6 Music picks: Rebecca Pronsky and Mausi

Every week we get to play two tracks for Tom Robinson on his excellent BBC 6 Music Introducing show... you can listen again here.  

Rebecca Pronsky - Hard Times



This Brooklyn native should be a household name as far as we’re concerned. Day time play list on Radio 2 at least. Sigh, but alas, we are not in charge! ‘Viewfinder’ is a superb record by an accomplished musician - it’s obvious she’s playing music since the year dot. Studying ethnomusicology and jazz singing at Brown University has set her on track to become one of America’s foremost modern folk songstresses.

 
Mausi - Sol

We here at TOW love this slice of Italian sunshine pop via Newcastle. Sibling duo Daisy and Thomas Finetto channel their love of pop, electro and dance into Newcastle’s thriving indie music scene and this is the result. You can almost smell the suntan lotion and feel the sand between your toes - but that’s the Tyne in the background!

Amazing Radio listen again with Dear Reader

Plenty to shout about in this week’s show - not least a chat with the South African born, Berlin based musician and singer-songwriter Dear Reader. We caught up with her about her new album Idealistic Animals out on City Slang, leaving her homeland behind and breaking up with Christianity - worse than any other kind of break up! Check out this lovely acoustic video of Monkey (Go Home Now)

We’re also playing Mary Epworth’s new single Black Doe which is a dark throbbing psych rock anthem, plus Oslo newbie’s Maribel, Swedish duo Wildbirds & Peacedrums remixed by Deerhoof no less, a match made in heaven! Also a new track from LA songstress Pisces:

6 Music picks: Abi Wade & Emma Russack

Every week we get to play two tracks for Tom Robinson on his excellent BBC 6 Music Introducing show... you can listen again here.  

Abi Wade - Stability



Not only a remarkable voice, also a talented multi-instrumentalist to boot. The cello being her instrument of choice on the ‘And Blood And Air EP’ which came out on great little Brighton indie Love Thy Neighbour Records. A one-woman band and production house, she’s honed her craft and stands poised to take on the industry in a rather fetching onesie...

Emma Russack - He Was My Family

 

Another stand out voice to arrive in our inbox - this time from Down Under. Melbourne to be precise - Emma’s debut album Sounds of our City is released on New Zealand indie Spunk Records in February and if this taster is anything to go by it’s a strong introduction to this singer-songwriter. Emma made her name on YouTube covering classics such as A Day In The Life, Love Will Tear Us Apart and My My Hey Hey - something that would ordinarily set our teeth on edge, but she does a jaw dropping job of making them her own. Her PR says: “Lyrically, Sounds of Our City explores letting go and severing ties, finding one’s place in the world, and wishing you were lying on a beach, cocktail in hand, instead of working at an Italian restaurant during Melbourne’s coldest winter in 50 years.” We’ve all been there honey!

Amazing Radio catch up! Paper Dollhouse and Laura Gibson

This week we kick off the show with this creepy as hell track from Brooklyn duo, er, Creep! Featuring the ethereal vocals of Holly Miranda - an excellent singer songwriter in her own right. 

We feature an interview with Portland musician Laura Gibson whose album La Grande has just come on City Slang. She played an over-subscribed gig at The Social in London a few weeks back where we caught up with her - in the middle of the bar! Nowhere to go, so it’s a bit chaotic. We talk about writing the album, getting it out there and feeling bloody great about it all.

Then there’s new music from Canadian solo electro artist Grimes, Oslo’s Philco Fiction, soon-to-be-pop-sensation Natalie McCool, cooler-than-thou New Yorker with her finger in many musical pies Frankie Rose, the brilliant Class Actress and more...

Last week we were thrilled to welcome solo electronic and instrumentalist Paper Dollhouse to The Other Woman. Someone we know as Astrud, the lead singer of London trio Rayographs who had a successful debut release in 2011, she’s found herself now signed to Manchester indie and Finders Keepers off shoot Bird Records. Astrud sent TOW early recordings as Paper Dollhouse which she made literally using her computer input mic and sitting in her kitchen, that’s what you’ll hear on the show - proof that you don’t need to spend big money on studios and fancy shmancy producers these days!

Also chuffed that LA psych rockers Happy Hollows have created their profile at Amazing Tunes AND the solo project of their frontwoman the inimitable Sarah Nagehdari, Pisces - check out the video for Voodoo here, LOVE THIS TUNE! Tune in for both at the top of the show... Also, Severin, Emily Barker, Ghosts You Echo, Magpahi and Joana and the Wolf

6 Music picks: Strict Status and Joy Wellboy

Every week we get to play two tracks for Tom Robinson on his excellent BBC 6 Music Introducing show... you can listen again here.  

Strict Status - Locked In

Scottish producer and musician Emma Welsby is one of a rare breed of female drum ‘n bass producers. As Strict Status she records, produces and provides the vocals on all her tracks, we like this one Locked In. A music degree at Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts and a successful professional session drumming career later she’s now teamed up with Neil Harvey to create Nova Code. Nova Code is a new collaborative project involving, er, well YOU if you like:
“This project incorporates live musicians, visual artists and anyone else we find along the way with insane abilities. The aim? To have everyone perform their contribution live in the form of a gig in August 2012.” Get in touch if that tickles your fancy!

Joy Wellboy - Within Another Dimension



It’s not often we here at TOW receive a missive from Brussels - Geert got in touch about a band on his label Doctor Vinyl Records called Joy Wellboy. Intrigued we took a listen and were immediately hooked by frontwoman Joy Adegoke and her producer/ musician partner Wim Janssens. The debut album Let’s Make Love Before We Die is, as they put it: “Not the gospel as we know it, and it's not quite the church as we know it…” Ok! Excellent. Either way it’s got us hooked and Joy is an eyeful, as you’ll see from their videos.

Amazing Radio listen again 15 Jan 2012

So much to get excited about this week on The Other Woman, not the least the first play of new material from the frankly, awesome Mary Epworth and the Jubilee Band. We kick off the show with Come Back to the Bough from her highly anticipated debut album Dream of Life which comes out in March. Mary is a multi-instrumentalist with a penchant for the auto harp and with a big beautiful voice, writes songs that as well as being steeped in folklore, are simultaneously very much a part of the twenty-first century.

We have an interview with the inimitable Piney Gir - she’s ditched the Country Roadshow and her latest album Geronimo has garnered rave reviews from all corners, catch up with all the news from the Kansas native. Check out the ridiculously cute sock-puppet video for Outta Sight:

We also have session tracks from producer and songwriter Laura Bettinson aka Dimbleby & Capper, plus new music from Welsh songstress Jodie Marie, dark pop duo The Unkindness of Ravens, Highland lass Racherl Sermanni and much more...

Dimbleby & Capper - Educated (The Amazing Sessions) from Amazing Radio on Vimeo.

6M Picks: Grimes and Pisces

Every week we get to play two tracks for Tom Robinson on his excellent BBC 6 Music Introducing show... you can listen again here.  

Grimes - Genesis

  Grimes - Genesis by factmag

This solo electronic musician has been busy - album number 4 since 2010 is due out in March and we cannot wait to hear the whole effort if this sneak preview is anything to go by. Lo-fi synth with strong confident beats and an ethereal vocal line ticks boxes for us, previously ticked by the likes of LA producer Nite Jewel and chill wave maestro’s Sleep Over... Thanks to The Girls Are for tipping her for major success in 2012 - noting that this album is due out on 4AD, remember what that did for Tune-Yards? Exciting.

Pisces - Voodoo



A UK exclusive from Sarah Negahdari’s new project Pisces. Remember her from Happy Hollows? The LA based psych rockers we tipped for Tom back in 2009. Sarah’s broken out on her own for this, a few members of HH do join her for recording sessions though so she’s keeping it in the family. The kitchen of an abandoned downtown LA studio apartment is the setting for what you hear and Voodoo is one of our tracks of 2012 already, catchy as hell with that infectious vocal line. More please Sarah!