A pretty mellow lot to close out this series …

Joel Tourout’s Streets of February Nights

Like the album title alludes to, Joel’s RPM captures the sound of snowflakes falling like drunk wasps under a streetlamp you’re looking at with a headful of thoughts. These Instrumentals blend moody guitar textures and atypical key work to great effect.”

Click here to stream or download it. Here’s a sample track:

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Mike Coffen’s Time Walk

Looking for some great, chill background electronic music? Here you go. Coffen’s offering is not overdone nor underdone and pairs well as a soundtrack to all of life’s daily tasks. And it seems he’s started playing shows.

Click here to download or stream the album. Here’s a sample track:

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This Is Terrible’s The Sony Error

With a band name to hide behind, or to help acknowledge they’re only out to have a bit of fun, This is Terrible has done just that for the 9th RPM album in a row (averaging 2 a year since 2011). The guys blend comedy, entertainment, and a total genre tour. For example, the opening track, “Evil Men,” is a part story and part acapella parody of trad with lines like, “Then I borrow your chamber pot and don’t wash out my poo … visit your house while you’re eating lunch and eat your last wing.” This is followed by a hard-times country song that woulda fit fine on Ween’s 12 Golden Country Greats. There’s punk, piano soul, gospel, there’s even a “Special Message for Dogs,” only their dog fans would understand: track 12 is a bunch of dogs barking. Need a laugh?: this album is a good bit of fun.

Click here to stream or download the album. Here’s a sample song:

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Weird GF’s Pineapple Crush

It must be noted this was entirely thrown together the night before the deadline. The result is a simple, bare album that employs Caitlin’s nice voice as a backing instrument doing innovative things in the background of its best songs. Tracks like ‘Trippin or Fallin’ and ‘Fuck Regret’ draw comparison to musical innovators like Daniel Johnston. Tracks like “Save me from the Weekend” perfectly pair her Newsome-esque voice to a swirling old organ and work very well for her, but it was a great decision to mix those up with some uke-driven songs, and better yet with the percussion-driven “2 Loud” — another standout that is simply her singing acapella to a simple beat she’s banging out. This album embraces the purpose of the album: Just Do It. Having just done it, Caitlin’s shown us there’s another songwriter in town capable of making some pretty original music.

Click here to stream or download it. Here’s a sample track:

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White Not Mess’s All That Surrounds Us

This is, quite simply, a very carefully crafted and impressive electro-instrumental album with commendable production value.

Click here to hear it or download it. Here’s a sample song: