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 27 September: 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/batch419

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 419

Steel Shell

The Programming Is Wrong

Leeds artist elkyn returns with delicate new 'lonely folk' track ‘found the back of the tv remote’, released via Tambourine Machine Records.

A personal reflection on dealing with losing someone you care about and finding yourself with a lack of direction, the track follows up the recent singles ‘something’, ‘if only it was alright now’ and last year’s debut EP ‘beech’. It expands upon the soft, half-whispered sound of his previous releases, adding a sonic richness that brings his songwriting to the fore.

“I started writing tv remote after a break-up which left me not knowing what to do with myself," elkyn explains. "I wanted to juxtapose the pretty defeating moments next to the little wins even though they seem pretty small in comparison, like “wasted, alone. Found the back of the TV remote”. There’s a lot about regretting pushing the people away that have been good to me running through the song”.

Behind the moniker elkyn stands Leeds scintillating singer-songwriter Joseph Donnelly. Intricately plucked guitar riffs meet introspective lyricism as this “lonely folk” artist invites you inside his deepest thoughts and fears through beautiful storytelling.

The Yorkshire songwriter’s stirring sophomore release ‘if only it was alright now’ acted as an impressive bookend for the Beech era landing him a feature on Atwood Magazine’s ‘Artists to Watch for 2021’ citing him as “uniquely visceral and vulnerable”. The track also received appraisal from the likes of BBC Introducing, landed a spot on Spotify’s ‘Fresh Finds’ editorial playlist as well as being highlighted on an array of curated playlists. 

With elkyn’s ability to continue building such a strong presence in such a short amount of time, it comes as no surprise that the wordsmith’s most recent single ‘something’, released Feb 2021, has quickly become his greatest success yet with multiple editorial playlist placements and Radio X’s John Kennedy declaring the track “absolutely fantastic”.

In the shadows of the UK’s numerous lockdowns, elkyn resigned to the confinement of his bedroom walls to write, zoom and reflect before finally returning to Leeds Nave Studios to embark on his next chapter with producer Mark Gustafson, but this time instilled with a newly found confidence.

Glimmers of hope are scattered amongst elkyn’s familiar pulses of dark rumination as we’re enveloped in heartrending tales of youth, love and regret. elkyn is currently working on his debut album.

found the back of the tv remote

The new single from alt-folk duo Jacob & Drinkwater from their forthcoming album 'More Notes from the Field'
The album plays on themes of friendship and human connection. 
Find out more at JacobandDrinkwater.com

More Notes from the Field

The Nameless

The Nameless - Jacob & Drinkwater

https://youtu.be/5O2Wstez5N0

Gather round
the wishing tree
space givers and
stage divers...

Black cloud 
with silver lining
whatever your plan, 
there's no no fool proof timing

Plan B is  - Just in case
If all goes haywire, get back to base


I see what you're looking at
While winging the quarantine
Like a hermit in long gone days
pacing up & down this tiny space

Sip the wine, bind your time
just a walk could be a crime
Persistant we all must be
Until we're finally free

Plan B is  - a safety net
if things get hectic, hedge your bet

solo

Plan B is a great escape
Situation is not yet shipshape.

Masks and screens
Sprays & mace
When again
can we show our face?

Plain sailing (if all goes well)
No failing (but who can tell)

Plan B is  - Just in case

Plan B (just in case)

Written forty years ago,  this was a song that meant a lot to me (still does, albeit from a distance). I was going through a solitary time, friendships that had been part of my life were fading, I was spending far too much time in my room by myself, strumming chords, but circumstances did lead me to write this. It was a Friday night in November 1981, as I recall, and while the rest of the world was having fun, my choices were limited to the telly or the guitar. I came up with this, written in one go. Lyrically, it's one side of a conversation, between two people who were once close. It has what I have since discovered is a 'chain of fifths' in the chorus. It is a device beloved of Vivaldi, Bach and the Juliet Bravo theme, but I thought that I had discovered it and felt very pleased with myself. In terms of influence, I think it's principally informed by St Teresa's Choir's weekly contributions to Sunday Mass. It does have that churchy feel. What was I listening to around this time? Stephen Bishop via Art Garfunkel's Breakaway album, so there's an influence from that. The same Old Tears uses a similar lyrical perspective.
An acoustic demo of this exists from the mid-80s, with Julie Kilduff (Perfect Strangers) on vox and the song is a tone higher. I remember it being played as the last song on our interview session with Colin Riley on Radio Whiston, at the end of which, he artfully segued into Blondie's Fade Away and Radiate (now there is a song for you). 
I think I have finally got a reasonable recording of it and listening takes me back to that lonely Exeter Street bedroom and what a curious, unworldly twenty year old I was. There's an interesting irony in that when I was twenty, I wrote like a sixty year old and now that I've just turned sixty, it's a bit vice versa.

Well hey, how are you today
Me I'm doing fine
Haven't seen you lately
Guess it's hard to find the time
To look where I'm going 
Think what I'm gonna do
Some call it growing but you
Fade away, so far away
Like the sun on a cold December day
We change our hearts
We change our minds
We leave each other far behind
So how's business
Did you finally find what you were looking for
Oh is that right 
You're not searching anymore
Well I know this is a cruel world
You must wake up to reality
It's alright for you, but me
I'll fade away, so far away
Like the sun on a cold December day
We change our lives
We change our hearts
Turn aside and drift apart
So I'll see you later
Be sure now that you call
Or maybe not at all

Fade Away

Buy on Bandcamp

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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The Programming Is Wrong

The Royal Belgian Conspiracy

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