As I sit at my desk waiting for the festivities to begin (it’s 22nd December), I thought I’d curate another 10 track playlist for our ‘On The Radar’ series for you to enjoy!

As usual, I listen to tracks from all over the world before agreeing on who has made the cut, yohristmas songs in here at all….

Chintzy Stetson - Easy

Blind optimism and reflective to its core, ‘Easy’ is a cinematic ballad that sees Chintzy Stetson stripped back to only an acoustic guitar and piano for the first time. Thematically, Chintzy says the song was an opportunity for him to take off the cowboy hat and layout the fight:

‘Easy is a song about the failure of both parties in a relationship to recognise the ship is sinking and instead of finding a way to fix the boat they are too busy shopping for scuba gear online’

‘I was fortunate enough to work with the very talented Tom Ungerer from Sam Fender on production and take a simple almost-live approach to recording at Rinse Studios, London.’

Lost Club - Alone

Lost Club is the solo music project of Nicholas Garcia who is a Multi-instrumentalist and based out of Jacksonville, Florida.

He cites many bands as influences but says that he has been told that he is "Reminiscent of Tame Impala and The 1975, but with the attitude of The Strokes, Lost Club creates music to leave you utterly beguiled in its timeless beauty. "

The Lost Club EP2 EP was recorded in Jacksonville, Florida at Rockbot Studios with Josh Cobb and is an honest look into the emotions involved when developing a relationship with another.

Joseph Bell - Lost Souls

Joseph Bell is a singer/songwriter and producer based in London. This is his first release since the 'Dancing Days' EP last year, and he’s really proud of how much his production has progressed since then. He’ll be releasing several more singles next year to follow it up.

Joseph is going to be putting a lot of time into the promotion of this song and is really focusing on developing closer relationships with his fans and building a community. He said that any form of support would be hugely appreciated and he'll share every article and playlist on his socials.

He wrote 'Lost Souls' at the start of this year, after a period where he was feeling pretty down and hadn't written much for a while. He was struggling a little bit with the pandemic and the feeling that life was on hold and felt he was missing the best parts of his early 20s. He was also worried about what some of his friends were going through and feeling helpless. So he decided to roll all of that anxiety into one and created this song.

Julian Mudd - Growing Pains

Julian Mudd is a musician turned developer turned some mutant child of the two. His fresh take on pop is a byproduct of his background in musical theatre, pop production, and software engineering.

His first single "Growing Pains" dropped on November 19, 2021 on all streaming services. This upbeat, comedic pop song is about changing your life after a breakup, a frightening step towards independence, and the growing pains that come along with it.

We've all seen change and felt growing pains, so to give more people their own version of the art to represent their experiences, he came up with a vision to merge generative music with NFTs.

He broke Growing pains into 5 composable parts: bass, chords, fills, percussion, and vocals. He then wrote 5 - 10 different versions of each instrument sections and wrote a program to mix and master unique variations such that over 10,000 unique 1-of-1 variations of the track can be generated. The album art will also have composable sections that correspond to the composable parts of the song variation. With this addition, each unique variation of the song will have a unique album art generated along with it.

Panic State - Lemongrass

Panic State are a Cambridge based, Indie-Pop trio. Despite writing, recording and producing their tracks around a single dining room table, the band have fashioned a refined sound that combines the best of best of bedroom lo-fi, indie rock and high-fidelity commercial pop.

Written and self produced after the experience of several nationwide lockdowns in the UK, ‘Lemongrass’
deals with being away from the person you love and being reminded of them by the simplest things, as well as anxieties and self-doubt that can so easily rise to the surface as time goes on.

‘Lemongrass’ is an upbeat yet introspective track about distance, longing and uncertainty.

The Confederation - Coat in the Hallway

The Confederation is a creative collective formed of Lynz Crichton, vocals. Jill Mccracken, vocals. Steven Blessing, guitar & Simon Jolly, keyboards. They blend different sonic textures and styles with a myriad of influences from many genres including soul, pop, rock, jazz, funk, fusion, Many influences from the golden age of classic soul and rock through downtempo and contemporary neo soul, notably Motown, Amy, Prince & Morcheeba.

The songs so far have been written and orchestrated by Simon. The project is ongoing and has no walls in creative terms.

Mat Hunsley - Rambling

Rambling is the third and most accomplished single this year from one of the UK's most promising songwriters. Crafted over far too long, recorded remotely throughout 2020 and then beautifully mixed by Paul Gregory (Lanterns on the Lake).

Of the single, Mat reflects, ”Rambling was a labour of love. Recently I found a voice memo of me sketchily playing the main acoustic guitar riff that dates back to 2018. It's just a loop of 4 finger-picked chords and me mumbling the refrain 'I am Rambling'….I don’t think I’ve ever written a lyric so to the point. It was another 2 years before I sat down with any real gusto and started building Rambling into something resembling the song you hear today. I love this song though. It feels like my most accomplished and relatable release to date. It’s a pleasure to finally share it with you all.”

Bones in Butter - Never Without You

Bones in Butter is Milutin Krasevic, last man standing among a group of fellow musicians who shared a common vision to blend beautiful melodies and harmonies with the darkness and thoughtfulness of the Post-Punk era into a unique style.

The result of this first creative adventure under the moniker Bones in Butter is the Love or Fear EP containing seven genre crossing songs and recorded with session musicians from Serbia, Italy and Brazil.

But as there was plenty of gas left in the tank, lots of new material began to emerge waiting to materialize. And so, before long, Krasevic had written a dozen new songs and was again looking out for the right people who would not only help him record these songs but who would also add their own ideas to the overall sound.

And as fate would have it, Krasevic soon stumbled upon a circle of highly talented artists from the Belgrade indie scene: Luna Skopelja, vocals; Todor Zivkovic, guitar; Dejan Skopelja, bass; Fedja Franklin, drums; and Srdjan Popov, mix and master – to form the final lineup and to find and shape the unique sound and vibe that define the music of Bones in Butter.

The Boy From The South - A Hard Day’s Night

Hola amigos! pedro here, a Spaniard living in the UK!

I started a music project a year ago called The Boy from the South with FOALS producer and so far the songs have racked up more than +1.5 million streams & +80000 monthly listeners the first year & they've been played in big radios in US like KCRW, NPR & around Europe!!

Currently booking gigs in LDN, AMS, MAD & more cities for November & December & the best thing is I still have 10-12 unreleased songs!!

Think Jungle or Gorillaz but with an acoustic guitar, loads of synths & with the imperative of making you dance & groove & forget about boring stuff!

Eraste - Habits

Texas-based artist, Eraste (air-este), spent the majority of her adolescence alone in her affection for music.   

A 21-year-old self-taught singer and instrumentalist, Eraste did not grow up in a musical household. The extent of her formal training was brief piano lessons at the age of 12, where her teacher bribed her to show up with Mountain Dew (she really hated piano lessons, but she loved Mountain Dew.) The effects of living in the Bible Belt influenced her creativity, leading her to serve with her natural ability as a worship leader. So set in motion the snowball of her passion for music.  

Music felt like a solace of escape as well as an isolating action. Some of her first memories of music were hearing Taylor Swift's debut album, Swift becoming a cornerstone in her inspiration. Taking her influence from the pop-culture of the 2010s, she felt a deep and emotional connection to pop music. Eraste fell in love with the catchy hooks, the intricate messages hidden within the lyrics, and the ability to tell a story in as little as 3 minutes.  

Eraste brings her unconventional up-bringing to her music, creating an honest product of fear and loneliness; with her extremely distinct vocal tone.

Eraste's piercing voice combines with her raw emotion in her debut single, "Break My Own Heart", as well as gives insight into her inspiration from synth-pop music and artists like Lorde and Halsey. In her recent project, "crashing every party," she explores the guilt and pain in confronting trauma, and the feeling of being a stranger to oneself.

Thanks for taking the time to listen to our carefully curated playlist, I’ll be back (probably on Christmas Day) to provide you with details of the next one!