touch of soul/r&b, hip-hop, reggeae/dub, and afrobeat; a more balanced mix of genres with the same intensity and "maximum of groove".

Juanitos came together nearly 20 years ago!! when four of its original members got together during a so-called punk garage movement. Greatly influenced by the legendary compilation of Crypt Records - Jungle Exotica, the band quickly set off to explore the more exotic face of rock'n'roll. In 1990s this exploration took them to the music scenes all around France. They sailed away for their first and very own tour which included 35 concerts, performed during some of the biggest festivals (Bourges, Trans, Turin Biennale), and played with stars such as Dionysus, Small Sins, and Louis Armstrong.

For a long time now Juanitos have been releasing their newest music under a Creative Commons license; five of their latest albums (Soul Africa, Best of, Best of Vol. 2, I'm Your DJ, Exotica) can be all found on jamendo.com. More recently the group's album Exotic has been featured on Oddio Overplay, and a song Hola Hola Bossa Nova has been placed among selected few on BlocSonic's NetBloc Vol.24 compilation.

Soul & Roots Team:
David Reignier (Basse)
Jyle Malone (batterie, bongos & bVox)
The Blob (Surfing Guitare & bVox)

The Limbo deluxe Team:
Pierre Alberca (Vox, guitare, recordings)
Didier Durand (batterie)
Manu Bavoux (guitare & bVox)
Reno De Saint Vaast (sax)

Early Team:
Chang Beauregard (Acoustic Guitare & bVox)
Lester Mizzi (Tom & Snare & Maracas & bVox)
Pat Calmeron (Cellobass)
Dr Mok (Rock'n'roll Bass)
Juanitas (female Vox)

Sound Staff:
Djeepee Sound Destroyer (Engineer)

Related Links:
Juanitos Official Website
Juanitos on Free Music Archive
Juanitos on Jamendo
Juanitos on Facebook

This création is licensed under a Creative Commons Paternité - Partage des Conditions Initiales à l'Identique 2.0 France License.

Some time ago Intrahealth International released a special remix in honor of World Malaria Day. The project was put together by rapper Mopreme Shakur, brother of the late Tupac, and soon included ten tracks all being a remix of Youssou N'Dour's song "Wake up - It's Africa Calling". The purpose of the project was to address the most critical health issues in Africa by bringing greater awareness of and support for open source training/development for health workers across the continent.

In 2004 the Rolling Stone magazine described Youssou N'Dour, singer, songwriter, and composer, as "the most famous singer alive" in Senegal and much of Africa. His music, a mix of traditional Senegalese mbalax with eclectic influences ranging from Cuban salsa to hip hop, jazz, and soul has won him an international fan base of millions and some great collaborative projects with musicians as Peter Gabriel, Sting, Wyclef Jean, Bruce Springsteen, Tracy Chapman, Branford Marsalis and many others. In 2009, N'Dour released his new song "Wake up (It's Africa Calling)" under the Creative Commons License in order to help IntraHealth International in their upcoming campaign.
The song, remixed by artists such as Nas, Peter Buck of R.E.M, and Duncan Sheik, was soon released as a free download across all major distribution partners.

Although the remix was made available for download nearly 2 years ago it wasn't until today that I stumbled upon it on the internet for the first time. So for all of you that still didn't get a chance to download some of the tracks, here it is - a great sound and a great example of just how much open source can change the world.

Change the Way People Think about Health, Technology and the Developing World. IntraHealth OPEN is an initiative aimed at building technological fluency and local innovation in open source systems for health in Africa. With growing broadband connectivity and mobile phone use increasing at twice the global rate, Africa is taking advantage of cutting edge technologies in eHealth. Open source technology (where the code is openly available and able to be modified or expanded by the local developer/user) is ideally suited for application in low-resource environments, being free of licensing and upgrade fees, versatile and collaboration-friendly. With targeted training and support, open source solutions can enable African developers and health professionals to create, customize and grow systems themselves based on local expertise, needs and realities.

Related Links:
IntraHealth International Website
IntraHealth Remix on Free Music Archive
IntraHealth Remix on Amazon

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

I fell in love with the series nearly two years ago during one of my lovely commutes to work for one simple reason - it brings you the most amazing variety of music just in time when you can no longer listen to the same songs you had on your iPod since 2000. Each podcast comes with a theme and a selection of sounds (from nearly every genre imaginable, with a slightly greater love for alternative and indie rock) put together by some of the greatest DJs from Northwest.

KEXP began as a tiny 10-watt public radio station all the way back in 1972. Based in Seattle, its broadcasting license is owned by the University of Washington - the place where the album rock station started to gain its first base of loyal fans from across the university. In 1975, however, the station's signal was boosted and for the first time KEXP was heard outside of the campus. Over the years the station have grown and became an influential cultural force spreading far beyond Seattle's borders.
In 2008, Radio New York (91.5 FM WNYE) announced it's partnership with 90.3 KEXP, which would bring KEXP's independent music programming to New York every day for six hours increasing the number of listeners by additional 14 million.

Music That Matters is a weekly podcast series bringing DJ curated mixes of wonderfully eclectic full length songs, where many of the featured artists come from Pacific Northwest, New York, and around the world. As the series is already on its 237th podcast it makes the the decision of choosing one of them for a sample download here on our website that much more difficult - so lets just listen to its latest release Spring Released curated by DJ John Richards.

Listen to Vol. 237 here [mp3]

Tracklist:
1. A Sunny Day in Glasgow - Drink Drank Drunk
2. Chad Valley - Up & Down
3. Steve Mason - Boys Outside (Keep Shelly in Athens Remix)
4. The New Division - Starfield
5. Voxhaul Broadcast - Leaving on the 5th
6. Tapes 'N Tapes - Badaboom
7. Pains of Being Pure at Heart - Heart in Your Heartbreak
8. Yellow Ostrich - Whale
9. Violens - The Dawn of Your Happiness Is Rising
10. The Cave Singers - Swim Club
11. The Lighthouse and the Whaler - Under Mountain, Under God
12. The Veils - Bloom

If you want to listen to more amazing tracks be sure to check out the archive of the 'Music That Matters', or all the other amazing podcasts offered for free by the station as 'The Song of The Day' (exclusive in-studio performances, unreleased songs, and recordings from independent musicians), 'Live Performances' (From The Arcade Fire to Zero 7, live performances have consistently been an important and unique aspect of KEXP's programming), and 'Video of the Week' (exclusive in-studio performances from independent musicians).

Related Links:
Music That Matters on iTunes
Music That Matters on KEXP
KEXP Official Website

East Baltimore emcee, The Black Sunn, vividly illustrate life's good and bad points. GodSound is the latest offering from this talented emcee. Unlike most hip hop albums, this one resonates with positivity, but it doesn't ignore the reality of life as well.

This is the second full length record from the rapper. With its poetic lyrics, dope beats and honest look at life; it's definitely an album worth checking out.

In many ways, GodSound is a typical  hip hop album, but in more ways than one, it's also quite different. Armed with descriptive lyrics, beautiful rapping and awesome beats, this is one record that should be a top priority for anybody looking for cool hip hop music. Some of the standout cuts include reggae infused, Dread Man, which is my personal favorite. Its cool reggae rap vibe is relaxing and easy to listen to. Meanwhile, Maybe You'll Understand, is an emotional, reflective track that tackles the difficult but very real subject of modern day racism. Its smooth rhythm and sweet backing vocals makes it worth listening to. B4 I Die is another soulful number that you don't want to miss out.

Presented by 2dopeboyz, illRoots and PEDX Baltimore, this is one album you shouldn't skip on. With a fresh, yet retro feel and intelligent lyrics, the compilation is a worthy download. Not quite sure why an awesome album like this is offered for free, but I am not complaining. If you want to support the artist though, you can go ahead and buy this record as well as other goodies from his Merch store.

Related Links:
The Black Sunn Official Website
The Black Sunn on Last FM
The Black Sunn on Last FM
The Black Sunn on 2dopeboyz Official Website
Black Sunn on Refined Hype

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

A spring roll of rock, jazz, funk, and ska with a Latin twist. Sundayers (because they were avid weekend trippers) is a jazz, fusion and ska Latin band that is not ashamed of enticing its listeners to dance like mad on the dancefloor even if they have two left feet.

Cógelo! is the band's full album release and contains 11 explosive tracks that can convince almost anyone to dance. Their music is culled from a wide array of influences, with hints of reggae, rock, jazz, ska present and mixed with the unmistakable Latin beat. It's the perfect soundtrack to a great weekend trip to the beach or a night beach side party with friends.

If there is one thing inherently distinguishable with this band, it's that they are full of energy and this shows in each of their tracks. They have taken various influences from a wide array of genres, whether it be rock, Japanese music, Latin, ska, jazz or reggae.

Not only do the Sundayers create big sound, but they are also a big band. They contain a percussions department, a wind section, three singers and the necessary guitar and bass. Because of this, it's not unusual to have a wild and frenetic energy circling their live performances. Essentially, the band has been likened to look like  a non-stop party once they hit the stage and having that amount of energy circling around talented and passionate individuals.

Cógelo! or "Take It!" is filled with 13 wildly upbeat tracks, all written and sung in Spanish. However, despite the language difference, most of the tracks are easily likable and dance along to. The diversity in the music and vocals is pleasant and will keep any listener interested. It's basically the perfect album to play while on some trip to a Caribbean destination.

Related Links:
Sundayers on Jamendo
Sundayers on Myspace
Sundayers Official Website
Sundayers on Facebook

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