This week’s free downloadable BBC Introducing Mixtape features handpicked tunes from the BBC Introducing Uploader by TWIN HIDDEN, STEEL TREES, ESTHER JOY LANE, DOOBIE WAINWRIGHT, RICHARD NAVARRO, ZUBY, HAVELOCK, DENNIS, THE LOVE FAMILY, SOME BIRD, TESSERA SKIES, DASKINSEY4, DAYFLOWER, THE FIXATION, BLAG ART, TAU BENAH and RODEO TERRORISTS.

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 – and if your music is in thie week’s mixtape please see the important warning at the bottom of this page. These are the listings for the episode broadcast overnight on Sunday 23rd Nov (technically 2am on Monday, 24th Nov 2014…)

TWIN HIDDEN – Join Hands [starts 00:17]
http://www.twinhidden.com
Twin Hidden is a multi-instrumentalist Indie-Pop duo from the UK, based in Manchester and London simultaneously. “We often combine music and lyrics to make songs,” they say. The band has been featured by Clash, NME and Stereogum. Besides upcoming slots at two major UK festivals, they’ve played sellout shows at Ronnie Scott’s, O2 Islington – and garages in Hackney. Their first show took place on the small, uninhabited island of Rockall, some 300km off the coast of Scotland: nobody came. Matthew Shribman and Sam Lea began making music together at the age of 10, and released their first album in 2001, before their voices broke. This album is now where it belongs, at the bottom of the sea, where it will never be found. After school, they both went to university: Matthew to  Oxford and Sam to Manchester. A brief hiatus followed, during which Matthew spent half a year in Germany making rope, and Sam wandered the north of England, looking for Matthew. Since 2013, Matthew and Sam have been back in the laboratory, mixing vials of guitar into solutions of purest rhythm to bring you Twin Hidden.

STEEL TREES – Loggerhead [starts 03:57]
http://steeltrees.co.uk
“Illegally brewed from the run-down zombie coal mines of Dearne Valley, South Yorkshire, Steel Trees are a trio channeling pure fuzzy and heavy energetic angst that is dirty, gritty and hellbent on not being hip, middle of the road or anything your parents will like. The video for this track Loggerhead will be released this Friday (Nov 28), with a new EP to follow in January. Loads of gigs and house parties – illegal or otherwise – all over the UK will be announced next year along with their first-ever European tour dates.”

ESTHER JOY LANE – Poets [starts 06:24]
https://www.facebook.com/ESTHERJOYLANEMUSIC
Esther Joy Lane is “a 23 year-old DIY producer and singer-songwriter from Oxford. From coming into music with no real experience, she began producing songs by messing around on her computer using Garageband. This led to a full-blown obsession with all things music and sounds and 3 years on is now studying Sound Engineering locally. She is excited to start performing her new electro-acoustic live set next month and hopes to record her debut album next year.”

DOOBIE WAINWRIGHT – Fresh Meat [starts 10:12]
https://www.facebook.com/doobiewainwright
“I am Doobie Wainwright, although I am also Chris. I live in Cheltenham and I now make all my music on an old PC, with some rudimentary software and an iPhone to record vocals and the odd bits of guitar. I build the chords as I go, I find old bits of lyrics or write new ones and then figure out a melody. I start with nothing and never know what I will end up with. This all started as a home project born out of remixing any tune I could find, to learn the software needed to make all the music myself. I could never quite make a band stick, and wanted to create all the elements myself for better or worse. After a year, and sure I had it, I turned to my own songs – aiming to create a set of melodic, edgy tunes that bounced out of my headphones. I want people to hear and share my music, but have been doing this for twenty odd years and now the real buzz I get is from the creating: the creation of new music is a beautiful thing that can only be spoiled by thinking you are the one they missed. I am working on a new set of songs right now you can follow my progress on my Soundcloud page.”

RICHARD NAVARRO – Seabirds [starts 12:56]
http://www.richardnavarro.co.uk
“Recorded and produced at home by Richard Navarro himself in the tiny attic bedroom he calls his studio, Seabirds begins in the goldfish bowl of London before giving way to the sweeping, orchestral escapism of the ocean. The track comes from the singer’s 2015 EP Let Go Light in which the songs – mostly co-written with double bassist Nicholas Thurston – combine explosive social commentary and lyricism with lush violins, infectious bass lines and the odd sprinkle of percussion. The duo’s live shows are turning quite a few heads at the moment, with support slots for Joan Armatrading and Robert Plant soon to be followed by a string of theatre appearances across London and the South East, with theatres becoming a natural “second home” for a show that combines live looping (triggered by an intriguing pair of wireless shoes invented and prototyped by the pair themselves) with cinematic projections by top VJ artists Butch Auntie.”

ZUBY – Goonie Flow [starts 15:50]
http://zubymusic.com
“Within hip-hop, Zuby is an anomaly – British born, Saudi Arabia-bred and Oxford University educated. He has earned his place as one of the UK’s hardest working DIY artists with over 17,000 albums sold without a record label, 32,000 fans on Facebook and Twitter, 800,000 YouTube views, as well as his own clothing and headphone brand. This November Zuby released his fourth album The Year Of Zuby, powered by this tongue-twisting lead single Goonie Flow – a highly impressive display of his lyrical dexterity. He will be releasing a music video for every song on the album, an ambitious project made possible by a successful Kickstarter campaign. Thousands of people are already down with Zuby. Are you?”

HAVELOCK – Paradox [starts 19:03]
https://www.facebook.com/havelockcock
“My name’s Havelock and I am 18 years old. I began singing when i was 13 and i began writing songs when i was 16. I have been playing the guitar since I was very young and I never used to sing when i was in a band in prep school. I always used to be the boring rhythm guitarist that used to stand in the background with a shaggy, bland haircut. I have always taken huge interest in music, my biggest inspirations being The Pixies, Tame Impala, King Krule, Frank Ocean and many more amazing artists. I’m from a small village in Kent called Smarden, so you could say I’m a country bumpkin. I hope to one day start up a band and take my musical ambitions much further. I like to think that my music has got a more acoustic blues and soul sound to it than anything else. I hope that my lyrics really portray the inane day to day issues of a typical strange teenage boy like me. I am leaving for travelling around the world for 6 months in the new year and i hope to return having written a lot of musical material, ready to be recorded and published.”

DENNIS – Lifeline [starts 22:01]
http://www.dennisband.com
“Dennis are an 8-piece Pit Pop Folkrock & Colliery Brass Band from the pit town of Hetton (County Durham) whose ethos, songs and lyrics are native to the town’s working class and cultural heritage. EP #3 The Caroline will be released in-stores and online Dec 1 2014. Upcoming gigs:  Washington Arts Centre (EP launch show) this Friday (Nov 28); Durham County Hall (Dec 12); Sunderland – Pop Recs instore (Dec 20); BBC Teeside Introducing live session (Jan 24);  London – The Monarch (Feb 18).”

THE LOVE FAMILY – Summer Girl [starts 24:56]
https://www.facebook.com/thelovefamilyband
“The Love Family is a new wave/alt rock band from Kent comprising of Gary Robertson (vocal & guitar), Cliff Bailey (bass guitar) and Paul Ireland (drums.) As well as performing locally they have twice played Guildford Boileroom and notably, twice at London’s Borderline – once supporting Chris Bailey (no relation!) from punk legends The Saints and once headlining in their own right. Summer Girl will be followed in early 2015 by two further, shiny, new tracks and accompanying gigs.”

SOME BIRD – Darth [starts 28:20]
https://www.facebook.com/pages/some-bird/347330318692243?ref=hl
“Some Bird is the story of a battle. A band torn apart by the separate needs of the head and heart. A band fighting to balance an awareness of good taste, with a love of all that is cheesy and wrong. Every week, the true shining spirit of alternative rock music, as exemplified by such great bands as Low, Wilco, and The National, is battered and debased by noxious filth better suited to a Spin Doctors improv jam, or a Shakespear’s Sister covers band. Honestly, sometimes it’s really upsetting to listen to. However, we remain aggressively resolute in our commitment to understated good taste. All of us. That’s right. Obviously, this means we take a bit longer to do stuff. We’ve been going a little while longer than our meagre output might suggest, due to this nerve wracking “creative” process. Our productivity was not increased by singer Dan’s throat surgery – a procedure necessitated by years of enthusiastically making up for what Mother Nature had neglected to bestow, by way of talent. This left Some Bird as a largely instrumental band for the best part of a year. We kept going though.”

TESSERA SKIES – Droplet [starts 32:39]
http://www.tesseraskies.com
“Having spent the last year intensively writing and recording new material, Tessera Skies have re-emerged with their new single Droplet’ the first in a series of new releases produced by long-time collaborator and friend, Mick Ross (Frankie & the Heartstrings, The Lake Poets, Bridie Jackson and The Arbour). Coming from collective backgrounds in speech, sound, science, classical and jazz, Tessera Skies create music that blurs the lines between pop, ambient, and orchestral positing the band as a must for fans of Sigur Ros, Guillemots, Beach House and Lanterns on the Lake. Droplet is now available to pre-order at monoproduction.co.uk and will be available as a split 12″ heavyweight vinyl, also containing Nothing Touches Me by Ajimal, with remixes by Dutch Uncles and ShArds. The launch party will be at Ernest in Newcastle Upon Tyne at 8pm this Saturday (Nov 29). Tessera Skies will follow Droplet with their second release in early 2015.”

DASKINSEY4 – Making Out [starts 35:56]
https://www.facebook.com/Daskinsey4
“Daskinsey4 are a troublesome bunch of Queerdos from the seaside of Brighton: Benders with Agendas. London!!!” they cry “We want to play in you on the 7th December. If anyone can help us out with this we will wash your car and collect your dry cleaning or some shit like that. Get in touch if you can sort us out! Xoxox” though they add “daskinsey4 reserves the right to refuse to do any of said chores.” Their older recordings are possibly not for the fainthearted – or indeed for daytime airplay by the BBC – since they include such songs as Buttplug Horcrux and Stiff Upper Clit. However they are available from their Bandcamp page as a lovely green cassette entitled Bent Coppers for measly 3 quid. Bargain!

DAYFLOWER – Heart Shaped Tambourines [starts 39:39]
https://www.facebook.com/dayflowermusic
“Dayflower was formed in Leicester by two guys who love fuzzed-up synths, 80’s shoegaze, dream pop, Star Wars and lo fi stupidity. Pretty much everything is recorded in a bedroom on an old version of Cubase. Music gets made as soon as YouTube gets turned off. Hazy, glitchy sun drenched pop recorded in the kind of bedroom where Enid Blyton is still visible on the shelves and a tumble dryer is used for a chair.”

THE FIXATION – Addiction [starts 42:49]
https://www.facebook.com/thefixationband
“We are a four piece, alt-rock band based in Oxford”, say The Fixation. “We’re all 16 and recently recorded our first EP Addiction. We took our influences from The Black Keys and The Fray when writing this song.”

BLAG ART – Council Funded Guru [starts 46:06]
https://soundcloud.com/blag-art
“Blag Art formed 2014 as a collective of musicians interested in wonky music . Their debut EP Well Blagged came out in September on Evil Speaker Records (EVSP05)”

TAU BENAH – Hey Hey [starts 49:27]
http://www.taubenah.com
“Tau Benah is a smooth, sleek and soulful singer/songwriter straight out of North West London. Calm and laidback Tau Benah showcases experimentation with various sounds, as he intertwines his vocals and electric guitar into the tapestry of the beat on Hey Hey. Having been hiding way in his South West london studio honing his craft and working on his forthcoming EP, Tau Benah is preparing himself for a number of live shows across London with details soon to be confirmed.”

RODEO TERRORISTS – In Five [starts 53:48]
https://www.facebook.com/RodeoIceStation
“The Rodeo Terrorists play around with synthesisers, loops and things that make funny squelchy noises, the result of which are tunes that they quite like. In the summer of 2006 the Rodeo Terrorists got their first Apple Mac, it was raining, they got drunk on home-brew beer and discovered the simple joys of Garageband. Music is for entertainment and the Rodeo Terrorists shy away from serious commercial exposure, though if their tunes do get played on the radio, supermarket or lift even, they would grin from ear to ear!”

ARTISTS: Important Warning…
At least one PR company sends out an identical email to every single artist who appears on The BBC Introducing Mixtape. Typically it says:

“Heard YOURNAMEHERE on BANDCAMP/SOUNDCLOUD/YOUTUBE and thought THEIR/HER/YOUR tracks sounded great. If you have any Album or Single releases coming up that you need Press / Radio / Online promotion for please let us know, and we will be happy to submit a promotional proposal. We have an eclectic team and work with INDIE / ALTERNATIVE / ELECTRONIC / LEFTFIELD / POP & URBAN releases.”

Please be aware you’re NOT receiving this proposal because the company think you in particular “sound great”: everyone else on the mixtape gets an identical proposal, every week. The usual email goes on to state that “PREVIOUS CLIENTS HAVE INCLUDED…” and list a lot of big international names from the late 90s and mid-noughties. The Radio Plugging section of that particular company’s website has the cheek to list BBC 6 Music and Radio 1 as “proud associates”. The BBC is emphatically not the “associate” of any promotion company – proud or otherwise.