Reviews

Just Plain Ant: Dig Deep

Dig Deep is a refreshing answer to those dwindling ignorant people that still believe free independent music is inferior to the corporate variety of pop music. Just Plain Ant is an excellent producer of lush and groovin’ hip-hop by any standards. This new free and legal online album is from BlocSonic which is best known for their compilation series of net label music titled NetBloc. This is their first foray into a single artist album and they did Just Plain Ant proud…or is it the other way around? The Richmond, Virginia based artist is at his best and he surrounds himself with equally talented rappers like Jay Slim, Sleaze, and Brad Oblivion.

TrackMania

TrackMania Nations is one of the best and most enjoyable FREE racing games we've seen in a while! Nadeo studio - the creators of the TrackMania game series - took all the advantages PC has as gaming platform and created something very unique and addicting. The game lets you drive in solo & multiplayer modes on 65, beautifully designed and progressively difficult new race tracks. The newest version - TrackMania Nations Forever allows even more users to race and interact with each other online. It is a very big download - 650Mb - but if you are into racing games, this one is definitely a must have!

Unsigned Artists Radio: The Best of Indie Rock Vol 2

This album is a compilation of tracks from new, unsigned & independent artists featured at UARADIO.NET. It's also the second rock compilation and the fifth release from uaRADIO legally distributed over P2P network under Creative Commons license. The tracks were selected from hundreds of independent rock recordings uploaded to the website and compiled into one compilation album so you can sample the breadth of the latest in independent rock.

Steven Dunston: To Get Home Before Night Comes

Steven Dunston is a musician, author, web developer and a big fan of open source software (just like us!). Back in 2006 he released two albums on Jamendo and now hopes to bring us more of his melodic songs this year. "To Get Home before Night Comes" is an extremely well written & produced album that's just easy and relaxing to listen to. Steven's clear, soft and soothing voice makes it feel like the lyrics just flow directly into your ears.

OpenOffice

OpenOffice is one of the best reviewed and oldest in the family of productivity software suites. It takes care of all the typical office needs: word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, databases and more. The software is available for all possible operating systems and in many languages. It can open & save your files to an international open standard format and to many additional formats common to other office software packages as well. The best thing about it - it can be downloaded and used for any purpose completely free!

Paolo Pavan: Inside

I have spent a little time in Italian jazz clubs so I feel fairly safe saying that some of Europe’s best jazz musicians hail from Italy. (I have a French friend who would, and has, aggressively argued this with me). Pianist Paolo Pavan has to be one of the finer jazz artists in Italy and, from the sound of his free online album titled Inside, can clearly hold his own with the upper echelon of jazz musicians throughout the world.

Djizoes: Djizoes

Djizoes: (pronaunced Jesus in English) is a Swiss part hard rock part metal band which since their creation in 2002 managed to amaze many critics and convert many listeners into fans. Up to date, they've recorded two EPs, two full-length albums, toured around the world & played in front of tens of thousands of people at a time. Now Djizoes: has agreed to distribute some of their tracks free of charge through FrostWire straight to their P2P listeners.

A Shared Culture: Save the World from Failed Sharing

I must admit to feel silly for not knowing about this great video earlier! "A Shared Culture" was released by Creative Commons during their fund raising campaign in 2008 to spread the word about the organization's mission and to explain how the Creative Commons licensing works in a simple & innovative way. This short video was created by a Jesse Dylan, the filmmaker behind the Emmy Award-winning “Yes We Can" - Barack Obama campaign video with rapper will.i.am.

Josh Woodward: Only Whispering

This is an oldie-but-goody release from Josh Woodward. Praised for his melodic voice & witty lyrics Josh definitely delivers on this one. "Only Whispering" is probably the most acoustic of all seven of his albums and as he himself admits, the one most focused on storytelling. My favorite songs include "I'll Be Right Behind You, Josephine" for sweet lyrics & "East Side Bar" for its swing-like happy feeling. If you need a nice relaxing album to listen to on a quiet day - here is a perfect one for you.