Music Monday: Noise Trade Finds

          I love music, but the one thing I especially love is free music. Don't get me wrong I get the idea that the artists who make music do it for a living, and that my money is their bread and butter, but I'm a student, and poor, so it's a treat to get good music free (and legal!). This is why I'm showcasing noisetrade.com here in my blogland. Noisetrade is a site that promotes the music of mostly undiscovered artists of all genres. Although you have to do some searching since not everything on this site is great, and even fewer are ok, once in awhile you find little gems just waiting to be snatched up. The best part is, the downloads are all free (you can donate money if you feel so inclined). For the most part it's one or two songs or obscure EPs, but sometimes you get whole albums. I wanted to take this Music Monday to share with you some of those Noisetrade gems.  

The first up, is Jenny & Tyler. This musical, folk duo make soulful, and unique Christian music. I have very low tolerance for popular Christian music sometimes because it tends to be a little lacking in the folk, indie, genre. This group is doing their part in filling the void. The lyrics are beautiful, and the sound is great. The fact that Jenny and Tyler Somers are married adds to their chemistry which so apparent in their music videos and in the intimacy of their sound. Their most recent album Open Your Doors is available on Noisetrade for free!   

The Oh Hello's are probably my favourtie Noisetrade find. Sounding much like the love child of The Lumineers and The Civil Wars, The Oh Hello's blend their own brand of indie folk with simple, imagery based lyrics sounding curiously Christian at times. This song; The Lament of Eustace Scrubb is  probably my favourite on the album Through the Deep, Dark Valley (somewhat influenced by the title!). The album has an especially impressive conclusion with the great song The Truth is a Cave that soars into a climactic reprise of the first track The Valley and brings the whole song ensemble, which is both varying and beautifully consistent, to an impressive and fun close. The whole album is available on Noisetrade for free.

Sarah and Kate Sparks are a sister duo whose sound brings to mind artists such as Laura Marling or Mree. They are again a Christian group (although they do sing about other things too) and I am more and more impressed with their lyrics. Their song Narrative from their EP The Chicago Project brought me to tears one night last week. I featured the lyrics from this song Home on my last post. You can get The Chicago Project and the first three songs from their album The Fish and the Bird on Noisetrade.