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Hope And Social - photographed by Bart Pettman



In the small hours of a Monday morning from 2-3am you can hear a selection of my favourite new tunes compiled into an hour-long mixtape of nonstop music. All the audio is sourced from the Ö÷²¥´óÐã Introducing Uploader - some of it recommended by friends and colleagues and some discovered via Twitter and my own Fresh On The Net blog.

From 3am each Monday the latest mixtape is available free via the 6 Music Downloads Page - where you'll also find archived episodes from the previous 4 weeks. All the tracklists and start times for each track are published here - together with a link to each artist's website.

In addition, every Wednesday the mixtape is published on the and added to this page midweek - along with more info about each of the artists. These are the listings for Monday, 29th October 2012

HOPE & SOCIAL - Back to the Green [starts 00:13]

There are so many old friends of my 6 Music Introducing shows from over the years in this mixtape - and first up we have those movers and shakers of West Yorkshire indie music scene Hope and Social. Who, I was astonished to learn, only formedÌý in 2007. Since then, they have released 7 records - all on the basis of their pay-what-you-can philosophy that is so typical of their wonderfully all-embracing musical inclusiveness. The only band I have ever known to invite their fans to dinner in a church vault and turn the results in a track on their next album. This particular song comes from Sleep Sound and their next gig is at Hereford Corn Exchange on November 12th.

OLLIE TAYLOR - Remember This [starts 04:02]

I've long been a fan of Ollie Taylor's work as the human groove machine behind longstanding favourites The October Game, and it's great to discover his further gifts as a singer and songwriter on this track, which could easily be a long-lost outtake from a classic Thomas Dolby record. It's taken from his 11-track debut solo album Little Drummer Boy, which was released last month and features a soulful-looking Ollie on the front cover and a winduo toy soldier on the back. Warmly recommended.

IZZI DUNN - Picture of You [starts 07:51]

Cellist, singer and multi-instrumentalist Izzi Dunn returns with her selfproduced sophomore album ‘Cries and Smiles’. Following her acclaimed debut album ‘The Big Picture’ a mutual friend recommended her services as an arranger to Damon Albarn, who persauded her in 2005 to form her all-female quartet Demon Strings - who ubsequently played on the Gorillaz world tour.Ìý Izzi spent a further nine months on the road as part of Mark Ronson's all-star revue and has also spent a spell with Damon's supergroup The Good, The Bad and The Queen.

BEAR CAVALRY - The Word 'Canoe' [starts 10:23]

Another band who'll be familiar to longstanding listenersof my Introducing shows on 6 Music, Gosport's Bear Cavalry combine intricate rhythms, African chants, trumpets, falsetto vocals and electro synths the band are difficult to tie to any one genre. Despite a wide range of musical influences they aim to imbue their songs with accessible hooks and pop sensibilities. The Word 'Canoe' comes from their forthcoming Puryss EP, due out on Bonfire Night, November 5th.

ZAHEER - Assemble [starts 13:36]

Yet another regular frequently featured on my radio shows, Zaheer is a young independent musician and producer based in Milton Keynes who was first introduced to us by Asian Network's Bobby Friction. It's been a delight hearing his work grow in daring and assurance over the past couple of years. His recent collaboration with Swami Baracus won the latter a slot at T In The Park this year while the record itselfÌý made it onto the on Radio 1 playlist. This track marks a further shift of gear as Zaheer steps forward into the spotlight as a recording artist in his own right, with a stellar cast of young hungry MC talent from the UK. The sharpest single Zaheer has made to date, by some margin, this augurs well for his forthcoming album sue in 2013.

HOWL GRIFF - Fragile Diamond [starts 17:15]

Hywel Griffiths is a musician and beekeeper from Aberystwyth, West Wales. "I've been around two things all my life," he says, "bees and music. I've been stung so many times, that my blood tests show enough venom to kill a normal person. I guess you just get used to it." Together with fellow member Gary Parkinson, Nick Moore and Steve Kennedy, he fronts Lauren Laverne favourites and Welsh indie legends Howl Griff. This is the title track from their debut album, released on October 15th - and for upcoming gigs check their comprehensive website and follow them .

ALEX HIGHTON - Stupid [starts 20:30]

After growing up in Liverpool, and then spending a decade in London, Alex Highton decamped with his family to rural Cambridgeshire. What he found was an England he didn't know existed and a life he didn't know he was looking for. With no expectations at all he wrote and recorded a bunch of songs that chronicled his journey from the city to the country. Just stuff about what was going on around him, his wife, his kids, breathing in the fresh air and staring into the abyss. The result is his debut album, Woodditton Wives Club, from which we've already played several tracks on 6 Music Introducing.

DANNI NICHOLLS - Warm Your Hands [starts 23:35]

I recently had the pleasure of working with Danni Nicholls on an immersion songwriting weekend and in December, she'll be recording her debut album in Nashville with producer Chris Donohue (Emmylou Harris, Gillian Welch, Robert Plant). This has been entirely funded with the support of friends and fans and the best news of this week is that the project has just achieved 99% of its target - which means the album will now go ahead with a release date of Spring 2013. This song meanwhile comes from Danni's recent 4 track EP Time.

SHINY RHINO - Your Band [starts 26:38]

Mike Cornes aka Shiny Rhino describes himself as a "spare-time bedroom songwriter and software musician experimenting with sounds and trying to improve skills." Music is his first love but Rugby League is hisÌý latest - he's a fan, hence the Shiny Rhino name. Cars, gadgets, design, books and film are other interests along with the internet - "it's amazing what you can find..." he says. His hilariously sardonic lofi gem Your Band was released in August and is available digitally from Mike's .

RICKY RUSSELL - Occupy (The World Outside) [starts 30:22]

Ricky Russell is a London songwriter and producer with an instinct for debate. He runs a recording studio and engineers every aspect of his music. For this song, Ricky used soundbites from footage he recorded at the Occupy movement in London. With an accompanying YouTube video featuring protests from around the world, he says ‘Occupy (The World Outside)’ presents a voice for people across the globe who stand and fight against perceived injustice.

IVOR GAME - You're The One [starts 34:01]

Ivor Game is singer/songwriter from London who's been playing since he was 10, and appeared in a variety of bands through his teens. It was in his twenties that he found his feet, playing solo in the acoustic clubs of London. In recent years, he has also performed in Los Angeles, Nashville, parts of Europe and Ireland. His latest album Freckles was released this summer, and he recently secured a licensing deal with MPL. You can hear short snippets of several of Ivor's songs on - including the lead single Happy New Year - which was also featured last week in the prestigious series.

EMERGENCY DOOR RELEASE - Tonight [starts 36:14]

Another band who sound so assured you'd never guess they were formed just over half a year ago. Newcastle's Emergency Door Release already have a successful debut EP (Who Are We) - plus a tour of the northern UK - under their collective belts. This was my favourite track from their followup Bowties & Butterflies - and they have further live dates to support it starting at The Punchbowl in Jesmond a week on Friday (November 9th)Ìý followed by Woodstock Wellwood in Dumfermline the following night.

HURACHE - Um A Beast [starts 40:01]

From a sleepy fishing port in the South West of England comes an Urbane Music Collective founded in 2001 by brothers Mike and Dan Hall, both born and raised in Brixham ( "...and yes" they add "we say said Urbane not Urban. It’s not a typo.") Hurache is - they tell us - definitely a collective rather than a "group" or a "crew". They've been making a name by selling limited edition copies of CDs directly to the public in their local area while diligently practising and honing their production skills. This track comes from their 19-track debut album Digital Revolution - made and marketed defiantly outside "the Record Label establishment"...

CATSFORPERU - Three Brothers [starts 43:56]

cats:for:peru are a band from Sheffield, who began their trade early 2007 when Ad Follett asked his mates from the sleepy suburb of Dronfield to join him. After a flurry of well received gigs, the band headed to 2fly studios where, with the help of legendary local producers David Sanderson & Alan Smyth (Arctic Monkeys, Pulp, Long Blondes), they produced debut album Attack Of The Pitching Machine. They have since supported Wild Beasts, Colourmusic, Juffage, The Heartbreaks and Here We Go Magic. After a quiet first half of 2012, the Cats released this double A-side single through House vs Ö÷²¥´óÐã Records.

DOUBLETHUMB - I'm Not Your Dog [starts 47:28]

We first played Double Thumb (aka singer/songwriter/producer Val Del Prete) back in August 2008 and I've followed her musical explorations with considerable interest ever since. Val taught herself how to play the piano at 3 years of age, and wrote her first song at 6. In 2004, 2 years after she relocated to London from her native Italy, Val started making music. Double Thumb's first album was released in March 2011 to excellent reviews. Several tracks have already been played here and on XFM, as well as other independent radios in Germany and in the US.

VENUSIAN PLOW - Hanging in the Playground [starts 50:09]

Venusian Plow are a trio from Leeds who recorded their first album this year, from which Hanging In The Playground is taken. The band's music is a mix of alternative/experimental pop, or as they like to call it, inverted prog! Their music references bands such as The Teardrop Explodes, Talking Heads and PiL.

WEIRD RIBS - Lost [starts 53:27]

Weird Ribs is the synthwave/kosmische project of Hull denizen Jospeh Cox, whose most recent album was Frontiers in march and is currently available from his Bandcamp. Soundwise, he describes his work as psychedelic progressive electronics - aiming for the feel of a soundtrack to science fiction movie.ÌýThis is one of his very latest unreleased tracks that, says Joseph, "have kinda defined where I'm heading musically. Previously most of my music had a somewhat ambient nature. Although still very much fitting into the library music/music for films category this track very much takes a more rhythmic noisy and perhaps aggressive approach that's becoming much more common in what I do."