Josie Cotton – ‘Ukrainian Cowboy’

Josie Cotton knows that pop music thrives on unlikely combinations. An upbeat, catchy chorus combined with a hip hop bridge shouldn’t work, but it does. But genre bending doesn’t usually cross this far: for her new single, ‘Ukrainian Cowboy’, she blends a twangy baritone guitar and a country-inspired melody with the deep-voiced chants and buoyant rhythms of Russian folk music. It sounds bizarre when written down, but believe us when we say, it works.

Natasha Jane Julian – ‘Mechanical Heart’

We first met Natasha Jane Julian back in August last year, with her song, ‘Thinking Twice’. She comes from a small town in California, and the sun comes through hot and dreamy through her music. She’s also lived in Paris, performed in the UK, and Finland, so Europe is well and truly there too. Natasha’s latest single, ‘Mechanical Heart’, is about the rush of tech, and how complicated we’re making the world.