It’s the Ides of August – Music Alliance Pact (MAP)

     As noted in previous blog entries, on the fifteenth (the "Ides") of each month the Music Alliance Pact (MAP) makes a collection of songs available for free and legal download. MAP is a collective of 29 blogs (at least) in an equal number of countries.  Each blog chooses a song by an artist from its home country for the monthly post.  Approval from each artist is a requirement. This month, there are 30 songs in the MAP collection.

     There are three options:

     1. You can merely listen to the 30 songs at one of the MAP authorized sites. For example, the Scottish participant is The Pop Cop, and the MAP page is accessed by CLICKING HERE.  

       2. You can selectively download the songs by going to one of the MAP authorized sites and using the "Save as" capability of your web browser.

       3. You can download all 30 in a ZIP file at CLICK HERE. 

  We look forward to each collection of tracks from MAP, because of the promise of discovery. With certain songs on our personal playlists of favored music, we can identify a single instance that brought awareness of the song. That is, if not for a specific blog, concert or television program, it’s possible that we would be unaware of the song. More than once, the awareness stems from the MAP monthly offerings.

     One song we found interesting is the Scottish contribution - "Romance." Somehow the repetitive lyrics don’t act as a roadblock to our appreciation of the song. One possible explanation is that we are becoming more tolerant of repetition. But the better explanation is that Mast. (which is Liam Rutherford) just does it right, since there are variations in other aspects of the song. Unfortunately, the song surfaced only five days before the MAP release, so it is not available today, unless you visit a MAP site. But Youtube includes the following one-minute (about) teaser.

      The contribution from Australia is “Atomic Shadow” by Esc. The blog that is responsible for the contribution aptly describes the song as having a “tight rhythm section.”  

   From Denmark comes PRE-Be-UN. It's an odd name, but just as odd is the inability to find the song other than at the MAP offering. The song is "X-ray Pop." 

[WE KNOW, WE KNOW!!! This is our weakest report on the MAP monthly offering. It fact, it is our weakest post EVER!] 

    Embarrassing, eh? Let's just finish with a promise:

We commit to doing well tomorrow. We will tie together performances by Lorde, The Savages and London Grammar. And the connections will make sense!