New EP from Vienna Ditto

ELECTRO-blues duo Vienna Ditto are released their new EP Ugly as a free download on Monday through Ubiquity Project Records.

Band members Hatty Taylor and Nigel Firth first met when he started teaching her guitar around 2000, when she was 11. 

They lost touch after a couple of years but met again in the street in 2009. A week later they had recorded a cover of Johnny Cash's Ring of Fire and soon moved onto their own compositions.

Their track Long Way Down made its way on to Huw Stephens' Radio One show and an appearance at the Glastonbury Festival followed.

You can check out the three-track EP below and for more information visit www.viennaditto.com

Bragg wins top award at AIM Awards

Outstanding...Billy Bragg

THE 2013 Independent Music Awards took place in London’s East End this evening with Billy Bragg, Macklemore, Enter Shikari and Daughter among the winners on the night.

The evening – hosted by BBC 6Music’s Steve Lamacq and BBC Radio 1’s Huw Stephens – kicked off with a performance from Franz Ferdinand before Richard Hawley presented Lamacq with a Special Recognition Award from the Association of Independent Music (AIM) to mark his 20th year at the BBC.

As Stephens told the audience the night was “about celebrating the community and shining a spotlight on the incredible talent you support”, the awards giving-out got under way in earnest.

First award of the night went to AlcopopRecords for Best Small Label before The XX picked up the Best Difficult Second Album gong for their LP Coexist.

Next up was the Special Catalogue Release of the Year, which was Cherry Red Records’ Scared To Get Happy – A Story Of Indie Pop from 1980 to 1989. This was followed by the Hardest Working Band/Artist gong, which was taken by Frankie & the Heartstrings.

Ghostpoet presented In The Woods with the Golden Welly Award for Best Independent Festival, before Macklemore and Ryan Lewis scored the Independent Breakthrough of the Year title – the first of two for the Thrift Shop artist.

Recognition...Steve Lamacq

The awards continued to come thick and fast and next up was the Indie Champion Award, which was handed to Gilles Peterson. This was followed by the Independent Video of the Year, which was won by Django Django for WOR.

Next came one of the big awards of the night as Enter Shikari scooped the Best Live Act gong, while Vampire Weekend landed the Independent Track of the Year honour for Diane Young.

Daughter then picked up the coveted Independent Album of the Year for If You Leave, before Macklemore and Ryan Lewis scooped their second honour of the night with the PPL Award for the Most Played New Independent Act.

Then came three of the biggest awards of the night. First up was Independent Label of the Year, which was won by Warp.

Pioneer...Geoff Travis

Then came the Pioneer Award, which was won by Rough Trade founder Geoff Travis, who not only received two standing ovations from the audience, but also got a tribute film from Pussy Riot from outside The Kremlin.

And the last award of the night was the Outstanding Contribution to Music, which was presented by Glastonbury guru Michael Eavis. Billy Bragg was the recipient and Eavis said: “Billy is an exceptional singer songwriter, born a crusader, and thankfully has used his skills to accompany his political gripes."

Bragg then performed a few tracks including NoOne Knows Nothing Anymore – which he dedicated to the major labels – and finished with A New England before receiving his second standing ovation of the night.

Follow up single from Society

SOCIETY will release their hotly-anticipated second single 14 Hours on September 9th via Angular Recording Corporation.

It follows last year's All That We've Become, which won major plaudits across the UK from the likes of Huw Stephens and Zane Lowe.

But little is known about Society - until now.

The man behind the classic croon - 24-year-old London-based James Girdler - is stepping into the spotlight.

He said: "This project has been a total labour of love for almost two years now. After countless nights making drones with amazing bits of old gear we're very excited to be letting this project step out of the shadows."

Society's sound has garnered a diverse list of press comparisons, from the brooding likes of Portishead, Scott Walker and The Verve, to mavericks like David Axelrod. 

Society's debut shows are closing in on the horizon, but for now you can check out the single 14 Hours below.

Big Sixes deliver video from new EP

THIS is The Hunter, the new single from Big Sixes which has already landed sizeable support from BBC Radio 1's Huw Stephens in the UK.

The band from Buckinghamshire will be playing Berlin Music Week, Smichoff Summer Festival (Prague), Ringmaster Festival, Underground Festival and will tour with Deaf Havana over September/October.

For more information on the band visit www.bigsixes.com or click here to download the single as part of the four-track Hunter EP.

Official video for To Be Frank's new track

THIS is the official video for To Be Frank's If You Love Her.

Already gaining support in the UK from BBC 6 Music and Huw Stephens at Radio 1, the track is a stripped back, uncomplicated and honest piece of music.

It was self-produced by Frank Pescod himself and he is keen for it to "speak for itself".

The Suffolk singer and multi-instrumentalist said: "Too many artists are about the story these days, rather than just letting the music talk."

Frank has already seen music success with  his own sync company and record label Solebay Music, penning scores for the likes of Harley Davidson, Louis Vuitton, River Island and various television shows and films. 

He is currently working on an EP, but in the meantime you can listen to the track above, or find out more about To Be Frank at www.tobefrankmusic.com/, www.facebook.com/tobefranksounds or www.twitter.com/tobefrankmusic

Debut EP from Vienna Ditto

RECORDED in a chilly boat, a dank basement and an old temperance hall, Vienna Ditto's debut EP Liar Liar is a DIY diary of their first turbulent two years.

Recorded and produced by the band themselves, the tapes were then rescued and mixed by Umair Chaudhry at Silver St Studios. The resulting electronica mixed with dirty guitar riffs has been described by Huw Stephens of UK's Radio 1 as ‘Portishead doing a Tarantino Soundtrack’.

The band – comprising vocalist Hatty Taylor and guitarist Nigel Firth – jerked into life in April 2009 when a hastily-recorded demo from their second rehearsal was played on Stephens' show. 

An appearance on the BBC Introducing stage at Glastonbury 2009 followed, as did a Maida Vale session for Tom Robinson on BBC 6 Music and an appearance on Channel 4’s Hollyoaks Music Show.

Released in November 2009, their debut single Long Way Down gained airplay on Radio One, BBC6 Music and XFM, and was given glowing reviews in Q Magazine, Artrocker and The Fly. 

The band are currently working on their debut album.

London Grammar to release debut EP

LONDON Grammar will release their debut EP ‘Metal & Dust’ on February 25th through their own imprint label, which takes the same name as the EP.

The band are Hannah Reid, Dot Major and Dan Rothman, who formed while at university together. After being holed up in the studio for most of 2012 working on their debut album, the band dropped their first offering ‘Hey Now’ on their Soundcloud in December receiving over 260,000 plays to date.    

The song garnered up a huge word-of-mouth buzz online and strong support at radio with plays from the likes of Zane Lowe, Phil Taggart & Alice Levin, Huw Stephens, Rob Da Bank, Giles Peterson and Annie Mac to name a few.

The forthcoming EP, features four tracks ‘Metal & Dust’, Hey Now’, ‘Darling Are You Gonna Leave Me’ and ‘Hey Now’ (Dot Major remix) and is the first official release from the London trio.  

‘Metal & Dust’ received its first play last night on Radio 1 as Zane Lowe’s ‘Hottest Record’.

London Grammar will be performing a sold out headline London show at Electrowerkz on March 27th.

Pre-order Metal & Dust 7” from London Grammar

London Grammar  

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Hurts premiere new video ahead of album launch

THE first video from Hurts’ much anticipated second album ‘Exile’ was unveiled through their social networks this morning.

‘Miracle’ received its first worldwide radio play on Huw Stephens show when he covered the Radio 1 breakfast show in the UK in early January, while his station-mate Zane Lowe described it as 'quality songwriting, brilliant production, really confident'.

‘Exile’, the band's follow-up album to their 2010 debut ‘Happiness’, can now be pre-ordered from iTunes, Amazon, Play and HMV.com, with ‘The Road’ available as an instant free track for any orders through iTunes.

Full tracklisting for ‘Exile’ is as follows –

1. Exile

2. Miracle

3. Sandman

4. Blind

5. Only You

6. The Road

7. Cupid

8. Mercy

9. The Crow

10. Somebody To Die For

11. The Rope

12. Help