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Josh Healey

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 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. These are the listings for Monday, 25th February 2013.

YOUR NEW ANTIQUE - Open Your Eyes [00:42]

Like many a band before them, the Huddersfield Alt-Indie quartet Your New Antique formed over a few pints in the pub. Since then they have attracted the attention of the London-based production team of The Anial Farm and released four singles, including Chemistry which we included on this Mixtape last year. Open Your Eyes is set for release on March 11th.

JOSH HEALEY - When The Wind Blows [04:24]

The first thing that strikes you about a Josh Healey record is the purity of his singing voice - which he modestly attributes to "listening to too much Simon & Garfunkel as a kid". That childhood was spent on Lerwick in the Shetland Islands, although he's currently based near Warrington in Cheshire. Josh (see photo, above) is currently gearing up for the release of his debut EP LifeBoats And Relationaships which was produced by Fred Kindt at Blueprint Studios in Manchester. It'll be available in digital and physical formats from March 18th and you can catch him live at The Boulevard in Wigan a week on Friday (March 8th).

BEN SEE - Moment.Sound.Blur. [07:35]

We get sent something like 150 tracks every week and can fit fewer than twenty into each Introducing Mixtape. So every one of these tracks is exceptional enough to jump out of the pile for one reason or another. Even so, Moment.Sound.Blur. by Ben See towers head and shoulders everything else in the show for sheer freshness and downright originality. Of course many artists have been singing acapella with loopstations for years, but the results are often more notable for their sonic texture than for the quality of the compositions. But then Ben has a background in choral music, with influences ranging from Radiohead through to Benjamin Britten - and is definitely a man to watch. Not for the possibility of future fame - though that may come. But in my opinion his upcoming debut album could well be one of the most daring and musically adventurous records you'll hear all year.

KITE AND THE CRANE - London [11:16]

Edinburgh based indie-folk trio Kite And The Crane are Emilia Hanna, Hannah Kitchen and Niki Dunne. They have been performing for less than a year and have already had to shake things up a bit: Emilia has just had a baby, so maternity cover comes in the form of Chris Lindsay (who sings on London) and Ally Aiken. Their next gig is at the Old Chain Pier in the Scottish capital on March 10th, followed by an appearance at Teviot on March 22nd. On the basis of this song, we keenly await their EP, which will be released in May.

SCREAMING MALDINI - The Awakening [15:43]

Sheffield's Screaming Maldini describe themselves as "genre-straddling, multi-instrumental six piece" and "all the pops, rolled into one". They've just completed a twelve-date UK tour to promote their newly released - and selftitled - debut album, and will be capping it with a hometown show this Saturday (March 2nd )at The Harley in Sheffield. And don't imagine things will end there. "Never content to stand still," they proclaim "the band can be found doing anything from performing in concert with a 40-piece orchestra, to unleashing a 30-strong singing flash-mob on an unsuspecting clothes shop in Sheffield!" And apparently all I could say was: "Wow!"

LEWDJAW X DANERO - Compleat [18:41]

Linda Serck from Ö÷²¥´óÐã Introducing In Berkshire recommended this track on my Saturday show this weekend. Both of us enjoyed a good on-air moan about the lack any information supplied by Lewdjaw X Danero, but since then, I'm happy to report, the "Description" section of their Facebook page has been updated. "GOOD LOOKING EUROPEAN RAPPER/PRODUCER DUO (20 SOMETHING) SEEKING AUDIENCE FOR GOOD TIMES AND POTENTIALLY MORE, MUST BE INTO HIP HOP, BEATS, & LAURA PALMER". Brilliant. The track's damn fine, too - but you don't need me to tell you something you can so plainly hear for yourselves.

MINA TINDLE - Lovely Day [21:41]

Last September on the mixtape we featured a track called Bells from Mina Tindle's album Taranta on Believe Recordings. As a French singer with Spanish roots she's described on her website as "the new voice of the modern French pop dreamers". She didn’t start making music until her early twenties when she moved to New York. She completed the circle by returning to her native Paris to complete her debut album, which the 405 described as "an irresistible display of musical excitement which demands repeat listens". Lovely Day is Mina's new single and accompanied by reinterpretations from friends and fellow Frenchman Francois and the Atlas Mountains (Henry), Breton (Too Loud), Amateur Best (Lovely Day) and Typesun (Lovely Day), who all offer their own take on tracks from the album.

BISCUITHEAD & THE BISCUIT BADGERS - Dinosaurs [25:09]

Sometimes I love bands because their music is so exquisitely crafted, and sometimes simply because it's irresitibly daft. In the case of the Moustache-Powered Tuba Cabaret of Biscuithead And The Biscuit Badgers it's both, and the band's lead vocalist and ukulele exponent Dean Murray was a guest on my show a couple of years ago. This new track comes with a superbly made stopmotion video by Kerrie McKinnon and the lyrics say it all: "How many children here have dreamed, in a bored hour, of riding through the playground on a dip-lo-do-cus?" A worthy followup to their highly recommended second album The Greatest Show On Toast.

THIRD PARTY - Room With A View [29:05]

This lovely tight and powerful Cardiff quartet formed in late 2011 around frontman Gruff Russell-Jones, who's been writing and recording music locally in various outfits for over ten years. This single was released in July last year via the Third Party Bandcamp page. The band are currently working on a double-A single as a followup with an album to follow - and play a hometown gig at The Moon Club on March 29th.

HYSTERICAL INJURY - Icebreak [32:20]

Longstanding favourites with Ruth Barnes and - let’s face it - all right-thinking fans of aggressive in-your-face lo-fi Avon-based attack-pop, Hysterical Injury (the definite article appears to be optional) consist of siblings Annie and Tom Gardiner. They grew up in Llandeilo, are now based in Bristol and Bath, and released their debut album DEAD WOLF SITUATION on Crystal Fuzz records in February 2012 thanks to part-funding by the Strummerville Foundation for New Music. They make a huge and splendid noise for just two people and you can buy the whole album via thehystericalinjury.co.uk – go on, you know you want to. They play Kollaps in Bristol on March 16th and Annie can also occasionally be found making music under her electronic side project name of Excellent Birds.

ALTERNATIVE DUBSTEP ORCHESTRA - Power [35:50]

The Alternative Dubstep Orchestra (ADO) was set up in November 2010 as a collective of Birmingham based musicians and DJs aiming to bring a new live element to the dubstep world. They became the experimental resident collective of The Honeymoon Club, a monthly event at Birmingham’s Hare and Hounds. The core collective has features two drumkits, percussion, brass, strings and - of course - turntables. ADO is, they say, "a project, a philosophy and an evolving musical experiment. Expect interactive, improvisational, reworked and composed pieces, always with an orchestral twist." This single is their cover of a track by dubstep artist Skism.

THE HUBBARDS – Dog Bite [39:52]

Hull quartet The Hubbards consist of Reuben Driver, Alex Green, Ronan Burns and Joe Orlowski - none of whose surnames, you may notice, is Hubbard. The beautifully photographed video for this single is currently in pride of place on their website, while the audio will be released on March 25th as a free download from their website. They have upcoming shows in Barnsley (March 15th) Leeds (March 16th) and a hometown show at Tofts on March 29th. Other than that they tell us nothing about themselves whatsoever.

THE WIND-UP BIRDS - 2 Ambulance Day [43:27]

Mat Forrest, Oli Jefferson, Paul Ackroyd and Ben Dawson describe their group The Wind-Up Birds as "a belligerent independent band of Leeds-based noisy pop grumpsters". Despite existing "for aeons" - during which they released a string of EPs and singles - they only got around to putting out their first official full length debut album The Land last May. They followed it up with a single, The Mild Awards in November, and the second of two 11-track archive compilations - Acting Thick For Money (Volume 2) - last month. All their releases, together with links to their official website, Facebook and Twitter, are available via their comprehensive and well-stocked Bandcamp page.

RUTH STAVRIC - Without You [47:47]

Oxford-based mother, lover, fighter, film-maker and musician Ruth Stavric makes taut, harrowing music to raise awarness and funds for cancer immunotherapy research. Chances are that all of us will be affected by cancer at some point in our lives, and we don't need to pry into Ruth's own circumstances to hear that this work has been informed some terrible adversity. If you her music as inspiring as I do, you may like to join me in making a donation to Ruth's charity of choice, the Cancer Immunotherapy Fund. The link is on her Soundcloud page above, along with the poignant words "GORDiN BONES We miss you".Ìý

THE PAPER SHADES - Light of the Day [51:29]

Sarah Dollar and Jon Rixon are, they tell us, a male/female duo from the South - specifically between Basingstoke & Newbury. They've known each other for ten years but only formed the band three years ago once they had started writing their own material. Light of the Day is track two on the second Paper Shades EP Where You Lay, and their recent single The Storn is available as a free download via their website. Their next live show is in London at The Bookclub in Islington a week on Sunday (March 10th).

THE MOURNING SUNS - Metal Horses [56:01]
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I fell in love with this from bar one - with its arresting vocal, bizarre lyric and glistening ethereal production, it was quite unlike any other music in this week's inbox. The voice belongs to Rosie Wilkes, the band themselves are from Birmingham, and this track comes from their debut EP Heavy Handed, currently available from their Bandcamp. The latest Mourning Suns single A Cloud was included by Roundhouse Records on their "30/30: Best of 2012" compilation album, for which Roundhouse teamed the group up with producer Dimitri Tikovoi (of Goldfrapp, Placebo, Horrors and John Cale fame). Catch them playing hometown shows at The Yardbird on March 20th and The Flapper on May 4th.