The new record from the Bethany and Rufus Roots Quartet, Liv À Fip, is like nothing I have ever heard before. Styles from everywhere and anywhere come together seamlessly. One hears distinctly Afro-Cuban rhythms pop under driving bass lines, folksy lyrics and screaming flute. "Death Don't Have No Mercy" is particularly characteristic of this mixing and meshing. The cello is inescapably funky, the bongos complexify the rhythms, the flute line seethes with fiery reverberance, and Bethany's vocals lament the world in a way only American folk music can. Bethany Yarrow's voice has a deep resonance, a profound that blends oh so perfectly with the earthy sound of her band. Perhaps her voice sounds so good in this group because all of the instruments have a distinctly vocal quality about them. Yacouba Moumouni's flute imparts an especially human sound, a personification of woody vibrations that conjure images of life in its rawest form. 'Bonga' Jean-Baptiste's rhythms are complex and gel with Rufus Cappadocia's funky bass lines. Cappadocia's sound is also unique. His five string cello sound is rich in overtones that compound the earthiness of the group, and Yacouba's chants send shivers through your spine. This whole album feels alive and growing. These are the sounds of life piercing a dry and crusted earth, its roots twisting and crawling, crackling and snapping. This music transcends the genres in which it finds its origins. It's not roots music, or blues, or funk, or jazz. While it contains elements of all of those styles, it is also unmistakably new and impossible to characterize in the traditional musical panacea. This pure, vibrating, swelling sound is open and honest. The Quartet is sincere and their music, all recorded live, makes you feel what they feel. This is an original and refreshing album. Live À Fip is scheduled for release on October 22.

Nexus Radio is a free music software application that lets users download music and discover streaming radio stations from around the world. It also doubles as a media player, and recording tool that can record in-line audio from your computer, or from the radio streams to which you're listening. In addition, the app plays fetch--create a filter and it will capture songs or artists according to your keyword choice. That spells "free music discovery" to us

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Like competing music jukebox software, Nexus Radio has its own plug-in architecture that allows third parties to create their own add-ons. One of the most popular applications of that has been visualizations, which users are able to add or remove from the player. The app also offers drag-and-drop functionality for creating your own playlists from music stored on your hard drive, and there are built-in tools for saving clips as MP3s and editing clips.

Nexus Radio has an attractive interface that offers plenty of functionality without being overly complex. The main screen has built-in volume control, menu options, and a dropdown for on-the-fly burning. Stations are listed alphabetically, but other than the name, there's really no additional information, so you'll have to hunt and peck to find the stations you like. It's best to add stations as favorites for easier access with further use.