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Special Announcement

While we are constantly uploading new music to our mp3 store, you'll want to make it a habit of checking Other Music Digital every Tuesday morning. As you probably know, that's the biggest release day of the week and our staff hand-selects the best new downloads (often numbering in the dozens) to feature on the homepage. Not only will you be able to get an early preview of some of the titles that we'll be covering in the weekly Other Music Update, but you'll also find lots of other great releases, many that might not yet be available at our CD/LP store.

This Week's Featured Downloads

The Cave Singers
Invitation Songs
+ Exclusive Other Music Bonus Track!
Matador Records
$9.99
Listen & Buy

The Cave Singers debut album is one of those rare records that words can't really do justice to. Haunting, thrilling, often chilling, Invitation Songs is just that, an irresistible invitation to join them in the dark and dreamy world that their music inhabits. In these retro modern times, it's nothing new to hear a hushed album like this, built around finger-picked acoustic guitars, brushed drums and intimate, emotional vocals. But you could never call the Cave Singers folk music, and while they draw on blues, bluegrass and country too, they attack their instruments with a singular focus that belies the musicians' punk rock backgrounds (Derek Fudesco played bass in Pretty Girls Make Graves, and front man Peter Quirk was in Seattle's Hint Hint). The Cave Singers sound doesn't deeply reflect that pedigree, but there are modern touchstones, like 16 Horsepower, Mark Hollis, Califone, Nick Cave, or Black Mountain (with whom the group has a close relationship). But this sound is all their own, and along with producer Colin Stewart they have created a unique sonic space on their debut album that is both embracing and unsettling, and completely captivating, like a lone owl hooting in the wind in the trees. As a special treat Other Music is pleased to offer an exclusive bonus track with the album, the spare and beautiful country duet "Belmar."

-Josh Madell

Tunng
Good Arrows
+ Exclusive Other Music Bonus Track!
Thrill Jockey Records
$9.99
Listen & Buy

Formed in 2003 by Mike Lindsay and Sam Genders, the first two albums from London's Tunng were initially lumped in with the whole folktronica thing, though their music was more song-based than, say, Four Tet. Now comes their third full-length and Thrill Jockey debut, which finds the onetime duo expanded into a six-piece, having added instruments like steel-strung harp and hammered dulcimer to their arsenal -- and former Chapterhouse drummer Ashley Bates, who handles some of the guitar duties. Tunng's most concise collection of songs to date, Good Arrows is, nonetheless, a laidback album filled with rich textures and Technicolor production. Stereo-panned strums of acoustic guitars and gorgeous male/female vocal harmonies give the record a lushness that previous music-pastiche groups like Beta Band lacked in their heyday. Sure, there are lots of sonic details but even amidst field recordings and laptop trickery, Tunng always stays focused on the song. Add to this Genders' vivid stories crafted from his surreal lyrical twists, all hiding behind one-word song titles. "String" is reminiscent of an old macabre nursery rhyme, its haunting folk melody guiding verses like "Hang my eyes up on a hook, swells the panic I can't look / Inside my own skin, I fail to find myself again." Even the bouncy vaudevillian-vibe of "Bullets" is juxtaposed against a world-weary, though highly catchy, sing-a-long melody. Don't get me wrong, Good Arrows is far from a depressing album and is even whimsical at times, but there's a well-worn melancholy coming through its digital sheen that's familiar and comforting. It's sort of like apartment-living in a century-old building which, in spite of your high-definition television, Ikea furniture and brand new Macbook, still has a Depression-era radiator clanking away in the corner.

-Gerald Hammill