Downloads

“Maybe Sparrow”

Neko Case

www.nekocase.com/news/

The animated video is exquisitely drawn and, for much of it, a sparrow is escaping a predatory owl. Case, or a younger version of the singer-songwriter, identifies with the sparrow, and flight takes on a significance greater than escape. In this message about holding out for hope and rebirth, it becomes a move toward self-realization, ultimate freedom and a defiance against forces that may conspire against us.

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“The Israelites”

Desmond Dekker

youtube.com/watchv2u613xl11wsearchIsraelites

Better late than never for a tribute to this great singer who died last month with what may be the quintessential rock steady track and certainly Dekker’s best-known. He is obviously lip-syncing in this clip from a UK television program, but he’s captivating all the same. The camera perambulates all over the set, catching beer mugs, pasty-faced English hipsters and lingering for a brief time on Dekker’s amazing two-tone leather pants. But there is no contesting the track is seductive with one of the most memorably infectious and danceable guitar-bass riffs in all of reggae.

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“Daddy’s Gone”

Nora Keyes and Count Loachfillet

www.yousendit.com/transfer.phpactiondownloadufid1695795F2461C1F0

Keyes’ girlishly high-pitched vocal over what sounds like a moaning pump organ, whooshing winds and scratchy vinyl combine for an eerie track that sounds like something off the soundtrack for a Hammer horror film. “He is dead without a head,” the neurasthenic Keyes sings, like a Victorian child coaxing a nursery rhyme out of her scrambled brain while the hymn-like music stumbles onward. Count Loachfillet provides a tape loop of ... a scream? Feedback? Who can tell. But it is from the darkest corners of Mordor, that’s for sure. The source site for this download, loki23.blogspot.com, deserves mention for some of the most disturbing, mind-altering downloads and mashups you may ever hear.