TOW on BBC 6 Music Introducing: The Lone Taxidermist & Botched Fairytale

Every week TOW is lucky enough to pick two songs for Tom Robinson's brilliant BBC 6 Music show, the spot goes out every Monday morning at around 2:30am


The Lone Taxidermist - Bijoux Boy

The Lone Taxidermist aka Natalie Sharp is a one woman howl-inducing music making machine. From Manchester but now based in London - TOW guesses that gothic psych electro may be the correct way to describe her, but in all honesty The Lone Taxidermist sits quite squarely in a league of her own. Bijoux Boy is our favourite, hear that on her myspace page, but this video is for Road Kill, another equally interesting and, well, howly tune. Big up to Skopjemusic for the video - check out more great indie videos from him here.


Botched Fairytale - The 06 Census

So very little is known about Botched Fairytale, except that Mariel McCormack and Marie O'Hara are from Longford in Ireland and, like The Lone Taxidermist, can equally sit in a category all their own. The two girls do everything themselves - recording, mixing, mastering, the lot. TOW has tried to put a finger on influences but can't quite pin it down. They seem like a band that Thom Yorke would fall immediately in love with - look out world, here come Botched Fairytale, with their woozey guitars, accordions and those haunting vocals that will keep you coming back for more. If you email them at botchedfairytale@gmail.com they'll personally post you a copy of their album. Lovely.

TOW on 6 Music Introducing: Marianne Lee & Patricia Panther

Every week TOW is lucky enough to pick two songs for Tom Robinson's brilliant BBC 6 Music show, the spot goes out every Monday morning at around 2:30am


Marianne Lee - Wilderness Years

Props to the fantastic The Girls Are blog for turning us onto Marianne Lee. Annette Barlow and her team of super lady music sleuths are bang on with this tip from Ireland. Little is known about Marianne but listen to the music and you'll hear the two influences she cites on her myspace, Kate Bush and Sandy Denny. We can hear all kinds of loveliness, a sound that might prick up the ear of Thom Yorke and imagery that harks back to the 'gothic midlands' of Ireland where she grew up. We want her over here in the UK - watch this space!


Patricia Panther - We Are Kids At Root

A true gem we uncovered whilst cruising on myspace - Patricia Panther (it is her real name - awesome) lives in the indie-boy-with-guitars heavy scene in Glasgow and says she finds it very hard to be taken seriously as a woman making electronic music without a man tweaking the knobs and buttons behind the scene. Patricia makes all the music herself, loops all the beats, presses all the pedals and the result is something unique and truly quirky. See We Are Kids At Root especially for proof of this, she recorded some kids in Ghana using her iPhone and mixed it up with goodness knows what to create a storming tune.

TOW on 6 Music Introducing: Brilliant Colours and Nico Teen

Every week TOW is lucky enough to pick two songs for Tom Robinson's brilliant BBC 6 Music show, the spot goes out every Monday morning at around 2:30am.


Pick 1 - Brilliant Colours - English Cities

Brilliant Colours are San Francisco-based three piece Michelle, Jess and Diane who make fuzzed out garage punk rock. Oh no, not more of that TOW hears you cry! This is truly worth putting on your stereo and turning up LOUD. Tuneful, clever and dirty - Tom Ravenscroft played them on 6 Music ages ago, we've just found them and love what we hear. Their single Walk Into The World/ Bad Vibes is out now on Make A Mess Records - we saw it in Rough Trade last week and felt sooo proud. Go and spend cash!

Pick 2 - Nico Teen - Hungry For Love

You gotta love someone whose myspace is /nicoteensillypoo. TOW thought we'd bring you the latest talent from the Israeli independent scene - Nico is signed to AK Duck/Uganda/ Something On The Road Records and was on a recent Wire Tapper compilation. Our ears immediately pricked up, not least because the song was the catchiest of the compilation - actually had lyrics, melody etc. We love The Wire magazine but sometimes it makes us feel like such musical philistines! Spooky lyrics, weird electronics... we love Nico Teen.

TOW on 6 Music Introducing: Sylvia Hallett and Susie Hug

Every week TOW is lucky enough to pick two songs for Tom Robinson's brilliant BBC 6 Music show, the spot goes out every Monday morning at around 2:30am.


Pick 1: Sylvia Hallett and Mike Adcock - Betty Martin

Sylvia Hallett and Mike Adcock's album Reduced, recently released on experimental Orchestra Pit Recordings, is for those who are looking for more than just a catchy tune to tantalise your ear drums. Featuring violin, accordion, percussion and a bowed bicycle wheel, this record takes you on a journey that's quite like being on your bicycle in London. One minute you are breezing along a quiet road in the sunshine, the next you are swerving a double decker bus, swearing at a black cab driver and bouncing over pot holes. It's one helluva ride. Hallett has worked both nationally and internationally as a composer and as an improviser, and for those mad keen cyclists out there - here's what she likes about playing the bowed bicycle wheel: 'The bowed bicycle wheel is also somewhat unpredictable. The spokes are not tuned so each one gives a different set of eerie harmonics. Rather like bowing a cymbal, you can never be quite sure which harmonic will sound; it will often skip to the one above or below the one you are trying to play! Similarly the rotary knobs on an old digital delay box are refreshingly imprecise. Some might call this lack of precision infuriating, but I find it stimulating.' And there you have it. I couldn't find anything from the new album on Youtube, but head to her myspace for that.


Pick 2: Susie Hug - Shed A Tear

Another one for the nineties music geeks - remember The Katydids? Susie Hug was the lead singer of this highly underrated group. Having previously collaborated with the likes of Fatima Masions, Ian Broudie and Travis (they've been her backing band donchaknow), Hug has headed West to seek out the woozey alt-americana stylings of Calexico. Recorded in Tucson it's sounds just as it should, like you're sitting in the only spot of shade on a hot dusty desert afternoon, with an ice cold beer in your hands. Shed A Tear is TOW's favourite song on the album, the rest runs much along the same lines - but this is the one that rolled around in our heads all day. Vacilando 68 Recordings is another revelation to us, an imprint of Orchestra Pit and a good home for Hug's West coast sunshine pop - did I mention she was born in Japan? She just gets more and more interesting...

Update! Singer-songwriter Essie Jain's Until The Light Of Morning

Essie Jain has one of those voices that grips you by the throat and demands attention. A couple of albums down the line now with the brilliant esoteric Leaf Label, she's turned her attention to the world of music for children. Releasing Until The Light Of Morning on her own label Light Of Morning records is just the first step she says, it could become an evil empire! Listen to the interview below. Also, details of her third studio album, look out - she's gone all hippy on us...

Here's a quote from her website, which is also where I stole that lovely image from:

'...my family and friends back home had started to have kids. It became apparent to me that they were always looking for new music to soothe their babies at nap and bedtime, and as a result of hearing the same CD for the hundredth time, they were quietly going crazy listening to songs that were working for their little ones, but certainly didn’t do it for them.

It was then I realised what my next project would be.'

Essie Jain May 2010 by ruthbarnes

Essie Jain in action:

TOW on 6 Music Introducing: WOOM and Marta Collica

Every week TOW is lucky enough to pick two songs for Tom Robinson's brilliant BBC 6 Music show, the spot goes out every Monday morning at around 2:30am.

Pick 1: WOOM - The Hunt
  
WOOM are Sara Magenheimer and Eben Portnoy who used to make music as Fertile Crescent - but after a hiatus in the Massachussets mountains, where they found a barn and channeled their inner music maker, they were reborn as WOOM. TOW urges you to check out their blog, they're giving away tunes there too. Muu's Way is out this summer on Ba Da Bing Records, a great label with which we are currently having a love affair. The album is very much the result of the duo's six year's together in many ways too. They sound like they are intuitively linked and the record rolls on beautifully with moments that can only be realised through their own DIY production - huge amounts of energy on one hand and then it pulls back to moments of pure quiet. We've chosen this video from youtube because, although rough, we feel it sums this band up nicely. Comparisons have already been thrown around to Tune-Yards, Animal Collective and Micachu and the Shapes.


Pick 2: Marta Collica - Future #1
little gods

marta collica | MySpace Music Videos
Marta Collica is a revelation. The Italian singer-songwriter is signed to one of our favourite labels out of Berlin, Solaris Empire, who've released her latest album About Anything. She's also known for her collaborative effort Sepiatone, with ex-Bad Seed, Australian songwriter Hugo Race. Race was recently playing live in London and requested a TOW favourite to support him, Madam, so he knows his female singer-songwriters. Collica is also a key member of the John Parish band and plays in London this summer with them - Parish produced part of this album in Bristol, he's another man who loves his great female voices (PJ Harvey, Goldfrapp, This Is The Kit, Maika Makovski). She's one of those artists who from their top friends on Myspace alone you discover a world of fantastic music...

TOW on 6 Music Introducing - Ann Scott and Lianne Hall

Every week TOW is lucky enough to pick two songs for Tom Robinson's brilliant BBC 6 Music show, the spot goes out every Monday morning at around 2:30am.

Pick 1 - Ann Scott - Candy

Unfortunately Irish singer-songwriter Ann Scott hasn't posted anything from her new album on her myspace, at the time of writing this. Her new album, her third, Flo is out in June and TOW can't get enough of this eerily psychedelic folk offering. Anyway, we found this video on youtube from her last album and we like it too.  Ann describes her latest album as about 'being lost and how to get there' and with the lyrics delivered by her husky, warm vocals you'll wanna get there too.

Pick 2 - Lianne Hall - Learning Curves

Lianne Hall is someone who I feel immensely embarrassed about. How could I not have come across her before? John Peel was a huge fan and she performed a ton of sessions for his Radio 1 show with Pico. Lianne is one of those artists who makes TOW feel very good about what we do. She should by rights, be huge! But as with all women who make music like Lianne, outside of the manstream, outside of a particular marketing box, they will forever be outsiders. However, with the ground swell of bloggers and websites supporting not only women artists but all the great specialist music makers out there - there is hope! With the demise of any radio (Save 6 Music!) or TV platforms for them we just have to hope for the best. The interent will prevail! Right, rant over. Lianne has a fantastic voice (Brighton's own Nina Nastasia at times, and described by Peel as 'one of the great English voices') and writes frankly awesome tunes. Her new album Crossing Wires is out on Malinki Records soon - BUY IT.