This week’s free downloadable BBC Introducing Mixtape previews tunes by artists appearing on the BBC Introducing stages at Reading & Leeds festivals this coming weekend: ELIA+THE LOW TEARS, FLASH BANG BAND, FORTHAVEN, HARTS, JESS HALL (x2), JESS MORGAN, JOHN MOUSE, MACHINE BOY, PHASE, RHODES, SAVE, THE PEOPLE THE POET, TRWBADOR, VALLEYERS, WARRENPEACE and WOODEN ARMS.
The BBC Introducing Mixtape is a 60 minute radio show broadcast on BBC Radio 6 Music from 2-3am every Sunday night/Monday morning. Each programme is then downloadable in podcast form at the BBC 6 Music downloads page for the next 30 days. Full tracklists and start times for each track are published here at Fresh On The Net together with information about the music provided by the artists themselves. Previous tracklists can be found via the MIXTAPE tab above or on the BBC website.
All tracks are sourced from the BBC Introducing Uploader. Some are recommended by BBC friends and colleagues while the rest are tunes I’ve discovered here via our Fresh On The Net inbox. For more about how the process works see this post. These are the listings for the BBC Introducing Mixtape broadcast overnight on Sunday 24th August (technically 2am on Monday, 25th August 2014…)
FLASH BANG BAND – Art History [starts 00:32]
https://www.facebook.com/flashbangband
We are a noise pop group from Brighton, say Andy Halliday, Rob Carmier and Rodney Roodt of Flash Bang Band. We love experimental stuff, playing very loud and meeting new people. We really like Tardigrades and Peregrines. A LOT. We released this third and final single Art History from our debut Bite Your Tongue which came out on grass roots label At The Helm Records exactly a year ago. Since then we’ve toured Europe twice and also, sporadically, the UK – within the DIY networks that we’re so very fond of. We’re now settling into a nice warm homely studio. We’re bubbling over with ideas for a new album which promises to be a wholly energetic experience. Our interests in current affairs continue to grow and fascinate us – alongside an overt determination to produce video promos – and feeling the continued rewards of involvement in a culture to which we feel grateful to belong. Less war! More Giant Drag! Albatre! Upcoming shows include: Green Door Store, Brighton (Aug 28); Malcfest, Kent (Sep 5); Ramsgate Music Hall (Sep 18) Upstairs at the Garage, London (Sep 19); Kave Gallery, St Leonards (Sep 21)
TRWBADOR – Side By Side [starts 03:33]
http://www.trwbador.co.uk
Hello (say our longstanding friends Angharad Van Rijswijk and Owain Gwilym) we’re Trwbador, an Elekctro-Folk-Rave duo from West Wales. We’re half Welsh/half Dutch and release records via our own cottage industry style label, Owlet Music. We share all songwriting and producing duties equally and have been catching the attention of journalists, DJs and musos alike since 2010. Side By Side is their new single, taken from their latest album Several Wolves which came out earlier this month – and also features the splendid pastoral rap track Breakthrough, featuring Essa.
ELIA & THE LOW TEARS – The Reprieve [starts 06:57]
http://www.facebook.com/eliamusic
Elia & The Low Tears (or ETLT) is all about great songs. Feel free to think of us as pop, as long as you agree that pop can incorporate funk, soul, electro and Joni Mitchell. Elia Rulli is the son of renowned musicians who played with the likes of Duke Ellington and Quincy Jones. This means that, despite the fact that he definitely thinks jazz musicians should not be allowed to raise children, he got to tour and perform all over the world as he was growing up. Elia and his crew have had a lot of support from Gary Crowley and Tony Blackburn on BBC London and Tom Robinson on BBC6 who, as well as several plays, had ETLT in to do a live session. 2014 has seen ETLT gain their first TV play and they have just released their No Culture Extended Play EP.
WARRENPEACE feat. SCROOBIUS PIP – Frnkly Stvn [starts 10:25]
http://soundcloud.com/xxxwarrenpeacexxx
Combining punk, hip-hop, and spoken word, London-based duo Warrenpeace are Buddy Peace and Worgie, the latest signing to Scroobius Pip‘s Speech Development label. warrenpeace’s debut album, titled SDR007, is released on 2 June. SDR007 features Scroobius Pip, Natasha Fox and Amy Bullman. Ahead of the release, warrenpeace released a 7 minute video of the duo performing teaser versions of each album track, live. The video was filmed during their weekly rehearsal session, and offers a small window into how exciting and innovative their live performance really is. Speech Development Records launched in 2011 with the release of label boss, celebrated spoken word artist and XFM DJ Scroobius Pip’s solo album ‘Distraction Pieces’. Scroobius Pip was nominated for two Radio Academy Awards this month – Best Specialist Radio Programme and Best Broadcaster.
JESS MORGAN – Adam and Genevieve [starts 14:29]
http://www.jessmorgan.co.uk
“2014 sees the release of a brand new album Langa Langa which will showcase a windfall of sizzling new songs and rhythmic guitar playing from this prolific writer from Norwich, already championed by BBC Folk Show’s host, Mark Radcliffe. Expect simple, evocative songs that tell stories, peppered with influence from British Folk as well as country, blues and world music. After an exciting year playing over one hundred shows Jess Morgan is steadily building a name for herself as a grafter and a force to be reckoned with in roots and folk music in the UK and in Europe.”
PHASE – Point of You [starts 18:16]
http://phase.gr
“Phase‘s journey began on a mid-summer day of 2008 when the party started collecting experiences and ideas which they are continuously filtering reaching to today’s shape; delivering this tight alloy of music, which the press often compares to the sound of acts like Nirvana, Alice in Chains and the Smashing Pumpkins. In the beginning of 2010 their single Perdition was selected for Microsoft’s “Playlist Seven” and they made their début entrance on Billboard’s charts in summer of 2012, as one of the fastest rising artists. Their debut album In Consequence included a guest appearance by Duncan Patterson (Anathema, Antimatter). Their second album The Wait was released in April 2014. Turn off your mind and relax tripping among Phase’s frequencies… Share Shape, Space… Phase.”
HARTS – Angels Walk Below [starts 22:26]
https://soundcloud.com/hartsmusic
Melbourne-based, Indian-born solo artist Harts writes all his own music, plays all the instruments, recording, producing and mixing them in his bedroom studio. “Harts should be Number One everywhere, including other planets” declares The Guardian’s Paul Lester and there are plenty of us who agree. Angels Walk Below is his newly-released third single, with a debut album being readied for release – in the wake of recent trip to Minneapolis following an invitation from Prince himself to come and jam with him at Paisley Park Studios. Harts has also recently caught the attention of Quincy Jones and Questlove of The Roots – who tweeted out the previous Harts single Lovers In Bloom. Harts is currently touring the record in Australia as well as heading back to the US to work with Nick Littlemore (Empire Of The Sun, Pnau) on a new upcoming project later in the year.
WOODEN ARMS – Waiting [starts 26:16]
http://www.facebook.com/Woodenarmsband
Wooden Arms is a Norwich-based 7-piece alternative, classical, indie band – featuring five-part vocal harmonies – who released their self-titled debut EP with Bare Feet Records in 2013. The band toured the UK extensively including Liverpool Sound City and Norwich Sound & Vision festivals and their song False Start was the Headphone Moment on Lauren Laverne’s BBC 6 Music show. Waiting comes from their six-track release Tide which will be released by Butterfly Collectors on October 6th in both vinyl and CD formats as well as digital download.
VALLEYERS – Epilogue [starts 29:41]
http://www.valleyers.com
Valleyers is the stage moniker of UK singer-songwriter Nayfe Slusjan, based in far South West corner of Wales, whose work we first discovered when he came in to play a Saturday night session for me on 6 Music with his previous band Chailo Sim. The past few years have seen Nayfe’s unique style of song writing captivate audiences and musicians alike – notably Sam Beam from Iron & Wine, members of Fleet Foxes and more recently Maria Linden of I Break Horses – all mentioning a love for his music. Nayfe comes from an extensive Romani gypsy family, providing a deep source of inspiration for songs about the transient nature of people.
JOHN MOUSE – Robbie Savage [starts 33:04]
https://www.facebook.com/JohnMOuseMusic
The third Welsh artist in tonight’s mixtape is indie pop hero John MOuse. He’s just released his latest album The Death of John MOuse (his first since 2010’s acclaimed Humber Dogger Forties) and funded by an ingenious Kickstarter campaign. From it, this track Robbie Savage has already been played on 6 Music by Mary Ann Hobbs who described it as “an extraordinary piece of poetry”. It’s also one of the bonus tracks on his current single I Was A Goalkeeper – a duet with Gareth David from Los Campesinos. John MOuse – known to friends, family and the Inand Revenue as John Davies – has been described as “A Welsh Beck” and “A Less Funny Half Man Half Biscuit”. But having watched his impassioned full-on all-out performance at Green Man this month, neither of those epithets remotely does him justice. This man is simply The One And Only John MOuse. End of.
JESS HALL – Criwch Ddim [starts 36:10]
http://www.jess-hall.com
Our first Jess Hall in tonight’s mixtape comes from Llandrindod Wells and creates impassioned, convention-breaking, thought-provoking, dark/uplifting songs – inspired by Contemporary Folk and Trip-hop. She was born in Cardiff to a Welsh father and North-West American mother. Growing up in an isolated rural rectory in Mid Wales, she developed a passion for singing and songwriting from an early age. With lyrics in both English and Welsh, Jess plays piano and harmonium and is joined by Noel Doak on double bass, beats and live looping. Her debut EP Glas Oren was recorded with renowned Cardiff-based producer Charlie Francis and mastered by Tim Turan in Oxford – which gives us a tenuous connection with another Jess Hall (of whom more anon). The EP was released in April 2014, causing Jess herself to be named BBC Introducing Act Of The Week on Radio Wales, while Glas Oren was acclaimed as Album of the Week on BBC Radio Cymru. Jess and Noel will be performing live throughout 2014.
THE PEOPLE THE POET – People [starts 39:05]
http://www.thepeoplethepoet.com
Our fifth and final Welsh act in this Mixtape are South Wales outfit The People The Poet. People is the opening track on their debut album The Narrator, released last November. It’s written entirely around personal life stories sent into the band by their fans. Said stories cover a wide spectrum of experiences and emotions, from the joy of fatherhood (I Will Be), to the pain of losing a parent (Nobody Else Like You – which features Francis Dunnery) and the emotive tribute to two fans’ experiences of the fight against cancer: Pink Ribbon and Lives Of Your Lovers.
JESS HALL – I Will Give My Love An Apple [starts 44:18]
http://www.jesshallsongs.co.uk
Five acts from Wales in the same mixtape – and two songwriters called Jess Hall! This second, but in no way secondary Jess Hall grew up near the North Devon coast. She moved to the starkly landlocked Oxford five years ago where she established herself on the local scene. She has supported acts such as Sea of Bees as well as performing at Truck Festival and headlining the Shh Stage at Wilderness. Her debut album Bookshelves was produced by Duotones’ Barney Morse-Brown with added arrangements and playing by Jon Ouin from Stornoway. The record was launched in February with a sold-out event at Oxford’s wonderful Holywell Music Room. Since then Jess has played The Union Chapel (one of her ambitions) and opened this years Green Man Rising Stage – as well as achieving her first ever front cover on independent music magazine Nightshift. This autumn she plays shows in Brighton, Oxford and her home town of Barnstaple and further tour dates are being planned even as you read this!
MACHINE BOY – This Machine [starts 45:55]
http://www.machineboy.co.uk
Machine Boy create wonky alternative lo-fi electronica, art & animation with a humanitarian theme for The Universe & elsewhere. Their new EP Tom’s Tiny Bleep Machine is a story about the wonderful positive vibes coming out of, um, Tom’s tiny bleep machine! They’ve enjoyed radio/podcast plays from Huw Stephens, Rob Da Bank, Stuart Marconie, Steve Lamacq, The Introducing Mixtape, John Peel (RIP) & Gill Mill’s Best Of Myspace podcast currently releases on their own Shotgun Charlie label: http://www.shotguncharlie.co.uk/
RHODES – Breathe [starts 48:00]
http://rhodesmusic.co.uk
Rhodes – known to friends and family as David – is a singer songwriter from Hitchin. Breathe is the lead track on his forthcoming EP Home. In the last 12 months he’s opened for Sam Smith, London Grammar, Laura Marling and Nick Mulvey, toured the UK, sold out three nights at London’s Sebright Arms, and given festival performances at Glastonbury, Wilderness and Latitude. Now signed to Ministry of Sound through his own Rhodes Music imprint, Rhodes releases the Home EP on October 20th, with production contributions by Ian Grimble, Tim Bran, Roy Kerr and Iain Archer. Rhodes will tour the UK with his band this Autumn, taking in London, Plymouth, Manchester, Nottingham, Glasgow, Leeds, Brighton And Bristol.
SAVE – Dont Be Mad [starts 51:41]
http://save-music.tumblr.com
Monsters And Fairies by Save is an abandoned hotel room located somewhere between England and Spain. It’s real for some while for others it’s just a fantasy. Who knows? Its in this exact same place that the american singer/vocalist Craig Louis Higgins Jr. (Paranoid London/Mutado Pintado/Warmduscher), the Australian singer/composer Saskia Sansom and the French electronic music composer Marc Nguyen Tan (Colder) got together to record these songs during the year 2012. However some listeners will find interesting to know, that until today, the three of them have never actually met in person. Their Monsters & Fairies EP is available on limited edition 10″ vinyl on Peasant Vitality Records. Visit Sounds of The Universe in London to buy in person or order online.
FORTHAVEN – Reprocity Feat. EMMA ROSE [starts 56:33]
http://www.forthaven.biz
It has been a very busy time at Forthaven, work has now begun on the next full album titled ‘Entity’ which will feature Emma Rose on all tracks as vocalist and the cello skills of Alister Ligertwood. This song Reprocity will feature on the album and is Available as a single at http://forthaven.bandcamp.com together with the recently released new EP, Darkness. We are also Proud to announce our inclusion on the upcoming CD ‘Legends shoulder to shoulder’ for the Pete Quaife Foundation, Featuring Personally donated tracks from Ocean Colour Scene, Noel Gallagher, Paul Weller, among others, more information here: http://www.pqfmusic.com/album-vol2.php. There will also be some big announcements regarding an independent record label that is being launched in liverpool, stay tuned 🙂 J and Emma.
ARTISTS: A Word Of Warning…
At least one PR company sends out an identical email to every single artist who appears on The BBC Introducing Mixtape. It says that the company heard your track on our show, they thought it “sounded fantastic”, and are wondering if you’re looking for promotion for your releases.
Before responding, please check out The Pros And Cons Of Pluggers. We strongly urge you to be wary of unsolicited email from anyone who claims to like your music and then suggests that YOU should pay THEM for services of any kind.
