Any artist is welcome to send us a track via freshonthenet.co.uk anytime between Monday lunchtime and Wednesday evening (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 5 February 2024: 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/batch517

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 (and remixes of tracks) that have been previously submitted, and tracks from banned artists will also be removed.

ENTIRE INBOX: Batch 517

KUZbeats DIGS

RELEASE DATE: FRIDAY 13th October 

A hop, skip and a jump down the rabbit hole into alternative singer-songwriter Phoebe Coco’s ecological EP to sing in the trees and dance on a moon-plane. 



‘Phoebe Coco has just the thing’
Tom Robinson- BBC 6 Music

Effortlessly compelling.
Adam Watson BBC Introducing Wales 


‘Feels like a dark fairytale…’
Sarah Gosling 
London artist and composer Phoebe Coco sets forth with a highly anticipated new EP release I Am Not a Machine this coming October the 13th, with a release show on the same date at Saint Pancras Old Church. 

Born in the rolling hills of The Bannue* and growing up in London, Phoebe Coco seeks living contradictions, the wilderness within the city; the forest within London’s walls. These themes are interwoven in her music, in lilting lyrics and layered landscapes of organic and electronic instrumentation, in a quest to marry the two worlds- the natural and the urban. 


Raised within a singing matriarchy of grandmothers, mothers and sisters, Phoebe Coco experienced live music from an early age. Songs were sung in all settings, from kitchen tables to bohemian parties. Now, on occasion, she invites her family on stage, who sing with her in ‘blood harmonies’- a phrase coined to describe the uncanny, specific and unusual sound of close relations singing together. These unique blood harmonies can be heard throughout the EP. 

As a community and ecological activist, environmental themes are at the foreground of I Am Not a Machine. Phoebe Coco’s writings and performances with trees have been aired by renowned nature author Robert Macfarlane on BBC 4’s Front Row. For the award-winning Urban Tree Festival, she created a project called Tree Song in which she composed, arranged and recorded a series of acapella, folk inspired songs to create a site-specific installation. Elements of this folk heritage are present in her single Machine: ‘ We are singing in a tree, connection fails, try again with your feet’. In an age of expansive development Phoebe Coco sought to “encourage us all to slow down, listen and reflect on how the old ways can meet the new.”


The EP was primarily recorded in Abbey Road and Tostada studios and was co-produced by Phoebe Coco and three times grammy award winning producer Eduardo De La Paz.
The music spans genres, in some places reminiscent of Bat for Lashes and other times Weyes Blood and Kate Bush. This translates live into a seven piece family band, featuring a selection of London's finest players in an amalgamation of complex vocal harmonies, rippling piano, soaring synthesisers, flute, saxophone, guitar and drums. Expect the full works from the full band on the Friday on the 13th October Launch Show. 

Nature also prevails in Phoebe Coco’s acclaimed debut album My White Horse & I (2020), which was championed by Tom Robinson and also achieved local, national and global radio play from BBC 6 Music, BBC Radio 4 and BBC Radio 2.  She has played stages far and wide, from Shambala Festival to Iceland Airwaves to Sofar Sounds and is well known on the London music scene, with recent shows including well-loved music venues The Old Blue Last, The Sebrite and Peckham Audio. 



http://instagram.com/phoebe.coco/
http://twitter.com/phoebecoco
http://facebook.com/phoebecoco/
https://www.youtube.com/phoebecocomusic
https://phoebe-coco.bandcamp.com
https://open.spotify.com/artist/2eTeVjDnOBzKMTyyRgRfIv
https://music.apple.com/bw/artist/phoebe-coco/465121809

*The Brecon Beacons National Park will refer to itself as Bannau Brycheiniog – or informally as ‘the Bannau’ in reclaiming its Welsh name.

Machine

When You Know (You Know)

Composer: Sonophoria
Performer: Sonophoria 
Producer: Sonophoria

Links:
Follow Sonophoria on YouTube: https://youtube.com/@SonophoriaMusic 
Follow Sonophoria on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Sonophoria 
Follow Sonophoria on Instagram: SonophoriaMusic https://instagram.com/Sonophoriamusic

Vestige

A clatter of frantic beats rides over a dark, rebellious undertow of harsh bass and protesting vocals.

Future Sings

Single / No Return

https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/bigbigsky/sadist

BIG big SKY - Sadist
Out December 2023
Watch the weird music video I made:
https://youtu.be/KBSYEkOeKbw?si=nizOCfgeD3dwQsbX

Recorded and Produced by me
Drums by Jack Gordon
Mastered by George Perks

https://www.instagram.com/big.big.sky
https://www.facebook.com/bigbigskymusic
https://bigbigsky.bandcamp.com

Sadist

Written in Japan with ex Civil Wars singer songwriter John Paul White this song is taken from Bird’s forthcoming debut soundtrack album “Wider Than The Sky”

Wider Than The Sky

SHES LIKE A RAINBOW (RADIO EDIT)

tale by Refaat Alareer

If I must die,
you must live 
to tell my story 
to sell my things 
to buy a piece of cloth 
and some strings, 
(make it white with a long tail) 
so that a child, somewhere in Gaza 
while looking heaven in the eye 
awaiting his dad who left in a blaze- 
and bid no one farewell
not even to his flesh
not even to himself-
sees the kite, my kite you made, flying up
above
and thinks for a moment an angel is there
bringing back love
If I must die
let it bring hope
let it be a tale

song by Hodges

青空に白い凧あがる
長い尾を風にたなびかせて
子どもらの見上げる先に
愛を取り戻す天使が浮かぶだろう

singing & playing by Hodges

If I must die

Hodges - If I must die

STREAM

Fuck It

Got Me Fallin’ brings a smooth blend of velvety vocals and a seductive melody, IVANA takes you on a journey through the highs and lows of a relationship that's as intoxicating as it is complicated. The lyrics paint a vivid picture of the push and pull, the magnetic force that draws two hearts together despite the challenges that surround them.

Got Me Fallin'

WILD LIFE

Gotta LUV Your Home

"Had It All" is the second single from Bardie, written after years of false starts. It captures that quietly devastating moment when something you once cherished has already slipped away. Built around a muted, melodic bassline, it slowly swells into a cathartic, full-band climax with layered nylon guitars, frenzied lap steel, and raw sax. It's lyrically sparse but emotionally direct—less about telling and more about feeling.

Had It All

A Different Kind of Light

Wonderful Land

From the album ”Ueomuitearukuhito”
Cover Art by Yuko Weiner (www.yukoweiner.com/ )

All Up With You (English translation)

One mistake followed another
The world that you believed in disappeared
But you are living now
The light went out
You think it’s all up with you
But you are living now
Now you are living
You feel pains sometimes

One misfortune followed another
The world that you built up disappeared
But you are living now
Now you are living
You bleed when you get hurt
You can’t fight off the urge to chuck it all up
Silly words hurt you without mercy
You became adult you didn’t want to become
You can't get away from yourself
Now you are living

The light went out
If you think it’s all up with you
You are living now
You can’t fight off the urge to chuck it all up
Silly words hurt you without mercy
You can’t stand up and crouch down
You don’t remember a destination
You became adult you didn’t want to become
You may not remember the promise you made in old days

人生は終わり

間違いは重なって信じてた世界は消えて
君は今生きてるよ
輝きは消え去って人生は終わりだって思いながら
生きてるよ
今君は生きてるよ
苦しさも感じるよ

災いは重なって創り上げた世界は消えて
君は今生きてるよ
今君は生きてるよ
怪我すれば血も出るよ
投げ出したい衝動だって抑えていられるか分からない
他愛のない言葉だって君の心に突き刺さって
なりたくない大人になって君自身から逃れられない
今君は生きてるよ

輝きは消え去って人生は終わりだって思うならば
生きてるよ
投げ出したい衝動だって抑えていられるか分からない
他愛のない言葉だって君の心に突き刺さって
立ち上がれない、しゃがみ込んで行き先なんて覚えていない
なりたくない大人になっていつかの約束なんて思い出せそうもない

Hodges - If I must die

Hodges(Japan)