Downloads

Surfing the Web for new music, video and MP3 downloads can be a serious time investment. Picks from Times staff and contributors will help take the drag out of click-and-drag music choices. Some downloads may contain explicit lyrics. All are free, except as noted.

“The Storm”

The Procussions

www.theprocussions.com/video.htmlA tenement building is revealed in cross-section, each floor depicting a different scene until we arrive at the members of L.A.-based rap trio the Procussions working away like mad scientists in their basement. They’re trying to concoct a device that will bring light through deep cloud cover to a disturbed urban world. Shades of Kate Bush, Wilhelm Reich and his cosmic energy theories. This hip-hop track makes good use of guitars and leaves the listener with a ghostly coda, as the Procussions work to further refine their cloud-buster.

“Kissing the Blvd.”

Gliss

www.youtube.com/watchva7PqhbeRBnU

Singer Martin Klingman has one of the most distinctive voices in modern pop. A stoned gasp, as indecipherable as any early Michael Stipe vocal, it is sure to provoke a love-it-or-hate-it response. This black-and-white video of the U.K. single from the local trio’s recent debut album is shot for the most part in a bathroom and degraded to the point of looking like a mid-’60s Warhol film. Perhaps the track was recorded in that bathroom as well, because it is gloriously muddy and drowning in reverb.

“Empty”

Emperor

youtube.com/watchvkqqw0s81GJUsearchemperor

From the forests of Norway come these neo-paganists armed with enough Marshall stacks to flatten every bird species at flight in the fjords. This is the latest from a band that is enjoying a resurrection after several years of inactivity and which just stormed through L.A. Lead singer Ihsahn’s eyes roll back in his head as he gargles and shouts out ... something. There seems to be a theme involving an ambulance, a gurney and the deep, dark woods. Give credit to drummer Trym who has to be some kind of superman to play a tour of this music. He has more floor toms and crash cymbals than an army of heavy metal bands.