You might have seen Anton Corbijn’s movie Control on the life of Joy Division. Listening to The Transisters’ album, incidentally titled Under Control, will plunge you straight into that same bleak yet intense atmosphere again. Anxious beats, angular guitars and sober vocals are what these guys like.

Formed in 2005, The Transisters have kept themselves busy touring, mostly in Northern Italy, and supporting “some cool bands” such as The Raveonettes and Kaiser Chiefs. Under Control was released by a German net label, AF Music, that the band got in contact with quite simply, through MySpace. “They were impressed by our sound and we decided to work with them, explains Matteo Scarpa, the band’s singer-bass player. Giving music out for free is ok for us, we don’t play for money but because we love it.”

Amidst an Italian indie scene where, according to Matteo, “the average level of quality of bands is not so high”, The Transisters certainly stick out. The band is busy working on their second album at the moment, and plans a future filled with “more gigs and more good songs. We’re positive about it.”

The most impressive about the 6-track demo that MoOt, a.k.a. 34-year-old Matthieu, posted on jamendo is not only the quality of his songwriting, that draws straight from the best of 1960s British music (Beatles, Kinks and The Who), it’s also the fact that he made it all by himself. “I’ve written, recorded and produced eight albums in total”, he says, explaining that his numerous experiences in bands, where it’s always “those who pull forward and those who just tag along”, convinced him that he’d be more efficient alone.

Composing, singing, writing string and brass arrangements, Matthieu can do it all. He just needs a little help from his friends with drums and mixing. Being of course a fan of all things British, he managed to move to England ten years ago, working for a company that operates ferries across the Channel. “It made me improve my English and get to know English culture better. Their relation to music is really strong. To see grannies humming Kinks songs or traders in suits running to buy the new McCartney album is priceless for me. It feels like I’m on a different planet. In England, there’s a respect for musicians, just like for lawyers or doctors. In France, people always ask you what your real job is.”

Right now, MoOt is busy finishing his first full-length solo album, while working with some friends to put a live band together and start touring. Chances are pretty high his new stuff will not have lost that vintage shine. But Matthieu isn’t sorry. “We all have influences. When I write, I don’t try to sound like the Beatles, it just happens. Is it really necessary to create something new anyway? I think the only question really worth asking is: do you like what you hear?”

“It’s way beyond our expectations, you know you’re not alone out there!” enthuses Paul Addie, composer, keyboard player and programmer for Tracing Arcs, about the attention their album fin – Remixes and Lost Children has been receiving ever since it’s been available on jamendo. “New friends, new dialogues, barriers of speech and culture demolished! We love you all!”

Started in 1994, Tracing Arcs, namely Paul Addie and vocalist Fran Kapelle, surrounded on and off by friends, plays refined, electronic, trip hop-inclined, atmospheric pop that has a lot in common with bands such as Moloko, Lamb or Smoke City. But their roots go deeper, to Miles Davis, David Sylvian (the former Japan frontman), Joni Mitchell, “and many others not afraid to stretch boundaries and test themselves”, explains Paul.

As a band, Tracing Arcs has already had its fair share of experiences, from headlining at major venues in London to writing music for theatre and contemporary dance and performing before 6,000 people accompanied by fireworks. But with all that, they’ve never released an album. “The industry as it existed did not know what to do with us!” says Paul, who also adds, “to be honest, the sheer fun and ride thats happening now on jamendo is something I am particularly proud of!”

As you might have guessed, fin – Remixes and Lost Children is a revisited version of a pre-existing album. Why the uncommon decision of posting remixes as a first album on jamendo? “The original album ‘fin’ took three years to complete, and was a departure from the style we were known for. I felt unsure it would be publicly acceptable as it is a more intimate, personal interpretation of our songs. I just felt I would like to touch base with our ’style’. We will release ‘fin’ on jamendo later this year.”

In addition to that, Tracing Arcs are working on new material with the help of a few friends, have been asked to collaborate with other artists, and are interested in writing for film, “as it is a strong influence on our music”. Remember where you heard them first…

Switzerland
“Four of us went to high school in Switzerland. Between 2002 and 2004, we all moved to London to study philosophy and psychology and met another like-minded musician with whom we decided to form a band”, explains Sebastian, one of the band’s guitarists.

Ego
“We all shared a vision of a progressive form of music that was to reflect ideas we had encountered before and during the course of our studies. Central to our discussions was the concept of two selves – the ‘ego’, a mental construction that we strongly identify with, and the true underlying self, undifferentiated being which connects us with everybody and everything. This focus on ’self’ eventually gave rise to our name, ‘Of The I’.”

Free
The band started making a name for itself by distributing the demos recorded in their small London flat for free on the web. The “overwhelming positive response received on sites like Jamendo” inspired them to record a full length album.

Sound
They strive to nothing less than to create “a new kind of sound that invokes elements derived from spirituality, philosophy, psychology, each member’s personal experiences, as well as the music that has inspired them”. They describe their music as progressive, melodic, experimental rock, which places them not too far from the likes of Tool, At The Drive In and Quicksand.

Personal
“We’ve conceived this album to be one continuous journey. The physical copy contains transitions which connect all the songs, inviting the listener to experience it in one sitting. These transitions are all snippets of our lives – a stream in a Swiss forest I grew up next to, a recording I made outside a Buddhist temple in Vietnam, one of our grandmother’s harmonium, a storm we experienced together, a tube that passes by under our flat… This album is very personal to all of us.”

Release
Balance Instars will be released on 6 October. “It started off as a few ideas and finally turned into our 1-hour debut album.” Of The I being the kind of band that “personally manages every aspect of [their] music”, it will be for sale on the band’s own website, ofthei.com. In the meantime, three songs from it are available for free download on Jamendo.

It’s not just us: Fruhstuck’s Dutch singer Martijn Krale, who’s been living in Poland for over ten years, is the one who brought up the comparison with the creators of Joshua Tree, War and Achtung Baby. He not only lists U2 as one of the band’s main influences (along with Radiohead, King’s X, Talking Heads, Bob Dylan and even Frank Sinatra), he also adds that for the release their third album, they have decided to wait until next spring, after U2’s new album is out, “because we don’t want to make it hard on them”.  How’s that for respect for your mentors…

Fruhstuck (’breakfast’ in German) started out in 1997 and, in spite of everything you just read, they reckon they are “generally more into American rock than UK rock”. Anyway, the band has toured extensively in Poland, all of Europe and, in 2005, they even embarked on an American tour. They also released two albums “ that were received very positively by press and the public” over the three years they were signed to a Polish label distributed by Warner. In other words, they went pretty far professionally. Nevertheless, when their record deal ended, they “decided that [they] would prefer to enjoy the freedom of being independent for a while”. Which is when they turned to jamendo.

The band made made several EPs, two of which are posted on jamendo, here and here. “We liked the idea of distributing some of our songs in this way. For us, music is a way to communicate, and through sites like jamendo, we have a chance to reach a broader audience. There is something beautiful about proactively sharing your music instead of it being stolen.”

Next, after the new album is out (and U2 is left raging they didn’t come up with such brilliant tunes themselves), Fruhstuck is planning to “be more present on Polish radio and on rock festivals”, and generally to “play the maximum amount of concerts we can handle”. That might include another U.S. tour, as well as “joining a befriended band on a Japanese tour.” Way to go!

They’ve been around since 1995, and Bâtard is their fourth album. Although they’ve recently joined Jamendo, the guys from MacZde Carpate are hardly beginners. In fact, their name is firmly established in the French independent scene, and beyond. The band has always been keen to reach out outside of its country’s borders, as Maël, who plays guitar, explains: “Whenever possible, we always seized any occasion to go and play abroad. It’s some kind of ideal, to be able to travel with your music and confront it to audiences outside of the French context.”

The band tours regularly in Eastern Europe, especially in former Yugoslavia (Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, Macedonia), where strong ties with the local indie scenes have been established. “We also recently made a common creation with a band from Hungary, Kampec Dolores, a pillar of the alternative scene in Budapest for over 20 years, and we played it with them in Romania, Hungary, Austria and Slovakia.”

When they started out, in the French Alps city of Grenoble, MacZde Carpate were influenced by post-grunge mainstays like Kyuss, Tool and Primus for the harsh guitars and sophisticated song structures. They combined that with a will to sing in French (unlike the majority of Gallic indie bands), taking after models such as Alain Bashung and Noir Désir, both artistically well-respected and at the same time popular artists. “We came together with a desire to ‘create our own style’, like all young bands, to make sure each song was different and unheard, and we’ve since then more or less followed that line.”

A couple of tracks from their previous album Tue-Tête, released in 2006, are available on Jamendo here. The new one, Bâtard, is a double album, both live and studio. Regardless of fame and money, Maël already sees it as a success. “A year ago, it wasn’t sure we’d even make another record, we were so fed up with each other after putting so much in the band for so long. But we came to terms with what we’d expected from the music business, and realized that we’d already fulfilled our ambitions, really: to be a band acknowledged for its originality and its intensity on stage, travel thanks to our music, work with other musicians, build an audience…That realization freed us from this insidious pressure in the studio we always felt before. In a way, we don’t expect anything from this record. We like it, the rest will all just be a bonus.”

Bâtard will be available for purchase on iTunes and other major online stores…

This summer was a fruitful one for jamendo, with shiploads of good new music uploaded. Here are a few of our favorites.

Indie pop from Brazil, hip-hop from the USA, reggae from Haiti, breakbeats from France, folk from Ireland… whatever you want, we’ve got it!

In order to win this Gibson SG3 Special Faded WE, all you have to do is write a private message on Jamendo to the user “thomann_rocks” with the answer to this very tricky question:

How many strings does the Gibson SG3 Special Faded WE have?

The winner will be drawn from all the private messages sent until Tuesday 30th September 2008 (00:00 CET). He or she will be duly informed by mail and/or private message, just like all other participants.

Good Luck!

Can’t write a Private Message? The time has come for you to sign up.

Read the rules

With his cheeky, disillusioned, home studio-recorded folky yet rocky songs, Brad, a 31-year-old musician from Ottawa, inevitably gets compared to Beck quite often. As much as it can be a compliment, no artist likes to be told they sound like another; but by now Brad has gotten to terms with the parallel. “It used to bother me, I took it as ‘hey you’re a crappy Beck impersonator with no ideas of your own!’ But other musicians told me they get compared to Beck all the time also. So maybe it’s the musical equivalent of ‘tastes like chicken’. The guy’s done so much in many different styles it’s easy to compare nearly anything to something in his catalog.”

On the other hand, getting compared implies getting heard. Brad started posting demos on the internet a few years ago, then released his first album, I Don’t Know What I’m Doing, at the beginning of 2007, which started getting him some attention pretty far away from home. That’s even how he got around to exotic places like Jamendo: “I started selling a bunch of albums to Europeans and got some emails suggesting I put my stuff on Jamendo. After I got enough, I finally checked it out and it looked like an interesting crowd of people. Lately I’ve been digging Professor Kliq a lot, for example.”

Eventually, his music circulated in ways he wouldn’t have imagined, ending up in ads for cars and condoms, or with “heroes of mine saying they like my music” and “artists doing well these days citing me as an inspiration. That feels awesome.”

So now would probably be a good time to take things to the next level professionally. Brad has been considering getting help with press and booking gigs. But in the meantime, he’s managing everything alone, while hoping that the new album, Out Of It, makes his music income go up (he’s also into web design). “I’d like to do a bit of touring in the new year but I’ve got to figure out if it makes sense money-wise. Other than that, I’ve got a lot of music I’m working on, as well as some stories and a few other things that I’m excited to get to.”

Tom and Holly Maggio live in Greenville, South Carolina. They created the net label Amduscias in March 2007 to release material by their own band, Turmoil. “I had the thought of how cool it was for there to be labels out there that did not want anything from the artist, explains Tom. I think the whole net label scene is there for people who love music.”

With 70 artists “from all over the globe” currently on the label and 170 releases so far, Tom and Holly certainly do love the music. But a particular kind: what you can hear from Amduscias on Jamendo (numerous albums by Turmoil, Tom’s project Upheaval and Holly’s project Rose Red – they even made a split EP together - more artists will be added shortly) is mostly devoid of melody, traditional song structure or even harmonies. Many albums only have one track, some of which can be half an hour long. “The label deals with any type of non commercial music. We like strange odd music, the kind of stuff you won’t hear when you turn on the radio.”

If you’re wondering where the label’s unusual name came from, it’s from Tom’s “love of demonology”, Amduscias being not just any demon, but the grand duke of Hades. The nobility of the name is fitting with the label’s lack of interest for money. “We don’t believe in charging for music. I know for me that my music is a part of my soul and my soul is not for sale.”