Today's free MP3 is by Essex's finest Darren Hayman and an electronic pop ballad (and Thompson Twins cover!) Wish You Were Here

Buffetlibre just announced the line-up of the compilation mix they're putting together with exclusive tracks from artists from over 50 countries around the world. You can see from the flier above they have some pretty big names so this should be a great mix. Unfortunately you will have to wait to support Amnesty International with this mix until January, but if you want to help this great cause before then you can always buy the Live David Byrne EP also supporting Amnesty International, featuring my photo on the back cover. Buffetlibre did make [...]
Today's free and legal mp3 downloads: Abdelkbir Marchane & Ahmed Baqbou : "Sandiya" [mp3] from Ouled Bambara: Portraits of Gnawa (out October 20th) other Abdelkbir Marchane posts at Largehearted Boy Beat Radio : free and legal Safe Inside the Sound album [mp3] "Sunday Matinee" [mp3] other Beat Radio posts at Largehearted Boy [...]
BUFFETLIBRE ANNOUCE THE OFFICIAL LINE UP FOR THEIR NEW PROJECT PEACE, IN COLLABORATION WITH AMNESTY INTERNATIONALRyuichi Sakamoto, Marc Almond and 4Hero, amongst many others artists from over 50 countries, join the new project by Barcelona djs Buffetlibre.All proceeds from the sale of the compilation will go to Amnesty International's humanitarian aid projects in areas of conflict.More deets and

A mí me da miedo cada vez que me planteo dónde pueden llegar este par... Los buffetes están presentando su nuevo proyecto, PEACE, que desarrollan junto a Amnistía Internacional. Es una burrada lo que se han movido para conseguir que artistas del calibre de Patrick Wolf, Van She, Jeans Team (ay, JEANS TEAM!), Sally Shapiro, Black Strobe o Kid 606, coalboren en este proyecto. Al parecer, todos y cada uno de ellos, tendrán canciones en exclusiva para el proyecto, y el beneficio será para los proyectos humanitarios en zonas de conflicto. El álbum se venderá a [...]

not this rain It has been raining here since Wednesday. That's all the reason I need to search my hard drive for songs with the word 'rain' in the title, then arrange them into an aurally-pleasing package. Enjoy. 01) The Temptations - I Wish It Would Rain 02) The Clientele - Rain 03) Richard Hawley - Early Morning Rain 04) Thom Yorke - And It Rained All Night 05) The Ladybug Transistor - Like A Summer Rain [...]

How could you live anywhere else? "Questo è un disco sulle buone idee che riescono male". Questo è un disco sull'amore che nasce, invecchia e si spegne dentro città progettate da una modernità ormai anacronistica. Questo è un disco sulla speranza che porta fuori strada, con le migliori intenzioni. Un concept album sull'architettura del secondo Novecento poteva riuscire solo a Darren Hayman . Il suo nuovo Pram Town , infatti, è ambientato a Harlow , una delle " new towns " costruita nel secondo dopoguerra, [...]
so, wie stets, heute die playlist der gestrigen radiosendung, die zwar nicht eine riesige masse hörer erreichte, dafür aber ganz gut ankam. radio stone.fm bleibt eine hoffnung in der landschaft an formaten und eintönigkeit. dagegen zu setzen, ist auf jeden fall der richtige weg. ein bißchen nachhören, ist nun erstmal bei uns möglich: 1) AC Newman - There Are Maybe Ten Or Twelve (get guilty, 2009) 2) the welcome wagon – up on a mountain (welcome to the welcome wagon, [...]

Another tough week (Relatively speaking!) having to reduce some thirty exciting tunes down to the best ten. After a predictably slow Christmas/New Year lull, great bands seem to be flooding the airwaves and wires... long may it continue: The Big Pink's 'Dominos' is like an Indie take on a humming Tibetan mantra. With a hand-clapping chorus featuring chants of "Dominos!... Dominos!" they're a shoe-in for oodles of Pizza advert money. Catchy lyrics ride over a super Funky Bass-line on this intense trippy tune from Circlesquare . [...]
I am more than satisfied with the first month of 2009 so far when it comes to good music. Here are some of the good ones I can recommend warmly. Dent May & His Magnificent Ukulele – The Good Feeling Music of Dent May & His Magnificent Ukulele Mississippi musician Dent May 's wonderful debut-album has been on constant rotation here in my home since I got it. It's released on Paw Tracks (Animal Collective's label), but it sounds [...]
ein blick in die zukunft will gewagt sein, da das alte jahr so nach und nach verschwindet. wie der atem eines im sterben liegenden entweichen uns die letzten stunden von 2008. was wird kommen? ein paar releases sind bekannt und wir werfen sie allesamt in einen großen topf. wer ergänzen kann und mag, bitte, gerne: Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavillion [Jan 06] Antony and the Johnsons - The Crying Light [Jan 16] * Antony and the Johnsons - [...]
[by Matt Brown] Darren Hayman's knack for verbalizing the trials and traumas of lower-middle Britain is well documented. As the driving force behind 1990's indie outfit Hefner he grew a cult and enthusiastic following that hung on his every acerbic turn of phrase and whom took a great amount of pride from supporting a band rubbing delightfully against the grain. As a solo artist he's continued resolutely on this idiosyncratic path but, as evidenced by Pram Town , has visibly mellowed with age. Pram Town finds Hayman in [...]

meine erste notiz zu darren hayman fand hier statt. ist schon eine weile her. mittlerweile sind zwar nicht hefner auferstanden, aber hayman war mit und ohne the secondary man äußerst fleißig. abseits von seiner indieinstitution schuf er so mittlerweile sechs alben und etliche eps, wobei das nächste werk bereits im anschlag ist. "pram town" erscheint anfang des neuen jahres und wird nachfolger von dem guten stück sein, auf dessen cover ein hübscher hund prankte. "pram town" wurde unterstützt von mitgliedern von ellis island sound, the wave pictures und smile down upon [...]

Darren Hayman -'Great British Holiday EPs' (Belka Records) There are some people out there who have a funny habit of making you feel like you're not working hard enough. Darren Hayman is one of those people. So far in 2008, as well as lots of live gigs with many projects (look, check hefnet alright, 'cos there are only so many hours in the day), he has this year re-issued Hefner's second album Fidelity Wars , issued the second album as Darren Hayman and the Secondary Modern, entitled Pram Town , [...]

Holiday road La copertina sembra quella di qualche regalo che ci siamo fatti da giovani, dovrei cercare nell'hard-disk del 486, e invece si tratta del nuovo disco di Darren Hayman . Si intitola Great British Holiday EPs e raccoglie quattro ep pubblicati dall'ex Hefner tra il 2005 e il 2007, più alcune inediti, e un dvd con 5 video e un'intervista. Tra le cose nuove c'è la cover di Holiday Road di Lindsey Buckingham , tratta dalla [...]

INDIETRACKS FESTIVAL, 26th-27th July 2008, Midlands Railway Butterley (Part Two - Sunday!) Sunday brought with it the meat and bones of the festival, with incredible acts spilling out from every stage...at least once the technical difficulties on the outdoor stage were fixed. Indeed these technical difficulties ended up improving the festival no end; set times were rearranged, and almost every band I actually wanted to see was relocated to the superior outdoor stage. The first [...]

Photo: Lostmusic Hello everyone! Wasn't it FANTASTIC? Phew! We'd been in such a high state of over-excitement for so long we just couldn't see how it was going to live up to all our expectations......but it did, and much, much more besides! From MJ Hibbett's hilarious My Exciting Life in Rock in the tea tent on Friday, to Los Campesinos' storming performance on Sunday evening, the whole weekend was just a perfect concoction of wonderful new music, glorious weather, steam train fun, friendly faces, enthusiastic dancing, impromptu singalongs and [...]

Hello there pop kids! By the time you read this, we'll be on our first train journey of the weekend, travelling up to Nottingham clutching our dancing shoes, train whistles and festival survival kits! If you're anything like us and you've left everything to the last-minute, here's a few final pieces of info to help you on your way: Quick guide: If you're looking for information on accommodation, tickets, transport, food and Friday night's MJ Hibbett show, there's a handy last minute guide on the official Indietracks website. [...]

Hi kids, we're currently on location (and stuffed full of Plopp bars) in Sweden after enjoying the wonderful Rip It Up festival in Saffle, where new Indietracks addition Darren Hanlon put in a particularly fine performance for a friendly crowd of Swedish indiepoppers. We love this little festival and, with less than week to go now, we couldn`t be any more in the mood for Indietracks. We`re know you`re excited too, and so this week we`ll be cramming in more last minute fun than you can shake a llama`s tail at! Coming up, we`ve got interviews with The [...]
The music blogs that get my respect today are those that don't mention the band R**i*h**d. Any mention of that band automatically brings a blog down several notches. Do you really think they need any more help promoting this record? You've had it for 5 hours how can you really say whether it's deserving of any serious consideration? Anyway during one of my series on British americana and alt-county I stumbled upon the band The Epstein . At the time they were unsigned and had very little recorded or much info up on their site [...]