The Download Munkey : Download This, Download That :)

What do you get when you combine turntables, accordions, pianos and an assortment of drums together ?

Instead of the expected cacophony from the distinctively different sound of each instrument, the end result actually comes off as an infectiously toe-tapping, head-bopping soundtrack - I simply love the cheery carnival sounding clockordian and the machinegun clatter of cymbals (Loop 2).

© Luke Whittaker

My kind of band

While the loops for each instrument in Luke Whiitaker’s One Man Band has been carefully constructed and synchronized for each other, it’s still hard not to listen in disbelief when the sounds of contrasting instruments such as the clockordian (accordian), loop-o-lin (violin), piano and turntables actually meld so well together.

There’s definitely a limit to the number of tunes you can create with 12 ingeniously automated instruments and 24 audio loops but it’s still a lot of fun for a short break.

Build your own One Man Band or check out Luke Whittaker’s other works, his current project being Stigmatisation to raise awareness of HIV in Sierra Leone.

MORE @ THE DOWNLOAD MUNKEY:
Saiko - Cool Electronic Music Generator
Make your Own Tracks with Orange Mixer
Best Practice 1.01 - Speed up or Slow down Audio

The five minute mini-mixes featured on Annie Mac’s Mash Up Show on BBC Radio One are great for discovering new music (not necessarily electronic music) as artists play both their own tracks as well as those hat have influenced them, resulting in some very eclectic track selections. Below is a list of direct download links to some of the 5 minutes mixes I have collected.

2007
Fatboy Slim - 12 Oct 2007 (BBC Radio One)
Drummatic Twins - 09 Mar 2007 (BBC Radio One)

2006
TC - 01 Dec 2006 (BBC Radio One)
Noisia - 13 Oct 2006 (BBC Radio One)
Baron (MySpace) - 09 Feb 2006 (BBC Radio One)
Aquasky - 26 Jan 2006 (BBC Radio One)

2005
Stanton Warriors - 18 Aug 2005 (BBC Radio One)
DJ Zinc - 04 Aug 2005 (BBC Radio One)
Pendulum - 23 Jun 2005 (BBC Radio One)
DJ Yoda - 19 May 2005 (BBC Radio One)
Erol Alkan - 05 May 2005 (BBC Radio One)
Friendly - 14 Apr 2005 (BBC Radio One)
A Skillz & Krafty Kuts (MySpace) - 06 Jan 2005 (BBC Radio One)

2004
Rex The Dog - 25 Nov 2004 (BBC Radio One)

Some of the links point to MySpace sites. To download tracks from MySpace, use Orbit Downloader’s Grab++.

DJ Zinc’s five minute mix of 87 drum n’ bass tracks is a perfect introduction to the drum & bass genre. Aquasky’s ability to cram 153(!) tracks from multiple genres of music in 5 mins is a feat that has to be heard to be believed. Since each mix is only 5 minutes long and usually less than 5 MB each, there’s really nothing to lose by listening to them even if you’re not a fan of electronic music

I will attempt to continually update this post as soon as I find new 5 minute mixes. If you have direct download links for any 5 minute mixes, drop me a comment and I’ll add them to the list above.

For those that have been struck out, drop me a email, I might have a backup somewhere

Enjoy!

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Resident Advisor - Quality Free Electronic Music Mixes
OTS CD Scratch 1200 virtual turntables

Discovered this wonderful Taiwanese singer via a link on my friend’s MSN. The three self-penned tracks (Bada Bada, For No Reason, Lost in Taipei) from this 19 year old’s debut album Start From Here are really catchy stuff and definitely perfect for chasing away those dreary Monday blues, even if you’re not exactly into the jazzy loungy stuff like me. For Chinese music fans, she does quie a good English version of David Tao’s Love is Simple - check out I Love You as well as the Chinese versions of her English songs.

© Sony Music

Martin of aomoon.com from which I first heard samples of Joanna Wang’s tracks, is full of praises for her and compares her very favourably to similar artistes like Norah Jones and Sade. Since I’m not familiar with this genre, all I can say that the more memorable tracks - 3. Bada Bada, 5. For No Reason, 2. Lost In Paradise, 1. Let’s Start From Here - are continually swimming in my head right now (6. 迷宫 and 8. 有你的快乐 are the Chinese versions of 1. Let’s Start From Here and 2. Lost in Paradise respectively)

Go on, have a listen to the above tracks in the mini-player below or visit aomoon.com if you fancy music like this.

The code for this widget can be found here.

BTW for those interested in getting these discs, Neon Music which Martin mentioned is a CD importer from SG.

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Download Jay Chou’s Orc MP3
MP3 Samples of Older Electronic Faves
Mutt + Davis James Promo DnB Mix

A cool, easy to use application to those who like their music electronic, pulsating (and optionally bleepy ).

© Arguru

By adjusting sliders with complex names like VCF Env Inertia and Oscillating Mix, you get to create a myriad of electronic sounds that range from acidic (my 15 seconds sample with settings shown above - max out the resonance for an acid trip) to trancey stuff (my 15 seconds sample using settings below).

© Arguru

© Arguru

My favourite settings involve heavy basslines (my 15 seconds sample with above configuration).

The download below is the last publicly released version of Saiko - version 1.0 R9. The author, Juan Antonio Arguelles Rius (Arguru), stopped development back in 2003 and will never complete since he unfortunately passed away in a traffic accident last June RIP Arguru.

Download Saiko 1.0 R9 from Aodix Arguru Software (the FMOD.dll in this package seems to be of an incorrect version - try downloading from here if it doesn’t work for you).

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Rebirh RB-338 - Free Drum Machine
Orange Mixer - Create your own Electronic Tracks Online

Found a legal direct download link recently for one of Jay Chou (周杰倫)’s older tracks - Orc (半獸人 - literally translated as Half-Beast Man) released in 2002. It’s available for download from Blizzard Entertainment’s (yes, Blizzard as in Warcraft) site. The reason it’s hosted there for download is because the MV for this song splices in footage of the Warcraft 3 cinematics, which you can view on Youtube.

© Blizzard Entertainment

Jay Chou fans and Chinese Warcraft III fans will probably yawn at this old news but I guess this is still relatively new stuff for non-Chinese Warcraft 3 gamers.

I love the orchestral and horn parts in there but your mileage may vary depending on your taste for Chinese hip-hop/rap :P. Chinese lyrics are available at Jay Chou Studio.

Download Jay Chou - Orc (3.74 MB - 4:05 mins) from Blizzard.

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Official Download for I Can Give You Gatsby MP3
Appleseed - Ex Machina HD DVD Music, Wallpapers & High Res Artwork
Blazing Angels & Ace Combat 6 Instrumental Score Downloads