Following last years single highly praised single ‘Sorrow’ by Jake Mattison, his much awaited new EP ‘Golden Friend’ will be released on July 15th.

Invited by BBC Introducing in Manchester, Jake will be performing live at The Ruby Lounge, 28-34 High Street, Northern Quarter, Manchester M4 1QB on Wednesday June 26th.

The show has free entry and support comes from Ione-Mai and My Lyrical Mind. It will be busy, advice is to get there early! Doors 7.30pm.

The first three songs on ‘Take Me Out’ (rel. May 27th) were written and recorded in an intense fifty-hour session by prolific London-based songwriter/artist Tom Milsom for this, his official debut release, with the lead track itself coming from upcoming album ‘Organs’ (planned for late Summer).

His own diary-style YouTube channel has helped establish Tom as an un-ignorable force in the global underground online world. With an astonishingly huge number of YouTube views, he has an internet audience that has spawned parodies, fanclubs and obsessive stalkers amidst the throng.

Internet statistics - 106,000 YouTube subscribers with 13 million views and 37k followers on twitter. 

Tom will be playing at Catch, London E2 8DA on  May 30th

Following his recent European tour with Rosanne Cash, Bhi Bhiman has recorded five cover songs on ‘Substitute Preacher’, his new EP. It features his take on ‘Walk of Life’ originally by Dire Straits, ‘This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody)’ – Talking Heads, ‘Message in a Bottle’ – The Police, ‘Rainbow in the Dark’ – DIO, ‘Don’t Come Around Here No More’ – Tom Petty and Highway to Hell’ by AC-DC.

Bhi will be performing again in the UK this July with Josh Ritter – Tues. July 23 and Wed. July 24- Village Underground, London.

(Both dates are now sold out).

Turner’s most recent albums have all featured Herman Dune on bass & drums, members of Beirut and Arcade Fire. In 2004 he co-founded the notorious NYC club night ‘Hassid Meets Hipsters’ which united two disparate elements of Brooklyn culture and continued for three years. Recently, he worked with video director Chris Edley (art director MGMT) and had a track uses in the Oscar nominated film ‘Un Prophet’ directed by Jacques Audiard. He will be coming to the UK this Autumn to tour.

Out on Tummy Touch Records on May 27th, ‘I Wanna Be In Love’ from Dear Georgiana (Lauren Balthrop) is a perfect Summer track made in the tradition of great female crooners like Dolly Parton and Linda Ronstadt, but with a heavy dose of neon-bathed urban street sounds too.. 

The Magnolia label announce the fourth studio album from David Ford, to be released on March 18th and entitled ‘Charge’. Previously, David has earned high acclaim in the UK press and this new release is long awaited, with the last album ‘Let The Hard Times Roll’ out back in 2010.

‘He is becoming unmissable’  The Guardian
‘Pop star or not, David Ford remains one of Britain’s best’  The Times
‘David Ford, for people who actually give a shit’  The Fly

 UK / Ireland Tour – Spring 2013

Wed 20 March – Southampton The Cellar – Tickets
Thur 21 March – Bristol Tunnels – Tickets
Fri 22 March – Oxford O2 – Tickets
Sat 23 March – Holmfirth Picturedrome – Tickets
Sun 24 March – Manchester Deaf Institute – Tickets
Wed 27 March – Edinburgh Electric Circus – Tickets
Thur 28 March – Newcastle Cluny – Tickets
Fri 29 March – York Fibbers – Tickets
Sat 30 March – Norwich Arts – Tickets
Sun 31 March – Cambridge Portland Arms – Tickets
Wed 03 April – London Scala – Tickets
Thur 04 April – Birmingham Hare & Hounds – Tickets
Fri 05 April – Nottingham Rescue Rooms – Tickets
Sat 06 April – Ratoath / Dublin The Venue Theatre – Tickets
Sun 07 April – Belfast Empire – Tickets

‘One to watch’ - The Guardian

‘A gifted musician’ - The Times

Gearbox Records proudly announces the release of Sasha Siem’s ‘So Polite’ EP (on vinyl), featuring four of the songs from ‘Most Of The Boys’. Recorded in New York with the Mivos Quartet and produced by Sasha Siem and David Kahne (Regina Spektor, The Strokes, Lana Del Ray), the EP will be launched on Friday 1st February to coincide with the performances at the Royal Opera House (Linbury Studio Theatre) – Tickets.

Born in London to a British mother and Norwegian father, Sasha began playing the cello and writing songs at an early age. By her early twenties, she had written music for the London Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Opera House – Rambert Dance Company, Opera North, The Aldeburgh Festival, The London Sinfonietta, and the London Philharmonic Orchestra. In 2010, she became one of the youngest people to win a prestigious British Composer of the Year award.

 Influences include Andrew Bird, Joanna Newsom and Jacques Brel, plus the instrumental and timbral experiments from composers such as Gyorgy Kurtag, Claude Vivier, Louis Andriessen, and Tristan Murail.

Sasha’s forthcoming debut LP, ‘Knots And Do-Nots’ will be released by Gearbox Records in the Summer. Sasha Siem Website

See ‘Kind Man’s Kiss’ from the EP being recorded by Sasha (with the Mivos Quartet) - here.

Bhi Bhiman is coming back to the UK following a great trip last November when he featured live on BBC2′s Later With Jools Holland (Nov 6th) and won the public Guardian.com poll that week as favourite act of the night, with a massive 43% of the votes.

He’ll be performing with Marc Carroll at The Castle Hotel, Manchester on Thursday February 7th – Tickets - and at The Purcell Room, London’s Southbank Centre on Friday February 8th - Tickets

Photo credit: Birgit Solhaug

A few years ago, Norwegian singer Mattis Myrland travelled to India – New Delhi, to live and study with a master of Indian Classical Singing – Madhumita Ray. The discipline and daily vocal training inspired Mattis to create a host of stories and gave him a rucksack full of new sounds to accompany them. Back in Norway, Mattis reworked the sketches he had scribbled and recorded during his eight months stay. He gathered together some of his favourite performers on the Norwegian music scene, and named the band after one of South Asia’s oldest roads that has linked the Eastern and Western regions of the Indian subcontinent for centuries.

Now, the album ‘Imperial Splendor’ is finally ready. A collection of songs linking Mattis’ Western singer/songwriter background with the influence of the East. The blend is a  soundscape, hard to frame into any specific genre. Its direct, yet poetic story-telling leads the way and the music varies from the spare and ethereal, to the dense and edgy.

Mattis was educated in vocal improvisation and composition from the Norwegian Academy of Music. He is also active with other artists on the Norwegian music scene, such as singer/songwriter Ingrid Olava, the electronic duo mattisogjonas and the bluegrass-quartet Lucky Four.

Mattis & The Grand Trunk Road will be performing in the UK in January/February 2013.

 “Thanks for your beautiful, compelling, funny, crazy stuff. I listen to you while sitting at my drawing board. Keep up the fine work!”  Matt Groening, Creator of The Simpsons

After the critical success of his 2010 debut album, Things To Do and Make, composer Ergo Phizmiz returned to a string of often award winning commissions for radio (BBC 3 and 4 and German national radio) theatre and opera before coming back full circle to the melodic three minute popular song form. Earlier this year, over the space of a few weeks, and in typically prolific style, he refined and self-recorded a number of ideas. Leaving behind the favourable comparisons to the 1960s Canterbury Sound or Vivian Stanshall of his debut and occupying less identifiable territory, the resulting Eleven Songs is a leaner, harder collection that, as the title suggests, each stand in their own right. Anyone who has seen Ergo perform will instantly recognise in these songs, his natural theatricality, narrative drive, and a lack of pretension that allows music to be a shared experience.. It is indeed lamentable that there aren’t more pop musicians like this!

Ergo Phizmiz will be performing at Rough Trade East on Dec 7th, at 6.30pm – Link