Hello music lovers. Tonight (20 February 2013) will be the last programme from Radio Caroline TV for the time being.

That doesn’t mean it will be the end of this project, but Caroline TV is certainly on hiatus. We are now going to look at new ways of featuring independent, up-and-coming and unsigned artists in the future on Radio Caroline. As you may know, Radio Caroline was established to give a platform to independent musicians. That spirit of independence is very much alive today, and with artists aided by technology and liberated by the possibilities of the internet, there has never been a more exciting time for new music.

So I hope you will continue to support the many talented under-the-radar musicians that we’ve featured on this site (and its predecessor) since 2008, and over the last two years on our radio programme. And I hope you will join us for one last programme tonight, 20 February 2013 from 11pm UK time on Radio Caroline.

Thanks for watching, thanks for listening – and much love.

Richard and the Caroline TV team.

For a band that is about as landlocked as you can get – The Traps are from Birmingham – they have quite a nautical outlook on life. Last year’s début track, Your Headland featured a seafaring video complete with a rock dwelling mermaid and grooving octopus. And now their first official release, Calypso is said to be based on the character from Homer’s Odyssey poem who captures Homer by leading his ship ashore. Maybe all those miles of Birmingham canal have gone to their head.

Calypso is dynamic and beguiling and in a time when bedroom laptop knob twiddlers and earnest indie posers are everywhere we need the sound of a band having a blast. The Traps have created a cinematic and primary coloured world that is the self-assured sound of a band with a vision.

Richard.

The Traps Calypso is out on 21 January 2013. the-traps.com

If Thumpers are hoping that one day they’ll look out over their crowd to a sea of people punching the air – they’re going about it the right way.

The London duo’s Dancing’s Done is a big sounding taster for the full cassette and vinyl release at the beginning of February. Dancing’s Done is irresistibly catchy, yet almost impossible to sing along with. It’s anthemic, arty indie rock that’s big enough to fill a stadium, but also raw and unrefined enough to ensure it won’t fizzle out too soon. Thumpers are a really welcome addition to the scene.

Thumpers – Dancing’s Done is out on cassette and 7 inch vinyl on 4 February 2013: facebook.com/thumpersthumpers

It’s not often that a record stops me in my tracks. But if I hear a more arresting sound in the rest of 2013, I’ll be very surprised.

John Grant’s Pale Green Ghosts is that record and if, like me, the last sounds you had heard from John Grant were the sumptuous, mellow tones of his 2010 solo debut, Queen Of Denmark, then this new direction is going to startle, astound and delight.

My love of repetitive electro is well-known to anyone who reads this blog with even half an eye open, so when pulsing electronica is matched with John’s soaring voice and a thundering and dramatic arrangement, then I’m hooked. I was in the zone for every pulsing second of this epic comeback which is most welcome as it appeared at one point that John Grant may never make another record. And who knew he had a love of vintage synth-pop and industrial dance? His talent for genre shifting is clear – this is not a style or fashion swerve, but a genuine passion that oozes with class and genius.

Pale Green Ghosts was recorded in Iceland, but is actually about Russian olive trees that John would see growing along the side the highway in Denver and is an intriguing taste of the new album of the same name which is due in March 2013. I can’t wait.

Richard.

Sometimes it really doesn’t matter how or where music is made, it’s just the effect it has on you that matters.

So for all I know Will Jeffery may well have recorded Dancehall with some of the world’s top producers in an effort to capture that home-grown sound that you could have achieved if you’d stayed at home. Or maybe he recorded this song surrounded by friends and with a party going on in the next room. The point is, you can throw any amount of money and technology at music, but it’s talent that will always shine through.

So what an absolute pleasure it was to stumble across Will one afternoon during an idle click around the music section of the internet. Will is a Nottingham balladeer, a hopeful dreamer and maestro of the melancholy, and his latest song Dancehall is a bittersweet ballad – simple and introspective but also warm, witty and well observed. Will’s self-deprecating approach revels in the rough edges of the low-key production and his tender love songs and soft and brooding delivery is the sound of the sort of heartbreak you’d long for.

Richard