Top tunes from ANTIQCOOL, FIONA BEVAN, FRANCES, FRETT, GEORGE BREAKFAST, JACK WALLEN, JH, JOSH SAVAGE, LO-FI FUN FACTORY, LONELY TOURIST, MOUTH, ROUGH ISLAND BAND, RYAN VAIL, THE GREASY SLICKS, THE MINX, THE VENUS LYX and WOODEN ARMS

The BBC Introducing Mixtape is a 60 minute radio show and podcast broadcast on BBC Radio 6 Music from 2-3am every Sunday night/Monday morning. Each show is available as a podcast for 30 days at the BBC 6 Music downloads page. The full tracklists and start times are published here at Fresh On The Net together together with biog information supplied by the artists. Previous tracklists can be found via the MIXTAPE tab above or on the BBC website.

All tracks on the mixtape come from the BBC Introducing Uploader: some are recommended by BBC friends and colleagues – the rest are tunes I’ve discovered here while listening to our Fresh On The Net inbox. For more about how the process works see this post. These are the listings for the episode broadcast overnight on Sunday 20th April (technically 2am on Monday, 21st April 2014…

ANTIQCOOL – Girl In A Room [starts 00:17]
https://www.facebook.com/Antiqcool
“I find it quite difficult to describe myself as an artist” says Antiqcool – aka Peter Crossland in Newcastle Upon Tyne. “Although I tinker with other instruments, I feel most at home playing acoustic or electric guitar, I’ve been playing on and off since I was six years old, so I guess it’s a big part of who I am now. The idea for a song can start with a few words, or a guitar riff. I spend many hours recording basic ideas that sound interesting, then overdubbing other guitar parts, until I hear something that sounds right. If I get Goosebumps, it’s usually a good sign. If you, the listener, play the finished song and get Goosebumps, then I guess I’ve done a good job. I like to paint mental pictures with my songs around themes of love, friendship and life. Each one tells it’s own little story and takes you on an emotional journey, both lyrically and musically. I get my songs into your head, where they will set up camp and lay down roots. Over time you will get to know them, and hopefully, think of them as friends.” Girl In A Room is the opening track on his album Now and Then – available via his Facebook page.

THE MINX – Your Ego [starts 05:24]
http://www.facebook.com/theminxband
“Smiths legend Johnny Marr has thrown his support behind them, John Robb has named them The Best New Band In Manchester – and having starred in Dr Martens’ current advertising campaign, The Minx keep selling out every show they play in Manchester. And the gigs keep getting bigger, with their ever-increasing, always-rabid fanbase packing out venues and get stuck in to yet another raucous set of sharply-honed guitar pop from their new favourite band. The Minx’s next single – which will be called No Friends – has been mixed and mastered by award winning producer Cenzo Townsend and is scheduled for release in the summer.”

FIONA BEVAN – Rebel Without A Cause [starts 07:27]
http://www.fionabevan.co.uk
Rebel Without A Cause is the new single from Fiona Bevan, out May 19th on Navigator Records. With its title referencing the classic James Dean film about alienated youth, this a love song about escape. Or as Fiona puts it ‘it’s a Let’s Go Somewhere Else sort of love song’. The track is lifted from her debut album Talk To Strangers, released April 28th on Navigator Records. She plays most of the instruments on the album, which was recorded on entirely analogue equipment in producer Shawn Lee’s Bloomsbury studio. The album was mastered in San Francisco by George Horn. Originally from Suffolk, Fiona’s adopted hometown is London, where she will be playing an album launch show at Underbelly Hoxton Square on May 1st. Also in May she will also be collaborating with Soumik Datta’s Circle Of Sound – alongside Nitin Sawhney and Anoushka Shankar – at the Southbank Centre (May 20th), followed by a 6-date tour in Germany/Austria with Ryan Keen.

RYAN VAIL – Grow [starts 10:19]
https://www.facebook.com/RyanVailMusic
Ryan Vail is the name of both a music producer and of the electronica duo he formed in Derry-Londonderry with musical partner Katie Cosgrove. “Heres the first new track we’ve put out in a year! Hope you all like it… ” says Ryan. Grow is the title track of a forthcoming EP on Champion Sound Recordings due to be released on May 5th. “It tells the story of a friend of mine that passed away suddenly. The three tracks cover the three different situations leading to my friends passing! Grow itself is about finding out the news and trying to tell his loved ones while dealing with it himself. Track 2, Tricks, is about finding God and doubting him… The final track Gone deals with the memory loss and confusion of everything leading to the final passing.” The video for Grow can be seen at http://youtu.be/YsN8Shslqog while the duo’s next live apprearance will be at The Great Escape in Brighton on Saturday May 9th.

ROUGH ISLAND BAND – Pulling A Rope [starts 14:46]
http://www.roughislandband.com
The Rough Island Band write songs inspired by St Agnes and the Isles of Scilly, the stories they harbor, and the life of the islands. Unusually for a Celtic outpost, St Agnes has no surviving indigenous music. Stories of shipwreck and rescue, tunes for dancing and evocations of landscape have been written by RIB in response to an extraordinary place, alongside borrowed and adapted traditional Cornish music. We have recently recorded our third album on St Agnes over one week in an old stone cottage. The album will be launched at the Isles of Scilly Folk Festival at a gig on the island of St Marys on Saturday 19th April. We will then do a short mainland tour at the beginning of May, playing London (The Golden Hind) May 2nd, Liverpool (The Scandinavian Church) May 3rd and Sheffield (Walkley Community Cenrtre) May 4th.

JH – Wartime Spirit [starts 18:17]
http://www.makingteaisfreedom.com
JH is a solo artist from London, UK. His music is eclectic, though somehow always quintessentially English, and takes in alternative and progressive rock, pop, powerpop, psychedelia, acoustic and experimental genres. Wartime Spirit is taken from his latest album So Much Promise, which is available now digitally and physically via his website.
MOUTH – Blood Beat [starts 22:04]
http://www.mouthuk.com
“Mouth is the Cambridge-based project of German-born singer/songwriter Theresa Elflein, drummer Andy Fraser and bassist Pietro Cavallo. Combining vocals, piano, guitar and ukulele with a rhythm section and electronic sounds, the often dark, ethereal songs are influenced by female performers such as Amanda Palmer and PJ Harvey, and experimental electronica/rock artists such as Radiohead and John Frusciante. The band are currently working on their debut album Núna – Icelandic for ‘Now’ – to be released this August.”

LONELY TOURIST – Fly On Your Window Sill [starts 24:38]
https://www.facebook.com/lonelytouristmusic
Lonely Tourist consist of Paul Tierney (vocals, guitar and other stuff) and Jim Lang (stuff, things and production). Or, to put it another way, “jaunty acoustic strum from a Scottish bloke living in Bristol, songs recorded by his mate Jim in Glasgow. Call it Beard Pop – or Pub Step if you prefer.” Lonely Tourist has supported amongst others Pete Doherty, Babyshambles, Malcolm Middleton, Admiral Fallow, Hans Chew, Dark Dark Dark, Langhorne Slim, Beth Hart, Rachel Sermanni, Norman Wat Roy, Jimbob Carter and Tom Hingley. His three previous singles have been played on Radio 2 and 6 Music by Steve Lamacq, Gideon Coe, Chris Hawkins, Cerys Matthews and myself among others. He’ll “play anywhere if you ask and its gettable to from Bristol.”

THE VENUS LYX – Saint Mary Walking Home [starts 26:54]
http://thevenuslyx.tumblr.com
“Born in December 2013, The Venus Lyx are a rock and roll band formed by three brothers not content within the confines of provincial life. Our next show is at Avondale House in Southampton on May 1st, and then at The Boileroom, Guildford on May 15th in support of Ezra Furman.”

FRETT – Porcelain [starts 31:17]
http://www.frett.co.uk
Consisting of Simon Lucas-Hughes and Elliott Buckle, Frett are a band from the Suffolk / Essex border. Porcelain is their latest single which has just come out in the build-up to the release of EP3 this Monday April 21st – with a launch party / label showcase at the Sebright Arms in London on April 25th. In the last month since ‘Porcelain’ was released the song has had over 20k Soundcloud plays & the video has had over 7k Youtube views as well as features on a number of radio stations and online music blogs including: Kerrang Radio, Indie Shuffle, Its All Indie and TMRW magazine. Frett are promoing the opening track for their new EP – ‘Milk’, on TMRW magazine next week and are also set to play support for Young Kato at The Portland Arms in Cambridge on April 26th.

GEORGE BREAKFAST – Easily Led [starts 34:21]
http://www.georgebreakfast.com
George Breakfast sings and plays acoustic guitar, mandolin or electric bass, and has written some of the most enduring songs of the last 40 years. Yet outside of a few small music circles, he remains unheard of. Since leaving boarding school at 17, he has sung and played in pubs and clubs, festivals and concert halls, on radio and TV, and on street corners, in most European countries and the East Coast of the USA. He has recorded a number of albums, and artists on both sides of the Atlantic have covered his songs. He is finally making a sustained effort to find a wider audience. He is about to release this track, Easily Led – together with Manana Baby from the same album – as a digital single and will be touring in September with The Whateverly Brothers: a duo with his old friend Jono Manson. Meanwhile he plays four dates at the beginning of May in Shrewsbury, Llanwrtyd Wells and Ross-on-Wye – see his website for more details.

JOSH SAVAGE – Your Lips [starts 37:57]
http://www.joshsavagemusic.com
Born in London, brought up in Paris and now based in Winchester, Josh Savage has been heavily influenced by the eclectic mixture of music and culture around him. From singing as a treble soloist, playing trumpet in jazz bands, acting as a slapstick evil chinese sidekick in university musicals to performing his own songs at gigs. Writing and recording these in both English and French, Josh can often be found performing solo, with his string trio or on occasion a full band.

JACK WALLEN – Although [starts 41:01]
http://www.jackwallenmusic.com
Jack Wallen is a songwriter and musician based in Cornwall. He spent the latter part of the winter recording his first studio EP “Although” in Neil Halstead’s studio on an abandoned WWII airfield in the heart of the Cornish countryside. The EP will be available from the 28.04.14. Jack has recently finished a short stint of dates including shows in Birmingham, Nottingham and London, and continues with support sets for Joe Driscoll and Sekou Kouyate in Totnes at the South Devon Arts Centre this Wednesday (April 23rd), and The People’s String Foundation at The Chapel Arts Centre in Bath on Saturday (April 26th).

LO-FI FUN FACTORY – Dude [starts 45:04]
http://lo-fifunfactory.com
“Lo-Fi Fun Factory are based in Whitehead – a small seaside town on the east coast of County Antrim, Northern Ireland, lying almost midway between the towns of Carrickfergus and Larne. They consist of Dan Tindall (guitars, voice), Alan Thompson (bass) and Paul Pierce (drums / percussion): their music is lo-fi folk punk, their hearts forever anti-folk. Since randomly coming into existence in 2010 they have played gigs, recorded tunes, and generally done their anti-folk thing. The last year has seen them play sets in the Belfast Empire, the Pavilion and the Sunflower (including the New Year’s gig) – you can check out their tunes on their website – their latest release is a 7 song live set issued as a follow up to the studio-recorded White EP. Upcoming gigs include a Friday night headline at the Egg Cup and Whiskey Festival on the 2 May 2014.”

THE GREASY SLICKS – Wild Ones [starts 47:52]
http://www.thegreasyslicks.co.uk
“The Greasy Slicks consist of Jack Kendrew on guitar and vocals, drummer Rian O’Grady and Nathan Rasdall on bass. We formed in 2012 through a mutual appreciation of traditional blues and rock & roll, taking influence from bands such as Led Zeppelin, The Temperance Movement and The Hoax among many others. Our passionate live shows have been described as the soundtrack for “a bourbon-soaked bar brawl” and are where we strive to ensure our audiences are captivated by our energy, commitment and musicianship. We have just released our first official EP ‘Into The Night’ and are touring across the UK, we’re playing the Rock for Cancer event with Bob Geldof at the end of May. Catch you on the road!”

FRANCES – Coming Up For Air [starts 51:30]
http://www.facebook.com/officialfrances
“Frances is a female solo artist from Berkshire currently based in Liverpool. Her delicate and haunting vocals blend with her melodic piano playing whilst her 4 piece band create a huge sound behind her. Her sound has been compared to the likes of London Grammar, Coldplay and Tom Odell but with a pinch of something fresh and new. This track Coming Up For Air has been a Fresh On The Net favourite, receiving some great feedback from the press. She is soon to be releasing another track at the end of this month (April) and is playing regularly in both Liverpool and London so keep an eye out for updates and news.”

WOODEN ARMS – Tide [starts 55:29]
http://www.facebook.com/Woodenarmsband
“Wooden Arms is a Norwich-based 7-piece alternative, classical, indie band. With five-part vocal harmonies and a distinctive yet delicate blend of classical instrumentation meets modern melody, Wooden Arms released their self-titled debut EP with Bare Feet Records in 2013. One of the tracks, False Start, was a ‘Headphone Moment’ on Lauren Laverne’s 6 Music programme and the band toured the UK extensively last year including such festivals as Liverpool Sound City and Norwich Sound & Vision. Together with their song December, this track is the other half of their latest double ‘A’ single which was recorded and produced by Wild Beasts and iLiKETRAiNS engineer David Pye and came out in February. Wooden Arms play further dates in the UK and Europe this year to support the release.”

ARTISTS: A Word Of Warning…
After appearing on The BBC Introducing Mixtape you may well receive unsolicited email from at least one plugger saying they heard your track on the show, thought it “sounded fantastic”, and are wondering if you’re looking for promotion for your releases. Please check out The Pros And Cons Of Pluggers before responding to any unsolicited emails from anyone suggesting that YOU should pay THEM for services of any kind.