Rick Andrews wrote:
Jasmine Wagner of Brooklyn/Montana’s Cabinet of Natural Curiosities is exactly this kind of musician. Quite frankly, she’s this kind of writer and artist, too. Wagner, together with fellow sound-conspirator Alex Wilson are the items belonging to this curious natural cabinet. Together their folky tendencies and love of sound create a most serene concoction: 1 part soundscape, 2 parts folk song, all parts lovely.

01. Little Ice Age
02. Sun
03. For Sparrow
04. Cities
05. Moon
06. Glass
07. Grass
08. Fabulist Decay
09. Black Water
10. Owllullaby

Format: [256kbps MP3 Download]

Format: [192kbps MP3 Download]

01. What’s Left?
02. Lonely Animal
03. They Don’t Wanna Dance
04. Settle for More
05. Beat Back
06. The Vessel
07. Platinum
08. The New Something
09. Intro
10. She Knows Her Name
11. Dog Day Requiem
12. Shoulders of Giants
13. Coming Home

If Gang of Four had met and reproduced with My Bloody Valentine, and if their super fucked up kids had grown up on The Beatles and Guided By Voices AND had managed to live long enough without killing themselves to make a record, the result might sound a lot like Hotel St. George. Their music is heavily guitar based with nouveau punk vocals, slick instrumental production that pays homage to the 70s DIY sound without quite emulating it, and enough harmonic complexity to set up and execute some brilliant hooks. There’s really nothing to dislike here, and there’s a whole lot to merit repeat listens. Check it out on MP3 and Vinyl!

01. Simple Men
02. Welcome to the Sun
03. Apples & Pears
04. All Those Dancing Stars
05. Good in the Bad
06. Jealous Boys
07. TROUBLE
08. Island Man
09. City Boy Lemon
10. All the Rich Folk

Format: [320kbps MP3 Download]

Birthday Girl was recorded on 4-track and released cassette-only, DIY, in Northampton back in 1994. Only a handful of these still exist anywhere. A digital re-master was made in 2009 with two additional songs, also from 1994, that hadn’t fit on the original cassette.

Format: [320kbps MP3 Download]

01. Big Lie Technique
02. Facial Type
03. Six-Gun
04. Lemonade
05. Rush Delivery
06. Derailed
07. Abraham
08. Blood River
09. Happy Damn Birthday
10. Anesthesia
11. Ganser-Smith
12. Self-Protectionist

Paper Valentines was recorded within the past few years, in Sunset Park. They’re the diary of an adult living and working in New York in the first decade of the 21st century, kicking and screaming all the way.

Format: [320kbps MP3 Download]

01. Paper Valentines
02. Sea of Dolls
03. Grey Stations
04. The Things I Saw
05. What’s Good For Business Is Good For America
06. The Clothes Make The Man

The band says:
“Lo-fi, garage rock ala Neutral Milk Hotel (the E6 gang) mixed with the producing styles of Brian Wilson. This is another solo album created entirely by musical imagineer Justin Stivers. Throw Animal Collective, Smashing Pumpkins and bit of Modest Mouse (the older stuff of course) into the blender and you have yourself a “cheer up~its raining” smoothie. Sit back and enjoy.”

Format: [192kbps MP3 Download]

01. Celebrate Youth (Over and Over Again)
02. Tales of Stage Fright
03. Producing Emotions
04. Mistakes
05. Age of Automatics
06. Mexican Apartment
07. Bigger and Stronger
08. Kiwi Perfume
09. Electric Angel
10. Soaked
11. Violent Dreams
12. Another

The band says:
“darker, longer, scarier, louder, quieter, pet ghost-ier. in many ways pet ghost project’s most extreme album. recorded in my basement in brooklyn during a time when i could hardly make rent and its very much…of the times.”

Format: [192kbps MP3 Download]

01. I Am Nothing New (You Are Nothing Special)
02. Wires From The Ceiling
03. Short Name
04. The Consequence of Thinking
05. This Life in a Bottle Rocket

The band says:
“from our basement studio we bring you pet ghost project’s finest album to date. this creature is alive and pulsing with the flavors of animal collective, brian wilson, fugazi and tortoise. within the screams and chants, aggressive drums and angular guitars, there sleeps a constant underlying flurry of melody embeded in the dim.”

Format: [192kbps MP3 Download]

01. They Built a City in My Country Mind
02. Cloud Seeds
03. A Series of Left Turns
04. Raised on Technicolor
05. Death in a Pixel
06. Parapetetic
07. Power Symbol

Nate Greenberg wrote:
In February of 2009 Ralph Hogaboom (guitar, vocals, glockenspiel) decided to participate in the February Album Writing Month challenge at www.fawm.org by writing fourteen new songs.  He took his songs to Jay Wainman (violin, vocals, melodyhorn) with whom he’d been jamming for several months.  The pair entered the studio in May and spent two full days pumping out as much as they could. The product of these sessions was the six-track EP Come Away From Your Home (available for download on this site).  Perhaps Hogaboom and Wainman couldn’t see it because they were stuck in the thick of it, but it only took me one listen to tell that they had created something special.

Format: [192kbps MP3 Download]

01. It’s a Metaphor, Dear!
02. Modern Satellites
03. Aspirin
04. Sophie’s Plastic Elephant
05. Sometimes Things Get Broken
06. Is That Alright

Rhythm, songs, stasis.

Format: [160kbps MP3 Download]

01. Visions of Excess
02. Enormix
03. Holly
04. Apalling Wilderness
05. Blushing
06. Big Ghost
07. Palaces Upon Palaces
08. Paranormal Rave Culture
09. Goth Hotel
10. Satial Thirst For Bats

Rhythmic and varied, with samples from Arvo Part, Brian Eno and others.

Format: [160kbps MP3 Download]

01. Spirit of St. Louis
02. Underground City
03. Rosemary Nonhorse
04. Vista
05. Surfing
06. Summer Shapes
07. Floating Market
08. Small Ghost
09. New Feeling
10. Understanding

Composition informed by Dr. Herbert Benson and his studies of a wakeful hypometabolic physiologic state achieved through transcendental meditation. Temporally organized to enhance breathing techniques for lower oxygen consumption. A full body experience.

Format: [160kbps MP3 Download]

01. Fuck Nothingness

Ragas and Velvet Underground influenced improvisation. Acoustic trio of J.S., J.B. and D.T. playing clarinet, oud, ruan, percussion and baglama.

Format: [160kbps MP3 Download]

01. Get a Lot of Light Waves Out

Brittle sludge from the original trio of J.S., J.B. and M.F. Homemade instruments abound.

Format: [160kbps MP3 Download]

01. Masculinity Pt II

The most brittle Strawberry Hands recording. Woozy drones and stoner punk.

Format: [160kbps MP3 Download]

01. Sleep

The earliest home recordings, ranging from gypsy folk to tape collage to pure transcendental minimalism.

Format: [160kbps MP3 Download]

01. Untitled
02. Strawberry Hands
03. Born Under a Hammer
04. Acid Graveyard
05. Untitled
06. Strawberry Jams
07. Icebergs
08. Warden
09. Caged Wisdom

Lush layers of a Casio, six- and 12-string guitars, cellos, violins, percussion, and the voice of an angel: it’s all packaged neatly into a collection of songs that has garnered rave reviews from radio, press and bloggers alike. This is Swimming in Speakers. From the smoothly burbling synth pop of “In Knowing” to the slippery delicacy of “Near My Ear” and the lilting twists and turns of “Nevergreen,” Swimming In Speakers’ sound defies easy categorization.

Format: [192kbps MP3 Download]

01. In Knowing
02. Near My Ear
03. Serve Them Well
04. Icarus
05. Uh Oh
06. Nevergreen