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KICK SOME CLOUDS FOR FREE WITH CLOUDKICKER’S NEW [FREE] ALBUM

 Monday, February 8th, 2010 at 3:03pm by

cloudkickerI love it when budding musicians and bands give away their recorded music for free. Rather than trying to charge $10 (or however much) to collect money from the few diehard fans you have that are willing to spring some dough for your product, you make a potential fan out of anyone who’s willing to download the album for the price of a click and the time it takes to do so. Rather than selling 10 or 100 copies for money, your music reaches hundreds or thousands of people willing to give it a shot, people who will later come to your show or buy a t-shirt if they like the music enough. This, my friends, is smart business.

Enter Cloudkicker, the excellent 1-man band led by Ben Sharp, whose new EP ]]][[[ is currently available for free (along with the rest of his entire catalog). The punctuation-monikered EP only has 3 songs, but they're jam-packed with a variety of different instru-metal styles that fit together well into one cohesive whole. For the most part Cloudkicker lives in the ambient instru-metal realm but occasionally ventures into other territories. His music is lush, big and complex, but it's the kind of metal that doesn't make your head spin or require a lot of listening attention to enjoy. Think the instrumentation of Animals of Leaders with the musicality of Scale the Summit, but with dense layering similar to Jesu... and you're close to what Cloudkicker sounds like. Download ]]][[[ for free here.

-VN

Thanks: Peter Butter, Josh S.

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  • Sophus

    Okay that description sounds really fucking awesome.

    I am going to have to check this out when I get home.

  • SonOF

    This stuff is very cool.

  • Strapping Young Lad

    always awesome to hear new stuff from these guys. My favorite song is Hold On. fucking INCREDIBLE!!

  • Alex_P

    Sounds good so far.

  • http://thenumberoftheblog.wordpress.com/ groverXIII

    I’ve been pimping Cloudkicker for a while… his work is excellent. Right along the lines of Keith Merrow, Bulb, Chimp Spanner, and Animals As Leaders.

    • Strapping Young Lad

      Chimp Spanner FTW!

      • Canucklehead

        Fucking eh brother!

    • http://www.last.fm/user/Jugglemonkey Jugglemonkey

      I’ve heard of those bands but not heard them, if they’re in the same vein as cloudkicker then I’ll check them out.

    • Rob

      I’m starting to wonder why every awesome instrumental one-man-band I find has the same style.

      But I love it regardless, including Cloudkicker.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Keith-Brown/537636633 Keith Brown

    Hell to the fuck YES. Cloudkicker’s been stuck on my Ipod every since I first found it. Many thanks are due for mentioning this. I should’ve told you, but I was too busy listening to write the email.

  • Ziltoid

    Anyone who hasn’t heard of Cloudkicker by now is a false. I don’t even like any of the albums/EPs except this new one, but to not have even heard of them is pathetic and demonstrates a considerable lack of knowledge about the independent metal realm.

    • http://dmxrr15@hotmail.com IsntaTOTALdouchebag10

      I haven’t heard them Ziltoid, and I put plenty of effort into finding new stuff.

      oh and fuck you.

    • SonOF

      ZIltoid: Do you go out of your way to be rude, elitist and snarky?

      I also put considerable effort into such things and hadn’t heard of them/him (read TONS of stuff, go to many shows, etc.). An UNSIGNED one-man act from Columbus, Ohio who probably hasn’t toured anywhere near where I live…why would I have heard of him? Yes, it’s good stuff. Sorry, I didn’t get the memo, and didn’t realize f’n Cloudkicker is as big as Slayer (at least in your strange alternate universe).

      • Canucklehead

        ZILTOID, you’re consistently an arrogant, pompous music snob. I fucking hate people like you. Quit being a fucking elitist. Your shit stinks just like everyone else. Maybe you should eat some.

        • Ziltoid

          You say I’m a snob, I say that I just have higher standards than all of you little people.

      • Ziltoid

        I go out of my way to look down upon those who carry the flag of false metal. Anyone who has even slightly attempted to look around for bands who offer their music for free would have found Cloudkicker. Forget about being unsigned.

        • Nelson

          “false metal” vs. “true metal” is not an actual dichotomy. it’s all popular music. I think you’d really like to think there was some intrinsic, essential difference between the bands you like and the ones you think are shit, but there really isn’t.

          • Ziltoid

            There is a huge difference, and that difference is artistic merit. Some metal is, by the mere composition of its music, more artistic than others. For example, compare Gorguts and As I Lay Dying. One is a musical innovator who defied boundaries of metal, the other craps out cookie-cutter pop metalcore for the masses. This dichotomy exists.

        • http://www.last.fm/user/Jugglemonkey Jugglemonkey

          Dude, it is possible for people to like something for reasons other than to be considered “tr00″, frankly I don’t see any difference between tr00 metalheads and hipsters, the attitude is the same. If you don’t like something, just say so, cut out the elitist bullshit.
          Also; I’m in England, why the hell would I have heard of Cloudkicker, a one man, unsigned, unpromoted band from Ohio, if not for a plug in the comments of this site? Do you know the guy at the end of my road? That’s the level of exposure we’re talking about here.
          I don’t mind you being arrogant when you’re right, but being elitist for the sake of it is just fucking annoying.

          • Ziltoid

            It’s not about liking the bands because they are tr00, it’s about liking bands that have the artistic merits associated with being tr00.

            And good thing the Internet exists, so geographical boundaries no longer exist for finding most music. I’ve heard of bands like today’s shitstain, Xe-None, despite their total lack of promotion. Research and word of mouth can do a lot.

        • SonOF

          If you are all about artistic merit, do you ONLY enjoy bands that are pushing boundaries/experimenting, even if the end result is something that isn’t interesting or even listenable? Personally, I respect say a band like Sunn O))), but sometimes I’d simply rather listen to metal that is more accessible. And by accessible, I don’t mean shitty, the artist is likely quite technically proficient, but he is not necessarily attempting to reinvent the wheel with every composition. Music is different things for different people. Even someone with good taste doesn’t need to listen to the most experimental/artistically challenging material at all times. Everyone creates their own conception of “quality music;” most of us on here are in fact quite picky, we’ve chosen to eliminate a huge portion of music in front of us, and consider it useless [even by choosing to listen to metal instead of pop (or any genre devoid of artistic integrity in most cases) we have upped our standards]. You, on the other hand, have made created such fine musical filter, that you let almost nothing in; nearly everything is unacceptable, as you have created this insane standard (which you say is based on “artistic merit,” but you hate plenty of bands that 99% of picky metal fans would agree HAVE artistic merit). Music listening must be such a chore to you. Poor music, having to pass the Ziltoid 72 point checklist before it is acceptable (1. Is this music pushing musical boundaries 2. Does this music sound like NOTHING else? 3. Is this music liked by less than 1000 people…etc.).

          • SonOF

            forgot to add..Ziltoid, you really need to take a “Philosophy of Art” class. It will help you realize that there are essentially an infinite amount of definitions of art (thus music), and that your subjective “standards” can be taken to task…maybe it will help you gain an appreciation of more diverse array of music, but I think you may be a hopeless cause at this point..

          • Mat

            you are 100% correct. Although there are always the abrasive, elitist and pig-headed people who seek to be held in high regard by their peers with overly-opinionated statements, we must all remember that we’re on the same side: Metal. There are many different kinds of metal, but we all come from the same roots of powerful music that disregards the musical “guidelines” laid out by the masses. Metal turned the human voice into its own instrument; Another piece of power that has been mutated by Metal from something that conveys words into a way to communicate powerful emotions. Also, Ziltoid you are not cool for disliking things. You are a negative force that may have the good intentions of purifying our music, but you are actually poisoning it, as well as turning members of the community against eachother. Being the most scrutinous metal “connoisseur” does not make you better than anyone. It makes you single-minded, artistically, mentally, and emotionally shallow, and boring. I love metal, but i also love drum and bass, some more refined forms of hip hop/rap(mostly the original stuff), electronica, classic rock… I love music. And music, to me, is something that conveys feelings and emotions to the listener. And not something that has the word “baby” at the end of every line. It can make you feel powerful, or chilled out, happy etc. If the way the music makes me feel is enjoyable, then i view that music as “good”. It goes on my portable music device and gets enjoyed for hours. There is such a wide range of music, as new genres, bands, songs, and styles are made up ALL THE TIME that it is quite baffling to think that you would limit yourself like that. Open up your mind and let the awesomeness rush in, be more accepting of other things and the world will be a better place. Unless it’s a fact that you have listened to every other kind of music and have real reason to dislike it; in which case, I really do pity you.

    • Harry Russian

      that idea of “artistic merit” is so intensely subjective that it hardly registers. let’s take deathspell omega as an example. they’re pretty “tr00″ by the conventional standards, but they stole all their riffs from kvist for that one record. remember that? even if they remain “tr00,” do they still have that same merit if their riffs are plagiarized?

  • Squeep

    The new EP fills my cock with so much joy.

  • Noel

    i can see how giving away your music is good, but i can also see this becoming the new standard for small or unknown bands, which in my opinion, is not a good thing. think of it like this- in the economy, the value of money goes up, leading products to be priced higher [inflation] the opposite is happening in the music community. the more bands\artists out there, combined with all the more ways to access and obtain their music, devalues individual bands\artists in the long run. sort of a deflation process. so, lesser known artists can only spark the attention of an overstuffed audience by giving away thier music for free. my worries are concerning the fact that this could become the norm.i have also been the guy bitching about how local acts charge too musch for a demo or for a t shirt, when logically theyd be better off just giving it to anyone who wants it. but, if we the consumers are going to put a cap on the price a local or lesser known act can sell their merch\music, we consumers shouls demand the same from the beyonces\lady gagaga and metallicas of thw world. with the ways labels treat bands, and all the work going into the creation of those t sirts and cds, never mind recording and touring funds, bands walk away with negative numbers at the end of the day. yes, music is not aout making money, its about getting your art out to people, but if this becomes the norm, it will only devalue art even further in this download, over consuming age.

    • Noel

      eyal levi should write a thing about free music btw.

  • Malacoda

    If it’s half as good as the description says it will be, I’ll be happy.

  • Canucklehead

    I love how this thread suddenly turned into “Everybody hates Ziltoid.” If I start a band, I swear to Cthulu I’ll name it that.