Every week we bring you one of our favourite free tracks from amazingtunes.com and present it to you as our Free Download of the Week!
This week the complimentary music comes courtesy of Sunderland-based band Maps Are Fiction.
Maps Are Fiction
The band, who claim to specialise in ‘dark Pop and white noise‘, are giving their track Ella away to showcase their talents for creating Indie Pop tracks with sinister undertones. The release of the track serves as the start of a new promotional drive for the band, who are making their live London debut at the Dublin Castle on the 12th of April.
To download Ellafor free, simply head to this page and click on the blue download icon to collect the track. You’ll need to be logged into your amazingtunes.com profile to do this. If you haven’t signed up to the site yet, registration is quick, easy and totally free.
This week’s Website of the Week is Killing Moon Limited, a website that aims to help new artists gain much-deserved exposure for their music.
Founder Achal Dhillon writes:
“Killing Moon Limited was created out of the frequently-cited (but not so frequently-implemented) idea of simply doing all that can be done for bands that I love. Initially it was just an idea for a record label – I found through my various previous jobs as an A&R for both major and independent labels that there was a somewhat stand-offish approach to engaging with new bands, and found everything rather frustrating when all that seemed to result from my labouring was a lot of discussion to no particular end, and not enough action. Killing Moon seemed to be the perfect solution to this problem.
Killing Moon Limited
“Soon enough, I became a bit more web-savvy and started writing and posting about these bands that I come across on a daily basis. This echoed back to my university days where I worked as Music Editor on my student paper , and I would spend a lot of the time reviewing promos and demos alongside doing an internship at Full Time Hobby Recordings. This is by far the most self-fulfilling activity I’ve ever done, with the ethos of giving exposure to bands both new and established simply because I feel that the music needs to be heard; which completely goes against what was instilled into me as an A&R, in that I need to keep my mouth shut about these new acts in case “the competition” picks up on them. When I get excited, I never can keep my big mouth shut!
“Hopefully, what a reader will get from Killing Moon Limited is a light-hearted approach to exposing artists from genres ranging from cheesy pop to angry metal via Introducing or Track Of The Day features and simple Q&A interviews, as well as getting my two cents on each act I write about (plus the occasional insight into my ridiculous lifestyle). I’ve recently expanded the site’s remit to feature interviews with other hands-on music industry bods as a means of showing those wanting to get involved themselves how to go about doing so. More exciting times lay ahead as I’m putting together a series of live showcases for these artists at a big London venue. Watch this space!”
This week has been one of those hectic mad dashes that pass in the battering of an eyelid.
As usual I’ve been attempting to make a favourable impression on the stomachs of my friends and flatmates, indulging in one of the finest chocolate cakes I’ve ever made!
Warm chocolate fudge cake with Cornish clotted cream ice cream
This chocolate fudge cake recipe is one of the simplest I’ve ever followed. It’s also nice and economic, using oil and milk rather than butter and just two eggs. The batter mix comes out beautifully smooth, and with just 25 minutes in the oven, the cooking and mixing process takes just 30 minutes. After cooling for about 30 minutes and popping the icing on I had a cake fit for a King (or birthday party, special occasion or spontaneous indulgence), and in less than ninety minutes! For extra yummy gooey-ness, pop it in the microwave for about 45 seconds (800 watts) and serve immediately with cream or ice cream.
I haven’t got time to talk in detail about the recipe tonight on the show, but don’t forget to send me your recipes for testing! Simply email them to frankie@amazingradio.co.uk – I can’t wait to have a taste!
Before meeting Emily at the venue I grabbed a cup of coffee and sat down upstairs in the bar with a magazine (as the bands were running a little late). Unfortunately I mistook a fashionably dressed young lady (with curly hair and eyeliner often sported by Emily) for the artist herself which led to a rather red face on my part!
When I did meet Emily, I was happy to concur that she was one of the nicest artists I’ve ever had the pleasure of interviewing. Aside from talking about her forthcoming EP Eye to Eye, we had a chat about her recent live performance for the Secret Sessions and her collaborations with close friend Laura Marling, Mumford and Sons musician Ted Dwane and Nizlopi double bass maestro/ human beat box John Parker. I also discovered her incredible capacity for memorising what seemed like the entirety of the main menu at popular noodle bar Wagamama!
Hear my interview with Emily, plus three of her fantastic tracks on the Amazing Folk Roots Show, tonight from 7pm, on Amazing Radio. If you can’t check out the show tonight, you can catch it again at the same time this Wednesday.
I’m already a bit too excited for the show this evening!
As usual I’ve been creating minor chaos in the kitchen this week in an attempt to bring you my top tips for the table, alongside my favourite folky picks from amazingtunes.com.
This week I’ve left behind my usual curried staples and said ‘Arriba!’ to Mexican flavours. I thought I’d start out with something quick, simple and economic and found the perfect recipe in BBC Good Food’s bean enchiladas.
My bean enchiladas went down so quickly I nearly didn't get a photo!
With ingredients consisting of tortillas, beans, onions, tomatoes, chilli, cheese and yoghurt, it’s the perfect recipe for people cooking on a budget, who still desire something with a bit of a kick behind it!
Also this week, I put a recommended recipe to the test. New Amazing Radio presenter Chris Martin decided to use my culinary talents to put a recipe that’s captured his imagination to the test. The recipe itself is a Nutella-flavoured ‘mug cake’. I’d heard of these microwavable sponges before but had never actually tried making one so decided to take up the challenge on Chris’ behalf.
Chris Martin's mug cake
The recipe itself is perfect for someone with a well-stocked store cupboard who needs to fix up something in a hurry. With mixing time of a mere few minutes, and cooking time of two, I’d created myself a tasty treat in next to no time at all. However, it really needs something on the side (like cream as the recipe suggests) and I also felt that one mug’s worth of mix was best divided between two. I put this theory to the test with a willing participant and some Cornish ice cream the following day to much more satisfying results!
On tonight’s show I’ll be bringing back poet Jennie Pascoe in The Soapbox and bringing you an incredible track from Saint Saviour in The Amazing Sessions as my Track of the Week. You can find out more about Saint Saviour’s day recording this tune over on the amazingtunes.com blog.
I’ll be back on Amazing Radio from 7pm tonight (repeated Wednesday at the same time). Don’t forget to give me a tweet or send me your recipes and new music recommendations to frankie@amazingradio.co.uk.
Across the week Kyle has been getting to know the new music scene with the help of a number of local ‘insiders’ including BULGE promoter Tommy Hamilton, Stephen Hume from Stirling’s premier music venue Tolbooth and Innis Mitchell of music networking site Scottishmusicians.co.uk.
Every week we like to bring you news of a fantastic free track, courtesy of one of the acts over at amazingtunes.com.
This week’s free sample has been generously donated by six-piece musical army Bear Driver.
Bear Driver
The band, who originated in Leeds but now reside in London, features three singers and a ‘wind-powered keytar’ in its lineup. Of the two tracks on the band’s amazingtunes.com profile, we’ve chosen to bring you the rather whistle friendly number, Enemy. It’s a song that makes musical references to a number of US-based Indie acts as well as Canadian super group Arcade Fire.
To download Enemyfor free, simply head to this page and click on the blue download icon to collect the track. You’ll need to be logged into your amazingtunes.com profile to do this. If you haven’t signed up to the site yet, registration is quick, easy and totally free.
Every week Amazing Radio hand picks a fantastic track from amazingtunes.com and presents it to you as our Free Download of the Week.
This week’s guilt-free treat comes courtesy of Nuneaton Folk collective Boat to Row.
The band, who have played festivals such as Dot-to-Dot, Truck and Mosley Folk Festival, have been honing their live skills with regular gigs and are now gaining a reputation as a recording act too. The video above, recorded at the Blue Whale Studios in Birmingham’s famous Custard Factory, is a lovely live version of the band’s Free Download of the Week track, Autumn Glow.
You can download and enjoy the beautiful Autumn Glow quite simply by logging into your profile over at amazingtunes.com, before heading to this page and clicking on the blue download icon. If you’ve not got a profile yet signing up takes mere moments and is completely and utterly free.
This week Kyle Wilkinson and Producer Frankie are attempting to find a New Music Match for listener Rachael Griffith.
Student Rachael has told Producer Frankie that her favourite three artists are Michael Bublé, Athlete and The Script. Sensing Rachael’s love for piano based, chilled out Pop and Indie, Producer Frankie took to amazingtunes.com to find three tracks for Rachael’s listening pleasure and created her this three track playlist.
Tune into the show later today to find out which track Rachael decides to listen to on a long-term basis. If you’d like to experience the Matchmaker treatment, simply email the names of your three favourite acts to kyle@amazingradio.co.uk.
This week Amazing Folk Roots Show host Frankie has mostly been listening to amazingtunes.com, and getting experimental with chocolate in her little kitchen.
Why hello, how are you!? As the big, bold text explains, I have indeed been going crazy in my kitchen this week, much to the amusement of my house mates.
Originally I had intended to make the cheesecake featured in the BBC recipe. However, I had a minor disaster which resulted in burnt dark chocolate and a smelly microwave! This meant that I had to think on my feet to recover the cheesecake from being wasted! I experienced a spark of genius when I remembered that I had purchased some dried fruit at the same time as the recipe ingredients so I decided to try throwing a couple of handfuls into the mix to create a chocolate-raisin-in-a-cake-experience, with an extra kick being provided by a generous dusting of cocoa powder.
Check out step by step instructions (accompanied by some decadent images of melted chocolate) on my personal blog.
On tonight’s show we’ll be putting aside The Soapbox for one show simply because we have so much great new music to bring you. This is because Producer Mark and I thought that we might get a similarly generous yield of new and emerging artists in future weeks uploading to amazingtunes.comwho were all deserving of a spot on the show. We’d hate for you to miss out on some awesome artists who were put to one side for a week and then slipped through the net when it came to playlisting the next show, so we tried to fit in as many as we could onto the this week’s episode instead.
One of the artists we’ll be playing you is Ryan Kelly. If you’ve already ‘liked’ our Facebook page you may have noticed that the solo artist from Northern Ireland has a hugely dedicated following who have flooded us with requests for his music. Being democratic in our nature, we were happy to oblige! Make sure you tune in tonight to hear what all the fuss is about…
Catch Frankie Ward as she hosts the Amazing Folk Roots Show, tonight from 7pm, on Amazing Radio. If you can’t tune in tonight, catch the show again from 7pm this Wednesday. Email your recipe ideas to frankie@amazingradio.co.uk.
Throughout the week we’ve brought you music and interviews with musical figures on the Brighton scene including Dubstep artist Alice Amelia, Folk Rock act Twin Brother, Rave-Rock outfit Blacklight Republic and Alternative Country group Boy Cried Wolf.
Boy Cried Wolf
Today Kyle will be rounding up his New Music Tour in Brighton with the help of solo chanteuse Bella Spinks. He’ll be chatting to Bella about her favourite local artists and the best places to see new talent showcase their music in a live environment.
