Too good to be free: Archnemisis, Nastynasty & Thriftworks

I'm not sure what's sparked it, but in the last year so there have been a slew of seriously good albums and EPs offered for free download via Bandcamp. Here's three recent releases from the US that are too good to be free...

First up Archnemesis, who share a label (1320 Records) with Nalepa, Prefuse 73, Virual Boy, Knowa Knowone and Eskmo. They're a new discovery for me, thanks to the brilliant Sample this Music blog. Reminiscent of Pretty Lights,who gives his music away for free too, it sounds like they've done a lot of organic sampling to get that really listenable, feel good, 'real music' vibe. People's Radio is music that's worth paying for, but you can download it for free here.
  Archnemesis - Peoples Radio by PlayThisSongLoud.com  

Nastynasty has a well established habit of giving away his best tunes for nothing. The Memorabilia EP is a good taster of the range of his sounds, from floaty subs to bubbling bass and off kilter funk, often lifted with deliciously soulful vocals.

I first came across Thriftworks on An-ten-nae's Acid Crunk vol.3, but this whole free album, the seond he's given away, is very much more on the downtempo side of the whomp fence. Lovingly produced, delicate and painfully beautiful, it's got an atmospheric desert-city-under-the-stars feel to it. Magical.

NastyNasty bears his Lazer Soul

For me, NastyNasty's Priceless was one of the stand out tracks on this year's Acid Crunk compilation from An-Ten-Nae. It's a mournful vocal repeated over sleepy dubstep with creeping electric lazer noises is a pretty good introduction to his sound, which takes that sad but beautiful element of dubstep and makes it something so much more....




Hailing from Okland, CA, NastyNasty first came to my attention on Soundcloud through a joint remix of Rn'b classic Say My Name with NiT GRiT. Unbelievably it still hasn't reached it's download limit despite it's hair raising combination of classic dubstep, NiT GRiT's earth shaking lazer bass and NastyNasty's off kilter swirling lazer synth - so grab it while it's still hot!

Both artists share a sense of meoldy, but while NiT GRiT goes for all out lister submission through the power of his bass, immersion in NastyNasty's sound is a more subtle process. His beats are more broken, his melodies layered in more comples patterns and his overall palette more eclectic - more along the lines of Slugabed or Nosaj Thing. Check out Western Slang below for a good example.
Western Slang by NastyNasty

More recently he's dropped a free VIP remix of No Name which lets the bass bubble as much as wobble as the arpegiating high end weaves in and out of an achingly wistful vocal. Perhaps the best this he's produced to date:
No Names VIP by NastyNasty

Meanwile this wicked remix of Justice's New Jack seems to pull him out of his dubsteppy roots into a funkier mid-tempo crunk disco vibe:
Justice - New Jack (NastyNasty Remix) by NastyNasty

If you download just one thing though, most of these tunes and more are showcased in the beautiful Lazer Soul mixtape he uploaded a few months back:
Lazer Soul by NastyNasty

I'm so jealous of these people here


It's time you got NastyNasty ;-)