This week’s free downloadable BBC Introducing Mixtape features tunes from the BBC Introducing Uploader by KERMES, HAWK, THE HEMPOLICS, SYD ARTHUR, BELLA LOKA, ATLUM SCHEMA, THREE KINGS HIGH, HEXWORTHY, THE GLENDALE FAMILY, SAM EAGLE, TUSKA, SOPHIE BARKER, TOM FIGGINS, HOPE & SOCIAL, QUERCUS BURLESQUE, THIRTY THREE CONNECTION, JOE HOLTAWAY and GORDON DUTHIE handpicked by Tom Robinson.
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 downloadable in podcast form at the BBC 6 Music downloads page for the next 30 days. Full tracklists and track start times are published here at Fresh On The Net – together with info about the music provided by the artists.
All tracks are sourced from the BBC Introducing Uploader – some recommended to me by BBC colleagues while the rest are chosen from submissions to our Fresh On The Net inbox. Click here for more info – artists please also see the request at the bottom of this page. These are the listings for the episode broadcast in the early morning of Monday, 17th October at 2am.
KERMES – Here [starts 00:17]
http://kermesforever.com/
“Kermes is an eight-legged pop monster from Leicester. We are a melodramatic DIY trashgaze screampop band, with chips on several shoulders and quite a lot to prove. The songs are about gender dysphoria and horrible people and wanting to die. It’s all fun! Our debut EP, You See Others Seeing You, was released in June 2016 on Cassette/Digital Download.”
HAWK – Mirror Maze [starts 03:06]
http://www.hawkofficial.com/
Anglo-Irish alt-noir quartet Hawk release their new single Mirror Maze on 4th November ahead of the She Knows EP in March 2017, both on Veta Records. The band have recently moved operations to Berlin to seek a new audience from a shared creative space whilst making monthly visits to the UK for live dates. The EP She Knows is produced by guitarist Matt Harris together with Catherine Marks who mixed the record and has also worked with Wolf Alice and Howling Bells. Hawk carry bold messages within their lyrics. On Mirror Maze, singer Julie Hawk says “it’s about being torn and suppressed by conflicting expectations that society places on us, particularly from a female perspective. Certain behaviour is seen as feminine from one perspective and weak from another, and others a seen as strong but too masculine. It’s about facing these issues in everyday situations, even amongst people who you consider close.” Upcoming gigs: Sept 15th Servants Jazz Quarters, London; Oct 12th The Finsbury, London; followed by Dublin’s Hard Working Class Heroes Festival in October and Paris in November.
THE HEMPOLICS – Me Love To Sing [starts 06:30]
http://www.hempolics.com/
“The Hempolics aim to put those organic rootsy vibes back into music with fat radio-friendly hooks, bumping soundsystem bass and a wanderlusty, ineffably real sound… Over years of recording other international artists, Hempolics leader Grippa Laybourne has been carefully honing his own masterpiece and selecting a gang armed and dangerous enough to execute it. Their single Serious on the Reggae Roast label caused an instant stir, hitting number one in the 2010 UK reggae charts and getting playlisted on Massive Attack’s BBC takeover. Their latest releases achieved a sync to the worldwide trailer for the Coen Brothers/George Clooney film Hail, Caesar! as well as radio play from Rodigan and Don Letts. Combined with tight as a tick live performances – honed at their own underground club night in London – they are becoming the worst kept secret on the UK circuit today.”
SYD ARTHUR – Apricity [starts 09:50]
http://www.sydarthur.co.uk/
“Syd Arthur, from Canterbury release their new album Apricity, from which this is the title track, this Friday 21st October via Communion Records. The band enjoy a reputation for hardworking DIY self-sufficiency; for a few years they organised and ran the second stage at the Lounge On The Farm festival, all their artwork and stage show visuals are created by frontman Liam – and they also run their own studio and rehearsal space. The line-up comprises three siblings, Liam (guitar and vocals), Joel (bass) and Josh (drums), with their friend Raven Bush (keys), who has his own impressive creative family tree, his father is the noted photographer and poet John Bush and his aunt is Kate Bush. Paul Weller, The Strokes, Sean Lennon and White Denim have all invited Syd Arthur to open for them live, while Jake Bugg booked them as support acts for his US tour in September. The new album was recorded in Echo Park at Eisley’s Jonathan Wilson’s studio with Beck’s guitarist Jason Faulkner in the production seat.”
BELLA LOKA – We Are Young [starts 13:14]
http://www.bellaloka.com/
“Indie pop electronic duo Bella Loka are Tea & David Boothby, recently signed to Sheffield/Dallas-based label DEFDISCO (Public Enemy, Kaela Sinclair (M83), Lovestarrs). Debut album The Light, the Mud & the Dark was produced at Abbey Road Studios with in-house producers Rob Cass & Pearse MacIntyre and released in September 2016.”
ATLUM SCHEMA – Out of Sorts [starts 17:08]
http://music.andymort.com/
“Andy Mort, aka Atlum Schema, spent two and a half years gaining a fresh perspective on the fragile nature of human existence, helping care for a friend who was tragically diagnosed with a rapidly debilitating and imprisoning form of Lewy Body Dementia in 2011. His last album, Year 0 came together over just two weeks in the summer of 2013. It confronts themes of loss, the frailty of the human body, the potential strength of human spirit and the absurd attention and importance we collectively give to futile things. Initially intended as a stripped back, acoustic record, it grew through the recording process into an ambient spirited, reflective, electronic exploration of the human condition. Andy’s new track Out of Sorts was recorded in 2016 at Woodbine Street Studio by John Rivers – with himself on keyboards, acoustic guitar and vocals, Ben Munday on electric guitar and bass, Luke Roberts on drums and Claire Russel on trumpet.”
THREE KINGS HIGH – Margins [starts 21:09]
http://threekingshigh.com/#tttp
“Three Kings High – Sam Otis, Joe Eden, Tommy Lingham, Elo Colliou, Luke Wookash and Rowan Ensoll – have toured nationally and will be embarking on their first European tour this Autumn. Margins is taken from their second album They Think They’re People, released on Donut records on September 16th”
HEXWORTHY – The Forest [starts 25:10]
https://www.facebook.com/Hexworthy-1785936748351916/
“Hexworthy is a producer living between Devon and Buenos Aires (due to a love affair with an Argentinian), who collaborates with various vocalists. The Forest features Grace Portillo on vocals – a Buenos Aires resident originally from El Salvador, who is soon to release her debut record with her group Bad Love, The Forest is available to download now on Bandcamp, on a “pay what you like” basis. Hexworthy is named after a small hamlet on Dartmoor and will shortly be releasing new music with young vocalists from England and Ireland who had never previously made music.”
THE GLENDALE FAMILY – Go Ask Alice [starts 27:25]
https://www.facebook.com/theglendalefamily/
“The Glendale Family are a collective based in North Wales and Chester who play a brand of 60’s folk/psychedelic, blues and pop. They are strongly influenced by stories like Treasure Island and Alice in Wonderland, poets Ivor Cutlor and John Cooper Clarke and writers Hunter S. Thompson, Ernest Hemmingway and Alexander Trocci.”
SAM EAGLE – Bodies [starts 28:22]
https://www.facebook.com/Pinecones4President/
“I’m a kid who likes to try out a lot of stuff from acoustic, electronic, jazz, hip hop and psychadelic band stuff” says Sam Eagle. “Aiming to eventually be a producer, I’m trying to make as much different music as I can and try to cut a path of some kind.”
TUSKA – Da Da Da [starts 30:09]
https://www.facebook.com/tuskaofficial/
“Tuska is the musical brainchild of Richard Sturges and Rob Weaver. The duo are influenced by the psychedelic genre, adding their own twist to the blueprint, they meld together spacey synths, crunchy guitar riffs and falsetto vocals. Sturges and Weaver have meticulously created every inch of these songs to envelop the listener into an experience, seeing the songs through from the initial ideas on their settees through to the mixing process where they really bring them to life.
SOPHIE BARKER – I Do It To Myself [starts 33:27]
http://www.sophiebarker.com/
“Sophie Barker came to fame for her luscious, sweeping vocal at the forefront of Zero 7’s breakaway hit In The Waiting Line. Since then she has released two solo albums (Earthbound and Seagull) and has also worked with Groove Armada, the Egg, Grooverider, Robin Guthrie (Cocteau Twins) and Muki. Her new album, Break the Habit, is due out in January 2017″
TOM FIGGINS – Permafrost [starts 37:01]
http://www.tomfiggins.com
“Songwriter Tom Figgins has been sharing his creativity with audiences nationwide for the last 5 years. Born in London to a family of non-musicians, Tom found his way in the world playing multiple instruments but the journey began with an upright piano, not taking up the guitar until his teens. He started writing his own solo material at the age of 19. Now 25, and two establishing EPs and three successful singles later, Tom has something new; his most accomplished work to date – his latest EP Ghosts which he describes as ‘a cold portrayal of buried secrets, broken arrows and moving away from the Ghosts that keep us tied to places’.”
HOPE & SOCIAL – Sunrise Laughing [starts 40:03]
http://music.hopeandsocial.com/album/feel
“Hope And Social are Simon Wainwright, Rich Huxley, Simon Goff, Simon Fletcher, Ed Waring, James Hamilton and Gary Stewart – and Sunrise Laughing is taken from their new album Feel. Due for release Oct 2016 the record is downloadable on a Pay What You Want basis (including free), and physcially released on limited edition blue vinyl and recyclable gatefold CD via the link above. It will also be made available as a suite of nine music videos, made by nine independent film makers at: bit.ly/HS-Feel-Vids.
Live dates: 20 Oct Brudenell, Leeds; 28 Oct Town Hall Theatre, Hartlepool; 3 Nov Bedford, London; 4 Nov Coal Vaults, Coventry; 5 Nov Ropetackle Arts, Shoreham; 8 Nov Gullivers, Manchester; 10 Nov Lion Inn, Blakey Ridge; 11 Nov Bilton Working Men’s Club, Harrogate; 12 Nov Fibbers, York.”
QUERCUS BURLESQUE – Crone [starts 43:32]
http://quercusburlesque.weebly.com/
Quercus Burlesque describe themselves as “a ragamuffin band of musical ne’er-do-wells bringing you stories, rants and musings on such timeless topics as perfume abuse, public transport, pasta sauce and parties gone bad… Unrepentantly irreverent, sometimes saucy, and always in a category of their own creating…”
THIRTY THREE CONNECTION – In The Rain [starts 47:29]
https://www.facebook.com/thirtythreeconnection/
“Thirty Three Connection are a piano driven indie-rock collective from Edinburgh. The band when established in 2012 were the duo of Andrew Brannen – Lead Vocals/Drums and Stephen Gillon – Vocals/Piano/Synth. With moderate success as the two-piece the band took time out of gigging in 2015 and focused on writing. In May 2016 they went into the studio to record their debut EP with Mark Morrow at The Depot Studios. With the help of Sinclair Fraser (Guitar) and Ivan Rea (Violin) they recorded the 4 track EP to be released in October 2016.”
JOE HOLTAWAY – So Around [starts 53:07]
https://twitter.com/peacesounds
“Growing up in Cornwall in a community of family friends: blues, folk and country musicians, Joe Holtaway‘s songwriting has long been something that was there. ‘I can’t imagine not writing or playing… We moved a little bit as a family from our farmhouse to a log cabin and on from there but there was always guitars and musicians wherever we were – evenings together playing. If it wasn’t a guitar or a banjo it was singing or percussion of some sort – whatever you felt… My parents ran an acoustic music club plus the music festivals we all went to – it has just always been that way.’ After moving to London to study English and poetry, Joe became involved with peace activist movement, and began the Peace Sounds label, a home for music and audio, singing and speaking for and about peace. Joe is currently recording own songs and bringing together Peace Sounds 2 which comes out in July. Peace Sounds 1 is available via the website.”
GORDON DUTHIE – Magasin De Disques [starts 57:01]
http://www.gordonduthie.com/
“Gordon Duthie is a music artist from Aberdeenshire, Scotland. Duthie’s musical style would probably be classed as “alternative” but he prefers to not abide by the standard musical genres and his musical ideas come from a huge variety of inspirations and sounds. Duthie’s driven and ambitious personality is evident and he is always looking to improve the quality, breadth and production of his work.”
ARTISTS…
In the music industry, as in life, it’s best to treat unsolicited emails asking for money with extreme caution. You may hear from a PR company who have “worked with some of the most original and exciting artists in the UK” who “found you online and after having a listen would be interested in working with you”. Please be aware you haven’t been sent this because you are special – it’s a form email, regularly received by artists who appear on this blog – and it’s from a company who are trying to sell you their services.
There are literally hundreds of plugging and PR companies in the UK – many of whom have equally impressive lists of clients and who would be glad to have your business. You don’t neccessarily have to choose the first company that happens to get in touch with you. See our advice on Sending CDs to Radio and The Pros And Cons Of Pluggers – it’s possible you might not even need professional radio promotion at this point.
And if you do decide to pay for a PR company, don’t take their word for how good they are – get some personal recommendations from their clients. Before parting with your hard-earned cash why not email a few of the indie labels who regularly get their own artists on the radio – and ask which PR companies they use.
… ALSO
If we’ve featured you on the BBC Introducing Mixtape recently, please do us a favour and wait 12 weeks before sending us another track. That will give us space to help a few other deserving artists in the meantime. But I’d love to hear another great new tune from you in three months’ time.
Tom Robinson
