Any artist is welcome to send us a track via freshonthenet.co.uk anytime between Monday lunchtime and Thursday morning (or when we receive 200 submissions, whichever is sooner) - and all our moderators, including Tom Robinson, will listen to every track. This is our full inbox from the week beginning Mon 8th February: from Friday afternoon you'll be able to hear our shortlist and pick your favourites on this week's Listening Post which will appear at freshonthenet.co.uk/batch394

If a track you submitted does not appear in this list, it’s probably because another of your tracks appeared in our Fresh Faves or on the BBC Music Introducing Mixtape during the last three months — we ask that artists featured on either wait three months before resubmitting to give others a chance. We also don’t accept short previews or SoundCloud GO tracks that can only be heard as 30 second previews, and tracks made private after submission, which cannot be included in playlists. You will be able to resubmit the track in future. Tracks that have been previously submitted and tracks from banned artists will also be removed.

ENTIRE INBOX: Batch 394

A cool jazzy piano tune, performed live at St. Pancras Station in London

Tinderella

Tinderella (Live version)

Lost bullets find their way to little hearts 
big dreams of classes and all their parts
Shots fired, little lungs run out of air 
they’ll be good if they survive, they swear 
Their school bleeds from all corners
each week they welcome new mourners
Stray bullets, shots fired, the war on drugs 
little dreamers between cops and thugs
Corpses that never got to grow full size
Too much pigment for politicians to empathize 
Their education lost to the drug trade 
Their lives lost to bullets that strayed
Battles on the news between vain fixes
Ignored by those worshiping crucifixes

The day life stopped in the shanty town
days, weeks, months, it comes back around
Build walls here to keep them out
little girls sold there to the local talent scout
The bricks are designed to keep you in
Freedom up to the choice of your guillotine 
Those bellow gave up hope long ago
Those above maintain the status quo

This year he had single digit geography lessons
But he can name tons of vicious weapons
Conditioned to find life a normality 
with the constant threat of senseless brutality
born to brown parents with empty pockets
1% indifferent as living-cost skyrockets
Legal pharmaceuticals profiting from the sick
Those trying to decriminalize seen as lunatics
Exclusion begins with a lack of arithmetic
Inclusion is stalled by insidious politics
They stare at the same sky but their roofs are different
Watch them die on a new t.v., their suffering insignificant
Favelas periodically suffer a disease outbreak
Not enough think about which side to take

The day life stopped in the shanty town
days, weeks, months, it comes back around
Build walls here to keep them out
little girls sold there to the local talent scout
The bricks are designed to keep you in
Freedom up to the choice of your guillotine 
Those bellow gave up hope long ago
Those above maintain the status quo

Deferred Hope

I wrote this song thinking about things I wish I could forget. With all my music, I want to capture a feeling and create a little universe.

lyric video: https://youtu.be/X80KAShPLYg

littleuniverses

Those Things

La Wally is an opera in four acts by composer Alfredo Catalani. I discovered the Aria of the La Wally, like some of you classical music lovers, in the french movie “Diva” in 1981 . Even though the interpretation in that movie by Wilhelmenia Wiggins Fernandez was fabulous I always found that the tempo was too fast, which is due to the long notes that eventually would get the signer out of breath if the tempo was too slow. Some composer used some smart trick for extremely long woods or brass notes (and I am not referring to P.D.Q.Bach ;o) by having both of the half of the wood (or brass) section to alternate between the notes and crossfade for a single extremely long one. That strategy would imply having twin signers with exactly the same voice alternating the melodic line. Unfortunately, classical music is made of traditions and thus traditions means you don’t do that kind of thing. Moreover, finding twin divas these days isn’t really feasible. Nevertheless, from what I recall of the Aria, since I do not have the score, I made this reduced chamber strings version to highlight the wonderful chord change made by Alfredo Catalani and giving it a mood like Ennio Merricone does in The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.

Enjoy the sacrilege and profanity,

Cheers

Music & Production by Syrel
Advertising Photography by Syrel for a disc record in 1982

Hraesvleg

Catalani meets Morricone

Unknown Entity

ALTAR

Don't Panic

BRO- Wait a minute

from propeller (inner workings), released December 4, 2020 
https://hungersleeprecords.bandcamp.com/album/propeller-inner-workings

An unplugged version of The Cage from GRICE'S album Propeller featuring the late (magnificent) Raphael Ravenscroft on sax.  

The album cover and track artwork images are also early incarnations of the Propeller CD artwork. (original artwork courtesy of British artist Elizabeth McAlpine)

GRICE: lead vocals, electric guitar, horn arrangements. 
Raphael Ravenscroft: saxophone. 
Joe Breban: drums 
Jerri Hart: trumpet 
Ondrej Pochyly: acoustic and electric violin 

Album cover images originally from 'Quintet’ courtesy of Elizabeth McAlpine. 
Cover designs: GRICE 

Recorded at Sound Gallery Studios, UK 
Engineered by Duncan Chave & GRICE 
Mastered by Duncan Chave 
Composed, arranged and produced by GRICE 

www.gricemusic.co.uk 

© 2020 GRICE 
℗ 2020 Hungersleep Records

Propeller (inner workings)

The Cage (Bird Cage mix)

Babylon EP

Queen of Babylon

Queen Of Babylon

"Little Alien" by Butterjunk - Track 1 on the 'Normalised EP'
Release Date: 25 January 2021

Facebook: bit.ly/FB-Butterjunk
Spotify: bit.ly/Butterjunk-Spotify

Little Alien

Butterjunk - Little Alien

Can We Stay

"‘The Surface’ is about when you start doubting your path, you have to take action”, says the Icelandic singer-songwriter about his debut single, which will be released on 18 February via his imprint, Raun Music.

Encapsulating the highly relatable, yet bitter irony of losing one’s youthful spirits, ‘The Surface’ is when the uncertainty of the path chosen and the dreams that have been put on hold catches up with you. For most people, it leads to no action. But those who find courage, use it as a source of inspiration to rediscover old dreams, be impulsive and get out of the comfort zone. The theme relates back to the songwriters own personal experience of finally nurturing his creative side by writing music after years of focus on his technology startup.

The track is accompanied by a music video, which features Prime's Viking star, Ragga Ragnars. She says: “When I first heard the song and heard the storyline of the music video, I immediately got excited to jump into the freezing cold Atlantic Ocean. [...] I feel like 'The Surface' is a great reminder to those people who feel stuck or lost, that it’s more than okay to let loose and live. I had a blast (and quite frankly, a freeze) shooting the music video."

UNRELEASED

The Surface

INTRO
I don't go out no more
Making friends with the dishes
And I'm so bored 
But I don't know how to fix it
Somebody tell me
How to motivate me
Too many days
I've been quarantine crazy

VERSE 1
Stuck in a house that don't feel like home
Miss my friends but I hate talking on the phone
I have organised, thrown out half of my clothes
But I still don't feel satisfied on my own

PRE-CHORUS
And it's the same place, 
No change, cabin kinda fever
Good days, bad days
Days I wanna give up

Same place, no change, 
Cabin kinda fever
Wanna give up

CHORUS
I don't go out no more
Making friends with the dishes
And I'm so bored 
But I don't know how to fix it
Somebody tell me
How to motivate me
Too many days
I've been quarantine

I don't go out no more
Making friends with the dishes
And I'm so bored 
But I don't know how to fix it
Somebody tell me
How to motivate me
Too many days
I've been quarantine crazy

VERSE 2
Sle-sle-slept in late to try to kill some time
Baked banana bread and drank all of the wine
I should really go out and get exercise
But instead I'ma find some more stuff to buy

PRE-CHORUS
And it's the same place, 
No change, cabin kinda fever
Good days, bad days
Days I wanna give up

Same place, no change, 
Cabin kinda fever
Wanna give up

CHORUS
I don't go out no more
Making friends with the dishes
And I'm so bored 
But I don't know how to fix it
Somebody tell me
How to motivate me
Too many days
I've been quarantine

I don't go out no more
Making friends with the dishes
And I'm so bored 
But I don't know how to fix it
Somebody tell me
How to motivate me
Too many days
I've been quarantine crazy

OUTRO
Quarantine, quarantine crazy
Quarantine, quarantine crazy
Quarantine, quarantine crazy
Too many days
I've been quarantine crazy

Quarantine Crazy

Cadillac Graveyard

Stray Scene "Chasing the Madman"  official single

Take What You Want From Me, a sentiment that reverberates through our lives. Whether it’s said endearingly in offer of hope to a friend, or the angst of being drained of all you have to give. A swaggering verse of roots rock groove sets the scene, mirroring the depths of despair felt through these modern times,‘Nothing left to give, gave it all away, bent out of shape, got to catch a break’. The bridge picks up pace and there's hope that you can ‘Turn it around’ and as it explodes into the anthemic rock and rolling chorus of ‘Take what you want from me, take it for free, you won’t get what you need’ the band take full flight and the intensity dial is ramped up to the red.

Taken from the forthcoming debut album ‘Heart of the Matter’, an album that was on the brink of collapse. With the band's biggest and first fully ticketed tour to date, and some of their most prestigious festival appearances all being cancelled with the impact of Covid-19, it wasn’t looking like it could be finished. Reaching out to their fans to help complete the album, a kickstarter campaign was started and an incredible amount of funds were raised. Just over £9k. This act of community kindness and belief from their fanbase instilled hope and drive to complete the album, and this is the first release from the album sessions.

Take What You Want From Me

revery_memory

Smash Phone

A song about mental health; feeling like you're fading, but still fighting to not fade completely, with a determination to fight.

Fade Completely

Fresh On The Net is a music blog hosted by Tom Robinson and Team Freshnet, offering independent artists an open door and a level playing field for their music. Our inbox is open at http://freshonthenet.co.uk every Monday to Thursday morning - if you share a track with us there it will be heard by every member of our moderation team.

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ENTIRE INBOX: Batch 394

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