You Are My Everything

Swedish band You Are My Everything make the ideal blend of rock and shoegaze for cold, dark nights spent alone in cars or bedrooms. With production values that easily rival their major label brethren, it's hard to believe that they release all of their music for free. They only have 3 singles released to their name but each is stronger than the last and I look forward to hearing what they have in store for the future.

All of their music can be found through netlabel Go, Jukebox! and if you're into You Are My Everything then I would definitely suggest checking out all of the label's releases. They only have 4 artists on their roster but through those artists they showcase a great deal more quality control than most of their peers. If individual free labels are to survive into the future, then I think they need to take a cue from such amazing discretion.

• You Are My Everything - Stalker
• You Are My Everything - I Was a Punk

Tree Wave and The Depreciation Guild

These next two artists are a perfect link between the more electronic leanings of Khonnor's work and the rest of the indie spectrum that will be covered via this blog. Both Tree Wave and the Depreciation Guild also have a strong affinity for the nostalgic sounds of 8-bit memories, but both artists temper that sensibility with strong shoegaze, rock, and pop sensibilities.

Tree Wave is a male/female duo who create music inspired by acts like My Bloody Valentine and Stereolab. What makes them unique, though, is their instrumentation. Hardware used for their debut EP includes 2 Commodore 64s, an Atari 2600, and an Epson Dot Matrix printer from 1985. All of these pieces of reappropriated technology are programmed to the whims of the group and sound far more magical than was ever intended for such machines. In addition to releasing their debut 'Cabana' EP for free, the duo is also very upfront about the tools and processes they use to create their sound. There is even an extended edition of the EP which can be purchased from AtariAge that includes their program for turning the Commodore 64 into a synthesizer!

• Tree Wave - May Banners
• Tree Wave - Machines Fall Apart
  

The Depreciation Guild operate in similar territory, but trade the introspection of Tree Wave for something that is a bit more epic in scope. Much of The Depreciation Guild's music is built around antiquated technology and 8-bit sounds as well, but those elements are in fairly equal balance with more traditional electric guitars, vocal melodies, and stronger pop structure. Their music is at turns reminiscent of M83's 'Dead Cities, Red Seas and Lost Ghosts', Hum and the sort of hummable indie-pop sensibilities that had prominence in the mid to late 1990s.

• The Depreciation Guild - Sky Ghosts
• The Depreciation Guild - Butterfly Kisses

The free download of Tree Wave's 'Cabana' EP can be found here via Archive.org and The Depreciation Guild's 'In Her Gentle Jaws' can be found through http://www.inhergentlejaws.com/.

Khonnor

One of my first introductions into the joys of netlabels was to discover the work of Connor Kirby-Long. As a musician with a prolific amount of early work, Conner has left a trail of releases scattered across multiple free labels. The process of tracking all of his work down is fun unto itself, and each one of his various early EPs (as Khonnor, Grandma and I, Cactus) is well worth the effort to find.

Using quite modest equipment, including practically a toy microphone and Fruity Loops software, Conner crafts music that is hyper-melodic and completely evocative. He mixes childlike whimsy with instant nostalgia and a sense of playfulness tempered with complete craft. Many of his songs are simultaneously rooted in the worlds of IDM, Glitch, Pop, and Shoegaze. I don't plan on covering much electronic music through this blog, as I feel like that genre is already well covered in the world of netlabels and free releases. I will happily make exceptions, though, for songs as fun as these. Definitely recommended for fans of Mum, for those who would like to hear Aphex Twin filtered through a sunny day, or anyone wishing that Boards of Canada were far more playful.

• I, Cactus - Chartreuse Cactus
• Khonnor - Crapstone
• Grandma - He Near Krxern

A mostly comprehensive overview of Khonnor's discography can be found here on Wikipedia.

Labels that Khonnor has releases on include Monotonik, Camomille, 8 Bit Peoples and Please Do Something.