Let It Flow 3: Free MP3 Playlist, 18th July 2014 - 7 Days, 7 Downloads!

Here are the best free downloads to land in our inbox this week. For a continuous playlist, scroll to the bottom of the page.


Letting Up Despite Great Faults - Wrapped



This new single from Texans Letting Up Despite Great Faults is the perfect variety of indiepop for this time of year: upbeat, joyous, melodic, jangly and full of sunny goodness. Their album 'Neon' is out in August, and with this combination of guitars, synths and harmonies, it could just be a refreshing and exhilarating ride.

Download 'Wrapped' for free by heading here

Letting Up Despite Great Faults' website

Pre-order the album


Vox Mod + DGH - New Concerns



Retro synth music has been the order of the day for a while now, and delving into its darker corners has become commonplace. This collaboration between Vox Mod + DHG (otherwise known as electronic artist Scot Porter and singer-songwriter Daniel G Harmann) looks to a similar place but spruces things up so that 'New Concerns' is a little less cold and a little more experimental.

Vox Mod's website

Daniel G Harmann's website


Matsuki Ayumu - Two Of Us



Back home in Japan, Matsuki Ayumu is much better known than in the UK, and rightly so. This classic piece of slightly psychedelic guitar-pop is an instant skewed hit. 'Two of Us' is released on Ample Play, the label run by the guys from Cornershop, so they know a thing or two about good tunes, and this track is reminiscent of early Gorky's Zygotic Mynci, which is never a bad thing.

Download 'Two Of Us' for free by heading here

Matsuki Ayumu's website


Racing Glaciers - VHS



The new one from Macclesfield's Racing Glaciers is a bit of a scorcher, taking its lead from the current cream of the US alt-rock scene and matching them every step of the way. 'VHS' roars with walls of guitar and an impassioned and strong vocal. It's probably better than coffee for getting your engine going after a heavy night on the town.

Download 'VHS' for free by heading here

Racing Glaciers' website


Paul Cook & The Chronicles - Come Out Wherever You Are



It's almost impossible to describe anything by Paul Cook & The Chronicles without using the term "heartfelt", but with a voice as emotive and pure as this that's always going to be the way. 'Come Out Wherever You Are' is another gorgeous late night lament with slightly electronic production courtesy of Todd from The Heart Strings.

Paul Cook & The Chronicles' website


Wannabe Jalva - Mainline



Their football team may not have had the summer (or winter down there) that they'd hoped, but Brazil's Wannabe Jalva are faring a bit better. After four years together, the quartet are starting to pick up some coverage from further afield, and this is thanks to storming indie-rock numbers like 'Mainline'; a surging track that breaks for a more expansive chorus, making them less one-dimensional than some similar bands.

Free download: 'Mainline'
(Right click, save as - courtesy of Nylon Guys)


Lyon & Lowe - Everybody Walks To The Beat Of A Child



It's only been a few weeks that Lyon & Lowe have really existed as a songwriting and production duo, and living on opposite sides of the Atlantic means their material is created by sending ideas back and forth. The downtempo indietronica of 'Everybody Walks To The Beat Of A Child' is glitchy and playful, and then blooms into fabulously melodic and sparking choruses.

Download 'Everybody Walks To The Beat Of A Child' for free by heading here

Lyon & Lowe's website








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Obligatory Record Of The Day! The Walking Who - With Roses

Single review by KevW

Following the success of the recent wave of psychedelic bands emerging from Australia, the trend seems to be to label every rock or guitar band that way, and that's what Sydney trio The Walking Who are being touted as, and there's a slight element of psych about new single 'With Roses', but really this is experimental indie music with a hint of Americana thrown in for good measure. However you want to tag it, it's undeniably very good and you can see why the band have been gaining some press attention since the release of their debut EP last year - although having formed in 2010, it's taken them a while to get to this point.

Never mind the stats though, when you can make music music of this quality and put your own slant on it, then you can take as long as you want and call it whatever you like; it's still going to make new fans flock to you on a daily basis. 'With Roses' sounds damn fine on first listen, but it also improves with each play; the spiralling guitar and stop/start shuffling beat drive the track, and both transform what could be a slow, more atmospheric number into an upbeat yet relaxed song with a certain haze running through it. It's the perfect combination for manufacturing guitar-pop that will defy boundaries and surely lead to many more plaudits in the future. Most definitely a band to start following.



The Walking Who's website





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Blurred City Lights - Anamorphic

Album review by KevW

Both Jarek Leśkiewicz and Dean Garcia are known for their work in other bands. The former as Naked On My Own and the later, more famously, with both Curve and SPC ECO. So Blurred City Lights is largely the collaborative project of these two writers, musicians, producers and vocalists, although there are also contributions from Rose Berlin and Russell Keeble on new album 'Anamorphic', which follows on from last year's 'Neon Lights' EP. Given their past, we should expect something that doesn't really fall into line and probably takes a modern and electronic approach to post-rock and shoegaze, and that's pretty much the size of it.

At first, 'Anamorphic' is impressive without necessarily grabbing you by the lugholes and wowing the socks off you; by the time you reach the end it's difficult to remember exactly how any particular song went, but that doesn't mean it's short on hooks. It does mean though, that it may take a few plays for the album to really come alive, although it's certainly worth it in the end. Certain songs like 'Try' (of which there are two versions) do possess a grace that's apparent from the start, with big, echoing beats and swooshing synths that are the bed on which they lay some soft vocals and a twilight melody. It's quite indicative of the overall style of the record and is perhaps a good first port of call being that bit more instantly accessible and impressive. Another possible entry point if you want to test the waters before you dive in is the short but expansive instrumental 'OP4', another that gives a good impression of where the band are coming from, whereas their darker side comes through on trip-hop track 'Don't Know Don't Feel' with its samples and forbidding atmosphere.

Elsewhere, tracks like 'Too Far Gone' are what Massive Attack would sound like if they'd been based in the Eastern Bloc and not Bristol. Like all of these songs, it's deeply atmospheric and the attention to detail is almost impeccable. The dubby but cold vibe sees them cross more musical borders, especially when Rose's vocals kick in and suddenly warm the song, changing the dynamic slightly. 'Chained' takes a heavier approach and could be described as electro-rock but there are heavy post-rock overtones and sheets of sound piled on top of each other. Perhaps 'Small Fears Magnified' is a better example of experimental electro-rock. Their more ambient side shows on 'The Look', yet it's ambient without being dull, and the guitar sends it skyward. What at first seems a reasonably one-dimensional album, albeit a very carefully considered one, soon becomes far more colourful and absorbing than you expect. Afford Blurred City Lights a little time and you will reap the rewards.







Blurred City Lights' website

Stream or buy the album





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Obligatory Record Of The Day! Schonwald - Rays

Single review by KevW

If you're a fan of musical waves then it's your lucky day. This new single from Italian duo Schonwald comes tagged as "new wave", "darkwave", "cold wave" and even "postwave", and to be honest, we're not even sure what postwave is, but if it's this then it sounds rather good. Oh, and 'Rays' is released on the Anywave record label, just to make sure we get the message. Although the pair might not be instantly recognisable to many people, they released their debut album back in 2009, so they've been around for a while and have picked up press and gigged all around Europe. You could call them stars of the European underground, but they perhaps deserve better than that.

It just so happens that all those descriptive waves are fitting ways to label this track; 'Rays' is dark and it is cold with a slightly industrial feel to it. Paradoxically, the song contains many overlapping elements yet has a minimalist vibe, almost as if Suicide have teamed up with Sisters Of Mercy and recruited a female singer to provide vocals that come across as being distant, just poking their way through the fog of synths and the incessant beat. This creates another paradox as they're at once cold and bereft of feeling, but oddly emotive somehow. Schonwald are the kind of duo that would have been at the crossroads where goth met shoegaze and barren electronica. It's not a unique position on paper, but given the way that they effortlessly cover so much ground and different feelings it does set them apart. We hope this track does see them finally making some different kind of waves and gaining wider recognition. It's something they deserve.





Schonwald's website

Buy the single





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The Raveonettes - Sisters

Single review by KevW

On average, mighty Danish fuzz masters The Raveonettes have released an album every two years for over a decade, and these have been interspersed with several EPs, not to mention Sune Rose Wagner's solo records and production work which includes making the last couple of Dum Dum Girls records sound amazing. The last we heard from the duo was 2012 LP 'Ovservator', so we've reached that time where fans should begin expecting announcements any time soon. There was a whisper on their social media sites earlier this year that new material may be on its way, and true to form they've delivered, with new single 'Sisters' landing as a free download this week.

Perhaps the biggest surprise is that 'Sisters' lists itself as being taken from the album 'Pe'ahi' which on closer inspection appears set for release on July 21st. Unless we've missed the press release, this comes as a bit of a surprise. So fans can rejoice in the fact that it's not just one new song, there are a further nine just days away. So what about 'Sisters' itself? Well, it has the usual traits of the band: lots of noisy guitar, the fingerprints of '50s and early '60s pop and rock 'n' roll, plus breaks for glistening melodic sections. What's of most note is just how good this track is. It's been said that The Raveonettes' songs often sound similar, and this is true to a point, but here they've added a few extra dimensions which mean that even though the hallmarks are all in place, this tune really soars in places, whereas in others it roars with the fire of blistering guitar; all of which is beautifully offset by those mellow, almost musicbox-like moments, plus their trademark boy/girl harmonies. To say it's good to have them back is an understatement: they return with a vengeance.

The Raveonettes' website

Pre-order the album

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Obligatory Record Of The Day! Mark Lanegan Band - Sad Lover

Single review by KevW

It's not all misery and gravelly vocals when it comes to alt-rock legend Mark Lanegan, although some people might paint it that way. Along with a career that has encompassed numerous collaborations and seen him be a member of various groups, the Mark Lanegan Band has been the chosen name for what could be considered his solo work for a decade now, and they've been busy. A new album, 'Phantom Radio', is due to be released in the autumn, with an EP prior to that on August 25th. Titled 'No Bells On Sunday', the EP's first offering might just banish a few preconceptions about the man's sound.

Having been a big player in the grunge scene and later working with Queens Of The Stone Age, you could expect something fairly heavy and noisy, and to a certain extent that's true of 'Sad Lover'. However, despite its name, the song is upbeat and driving, not dirgy or overly gruff. The Tom Waits comparisons can be thrown away on this one. A buoyant track, 'Sad Lover' has a lightly psychedelic air to it, along with the whispers of desert-rock and distortion that you may expect. It's also surprisingly melodic and grabs your attention on first listen which, compared to certain records in his back-catalogue, is something of a rarity, despite how good they've sounded after they've had time to embed themselves properly. We're not talking Mark Lanegan goes pop or anything particularly close, but this is quite possibly one of his best and most rewarding singles for some time.



Mark Lanegan Band's website

Pre-order the EP





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Artist To Check Out: Cålmdown (cålm↓)

Based in Berlin, Cålmdown (or cålm↓ if you prefer) is the one-woman project of Greek-born musician and artist Elisa. Head to her website and you'll find live photos that show Cålmdown in charge of keyboards, computers, a microphone and more. But it's not just these complex and wholly individual compositions that she takes care of; as well as the writing, recording, production, vocals and instrumentation, Elisa also creates the artwork for and manufactures handmade CDs. Put simply, she's one multi-talented lady. It's the overall songs that are the focus though, and these seem to defy form and convention quite freely, with a plethora of different beats used throughout her work which is at times overwhelmingly ethereal and imaginative. The gloriously distant and twinkling 'We Will Win Darling' doesn't really compare to anyone else and doesn't fall easily into any category.It's uncommon to find an artist who is just that: creative, talented, and existing in her own space. Some experimental music can be a difficult listen at first, but it's easy to fall for Cålmdown. She's already wowed the Chartburst chart, so check out Kev's review and head to her profile for more info.





Cålmdown's website





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